The_jagster

Oh and I laughed out loud at Pearce moaning that Anthony Taylor hasn't been utlised yet. Put on 5Live until I heard Clinton Morrison was the co-commentator

In mitigation, my World Soccer preview is headlined 'Reliant on Son'. It's difficult to see where else they are getting their attacking drive from, although at least it's not so bad that Wolves' Hwang is in the first XI.

A second classic of the day? Based on their attacking intent in round 1 I wouldn't count on it but who knows... Thank you Ghanaian FA for producing a clean line-up pic Their World Cups so far? Korea drew 0-0 with Uruguay, Ghana lost to Portugal. Probably both teams' best chance of a win. History at the World Cup? Korea: Once finished fourth as hosts knocking out Italy and Spain but have only got to the knockouts on one other occasion Ghana: a Luis Suarez hand and width of the crossbar away from the semi-finals in 2010 despite only qualifying in 2006 for the first time where they also got to the knockouts. In a weird quirk they've faced the USA at every previous tournament but didn't qualify in 2018. Previous meetings? Sites seem to differ on exactly how many but 4 friendlies this century. Ghana have the better recent record including a 2014 4-0 win in Miami where Jordan Ayew scored a hat-trick, an event worthy of an immediate sacking for the opponent's manager imo. (The video says HD, it is not HD). No idea what else was at this stadium or what it looks like but expect to hear a lot of cheering when Son touches the ball, I only saw the second half of Ghana's first match and missed the Korean one so I have no idea who to look out for beyond the big names. Music? Search for your own K-pop of choice

No classic is made better by the voice of Peter Walton

I'm not disputing it, just saying he didn't think it would stand

Aboubakar clearly thought he was offside

He thinks even more highly of himself: https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/aboubakar-savages-salah-again-liverpool-cameroon-striker/blt93023a050292e289

When did Serbia's defence turn to ****

Cameroon bothering to go forward now! Their defence still looks awful.

Should have seen this bug from an FA Cup fixture!

I'm sure the keeper moves right just as he's shooting which is why he can't get there. Don't know why the commentator only thinks Cameroon's defence looks shaky now, they've looked dodgy all game.

Eurgh, I really don't like the underdog conceding due to bad keeping

Looked such an innocuous delivery, good header.

Draw the defender and pass it you muppet

So many players at the near post Not really keen to see this Serbia team in the knockouts, it's all too slow

Nice to see a non Adidas/Puma/Nike kit and the shorts are snazzy but it looks like there are German flags for cuffs on the Cameroon shirt.

After the first defender was beaten nobody bothered to close him down, that was virtually in slow motion.

Serbia looked good physically against Brazil but slow once it was forward, and their left centre back looked technically a level below. But Cameroon aren't great and maybe Kostic will give them some drive, he looked good for Frankfurt.

Thought I'd get a thread up now as I'm going to do some exercise before the first game. Results so far: Cameroon lost to Switzerland, Serbia lost to Brazil. Cameroon surely need to win, I suspect Serbia would take the draw and hope for a playoff with the Swiss if it's still level late on. Any World Cup history? Serbia: That depends on how much you consider this country to be the continuation of Yugoslavia (FIFA do). Yugoslavia finished 4th in 1962 and were regular quarter finalists; this century they are yet to get out of the groups. Cameroon: Famously beat Argentina in 1990 and gave England problems in the quarter finals where they lost 3-2. In the five tournaments they've qualified for since then, they have beaten only Saudi Arabia and are on an 8 game losing streak at the World Cup. Past meetings? A 2010 friendly which Serbia won 4-3. Choupo-Moting scored that day, I'd be shocked if this isn't brought up in commentary. How did they get here? Serbia beat Portugal away on the last day to win their group; Cameroon won their group with Cote D'Ivoire, Mozambique and Malawi and then beat Algeria on away goals. Want some music? The original Waka Waka was by a Cameroonian group

Main reason I'm not a fan is twofold. 1. More matches between lower ranked teams. I don't think this can be disputed, given we will have a knockout round with 32 teams, so even in the knockouts we will have more Denmark or Switzerland vs Cameroon or Tunisia type matches. 2. Favouring negative tactics and general fairness. Seed 1 beats seed 2/3. Seed 2 draws with seed 3. Last match, both teams are happy to draw as seed 1 goes through as winners and seed 2/3 go through in second. It avours the team playing in the final match much more as they know what they need to do. That obviously happens to some extent now but not to the same extent imo. Positive is more knockout matches, but I don't know if twice as many knockout games will be good when there are less exciting matches to get there. In all honesty I suspect they will try and bump it up to 64 at some point, doing the rugby world cup groups with 8 groups of 5, two qualify would at least have enough jeopardy to penalise defensive football. The Euros group stages are worse for allowing 3 teams of 4 to qualify from a group. 40-50% of teams qualifying from a group should avoid too many dead rubbers, but making draws less valuable.

I thought Germany were decent in general, fought with Spain in midfield and should have made more of a couple of first half breaks. The Ferran offside shot was Spain's only big chance I can recall before they scored, unless I'm missing some glaring opportunity. Olmo hit the bar but it was still from outside the box. Very much a game that could have gone either way to me, Spain also could have done better with some of their breaks.

It's not the best quality but nothing beats tournament football for me. That doesn't mean I have enjoyed every minute of it But Japan Vs Germany, Saudi Arabia Vs Argentina and Iran Vs Wales have had me so emotionally involved just listening to the radio. Glad I booked all the afternoons off for the knockouts.

So obvious Rudiger was going to do that. Germany have been quite good actually, they've been careless once they've got the ball forward, Gnabry should never have been allowed to be offside from that break earlier

Too easy for Spain to move upfield there

Still looking forward to this but as above Japan getting a result has made it less spicy. I'd favour Spain but I could see Germany winning.