2018 FIFA World Cup

Post by **Xenon_Slayer** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 12:18

We've got it covered. Winner buys the other a pizza. Win-Win.

Rapier · Post by **Rapier** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 14:02

Arguments over pizza toppings are probably worse, aren't they?! Do you agree on the pineapple question?

Mightysword · Post by **Mightysword** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 18:11

RegisterMe wrote:Agreed Mightysword. What I don't understand is why introduce something like VAR if you're going to use it so haphazardly? Still, I guess it's a step in the right direction....

Well it's not new technology, other sport like tennis and baseball have been using it for years. And a few football leagues also already used it. You have to start somewhere, and there is always the pain that comes with it at the beginning.

Just a bit of context, it's a bit misguided to criticize VAR from a technology point of view. It's not something that makes the call automatically, it only provide an additional layer for referee to make the call. Until now referees have been somewhat get a free pass due to the human factors, things like the game moving too fast, players shielded the view, not close enough to see ...etc... VAR not only hold the players more accountable, it also help make referees more accountable as well. Since if bad calls are still made in the presence of VAR, than it's down to FIFA have to train their referees better.

Post by **Ketraar** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 18:30

The problem with VAR (an refereeing in general) is not in the technology, its in the humans, both on and off the fields. My main issues with refereeing is its inconsistency and VAR only exposes this more than usual, as there is no excuse for the ref to say they had to decide in a fraction of a second. If someone can explain to me how a hand ball in one game gives penalty and the pretty much exact scenario 24h later will not warrant one? Are there no people sitting in the VAR booth that watched previous games and tell the ref "hey man, yesterday we decided this situation this way, best to be consistent and apply the same rules". This infuriates me more then wrong decisions tbh.

Looking forward to quarter-finals, some interesting games to look for, just hope we can survive 2 days without any football.

MFG

Ketraar

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 18:36

Agreed, there's no problem with the tech.

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 19:59

A nice touch.

Len5 · Post by **Len5** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 21:29

Irony: https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/colomb ... 47908.html

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 22:24

Len5 wrote:Irony: https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/colomb ... 47908.html

Unsurprising--people who cheat often believe everyone else is cheating as well, it's how they justify it to themselves.

Len5 · Post by **Len5** » Wed, 4. Jul 18, 23:45

And the extra ironic twist is that it's harder to cheat now with the VAR.

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Thu, 5. Jul 18, 01:43

Len5 wrote:And the extra ironic twist is that it's harder to cheat now with the VAR.

Well, I'd like to think so anyway.

silenced · Post by **silenced** » Thu, 5. Jul 18, 06:35

This is indeed a very strange world cup. Now that even England can win a penalty shootout ... we need to think of this as a whole new sport and event!

Something is not right.

clakclak · Post by **clakclak** » Thu, 5. Jul 18, 21:43

A bit off topic, but China plans to heavily invest in football. I am curious to see if there will be a strong Chinese team 8 year from now.

notaterran · Post by **notaterran** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 11:22

China certainly has the money to get serious about football.

Post by **Ketraar** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 12:47

If money was all it took, Saudi Arabia would be at the top.

In more relevant news, 2 days of football drought are over and am looking forward to great games. At this point anything is possible, but is Brazil looking at the penta?

MFG

Ketraar

Mightysword · Post by **Mightysword** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 16:16

notaterran wrote:China certainly has the money to get serious about football.

Ketraar wrote:If money was all it took, Saudi Arabia would be at the top.

They have been throwing **** you money at football for a while now. Most of the team in the China Super League are owned by provincial government and party bosses, who a few years back decide football is an investment to throw money at. They pay retired and winding down players Ronaldo/Messi money to come to China. It caused a panic a while back because Europe clubs afraid China will break the transfer market with their inflated price. It got bad enough that the central goverment had to step in and said something like "go easy on that yo".

But yeah, the only way to build up the national team is to bring up the grasshopper movement. That's not something money can do, but good policy and long term investment. Look at how many leagues exists within ONE country in Europe. Sport in the US has a lot of money flowing around too, and the MSL actually have a pretty good structure in place. Yet it still took more than a decade for our national team looks semi competence yet still consistently shit, and we still only have one league.

Post by **Ketraar** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 16:35

Mightysword wrote:Look at how many leagues exists within ONE country in Europe.

Well to be fair, we are doing it for over a century and football is so much hyped around here that it suck the life of much any other sport, so the other side of that coin is that (male) football is huge and anything else is tiny in comparison. Which then has some rather negative impacts in society. For example rallying people to other stuff and if you do other stuff, make sure to not schedule it around football times if you want people to attend.

MFG

Ketraar

BugMeister · Post by **BugMeister** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 17:21

the commentary is once again abysmal
- we had moronic comments about a Nissan Micra in the first half
- and the idiotic "at this moment in time" instead of "now" at the start of the second..

- pure Alan Partridge..

Post by **Xenon_Slayer** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 21:20

BugMeister wrote:- pure Alan Partridge..

I have to watch that clip at the start of every tournament.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 23:34

OK, WTF is happening? I don't follow football, but even I know we've gone a long way off script when Belgium beat Brazil!

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Fri, 6. Jul 18, 23:36

pjknibbs wrote:OK, WTF is happening? I don't follow football, but even I know we've gone a long way off script when Belgium beat Brazil!

Belgium played really well, their front three were terrifying. Brazil didn't play well. Unless you count Neymar's play acting anyway.

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2018 FIFA World Cup

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