I was just commenting on certain aspects of Amaraticando's posts of late. I already know that there are a lot of soccer/football fans here and that the World Cup is a big deal.
Oh, I see. It's more recent than I thought as well. (relevant link)
The rules for a kick-off state though that all players except the player taking the kick-off have to be in their own half of the field of play. It also says that the referee has to give a signal to restart play. I'd find it hard to believe that a competent referee would give a signal to restart play based on an interpretation of the rulebook that is beyond common sense, but perhaps such stories could really have been true at some point somewhere.
Besides that, England messed up something else when they tried the manuever. After the kick-off, a player passed the ball to another one who was both ahead of him, at the attacking half of the field, and there was only the goal keeper between him and the goal line. Even if the kick-off was valid, they made a pass to a player who was offside, so it wouldn't count if they scored the goal...
My rants end here. It wasn't against the french team (except a player), but against the whole competition and FIFA.
Spikestuff, the time killing routine is very annoying too.
And the players running alone in the kick-off kept looking back like kids when they do something wrong.
Well, this world cup was a blast! I will tune in again in four years for sure. There were many exciting matches, surprises and goals (only two short of the record set four years ago). I don't think anything that happened this world cup matches the unforgettable 1-7, though. And even looking at past world cups, maybe the closest to it is Zidane's amazing headbutt more than a decade ago, as it was a perfect metaphor of what the world thinks about Italy's "football". Now, several professional Italian riders seem to be applying the same questionable principles to motorcycle racing...
I really wanted Croatia to win, but this is football, and the team that plays a better match doesn't always come victorious, which is part of its appeal. For me, faking is the most harmful thing to football nowadays, and the moment I saw Griezmann pulling a Neymar and getting away with it, I was very sad. I thought Brazil's elimination would have prevented that kind of shameless stunt to be performed at the final. In any case, seeing the likes of Modrić and Mbappé do their magic at a world cup final was beautiful, and the VAR will gradually deter players from feigning.
It's also nice that Europe has dominated international football for well over a decade now, something that no continent had managed before.
That was so sad to witness, and such a display of unfair play...
That's a pretty poor attempt at trolling. You should learn from your compatriot pirate_sephiroth. And if you really mean any of that, please tell me how you managed to jump to a different quantum timeline.
By the way, who voted for Spain in the poll? Because I sure didn't, jajaja.
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The funny thing is, even with the introduction of VAR. Referees has still gotten decisions wrong. Namely awarding two penalties for hand ball. One of them being notably in the final. It just shows that even with ideal information incidents can still come down to interpretation.
That penalty was controversial, but I think the referee was right in calling it. Lately the rules have been enforced very harshly on these kind of fouls. If the arm is projected too far from the body, it's usually regarded as a foul, even if the player has no intention to deflect the ball. The idea is that by jumping with the arms wide open you take a lot of angle from the kicker, so you should be penalized if your arms influence the shot.
I saw that as a serious mistake from Croatia's defender. Some things are a big No if you're defending, like crossing the ball in front of your own area, returning the ball to the goal keeper in the direction of the goal and also, trying to clear a ball or block a shot with the arms wide open inside the penalty area. He should not have jumped the way he did.
Hey, I'm not Brazilian. I'm from Argentina, their rivals.
Though you found my words about Spain to be trolling, pretty much everyone who cares about football agrees that Spain was the worst champion of the modern era.
2010 was the start of the anti-football that dominated this world cup: extremely boring, purely defensive, zero creativeness, etc. Now every team has turned into a hybrid child of Spain and Italy. Next world cups will have even more mediocre teams added, so things are only going to get worse.
As a Spaniard, it's no surprise you found this world cup to be a blast. But as an Argentine, Brazil (even though we hate them) and Belgium were the only teams fun to watch, playing real football, taking chances and being creative.
Considering UEFA now has three times as many teams in the competition than any other continent, that's no surprise. South America is the only other continent who usually wins the World Cup, and they only get to have 4.5 teams (compared to 14 for Europe.)
On the time-wasting routine - it really doesn't help the game. And of course, when players want a breather, they fabricate reasons for it. I think the perfect encapsulation of it was the semifinal between Croatia & England. 1-1 in extra time, Mario Mandzukic collapses off the ball with nobody near him. Cramp, obviously. It's always cramp. Fair enough, footballers don't often play 120 minutes, and he is 32 years old. But it looks like the tank is empty. Surely he'll come off.
He limps to half time in extra time. As the teams change ends he gets the medic over. Massage, ice pack, all the usual. Gets up, still walking awkwardly. He's totally gone. But apparently he's playing on. Maybe he can hobble around for fifteen more minutes just so Croatia can have him as a penalty taker?
Three minutes later, the ball is headed into the danger zone from Ivan Perisic. Mandzukic's eyes light up. He races onto the loose ball, leaving John Stones (who is no slouch) in the dust, and finishes smartly past the keeper. He shows no less energy as he charges towards the Croatian fans and is buried under a pile of teammates.
It was an astonishing turn of pace. Some cramp he had!
With the new video system, yellow cards should be given to people who faked their fall.
Something like assistants telling to the main umpire that someone has faked it. That would be devastating and would encourage players to not fake it.