2018 FIFA World Cup Megathread

[San Regada]

What a goal for Portugal... looks like Iran is going out. I can't really see them recovering from this and then going forward to win.

[True Alimeria]

Werden wir eigentlich automatisch älter, oder Manuel Neuer?

[Geisenfried]

Spain might get lucky that Morocco choked against Iran.

[San Regada]

Morocco ahead again! Absolutely unbelievable.

[San Regada]

I'm sorry but this has been some of the worst refereeing I've ever seen.

[Pasong Tirad]

How long does it take to view the VAR? Jeez.

[San Regada]

Iran - after being robbed of multiple free kicks and penalties - finally get a penalty and do justice.

[Painisia]

My God, all the big teams are performing terrible in this World Cup. But England and Uruguay have impressed me

[Geneviev]

Well, good job Iran. I wasn't expecting that penalty to be a goal, but that was good.

[Kubumba Tribe]

Yay! Iran and Morrocco did noice! AlHamdulillah.

[Doniphan Oceania]

It's over, people.
Iran was amazing, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.

[Lillorainen]

Nice job, Iran and Morocco!

[San Regada]

If Iran never missed a vital few shots, Iran could have gone through by at least a 1 goal margin. Spain got absolutely lucky against a Morocco already going home, the Moroccans gave them an absolute run for their money. This referee was near-hopeless, absolutely no control over the game, and missed several rightful penalties and free kicks for the Iranians including several cynical challenges that should have been carded, meanwhile, Ronaldive got his penalty. The Portuguese were playing absolutely barbaric towards the end, and throughout this WC so far Pepe's antics has shown that he is absolute human trash - amongst other Portuguese players that have lived up to the teams reputations of being absolute adult babies (simulation & going down easily then rolling around). Iran finally got justice delivered to them with the penalty decision and scored. Portugal was saved by Iran's poor passing and finishing in the end. Shame. Iran-Morocco > Portugal-Spain.

[Omerica]

Group B: Spain, Ronaldo
Little reason to change this, really, even though Spain didn’t beat Ronaldo like I had suspected they would. As much as I want to see Ronaldo dumped out, I question Iran’s ability to make it happen. Spain should manage to hammer Morocco and win the group while Ronaldo gets out in second.

So Spain did win the group like I thought, but god did they make it more difficult than it had to be. Relying on an Iranian penalty to seal the group really puts them in the “fraud” category, to be honest.

I’m actually praying that Uruguay win in the next round.

[Neu Leonstein]

Russia's playing like shit today, both goals were given away. [...]

Alternative explanation: this is the first match in which Russia was facing half-decent opposition. Uruguay clearly beating Russia is not in any particular way surprising.

My God, all the big teams are performing terrible in this World Cup. But England and Uruguay have impressed me

It is a bit of a phenomenon... hard to say that any of the big contenders have actually performed all that well. Maybe that's a sign that the standards of the more middling national teams has improved?

Anyway, I wish Morocco had been drawn into Group A. They may well have made it out and we wouldn't have to say goodbye to them so soon.

[Doniphan Oceania]

Russia's playing like shit today, both goals were given away. [...]

Alternative explanation: this is the first match in which Russia was facing half-decent opposition. Uruguay clearly beating Russia is not in any particular way surprising.

My God, all the big teams are performing terrible in this World Cup. But England and Uruguay have impressed me

It is a bit of a phenomenon... hard to say that any of the big contenders have actually performed all that well. Maybe that's a sign that the standards of the more middling national teams has improved?

Anyway, I wish Morocco had been drawn into Group A. They may well have made it out and we wouldn't have to say goodbye to them so soon.

Russia lacked the WC experience to offer decent opposition to Uruguay. I believe the Russian team would be at level with Belgium.

[Neu Leonstein]

Russia lacked the WC experience to offer decent opposition to Uruguay. I believe the Russian team would be at level with Belgium.

I very much suspect that Belgium would win a match against Russia quite convincingly, though I don't think we'll get the chance to test that hypothesis at this tournament.

[Shofercia]

Russia's playing like shit today, both goals were given away. [...]

Alternative explanation: this is the first match in which Russia was facing half-decent opposition. Uruguay clearly beating Russia is not in any particular way surprising.

That explanation is for those who didn't see the game and like to speak in generalizations. The first goal resulted from a free kick, which resulted from a giveaway that was more backyard style than division III soccer. Barnet probably does it better. The second goal was an own goal. Neither goal would've happened, had Fernandez, Golovin, Dzagoev, and Smolov started. Furthermore, Dzuyba was denied a blatant penalty, despite being elbowed in the face, while Smolnikov was sent off for much less, i.e. his first yellow. Even so, even with Russia playing with 10 men, after Fernandez came in, Uruguay was unable to score until the last minutes of the game. I saw the game. Generalizations fail when the facts are known.

[Baltenstein]

..um, because it's only Russia and they've benefited from two terrible teams collapsing in front of their home supporters, and now they've finally come up against a decent team in Uruguay they've totally been found out?

Eh, makes sense. Uruguay is more than decent though, to me. I think that they could compete with England, Japan, Senegal, and France if they don't get carded.

Let's hope that all those lengthy sessions of training Suarez not to bite will pay off.

[Yaana Noore]

I've been away and missed a lot but seems in my absence the reffing has got a lot poorer, oh dear. Mitrovic clearly fouled in the game against Switzerland (and why has FIFA not banned Shaquiri and Xhaka for those blatantly political actions? Bottle jobs) and Sweden were denied a penalty and red card in their match against Germany. This Iran-Portugal game has been ridiculous. Stupid decision after stupid decision and that penalty for Iran? Madness. Portugal have been screwed over there and sent into the harder half of the draw. A really significant decision gone wrongly. Very annoying as it seemed like so much progress was being made!

One of the few games I did see was England and people reaaaaallly need to keep their heads. It was only Panama, a horrific team, apart from Lingard's goal came from penalties (superbly taken must be said), set plays, and a lucky deflection. Flattering to deceive against a rubbish team. In open play I still think we are really really really poor and this is down to Southgate's incoherent tactics and his infatuation with the five at the back since Conte popularised it even though it is not the right system for our players. First-half good, and then in the second half it was just usual Southgate England and we were poor up front and didn't seem to know what we wanted to do. We let off them you might say but I'm inclined to think the first-half was the exception to how we normally play and not the second.

RLC in for Alli was good but I don't think he would have done it if Alli wasn't injured. Dele Alli has been playing for England for almost 3 years now and has probably had what, 2 good games in an England shirt in that time? Whatever we play just does not suit him. He's a great player but for me can't play in what we are using so it has to be Loftus-Cheek. Ashley Young instead of Rose, insulting to all fans capable of playing park-level football that they were overlooked for a spot in the squad. Rose is not fit, you say? You knew this and should have called up Ryan Bertrand who is a left-back, idiot. instead of Ashley Young, a right-footed winger, and Fabian Delph, a central midfielder, to play left-back. I tolerated those two clowns being called up as I hoped they were backup options but they are actually being played? Yikes.

I'm not overly worried against Belgium which may seem strange considering I thought England would draw against Tunisia, struggle to beat Panama and only talk about how bad they are. But Belgium's defence is really poor and Boyata is a joke of a defender. Martinez just can't organise a defence and they are really weak at set pieces - something which, fair play Southgate (you otherwise idiotic, big-nosed moron), England seem to be very dangerous at now. The result doesn't really matter and I would rather Belgium beat us and get 1st in the group as I think it gives England the easier run-in and should bring some of our deluded fans back down to earth for a much-needed reality check. I was actually pleased Panama scored so we aren't above Belgium anymore. A 0-0 and a good few yellow cards can seal this.

One thing I really don't like is how dirty and cynical the Central American teams are. Panama and Costa Rica have been bad and have been throwing some moves that wouldn't be out of place on a rugby field. Nice to see it punished but just stop with the foul play lads. Very despicable time wasting from Panama as well, stupid antics and poor sportsmanship (trying to kick the game back off when England were celebrating a goal?) that deserved to see them lose. I find it hard to support a minnow when they are shameless cheats. The worst one in recent memory was Honduras, who spent the previous two World Cups shitting up the quality and bringing nothing but boring ten men behind the ball crap hoofball and ill-discipline. Thankfully they weren't here to provide more sub-par tackles and entertainment this time around. Mad to think FIFA want more of this shit from CONCACAF diluting the quality of the World Cup from 2026.

[Soviet-mongol]

Here's one for the Americans (or anyone else, really). It's true that football/soccer isn't part of the culture the same way it is in Europe, Africa or South America. But what I hadn't realised is that it actually was back in the '20s! As usual, so-called "cultural factors" end up having concrete organisational and political backgrounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PNqVilJESg

Seeing that the Americans wanted to change football rules in their favor, it is better that the US will never be a football nation. Football would have ended like basketball today, where the Basketball world cup, Euroleague and Eurobasket are subjugated to NBA.

[Bombadil]

Bad luck Iran, now we hope it's Uruguay who knock Portugal out.

Damn shame the Nigeria - Argentina is not my time zone.. I'd picked this game early on as being one of great interest among a few others that are all wrong for my time zone.

[Nazis in Space]

So apparently the BBC found an abandoned police box somewhere or abused a time turner, and it came back with a glimpse from the future.

Goodspeed, England.

And in fairness, they really are doing pretty damn well thus far.

[Riemstagrad]

It was clear from the start that England was the most underrated team in this World Cup. Also from their own fans. But winning this edition? i don't think so.
England will be a team to watch in four years, that's for sure, but this one comes too early.

Anyway, nice vid from the BBC.

[Yaana Noore]

Denmark-France is rubbish. France still lack attacking cohesion which I think is the fault of Deschamps. It's also a bit silly that both sides would prefer 2nd place so it gives them the easier draw as would a lot of sides because of how it is laid out. They might need to adopt the Champions League route to correct this (winners seeded, runners-up not seeded, random draw) but then that is probably a bad idea because knowing FIFA the draw would be fixed and the big sides would just be kept apart.