Actually, looking at the replay, Dirty Ramos was bering fouled. A rather hilarious own goal.
Trying to out-cheat Dirty Ramos is a terrible idea; he will always win at that, and his heading ability is superb.
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The 2017-2018 Football Thread
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
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Actually, looking at the replay, Dirty Ramos was bering fouled. A rather hilarious own goal.
Trying to out-cheat Dirty Ramos is a terrible idea; he will always win at that, and his heading ability is superb.
In a bizarre, ironical way, it is almost hilarious.
Agreed, that Ramos will always win such a contest; shows the desperation (and lack of imagination and ambition) on the part of the Russians.
I'm not sure...
fingers crossed ...
football gods will do the rest...
[doublepost=1530455930][/doublepost]also GO SPAIN!!
Slightly weird penalty call...Pique left his arm in an "unnatural position", but the ball hit him from behind, there was no way he could have known about it. But you can't flail your arm like that.
Game on again. Spain are totally dominating possession, and Russia don't really look like scoring from open play. But anything could happen now. Russia can bunker and hope for another mistake from Spain. Spain need to pull their finger out and score goals.
Game on again. Spain are totally dominating possession, and Russia don't really look like scoring from open play. But anything could happen now. Russia can bunker and hope for another mistake from Spain. Spain need to pull their finger out and score goals.
Spain are making hard work and heavy weather of this.
I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that their best match - and indeed, Portugal's - was their very first one, where they met one another and drew. They may have peaked a little too early.
I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that their best match - and indeed, Portugal's - was their very first one, where they met one another and drew. They may have peaked a little too early.
A brutal game, showing the limitations of both sides.
Spain may be able to show some skill against the likes of Portugal (yes, a great contest) but have neither imagination nor skill at breaking down an adamantine wall of the sort that Russia were able to construct here.
The thing is, Russia aren't actually all that good. Their limitations have already been brutally exposed by Uruguay, and a decent team would have been able to dispose of them easily enough.
While I know that this Spanish is nothing like the legends of recent years, I didn't think that Spain would make such heavy (and unimaginative) weather of this clash.
If they don't break Russia down over extra-time - and their own defence is no great shakes - they could lose on penalties, allowing Russia to stagger into the quarter-finals.
[doublepost=1530462168][/doublepost]Even Extra Time is a form of Chinese water torture.
Ugh, I hate extra time and PKs. the former is usually boring, since both sides are tired and don't want to risk conceding, and the latter is just a crap shoot.
Spain still retain quite a bit of their 2010 levels of control, but are just lacking a tiny bit of penetration/ruthlessness in front of goal.
Russia aren't very good - but in a knockout competition anything can happen. That's how Portugal won the Euros.
Spain still retain quite a bit of their 2010 levels of control, but are just lacking a tiny bit of penetration/ruthlessness in front of goal.
Russia aren't very good - but in a knockout competition anything can happen. That's how Portugal won the Euros.
Yes, but Spain failed to convert their possession - and their elegant passing - into anything tangible such as goals on the score-board. They have only themselves to blame; Russia are not by any means a great, or even a good, team.
Let's see if they - Spain - can take a sequence of penalties under pressure. Because - oddly enough - I bet Russia will be able to score a few from the spot.
Serves Spain right, - I have no sympathy for them whatsoever - although I am sorry to see Russia win.
But - and this is the point - Spain should have been able to translate their skill and possession into victory on the field and goals in the net.
And they should have practised taking penalties.
Agreed, Russia are poor, and very beatable, as was demonstrated by Uruguay.
But Spain - on this performance - they were lazy and complacent - did not deserve to win and to progress to the quarter finals.
You won't see me complaining. Though the "Brat!" flag at the end was a bit cheap.
They peaked in 2009-2010, and that generation are now on their way out.
But yeah. Penalties are a really lame way to end a match.
Weirdly, Russia seem to have responded to the national pressure on them by getting better (miraculously quickly....), the exact opposite of Brazil's choke in 2014.
Agreed, on a sadistic level.
But, in truth, ever since I saw - with stupefaction - the legendary Roberto Baggio blaze a penalty into orbit in outer space, (yes, in the World Cup Final some years, ah, decades, ago) I have asked myself how individuals paid five and six figures a week (yes, by clubs, not country, I accept this) can fail to see that some pressures (such as walking from the centre of the field to that penalty spot, placing the ball there and taking aim at a goalkeeper who seems to grow exponentially while you aim, while the space between the posts miraculously shrinks, all the while with the eyes of the world on you) can come with the day job.
Sorry, guys.
Practice penalties.
[doublepost=1530464479][/doublepost]
I don't think that Russia expected to win - the country knows the limitations of the team, and everything from here is a bonus. I doubt that anyone expected them to proceed beyond the first round of the knock-out stage of the competition.
Inexplicably, this has allowed them to relax, and play to their (limited) strengths. Just getting to the quarter finals will be seen as an enormous achievement.
On the other hand, Spain are supposed to be a good team, and today, they showed that they are not able to convert clear skill into numbers of goals scored on the scoreboard against a very predictable and limited team.
Well as an England fan I'm happy to see all these big teams go home!
Just hope we don't follow the trend on Tuesday night.
Just hope we don't follow the trend on Tuesday night.
Spain cracked under pressure, the pressure of penalties; they should never have let the game get to that stage.
Oddly enough, I think Gareth Southgate will have his homework done - (on set pieces, opposing teams, penalties).
However, it was clear, today, for example, that Spain hadn't given serious thought to the question of how to actually play Russia, and how to break them down. They simply thought that they had to turn up.
Now, while I think Southgate will have his homework done - and briefed and prepared the players as best he can - they will still have to perform and deliver on the pitch on the night.
Spain were complacent and lazy - and yes, arrogant.
They should have had Russia nicely wrapped up by the middle of the first half, when they were pretty dominant, but didn't. They have nobody but themselves to blame.
So, on paper, England's half of the draw is now very winnable. You could make the argument that England and Croatia are the best teams left on that side of the bracket.
Yes - and no. The laws of the game (pg 102) state only that a handball is a "deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm", with a few caveats designed to ensure the contact is "deliberate".
I think referees tend to over-rely on the "unnatural position" argument - if the defender's arm is in an "unnatural position" (whatever the heck that means), or the player is deliberately making himself big when a ball is kicked towards him, even clearly accidental ball-to-hand contact is deemed a foul. I don't know what the origin of this "unnatural position" argument is -it is NOT part of the text of the laws of the game - but you do see it in most referee guidelines, and pundits constantly cite it in their 'analysis'.
The Pique PK (heh) is a perfect example of this; the ruling is consistent with the laws of the game as they are currently interpreted. By leaving his arm extended, Pique is deemed to be deliberately placing his body in such a position that the ball could strike his arm even though he did not deliberately handle the ball; thus, it is a handball and a PK.
Yes - and no. The laws of the game (pg 102) state only that a handball is a "deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm", with a few caveats designed to ensure the contact is "deliberate".
I think referees tend to over-rely on the "unnatural position" argument - if the defender's arm is in an "unnatural position" (whatever the heck that means), or the player is deliberately making himself big when a ball is kicked towards him, even clearly accidental ball-to-hand contact is deemed a foul. I don't know what the origin of this "unnatural position" argument is -it is NOT part of the text of the laws of the game - but you do see it in most referee guidelines, and pundits constantly cite it in their 'analysis'.
The Pique PK (heh) is a perfect example of this; the ruling is consistent with the laws of the game as they are currently interpreted. By leaving his arm extended, Pique is deemed to be deliberately placing his body in such a position that the ball could strike his arm even though he did not deliberately handle the ball; thus, it is a handball and a PK.
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