"La pelota parada no es determinante porque no define partidos"
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The 2017-2018 Football Thread
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
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Oh, Sampaoli. Also, he said that he... Doesn't plan matches. He thinks as he goes. Yeah clearly, look how that turned out for us.
Fun comment: He wrote a book, called "Mis latidos" in which he said the aforementioned tripe, and it's being - for example, in one bookshop - sold for ARS $3 (11 cents of a dollar), as a show of anger and disrespect. It was quite hilarious.
It is not that I am not rooting for Germany - rather, it is that, until the second half of this match, they had showed no sliver of ambition, let alone passion, and indeed, until the very final fleeting flickers of the dying embers of the last added minutes of stoppage time of the game, they had given no clear indication whatsoever of why they were actually the reigning crowned champions.
They have to want to win, and - until very late in the day, game, competition - they gave little indication that this was remotely of interest to them.
I'd agree if we were talking about the first match, but this match was much different. Interesting how differently we perceive one and the same event. To me, they showed a ton more ambition and thirst right from the start. They still weren't good, granted, but they were much improved.
Not sure if I can stomach the Serbia Brazil match. I don't think I can take another minute of Princess Neymar's prissiness. High hopes for England tomorrow/this morning (depending on your locale). Don't need to go anywhere tomorrow morning and there's a few high ABV porters with my name on it.
Which really means however tomorrow matches turn out, I'll be chuffed.
[doublepost=1529821108][/doublepost]Oh, and @Scepticalscribe, was reading the news this morning and apparently Fifa are looking into Shaqiri and another for nationalist hand gestures. Thought it would interest you to look into it since we were and have discussed the Balkans in the past. Still can't get over the Mitrovic sandwich imposed by the Swiss and nothing coming from it. Brych is such a useless referee. The same muppet who advocates VAR.
Looked high as a kite yesterday.
Which really means however tomorrow matches turn out, I'll be chuffed.
[doublepost=1529821108][/doublepost]Oh, and @Scepticalscribe, was reading the news this morning and apparently Fifa are looking into Shaqiri and another for nationalist hand gestures. Thought it would interest you to look into it since we were and have discussed the Balkans in the past. Still can't get over the Mitrovic sandwich imposed by the Swiss and nothing coming from it. Brych is such a useless referee. The same muppet who advocates VAR.
Looked high as a kite yesterday.
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Judgment day for England then. A win and we are all but through.
A draw or a lose doesn't bear thinking about.
A draw or a lose doesn't bear thinking about.
Not sure if I can stomach the Serbia Brazil match. I don't think I can take another minute of Princess Neymar's prissiness. High hopes for England tomorrow/this morning (depending on your locale). Don't need to go anywhere tomorrow morning and there's a few high ABV porters with my name on it.
Which really means however tomorrow matches turn out, I'll be chuffed.
[doublepost=1529821108][/doublepost]Oh, and @Scepticalscribe, was reading the news this morning and apparently Fifa are looking into Shaqiri and another for nationalist hand gestures. Thought it would interest you to look into it since we were and have discussed the Balkans in the past. Still can't get over the Mitrovic sandwich imposed by the Swiss and nothing coming from it. Brych is such a useless referee. The same muppet who advocates VAR.
After the second goal, (against Serbia) scored by Shaqiri, both Shaqiri and Xhaka made the hand gesture - thumbs locked, fingers flapping - apparently to represent the double-headed eagle that appears on the red and black Albanian (and Kosovar) flag; Granit Xhaka had earlier made the same gesture when he scored the first goal.
I'm not surprised that FIFA are "looking into this", though what they will actually find may be debatable.
I got that much from it. Though I can't help but wonder if Fifa would look into an eagle gesture if the US played Mexico. Or better yet, a kicking gesture that could be interpreted as "We kick you out of our country and on the pitch." Think Fifa is making a big fuss out of nothing to be frank. It may raise some peoples' blood pressure, though.
I'm more surprised Fifa aren't fining Shaqiri for taking his shirt off. Didn't even get a booking. Which is why I think Serbia's head went off on a tandem of bias by Brych.
I think that FIFA actually could get out of this by fining Shaqiri for removing his shirt; that would be an appropriate gesture and would serve to remove contentious political matters (Kosovo and Serbia have relatively moderate and perfectly sensible governments in office at the moment, and it would not be helpful to stir up nationalist passions just now) from the equation while making the point that such conduct is unacceptable on the football pitch while representing your country.
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Yeah. I can't imagine Fifa wanting to get too political as it will draw the ire of those already wanting to know why they chose Qatar. Think they implemented the ruling in '02. The eagle gesture flew over my head as I'm not really well-versed on the Balkan issues like some such as yourself. I was, to be frank, surprised to see a player take off his shirt and just go mental at celebrating. Haven't seen that in a long time. Though I vaguely recall some players nearly undressing in the 80s when playing non WC matches.
Loftus-Cheek in for Del Alli.
But this should still be an easy game. Just hope we can avoid anymore injuries, take our chances and not over do it in the heat.
But this should still be an easy game. Just hope we can avoid anymore injuries, take our chances and not over do it in the heat.
Yes a minor injury. But I thought LC did well when he came on last time. I'd have played Rashford over Sterling as well. But I suppose if Stirling needs to get a confidence boost, then a goal today could help no end.
We started better against Tunisia!
[doublepost=1529842198][/doublepost]Great goal, but why didn't the ref deal with the wrestling again!
[doublepost=1529842198][/doublepost]Great goal, but why didn't the ref deal with the wrestling again!
A goal after eight minutes counts as a good start to me!
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Better a goal on the scoreboard than a missed penalty, eh?
I made my post before the goal! But I can see Panama are pushing. We need a cushion goal.
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