The Soccer thread

[Earl Hood 5,788]

It’s one all! 

[Macca 16,173]

Just now, Earl Hood said:

It’s one all! 

The French guy should have been red-carded ... deliberate hand-ball?

[Dee Zephyr 17,397]

7 minutes ago, Macca said:

The French guy should have been red-carded ... deliberate hand-ball?

 Bizarre really. He didn’t even receive a yellow. I’ve seen red cards for less.

[Earl Hood 5,788]

Shyte!

[Macca 16,173]

6 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

 Bizarre really. He didn’t even receive a yellow. I’ve seen red cards for less.

Isn't VAR there to spot these things? 

VAR alerted the referee with regards to the penalty to the French (earlier) so why not alert the referee with regards to a seemingly deliberate hand ball in the penalty box? 

I was under the impression that VAR rulings were of a comprehensive manner.  Unless I'm wrong on that understanding?

[Rod Grinter Riot Squad 5,636]

VAR should also be bought into play for diving acting cheats like that little [censored] Hernandez, disgrace to the sport

[Rod Grinter Riot Squad 5,636]

Great effort by the team, deserved a draw

[Macca 16,173]

France were the marginally better team anyway but we were far from disgraced. 

We can get points in our remaining 2 games ... forget the rankings, Peru & Denmark are not that good and are beatable.

[Dee Zephyr 17,397]

5 minutes ago, Macca said:

Isn't VAR there to spot these things? 

VAR alerted the referee with regards to the penalty to the French (earlier) so why not alert the referee with regards to a seemingly deliberate hand ball in the penalty box? 

I was under the impression that VAR rulings were of a comprehensive manner.  Unless I'm wrong on that understanding?

I was under the same impression Macca.

VAR was comprehensive during the A-League season not only reviewing the play in question but also ruling on other infringements cited during the review such as players being sanctioned for pushing/holding behind the play.

It seemed to me they went to VAR to confirm the handball but strangely forgot about the sanction.

[wizardinoz 2,015]

The serial flopper Hernandez should have been red carded for his 3 blatant cheating tactics. No wonder soccer is rife with players like that because the referees are too pissweek.

[Macca 16,173]

1 hour ago, Dee Zephyr said:

I was under the same impression Macca.

VAR was comprehensive during the A-League season not only reviewing the play in question but also ruling on other infringements cited during the review such as players being sanctioned for pushing/holding behind the play.

It seemed to me they went to VAR to confirm the handball but strangely forgot about the sanction.

I'm surprised that the panel back in Oz are not outraged ... you can't just be satisfied with winning the penalty.  Anyway,  what happens the next time it happens?  A player gets sent off?

I am not one to ever complain about decisions made by umpires & referees ... they are often in a no-win situation and they don't have an inbuilt replay system inside their heads. 

But they've brought in VAR and then it's not used properly or not used in a consistent fashion.  Why have it?

The French were the better team but do they score again if they were down to 10 men?

Edited June 16, 2018 by Macca

[Rod Grinter Riot Squad 5,636]

I find France penalty more obscene considering VAT, I agree with Fos, there is a clear deviation to me, he touched the ball, to overrule on the evidence they had is farcical

[Earl Hood 5,788]

Its the World Cup after all when have we not been dudded against the top teams? They bought in the VAR but we still get dudded! 

[Macca 16,173]

Messi could get amongst it here but the Icelanders are plucky.  They (Iceland) showed great form in the last Euro's and will be up for the challenge. 

Hope we get to see the 'Viking Clap' at some stage ... it's their motto and any imitation just doesn't cut it.

[Diamond_Jim 11,720]

Fantastic atmosphere at the stadium... great game.

France full of individual brilliance but we played as the better team perhaps.

We have avoided the opening round thrashing of the last two world cups... all in front of us now.

Interested to hear from you experts as to whether you think we played differently today than we might have under Ange.

Today was not the time for Tim C in my opinion.We simply didn't have enough of the supply he needs.

My son is hoping for an Argentine draw with Iceland as that way the round of 16 match we are scheduled to watch could be France v Argentina.

That Spain V Portugal draw has pretty well done for the other teams in that group bar some big upsets.

Cheers and great to interact.

[Macca 16,173]

That was an amazing defensive performance by Iceland ... Argentina threw everything at them but just couldn't find a way through to find a winner. 

Iceland were super-disciplined and they just refused to yield.  Messi was trying to beat 3 or 4 players all game and to his credit,  he played one hell of a game (albeit missing a penalty)

But Iceland get a vital point and a fully deserved point too. 

So Spain and now Argentina only get a point from their opening games ... that gives real hope for the other teams in their respective groups

Edited June 16, 2018 by Macca

[Grapeviney 8,815]

Messi's penalty hit was poor, didn't look at all confident on the approach. 

Great effort from the Icelanders, but can't help but feel like we also deserved a point today. 

Agree with Fos that there was one camera angle which showed we got a touch on the ball on the French penalty, and agree with others that the hand-ball could easily have been a red.

VAR aside, thought we played pretty well after a nervy start and should approach the remaining group games with confidence. 

Very jealous of you @Diamond_Jim - the Aussie support looked and sounded strong!!   

[Diamond_Jim 11,720]

4 minutes ago, Grapeviney said:

Messi's penalty hit was poor, didn't look at all confident on the approach. 

Great effort from the Icelanders, but can't help but feel like we also deserved a point today. 

Agree with Fos that there was one camera angle which showed we got a touch on the ball on the French penalty, and agree with others that the hand-ball could easily have been a red.

VAR aside, thought we played pretty well after a nervy start and should approach the remaining group games with confidence. 

Very jealous of you @Diamond_Jim - the Aussie support looked and sounded strong!!   

It was enormous ..at least three times the French support. We had at least 10k of the 40k crowd and the Russians who made up about half the crowd were mainly  behind the socceroos.

A point would have been so good for the Aussies. The clock moved so slowly from that 75 minute mark. Not sure if it is the same at A league but the scoreboard does not count down the injury time so I was doing a lot of watch checking during that 5 minutes of injury time.

[Dee Zephyr 17,397]

Enjoyable game to watch.

Argentina with almost 3/4 of the possession, around 5 times the amount of passes, more than double in shots, Messi alone had 10 goal attempts. 

Iceland looked very dangerous every time they attacked in the first half with their fast and precise passing. Agree with @Grapeviney, not a well hit penalty by Messi. 

This was the first game of the tournament so far that didn’t have a goal scored in the final 10 minutes. Early days but good for trivia night. 

Loving the reports @Diamond_Jim. Aussies unlucky in the end. The boos for Hernandez were coming through loud and clear. Sainsbury post match stated he wasn’t a fan of the VAR before and his mind hasn’t changed after today.

[Diamond_Jim 11,720]

The VAR was like a kick in the guts... At the ground you see the ref wave play on... you sigh with relief and then a minute later when the ball goes over the line for a regulation out all hell breaks loose.

You see nothing on the screen until maybe 3-5 minutes later. Some rough justice with the hand ball call.

We had great seats .. 10 rows from the fence (just right for seeing over the dugouts) and on about the 25 metre line. Without any running track or the like the view was fantastic.

I'll post a little more about atmosphere another day. It was different perhaps from what I had expected.

[What 18,810]

Absolutely spewing France got that 2nd goal.

If we managed  a draw I'd have us booked into round 2.   Peru and Denmark are not much chop.

At least we are only 1 goal in arrears after playing the best team in our group, which is good news for any possible tiebreakers.  We need to take care of business in the last 2 games, and it would be nice if France crushed both Denmark and Peru.

 Theres still hope.

Edited June 16, 2018 by Petraccattack

[Diamond_Jim 11,720]

Welcome PT.... it's great to see another face on the board.

Peru v Denmark... what can one say... Peru should/could have won 3-1 but they lost 1-0.

Socceroos v Denmark..the game of our tournament ?

Beat Denmark and who knows !!

[Mazer Rackham 14,969]

That second goal to France was a kick in the guts. I'd just told myself we were a chance to pinch a win.

But on reflection we still don't have much sting around the box. Only when Timmy's playing and he'll only come on in the utmost emergency as he won't be fit enough to play too many minutes.

The VAR certainly needs some fine tuning. That was very peculiar seeing time wound back to the penalty incident. It was a penalty unfortunately.

Gee France will find it hard to field a squad in their next match seeing as how many of them received crippling injuries in this one. Some of them multiple times! What a laugh having just watched the fearful punishment the rugby players cop in the state of origin. That's an ongoing problem that soccer has in this country that it doesn't have in other countries.

Ole Bert has us playing much better than I thought. Before the match I'd reckoned on 2-0 or 3-1. 2-1 is not too bad for us provided France get in gear and demolish Peru and Denmark.

Iceland. If there there was an "everyone's second team"! Poor bloody Messi will be a nervous wreck and in 20 years time will be found begging in rags in Buenos Ares main square while raving about Ronaldo and the world cup. Saw on another site, "In the airport on Madeira, the Ronaldo bust has developed an extra inch of leer."

[Macca 16,173]

10 hours ago, Grapeviney said:

Messi's penalty hit was poor, didn't look at all confident on the approach. 

Great effort from the Icelanders, but can't help but feel like we also deserved a point today. 

Agree with Fos that there was one camera angle which showed we got a touch on the ball on the French penalty, and agree with others that the hand-ball could easily have been a red.

VAR aside, thought we played pretty well after a nervy start and should approach the remaining group games with confidence. 

Very jealous of you @Diamond_Jim - the Aussie support looked and sounded strong!!   

Apparently it can only be a yellow card (although there was no yellow card given out) because the ball was not heading towards goal.

But the infringing player was on his own 5 metres from goal and another player may well have been able to head the ball in or slot the ball in with his foot if the ball wasn't deflected by the players hand.  Was the player waving to the crowd?

To me it should be a red card ruling because the act is absolutely deliberate and maybe even premeditated.  And I'd be arguing just as fiercely if an Aussie had committed the act.

Is it any different to what Maradona did?  Ok, one is an attacking player and the other is a defender but it's the same act.

VAR missed a penalty given away in the Argentina/Iceland game too ... Argentina can count themselves to be very very unlucky despite the sentiment given towards Iceland.  Again,  I'm not blaming the referee,  he doesn't get the benefit of replay and has to make a split-second decision.  Mistakes will happen under those circumstances. 

[Diamond_Jim 11,720]

Interested to hear your experiences with the Optus streaming product. Have seen a few articles in the media saying it has some problems.

Anybody getting good coverage on ADSL and how is it when you play it on a big screen .. say 70 inches.

Must say at $15 you cannot complain about the price if the product is good.

The TV here in my Kazan apartment is a 17inch cathode tube model which doesn't make for optimum viewing. Will head out to watch the bigger games.

Our remaining games in Kazan all start at 9pm local time which will make for late nights ?

Edited June 17, 2018 by Diamond_Jim