Disappointing but not that surprising. After the first two games it was clear we have a major weakness in scoring. Only two in 3 games and both from penalties. And the most conceded goals by a far shot. Also, Peru are higher in the FIFA rankings than Denmark.

Now we're into the hands of Graham Arnold which does  not inspire.

Two things are now obvious. Bert is a better coach than Ange. Bert had us looking dangerous. Compare that to qualifying where we stumbled and bumbled and managed to leave it to the last leg of the last tie over 4 years to lock it in.

Other thing is, we need a striker and how!

Fozzy on SBS is crapping on about how we could have and should have done better, we had plenty more to give, etc. How Ange had us on track but then we make this dramatic change (Bert) for the last part of the tournament, why oh why? Foz ... where were the goals going to come from? And if Ange was in charge would we have even looked like scoring at all?

France already through were not going to try hard against Denmark. And Denmark's only incentive -- knowing a win or draw would see them through -- was to stop France scoring. So no surprises there.

Back to the drawing board.

One could feel the result coming on.

Let's hope that there is some 18 year old wonder kid striker coming through.

IIRC the Asian championships are in Qatar which will provide a good test.

Now onto the serious end of the tournament as distinct from the emotional....who to follow from here... I would kind of like England to progress so as to watch some final agony

Well .. that Iceland Croatia Argentina Nigeria group was certainly close. Memories of '87.

So our round of 16 in Kazan will be France v Argentina ... my son is very happy as he gets to see Messi.

It seems that Germany v Korea which is our game tomorrow has not exactly filled the bars ... he may have to talk to his old man !!

3 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Well .. that Iceland Croatia Argentina Nigeria group was certainly close. Memories of '87.

So our round of 16 in Kazan will be France v Argentina ... my son is very happy as he gets to see Messi.

It seems that Germany v Korea which is our game tomorrow has not exactly filled the bars ... he may have to talk to his old man !!

As an underdog supporter. Today was dissapointing. i was rooting for Nigeria or Iceland, but as is always the case in sport and politics lately, nothing went my way! Argentina scoring a goal right at the end to beat Nigeria is like Joel Selwood kicking a goal after the siren to beat an underachieving team like Freo, who i'd prefer to see go further than Geelong.

Anyway, no matter how much we dominate possession and have our oppurtunities, i still don't think we deserve much credit. If the oppositions aim is just to take a lead and defend it, then what we do after they score means nothing if we don't equalize or win. Peru put on a masterclass in taking their opportunities and i was happy for their fans. A shame they didn't draw Denmark. Many people saying we deserved more, but i disagree. So now we're 5 goals conceded from this WC. 9 goals in 2014, 6 goals in 2010. I still think i would have preferred to be following a tight defensive team like Iran no matter how little ball they had. They kept in each match. Conceding only two goals and being 1 shot and 1 point away from the 16. An epic performance with Portugal and Spain in their group. 

Edited June 26, 20186 yr by John Demonic

Not disappointed mainly because I thought we did very well just to make the World cup (this time around)

So the expectations were low but even so,  we played quite well in the tournanent anyway ... unless one was to measure things on points gained.

We obviously need strikers but without them,  it is hard to score and therefore hard to win against good teams.  We battled well against the odds.

Seating at the World Cup is fascinating in the sense that FIFA's categorisation of premium seats changes to suit themselves.

In the round of 16 for example almost the whole stadium is recategorised to the highest price..category 1 so our seats are up top (second level) this time whereas for the group matches they were around 10 rows from the pitch.

The logistics of ticket purchasing, travel and accommodation for a follower of a particular team in the knock out stages is mind boggling.

If Colombia make the next stage I'm not sure how their 20k plus travelling supporter group will manage. From the game the other day most had to go back to Moscow and then travel to Samara which is a very hard destination with few links and virtually zero accomodation. If Colombia wins in Samara they don't know where the play next until the group standings are finalised. There are either  a lot of rich Colombians or as I suspect they are borrowing big to follow their team.

Another little bit of colour as I get ready for my 3k walk to the stadium for the 5pm kick off... Germany v South Korea.

The official beer of the World Cup is Budweiser Non Alcoholic Beer... yep that's right.

And what's more they charge the same price for that beer as for the normal budwesier ... A$7 per cup ... but the cup does have flashing lights on it ?

Well I should not have mentioned the beer.

About five minutes before kick off the German  guy behind me spills his whole beer all over me. I am talking from shoulders to backside and all over my seat. Not happy Ralph.

Anyway a great game because everyone sat down and you could watch the play.

Apparently because Sweden were 3-0 up on Mexico all Germany had to do was score and they would be in the next round in place of Mexico.

And then of course goal.... disallowed.... VAR .....and goal-to Korea. Extra time went 15 mins with the German goal keeper playing as a striker and we all know what happened..runaway goal to Korea. A joy to watch in the end.

My beer spilling mate shook my hand... I toldmy son he should have bought me a T shirt !!

First time that Germany have missed the play off rounds since 1938. Of course there was no German team between 1938 and 1990 which the Guardian reporter failed to point out.

Now time for the late games !!

 

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Well I should not have mentioned the beer.

About five minutes before kick off the German  guy behind me spills his whole beer all over me. I am talking from shoulders to backside and all over my seat. Not happy Ralph.

Anyway a great game because everyone sat down and you could watch the play.

Apparently because Sweden were 3-0 up on Mexico all Germany had to do was score and they would be in the next round in place of Mexico.

And then of course goal.... disallowed.... VAR .....and goal-to Korea. Extra time went 15 mins with the German goal keeper playing as a striker and we all know what happened..runaway goal to Korea. A joy to watch in the end.

My beer spilling mate shook my hand... I toldmy son he should have bought me a T shirt !!

First time that Germany have missed the play off rounds since 1938. Of course there was no German team between 1938 and 1990 which the Guardian reporter failed to point out.

Now time for the late games !!

 

Yeah that was such a fantastic set of games. Ending was pandemonium The mexican fans all biting their nails and looking at their phones in the crowd in the last 20 mins lol this world cup has been amazing. 

 

Lots of good goal replays and discussions over on www.reddit.com/r/soccer Check out the sheer joy of the Korean broadcasts:

 

https://streamable.com/9cwhq goal 1 w/ var

https://streamable.com/cjij3 Goal 1 /w var

https://streamable.com/5xhap goal 2

https://streamable.com/h1ygm goal 2

Edited June 27, 20186 yr by John Demonic

And just imagine what it's going to be like with 48 teams at the 2026 World cup ... more poor teams like Saudi Arabia & Germany.

Edited June 28, 20186 yr by Macca

2 hours ago, Macca said:

And just imagine what it's going to be like with 48 teams at the 2026 World cup ... more poor teams like Saudi Arabia & Germany.

At least minnows like Italy and Holland will have a chance to show their wares on the world stage.

I did not realise that the Asian Cup is not a FIFA approved tournament and therefore the various league clubs are not obliged to release their players

Wow, VAR again.

Penalty awarded to Senegal then overturned and I’m not sure why. Commentator mentioned an arm being flung back at Sanchez as to the possible reason but to me Sanchez had already started sliding and made contact with the knee prior to the Senegalese arm making contact and hardly any contact at that.

One does not begrudge Japan their success of they progress but this is a poor group.

Poland ranked 8 have not fired  a shot... far worse than Germany

Senegal and Colombia are ranked 27 and 16 respectively with Japan at 61

If no goals are scored the two lowest ranked teams will progress to the next round with the to team being decided on the number of yellow cards.

And of course 2 minutes after I post the above Poland scores?

Edited June 28, 20186 yr by Diamond_Jim

25 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

One does not begrudge Japan their success of they progress but this is a poor group.

Poland ranked 8 have not fired  a shot... far worse than Germany

Senegal and Colombia are ranked 27 and 16 respectively with Japan at 61

If no goals are scored the two lowest ranked teams will progress to the next round with the to team being decided on the number of yellow cards.

And of course 2 minutes after I post the above Poland scores?

Haha, both games now 1-0. The instructions to the Japanese would be simple right now. No more yellow cards. I had no idea that “Fair Play” was a tiebreaker.

England v Belgium will be a fascinating game. The preponderance of opinion is that the loser goes through to the easier side of the draw

PS: If England win tonight they will play Japan in the round of 16... On form you would say England should win which will set them up nicely for elimination in the quarter finals ?

Edited June 28, 20186 yr by Diamond_Jim

43 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Haha, both games now 1-0. The instructions to the Japanese would be simple right now. No more yellow cards. I had no idea that “Fair Play” was a tiebreaker.

Understandable last 10 minutes with Japan passing it around back. But for Poland to barely give chase at 1-0 and not seek to give their fans some exciting moments before they depart (Like Korea did) was just poor attitude and offensive to watch. Glad we've seen the back of Poland. Hope the Netherlands and Italy return in 4 years in their place. As for yellow cards? I reckon that's 'fair', so long as reffing is consistent, more yellows usually means you've illegally stymied opposition attacks with sloppy defence.

Edited June 28, 20186 yr by John Demonic

3 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

England v Belgium will be a fascinating game. The preponderance of opinion is that the loser goes through to the easier side of the draw

PS: If England win tonight they will play Japan in the round of 16... On form you would say England should win which will set them up nicely for elimination in the quarter finals ?

 I'll definitely be cheering on Columbia over England in the "easy bracket" now so it backfires, and Belgium over Japan and Brazil after todays time wasting to eliminate the poor sengalese!

Edited June 28, 20186 yr by John Demonic

Edited June 28, 20186 yr by Macca

6 hours ago, John Demonic said:

Understandable last 10 minutes with Japan passing it around back. But for Poland to barely give chase at 1-0 and not seek to give their fans some exciting moments before they depart (Like Korea did) was just poor attitude and offensive to watch. Glad we've seen the back of Poland. Hope the Netherlands and Italy return in 4 years in their place. As for yellow cards? I reckon that's 'fair', so long as reffing is consistent, more yellows usually means you've illegally stymied opposition attacks with sloppy defence.

I might be a bit biased with my background but I’d love to see Greece compete on the world stage again. A bit stiff to miss out this year, conceded only 3 or 4 goals throughout qualifying and then a hot Croatia hammers them with 4 in the first playoff match in Croatia. 

Intriguing Round of 16 ahead. I’ve had a small wager on Mexico to win it. So glad they drew Brazil.

The Argentinians will be arriving in town today. I assume the French will be here in greater number than they were against Australia.

I'm assuming (hoping) the Argentinians can't be noisier than the Colombians.

Went to the house where Lenin grew up in yesterday. It is now a great little museum. Almost deserted... Not sure that the football fans are into museums !!

https://www.cuponation.com.au/insights/world-cup-2018

Fascinating article about the relative average wages in the various World Cup nations. A bit like the famous Big Mac index.

Australia right up there with Switzerland and Denmark

Edited June 29, 20186 yr by Diamond_Jim

So who's up for some tips? 

As previously stated,  I thought I'd miss on 5 countries making it through to the knockout stages and that's how it panned out - missed on 5.  ha ha.  One miss was out of true patriotism and one of the others was Germany.  Who would have thought?

I reckon about 3 of these round of 16 games will go to penalties but I'd prefer it if they were to utilise the golden goal method in extra time whilst taking a player off every 5 minutes.  For some reason,  that short-lived way of deciding a game was abandoned not long after it was adopted. 

At least the players were playing the actual sport to decide the game under the golden goal method.  I've always viewed the penalties shoot-out as a bad gimmick that caught on. 

Anyway,  here goes - winners in dark italics ...

• France vs Argentina
• Uruguay vs Portugal
• Spain vs Russia
• Croatia vs Denmark
• Brazil vs Mexico
• Belgium vs Japan
• Sweden vs Switzerland
• Colombia vs England

Here's how the brackets look ...

Edited June 29, 20186 yr by Macca

I’ll give it a go @Macca.

France v Argentina.

Uruguay v Portugal

Spain v Russia

Croatia v Denmark

Brazil v Mexico  ( Hoping more than anything)

Belgium v Japan

Sweden v Switzerland 

Colombia v England