I'm rooting for a tie - the high score helps both teams! One of the best and important games and hardly any traffic. I guess the "enthusiasts" only care about the "big" teams.
Fifa instructed refs to allow this, don't you know? It is almost official... Polish journalists for ex demand on Nawalka to introduce Goralski and tell him to roughen it up...
With this being a draw Colombia and Poland are holding their destiny in their hands. 2 Wins for any side ensures progress to the Round of 16.
If Poland and Colombia draw today and win their last game by two goals difference then they will both Qualify , although i doubt todays game will end up in a draw
Senegal needs to learn to control the ball when they're ahead,totally gave it to Japan in the last 20 min.
Very dissapointing from Senegal. Played a great first 20 minutes, then they let Japan into the game and Japan were more convincing going forward. I'm actually not that impressed by this Senegal team. Too one dimensional going forward. Mane has been horrible so far this worldcup, done next to nothing even though he got that goal today. For all their defenders at top clubs their Defence looked in shambles to be honest. And finally that goal keeper comming out like that when his defender had the ball covered. Cisse must take the blame for keeping a Serie A keeper and a Ligue 1 keeper on the bench for a mediocre African based keeper. Just dumb. I think Colombia will beat this team. Nigeria is easily the best African team IMO.
Nice game. Japan are true warriors. Hope they beat Poland and represent Asia further on. But very last play of the game - I'm pretty certain there was handball there and the referee called it too quickly. There was no replay but live that seemed like a clear handball clearance.
A hard fought and fair draw. Now, if Poland Colombia draw, everyone will have a chance of progressing on the last day without looking at opponents... If...
No one mentioned it but I noticed it today and during the Colombia game: Japan is superbly conditioned. I think part of the reason Japan had the better second half was because they were much fitter. Senegal ran out of steam a bit. Japan started winning balls that they lost in the first half. I have to put that down to endurance. I think any team will struggle against Japan in the second half. Also - must admire their fighting spirits.
The team did their pre-world cup training camp at 1400m altitude in the alps somewhere (Maybe Austria?) purely to try promote endurance/conditioning. They did the same before the 2010 FWC where they had one of the highest running/distance of the WC on average.
In the last World Cup, Japan lost all its games in the 2nd half (lost their lead in their draw against 10 man Greece in the 2nd half too). At that time, they would run of steam by the 2nd half. This time around, they seemed to have learned the lesson and conditioned themselves much better.
Good for both teams that it was a high scoring draw just thinking about possible worst case scenario should we end up with all 4 teams on 4 points.
Well, the ref must have heard me, because the yellows certainly started to flow after that! Too many errant elbows from senegal for my taste, but what. a. match! I knew this would be one of the better games, and wasn't disappointed. Frankly, it'll be a better cup if Japan and Senegal go through.
Actually, yes. Japan is superbly conditioned and I love to watch them. They've consistently been one of the most graceful teams at the World Cup for years now. It's great to see their abilities paying off some here.