VAR forever and ever. Until now, among the Top 7 NTs, no one really convinced, whether if it was for the final results or the performance.
Brazil and Argentina were just unlucky not to win. Though I wonder what it will do to their confidence going forward.
Argentina were terrible anyway. On Brazil, you're right, but fear might get stuck into their minds when it comes to knock-out stage.
So VAR have been a direct reason for both Australia and South Korea to lose against a European team. A conspiracy? probably not. Unlucky? probably. But on the top of my mind, I dont recall there being any VAR-incident that hasnt been in favour of a European team yet? Edit: Peru got a penalty after VAR vs Denmark so there you go.
In order to be awarded a penalty via VAR you have to first advance the ball to the opposing penalty area, at the least. So you would not expect such situations to be equally distributed along teams.
I was thinking and still thinking that Poland is overrated. Take out Lewandowski and they are almost nothing. Colombia is the real deal in the group both as individuals and team. Senegal, as it is always the case of Sub-Saharan African team, is inconsistent. They can be a world-beater in one day and pushovers in another.
I have a feeling our group will end up with a triangle like 9333 or 6660 so goal difference will count
poland played very strange. they looked disinterested during most of that second half, so many guys didn’t bother tracking back. we could potentially play them in the third game with them already/very much close to eliminated.
Depending on How Colombia-Senegal and other games go, Poland could still have chance of proceeding out of the group stages in the third match, hence Japan cannot afford to let their guard down as they might be extra motivated. Senegal is potentially a dangerous match, Japan need to keep possession as much as possible to limit their chances of counter-attacks imo, they cannot afford to let Senegal build up their rhythm. JNT need to think of a way to neutralize Mane. Maybe Makino can man-mark him like how he did Hulk at last year's ACL lol.
Morocco is the unluckiest team of the tournament. They totally cobtrolled their game against Portugal, they outshot Portugal 15-6, held more posession and camped in Portugal's area for the most part of the second half, yet they lost 0-1 after Portugsl's went ahead in the 4th minute through a Cristiano Ronaldo header. Almost the same scenario happened against Iran. Now, Morocco is the first team to exit the WC, despite the fact that they deserve to be the first to progress to the last 16 (they should have easily collected 6 points from their first two games). As for Portugal, if it is not for Ronaldo they will be a mediocre European team and might not qualify for this WC and the last WC nor win the last Euro to begin with. Whether it will be Russia or Uruguay in the next round, I hope they will trash Portugal, as they don't deserve to go far in this tournament.
Morocco is great to watch. But they haven't had anyone who can finish their chances...in the future you could easily see them persuading a big striker prospect from France to join their ranks and fill the gap.
Iran-Portugal should be a good game. I was impressed by Iran’s performance vs. Spain despite the loss. Disciplined defense and a threat going forward. They have a chance to beat Ronaldo i.e. Portugal and be the first (and hopefully not last) AFC team to progress.
They did what western/latin america teams do every ********ing time especially Top Players as Ronaldo and Neymar.
Tough luck for Iran. Costa lucky goal after Iran hit the side netting. Looking forward to what they can do against Portugal, but they'll probably get some lucky goal as well
1,2 and go pack yourself. I haven't seen the game but it seems like the whole world saw the true face of Korean football with their brutal games and that they can't play without it. I'm quite happy
Hmm.. Korea were indeed playing a little bit rough yesterday against Mexico. No idea why Ki Sung Yeung was trying to pick fights constantly when he is the one with most of the rough tackling.
Feel a bit sorry for Poland here. This feeling is familiar. James and Cuadrado are just ridiculous. Falcao handing over the team to James. That said, still looking for no mercy on matchday 3.