I take back what I said earlier, I think the no-call is correct here. I'm not sure it would've been a good call for "simulation", but def not a pen.
Yeah. I like that JP has been around the US for so long, but switching over from Fox to FS1 there, was a big downgrade. JP just sounding like this is a January Friendly or something.
He's always been like this. Remember the USA Egypt match? Deuce scored the header and JP sounds like you said, a January Friendly.
How often does this occur in practice though? And what if it’s near the post and not deliberate? I think it’s an interesting idea but I’m more annoyed by players getting pks when they are not remotely goal dangerous. The injustice is higher there and much more common.
JP also has a funny habit of praising a player for a rather mundane piece of skill only to get dispossessed in the next split second.
And this is why FIFA cannot allow the group stage format change to three teams per group in 2026. Find a way, FIFA. What drama we've had.
No doubt, I liked the team, but the cynical antics in '06 ruined them for me. The fact that they could advance over us on a ridiculous dive in 2006, and have the cojones, to scream to the heavens over what Suarez and another Uruguayan did (but missed) was ridiculous to me. Credit to Uruguay for being clever as hell in the moment. They turned a 0% chance of advancing to a 20-25% chance. Would I have been pissed if I was from Ghana, hell yeah, enraged, but hey, Frings did the same thing to us 8 years earlier and there was 1/50th the outrage. And honestly, the cynical way they've played over the years, w/all their talent, really hurt them in my eyes. I respect Uruguay, because they're up front about being ruthless cheats, they don't feign purity and innocent martyrdom left and right. So yeah, Ghana and Uruguay going out together, kind of funny. I feel for Uruguay, but they needed to get 3 points against S. Korea to be able to complain. They didn't and S. Korea punished them for it.
Oh man, we still have the Switzerland/Kosovo vs Serbia slugfest to come today. This tournament never stops.
I don't disagree with this, but w/in the laws of the game, it was literally the only way to save themselves from being donezo and so they did it. FIFA's to blame for not changing the rules after Frings or any other instance. It's not like it hadn't happened before, it's just Uruguay's was ridiculously blatant.
Oh, yeah, I'm 100% with you on the PKs because a ball glanced a hand at the far corner of the box. That's a definite beef, and I hate PKs. PKs are a cowardly way to score a goal, as Pele says. It doesn't happen often in practice (I can only think of two) The point is that the balance is very strongly in favor of the player doing what Suarez did. It's a no brainer that a player would game the rules that way. That's what makes me thinks the remedy is inadequate.
Nearly all of our domestic announcers are just blech. In fairness, listen to pro football, and there are like at any given time, no more than 3-5 that don't suck, so there's that too (there's a reason Al Michaels still works, nobody is as good since the days of Madden). Hardest job on earth.
Cameroon sent their keeper who starts for Inter Milan home for insubordination. I don’t love the chances of the guy who plays in Saudi Arabia against a hungry Brazil “B team” today.
And 4 of 4 were great for all or most of the group stage, Only the ---- hosts sucked, and that was expected. Iran were good 2 of 3 games, and likely to be the only team until the QF's or later to put 2 goals on England. The xG tells you the shellacking was basically bad luck. Even the Saudi's played reasonably well. All 4 Asian teams who qualified were great and showed well in general. Best performance maybe ever for their confed.
You don't lose 6-2 and blame it on 'bad luck'! :-D. In fact lets be honest their second goal was a gift from the officials and even if valid then the early challenge was obviously even more 'blatant'! The score could easily have been 7-1! They did score one very good goal though, letting in 6 isn't a 'good performance' by ANY measure!
The goal of a any penalization system is basically to provide disincentive for breaking the rules. If a penalty is too weak relative to the infraction, teams will commit too many tactical fouls intentionally. But if the penalty is too strong, then you incentivize the other way -- teams will flop. In both too strict and too lenient, you risk altering the results of the game in a manner not commensurate with the infraction as well. The biggest places in soccer where this happens: Penalties on fouls that were not even a bit close to scoring Red cards Tactical Fouls in transition Red cards are a tough one, because they mostly are about preventing injury. And it's probably worth it to be overly harsh to make people not play recklessly, even if that ruins a World Cup match. Though there are some pretty weak ones. But a penalty on a situation with a 2% chance of scoring feels completely off. This isn't to excuse a player who can't play now to the rules, but in a sport like this, giving someone a 70-75% chance at a goal based on a foul on a player on the edge of the box, woof. Soccer would be well served to come up with something in between for those. Lastly, I know people love the smart tactical foul, but it absolutely kills a ton of great scoring chances that people love. It's one thing if you foul while going for the ball, but the short grabbing or the dangerous tackle from behind should be punished more than just a yellow, IMO. Hockey has the best system. It doesn't translate all that well to soccer, but I'd love to see a yellow card become 10 minutes of playing a man down or something.
I started a conversation on this exact thing in the FIFA forum https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/best-formats-for-48-teams-for-2026.2123731/#post-41004175
Wow. Cameroon has a tradition of defying odds. It’s in their soccer culture. I’ll be rooting for them today.
Yeah, I'm actually really impressed by how competitive this tournament has been for the most part. Even Costa Rica was in the top two spots in the live table for a little while in the group with Germany and Spain.
VAR looked at it, and didn't find a clear and obvious error in the on the field call that it wasn't a PK. That's the right call from the VAR team. Keep in mind that VAR is going to play a role in things that are either obviously a PK, or obviously not a PK. Judgment calls in the middle are going to be things that aren't obviously wrong either way and aren't going to get a VAR call to the monitor for the center ref.
I would *love* to see a lot more cards given for simulation. It would really help slow down divers like Ronaldo from trying to create a PK by flopping. What's I dearly hope to see someday is a forward thrown out for diving twice. That would make me very, very happy.