Knockout Stage General Discussion Thread

Biologically people from cold climates have an extra layer of insulation (air pockets) in their skin that helps keep them warm. Could of been a factor in the Miami heat. Miami so far has been the warmest host city I've been in... All four qfs were open air, though sofi and hard rock have canopies. At least the two semifinals will be climate controlled.

Nj will be open air again... But all four final teams have players from places that experience high heat so they will be use to it. England obviously might experience some heat fatigue... But they won at elevation in Mexico City and the heat in Miami already so I don't think it's much of a factor for them (vs say Norway)

 

Even 2022 wasn't bad, finishing only behind Brazil on goal diff who were the #1 favorites of that tournament.

Unfortunately, everyone must keep the narrative going that "Argentina got a free pass to the WC semis" so they have to pretend Switzerland suck despite that record you just highlighted.

 

It was a scandal!

Switzerland robbed by FIFA and Argentina to avoid EURO 2026!

 

Eh... Argentina is the most European South American team. Some Argentineans (aka Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández) will tell you they are from the boats from Europe

 

Fifa is in Switzerland. Outsiders++ lol

 

Had to have a qf in every region... West, Midwest, south, Northeast. Miami is the soccer $ maker... They got the qf and the third place game. The financial center of America got the final. The largest stadium got the first semi. Coca cola got the second semi.

 

FIFA doesn't want all European SFs or Final and we can see that by how the games are refereed.

 

You can see who they want in the next round... No pk for Ghana vs England. Pulled Croatia goal back for a touch on the hair. Mean while the ball hits a wire and they do nothing. Haaland wasn't even in that play when the Norway goal was called back. And the no name England defender (anderson?) flopped like Vladi Divac.

Meanwhile they do a rerun into the next episode to pull away Egypt's goal. Then don't even look at Salah's fall. No card on Messi's Achilles rake, but gotta VAR embolo's dive... Hahahaha first double yellow/ red card for simulation since 2006... Meanwhile Kane is on the ground switching legs trying to remember which one's hurt . I guess Embolo should of known his role lol.

So gross. VAR is being used to implement the corruption it was suppose to stop lol. But at least we got something to talk about. This beats any k drama! Women eat your heart out!

Now that all the teams "not suppose to be there" are gone we can finally have no VAR football again . You guys are right we should go back to a smaller field. All the rounds before the semis are just an ad money grab with the winner pre decided.

 

Come on dude. It is bad enough already that we gotta deal with gov't misinformation.

Please do not spread falsehoods about human physiology.

Humans do not naturally develop air pockets in their skin based on the climate they live in. This concept is a myth and is not an evolutionary trait for surviving cold climates.

The Truth About Skin and Cold Adaptations
Rather than developing air pockets, humans from historically cold regions often exhibit specific genetic and physiological adaptations to manage cold stress: [1, 2, 3]

• Increased Capillary Density: Native populations in extreme cold, like the Inuit, have shown a higher density of blood vessels in their extremities. This helps maintain blood flow to the fingers and toes, preventing severe frostbite. [1, 2, 3]
• Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT): This specialized "brown fat" is activated by cold exposure and is responsible for generating heat (non-shivering thermogenesis) to keep the body warm. [1, 2, 3, 4]

​

 

So many conspiracy theories.
These were the four best teams heading into the tournament. They are the four best standing.

 

They were the four “highest ranked teams”. Not necessarily the same thing.

 

Well in this case it was the same thing. Look at most odds and even the predictions threads in the forum.

 

For me, you have France and Spain and then the rest. A group of countries that each might be regarded as third best. Basically a slew of countries alongside Argentina and England, including Brazil, Morocco, Norway, and arguably some others. Overall, aside from the very best and the bottom tier, most of the other sides in this tournament didn't show all that much better or worse when looking at their overall performance. Some might have peaked a bit earlier and some later or just in time, but a lot of how teams finished was often circumstantial.

 

As for refereeing, VAR and the like, favoritism towards the more fancied teams goes well beyond the critical calls that are often debated and discussed. In many cases, the more fancied side is given all the 50/50 calls and more. I am admittedly very biased when it comes to Iran and what I have to say would escape the attention of most fans who would instinctively be rooting against my team, but I have seen our match against Belgium a couple of times. There were at least half a dozen clear fouls and challenges by Belgium that the referee ignored, each of which could have given Iran important possession and freekicks. On the other side of the equation, many of the fouls called on Iran's players showed far less contact or infraction than what was allowed against our players. My point here isn't about Iran v Belgium, but how refereeing favoritism goes well beyond the obvious calls. The most egregious example of this was in Egypt's match against Argentina.

 

I agree. France and Spain look to be above everyone else, but Argentina and England appear to just be part of a pack of 7 or 8 decent teams, and benefited from some good luck in matchups and favorable referee decisions. Brazil, Norway, Portugal, Croatia, Colombia, Switzerland, and Morocco all seem to be about on the same level as Argentina and England. Norway in particular looked to be the better team against England but was undone by referee errors, and Switzerland was at least Argentina’s equal until the red card. So I question whether we really have the “best four” teams in the semi-finals. Or at least it is nowhere near as obvious with Argentina and England as it is with France and Spain.

 

As I said. Look at the odds before the tournament. Look at prognostications both here and in media. These were the four best teams going in. Hence FIFA separated them into different brackets.
Are teams like Argentina and England similar to the rest of the pack? Sure. But they are slightly better with some marquee super stars who came to score goals and lead their teams to the semis.

 

Brazil, Norway, Portugal, Colombia, Croatia, Morocco don’t have marquee superstars? And if being separated by bracket is the criteria, Belgium probably had the easiest bracket of all. Also, saying they are the four top teams because pre-tournament they were ranked the four top teams is tautological at best.

 

This is what happens when there are too many naive mouthbreathers. There is a camp that says "VAR/technology is bad" and a camp who says "VAR/technology is good". But very few actually use their brain and say "VAR can be an asset, but it also depends on how it is used" (i.e., consistently or not). I was arguing in the refereeing forum and they all thought the Croatia offside was the correct call and said I was a conspiracy theorist. I told them the sensor technology was overkill because the trajectory of the ball was not changed, and at most it was contact with the hair. But they were having none of it. To them, "technology showed a touch" and therefore it was offside.

They did not understand basic logic. I said doing a VAR replay makes sense because the refs can miss the offside in real time, the VAR is simply looking at a view replay. But the ball sensor technology is another thing, because it is overkill. You can simply look at VAR again to see if there was a touch or not. When you cannot see a touch via the video replay after you rewatch it 10 times, and clearly there is no change in trajectory of the ball, why on earth would you use sensor technology? That is unnecessary/extra use of technology, and it is just opening up a can of worms for no reason to use it in that manner.

 

Two things can be true at once.

I had predicted France, England, and Spain to be the top 3 contenders. And I had also predicted Belgium, Switzerland, Colombia, and Ecuador to go far. Aside from Ecuador, all that materialized.

To me, it seemed like France, England, Spain did not really need much FIFA help to get there, but I think FIFA would have helped these teams out if they needed it, for example England vs Ghana. But I found that Argentina and Portugal (who coincidentally have Messi and Cristiano) were favored, and we saw this with Argentina in 2022 as well. And then here and there some big teams were occasionally favored over other big teams.

It could also be true that not all the favorable calls for big teams are due to corruption. They can also be due to subconscious bias, this is something that has existed in the game for many decades. Well before VAR, big teams would generally get favorable calls on 50/50 calls. Sometimes it was corruption, other times it was the subconcious bias or fear of the referee, it is like they are just a bit automatically hesitant to call against a big team/team with a big player, so they end up giving more 50/50 calls in favor of the big teams (or there would have to be a higher threshold to give a penalty against a top team or give a red card for last man back found of a big team, basically calls that could almost eliminate a top team, yet these calls were more easily given against smaller team because it would be more "normal" for a small team to lose against a big team anyways so the ref would feel less pressure in terms of restraining themselves), similar to home teams.

 

Messi and Bellingham turned out to be difference makers in most of the matches. Their leadership and clutch play were a factor in their separation from the rest of the pack.
Rankings is part of the argument. Odds was another part. Prognostications was another part.
They ended up being the best teams.

I brought up the brackets because they were the highest ranked teams which is why they were separated.

 

I can't take anything you write seriously when you bring this up.
VAR does look at these, and anyone can see from the replays that Alvarez took the ball away cleanly. If VAR calls the ref to the monitor for those, we'll have never-ending stoppages.

 

A lot of conspiracy talk here, but does anyone actually think the outcome “should” be different all things considered? Argentina haven’t looked very convincing so far but honestly, I think the 4 best teams in the tournament are the 4 we have left at the moment.

 

France look the best team ... But so did the Rams in 2001-2002 when they came across Tom Brady and the Patriots, who just "tuck ruled" the Raiders. Anything can happen at this point. I smell the final is
France Argentina (Nike vs Adidas) or
Spain England (Adidas vs Nike)

Not
France England (Nike vs Nike)
Or
Argentina Spain (Adidas vs Adidas)

 

I'm tired of all the speculation. I'm ready for the games to be played.