Matchday Thread | GROUP C

I've just watched the game on DVR. I completely disagree with you. Greece was denied two goal-scoring opportunities on fouls, and both CIV players got only punished with a yellow. When you have a direct line to the goal, the defender is the last man, and you deny the attacker a clear goal-scoring opportunity, it's a red card, according to the rule book. So then and there, the ref failed to send two Ivory Coast players to the lockers. If he were pro-European he'd have done just that.

Again, the conspiracy theorists are out in force, and can't accept refereeing errors without crying conspiracy.

The penalty was a clear one, no doubt about it.

 

Greece deserved the win. They came out to play, showed for the first time attacking football, having hit the woodwork three times.

They played cleanly and did not try to cheat. These Greeks seem to have advanced sportsmanship, as evidenced by last game when the Greek attacker tripped and fell in the box, and immediately told the ref that nobody did it to him. That was a rare display of sportsmanship, in this world of divers and cheaters. Then and there, I started to root for Greece.

Ivory Coast on the other hand, last game had a dive by Drogba who is notorious for this. Today they fouled twice, denying goal-scoring opportunities to Greece, and got away with just yellow cards.

I think Ivory Coast has a strong tradition of diving and cheating... so I'm happy that they got bumped out by a team that plays clean football and has sportsmanship. Congratulations, Greece! I hope you continue to do well. Nicely done!

 

Colombia: the class of South America! Also a team that not only plays beautifully, but plays cleanly. Nine points, and they contained well a very attacking Japan, calmly imposing their game and scoring four goals. They are doing all this while missing their main player (Falcao) - so, it's like an Argentina without Messi, or a Brazil without Neymar. Still, they've been very good. Congratulations, brothers! You are great and I want to see you go deep in this tournament!

I hope you destroy to very small pieces the cheating Uruguayans, a disgrace of a team that features a cannibal.

 

I don't think this is going to happen. What you'll see, is a Brazil peaking more and more.

 

Interesting as in the latest edition of the New Yorker they cite a study on cheating in the 2010 World Cup. The top diver came from CIV.

Quote:
Some teams were indeed bigger offenders than others: Brazil had one of the top rates of professional fouls (three and a half incidents per game), while Portugal, Chile, and Italy shared the highest rate of classic cheating (two incidents per game). Of the players, the top two fakers were Abdul Kader Keïta, of Ivory Coast, and Cuauhtémoc Blanco, of Mexico; the third was Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

So far Brazil have been far from convincing. They keep producing a few moments of brilliance in every match but their general play has not been to the usual Brazil standard

 

Correct but there's time. With the crowds and the refs on their side they have more advantages too. Calling Brazil over Argentina in the final

 

The refs are not on their side. Didn't you see the Cameroon match? They were calling everything against Brazil.

 

Yep, the key is in "so far." If you look at the three games, they are playing progressively better - each time, better than the previous one. Sure, not yet up to their usual standards, but improving, which bodes well. You want to peak at the right time, in this kind of tournament.

 

Believe it or not he is our second goalkeeper. Any how it was a historic moment for a 43 y/o keeper that no longer has a team to play for and it is retiring. Hopefully Japan will understand it was not a sign of disrespect but a sign of appreciation for a goalkeeper that has defended Colombia since 1994.

 

@Tukafo not it was disrespect, MONDRAGON DESERVED THIS since 16 years ago!!!






now his face is different

 

Like what? Brazil committed 19 fouls yet received no cards. Cameroon had 13 fouls and got three yellow. Furthermore Brazil were awarded an offside goal. And you complain?

 

Unfortunately I did not see the Cameroon match, so you got me there. But they didn't really need the refs, judging by the shoreline, did they?

 

It would be a sign of disrespect if we put in another attacker like Teo or Ibarbo and tried to run up the score even more.

Putting in a GK is not a sign of disrespect at all. Especially since it was for a record, and for honoring him and his service to the team.

 

Clear penalty committed by Cameroon, not called. Strangely enough, the TV didn't show the replay. Oh the scandal, one can't show a penalty that Brazil deserved to be called for them but wasn't, because people must maintain that Brazil is cheating its way to the final, huh?
Clear sending-off offense, with the Cameroon player shoving Neymar into the journalists, off the lines, and with no ball involved, which any ref would have punished with a red card. Not even a yellow. No excuse for thinking it was an accident (it wasn't) since the ref did scold the Cameroon player.
There was no off-side in the Brazilian goal. You need to watch that tape again, and you'll see that they were on the same line, which is not off-side.

 

Why on Earth would you think that number of fouls is equal yellow cards? It's the severity/harshness/intention of the foul that counts for yellow cards. If you commit 19 or 40 or 60 fouls but they are all soft, no yellow card.

 

No, they didn't, 4-1 leaves no doubt. Actually I think Brazil is likely to be harmed by the refs throughout this tournament, given the outcry about the Fred penalty against Croatia. Now every time a Brazilian is actually fouled in the box (like it did happen in the Cameroon game), refs will look the other way, afraid to be called corrupt or biased in favor of the hosts.

 

Perhaps he was , you may be right.
Brazil are slightly favoured by the refs so far but perhaps that's normal for a host. That actually doesn't bother me too much. My bigger concern is the endless ways Brazil try to put pressure on the refs in every match. After every incident, no matter how insigificant, they run to the refs, waving imaginary cards around (even Scolari did this against Croatia), Dani Alves talking to the linesman for what felt like a whole minute, explaining to him why he made a mistake and what he should have given instead, Fred diving to get a penalty, Marcelo blatantly diving to get a penalty etc, etc. nit my cup of tea to be honest.

 

Well, I don't like it either. I said as much since the very first incident. If you go to the Brazilian sector of this web site and the play-by-play thread for the Croatia game you'll see that the second it happened, I was probably the first poster to protest and call it a disgrace. I would have preferred this incident to not have happened, and I think Marcelo was even more of a disgrace than Fred, because he could have just damn scored instead of reacting immediately with a dive at the first touch. It is a dirty shame if you pass on a scoring opportunity in favor of cheating. I hate it as much as the next guy.

However, looking carefully at the two subsequent matches and after the series of mistakes in the Croatia game, the refs are NOT favoring Brazil any longer, and like I said, are more likely to call games against Brazil. I also sustain that the Croatia game decisions were human error rather than any sort of attempt to deliberately favor Brazil. That very same ref who is notorious for being an incompetent moron, had screwed Brazil in 2010 against Holland.

The ref booked Neymar with less than ten minutes of play. Any ref biased enough to try to favor Brazil would have managed to pretend to look the other way instead of yellow carding Brazil's main player, in the first ten minutes of the tournament. This alone shows me that he didn't have the intention of cheating for Brazil. What happened is that he is profoundly incompetent and doesn't know what he is doing.

I blame FIFA for scheduling that idiot for such an important game, the freaking opener. I think his mistakes are likely to damage Brazil from now on because other refs will be afraid of the appearance of impropriety and will tend to call things against Brazil.

 

Brazil is beatable. i think Chile can take them, or at the very least make it a tough game. I am not convinced by Brazil, even if they play at home.

 

grande Faryd!

 

Yes, logically speaking, they are beatable, and yes, Chile can definitely take them. Still, I don't think it will happen.
Look, Brazil has now completed 60 freaking official home games without a defeat, since 1975. Beating the Seleção at home is a lot harder than it seems, even when it is not playing so well.

 

Colombia have a lot of quality and Pekerman has set his team up to go far. James and co have barely had to sweat through the group stages. Smartly played. I think Colombia can beat Uruguay. A quarter-finals against Brazil, (maybe Chile) would be a tough proposition for any team, though. Pekerman's a genius and you couldn't be asking for anything more from James, who makes Ozil look inefficient and wasteful.

I'm surprised by our win today, especially considering how we lost two starters in the first 20 minutes, forcing us into taking out our goalkeeper and best scoring threat. As if we didn't have enough problems.

I thought the referee didn't favour either team. He denied Greece several free-kick opportunities early in the game, which I'm glad he did. The message from the referee was clear and he forced Greece to play soccer. At one stage, Lazaros was brought down on the counter, but he just got up and continued his run. I haven't seen that from a Greek player in... ever! Once Greece got going and looked the better team, Ivory Coast found themselves under more pressure and conceding desperate fouls.

Was it a penalty? Samaras went looking for it, I won't debate that, but contact was made and the referee decided to award it. I reckon Samaras wouldn't have scored even if the defender didn't impede him, so when he had the opportunity to win a penalty, he did. We were fortunate for the win in the end and we should have made more of earlier chances if we were serious about winning this match. That said, perhaps the referee was influenced by all the controversy regarding penalties in the other games and I guess this put him on the spot, especially considering the non-call against Srna's obvious handball the day before. With that mistake fresh in his mind, he decided to be bold and set himself apart from him peers.

Historic win and I'm looking forward to our match with Costa Rica next Sunday.

 

I as a Japanese can understand it. Mondragon must be such a great player for you Colombians, right?
Japan also has a legendary hero who is 47 and still an active athlete, whose name is Kazuyoshi Miura. He came to Brazil as a mentor for Japan NT members, all NT players revere him.

Anyway, congrats to Colombia and Greece. Hope you two will go deeper in knock out round.

 

We'll have to see about that. Still, they will definitely be helped by the home crowd, no question