PBP Thread: Match #9, Brazil vs Switzerland, 17 June 2018 [R]

If all these guys would play for us we would have been there in the World Cup maybe. It hurts to see them not playing for the country of their roots.

 

not to be an ass but why didn't the country of their roots discover, keep, and turn them into the good footballers they are?

 

There is not a good youth program in Albania. We are lacking funding, infrastructure and professionalism to produce the players. But talent wise we are good. Apart from the Swiss guys also Januzaj is in this World Cup with Belguim. Don't forget Mustafi (is not in the German squad this time). If we could get all these players for us and Kosovo and Albania unifies to one country we would be a serious team. Of course these guys have the right to play for Switzerland as Switzerland cuts the raw material of these players. But I don't like it obviously.

 

exactly what I thought about, but wanted to hear it from you

yeah, it hurts...

 

I'm supporting Croatia and Colombia in this World Cup. I had even high hopes before the tournament started that one of them get to the semi-finals at least. People are sleeping on both teams.

 

I think Croatia are capable of making their own road through the final. Colombia not so much. They still seem immature to me, and will probably need a lucky path to make it to the semis

 

In this case they sould be playing for South Africa, since the roots of all of us are there.
Sorry, but always this "roots", "origins" and "blood" stuff some Europeans bring up every now and then drives me nuts.
The continent had a very good chance to get out of this thinking in 1945.

 

Brazil didn't make a bad game but still far of what we expect from a possible world champion. Let's see the next chapters...

 

Outstanding post. It's amazing how the bias was so freaking evident, but still, the posters here who are seeing the obvious and are denouncing it, are being called conspiracy theorists. Wake up, folks. The match was rigged. Like this excellent poster above said, the reason why is anyone's guess and it might be multiple, but the FACT is that refereeing strongly favored Switzerland, and like I said many times, doubters can call us conspiracy theorists as much as they want, but it doesn't change the FACT that we are right about it. One might ask, what is the interest in denying the obvious?? To each person denying that this ref favored Switzerland against all evidence, I'd like to ask, why are *you* holding this view? Is this just wishful thinking because you'd *like* to keep the illusion that there is fairness in FIFA? Do *you* also harbor a bias in favor of European teams? Do *you* want to save face because you first issued an opinion without looking at the hard FACTS and now you want to save face and avoid acknowledging that you were wrong? Something else? My deep apologies if you find my post offensive; it isn't my intention, but yes, I'm throwing a strong argument on the table here, because it frankly surprises me that someone might really not see the strong bias shown by the ref in this match. Maybe you dislike Brazil (and I can understand that people in glass houses should not throw stones, given a past history of cheating - who doesn't remember Fred's fake penalty against Croatia in the opener of the 2014 Cup?), but regardless of your feelings here - if you feel it's Karma or something - it should still be relatively easy to acknowledge the OBVIOUS, that this ref deliberately favored Switzerland, period, full stop. When a series of major, game outcome-affecting decisions invariably goes one way, and the ref allows a hack job to continue unchallenged, it's easy to know what team the ref wants to prevail. The evidence is so strong, that denying it, sorry to say it, is frankly weird. So, I have no problem with someone saying "yes, the match was indeed rigged, but what goes around comes around - Brazil has cheated in the past, so why are they complaining now?" - but I do have a problem with someone calling those among us who are not denying the obvious, conspiracy theorists.

 

I hope you are right but after the travesty we saw on Sunday, I'm afraid that the refs might be biased in favor of Serbia, the European side, against Brazil. I am seriously concerned that by then Neymar will be lost to injury and Brazil will be eliminated with 4 points, with Switzerland and Serbia advancing with Serbia earning 7 points and Switzerland earning 5. This is a real risk, and not unlikely at all if there is a ref equally biased against Brazil refereeing the Brazil-Serbia game. The Brazilian federation by the way has profoundly irritated FIFA when they voted for the Morocco bid. That's another aspect that only now as I am posting this, I remembered. Like I said, the reasons for the onslaught of bias we saw yesterday might be multiple but the bias itself is undeniable, so if it continues, Brazil will get an early exit from the tournament.

 

I hear you and Neymar doesn't help his reputation which is deserved, but it's irrelevant to the current debate, because Neymar didn't dive a single time yesterday. Not once. He wasn't even suspected of the same. The ref at least had the decency to avoid berating Neymar for possible diving, because there was zero evidence of diving, whatsoever. Every single time he went down, he was fouled. A dive requires the simulation of a foul, and those fouls were real. Even with the ref so biased against Brazil, Neymar collected the largest number of fouls ever suffered by a player in one single game in the history of the five preceding World Cups, not even counting the times he was fouled and the ref allowed the game to proceed. It's interesting that the one time he earned advantage, shook off the foul, dribbled the next opponent and proceeded unchallenged in a straight line to the goal with full control of the ball with nobody between him and the goalie, the ref did call the foul, ignoring the advantage (although Neymar made the advantage gesture), and made the play come back. For me, that call is even more proof of bias than the Swiss goal and the no-call penalty, because it was a conscious decision to thwart the goal-scoring opportunity and ignore the obvious advantage that Neymar had earned. So, other fouls the ref ignored, but not that one, which allowed him to stop Neymar from scoring.

 

You're Brazilian and you are making fun of this? Tsk tsk...

 

I think it is unnecessary to bring up the Nazis to the discussion... which is an Internet trope; there is even a law that if an argument goes on long enough, the Nazis are brought up. Brazilians are also upset that Costa plays for Spain and not for Brazil. I can see the Albanian poster's standpoint and it doesn't bother me.

 

I really don’t know why this game would be rigged. I assume you guys think FIFA (and then refs) are trying to make Brazil finish second so they don’t meet Germany in R16?

That’s far from being smart in my opinion then. Making a team lose points in the first match? Very risky, as every world cup match can be difficult, and you don’t know yet at all if Germany is gonna be top spot or not.

Best way to decide who will be first and who will be second, you let Brazil secure qualification first, get the 6 points, and then only for the last match make them lose if Germans are still second in that time. That would be the non risky way and I’m sure FIFA are not that risk takers lol.

Talking about the match itself, I do think Brazilian guys just got too arrogant. They thought the match was already won at 1-0 and stopped trying, until they deservedly conceeded that Swiss goal.
Then it was somehow too late to wake up as it takes time plus Swiss guys now had plain confidence.

As much as I think there was a pen on Jesus, he falls too late on the ground, and I don’t see it as a scandal that the referees did not whistle it (even if on my own I would have given the penalty).
Jesus is clearly being fooled but not dragged down as you guys say, he stays standing and then fall in a ridiculous way afterwards.
We have seen plenty of pens not whistled in football in that kind of situation.

 

one crooked game is enough. If Brazil keep getting bad referees it will obviously be a case of blatant corruption, but that's not gonna happen twice in a row

FIFA is not stupid to lose attendance by having the most popular teams (germany and brazil) eliminated so early in the game. If anything, the refs will start helping these 2 from now on, mark my words!

everyone was infuriated except for americans, who openly admit that they have money and can do whatever the hell they want because FIFA is hungry for cash. If I cared about football like I used to care 15-20 years ago I'd probably have heart failure at all the corruption going on with football, but... I understood that the WC is FIFA's creation and they can do whatever the hell they want with it. I'm only watching it for the few moments of true football between teams that are not standing in FIFA's way (usually the heavy underdogs and the new comers). Besides, my country (Romania) has gone shit in the last 2 decades, so why would I stress about this anymore?

 

if I agree with you will you let me live? I honestly can't get neymar and ronaldo under my skin, no matter what. He may be God in your eyes, and I can understand that because we, Romanians, had a God too when Gheorghe Hagi was humilating Maradona at the 1994 WC so I understand what it feels like to idolize someone that much. But... in the end they're all humans, with good and bad, so we shouldn't lick their asses so much. Respect them? Sure! But that's about where it ends. It's not like they're creating jobs for the needy people, or inventing a cure for all diseases or anything

 

Actually, he kind of has always gotten hacked, even since that firstyear at Barca. I think he's been the most fouled player for a long time.

It's true in the European leagues:
http://www.espn.com/soccer/paris-sa...the-most-fouled-player-in-europes-top-leagues

It was true in the last olympics:
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/wo...ny-other-player-at-the-world-cup-in-20-years/

It was true in the last world cup, until Colombia broke his back in an attack:
http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/3999...il-v-colombia-had-most-fouls-at-the-world-cup

Maybe if people would stop hacking him to stop him, he'd stop rolling around in pain after having been hacked to the ground?

He certainly was a solid leader in the Olympics, and matured well at Barcelona (he's still pretty young.)

Folks complainig about his "diving" are usually folks rooting for the teams hacking the crap out of him.

I'd like to see a ref with the nerve to hand out yellow cards early knowing that he'll be getting hacked.

Here's a prediction. He'll get the heck hacked out of him against this thuggish Swedish side as well. i'm going to say he gets five fouls against him before the half.

 

And here is another : he will be throwing himself to the ground yelling in absolute pain at least 5 other times, without having being touched.

In this aspect, Neymar is incorrigible and he continues doing it all the time, reasons why many don't believe him when it is real.

It is true that he gets hacked a lot, but it is also true that he exagerates and dives a lot as well. Neymar is also a hot head who sometimes hacks other players as well.

 

Let’s just call VAR what it is...

V ideo
A ssist for
Eu R opeans

Has it helped any team outside of Europe besides Peru?

 

Lol they banned me for pointing this out in The Sweden korea game... people can’t take the truth

 

Got any video of a single instance of this, say, in that last match.

those of us who have actually played the sport at any level know that getting your ankles hacked out isn't any fun.

What a surprise, a Chilean pushing the usual fake news.

 

enjoy a few (not from last match, though) :



the net is full of them, and you don't need to google that much to find them.

Together with Luis Suarez, they are the best, diving

 

Maradona didn’t play in that WC94 match.

 

hmm, let me check...

EDIT: you are right... and yet, I clearly recall Hagi dumming Diego in one of the WC games. Oh well, it's happened long ago and my long term memory has always been bad

Thanks for pointing it out

 

Maybe WC90? Maradona also turned Hagi a couple of times in that match.