Pre World Cup Friendlies (R) (and other World Cup preparatory matches for Brazil 2014)

Spain recognized the softness of the call and so had Cesc sky the penalty instead of letting their regular spot kick taker Xabi Alonso having a go.
And if the Confederations is any example it will be the hosts receiving the gifts.

 

I'm not worried about Spain per say, but about the 'big teams' receiving preferential calls.

 

Did you actually see the rest of the match, because if this hadn't been been a friendly Tunisia would've gotten 3-4 (flying tackle on Dries Mertens, intentiolly stepping on Jan verthongens ankle, insulting the ref, faking a fall and then, when the ref wants to call it, running of to goal because the defenders already stopped playing, and several tackles from behind which would've gotten carded as well) and Belgium would've gotten one (that leg of Jan verthongen in Issam Jemaas balls would've been red)

Ugly match, good result and in the end more worried about Lukakus injury rather than anything else.

 

No, just saw the sending off incident (and the goal highlight), so I'll take your word for the rest. Fact is the red that was handed out was bull.

Here is the incident in question - the Tunisian player is actually the one being fouled:

 

Don't take my word for it, I'm a biased Belgian fan, however wasn't that him pulling Kompanys shirt more than anything else? Also he didn't get red for that, it was because he started clapping at the ref because he made a poor decision while he had been a jerk for the entire game. Naturally the ref didn't like and gave him yellow, and since one and one is two, he got send off

 

Only watched first half and only red card offence I saw was Vertonghen on Jemaa. Belgium deserved to go down to 10 men. Apart from that, there wasn't anything in the first half that merited a red card (not sure if some of what you are saying was from the first half, because some of the actions sound familiar. If so, they weren't red cards in my book at all).

 

More like several yellows which would lead to reds, the tackle on Mertens was red for sure, Mertens can be glad he jumped, also I was just reminded of the flying tackle on Van Buyten that missed, which wasn't red since it missed but flying tackles are always ugly. Also I did say that Vertonghen did deserve a red for that, but so did the player that stepped on his ankle.

Let me put it this way if you get 5 yellows and a red in a friendly, a friendly which doesn't matter, so that means they must mean something more. which is exactly what they did, they meant: "normally you'd get red, but this is a friendly so the cards don't matter and there's a game to play."

 

The worst fouls happened in the 2nd half ... looking at the obscene gestures in the above vid, do you get the feeling it was a friendly game? ... and yeah Vertonghen should have been sent off (or better not reacted at all at the "provocations").

 

Honduras 0 - 0 England.

England looked feeble in attack. Utterly lacking.

Although

Honduras were persistently fouling and breaking up play. Even so, we struggle to score.

 

El Salvador - Spain 0:2
60' Diego Costa, 88' David Villa
Spain also missed a penalty in the first half (albeit a dubious one)

USA - Nigeria 2:1
32', 69' Jozy Altidore - 86' PK Victor Moses
You know there are problems at the back when Altidore scores two goals on you... Nigeria was missing 2 starting defenders, but they will be missing one of them permanently, while the other - Yobo - is supposedly experienced at the top level and really shouldn't be performing like this.

 

Was Nigeria just going thru the motions. This display was a far cry from their good display against Italy. Their defense let many unmarked players in the box. Cannot do that when their names are Dzecko, Aguero, Higuian, etc...

 

I don't think Nigeria will be focusing on Aguero and Higuain. Or Messi. Whether or not they score will likely be irrelevant.

I don't think they were going through the motions, but they had no teeth up front with the immobile Amoebi and disinterested Odemwingie. Ameobi looks out of form, cuz he actually had a great game vs the said Italy. Hope there is no locker room quarrel between Mikel and Keshi due to his sub yesterday (when Mikel voiced his frustration at the lack of off the ball movement in attack).

The defence was worrying. Omeruo was out and he is pure class, despite his young age. At the moment even Egweukwe looks like an improvement on Yobo. Oboabona was largely good, although even though he also had a few minor errors.

Left back is now an issue, as Oshaniwa was out of position so many times... And he was just letting players wing him without even hustling for the ball. That said the team only seemed to fall apart and leave all kind of spaces, when Mikel left the field of play. That and maybe USA's superior form.

I would add that if this were a World Cup game USA would have picked up several cards due to tactical fouls, so they wouldn't have been as gung-ho is pulling back advancing players.

 

Actually match reports seem to claim he was red carded for handball (when in fact he was being pulled back by Kompany). According to Goal.com his clapping was a reaction to the red card - it wasn't the reason for the red.

---

Just 4 official friendlies left (with closed doors games still to be played, like USA vs Belgium):
TODAY:
T&T - Iran
France - Jamaica

TOMORROW:
Ghana - South Korea

TUESDAY:
Ireland - Portugal

 

False very false. You can clearly see he pulled and then ref wistled for a foul. After 5-10sec he aplauded and then te ref showed a yellow card.

 

I can clearly see him being pulled - he was the player being fouled, not the other way around. Its pretty obvious. I won't dispute why he was yellow carded, although Goal.com claims differently.

Meaningless friendly - lets move on.

 

Cant u see kompany's jersey getting pulled? You can see his whole upper body bevause of that..jeez
Anyway he didnt get yellow for that but for aplauding afterwards.

 

Not that it matters but I can see Kompany locking down Jemaa's arm and him trying to break free, thus pulling up Kompany's jersey. Yes, he did grab Kompany's tshirt at one point, but Kompany was the more guilty party.

 

If you haven't seen the game - don't comment on what you obviously don't know and didn't see and start questiononing goal.com as source of info.

 

Is that meant to be ironic? Goal.com gets it wrong all the time.

 

How many times do I have to say: I accept the yellow card was handed out for something else? I said it twice already, you really want a third admittance?

I still say the initial foul was bogus - as per the above clip.

Next match

 

Iran 2-0 Trinidad & Tobago

 

CONCACAF second tier sides not doing their confeds reputation any good in the friendly buildups to the World Cup... The French game pretty ridiculous...

Iran - Trinidad & Tobago 2:0
45' Ehsan Hajsafi, 52' Reza Ghoochanneijhad

France - Jamaica 8:0
17' Yohan Cabaye, 20', 66' Blaise Matuidi, 38', 63' Karim Benzema, 53' Oliver Giroud, 77', 89' Antoine Griezmann

 

8-0 ^^

 

Jamaica played okay against Switzerland. France was so dominant today and should easily top the group ahead of Swiss, Hondurans and Ecuadorians.

 

Italy - Fluminense apparently 5:2