Argentina has been the winning side of two of the best games this tournament. Both felt they robbed the viewer of penalties and the ultimate drama. Will Argentina be able to have that same luck against Switzerland? On paper it’s the easiest draw, but Egypt and cape Verde were downplayed quite a bit too. Switzerland is better than Austria - the only other European side they’ve played so far. I think it would be foolish to bet against Argentina at this stage, but they’re using a lot of luck in their wins so far. Switzerland also just showed they can play a “road” game here. The heavily Argentine crowd in KC will be a factor, but not THE factor it may have been against another side
Argentina is playing with fire. The next game they go down will be their last in the tournament. Egypt had them. I get the calls sucked and not a huge fan of their second goal getting called back but if that is the rule... I just want the rules applied fairly. There is an argument that Argentina is getting the benefit of the doubt more than they should and I might not disagree. The non call at the end of the Cape Verde game really stood out to me. That was blatantly a foul. You know who gets that call? Yea you do, Argentina. And France. And Portugal. And Brazil. etc. I did see where what's his name, the South African former Daily Show host pointed out that VAR has gone against the small countries 9 out of 9 times so far. Doesn't make it the wrong call technically, but you know. I do think that they will run into trouble that they can't get out of and not be lifting the cup this year.
Yup. Maybe the VAR breaks and they can't bail them out? I still don't think they lift the cup. They may make it to the final but hopefully the future champ England knocks them out.
France got several yellow cards in their game against Paraguay. Paraguay didn't get one until after the game, and the dude put hands on the ref. From here: Morocco: Issa Diop, Achraf Hakimi, Redouane Halhal, Bilal El Khannouss, Azzedine Ounahi France: Michael Olise, Manu Kone, Bradley Barcola Spain: Ferran Torres Belgium: Brandon Mechele Norway: Antonio Nusa England: Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice, Marc Guehi, Nico O'Reilly Argentina: Gonzalo Montiel Switzerland: Granit Xhaka, Denis Zakaria, Miro Muheim The fact that Argentina has only received a single yelow card this tournament is absolutely laughable. Spain kinda makes sense, as well as Belgium. Norway a bit of a surprise. France and England have not been reffed with a light touch.
Thanks to xtomx: France-Morocco to be reffed by an all Argentinian crew, VAR as well. The winner will then play Argentina.
The Argentine ref crew has been very good. The PK was probably the wrong call, but probably right not to overturn the in field call. This game has so far been surprisingly low on harsh fouls.
I'm all in on Norway to win it. I did choose England in the poll, but Haaland is a statistical freak. He's scoring every 14 touches which is beyond absurd
Compare with the Harry Kane no PK call against Mexico. Mbappe could have avoided the contact if he kept playing the ball. Instead, he started his fall before any contact occurred, and dragged his foot to create the contact. I’d agree that it is a clever play the usually gets called. But this tournament they’ve clearly instructed the refs to “let them play,” Kane’s was not given, so it would be more consistent for this tournament to not have given it. But emphasis on “probably.”
I’ll be honest, I don’t remember Kane having a pk shout in the Mexico game. I’ll go back and find that
Also, I haven’t seen a ton of replays of the Mbappe pk call. There don’t seem to be many people saying it was not the right call. Maybe I should go look for more angles on the Mbappe call, but it seemed very similar to the Kane no call to me. Probably the big difference is that Kane wasn’t going to be able to get the ball if he played through the foul where Mbappe probably could/would have.
I think it was shortly after the red card. I thought there wasn't much in it and Kane tried his best to sell it.
I think Kanes was a pk. The goal swipes his ankle at least from one angle. I would like to see pks like Mbappes be called fewer times. He definitely going down way too easy.
Argentina is at least dangerous on the break aways? I'm reaching. Are we going to dive into the controversy here? Pun intended.
Rather convenient the first card Argentina gets in the knockouts happens to be “wrong” in a way that not only gets overturned, but gives them a man advantage Before this tournament I would defend var, warts and all, because I thought it was a net positive. Watching it move into re refereeing instead of fixing big errors has disappointed me. Paredes deserved to be on a card at that point. It’s ridiculous to remove that context from an individual play. Not to mention law 12 does not require contact: https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/fouls-and-misconduct/
Norway got kind of screwed as well. Englands first goal should've been called back because the ball hit the camera cable off the goalie kick. And later on pickford had his over his mouth talking to a Norwegian player. I normally think var does a good job but it's been kind of suspicious this tournament
I don't want VAR to be splitting hairs and needing slow motion to see it. It seems like VAR having a different angle to show the center ref led to a quick, correct call. There seems to be a general desire to get rid of dives, so what's wrong with giving it here when it's obvious? Plus, I don't understand why the threshold for a second yellow should be any different for the first. If you're on a yellow, don't do stuff that could likely result in another. This is a great example of needing something else to punish players. Is it the blue card where a player needs to sit for 10-15 minutes? He should be called for simulation. He shouldn't have missed the rest of the game and the next one for it.