England tonight......

Reads 3155 • Replies 68 • Started Thursday, June 19, 2014 11:16:54 AM CT

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Message harrisoni P beers 25356 º places 68 º 02:03 Sun 7/6/2014 Originally posted by harrisoni Quarterfinals could be Brazil vs Columbia, Netherlands vs Italy, France vs Germany and Argentina vs Belgium. I’d watch all of those. Wow look at my predictions for the quarterfinals back on 20 June. 7 out of the 8 teams I got right. Cool
Message Leighton P beers 33700 º places 1204 º 02:45 Sun 7/6/2014 Originally posted by madmitch76 Is it me or have the referee’s favoured the big sides in the quarters? Thought Columbia were very hard done by the ref last night. I blame him for Neymar’s injury and elimination. Brazil’s least.dirty player was on the receiving end of Columbian frustration at not receiving any.decisions from the ref. Tonight the Costa Rican’s had a stonewall penalty denied. Mmmm. Good decision by van Gaal to swap.goalkeepers tonight though. First time I’ve seen it done although I remember screaming at the tv in the 1990 semi extra time in the hope that Robson would sub the ageing Shilton with proven penalty saver Beasant. There you go, if only they would listen to me, we would have a much better record over the last 30+ years! :p I agree about the Brazil-Colombia match. The ugliness of the fouls kept escalating as the ref ’let them play’. I wasn’t surprised that someone was eventually injured for real.
Message chriso P beers 7540 º places 736 º 03:55 Sun 7/6/2014 Originally posted by Leighton The ugliness of the fouls kept escalating as the ref ’let them play’. I wasn’t surprised that someone was eventually injured for real. Yes it did seem to be quite ugly in places. But, let’s face it, there’s some element of physical contact in every player to player interaction. If you tried to exclude pushing, shoving, tugging, holding, obstruction and general jostling at free kicks and corners, you’d never actually get one taken. And a lot of the players seemed to be going down like a sack of potatoes every time they lost the ball. Many tackles that have the look of being reckless are accompanied by an extra dose of histrionics in the hope of "winning" a booking, even when a close examination reveals that contact was minimal, or entirely absent. It’s not easy for the refs to keep a firm grip and keep the game flowing. I don’t know what the answer is.

Message Leighton P beers 33700 º places 1204 º 04:22 Sun 7/6/2014 Originally posted by chriso Originally posted by Leighton The ugliness of the fouls kept escalating as the ref ’let them play’. I wasn’t surprised that someone was eventually injured for real. Yes it did seem to be quite ugly in places. But, let’s face it, there’s some element of physical contact in every player to player interaction. If you tried to exclude pushing, shoving, tugging, holding, obstruction and general jostling at free kicks and corners, you’d never actually get one taken. And a lot of the players seemed to be going down like a sack of potatoes every time they lost the ball. Many tackles that have the look of being reckless are accompanied by an extra dose of histrionics in the hope of "winning" a booking, even when a close examination reveals that contact was minimal, or entirely absent. It’s not easy for the refs to keep a firm grip and keep the game flowing. I don’t know what the answer is. I agree, Chris, but this game was exceptional. Taken from the Telegraph, regarding the Colombia-Brazil match: "There were 54 fouls in total, more than in any other game at this World Cup, 31 of them committed by Brazil. Tactical fouling, rotating the offender so as to avoid cards, has been a pattern of Brazil’s play throughout the tournament: the game with the second most fouls was their penalty shoot-out victory over Chile in the last 16, when the hosts committed 28 of 51 fouls." And this paragraph only refers to the fouls that were CALLED. The way FIFA selects referees is pretty garbage, it seems, so I will partially agree that, sure, some of these inexperienced refs might have trouble handling a high-profile match. But an experienced ref should be able to keep a game from getting out of hand. And I also agree about the diving. I hate diving. Isn’t diving a card-able offence? I haven’t seen a single card given for a dive yet this World Cup - but there’s certainly been plenty of diving. Maybe if a ref carded a player for a dive once in a while we wouldn’t see so much of it. But of course some of the tournament’s biggest stars are the most flagrant divers, so that opens up a huge can of worms.
Message madmitch76 P beers 36870 º places 240 º 05:24 Sun 7/6/2014 You have to admire Robben though - he has turned diving in to an art form. Almost balletic!
Message Theydon_Bois P admin beers 40415 º places 1239 º 05:27 Sun 7/6/2014 Originally posted by madmitch76 You have to admire Robben though - he has turned diving in to an art form. Almost balletic! Someone had a word - he was not himself in this repsect last night. What I did admire about Robben yesterday was his energy at 105-120 minutes, amazing, and he’s no spring chicken either!
Message Leighton P beers 33700 º places 1204 º 05:53 Sun 7/6/2014 Robben’s stage debut: http://i.imgur.com/KMec5Hz.jpg?1

Message madmitch76 P beers 36870 º places 240 º 06:17 Sun 7/6/2014 That’s a great pic! So one semi is a repeat of the 2002 final and another the 1978 final. A Brazil Argentina final would be a feisty and interesting affair, although I still hope Holland do it, van Persie will need to find his scoring feet again though ....