FIFA World Cup 2022

[Colly]

I saw one player but he didn't seem involved. Ah, next one along who was only just off. To be honest I thought the foul was soft as hell.

Fucking hell Jenas is dense. I wish he'd stick to the One Show. It's almost as if there's subjectivity in offside decisions in regard to interfering with play or a deliberate play from a defender that requires the ref to check the screen. Fuckwit.

[Baddar]

It's just annoying how a former player can't understand that the ref isn't being called to the screen to be asked "this looks offside to me and the tech is telling me it is, but can you just confirm?". Fucking hell.

[Colly]

The problem is that "former player" doesn't necessarily equate to a) clever or b) understanding the rules. I really hope it isn't Danny Murphy on the half time analysis.

It doesn't help either that the way they've tried to fix the issue is by putting Peter Walton on TV, who just backs any terrible decision a ref makes and inexplicably still doesn't explain it properly.

[Baddar]

I can't remember which penalty it was, but he actually disagreed with one of the softer awards the other night. I was shocked.

Edit: I do now. The one where the ball hit the sliding players arm in the Portugal-Uruguay game.

[Adam]

3 minutes ago, Baddar said:

I can't remember which penalty it was, but he actually disagreed with one of the softer awards the other night. I was shocked.

Edit: I do now. The one where the ball hit the sliding players arm in the Portugal-Uruguay game.

He still made an excuse for the referee on the basis of "subjectivity" in the wording of the law. He's utterly redundant.

[Krabby]

How much do those 2 Morocco goals make Croatia and Belgium sweat?

[Colly]

2 minutes ago, Adam said:

He still made an excuse for the referee on the basis of "subjectivity" in the wording of the law. He's utterly redundant.

Exactly. He disagreed with it, but didn't reference the absolute in the rules that if it hits your supporting arm it's not handball. See the Dale Johnson tweet I posted the other day where he even showed the photo from IFAB.

[METALMAN]

35 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

Sixteen European nations will qualify for the next World Cup, compared with thirteen now. It will only be slightly easier for European teams to get to the World Cup.

Contrast that with CONCACAF, which will have six automatic qualifiers, up from three, and AFC, which will have eight automatic qualifiers, up from four. I think one of the big goals of the new format is to ensure that teams with massive potential markets, such as USA and China, are either more likely or more or less guaranteed to qualify. 

Without wanting to be a snob about it, it does very much tilt the balance in favour of non-European nations that probably wouldn't have much hope of qualifying in the European section.

Three teams from CONCACAF is already too generous.

[Gorka]

Based on the current FIFA rankings, this is what a 48 team World Cup could look like (besides the IC play-offs)

UEFA: Belgium, France, England, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Wales, Serbia, Sweden, Poland, Ukraine

CAF: Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, Ivory Coast

AFC: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE

CONCAF (in addition to USA, Mexico, Canada): Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica 

CONMEBOL: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Chile

OFC: New Zealand

[Baddar]

Is he still employed by a referees body or does he have no reason not to just call out bad decisions?

Feels like his BT/ITV job is to tell us how the ref came to the conclusion rather than whether it's right or wrong.

[Szumi]

6 hours ago, Hobo said:

FIFA                  early seasons of MLS

            🤝

needless penalty shootouts

Yeah but MLS had the awesome 35 yards out and dribble penalty shootouts. They were so much more fun!

[Adam]

No offence to the Cymru fans here, but this UK media slant that Wales did somehow well or had a noble run is starting to really grate on me. They were awful in every game pretty much, truly disappointing.

I think it actually insults Wales as well because they could have done so much better here. It's not a prize just to get to the finals.

[Colly]

In fairness it is fairly impressive just to qualify, but you're right. After the USA game had they performed better and got something against Iran you can maybe see them as noble underdogs, but losing in that fashion against the actual underdogs isn't a good tournament.

[Chris2K]

29 minutes ago, Gorka said:

Based on the current FIFA rankings, this is what a 48 team World Cup could look like (besides the IC play-offs)

UEFA: Belgium, France, England, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Wales, Serbia, Sweden, Poland, Ukraine

CAF: Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, Ivory Coast

AFC: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE

CONCAF (in addition to USA, Mexico, Canada): Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica 

CONMEBOL: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Chile

OFC: New Zealand

You might be asking too much of us there. 

Meanwhile, welcome to football in 2022.

 

[Adam]

6 minutes ago, Colly said:

In fairness it is fairly impressive just to qualify, but you're right. After the USA game had they performed better and got something against Iran you can maybe see them as noble underdogs, but losing in that fashion against the actual underdogs isn't a good tournament.

Aye, and I'd understand it more if we hadn't seen this same team at any tournament in generations, but many of these players got to the Euro 2016 semi-finals and out of the group at Euro 2020.

When the Bale era team have already proven they're top 4 in Europe, it isn't a feat to make up the numbers at a 32-team World Cup.

[Krabby]

Belgium really needs to punch one in if they want to advance

[Pogue Mahone]

24 minutes ago, Adam said:

No offence to the Cymru fans here, but this UK media slant that Wales did somehow well or had a noble run is starting to really grate on me. They were awful in every game pretty much, truly disappointing.

I think it actually insults Wales as well because they could have done so much better here. It's not a prize just to get to the finals.

Thought the same thing at half time - "Theyve earnt repect!" I think people respected us more before the tournament tbh.

Like I said before - Its a miracle we got to the WC and I wasnt hugely optimistic about getting out of the groups. But the way we performed was below everyones expectactions really.

[Gorka]

9 minutes ago, Pogue Mahone said:

Thought the same thing at half time - "Theyve earnt repect!" I think people respected us more before the tournament tbh.

Like I said before - Its a miracle we got to the WC and I wasnt hugely optimistic about getting out of the groups. But the way we performed was below everyones expectactions really.

Yep, saved our worst three performances of the last few years for the world stage.

There's certainly a disconnect in pundits and Page going on about how we're happy to be here - and the frustration of fans when League 2 players were called up for dressing room vibes and one solid 45 minutes was returned across the entire campaign.

[Adam]

Does Lukaku want to go home early? He could have had an easy hat trick here.

[Colly]

Jenas gets worse. "He's not expecting that". He's made a back post run and made a hash of it.