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World Cup 2026 - USA/Canada/Mexico
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Just seen the other Egypt claim on Mac Allister. I'm not sure he even touches him. As much as I dislike Argentina and do think they, and Messi get an easy ride, the referee has got everything right that game. Egypt fell apart. Really poor for the third goal especially.8
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Its been pathetic from the Egyptian Manager, crying foul about two incredibly soft incidents that they tried to con the Referee / VAR out of - Rather than focus on the three moments of terrible defending that saw them surrender a 2-goal lead with 10-mins to play.The Red Robin said:Just seen the other Egypt claim on Mac Allister. Im
not sure he even touches him. As much as I dislike Argentina and do think they, and Messi get an easy ride, the referee has got everything right that game. Egypt fell apart. Really poor for the third goal especially.5 -
Argentina are definitely riding their luck in this tournament but i guess you could argue some luck is exactly what you need in order to go all the way.
A comeback for the ages, looked absolutely dead and buried and devoid of ideas with 12 minutes of normal time left, then somehow manage to turn it around. A win that would probably have to be in the top 4-5 world cup comebacks of all time.
I personally thought Messi was really poor up until then and his penalty was terrible, then out of nowhere he conjures up an assist and a goal and the game turns. He now has:
Most world cup goals ever
Most world cup assists ever
Scored in 9 consecutive world cup matches (the next best is 6).0 -
Well, there's the thing. The ref apparently saw nothing wrong with the incident which denied Egypt what would have been their second, and having looked at the limited replay, neither do I. It's incredibly soft. No way does that get given at The Valley, for either side.The Red Robin said:Just seen the other Egypt claim on Mac Allister. Im
not sure he even touches him. As much as I dislike Argentina and do think they, and Messi get an easy ride, the referee has got everything right that game. Egypt fell apart. Really poor for the third goal especially.
But we have VAR. People blame "VAR" for this and that, but let's remember it's just a set of video tools, it is used by humans, and humans make errors. Here's what I find a bit off. In the group stage, I thought the VAR backed system was working surprisingly well. It caught a fair few things I'd never have noticed, and more or less every decision made sense to me, but as we've moved into the knockout stages, suddenly we have more and more controversy. I don't think there's any pattern that feeds a decent conspiracy theory, but something in the way it operates isn't going right. My best guess is that, as we reached these latter stages and you've even got Trump involved, even those guys in the VAR room are feeling the pressure - and making some bad collective decisions as a result.4 -
It's a set of video tools to rectify clear and obvious errors ...PragueAddick said:
Well, there's the thing. The ref apparently saw nothing wrong with the incident which denied Egypt what would have been their second, and having looked at the limited replay, neither do I. It's incredibly soft. No way does that get given at The Valley, for either side.The Red Robin said:Just seen the other Egypt claim on Mac Allister. Im
not sure he even touches him. As much as I dislike Argentina and do think they, and Messi get an easy ride, the referee has got everything right that game. Egypt fell apart. Really poor for the third goal especially.
But we have VAR. People blame "VAR" for this and that, but let's remember it's just a set of video tools, it is used by humans, and humans make errors. Here's what I find a bit off. In the group stage, I thought the VAR backed system was working surprisingly well. It caught a fair few things I'd never have noticed, and more or less every decision made sense to me, but as we've moved into the knockout stages, suddenly we have more and more controversy. I don't think there's any pattern that feeds a decent conspiracy theory, but something in the way it operates isn't going right. My best guess is that, as we reached these latter stages and you've even got Trump involved, even those guys in the VAR room are feeling the pressure - and making some bad collective decisions as a result.
Was disallowing the 2nd goal rectifying a clear and obvious error? Was the penalty claim viewed with the same forensic scrutiny as the disallowed goal?
So much for VAR reducing talking points2 -
Ronaldo has only said this will be his last World Cup. Didn't rule out Euro2028.ForeverAddickted said:Can see Portugal being a proper threat at Euro 2028 and the next World Cup without Martinez or RonaldoUnless of course the latter decides wants to be their next Manager
Fully expect him to look to carry on playing for Portugal for now, especially while he's trying to reach 1000 goals.1 -
Yes, I agree, but the issue lies with the three human beings who are now conspicuously presented to TV viewers before the games start.cafc999 said:
It's a set of video tools to rectify clear and obvious errors ...PragueAddick said:
Well, there's the thing. The ref apparently saw nothing wrong with the incident which denied Egypt what would have been their second, and having looked at the limited replay, neither do I. It's incredibly soft. No way does that get given at The Valley, for either side.The Red Robin said:Just seen the other Egypt claim on Mac Allister. Im
not sure he even touches him. As much as I dislike Argentina and do think they, and Messi get an easy ride, the referee has got everything right that game. Egypt fell apart. Really poor for the third goal especially.
But we have VAR. People blame "VAR" for this and that, but let's remember it's just a set of video tools, it is used by humans, and humans make errors. Here's what I find a bit off. In the group stage, I thought the VAR backed system was working surprisingly well. It caught a fair few things I'd never have noticed, and more or less every decision made sense to me, but as we've moved into the knockout stages, suddenly we have more and more controversy. I don't think there's any pattern that feeds a decent conspiracy theory, but something in the way it operates isn't going right. My best guess is that, as we reached these latter stages and you've even got Trump involved, even those guys in the VAR room are feeling the pressure - and making some bad collective decisions as a result.
Was disallowing the 2nd goal rectifying a clear and obvious error? Was the penalty claim viewed with the same forensic scrutiny as the disallowed goal?
So much for VAR reducing talking points
On things like offside, it has generally worked very well, albeit the offside law itself can make the calls look very harsh sometimes. When you have contact fouls, then you have human judgment, and it seems that even with the time and the specialized tools that the on-field ref doesn't have, they are still collectively making some puzzling judgments.
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This is my issue. These three are not meant to be re-refereeing the match, they are meant to be assistants. For me, it should be for the ref to ask for their assistance and not the other way around, like they do in rugby.PragueAddick said:
Yes, I agree, but the issue lies with the three human beings who are now conspicuously presented to TV viewers before the games start.cafc999 said:
It's a set of video tools to rectify clear and obvious errors ...PragueAddick said:
Well, there's the thing. The ref apparently saw nothing wrong with the incident which denied Egypt what would have been their second, and having looked at the limited replay, neither do I. It's incredibly soft. No way does that get given at The Valley, for either side.The Red Robin said:Just seen the other Egypt claim on Mac Allister. Im
not sure he even touches him. As much as I dislike Argentina and do think they, and Messi get an easy ride, the referee has got everything right that game. Egypt fell apart. Really poor for the third goal especially.
But we have VAR. People blame "VAR" for this and that, but let's remember it's just a set of video tools, it is used by humans, and humans make errors. Here's what I find a bit off. In the group stage, I thought the VAR backed system was working surprisingly well. It caught a fair few things I'd never have noticed, and more or less every decision made sense to me, but as we've moved into the knockout stages, suddenly we have more and more controversy. I don't think there's any pattern that feeds a decent conspiracy theory, but something in the way it operates isn't going right. My best guess is that, as we reached these latter stages and you've even got Trump involved, even those guys in the VAR room are feeling the pressure - and making some bad collective decisions as a result.
Was disallowing the 2nd goal rectifying a clear and obvious error? Was the penalty claim viewed with the same forensic scrutiny as the disallowed goal?
So much for VAR reducing talking points
On things like offside, it has generally worked very well, albeit the offside law itself can make the calls look very harsh sometimes. When you have contact fouls, then you have human judgment, and it seems that even with the time and the specialized tools that the on-field ref doesn't have, they are still collectively making some puzzling judgments.
By doing it the current way it's still very subjective, only more accurate2 -
The problem is the unofficial rule that fouls in the penalty box need to be stronger to be given, than anywhere else on the pitch. That slight nudge on the half way line is given as a foul, whereas you wouldn't award a penalty for it if the same offence was in the box, or else you'd have 10 penalties a game.
There were 2 very minor fouls on Egyptian players before the 3rd goal. If they had been done elsewhere on the pitch they might have been given, but no way were the 2 enough to give a penalty.
The ideal scenario would have been to disallow the 3rd goal, but also not award a penalty, but that's not allowed!2 -
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Well there has to be better penalty takers in the Argentina team. Messi is 4 out of 8 in the World Cup now. Surely he has to stop taking them as this has become a major weakness.0
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I get what you are saying, but it's wrong. Foul play is foul paly and the threshold for awarding a free kick should be the same anywhere on the pitch. Maybe the solution is to up the threshold everywhere so that minor contact doesn't result in a free kick. We see it all the time with some refs - 'he's let a lot go' is often the comment but maybe that's how it should be.killerandflash said:The problem is the unofficial rule that fouls in the penalty box need to be stronger to be given, than anywhere else on the pitch. That slight nudge on the half way line is given as a foul, whereas you wouldn't award a penalty for it if the same offence was in the box, or else you'd have 10 penalties a game.
There were 2 very minor fouls on Egyptian players before the 3rd goal. If they had been done elsewhere on the pitch they might have been given, but no way were the 2 enough to give a penalty.
The ideal scenario would have been to disallow the 3rd goal, but also not award a penalty, but that's not allowed!
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Nah, let him carry on taking them.MuttleyCAFC said:Well there has to be better penalty takers in the Argentina team. Messi is 4 out of 8 in the World Cup now. Surely he has to stop taking them as this has become a major weakness.6 -
The whole "you can't be giving that as a foul otherwise we'd be having 10 penalties a game" argument is daft as even footballers, thick as mince as most of them are, would soon realise that they need to stop doing what they're doing - be it holding at corners/free kicks, little nudges in the back etc - otherwise there's a bloody good chance their team will lose as a result.
The main problem is the lack of consistency between referees from one match to the next or even within a game from the same ref as some appear to have a tendency to view teams in a better light than others.6 -
So the top 4 teams in the world are all in the quarter finals.
France, Spain, Argies and England.
I reckon it is too obvious to say they are the semi finalists. One will fall.
Who will it be?1 -
ArgentinaDamoNorthStand said:So the top 4 teams in the world are all in the quarter finals.
France, Spain, Argies and England.
I reckon it is too obvious to say they are the semi finalists. One will fall.
Who will it be?4 -
Egypt can complain about refereeing decisions but they let their shape fall apart for that last 10 minutes, the manager made some odd substitutions, and they stopped tracking back. Look at the running for the third goal... They've got three players jogging back and somehow Argentina end up with a 2 v 1 in the box because one of their players runs past all of them.
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A foul is a foul the same as offside is offside whether it's 1m or 1mm?Briston_Addick said:The whole "you can't be giving that as a foul otherwise we'd be having 10 penalties a game" argument is daft as even footballers, thick as mince as most of them are, would soon realise that they need to stop doing what they're doing - be it holding at corners/free kicks, little nudges in the back etc - otherwise there's a bloody good chance their team will lose as a result.
The main problem is the lack of consistency between referees from one match to the next or even within a game from the same ref as some appear to have a tendency to view teams in a better light than others.
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As per the bookies, ours is the closest oddsDamoNorthStand said:So the top 4 teams in the world are all in the quarter finals.
France, Spain, Argies and England.
I reckon it is too obvious to say they are the semi finalists. One will fall.
Who will it be?0 -
Michael Oliver has been appointed to the Spain v Belgium quarter final.2
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All four are odds on to win in 90 minutes. I think that’s probably harsh on Norway in particular. England should edge it but I don’t know about being odds on to win in 90 minutes.MrOneLung said:
As per the bookies, ours is the closest oddsDamoNorthStand said:So the top 4 teams in the world are all in the quarter finals.
France, Spain, Argies and England.
I reckon it is too obvious to say they are the semi finalists. One will fall.
Who will it be?0 -
Unlikely to be allowed to ref the final either, he can’t ref England or Argentina gamesCallumcafc said:Michael Oliver has been appointed to the Spain v Belgium quarter final.0 -
What is pathetic is FIFA. The reinstatement of Balogen has now led to a complete loss of faith in the integrity of the competition. Yesterday's match would have caused complaints but now it results in uproar. FIFA will be receiving shit from all federations about every little decision that could be but probably isn’t corrupt, and they've brought it upon themselves.ForeverAddickted said:
Its been pathetic from the Egyptian Manager, crying foul about two incredibly soft incidents that they tried to con the Referee / VAR out of - Rather than focus on the three moments of terrible defending that saw them surrender a 2-goal lead with 10-mins to play.The Red Robin said:Just seen the other Egypt claim on Mac Allister. Im
not sure he even touches him. As much as I dislike Argentina and do think they, and Messi get an easy ride, the referee has got everything right that game. Egypt fell apart. Really poor for the third goal especially.3 -
Quite possibly the same ’daft’ people who are for penalty shoot outs.Briston_Addick said:The whole "you can't be giving that as a foul otherwise we'd be having 10 penalties a game" argument is daft as even footballers, thick as mince as most of them are, would soon realise that they need to stop doing what they're doing - be it holding at corners/free kicks, little nudges in the back etc - otherwise there's a bloody good chance their team will lose as a result.
The main problem is the lack of consistency between referees from one match to the next or even within a game from the same ref as some appear to have a tendency to view teams in a better light than others.0 -
Norway and Morocco are the toughest games - but France have been better than us so far so should see off Morocco.DamoNorthStand said:So the top 4 teams in the world are all in the quarter finals.
France, Spain, Argies and England.
I reckon it is too obvious to say they are the semi finalists. One will fall.
Who will it be?
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all 5 match officials in the France v Morocco quarter final are apparently from Argentina0
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yeah, it is the worst method of deciding a winner, apart from every other one that is suggestedjimmymelrose said:
Quite possibly the same ’daft’ people who are for penalty shoot outs.Briston_Addick said:The whole "you can't be giving that as a foul otherwise we'd be having 10 penalties a game" argument is daft as even footballers, thick as mince as most of them are, would soon realise that they need to stop doing what they're doing - be it holding at corners/free kicks, little nudges in the back etc - otherwise there's a bloody good chance their team will lose as a result.
The main problem is the lack of consistency between referees from one match to the next or even within a game from the same ref as some appear to have a tendency to view teams in a better light than others.0 -
Why can't he ref an Argentina game?fenaddick said:
Unlikely to be allowed to ref the final either, he can’t ref England or Argentina gamesCallumcafc said:Michael Oliver has been appointed to the Spain v Belgium quarter final.0 -
It seems mad but because of the Falklands warChris_from_Sidcup said:
Why can't he ref an Argentina game?fenaddick said:
Unlikely to be allowed to ref the final either, he can’t ref England or Argentina gamesCallumcafc said:Michael Oliver has been appointed to the Spain v Belgium quarter final.6 -
Yeah I had never heard that either, apparently it’s due to sensitivities over the Falklands which seems insane.Chris_from_Sidcup said:
Why can't he ref an Argentina game?fenaddick said:
Unlikely to be allowed to ref the final either, he can’t ref England or Argentina gamesCallumcafc said:Michael Oliver has been appointed to the Spain v Belgium quarter final.1
