The (Un) Official Football thread

[Gandalf the Red]

I'll just leave this here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXg_Z6pQ4zY

[Black Wizard]

Very good!

[Gandalf the Red]

Nothing to do with me as I don't support England or Tottingham.

[houston4044]

Having a lot of Polish co-workers made for an interesting watch today

Are you a plumber?

I'll just leave this here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXg_Z6pQ4zY

Brilliant

Argentina..wow

[bloodofthekings]

I thought about posting something along the lines of 'Don't cry for me Argentina' but after seeing the wonderful footage of Maradona bawling his eyes out, that fat cunt can cry me a river all night long

[houston4044]

I thought about posting something along the lines of 'Don't cry for me Argentina' but after seeing the wonderful footage of Maradona bawling his eyes out, that fat cunt can cry me a river all night long

Not in that image but the first two times they panned over to him during the match I thought it was Craig Charles

I'm still shocked by the Argentine manager coming out and saying "The reality of the Argentina squad clouds Lionel Messi's brillance". Seriously? The firepower he has upfront and he labels them a one man team. I know the media and pundits will say it as it's an easy way to get fan's attention but that's such a slap in the face of the rest of the team. No wonder they're going to hell in a handcart

[Black Wizard]

It looks like Maradona is impersonating a Chinese person. Racist bastard.

[kanet666]

I thought about posting something along the lines of 'Don't cry for me Argentina' but after seeing the wonderful footage of Maradona bawling his eyes out, that fat cunt can cry me a river all night long

Not in that image but the first two times they panned over to him during the match I thought it was Craig Charles

I'm still shocked by the Argentine manager coming out and saying "The reality of the Argentina squad clouds Lionel Messi's brillance". Seriously? The firepower he has upfront and he labels them a one man team. I know the media and pundits will say it as it's an easy way to get fan's attention but that's such a slap in the face of the rest of the team. No wonder they're going to hell in a handcart

To be honest the problem I saw in the Argentina team is that they expect Messi to do too much. If you watch Portugal the other 10 work around Ronaldo, they run with him, they give options and they give him the ball in positions where he can finish.

Every time Argentina got the ball, Messi had to drop to the halfway line to receive it, and then every other Argentina player stood completely still - almost every single time. This made them easy to mark and forced Messi to try and do everything himself.

They aren't a one man team due to the players ability, but because of the players' effort.

[houston4044]

To be honest the problem I saw in the Argentina team is that they expect Messi to do too much. If you watch Portugal the other 10 work around Ronaldo, they run with him, they give options and they give him the ball in positions where he can finish.

Every time Argentina got the ball, Messi had to drop to the halfway line to receive it, and then every other Argentina player stood completely still - almost every single time. This made them easy to mark and forced Messi to try and do everything himself.

They aren't a one man team due to the players ability, but because of the players' effort.

Pretty much spot, I'd say the other difference between Portugal and Argentina is the fact that Argentina still have other players who can turn a game with the right support. If they fed Aguero and Higuian and gave them support in the box they could be scoring goals galore, yet the manager is seemingly just telling them to do everything through Messi.

To add to the earlier VAR conversation, one of the things highlighted in the Iran/Portugal game is that it leaves the refs really exposed at the moment. Without VAR once the ref rules on it, it's mostly shrugged off (unless it's a howler) but now they're hounded on all fronts. The ref had a poor game anyway but wasn't helped by the stoppages (or by the general dirtiness of the match either).

[bloodofthekings]

VAR cam work if the ref sticks to his convictions and tells gobby players to fuck off or they risk being booked. The problem last night was the ref was just giving in to the pressure of players being whiney bitches

[Black Wizard]

More than 70 years on and the Germans still can't conquer Russia. Shame the match wasn't at Volgograd.

Germany played like England and England are playing like Germany. Whatever will happen next?

[houston4044]

It was a good group stage overall I thought, some good games (with a few great games mixed in) and some pleasant surprises throughout. Think Senegal and Nigeria are unlucky to have gone out but hey, that's sport for you. Hopefully some of the big matches will see teams go out to win the game rather than avoid losing (i.e. overly defensively).

[houston4044]

Some great games and surprise results so far, France v Argentina

[kurrupo]

Loving this world cup so far. So many good games and it's even more interesting now a load of the big teams are out. I have a bad feeling about the game tomorrow night though, Colombia are a very good side and are very dangerous on the counter. Not sure I'm 100% confident that our defense can deal with them

[Haldamir319]

Cracking game between Belgium and Japan. Both team fearlessly attacking, not too much in the way of histrionics either.

Can we also all take a moment to mourn Neymar's face... Fellaini (and his elbows!) await!