OT: Soccer World Cup 2018 with spoilers - Page 18

martl · #**256** 06-20-2018, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by echappist

love that word in relation to description of football teams

also, who knows how many Tunisian players were fasting...

Have we mentioned yet the egyptian player who refused the POM award because it was sponsored by a beer company? So we have at least one muslim player at the WC who takes his faith literally (though i believe some scholars allow Ramadan exceptions for athletes).

MattTuck · #**257** 06-20-2018, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by martl

Have we mentioned yet the egyptian player who refused the POM award because it was sponsored by a beer company? So we have at least one muslim player at the WC who takes his faith literally (though i believe some scholars allow Ramadan exceptions for athletes).

You mean celebrities?

martl · #**258** 06-20-2018, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattTuck

You mean celebrities?

German football federation actually have an article on their website about it. The "central council of muslims" in Germany had the issue relayed to the Al-Azhar, which confirmed that pro sportspeople are considered equivalent to people who do hard manual labor and thus are allowed to shift their feasting to a time when there are no competitions.

wc1934 · #**259** 06-20-2018, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL!!!!!

ok, Ronaldo saved us again. What a great goal by him, again... but we played like crap. Morocco really wanted, great possession of the ball, great speed, great perseverance but they lack a good finisher.

Sorry Morocco (my second country), you are out but played both games better than your adversaries.

As they said - wonder how much the Spain match took out of them, as they did win ugly.

R3awak3n · #**260** 06-20-2018, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wc1934

As they said - wonder how much the Spain match took out of them, as they did win ugly.

I wouldn't say ugly per say, just terrible play. Morocco was fouling way more. Ref robbed them of a PK but also robbed Ronaldo a PK and as I said, Morocco just could not finish, they barely had any real chance of scoring.

I do think Spain took it out of them for sure, that was a tough game and I actually thought Portugal played well agains Spain. Now bring on Iran

echappist · #**261** 06-20-2018, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wc1934

Is the B Sample yellow? -
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/s...an-doping.html

it better be, if they are serving a whiskey sour or sidecar

i say we let it mellow?

cadence90 · #**262** 06-20-2018, 01:10 PM

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R3awak3n · #**263** 06-20-2018, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadence90

Ugly or terrible, if I were a POR fan I would be a bit worried now. This group is not that difficult, and while they did play well against ESP, after two games POR feel very disjointed to me. One could argue that MOR deserved a tie today. There are no excuses at this stage. Either they play better or they won't move on (after getting out of the group).

But, many teams are odd in the group stage and then consolidate positively. It may be that POR is simply playing only equal to/down to the level of their competition at this point. If so they are obviously going to have to fix that, by a lot, in the next phase.
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there are no excuses, Portugal played poorly but yall gotta give it to Morocco, they wanted it and they did very well. At the same time, they did not have that many real chances to score. Now, if we were playing Spain today, we would have not been able to win, or even draw.

Next game is Iran. Hope we can play better and we can take that.

cadence90 · #**264** 06-20-2018, 01:31 PM

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R3awak3n · #**265** 06-20-2018, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadence90

Yes, that's why I'm saying. MOR should have tied, and they aren't that strong really.

POR need to become much more consistent and compact over 90 minutes. I suspect that Iran will not be enough of a test for them to really achieve that. It could even lead to over-confidence on POR's part, which I think they could easily fall into as a team.

But, I definitely would like to see POR go far.

Damn, Iniesta is a hard-working man today, even more than usual maybe. I love that guy. He will be missed.
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MVP on the game was Rui Patricio. If Portugal goes through they play either Russia or Uruguay. I think Russia stinks but URU is good.

Looks like Portugal also tired Spain because they are not able to break through Iran

cadence90 · #**266** 06-20-2018, 02:01 PM

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R3awak3n · #**267** 06-20-2018, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cadence90

Yes, ESP look super flat-footed. Maybe they will wake in the 2nd.

URU and RUS are miles apart, like you say. RUS are pretenders, but I still think URU can be a legitimate contender. I think they haven't really broken a sweat yet.
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100% with you URU has a good team. RUS will get destroyed when they have a real adversary in front of them (so probably next game against URU).

Damn, Iran almost drew there. Well, good for Spain. They now have Morocco but they are out so Por has a much harder game ahead of them

echappist · #**268** 06-20-2018, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

100% with you URU has a good team. RUS will get destroyed when they have a real adversary in front of them (so probably next game against URU).

Damn, Iran almost drew there. Well, good for Spain. They now have Morocco but they are out so Por has a much harder game ahead of them

indeed; that Iranian team looked spirited. An off-side goal and an effort denied by the crossbar. That was such a close match. I think they may give Portugal a handful

R3awak3n · #**269** 06-20-2018, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by echappist

indeed; that Iranian team looked spirited. An off-side goal and an effort denied by the crossbar. That was such a close match. I think they may give Portugal a handful

I think they will since they need the win. That said so does Portugal so I predict the team will be playing differently.

I actually like Iran since their coach is also Portuguese

echappist · #**270** 06-20-2018, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

I think they will since they need the win. That said so does Portugal so I predict the team will be playing differently.

I actually like Iran since their coach is also Portuguese

Portugal just need to tie, as they'll advance by virtue of more goals scored. To a certain extent, the Iran Spain game had no effect on Iran, as they would have had to beat Portugal if Iran didn't win or tie by scoring 3 goals. Spain has never going to lose, and Iran was never going to score that many goals, so a 1-1 tie has the same effect as losing 1-0