OT: Soccer World Cup 2018 with spoilers

[galgal]

Amazing. Of the top 4 teams, only 1 won their opening game - barely.

[R3awak3n]

Originally Posted by cadence90

How so, "the first of the non-winning teams"?

Before ITA won the WC their first time, ITA had never won the WC either.
So, for POR to equal ITA, POR would have to win this time...and then THREE more times again*!
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*
The way ITA has been lately, I better shut up, because this could happen.





No kidding. There are glimmers here and there, but for many years there has not been that free, incessant, consistent, 90+ minute flowing beauty. Too bad.
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well my friend, Portugal better be preparing a new Ronaldo or 2 if they want to match Italy in WCs.

[beeatnik]

[cadence90]

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[cadence90]

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[beeatnik]

^It's been a good Fathers' Day

[galgal]

Originally Posted by beeatnik

^It's been a good Fathers' Day

Mexico was terrific. Congrats. Have another
Now Sweden needs to put Germany out

[R3awak3n]

Originally Posted by cadence90

Well, he has some CRfilhos e CRfilhas, so you can have some WChope!

This is so oddly depressing: only now, with the first weekend finished, has it really hit me that ITA are not in this. It is more painful than I thought.

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I am working with an Italian guy, he does not look happy when everyone is talking wc

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by 72gmc

My wife is still making fun of me for talking to the TV when Mexico did nothing with that 2 on 1 chance at about the 70th minute.

I’m not against Germany but I’m glad the underdog won. Ochoa earned it.

She is lucky that you only talk to your tv - I yell at mine.
The games have been great so far. I did not think that I would enjoy them as much since I don't have a dog in the fight.
But, the Iceland, Mexico and Portugal games had me on the edge of my seat.
And there is much more to come - it is indeed "the beautiful game".

[cadence90]

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[echappist]

Originally Posted by cadence90

It will be their Achilles heel again. They should be up 4-1, 5-1, with no problems.
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What was Neymar doing, collecting the ball 40 yards away from goal? So he can try to dribble past Switzerland?

Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs

Well looks like Mexico did build a wall after all ...

[cadence90]

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[martl]

Originally Posted by cadence90

T

• Moreno has been generally considered one the worst, if not THE worst, WC referees ever.

No idea about the match in question, but i doubt this point very, very much.

WCs history has a plethora of comical refereeing, starting in 1930 (Gilberto Leonel de Almeida Rego - he ended the Arg-Fra match 6min early, just in the very second a french player was about to score the equalizer; in the HF URU-YUG he disallowed a regular YUG goal, but allowed one for URU where the ball had been out and kicked back in by a policeman before - YUG had eliminated his BRA team earlier).
Also, the accusations of refereeing in favor of the WC home team is as old as the tournament itself; afaik, there has never been proof in form of a late confession or the like.
I'm not saying i think it impossible; even in modern times, countries like GER or ITA had their refereeing scandals and the fact no such thing is known about other top leagues like ESP or UK doesn't automatically mean it didn't happen, it could also mean no one is looking very closely. Its about money and fame, sometimes even politics, and people will cheat for that.

Before the WC system was changed to its current state, there were referees from very minor leagues without any pro experience used, and those were the ones refereeing in the kickout phase because refs from countries still in the tournament had to be sent home.
At some point, there were mixed refereeing teams who couldn't even talk to each other for language reasons (see Wembley 1966).

So, Moreno may not have been a stellar example, but he is far from being the only candidate for that title.

[vav]

Originally Posted by galgal

Amazing. Of the top 4 teams, only 1 won their opening game - barely.

Do tell. Go Mexico

[echappist]

Originally Posted by cadence90

And...they got GER to pay for it, on top of it all!

alright, admit it, where did you see it first?

granted, it's a great joke. The one I saw reads: Chancellor Merkel phoned President Trump that she's found his fabled Mexican Wall in Russia, but Germany had to pay for it.

What a game by Memo Ochoa. To think, dude was barely getting by in la Liga, seeing his team relegated in the 2016-17 season.

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And Panama continues its fine Concacaf bush league tactics at the World Cup finals, only to find that refs this level has no patience for it and have booked them five times over in 60 minutes