Football wins at last

Probably the best game of the tournament so far when considering the above. Nice to see two teams generally just "getting on with it"
 
No embarrassing dives from Maguire and Lingard today, they seem to have got the cheating out of their system in the Colombia match
 
I said exactly that to my son watching last night.

There were no bad fouls, no tantrums, no diving (even minor), no mass surroundings of the ref. Basically no one cheating. It was like watching a good solid game from yesteryear (not that they didn't do any of those things then. Just much less of it).

Is it anything to do with the fact there are no South American/Latino teams around now? Or am I drawing a long bow there? Seems to me games with those teams involved had a lot more of it from both sides (the other team retaliating in kind).

Oh God. Hope I'm not turning into a football-culture racist???
 
Well Keefy, you are either right or it's an amazing coincidence.

On some occasions players were fouled, eg Trippier had his foot trodden on (genuinely painful I expect) but they didn't feel the need to go into spasm and multiple rolls.

Such a refreshing spectacle. Tuesday's theatrics had put my wife off watching and I told her she wouldn't see that rubbish on Saturday. How right I was.
 
The South Americans are too theatrical, but English players were cheating too - both Lingard and Maguire did blatant dives when they were untouched against Colombia, and Jamie Vardy is the absolute master of the penalty dive that Neymar attempted, where he stuck his leg out into the defender. Michael Owen was another great diver (as opposed to Neymar who is a bad one).
 
In my yoof I associated play acting with Italian teams not our brave British boys. The premiership has normalised the practice
( over simplification and bias on my part I'm sure)
It was a pleasure to watch 2 teams giving it their best with few stoppages allowing the game to naturally ebb and flow. Restored a bit of faith
 
Do you know what Gills58, I said exactly the same thing at full time.

OK it wasn't the most flowing football we've seen in our lives, but it was played in a good spirit by both teams without the common place histrionics.

A refreshing change in my opinion.
 
ThreeSixes said:
Jamie Vardy is the absolute master of the penalty dive that Neymar attempted, where he stuck his leg out into the defender.
Click to expand...

I am beginning to come around to the idea of VAR being a good idea for precisely what you describe, Three sixes.

Hopefully, the video referee will be able to distinguish when strikers put their legs across the defender rather than the other way round and start booking them. It has been clear on a few replays during this World Cup and needs to be stamped out.

Neymar may not have won the Golden Boot but he is clear winner of the Golden Roll.
 
Within a few years var will become the norm on adjudication of such things. It should severely limit diving.
 
It could easily have eliminated diving etc in this world cup; all you need is for the ref and assistants to punish it on the spot. You don't need VAR for that.
 
Also the referee in our match was so much better than the woeful USA one against Colombia who totally lost control.
 
Agree that VAR 'could' eliminate the diving.

But in the instances I've seen, the VAR guys seem to also think (like the ref and commentators) that any contact whatsoever means a penalty.

I'm not sure they even think about leg-to-defender or defender-to-leg. Any contact, that's it - penalty (or at least no reversal).

Fair play to the ref of yesterdays game. There were a few robust challenges that went in both ways that he just let play on. "Up you get lad. That didn't hurt and the other sides got the ball now". And the true fouls he pulled up and had a strong word to the perpetrator. I thought he was very good.
 
Did VAR get used at all yesterday? I don’t recall it being. Echoing comments above, I think the two teams and the ref deserve praise for that.
 
NathanH_GFC said:
Did VAR get used at all yesterday? I don’t recall it being. Echoing comments above, I think the two teams and the ref deserve praise for that.
Click to expand...

VAR is used all the time, even if you don't see it, it is used for every decision.
 
Fair point - poorly articulated comment by me - what I meant was, was the game stopped/delayed at any point to review? It just seemed to flow better than most other games had.
 
NathanH_GFC said:
Fair point - poorly articulated comment by me - what I meant was, was the game stopped/delayed at any point to review? It just seemed to flow better than most other games had.
Click to expand...

It was a decent ref yesterday, far better than some of the dross they've had officiating some games! Also, the teams that thought their only chance of winning was to pull opposition players all over the place, or to fake tackles etc are now out. Those teams know who they are, and are now home in shame :-)
 
I don't think we have to be shy about the culture thing. Theirs accepted niggling fouls, cheats and gamesmanship while ours accepted a level of physical contact which is now regarded as dangerous. According to John Keegan, it all goes back to the Greeks who developed a very violent form of warfare causing real
destruction. The Asiatics thought they were mental. The Europeans thought the English were mental in these terms too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.