Germany need to invest in grass roots football

Would have been glorious if Spain got knocked out too

ITV ignoring the angle that shows the ball stayed in because they want to let Souness fume about the Japanese staying in ahead of one of his European sides.

goon wrote:

ITV ignoring the angle that shows the ball stayed in because they want to let Souness fume about the Japanese staying in ahead of one of his European sides.

Seems like ITV want to push a talking point. The ref they had on didn’t seem to care and neither does Neville

I’d half understand if it was England on the receiving end, but bloody hell read the room. Superb World Cup drama and all they can bring themselves to talk about is a VAR decision that’s probably right.

Looked well inside to me

I love VAR at this World Cup. The new technology finally works. Wish they could introduce it mid season to England. The technology and the back office. Because things have worked really well at the World Cup.

Tonight has to be one of my favorite nights of group football ever. In any tournament.

Really? Don’t think VAR have been great. Better than the premier league but nothing special otherwise

MistaT wrote:

7 minutes?!

For what?! 

May I ask if this was your first game of the tournament?

Certainly not

I think I forgot how much time was spent reviewing the 2nd goal by Japan....when I posted I was only thinking of the goals (2 mins for them), and there wasn't much else to add time for (no injuries).

Mirth wrote:

Really? Don’t think VAR have been great. Better than the premier league but nothing special otherwise

So two different perspectives..
Think about how many good goals are disallowed this week without this more accurate VAR. Germany, Japan, Cameroon. It’s so much more accurate in the offside decisions because this is now largely automated and out of the hands of humans.

Where VAR is tricky is the area that we will likely never solve. The non black and white decisions. So issues like the Messi penalty vs Szczesny, Gakpo’s hall to hand very early on in build up to goal versus Qatar. I don’t expect we will ever have a good solution here, and any fan who thinks better referrers will solve these controversies is just delusional

MistaT wrote:

Certainly not

I think I forgot how much time was spent reviewing the 2nd goal by Japan....when I posted I was only thinking of the goals (2 mins for them), and there wasn't much else to add time for (no injuries).

Yeah, but that's par for the course because of the new way to calculate stoppage time (to get more effective playing time). Here's the added time from the games in the first two rounds:

Claudius wrote:

Mirth wrote:

Really? Don’t think VAR have been great. Better than the premier league but nothing special otherwise

any fan who thinks better referrers will solve these controversies is just delusional

If any fan has said that better referees will lead to the number of wrong calls being zero, then sure.

But what some are actually saying is that better referees will lead to better calls, that obviously can't be delusional or they wouldnt be better referees. 

I find it quite stunning how many referees don't seem to know the rules. At least they could clear that lowest of bars.

Alot to share from the match but its now late here. I'm so glad to be part of this world cup, nothing can beat the world cup drama.

In the stadium everytime there's an update from the other match, a new table is shown. I noticed the Spanish bench there's a staff running to Enrique to whisper to his ears when Costa led. Suddenly there was a Spanish urgency to score but shortly after Germany equalised and they got new instructions to slow it down. They still tried to equalise till in added time when Germany went 2 goals ahead they completely let off and settle for a narrow loss.

Most of us from the match understood. The players were all happy at the final whistle, all the Japanese fans were hugging the Spanish and saluting them. "Arigato" were the cry. First time walking out of the stadium where both set of fans are celebrating, really a fantastic feeling.

goon wrote:

ITV ignoring the angle that shows the ball stayed in because they want to let Souness fume about the Japanese staying in ahead of one of his European sides.

The ball was 100% in. In the stadium they always show this feature called virtual recreated replay and it was in.

This semi auto tech is pretty accurate for offsides and line calls so there's no arguments.

For VAR decisions wise, it's more of the fact alot of the referees don't seem to know the rules. But having watched 10 games live now, I can safely say the 2 worst referees I have seen is Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver. Absolutely takes the cake with how bad their refereeing is. I don't even know the referee before hand and googled at half time for both matches and it's those 2 idiots ffs.

What a glorious day of football. If only Costa Rica had been able to hold on. People can go on about "easy" draws for different teams as much as they want but there are no easy games in these tournaments as a number of big teams have now found out. The games still need to be won despite what rankings or things on paper might say.

Mirth wrote:

Japan still won’t start their best 11

Spoke to many Japanese fans during the match and apparently this is Moriyasu tactics (part of the reason why he didn't call up Hatate and Kyogo). He starts the inferior players that can press and run to tire the opponents out and then make the changes by half time or early in the 2nd half to give it a go.

Doesn't work against inferior opponents but seem to be okay against Superior teams when they let their guards down and the better players come on.