Soccer Thread

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if the USMNT plays like they did last night in the World Cup, it's going to be a MAJOR embarrassment. Germany 2006'esque
 
As a long time player and coach, that game just pisses me off. There's no need for such goddamn bias, and it's flopping like that which gives soccer such a bad name here in the US.
 
Oscar could play for the Canadiens...

Not to defend the ref (it was a wrong call IMO) on the replay the croatian player grasps Oscar's shoulder, he didn't drag him down, but the grasp created the illusion that he did.

I have a solution to this for high profile events.

Video review of all games by tournament officials. Retroactive yellow and red cards for embelishment. Yellow for dives outside the box, red for inside. Whether the ref gave the foul or not.
 
I read an intersting article about diving this morning.

Since soccer is a global game different countries have different attitudes about diving.

In England (and the US) it's cheating. In Italy (where Oskar plays professionally) and to a lesser extent Spain it's "part of the game" kind of like elbows in the neck when you go up for a header.

I guess for me my major issue is an international ref can fall for weak sauce like that. I used to be a ref and I get you make those calls in a split second and live with it but even at full speed I questioned that one.
 
Oscar plays for Chelsea, but Fred plays in Brazil for Fluminese.
Diving is definitely a bigger part of the game in southern Europe and probably in South America, too (but I wouldn't know much about league play there as it's not something I watch frequently).

As for today's games, Mexico really deserved to win theirs and so far Spain and Holland are looking pretty lively. Kind of a weak penalty in that one as well, though.
 
While the officiating has been sub par, the quality of the play has been great. It usually takes a week or so for the teams to start playing well together. The first round of games is usually a lot of negative soccer and 0-0 draws. This year has been a lot of fun to watch.

Messi's goal was just.....Messi
 
Argentina looks like they need some time to make it all work. Also, their 5 back chain didn't work at all and I hope they will change that going forward.

Right now Germany looks easily like the best side of the tournament so far.
 
anderson said:
Argentina looks like they need some time to make it all work. Also, their 5 back chain didn't work at all and I hope they will change that going forward.

Right now Germany looks easily like the best side of the tournament so far.
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Portugal made it rather easy to look good.
 
anderson said:
I agree, but still looked very tidy both defensively and offensively.

Only place that it seems the German team could be exploited is on the wings and even then I'm not really sure.
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Leftback is a weakness, Boateng could be exposed by some quicker wingers when playing the righback. And I'm not that high on Khedira and Özil. We're thin up front with old man Klose the only true striker on the team. Other than that this team looks really good.
 
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