The Official FIFA World Cup 2022 Megathread

[Alan]

Just too bad this couldn’t happen to a team I properly dislike, but I’ll still take it. Great start to the day.

 

[WsWolf]

Argentina? easy work.

 

[SSB]

Got 4/1 on Saudi to win at 2-1 up. Happy days.

 

[Alan]

Saudi last ditch defending has been excellent, not sure if that's Argentinas lack of composure

Fair to say that in this kind of situation, it almost has to be both, IMO.

 

[Johnny75]

Just too bad this couldn’t happen to a team I properly dislike, but I’ll still take it. Great start to the day.

Is it not about 4AM where you are?

 

[Sniffer]

 

[Langers]

Full time - wow, amazing result!!

Nando called it at the start of the 2nd half - reminded me of England v Iceland - they totally lost the plot, had absolutely no game plan whatsoever.

Saudi were immense in that 2nd half, some superb defending.

 

[sycophantia]

Happy to see an underdog victory, pity its a horrendous nation to do it

 

[Alan]

I'd it not about 4AM where you are?

Kickoff was at 5am (ish). 7am here now.

I adore football this early in the morning. Football and coffee and sunbreak? Dream stuff for me.

 

[Del Woppio]

Some sensational defending there, and a really brave approach the way they pressed with a high back line and didn't really drop deep until late on (well, I say late on, it was probably 90 minutes, but still 15 minutes left at that point!). That second was a great goal. Argentina proper dropped off in that second half though, and completely shit it

 

[Langers]

Love some essentially neutral commentary.

edit - taken down, shame!

 

[AndyWolves]

That's how you play a high line and a press.

 

[The Bear]

I wondered yesterday what happened to Freddy Adu so I checked. He's now moved away from America and playing for a tiny Swedish fishing town with a population of 900, who play in the 3rd division. And he's still only 33.

 

[Alan]

Never heard of him.

 

[Johnny75]

I wondered yesterday what happened to Freddy Adu so I checked. He's now moved away from America and playing for a tiny Swedish fishing town with a population of 900, who play in the 3rd division. And he's still only 33.

Owen Otasowie's going down that path.

 

[Alan]

Jacqui Oatley on comms!!

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Being able to convert the offside calls into visualisations like line calls in tennis is good IMO. Not only is Hawkeye-style better than the PL's stupid manual drawing of lines on a screen, it makes it clear exactly which part of the body is actually offside, and it's so, so much quicker.

It's also one of the few major rules in football which IS a binary yes/no, like a ball crossing a line. Automating it is a good idea!

I may be in the minority but, for me, all these offside calls are one of the worst things about VAR even if technically the decisions are correct.

If they are going to be able to be that exact as to whether a player is offside or not then I’d rather they changed to offside rule to favour the attacker. Make it so their entire body has to be in front of the defender or something. It’s shit having loads of goals disallowed.

 

[Alan]

Oatley has just used the word roster instead of squad and immediately called herself out for it

 

[Tredman]

I'm actually glad we get John Hartson. Never thought I would type that.

 

[Tony Towner]

I may be in the minority but, for me, all these offside calls are one of the worst things about VAR even if technically the decisions are correct.

If they are going to be able to be that exact as to whether a player is offside or not then I’d rather they changed to offside rule to favour the attacker. Make it so their entire body has to be in front of the defender or something. It’s shit having loads of goals disallowed.

If you could make it instant like goal line technology then I'd be in favour even for the toenail ones, because that takes you back to the old world of the linesmans flag. Whether it's the lines or the semi automated thing they have in place means little to me if decisions are still made a significant period of time post the goal.