The Official World Cup 2018 Megathread

[Jinky]

But you were ok with Mark Halsey ruining loads of our games in the Premier League?

It's operator error. So don't employ morons.

Well yeah. Employ or train people who know what they’re doing then. Introducing VAR in to the biggest tournament in world football when half of the officials still don’t know how it works is a farce.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

And I would agree that it has been introduced too soon (although this is the only ref in 34 games to turn it into a nonsense and it has largely worked ok).

It's not a "the game's gone" issue FFS :icon_lol: This was a dreadful ref who lost control, which happened more than once at Molineux last season. I didn't vow to never watch Wolves again if Steve Martin reffed us (although I would be prepared to bollock the stupid barrel chested prick whenever he decided to be Steve Martin)

 

[PuntsWolf]

They know how it works. They are just morons. If a ref wants it to be “all about him” or just not understand the rules at all, they shouldn’t be a referee on the biggest stage in the world. Unfortunately the bloke was a total moron VAR or no VAR

 

[Tredman]

So.. Portugal v Uruguay. That will be 'fun'.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

So.. Portugal v Uruguay. That will be 'fun'.

The daft thing is that both can play. When I saw Portugal vs Spain I thought they'd changed as they really had a good go (in a game where you might expect them to have been the usual Fernando Santos stuff and try to make it as scrappy as possible). Uruguay played well today against poor opposition.

Doubtless though they will try to shithouse each other.

 

[Tony Towner]

https://twitter.com/alanshearer/status/1011344020415623174?s=19

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Portugal vs Uruguay should be tasty

Tasty like a bowl of luke warm water.

 

[jlo]

Use VAR like in tennis. Two turns for each team. Fail and you lose one. Referee is never allowed to use it except for line reviews. All good, sorted. None of that bollocks at the end of the game pressuring the ref. Yes some might use it as a time wasting measure if they haven't used it in normal time, but pause the clock to stop that becoming an advantage.

Starting to feel like we need a VAR thread... 80% of this world cup it's been used brilliantly. I'm a massive fan, but not of Iran's antics today.

 

[Tony Towner]

I'd do similar, the cricket route. One losing challenge per team, debatable whether you make that per half or per game. Keep GLT as it is.

 

[VanWolfie]

The Paraguayan referee has been slated by one of Wolves' forum's "favourite" referees, https://theref.online/. This is one time I agree with Mark Halsey. Maybe he's a better assessor than an actual referee.

 

[VanWolfie]

Hang on - if you have a red card review, then surely it is red or nothing there?

Quite correct. The fact that the VAR called for a red card review meant that, in the opinion of the VAR, this was a clear and obvious missing of what was considered a red card offence. How the referee can then decide to produce only a yellow means that he does not understand how VAR functions or he bottled it. Either way, his days as a WC referee are done.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Tasty like a bowl of luke warm water.

0-0 then 1-1 after extra time then 7-6 on penalties.

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

What's every one think of neither England or Belgium wqnting to win the group.

I just know we are going to win it and end up in the half of the draw with
Brazil
Uraguay
Portugal
Germany
France
Pretty much all the major world cup teams are in the top half of the draw with only Spain and the second in our group in the bottom half.

Whilst the bottom.half has some good teams
Croatia
Mexico
Spain

It does not have the depth or real heavy weights.
I saw Martinez interview suggesting he wants 2nd and that will drive his team pick for Thursday.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It all depends on the Germany and Brazil groups for me.

Germany thump South Korea and Mexico lose to Sweden, combined with Switzerland outscoring Brazil (quite possible as Brazil have the tougher game against Serbia) and suddenly finishing first looks a much better route.

 

[Del Woppio]

I'd happily throw the game. I know we've got to play the big boys eventually but ffs let's at least try and wait to the semis if we can manipulate that! I know either way the second round has no guarantees but I think on the balance of probability of progression we all know which half is more favourable. Yeah football doesn't work like that all the time, but most of the time it does, hence wolves will lose more Premier League games than we did championship ones.

EDIT - obviously that's in the hypothetical situation the groups landing as per glasgows post

 

[machin05]

Don't think it's been mentioned on here, but did anyone else notice that when reviewing the Iran penalty, the ref was only given one angle from which to look at the incident (side on from the far touchline). It happened to be, IMO, the only angle which made it look like the Iranian striker had failed to head the ball and made it seem as though Cedric misjudged his jump and cleared it with his arm.

Every other angle showed it was 100% clearly not a penalty.

I think I have the match recorded so will take another look tonight, but I thought it was odd at the time.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

The big plus point is playing the third group game last. All the permutations, including the second round potential opponent will be completely known.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Throwing a World Cup game is a ludicrous idea.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Looking at potential routes, and this is based on a not unlikely set of results, you could see:

Finish First: Japan, winners of Switzerland v Mexico, and then one of France, Argentina, Uruguay or Portugal (who would all be playing in the same quarter of the draw)

Finish Second: Colombia, winners of Germany v Brazil, and Spain or Croatia in the semi final

Until all the groups are played out it is a bit silly to talk of throwing games. It all COMPLETELY depends on Germany and Brazil ending up in the same quarter of the draw really. If that doesn't happen then first v second is much of a muchness.

 

[Sniffer]

We are lucky to have a draw whereby we won't see any of the big boys until the quarter final, although it won't be a given that we will get that far anyway.

In the Quarter final or if you have any ambitions of winning the tournament you will have to beat the best. Regardless of results beforehand, I want include to beat Belgium and then take it from there.