Match Thread (for non Canada games)

[Cicero]

5 of their last 6 elimination games won in extra time and penalties now, and a fortunate deflection in this game, even if Brazil was being silly not having more guys back. Croatia has to run out of luck at some point. I pick their opponent in the next round. 

[74 Whitecap]

24 minutes ago, Kingston said:

So undeserved!

Well, I agree about Croatia, one crappy shot on net in 120 minutes that only went in due to a lucky deflection.

But for Brazil, this was totally deserved. Wasteful finishing( with one exception), and more than half of the team upfield looking for glory with 5 minutes to go on a 1 goal lead. If that was Canada, you would have gone deaf from hearing the commentariat repeating the word 'naive' and 'you have to take your chances at this level' over and over again.

[Shway]

Just now, Cicero said:

5 of their last 6 elimination games won in extra time and penalties now, and a fortunate deflection in this game, even if Brazil was being silly not having more guys back. Croatia has to run out of luck at some point. I pick their opponent in the next round. 

I just hope its Netherlands. 
I despise Argentina.

[Free kick]

13 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Well, the top 3 in the all time World Cup wins are now out. France and Argentina have a chance to move one behind Italy and Germany 

Fra-Arg would not be a bad final.   I could live with that.  As for the other options,  most have local implications here in Canada given how boisterous some of those fan bases are in Canada

Edited December 9, 2022 by Free kick

[Cicero]

1 minute ago, Shway said:

I just hope its Netherlands. 
I despise Argentina.

Though I have give them credit, they've missed one or zero penalties in three of the four penalty shootouts. However, Denmark in 2018 and Japan this time gifted them the win.

[Cicero]

Another remarkable stat, in five of the five games, they've been down a goal and had to come back. Only against Russia did they get a lead and give it up.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Cicero

[Kingston]

30 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Totally deserved.

Tite took off all his premium attacking line because they'd been poor. Neymar only woke up late. Brazil got hit by a counter leading with a few minutes left. The Croatia keeper has been great.

Even possession has been even, not shots of course. You stay alive deep you always have a chance.

I despise it when teams bunker for the whole game and get lucky at the end.  So, no, totally undeserved.

[Free kick]

8 minutes ago, Kingston said:

I despise it when teams bunker for the whole game and get lucky at the end.  So, no, totally undeserved.

Yes, and it has happened twice now.  This game and the ESP-MAR game whereby the wrong team won.  They have to come up with format that, when you get to the extra time phase, prevents, punishes or discourages bunkering.  In the 90 minutes prior,  Its understandable and i have absolutely no issues with that and should be left as is for obvious reasons.   But I dont get why they wouldn't, for example, makes the extra time  a 9 or 8 players aside affair.  

Edited December 9, 2022 by Free kick

[Unnamed Trialist]

14 minutes ago, Kingston said:

I despise it when teams bunker for the whole game and get lucky at the end.  So, no, totally undeserved.

They didn't bunker at all! They had equal possession in the first half even. 

I support an attacking, possession club, Barça, and if we draw a game like that we only blame ourselves, always. And give credit to the rival. Only if a big club, a major rival, draws us like that, then we sneer at them too.

Croatia was great and Brazil was so innocuous in attack they subbed out the entire front 3. They were speculating, arrogant, played at 80% intensity then got punished.

Deserved.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Unnamed Trialist

[Big_M]

the favorite and stronger team croatia advance..brazil nothing special at the world cup after 02

[Unnamed Trialist]

3 minutes ago, Big_M said:

the favorite and stronger team croatia advance..brazil nothing special at the world cup after 02

Brazil hasn't won a WC penalty round since '86.

[Kingston]

5 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

They didn't bunker at all! They had equal possession in the first half even. 

I support an attacking, possession club, Barça, and if we draw a game like that we only blame ourselves, always. And give credit to the rival. Only if a big club, a major rival, draws us like that, then we sneer at them too.

Croatia was great and Brazil was so innocuous in attack they subbed out the entire front 3. They were speculating, arrogant, played at 80% intensity then got punished.

Deserved.

Zero shots on net through the first 117 minutes.  Made no effort whatsoever to actually win the game.  Bunkered the whole time.  Undeserved.

[Kingston]

To me, a simple solution is to modify the penalty kick scenario.  Instead of five kicks, each team gets the same number of kicks as they had shots on net during the game.  So these penalties would have been 11 shots for Brazil and 1 for Croatia.

[Free kick]

10 minutes ago, Kingston said:

To me, a simple solution is to modify the penalty kick scenario.  Instead of five kicks, each team gets the same number of kicks as they had shots on net during the game.  So these penalties would have been 11 shots for Brazil and 1 for Croatia.

I love that idea.  I would do it by counting teh shots taken in Extratime.

The problem with the current format is that it elevates teams that are less talented up to the level of the much more talented to teams.  So I am good and appreciate upsets when they occur in the 90 minutes of a normal game.    But when a team approaches a game with the objective of taking the match to PK's  then i have a problem with that.  You need to reward a team that actually goes into Extratime trying to win the game.   

Edited December 9, 2022 by Free kick

[Cicero]

8 minutes ago, Kingston said:

To me, a simple solution is to modify the penalty kick scenario.  Instead of five kicks, each team gets the same number of kicks as they had shots on net during the game.  So these penalties would have been 11 shots for Brazil and 1 for Croatia.

Then in extra time you'd just have each team lobbing half-ass 'shots' at the goalkeeper to up their tally.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Cicero

[Free kick]

4 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Then in extra time you'd just have each team lobbing half-ass 'shots' at the goalkeeper to up their tally.

But you would be giving up possession cheaply if you were to do that.  Which could have its consequences.  Also, it would force teams to try and retreive and gain possession, which would be a good thing and preferable to sitting back in a low block

Edited December 9, 2022 by Free kick

[GasPed]

41 minutes ago, scullion44 said:

Well that guarantees one of the semi finals will be boring as shit. Another 2 hours of Croatia parking the bus.

I don't think it's quite that simple.  Croatia has shown repeatedly in this tournament that they are not a one-trick pony.  Yes, they bunker extremely well, but they can play possession all day long if you let them, and they can also finish you off in your end if you're careless (as they did with us).  In short, it's time to give them some credit.  No, they're not flashy, but they are as committed as hell and very very effective. 

[Cicero]

1 minute ago, Free kick said:

But you would be giving up possession cheaply if you were to do that.  Which could have its consequences.  Also, it would force teams to try and retreive and gain possession, which would be a good thing and preferable to sitting back in a low block

Someone suggested going down to 8 or 9 men in extra time. Maybe be even more extreme, 6 v 6 small-field game, like indoor or futsal, instead of penalties. Different game than regular soccer, but more skill involved than penalties.

[Free kick]

5 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Someone suggested going down to 8 or 9 men in extra time. Maybe be even more extreme, 6 v 6 small-field game, like indoor or futsal, instead of penalties. Different game than regular soccer, but more skill involved than penalties.

Thats what i mentioned earlier.  if you play extra time with 8 or 9 men aside, then its harder to kill the 30 minutes.  It also requires you to be good defensive but on an individual basis.  So if you have good attackers or even good defenders,  you are not punished.  It would increase the probablity that a goal (or more goals) gets scored in those 30 minutes so if you a team with astute defenders, it doesnt hurt you.  

 

Yes, 6x6 would be prefferable to PK's

Edited December 9, 2022 by Free kick

[cornerkick]

14 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Then in extra time you'd just have each team lobbing half-ass 'shots' at the goalkeeper to up their tally.

You could perhaps only count shots taken inside the box…

[BearcatSA]

2 hours ago, jonovision said:

Also the only team to score against Morocco. Or as many goals against Croatia than their other 4 opponents have managed so far in 390 minutes.

Lots of petty stats out there if you need them!

Croatia:  the only team in the last four Canadian matches who failed to score a route one goal against us.

[Gian-Luca]

48 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Brazil hasn't won a WC penalty round since '86.

Not sure what you mean by “penalty round”. If you mean a pk shoot out in the knock out rounds they actually lost their 1986 pk shoot out to France but then won the 1994 World Cup on PK’s and also beat the Dutch in the semis in 1998. I think they beat Chile in 2014 on PK’s as well. 
 

Brazil’s trouble since 2002 is that they can’t beat European teams in the knockout rounds. I am struggling to think if they have beaten any European team in a knock out match since 2002. 

[Gian-Luca]

24 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

Croatia:  the only team in the last four Canadian matches who failed to score a route one goal against us.

How about this for pettiness  -  Brazil: unable to hold on to a 1 goal lead against Croatia for even half the time that Canada was able to. 
 

 

[A.D.I.D.A.S.]

Dutch defense cut in half. Who else but Messi with the pass.

[jonovision]

Blind is so slow.