A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

Been ninja'd (rather unfairly, seeing as no one had posted until right before I submitted this very post).

edited 23rd Jun '18 10:55:44 AM by MyFinalEdits

So, I saw the match between Germany and Sweden. Germany won. Poor Sweden. I was rooting for them for them to win. The score was 2 to 1. I honestly feel like Germany only won by luck.

edited 23rd Jun '18 1:03:40 PM by pointless233

2-1, goals here.

Sweden did score first, and they could've inflated the score, had the ref given a penalty for them due to Rudiger doing a foul on Berg. In the second half, Reus scored shortly after the second half began, and from them on it was all Germany. There were saves by Sweden's Olsen, there were shots that either hit the post or flew high, and even Boateng getting sent off, but, in the very last minute, a foul near the area led to a free-kick routine that was scored by Kroos.

[Insert Gary Lineker's quote on Germans winning at the end here] Well, here's a new version by the man himself.

Germany now pretty much only depend on themselves to win, and they'll face South Korea. South Korea's chances are slim, but they're not mathematically eliminated yet. That being said, it's clear that Germany are now galvanized and have fully woken up.

edited 23rd Jun '18 1:17:01 PM by Quag15

Poor Sweden. All of my favorites are getting beaten this round...

So, how do you think this world cup will end? Another low scoring match? Someone getting steamrolled? A scoring war? Some comeback?

If what's happened so far is any indication, it'll be a very weird match with a result no one predicted.

Germany's footplay has been really bad overall. But a victory is a victory, so congratulations to them!

There might be light at the end of the tunnel for Sporting CP as Bruno de Carvalho is no longer president, according to the voting that took place in the club's general assembly, with percentages between about 60% of the sócios' total amount of quantifiable votes being for him being removed from the place.

Older sócios have more voting power on account of how long they've been Sporting's sócios, and it seems that they were the major demographic responsible for the result, while the younger ones voted for the madness to continue. It's like an inverted Brexit demographic, so, please, let's not shit on old folks this time. They made a sensible decision.

That being said, there's a noticeable demographic who will be pissed off at this decision and will probably continue to try to stir up shit (e.g. most of the ultras).

Back to the World Cup.

There was a bit of a verbal conflict between the Swedish staff and a couple of German officials. The latter allegedly mocked the Swedish immediately after the match ended and coach Janne Andersson was mighty pissed at them. To the point that the German FA had to deliver an apology.

FIFA will open a disciplinary probe against Xhaka and Shaqiri after yesterday's double-headed eagle hand celebrations.

Jimmy Durmaz, the Swedish player causing the last minute foul leading to Germany's goal, received almost two thousand comments on his latest instagram photo after the match, including numerous abusive, racist comments and some death threats.

Jose Giménez, one of Uruguay's defensive pillars (he's Godín's CB partner, after all), will miss the game vs. Russia due to injury.

And, finally, there are rumours that Argentina players will pick the starting XI for World Cup clash with Nigeria. If it's true, it'll be a meltdown/mutiny almost on the level of France 2010.

edited 23rd Jun '18 6:11:00 PM by Quag15

Argentina is looking more and more like it's having a meltdown.

I don't get the whole thing with the Swiss players, though. I mean, I do, but I don't see why people have to get so riled up about it. It's provocation. Happens everywhere.

To make matters worse, they can STILL qualify, thus negating all the poor job they've been doing during four years.

England 6-1 Panama

There's not much to say about this match. Panama are CONCACAF experts in rough fouling and tackling, England were just miles better, Harry Kane scored a hat-trick (2 of the goals were penalties, but you know...), John Stones (of all people!) scored a brace, and Baloy scored Panama's first goal in the World Cup.

This is the most goals ever scored by England in a World Cup match (and biggest margin of goals for them as well), and Kane is the third English player (after Hurst and Lineker) to score a hat-trick in the World Cup.

If England and Belgium draw on Thursday, the winner of Group G would be decided by fair play points. Or even drawing of lots, even if the fair play points end up beign the same.

Needless to say, both Panama and Tunisia are eliminated.

edited 24th Jun '18 7:02:16 AM by Quag15

Yep, that we are. had my hopes up before this match for something less one-sided for this match, but it was not to happen. End of the run for us.

And another one bites the dust.

Sorry, it seemed appropiate.

Wow, Panama got it bad. Glad England seems to have upped their game, though. So we already have one group with both guaranteed classifications.

Two groups, actually. This one and group A (and the qualified ones will duke it out amongst themselves in their respective groups.

Salah is considering quitting the national team, supposedly due to the Egyptian FA not letting his agent talk with him, and due to them using him as a political pawn (because of the Kadyrov situation). He'll probably continue to play, but the FA has some serious explaining to do.

Sebastian Rudy has suffered a fractured nose and will wear a face mask for the duration of the tournament.

Japan 2-2 Senegal

What a great match. Constant back-and-forth, full of attacks, counter-attacks, and a couple of defensive mistakes (as well as a few unfortunate misses).

Sadio Mané scored first, thanks to a blunder by GK Kawashima. Japan's equalizer came through Takashi Inui.

In the second half, the same Inui hit the crossbar, with Senegal's Wagué scoring 5 minutes after that hit. And 8 minutes after this goal, Japan equalized again, through Keisuke Honda (who is now the top Asian goalscorer in the history of World Cups, with 4 goals in 9 matches, as well as the first Japanese player to score in three World Cups - 2010, 14, 18). Both teams have shown great arguments on why they should go through, which means that the last matchday will be intense for either one or both of them.

In an hour, Poland x Colombia will duke it out for survival.

edited 24th Jun '18 10:00:53 AM by Quag15

The Japan-Senegal match was a great game. Hope they both go thru to the next round.

Colombia is dominating the match against Poland. And not in a "QUICKLY, WE HAVE TO WIN" way, but in an unwinding, pleasant way.

I say the René Higuita cosplayer◊ is a shoe-in for Fan of the Match.

EDIT: I take back everything I ever wrote about Falcao two years ago. He's finally got one thing Hulk will never have: A World Cup goal. That right there was dream come true, and a long time coming.

edited 24th Jun '18 12:39:19 PM by SeanMurrayI

Poland 0-3 Colombia

Poland looked lethargic, devoid of ideas, with Lewandowski stuck up top for the most part (to the point where he had to get lower in the field in order to start an attack.

Colombia with James in the starting XI looked energetic, and smelled blood almost from the start. So, they went for the kill. James really is the engine that makes the machine roll.

Yerry Mina scored a header in the first half. In the second half, Falcao finally got to write his name in the list of Colombian scorers at the World Cup, and, 6 minutes later, Cuadrado killed whatever little hope there was left for Poland (also, that pass by James).

Great assists/passes, great goals, great performance by Colombia to give them a breath of life. Colombia x Senegal will be do or die for both of them (though Senegal can pass with a draw), while Japan only needs to either draw or make sure they don't get a lot of yellow cards.

Poland are eliminated.

Tomorrow, the 3rd and final matchday of the group stage will begin. Group A matches first, then group B matches. We're gonna have a real hard time against Iran.

edited 24th Jun '18 12:55:22 PM by Quag15

Am I bad for rooting against all previous WC winners? I mean, this world cup piqued my interest when Italy got eliminated from even going to Russia, and I'm hoping Argentina and Germany don't make it through.

Nah, I'm with you. I want as many big names out of the race for the classifications. Make it interesting with some of the less favored nations.

I'd like to see an all-new champion as well.

I'd love it if Spain would win, but if they're not the winners, a new champion would make me very happy, as well - especially if it was someone with Arsenal players (like Switzerland).

Shenanigans at Sporting CP don't stop, as Bruno de Carvalho, less than 24 hours after being ousted, did this:

• Posted a long ass text on FB on how he would no longer support Sporting and how he would tear his sócio card in half;
• Immediately went back on that promise and announce his intention to run against his replacement, Sousa Cintra (who was a president of the club back in the 90's, iirc);
• And expressed his desire to impugn the results of the general assembly (and so, become a candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.

Fucking telenovela, that club.

At the same time, there are ongoing searches by the Judiciary Police involving Benfica and a slew of smaller clubs, due to suspicions of corruption and match fixing. It's unlikely that the operation "Mala Ciao" will go anywhere, but it's just another round of semi-sensationalized news that will cause more ratings for the media here.

Anyway, back to the World Cup. Group A matches will begin soon, with the obvious focus being on Uruguay x Russia for the first place in the group.

Meanwhile, here's a summary of incidents that might explain why Poland did so poorly. Found it on /r/soccer, so I'll copypaste:

• Before WC one of most controversial sport journalist in Poland reports that team done more drinking and parties than Mexico. He is heavily hated and no one believes him.
• After Senegal game, more voices say that. Some people working at polish team fanpage, Łączy nas piłka, are leaking info about ongoing drama between Lewandowski and Błaszczykowski, as apparently Lewy was fed up about lack of professionalism in team and was outed despite being captain.
• After Columbia game, shit hit the fan, players start cracking up and talk about how terrible was the preparations prior tournament, Glik and Rybus openly criticised Nawałka for being bad trainer.
• Journalists starts speaking as well, telling that Peszko was chosen for the WC only because Lewandowski made an ultimatum that he would end his carrier in national play. Some reports says about huge party day prior team announcement, which ended with some kind of accident with Glik, and thats how he ended being injured.
• Stanowski, most well informed journalist about polish team tells that Fabiański, Krychowiak and Błaszczykowski made a group that is both against Lewandowski as a captain and younger players as starters.
• Pazdan fires up atmosphere saying that there will be need to openly talk about what happened in Arłamow, during last team trainings before going to Russia.

edited 25th Jun '18 6:11:40 AM by Quag15