A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

Uruguay is winning 2-0 and one of Russia's players was expelled.

Uruguay 3-0 Russia

Uruguay had to win in order to top the group, and that's what they set out to do. Suárez scored the first goal, through a free-kick (that Russian wall was badly positioned), and, in the same first half, Laxalt scored (the ball hit the legs of Cheryshev and deflected; maybe it's an own goal?). Smolnikov got two yellows in the space of 7 minutes, and, from then on, it was basically Uruguay, with a couple of good saves by Akinfeev. Cavani finally got to score, just before stoppage time began.

5 goals for, 0 goals against for Uruguay in the group stage. Keep in mind that Godín's usual partner, Giménez, was absent due to an injury, so, they've got defensive depth (Coates defended fairly well).

Saudi Arabia 2-1 Egypt

Salah scored a nice chip, but, at the last minute of the first half, Saudi Arabia equalized through a penalty (the call was apparently dubious/controversial).

In the second half, there were chances and back-and-forth between both sides, and a good save by each GK. But, ultimately, Saudi Arabia won at the very last minute of the second half, with a goal by Al Dawsari. Egypt are feeling even more heartbroken (even if they weren't playing with a lot of heart).

This is Saudi Arabia's first win at the World Cup since 1994, snapping a 12-match winless streak.

Speaking of GK's, Essam El-Hadary started for Egypt. He's now the oldest player to have ever played at the World Cup at the age of 45 years-old and 162 days, breaking Faryd Mondragon's record from the previous World Cup. Unlike Mondragon, however, this is a bit of a sad record.

In about 2 hours, the group B matches will begin.

edited 25th Jun '18 9:14:12 AM by Quag15

Here's hoping Iran wins so we can knock another big name off the board. No offense, Quag.

It's ok. Still, things were... tense.

Iran 1-1 Portugal

Quaresma scored a great trivela in his first (at last) World Cup. In the second half, however, Ronaldo missed a penalty - first Portuguese player to miss one in the World Cup. No, really. From them on, it was a scrappy fest, with Iran equalizing near the end with a penalty.

There was too much VAR and controversy on both sides, to the point that they had to use it just to give a yellow card to Ronaldo.

Spain 2-2 Morocco (goals here

Morocco played so well they were ahead twice. But Spain equalized on both halfs, first with Isco, then with Iago Aspas near the end.

If Spain had lost, Iran would've gone through and they would be out. Now, we're in trouble, because we're gonna face fucking Uruguay. Fuck... we had the chance to avoid them, and we blew it. And fucking Spain didn't get a single yellow card, in spite of Piqué's shenanigans.

I can't write much more, I'm exhausted. Good night.

Morocco were very lucky to be ahead in that game, let alone twice. Spain controlled most of the game and had chance after chance, but Morocco was very resilient.

Spain clearly has two weak links in its squad at this point: centre-back and goalkeeper. You wouldn't think so when they've got the leading centre-backs of the two top teams in Spain and the best goalkeeper of the Premier League, but there you go; everyone else in the team is still better than those three, or at least have been in this tournament. Spain's midfield and full-backs are all increadible, so the next candidate for weak link is Diego Costa, who wasted some chances in this game. (Not that the midfielders couldn't have provided more for him, but still.)

There was a lot of VAR in both games, but most of the decisions were right so I don't see the problem. The refereeing has been better this time than it was in 2014 or 2010, so that's one major area where the World Cup has obviously improved.

Well, at least the games seem to have been interesting. Wish I could have watched them. So that Portugal and Uruguay, Spain and Russia?

Tomorrow, most of my favorites face elimination already. Denmark and Iceland, particularly, are both dangling, one above and one below. Here's hoping.

What are the odds of someone on Argentina showing, at least, their individual skill, since the team as a whole doesn't work?

Really dramatic matches, those of Group B. Kudos to Morocco and Iran for showing some strong opposition. I'll definitely look forward to Uruguay-Portugal as well as Spain-Russia.

Tomorrow will be an interesting matchday, to say the least. []

The first matchweek was good, but after that things began to slowly become shit again, culminating yesterday in things like Iran's penalty (there's no way one can avoid not hitting the ball with the arm while jumping, unless one jumps like a penguin - Cédric had no intent whatsoever and didn't even see the ball hitting him), or the infamous Spain corner that was taken opposite of the other side (where the ball had went), thus undermining Morocco's defensive set-pieces positioning. Or the ref not punishing the Iranian player who intimidated him with his group surrounding said ref (a well-known Queiroz psychological move), with pushing and verbal abuse.

And then there was Piqué doing a two-footed foul that somehow didn't led to him getting a yellow.

No matter how many technology one upgrades, shitty refs will still be empowered and not held to any proper accountability, except after the tournament.

So, I heavily disagree with your opinion. VAR has the benefit of being a good support for good referees, but as long as VAR is not used as a check/balance on the field ref's decision, the latter will always pull off some inconsistent decisions that will ultimately affect one or both sides (such as yesterday, in both matches). Because some refs will refuse to admit they're wrong after checking VAR, or will continue to waste a lot of time checking it out^note  e.g. stopping the play for 2 minutes for a tackle that happened 1 minute ago, such was the case with Ronaldo's foul, instead of trusting the VAR refs.

Anyway, in regards to yesterday: Pepe, Adrien and Rui Patrício played well, Quaresma would've played really well, had he not nearly got hot-tempered when he fouled the Iranian player (after being fouled by a different player a couple of minutes before), and William had 'a sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit game'.

Negatives: André Silva didn't impress, except when holding the ball, Bernardo Silva continues to be invisible, even after only coming on as a substitute, and Raphael Guerreiro no longer seems to provide any defensive security whatsoever.

I have no idea how we're going to break the so-far-unbeaten Uruguayan defense. And that is worrying. Right now, Éder would be really useful, because he holds the ball and knows how to play with his back to the net better than André Silva.

Kudos to Iran for their counter-attacking display and to their GK for saving the penalty. Dude had a literal rags-to-sorta-riches story (he used to be homeless when he was young).

Meanwhile, at Sporting CP, Sinisa Mihajlovic left after only 8 days as a manager. The transition committee wanted to get rid of him, since he was hired by Bruno de Carvalho.

edited 26th Jun '18 2:04:04 AM by Quag15

There have still been refereeing errors in this tournament, but both 2010 and 2014 had so very many of them almost every game that this is still an improvement. It will take time for players and referees to adjust and learn the system properly, but it's already so much better.

The VAR team should be given even more power, with the ability to override the referee if necessary, and of course it could still be a bit faster. Currently, the time loss due to VAR is still not fully matched by the additional added time, but on the other hand, instances of players interfering with the referee and wasting time like that are already a bit rarer and shorter.

The last two games were not the best for VAR, but there have been about 30 games and in most of them, VAR has improved things.

(So, this site has changed its layout again, huh? Looks like I'll have to get used to it, after dealing with its bad visual quality and misplacement of the edit button)

Group C: Australia 0-2 Peru

A consolation win for the Peruvians, with Carrillo being the deserved man of the match (partly) thanks to this goal. In the second half, Guerrero finally got to score in what will likely be his one and only World Cup (considering his age and all that). Australia did try to recover at first, but Guerrero's goal killed off their chances.

A little shout-out to my man Hurtado, who came on as a sub in the second half, and so, got World Cup minutes. I think the last time a Vitória player had minutes in the World Cup was in 2006 or 2010.

Denmark 0-0 France

It took until this 37th game in the current WC for us to get a goalless draw. And it was, sadly, very, very dull. Coach Hareide, for some reason (at least according to some rumours), decided not to tell his team to push for a goal, once Peru were ahead. So, Denmark played very conservatively in terms of tactics. France, on the other hand, made some noticeable rotations in the XI (Mandanda for Lloris, for example, Mbappé on the bench until the last 10 minutes), and played as if it was a training match. Let's forget this particular match, shall we?

Group D: Nigeria 1-2 Argentina (goals here)

Hearbreak for Nigeria, and a tale from heaven to hell and back to heaven by the Argentinians. Messi scored the first one, and it looked like things were going well.

In the second half, Nigeria equalized through a penalty (and shortly after, Iceland had equalized), so Argentina were felling really desperate. But, at the 86', Rojo scored and killed the hopes of the Nigerians.

Maradona did a lot of memetic stuff during this match on the stands, such as doing a quasi-'Wakanda Forever' salute◊ (when Messi scored), dozing off for a few minutes, and flipping the birds when Rojo scored.

Iceland 1-2 Croatia (goals here)

Croatia had rotated part of their usual starting XI, and the Icelanders did tried their best to cause an indirect upset. However, in the second half, Badelj scored, and it looked like the Vikings' hopes were dashed. There was a brief period of light, as Nigeria had equalized, and, just like them, Iceland equalized some time later through a penalty scored by Sigurdsson. However, Perisic scored at the beginning of stoppage time. It was a short run for them, but Iceland will always have that 1-1 draw with Argentina to look back on fondly.

This means that, in the round of 16, Croatia will play against Denmark, and France will play against Argentina. What a match that will be.

Edited by Quag15 on Jun 26th 2018 at 9:28:39 AM

Betting on France, to be honest.

Aw... Iceland's out. They put up a good fight.

Denmark classifying is about the only good news of the day for me. Hope they keep it up.

Tomorrow it's brazil's game. Personally, I'm hoping Serbia and Switzerland win, so they'll both get through and brazil doesn't classify. The odds aren't good, but I can hope.

I also hope Sweden and Mexico get through, but considering they're playing each other and Mexico has had a really good campaign this year, I don't think they're both getting through. Even sadder, I don't think Sweden's getting through. Man, I'm losing a lot of my favorites in this round...

Although if things don't go my way tomorrow, I can also hope that the Fates conspire to my favor and have brazil face Germany in the next round. It would be lovely to see brazilians froth at the mouth and lose to Germany a second time.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Jun 26th 2018 at 6:35:04 AM

@The Lovecraftian: you're still consistently misusing the word "classify" when you mean "qualify". Just so you're aware.

And though I'm not, to my knowledge, of Icelandic descent at all, I'm still sad to see them eliminated from this World Cup. They were fun to watch, and their fans are a passionate lot. Oh well, they still have the distinction of having the smallest population of any country to have ever reached the finals. Hard to see that record being broken any time soon, since most of the countries with smaller populations than Iceland are Caribbean island nations or Pacific island nations. Who knows, though?

You're absolutely right. I barely noticed. You see, in brazilian portuguese, we use classify for this case, so I keep getting it confused. I'll probably still do it accidentally once in a while, though I'll keep a closer eye on it.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Jun 27th 2018 at 7:37:07 AM

GERMANY ARE OUT!

Mexico 0-3 Sweden (goals here)

It could've been a total disaster for Mexico, in a match that saw a penalty and an own goal. I only watched the other match, so, I don't know how this went in detail.

Rep. Korea 2-0 Germany

South Korea do counter-attacks well, but their finishing was really bad, until the final minutes. Germany tried to attack from the very first minute, in a match that saw Özil returning to the starting XI and Müller being benched (he came on during the second half). In stoppage time, South Korea scored a goal thanks to a pass by Kroos that went to Kim Young-Gwon (which was initially invalidated by the ref, but VAR saved the goal). And, at the very end of the match, Son Heung-Minscored the second one, due to Neuer going way up the field in desperation. The South Korean GK was the deserved MOTM for his oustanding performance.

Sweden is first, Mexico is second, South Korea is third, Germany is last! Thus, the curse of the title defender continues.

Edited by Quag15 on Jun 27th 2018 at 5:05:07 PM

Wow. I wanted Sweden to lose, of course, but credit to them for beating Mexico comfortably, 3-0.

Meanwhile, Germany failed to score despite total domination against Korea, so two late goals for Korea took Germany out of the tournament. I feel sorry for Özil, but the rest of Germany just weren't good enough. You have to take more shots to win.

Oh, this is glorious

That's it, I'm calling this the Darkhorse cup now. Germany not only out, but last in their group... Losing that first game to Mexico was a bane on them.

And good for South Korea. They're commemorating like they just won the World Cup.

That said, the second goal on Germany was entirely because they lost their cool. Having a goalkeeper play midfield and leave the goal unattended like that...

Surprisingly, both my favorites for this group got through. I almost have hope for brazil's group going my way later.

It was actually a really nice game. Mexico stood their ground well for the most part, and Sweden performed spectacularly. The most I have to say is that Mexico was playing really dirty in the second half, with a lot of intentional fouls, some that should have resulted in red cards.

Now all that's left is the snow

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Jun 27th 2018 at 1:11:47 PM

This is the first time ever that Germany crashed out in the group stages/first round. Besides the title defending curse, there's also the Confed Cup winners' curse (no winner of the Confed Cup has ever won the World Cup the following year).

Also, let us all appreciate the irony of a German campaing collapsing in Russia.

Edited by Quag15 on Jun 27th 2018 at 5:10:12 PM

Still a little premature, maybe?

Defending champions crash out at the group stage for the 4th time in the last 5 World Cups, but this time that's just gotta be a whole lot more consequential, right? Even four years ago, most everybody was figuring the World Cup's "status quo" was due for serious disruption at this same stage in the tournament (Costa Rica advancing at the expense of England and Italy, for example), yet by the time we got to the semis, the only country still in the running that wasn't a previous winner was still a three-time finalist.

Sure, statistically, with nations like Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands out of the tournament and with the way that the groups and the knockout stages are seeded, we're probably bound to see at least one or two nations that haven't played in a final before reach inner sanctum of the final four, but that much could already be determined by simple probability. We are still a long way from truly seeing this World Cup indisputably defined by the likes of Portugal, Belgium, Croatia, and Sweden. For all we could already know, this could still just as well turn out to be a tournament for Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and England.

Edited by SeanMurrayI on Jun 27th 2018 at 1:36:37 PM

Between all the surprise victories and the weird teams that are qualifying, and now Germany being the bottom nation in their group, I'm willing to call this a darkhorse cup already. Maybe it'll change going forward, but for now, I think the name fits pretty well.

Serbia 0-2 Brazil (goals here)

Brazil was pretty much in control of the match, save for a brief period in the beginning of the second half. In the first half, Coutinho dinked it over Stojkovic after a disrupting pass by Paulinho, while, in the second half, Thiago Silva headed it in after a corner by Neymar.

Serbia had their best phase between both goals, but Serbia was unlucky in their few chances in the final third. Brazil will play Mexico in the round of 16.

Switzerland 2-2 Costa Rica (goals here).

A consolation draw for Costa Rica, who managed to equalize twice (the second one through a penalty at the very end that funnily enough hit Yann Sommer's back and went in).

Switzerland will play against Sweden in the round of 16, with Lichsteiner and Schär unavailable for said match due to accumulated yellows (which means their defense will be weaker).

Sweden and Switzerland is a pairing that makes me really happy. Both names sound a lot alike in portuguese, and it'll be fun to see the commentators getting their tongues into knots trying to cover the game.

For what it's worth, brazil actually played well this time around. It was a deserved win. Sad to see Serbia go, but they just weren't up to par this time.

There's only been one real surprise thus far, that's Germany's early elimination.

I even remember saying here back in December when the groups were drawn that this tournament could very well have multiple so-called "groups of death," and virtually no qualifying nations were looking like "easy" pushovers. So far, that much has proven true, but there's still only ONE true "dark horse" already qualified for the final sixteen that almost no one could have anticipated from these group draws, and that's Sweden.

Edited by SeanMurrayI on Jun 27th 2018 at 4:39:55 AM

I am interested on Group H's resolution. Who do you want to qualify?