World Cup - Thrilling final Sunday!!!

[William Gaatjes]

Zidane is that you?

I am so much a fan of soccer that i had to look up who he is.

 

[sdifox]

Haha oh wow, would have figured we at least would have had a team. Shows how much I follow this stuff lol.

1986 was the first and only time Canada qualified.

 

[KMFJD]

I am so much a fan of soccer that i had to look up who he is.

in the world cup final even

 

[KMFJD]

1986 was the first and only time Canada qualified.

we didn't score one goal...

 

[William Gaatjes]

in the world cup final even

Do you not know his Marvel villain name ?

Spoiler

Hammerhead

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Haha oh wow, would have figured we at least would have had a team. Shows how much I follow this stuff lol.

You do have a team, they just suck. Maybe Canada could spearhead a movement to invent snow soccer. Sort of like hockey, but without sticks. You'd be good at that.

 

[KMFJD]

 

[sdifox]

Lol

 

[Red Squirrel]

You do have a team, they just suck. Maybe Canada could spearhead a movement to invent snow soccer. Sort of like hockey, but without sticks. You'd be good at that.

Probably. That should be a thing actually. Snow soccer. Essentially it would be soccer but played in about 10cm of snow.

 

[BudAshes]

Probably. That should be a thing actually. Snow soccer. Essentially it would be soccer but played in about 10cm of snow.

Can we allow fighting as well?

 

[Ns1]

I'm putting my entire bonus on Argentina.

 

[sdifox]

I'm putting my entire bonus on Argentina.

Only counts if you bet your research grant

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Probably. That should be a thing actually. Snow soccer. Essentially it would be soccer but played in about 10cm of snow.

How about broken glass soccer? Strew the field with pieces of broken glass before the game starts. If you want to flop you're going to lose some blood for the privilege.

 

[Muse]

How about broken glass soccer? Strew the field with pieces of broken glass before the game starts. If you want to flop you're going to lose some blood for the privilege.

Flopping happens, I saw Mbappe do it (the young French superstar, and BTW he did get a yellow card for flopping), but 90+% of the time I see guys go down in the WC it's legit. At least 1/2 the time a foul is not called. It's the nature of soccer (AKA football or futball other than in the USA), you take the good with the bad. It really is a great game. I wouldn't miss the final.

The sport requires a lot of courage, fabulous conditioning for those playing at a high level (all those guys playing in the WC have very low body fat), and a high tolerance for pain... the pain of high levels of fatigue, constant bruising and worse, the need to fight on instantly no matter what happens. It's "the world's sport" for a reason.

 

[TXHokie]

Soccer -- it's the one worldwide popular sport that the US isn't so "winning" at. Europe is still top notch.

 

[Muse]

Had a hard time voting. I voted for France because I know they were favored a couple days ago 2:1. They have some top notch players -- Mbappe, Pogba, Griezmann, Kante. A Belgium player (who they just beat) said that when Kante's on his game they will win 95% of the time. He's a diminutive midfielder. Modric will have his hands full with Kante, but Modric is a fantastic talent and may be up to it, we'll see. He's amazingly fit... after 120 minutes in the quarter final he was running with the pep he had in the first 5 minutes, it seemed! Modric is also the equal of Griezmann for service, i.e. free kicks, corner kicks. That's really a big thing in soccer. If you can't get the ball to where it's a threat on dead ball plays you are at a huge disadvantage.

Croatia has great players, they are fit, maybe more tired than France, having played a lot more to get here with the extra time games, but they may have enough left in the tank to upset France, and IMO it wouldn't be that major of an upset. I will root for Croatia! They are a Cinderella story. They've had 3 coaches in the last 4 years, a lot of their fans were giving up on them, now they are on the cusp of unimaginable success. I really like their coach, Dalic. He predicted a win. I won't hold it against him, there's no arrogance in it. I'm hoping he's right... but I voted France.

Of course, in soccer there's a big element of chance, good fortune. I thought Brazil played well enough to beat Belgium, but it didn't happen. Croatia are definitely a threat to beat France. When Spain lost to Russia in this tournament it was said that it was the greatest upset in WC history. Spain played possession to the point of boredom. The final won't be a boring game, there will be thrills.

 

[Muse]

CROATIA STRONK
UNGLUND WEAK

Fun fact. Besides being Italian im also half croatian. My chance visit to the Motherland (and associated vibes) is 90% of what is making croatia win.

No seriously WHAT LUCK, we have a team barely good enough to qualify but somehow we are in the final ..

Bonus: the local 2018 world cup anthem

Love it, punk rock Croatian pub going wild in song. This time next year I should have gigabit fiber internet and this would look awesome. Party down in September, DigDog!

 

[Muse]

Haha oh wow, would have figured we at least would have had a team. Shows how much I follow this stuff lol.

It has to have a lot to do with the weather. Canada's too cold a lot of the time to play soccer, right? Don't know, haven't been on Canadian soil since I was 2 YO.

Canada's more into ice hockey, right? They are always a threat to win the Olympics in hockey. But soccer? Not warm enough. Now Iceland qualified for the WC, which was a surprise, but it's because they invested in indoor facilities to train.

It's art compared to handegg

And curling! Sheesh!!!

Haha oh wow, would have figured we at least would have had a team. Shows how much I follow this stuff lol.

I imagine Canada had a team. USA had a team but they were eliminated in qualification by losing to Trinidad Tabaggo. Soccer is huge world wide. Countries you'd never imagine would be competitive can be formidable. There were 32 qualifying countries. Russia qualified although rated 70th in the world only because they got an automatic berth for being the host nation. If they'd had to qualify like everyone else they probably wouldn't have played in the tournament. FIFA is talking about expanding the pool for next WC in 2022 up to 48 teams, IIRC. I'm not sure that's a good idea.

Soccer -- it's the one worldwide popular sport that the US isn't so "winning" at. Europe is still top notch.

And this is amazing. The semi finals were all European teams. The great majority of the players in this WC play in England for a living, something like 80+. The next most is Italy, which has 12. It's no wonder the English went into a frenzy when they thought they might win the WC for the second time, the other time being 1966, when they hosted. Hosting countries enjoy an advantage, of course.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Flopping happens...... you take the good with the bad.

No you don't, you fix the bad. REAL sports use extra officials and replays to get the really significant calls on which games are won or lost right. When idiots threaten the integrity of REAL sports, the REAL sports adapt. Bad calls hurt football, football added replays and extra officials. When baseball games were won or lost on bad home run or foul/fair or safe/out calls baseball added replay. When the four corners offense and stall tactics were ruining basketball basketball added a shot clock. When flopping crept into the NBA the NBA acted swiftly and made it a technical foul so that it will go against the crybaby idiot trying to cheat. Hockey did the same, diving is called against the idiot and his team is penalized for cheating. Baseball is working on pace of games to improve things, tennis added electronic eyes to call in/out, horse racing and auto racing use steward inquiries to fix problems rather than allowing the wrong winner based on a missed call. Every REAL sport wants to get it right and every REAL sport has rules in place to punish those who blatantly cheat. Only in soccer can a grown man fall down and fake crying like a little girl and be rewarded for it. That's not something you take, it's something you change and while it remains as a major factor in determining outcome of games soccer will remain the joke its always been.

 

[Muse]

No you don't, you fix the bad. REAL sports use extra officials and replays to get the really significant calls on which games are won or lost right.

Soccer's a different animal entirely. In baseball you can use slow motion video to see if a runner is safe. In soccer, determining if a player deserves a foul on a tackle is split second, there's only one official on the field of play, the others are on the sidelines. For the WC they have VAR, a video replay official system, but mainly they use that for things other than tackle fouls. People go down and are in pain, that doesn't automatically result in a foul. I don't think you are watching enough soccer to get what's going on with this.

Your take on soccer as not being a "REAL" sport is laughable. It's the world's sport, you can dismiss it or ignore it, you're fully entitled to do that. However, you're consciously ignoring it, that doesn't change what it is for other people.

 

[DigDog]

Less talking more Hrvatska

 

[Zanovar]

Voted France,want Croatia to win.

 

[Zanovar]

France just scored

 

[SKORPI0]

France 1- Croatia -0 18 minutes.

 

[Zanovar]

Expect France to spend the next 70 mins odd in their own half.(i hope not)