FIFA Football World Cup 2018 Russia Thread

[Oleks 1,993]

Some interesting games we have today. Salah plays on his birthday and after an injury, while Uruguay have to prove they are strongest in Group A, and Spain and Portugal, hopefully, will put up a show (if they don't agree on a draw, because the other teams in the group look so much weaker)

[Jon the VGNerd 885]

4 hours ago, Oleks said:

Some interesting games we have today. Salah plays on his birthday and after an injury, while Uruguay have to prove they are strongest in Group A, and Spain and Portugal, hopefully, will put up a show (if they don't agree on a draw, because the other teams in the group look so much weaker)

My guess is that the draw was intentionally fixed instead of computer-generated because they wanted to make the group stages more interesting. Dunno if that was considered a wise move, really.

[Oleks 1,993]

44 minutes ago, Jon the VGNerd said:

My guess is that the draw was intentionally fixed instead of computer-generated because they wanted to make the group stages more interesting. Dunno if that was considered a wise move, really.

Manual draws always seem somewhat fixed. But this time we have such strong and more or less even groups as D and H, and on the other hand the host get the weakest group - "by sheer luck", of course.

Meanwhile, Uruguay - Egypt 1 - 0. No Salah = no party. A solid game for El-Shenawy, but mostly boring stuff.

[Jon the VGNerd 885]

Yep. The Egypt-Uruguay match seemed rather underwhelming in terms of performance. And it seemed the Egypt goalkeeper simply stood there as if letting Uruguay get the lead instead of deflecting it, but oh well.

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,835]

Uruguay won!!! 1-0 against Egypt!!

They scored the point a couple minutes before the match ended.

[Laurel Crown 112]

Russia - Saudi Arabia
I know Putin's team was gonna win but not like this. XD
Pretty underwhelming match with the russians dominating and  scoring five times, the last one at 94' by Golovin, while the arabians felt undertone for the entirety of the match

Egpyt - Uruguay
Half expected a dominance from Uruguay but the egyptians played pretty well despite Salah being out and having against Cavani and Suarez. Pretty boring match tho but a good one for the africans despite Gimenez's score. It could have been worse.

Morocco - Iran
My bet was for Morocco since it had Benatia and Hakimi. One-sided for the african team but a shocking finale as the decisive goal was made due to a mistaken headshot from Bouhaddouz.

Spain - Portugal
Best match so far. CR7 godly as ever when he seeks the chance in offense but also a good job from Spain thanks to Diego Costa. Overall a funny match.

 

[Oleks 1,993]

Today, after two excruciatingly boring games Portugal and Spain finally delivered some entertainment. Despite a number of errors leading to goals, I, as a neutral observer, really enjoyed this match. Also, I expected more from Marocco, but it seems they will end up with zero points.

[The Recherche 29,968]

@Sondash Studios

I apologize for the second message, but your FIFA thread has been merged with this one. Due to some minor misunderstandings, we had left your thread open while this one existed, but that has since been resolved. As a result, the previous moderation has been undone, and your thread has merged.

I apologize once again for the confusion, but it has been resolved now. Thank you for your continued understanding, and happy posting!

[Frostgage 7,975]

once Ronaldo pulled up his shorts to show off his thigh muscles you knew that free kick was going in the back of the net

Edited June 15, 2018 by Frostgage

[Oleks 1,993]

So, day 3 is over.

France – Australia: France looked meh, but I hope they’re just warming up. Australia put up a decent fight, and I wish them good luck in the next games.

Argentina – Iceland: even though Argentina probably deserved the second penalty, I’m very happy for Iceland, the only team I really care about in this World Cup. Halldórsson is a hero. Sampaoli made some weird choices – and look where it got him.

Denmark – Peru: I found this game surprisingly entertaining. A great match for Schmeichel, and a load of wasted moments for Peru.

Croatia – Nigeria: the Eagles have an interesting team, but Croatia simply outclassed them. I won’t be surprised if Iceland and Croatia get into 1/8, leaving Argentina behind.

[Divine plywood 1,239]

France - Australia was the first match that included use of V.A.R. in a World Cup history. Not entire sure how I feel about those cameras. They make game  more fair, sure, but kinda break the pace of the match... Guess there are more positive than negative effects...  

I'm glad that Icelad was able to play tie against Argentina, their defence was once again phenomenal, but I still feel bad for Messi. I would really love to see him winning world cup even once, poor man have had such a bad luck in the past finals.

Overall, quite entertaining third day of the tournament.

Edited June 16, 2018 by Divine plywood

[Nightfall Thunder 1,937]

5 minutes ago, Divine plywood said:

France - Australia was the first match that included use of V.A.R. in a World Cup history. Not entire sure how I feel about those cameras. They make game  more fair, sure, but kinda break the pace of the match... Guess there are more positive than negative effects...  

I'd agree...if VAR didn't get the decision wrong. It can be seen from replays that the Australia player got the ball for the penalty, so the referee's initial decision was correct. However, the use of VAR led him to believe that it was a penalty, when it wasn't. That's the problem with VAR, if they are going to use it, they have to get the decisions correct, or it'll just make them look even more stupid. 

Either way, I'll agree that I'm happy about Iceland's point, and that it was a fun day of games overall.

However, this world cup is rapidly turning into the tournament of own goals and penalties 

[Oleks 1,993]

8 hours ago, Divine plywood said:

Not entire sure how I feel about those cameras. They make game  more fair, sure, but kinda break the pace of the match

Sometimes players' futile appeals to the referee take as much time as watchcing a replay (or even longer), so breaking the pace isn't really a problem if it helps to make a fair decision. But there is still a room for error, because refs are humans after all.

[Divine plywood 1,239]

That's very good point you made there Oleks

From today's games Germany - Mexico will be the absolute pinnacle for me, but Switzerland - Brasilia might be full of drama too.

[Oleks 1,993]

2 minutes ago, Divine plywood said:

From today's games Germany - Mexico will be the absolute pinnacle for me, but Switzerland - Brasilia might be full of drama too.

Mexico teams always have a bunch of good players, but rarely live up to the expectations. I hope with time will be different - Marquez deserves a good farewell.

Switzerland - Brazil must be good. I'm expecting a penalty for Neymar , because Ronaldo and Messi already got theirs.

Meanwhile, go Costa Rica!  

[IronM17 5,362]

Well, I am upsed. This was the worst opening game from germany I ever have seen. I knew that it would be hard after the last test games, but this today was ridiculous. Mexico win is so much deserved. First catastrophal season from the 1. FC Köln (the german club I am fan of) who goes into the second league without any chancess, and now this. I am so done at the moment.  

[Oleks 1,993]

Congrats to everyone who supported Mexico! A great game and a wonderful result!

11 minutes ago, IronM17 said:

Well, I am upsed. This was the worst opening game from germany I ever have seen. I knew that it would be hard after the last test games, but this today was ridiculous. Mexico win is so much deserved. First catastrophal season from the 1. FC Köln (the german club I am fan of) who goes into the second league without any chancess, and now this. I am so done at the moment.  

Man, it's just a loss in a game, not the end of the world. And your team really tried - 26 shots being the evidence. I'm sure they'll get far in this World Cup. 

And my condolences on Köln's relegation. But again, my favorite teams failed this season too (the national team didn't even qualify for the WC), but for me it's far from a tragedy. 

 

[IronM17 5,362]

25 minutes ago, Oleks said:

Man, it's just a loss in a game, not the end of the world. And your team really tried - 26 shots being the evidence. I'm sure they'll get far in this World Cup. 

Well, this is how I am often when I get emotional after a lost game. I already feel better now. And with the "I am done", I mean with football, not with the world. Anyway, I never expected, that germany can defend the titel (my personal favorite of the titel is still Brazil), but I was not expecting this game. I just hope, that they will play better against sweden and south korea. I guess South Korea should be not a big thing, but sweden can be a hard game. We will see.

[Laurel Crown 112]

Well played matches from Germany-Mexico and Brasil-Switzerland.
This World Cup is getting more and more interesting the days passes.

Also special mention to yesterday being the National Day of Penalty Kicks XD

[Oleks 1,993]

So far, none of the favorites who played against "weaker" teams delivered a convincing performance, which makes this World Cup even more interesting.

Who would have thought that Serbia would lead their group after the first round? Costa Rica did their best, but Kolarov, after a great season in Roma, showed some quality for his national team as well.

And Brazil... Having Firmino, Costa and Taison on the bench Tite chose Ferna and Augusto as subs who disappeared on the pitch. But that doesn't change the fact that Switzerland did a wonderful job defending.

[Hachiroku 127]

this is the year mexico wins it all

[RiseofSpectrum 359]

From what I've seen so far, Spain seems to be the strongest candidate. They have the most defined style of football so far, and it was only due to a few silly mistakes they allowed Portugal to score 3 goals on them. It's still early, of course, but so far I'm more inclined to believe Spain will win it.

Disappointed with Brazil and Germany. Don't understand why Firmino doesn't play, and, without a proper striker, Germany look toothless.

I liked Mexico and Portugal a lot. Both surprised me by their defensive cohesion in relative to their opponents, but most importantly, both teams seem deadly on the counter attack, all they need is a little better definition in the final pass and they could very well invoke terror on any team.

[Ganondorf8 11,290]

England finally gets to play their first game today and I'm hoping that they do better than they did during the last World Cup.

[Divine plywood 1,239]

So far this Word Cup have been somewhat as surprising as last hockey world championships... Mexico deserved their victory, no doupt. Germany's first half was absolute disaster  Didn't see that coming.

Today's  Sweden - South Korea will be quite even match and interensting to watch for sure. So far Sweden have been little more energetic in the first half of the game

England, well, is England...  I wouldn't necesserily get my hopes up. They have strong team this year, but their recent history isn't that convincing. As seen in Germany's case, front-runners have lot of pressure from the high expectations and results could be surprising... Still, England should be able to win Tunisia with ease.

Belgium is one of the strongest teams this year, this is probably their best team ever! They have good chance to go far in this year's tournament. This game should be pretty much obvious

[Oleks 1,993]

I missed all yesterday's games due to being on the road, but from what I've seen in the highlights, Belgium delivered the strongest performance so far. However, Panama may not be the right opponent to determine the real strength of the Red Devils.

Also, it looked like England controlled the game most of the time, but Tunisia got an illogical penalty and nearly made it. They were unlucky that the English team has Kane.

Sweden won, and their match against Germany will be superinteresting.