World Cup 2014

I don't mean to disagree

but it was 100% clearcut

Yeah, it was give-able, but I can understand erring on the side of caution of giving early penalties in a world cup match. And just a bit after he failed to give another margin call to the Netherlands just outside the box. Ref is facilitating flow to the play and seems to have the respect of the players. In my mind, as someone who has ref'd many games, if you've got those two down, who cares about breaking down each play into a technical right/wrong?

not sure how much precedent there is for penalties given for purely dangerous play rather than obstruction of some kind

as someone who hasn't reffed any games but cares about defenders kicking ppl in the head, be serious ffs

lol now it balances out I spose

but its not good reffing

there's no one in the stands? is that cuz Spanish fans went home or something

It's not as black&white as you make it out to be
Xpost

The people in the lower stands are going to shaded free seats in the upper stands to escape the heat.

mexican(?) dudes on commentary for espn approx 1m x better than the usual english dregs

40+ degrees, sun. The stands = scorching

idk what wasn't b&w about it tbh, but by all means.....?

yikes

ref just isn't gonna give anything obv

that could have been a pen

i'm ok w/ that no-call, seemed incidental and hell he was taking on three defenders.

I'm pretty sure all these refs can recite the rule book backwards. But I guess the non black/white bit is if the player was playing the ball, made contact with the ball, wasn't acting maliciously and nobody got hurt, then maybe you can let it pass even though the rules were technically broken. I'm not disagreeing here, I totally believe if he'd blown the whistle it would be justified. But in the back of your mind of every ref is the shape of the overall game.

get better, in-agonizing-pain dude

why have one penalty now when we can have loads of them later?

(which he might have just fucked up)

lol at ass-to-head

forwards and defenders should wear electromagnet anklets that activate in the box. then we could do away with penalties forever

aside from kicks to the face anyway

can see the Dutch grinding this out now

fair answer popture, I am somewhat 'in character'

but also, IMO refs that let it run, let it even out, etc merely penalise skill, attack, ambition of touch ahead of aggression, recklessness and cynical fouls.

lol Bale dissing Spurs on the BT advert

nv what pier is that bale advert filmed at?

re: high feet, degree of dangerousness is the issue i think and i can understand why some refs don't automatically consider the high foot dangerous, angles and velocity etc should factor in

Xpost to darr - Popture's more or less said it in his (great) posts. Plus it's more easy for us as tv viewers to get a clearcut picture (for ourselves) having slo-mo's from every angle available

iTV player a real piece of shit huh?

Nick i didn't look properly, TV's behind me and i just glanced over when i heard him talking

looked a little like North Pier Blackpool at a glance but surely not

lots of nice green hills nearby, so i'm guessing it's somewhere low-key

Southsea maybe

this blackbeard vs. al capone shit is unbearable

contemplating cable just to avoid it

lol Bale dissing Spurs on the BT advert

Yes! That was hilarious. I used to play for Spurs, then I went to a good club. Zing!

Gio!

GET IN

Fuckkk

oh that was nice

fffffuuuuckk that must have felt good off his foot

yes!

w/ three people draped over em too

That felt like it was coming. Lingering question is whether the dutch can get out of the sluggish gear they are in and respond.

nice, keeper questionable tho?

willem- nah tbh! but no agreement so no point arguing itt- come to ilx after we'll fight all night :)

nice slo-mo of the goalkeeper splatting down like a beached whale

Cillessen is not very good

gio has come a long way from the faintly terrified teenager looking lost in the north london drizzle, really great to see that

nice pointless shot

wasn't that going out anyway?