Women’s World Cup France 2019, 7 June - 7 July

Tonight should be good as well. Based on performance across the tournament as a whole, i would go for Netherlands, based on performances in the knock-out stages, Sweden. Netherlands can definitely step up a gear.

My memory of VAR at the Men's World Cup was that it was heavily used during the group stages and less and less during the knockouts.

It's the uncertainty and waiting and faffing around that ruins everything - any evolution that kills or undermines the most basic unit of joy in a match feels insanely short sighted on behalf of the authorities. It's like it's been devised by people who have never watched football in a stadium.

devised for people who've never watched football in a stadium, by people who've never watched football in a stadium

but i'm not sure how that accounts for the even more fundamentally stupid handball change

unless somebody at FIFA got fed up of explaining to thick bastards what intentionality means

Alternatively, sport is about human frailty and human error as much as feats of skill or strength or achievement and I don't see why referees should be excluded from that, other than to make a million armchair twats happy.

like i said before, half the time all VAR does is defer to another fallible ref no better than the one on the pitch anyway

Lol @ offsides being the easiest thing. It is...except that one with the tiniest bit of leg in it, or was it? *Checks VAR for five mins*

If it doesn't stop the TV money coming in FIFA or whoever are not gonna care.

highly recommend the first ep of this podcast, re: VAR:

https://atrpodcast.com

Lol @ offsides being the easiest thing

Indeed, the entire history of Association Football suggests otherwise.

Wasn't offside initially introduced to stop goal-hanging? The idea of policing every single call to the finest hair's breadth is extreme pedantry and will be the death of football. It can't work

otm

it is kind of hilarious given how extremely relaxed refs are about touch-line calls, which as far as i know are not subject to VAR yet result in a change of possession and are presumably much easier to call

(using VAR)

What do you mean by touch-line calls?

Sorry, whatever the hell you call out-of-bounds over here

I feel like the ball has to be about a foot out of bounds before it gets called and nobody ever really complains

Yes but that happens all the time, matches would last three hours if you had to use VAR for that!

Having said that, FIFA are stupid enough to do it.

why VAR the touchline when you could surround the pitch with spiked walls that gradually close in on the players over the 90 minutes?

Haha no I'm just saying that offside should be treated with the same level of "good enough"

Also I feel like the "challenge" system in tennis and baseball is useful in terms of limiting the number of times the game stops

offside "benefit of doubt goes to the attacking team" was tracer's "good enough" and always seemed okay to me. can honestly say
that i've never been outraged when the team i support concedes a goal that tv later shows the scorer was offside by a few inches or smthg.

noodle nails it upthread that it isn't designed with stadium going fans in mind at all with the added bonus that it's crap for tv viewera too!

ill go one further and say sterlings 94th minute goal shouldve stood

spirit of the game

I think giving teams 2 VAR challenges per half is a great idea

if i do say so myself

only the ref should have a var call

and it should never be mandated

and any player asking for it should be shot

or yellow carded

deems otm

yeah i think that would work

envisaging legions of keyboard tacticians angrily condemning this or that coach for using all their VAR challenges by the 80th minute when everyone of course knows that marginal calls are statistically more likely after the 82nd etc etc and then putting my head in the oven

it is kind of hilarious given how extremely relaxed refs are

always amazing to me how, with the fate of nations riding on games, no one ever really knows how much time's left. eight minutes of added time? sure, why not. one side is pressing forward when that ends? we'll just let things go until they score or turn the ball over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JFuWqwFg4

inverse of this is Clive Thomas refereeing Brazil-Sweden in 1978 WC and electing to adhere to injury time so specifically as to blow the whistle exactly as a corner is headed in. love to see it

(also enjoying the "great protests from the Brazilians" in fact being the players looking a bit pissed off then walking off the pitch as normal)

Not stopping the clock and refusing to keep accurate time to add at the end is so ridiculous. It’s simple to track the exact amount of time play was stopped and display that time to the audience and players.

lol exactly. bad form to blow the final whistle with the ball in the air heading towards the box.

still think each half should be 30 mins actual time with clock stopping every time ball out of play but then i think about what TV would do with the stoppages and i see enough of ray winstone and lads lads lads and everyone at half-time and can do without it during the actual game.

Also maybe goals should count for two points, one if they bounce

as an American it's kind of weird to watch a sport on TV with no commercial breaks (besides the one)...like, when am I supposed to go get a beer

not complaining though

er indoor will grab you one on her way to do the messages

you get get food/drink when there is a lull in the play which is basically most of the time. then u rush back when the crowd gets louder.

At my local MLS team's games, i sit in a premium section where the food and beer is free and we're allowed to take two at a time. Solves that prob easily.

out of curiosity is anyone in the uk even the tiniest bit offended by alex morgan sipping tea or is it just american trump supporters

loads of uk fans are performatively outraged but that's a symptom of how social media has made idiotic cunts of us all tbh

It seems more RuPaul’s Drag Race than Boston Harbour but idk if anyone cares either way.

I’ve warmed to her since finding out she was once reprimanded for being drunk and disorderly at the EPCOT Centre.

reprimanded for being tired and emotional, surely

Funnily enough some people were talking about in work this morning and one woman was all, "What a cheek!", she's an older lady, of Pakistani heritage, actually born and grew up in East Africa.

She probably just thought it was ill-mannered.

StuWall got angry and immediately tried to rebuy his seat three times only to be told itd been sold

I figured it was entirely directed at Piers Morgan

But he's Irish.

can u fuckin not