No Irish, No Yanks, No Clogs - FIFA World Cup 2018

http://imgur.com/hAMPzIC

Scathing from Hummels (apols for sun link, couldn't find another). Germany still have two snoozers ahead of them but this is the first in forever they are somewhat in disarray.

I'd guess that Hector will be back for the rest of the group.

They're lucky in that they're facing probably two of the three worst teams in the competition next.

Agreed, though Sweden is solely responsible for keeping both Italy and Holland out of the WC. That must account for... something.

it's all espionage

South Korea's World Cup team responded to spying by the Swedish team by swapping their jerseys so that Sweden couldn't tell them apart.

Taeguk Warriors coach Shin Tae-yong told reporters Sunday that his team swapped around their numbers after a member of Sweden's coaching staff was caught trying to spy on their closed training session in Austria earlier this month.

"We switched them around because we didn't want to show our opponents everything and to try and confuse them," said Shin.

"They might know a few of our players but it is very difficult for Westerners to distinguish between Asians," he added.

The Swedish spy first tried to gain intel on the South Koreans by approaching the team's training base and posing as a tourist, although his plan was quickly foiled. He later convinced a local couple who lived near the camp to let him use their house and set up a high performance telescope and video camera.

"It took a long car journey up the mountains to reach the house, but it was a perfect spot to observe the Korean team’s training," Lars Jacobsson, the Swedish spy, said Sunday according to Reuters.

Sweden's coach Janne Andersson has apologized, saying that Sweden analyzes every opponent before a match, but they may have crossed a line.

"It’s very important that we show respect for opponents, always and in every way. If it has been perceived in another way, we apologize," he said.

Still, South Korea seemed unfazed by the incident.

"All coaches probably feel their opponents are always spying on them," Shin said. "I think it’s perfectly natural that we all try to get as much information on each other as we can."

In recent matches between Bolivia and Senegal, only two Korean players wore their usual numbers, Shin added.

South Korea and Sweden face off on Monday at 3 p.m. local time.

ruben ostlund's next movie should be about lars jacobsson

tip for the Koreans: watch out for that tall blonde guy on the Swedish team

a good read from romelu lukaku about his childhood https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/romelu-lukaku-ive-got-some-things-to-say

oh wow that's a great piece <3

mighty

fantastic

Croatia's Kalinic sent home for refusing to come on as a sub.

lol dick

Somewhere a Croatian equivalent of Ian Wright will be doing his nut right now.

"some of boys died committing genocide for this flag, fucking disgrace" etc...

This world cup has been so good, but the one downer about it throws into sharp relief the worthlessness of our pundit classes, and the need liquidate the lot of them.

omg that Lukaku piece!!

incredible spurs action today

https://media1.tenor.com/images/dad1b4819abfda4579d97df63df16b4b/tenor.gif

he better be ready

absurd early yellow. gonna be a sending-off in this one

sweden more aggressive than i feared, son even got in behind momentarily

Berg still utterly useless I see.

korea keeper already a cult figure

Well Cho’s putting in the work.

this referee is kind of dreadful

that is a stonewall yellow card ffs

lee seung-woo is a bit of a unit

he's a zwei meter mann

Awful refereeing, but also kinda awful attacking from both teams.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yeah that was a muddle. Roll on the second half I guess.

that's a pen. boring.

VAR working surprisingly well, tbh.

Yeah

it's been quietly efficient on the whole, i guess i can tune out one more thing for TV people to talk shite about

still the Koreans were into the Swedish box before the ref stopped play, something ridiculous is bound to happen eventually

Let's review the review :-( xp

If they'd scored the goal would just have been cancelled, right? They got the ball and began the contra through illegal means.

i'm sure that's what would happen but it would be clumsy and stupid, especially for people at the ground. it's not very likely so i'm not that exercised by it but aesthetically i'm still not totally into rewinding after that much play

impossible to spoil this match tbf

itv commentators baffled by granqvist taking the oen revealing they've done less research for their job than ppl I know have done for fantasy football

well there's a surprise. they're only unpaid amateurs tho so you can't expect them to follow football with any seriousness.

I'd like to propose giving a 30kv stun taser to the ref, any dissent over decisions or smartmouthing and you get zapped. Saves all the fucking about with camera rooms in some secret bunker, and would add entertainment.

Granqvist 12 in a season in Holland, though I guess most people score 12 in a season in Holland at some point or other.

you could literally hear McCoist forming his opinions from a list of recent results at the start of this game btw

Korea be needin' reunification

tell you what, there's been some absolute shit technique in the tournamnet up to now, so many over/underhit passes

lee seung-woo is a bit of a unit

― ogmor, Monday, 18 June 2018 12:32 (one hour ago)Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this wasn't lee seung-woo but kim shin-wook! BBC had wrongly matched names and numbers; clearly the subterfuge continues

there are about five Kims in the squad, but it's always amateur hour at the beeb.

Granqvist 12 in a season in Holland, though I guess most people score 12 in a season in Holland at some point or other.

― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Monday, June 18, 2018 3:34 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

harsh but fair

more like Can't Scorea