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

just in from a right hockeying from a mid leinster league reserve side iymk

good header that to win it

which of today’s matches is worth watching the full replay?

Important reporting

https://deadspin.com/the-worst-haircuts-of-the-world-cup-according-to-me-1826922771

Ozil should not be in that convo

(also i love him bcz he looks kinda like Buster Keaton or a silent film star)

he looks like marty feldman

ha yeah kinda!

i think i need her best haircut list for comparison, srsly like half of these are totally fine imo

most of those are fairly shit but there's quite a few that are fairly normal - shaved on the back and sides and with a left or right parting (ok I'm saying this normal because it's my haircut) for example, or the guy who just has a well-kept afro.

which of today’s matches is worth watching the full replay?

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), 19. juni 2018 00:42 (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

None of them, really, but I think Belgium played best?

which of today’s matches is worth watching the full replay?

first half of the england match, second half of the belgium game. neither of them are particularly classic mind you, but that sweden vs south korea game is awful

he looks like marty feldman

Definitely Buster Keaton crossed with Peter Lorre.

england passed unusually swiftly and directly tonight and the movement up front was generally pretty good. the team looked fairly balanced and I was surprised at how decent the midfield (esp henderson) looked, but mb tunisia flatter them

if jesse had his shooting boots and the ref wasn't on volgograd street crack, that match would've been far less of a contest

And if Tunisia could defend corners they'd have won 1-0.

and if all the players died it'd have been a draw

and if the mosquitos had formed together to make a naked streaker on the field

it would have been perfect

watched the first half as recommended, quite cracking! at least more enjoyable to watch than the saddo fests of recent england world cup efforts, which isnt saying much i know but still

wtf salah's hair is beautiful

Also mertens’ goal wowow (catching up, pacific time zone not ideal for this tournament)

That penalty Tunisia got was never a penalty and the contortions Irish pundits and journos are making to believe that it was to hone their England narratives are extreme.

Tunisia are a dire team.

theres that

but also it was a penalty

I think we can see that with VAR one or two successful implementations will be enough to sate some of its critics, but the reality is that it's just settling in as another part of the argument furniture. The details of its implementation are completely non-transparent (like everything to do with refereeing) so the pundits and audiences will now go back and forth about why VAR was or wasn't used, nothing is solved that wasn't already solved, and the magical moment of scoring a goal is gone forever, subject to perpetual video review.

While there hasn't been nearly as much standing around as I predicted, I still think it's absolute shitshow.

The more referees rely on video, the worse they get by the way.

when he swung back and made sure to hit yerman in the face

that made it a foul and a penalty when he did that

ppl argue about var because thy dont like the decision that doesnt make the decision an "argument"

Of course it's a game of opinions, so ultimately who fucking cares? It was given, it's a pen. I don't think that kind of decision (blocking off space with you arms on a ball neither player is physically capable of reaching) will get given again in the 2018/19 season, let alone in the rest of this tournament.

my VARgument completely unrelated to Walker chat. Just lining my opinions out once at a time before work.

I argue about VAR because (1) video replay adds extremely little to sport (2) the laws of football are completely immutable (3) subjecting every goal to review destroys the best part of every football game (4) it lowers the standards of referees.

Nothing to do with liking or disliking an decision.

Walker pen not given in any game in Serie A, BuLi, EPL, Ligue Un, or La Liga.

var good so far and once defending players adapt from cheating as a reflex it will benefit the game hugely imo

has anyone made a VARdy joke yet

the laws of football are completely immutable

They're not though are they

not trying to pile on but not they're not

lamonti are you and im only asking an england or man city or kyle walker fan and im only askin

Ref last night gave one medium-soft pen to TUN and denied ENG two medium-soft pens. He was a ‘leveller’, these things happen.

lamonti entirely correct on VAR

part of the fun of football is coining/chanting insults about their mother/issuing death fatwas at the hapless arsehole in black who has done some bad officiating, or laughing when the robbery goes your way. I can't be bothered with VAR.

just so cards on the table while discussing this

im not english and im aware number none isnt english

lads?

yeah the table is festooned with tricolours and pictures of the big fella what of it

no one in this thread has said anything about VAR that has been worth typing out and sharing, I think the peoples of the lesser britannic nations in particular should spend this morning respectfully contemplating a fine performance by their betters

I’m Scottish and support AFC Wimbledon, VAR is unlikely to have an appreciable impact on the success of any team I care about xxp

xp the whole of cork run screaming to the UN making screen motions with their hands

many and varied

I imagine it will take twenty years before someone from the poetic end of the football writing community eulogises the loved lost liminal seconds between the ball hitting the net and the disembodied approval from the VAR car, that thrilling suspension between scored and not-scored which was the most golden of all footballing moments.

they've probably got Andy Townsend to dust down his tactics truck and drive it over to Moscow

I’m a Trinidad supporter and VAR would have caught Peter Crouch pulling Brent Sancho’s dreadlocks when scoring in 2006, a grudge I will take to the grave with me, so I am all for it.

Colombia - Japan should be good. Japan have been appalling recently so it’ll be interesting to see whether they can get it together.

I'd completely forgotten about the horrible Le main of frog incident, but I just take it as a given that ROI are one of the small nations that prefer to punch below their weight and not make too much of a fuss about it!

I’m a Trinidad supporter and VAR would have caught Peter Crouch pulling Brent Sancho’s dreadlocks when scoring in 2006, a grudge I will take to the grave with me, so I am all for it.

I was just thinking about this when Lineker was grumbling about decisions never going England's way in the WC

the whole of cork run screaming to the UN making screen motions with their hands

― tired culché (darraghmac), Tuesday, June 19, 2018 8:11 AM (one hour ago)

???

i quite enjoyed ENG in the first few minutes: nippy and limber and connected and far less hateable -- then HK got his goal and the commentators switched into same old same old insufferable so i was delighted by the pen in terms both dramatic and moral, PRIDE GOES BEFORE A LOLSOME FALL MOFOS WORK FOR IT

which i guess they did but it was already less fun than it had been for those virginal first moments

reasons VAR is good: increases the arguments, image of putin's agents in an underground moscow bunker busily faking back-up footage to send to wikileaks etc , possiblity of a strong VAR-MIDGE interface at some point (swarm stopped play)

xp twas an attack on our sovereignty mick

The banks of the volga in june is like the hajj of midges

And if Tunisia could defend corners they'd have won 1-0.

― We can be herpes (Tom D.), Monday, 18 June 2018 23:45 (yesterday) Permalink

Kane was bought down a couple of times so at least a pen for England.

that whole area is basically the midge urals

Just think if the Nazis had made it past winter the fuckers wd've been eaten alive anyway

now Kane seems to been pondering the historical significance of the region, perhaps he could go bone-hunting at some of the local Wehrmacht death field sites - The Sun would love it!