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i know in nfl there was a kicker who claimed he had a kick hit a wire and change direction. But egg shaped balls tend to do funny things in the air and kicks can slice after starting straight. This one looks weird cause a round ball should be a parabolic.
 
Leonormous Boozer said:
Exactly
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Your Honor, the witness is being nonresponsive and is not answering the question. I request permission to treat the witness as hostile.

TRF_Olyy said:
Pretty conclusive evidence it didn't hit the wire, tbf
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Nah. The idea behind the chip in the ball is to track things that we might not be able to see with the naked eye. In this case, things are reversed. We can clearly see that the ball moved irregularly, yet the system didnt flag it. If anything, this is fairly conclusive evidence that the system/protocol/VARchip failed to work as intended.
 
Leonormous Boozer said:
England have def benefitted from big market reffing here. Presuming Argentina win Fifa have exactly what they want.
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Well that’s just absolute nonsense. Norway only have themselves to blame for losing. Had Sorloth not been selfish and passed to Haaland when he had a free run on goal at 1-0 then the game is over. 2-0 down we’re not coming back. We’ve definitely not benefited from biased refereeing in the tournament as a whole. Kane was denied a pen against Congo, the penalty that Mexico got in the last game was harsh - and you could argue that the Spence one today shouldn’t have been overturned. It seems like for some of you it’s any opportunity to knock England - all a bit childish really.

Now, I don’t think we’ll win the World Cup - but we’re in the semis anything can happen. Fully expecting Argentina to get the job done against Switzerland. Hopefully Spain and France properly slug it out on Tuesday and it goes to extra-time. We’d be underdogs in the final if we got there but given the choice, I think Spain are easier to deal with than France.
 
Cruz_del_Sur said:
Your Honor, the witness is being nonresponsive and is not answering the question. I request permission to treat the witness as hostile.
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I thought it was a good joke.

Disallowed goal - I'd say if I was bothered I could find a handful.of goals in this tournament that similar challenges didn't get a goal disallowed (Norway's today could be argued tbh) - also don't think it made a difference. Argentina had a gear that Egypt couldn't handle, it'd only give them more time to win the game.

Separately:

Lads - think I'm trolling or full of **** all you want, I genuinely don't care. I'm one of a handful here watching this tournament and not caring who wins. And doing so I've seen the followong:

A very strange call to keep Portugal in the tournament - preferred Portugal to win that one.

A strange call to not allow Egypt extend their lead - had no preference there.

A strange call / potential tech error / potential mistake to allow England equalise - would have preferred Norway there.

I never mentioned any of the above in time but I found Pickford taking a nap after hitting his own man and a Norwegian getting booked for it very strange and it compelled me to comment.

I don't care about this sport. I think FIFA are reprehensible. I think my nation's incompetence in it is only a benefit to rugby and GAA and I prefer both of those. But I think FIFA are rotten to the core and uts not a level playing field. (Amd that's the way of the world, I've literally admitted to it in the current Japan v Ireland thread)

Go back to South Korea in 2002. Henry v Ireland 2010. Lampard v Germany 2010 (when Germany were a far bigger deal than England). Ronaldo playing the first two games of this cup. Balogun playing v Belgium.

Find me a couple of examples of the less advantageous team to Fifa getting these breaks and I'll put it down to weirdness or human error but I just don't trust it.
 
Meant no offense Booz, was geniunely curious. Game s about to start but this one is quick and easy.

Leonormous Boozer said:
I'd say if I was bothered I could find a handful.of goals in this tournament that similar challenges didn't get a goal disallowed
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That's a bit of a whataboutism. The disallowed goal followed every single part of the rules and protocols to a t. Not buts no ifs. There was a foul, the foul was clear and obvious, the ref missed it, that exact foul lead to the counterattack that led to the goal, no argentine player touched the ball since the foul was committed till the goal was scored and the foul was committed on one of our central defenders so it s reasoanble easy to argue that our defense was caught off guard by the counter. Ticks every single box.
 
Cruz_del_Sur said:
Meant no offense Booz, was geniunely curious. Game s about to start but this one is quick and easy.


That's a bit of a whataboutism. The disallowed goal followed every single part of the rules and protocols to a t. Not buts no ifs. There was a foul, the foul was clear and obvious, the ref missed it, that exact foul lead to the counterattack that led to the goal, no argentine player touched the ball since the foul was committed till the goal was scored and the foul was committed on one of our central defenders so it s reasoanble easy to argue that our defense was caught off guard by the counter. Ticks every single box.
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Ah look I don't disagree and as I said, immaterial. Just one of those decisions that I don't think needs the microscope.

It's 2am here and I'm staying up as long as I can to watch Argentina (definitely not up.to watch Swissball), so I'm too far gone to think of rugby equivalents but I've definitely had the "correct by the letter but probably against the flow of the game" opinion when a rugby TMO has gone back a long way to disallow a try.

Last thing I'll say about any of it is the following (because at this point, any finalist / winner is good.for.the coffers).

I grouped England in with the other big market teams in my initial post - it genuinely wasn't a "I hate those guys" post. (Which I've had before - I incorrectly said the peno Kane won v France in the last world cup was BS on here)

But look, everyone is free to see it as they want. I'm from a semi important rugby nation and recognise the favours we get, I'm from one of the two most important counties in Ireland in terms of profitable gaelic football and was against how Dublin used to never have to play a match away from their home ground. And I'm very overzealous in arguing for Leinster against what other rugby fans see as an injustice in us playing multiple home games including semi finals in Lansdowne Rd (a bit outdated as there is no rule against a home ground semi anymore).

I feel like I'm pretty well rounded and even handed here - and I didn't think it needed to be said but don't treat what I say in real time as gospel, I don't but I haven't seen any proof to dismiss my concern in this match, the Argentina incident (which has the most conjecture of the three) or the Croatia non goal. Even on review after the France Morocco game I felt Mbappe bought his peno but it was so borderline I didn't think it was worth a convo.

Equally, I take Fifa comms with a grain of salt and, in today's case, the Norwegian players arguing the point without the assistance of slow-mo quite convincing. It's probably take the smaller market team getting the rub to convince me and these occasions are so rare and generally benefit the dominant side that it's unlikely.

So people are free to consider me a troll, nonsensical, a see you next Tuesday. But they're probably wasting energy doing so!



Side angle fwiw - I might be being tricked by frame rates but just doesn't look right to me.
 
Demo Antonio GIF by Crafture


Red card for diving, maybe football isn't so cooked after all
 
This appeared reasonable and sound, until i noticed she, supposedly a footie laws analyst, kept describing parabolas as rainbow arches.

 
The ball clearly doesn't hit anything. FIFA shows evidence the ball doesn't hit anything. The path of the ball is odd. but same time it's nothing too freaky
Norway lost when Sorloth didn't even bother to look for Haaland in that 2-on-1.

Hell of an effort by Norway this comp but they need some more playmakers for Haaland next time.

England is pretty unimpressive outside of Jude. Kinda gives a similar feeling to most World Cups. We are playing much better football on the whole, but I just feel like Argentina are gonna beat us 3-2.

Kane was disappointing, an obvious dive in his own half that led to the Norway goal. Should be acting better than that with his age, talent and leadership.
 
We can talk about England getting the rub of the green, but there’s nothing more greener and rubberier than swinging your leg at an attempted cross and it flying in the top corner.

Again, maybe if Pickford didn’t have the reach of a Tyrannosaurus Rex he could have saved it.
 
Welsh Exile said:
England better hope for a strong ref

View attachment 26280
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Argentina’s air of entitled arrogance is really starting to wind me up. Yeah they won the last World Cup but their attitude and approach to the game absolutely stinks. Who the **** do they think they are?. We’re going to get absolutely screwed by a **** weak referee, I’m calling it now. If this is a football match, they don’t have a chance of beating us - if they get a pathetic referee that they can bully and intimidate then we’re in trouble. They better appoint a strong, no nonsense referee.
 
OllyM97 said:
Argentina’s air of entitled arrogance is really starting to wind me up. Yeah they won the last World Cup but their attitude and approach to the game absolutely stinks. Who the **** do they think they are?. We’re going to get absolutely screwed by a **** weak referee, I’m calling it now. If this is a football match, they don’t have a chance of beating us - if they get a pathetic referee that they can bully and intimidate then we’re in trouble. They better appoint a strong, no nonsense referee.
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I hope they pick the biggest Messi fan boy ref in the world.
 
Joking aside I agree this Argentina team aren’t very likeable but when has an Argentina side ever been likeable? They’re not Brazil.
 
It's probably the pick of the semi finals for me.

Spain vs France is a very good team vs a better one imo.

England v Argentina is more even, I'd probably give the edge to England but then Argentina are the proven tournament team - it also has the potential to be the most shithouse 120mins ever before a shootout a bit like Netherlands v Argentina 4 years ago.
 
I wonder if the Norwegian Prime Minister &/ King, will call up Infantino about the ball hitting spidercam, ruling out England's first goal, and meaning that extra time never happened...
 
Leonormous Boozer said:
It's probably the pick of the semi finals for me.

Spain vs France is a very good team vs a better one imo.

England v Argentina is more even, I'd probably give the edge to England but then Argentina are the proven tournament team - it also has the potential to be the most shithouse 120mins ever before a shootout a bit like Netherlands v Argentina 4 years ago.
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England look like they’re channelling their inner Argentina with all the diving and what not they’ve been doing. Going to be a **** show I reckon.
 

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