**** 2018 WORLD CUP THREAD ***

Japan with the first ever win for an Asian country (AFC) over a South American opponent (CONMENBOL) at a World Cup. Impressive. And yes, the red was 100% justifiable. Arm extended in the box...you're going to be called for that 99 times out of 100.

Now Colombia has Poland and Senegal in their final 2 games.

Not looking good for Colombia at all.

El Keniano wrote:

SB runner. wrote:

Japan score 73rd minute. Score 2-1 in favor of Japan.

And Japan upsets Colombia. This is why I love football. And yes, the red card was justified.

Yuki must be over the moon right now...

Up to Senegal now to show a good representation for Africa. They have a quality side. Mané can make things happen, just hope that backline does not get intimidated by Lewandowski - Poland has an excellent team.

Let’s go at each other.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

I’m not a big fan with how Iceland plays the game. It’s not the beautiful game, because they park the bus. I know people get inspired by them because they are such a small nation, and people love underdogs. But a team like Spain, with great passing and soccer IQ, they’ll get picked a part.

However, they will make the game ugly, because they are so defensive, so it will not be easy for most teams that play them.

Iceland plays in a way that gives them the best chance to win. They also work as a cohesive unit better than any team that I have seen. Good teams can crush them with the right strategy, as we saw with the game against France in Euros 2016. But their opponent has to play with the right strategy, rather than have the backline kick the ball around for awhile and occasionally try to get Messi or Aguero involved, as we saw with Argentina. That's exactly what Iceland wants you to do.

Senegal playing very well, and getting great play from their attackers. Their speed an athleticism are causing a lot of problems for Poland.

Bad officiating to let that player on, giving Senegal a huge advantage. That was terrible...absolutely terrible

If anything senagal player was offsides when he came on the field.

2:18 wrote:

If anything senagal player was offsides when he came on the field.

He should have never been allowed on at that moment....I have never seen that happen, for an official to let a player on

while his team is on a counter attack. Totally unacceptable at this level of competition. .

2:18 wrote:

If anything senagal player was offsides when he came on the field.

Naw...Poland player interrupted the pass and kick the ball back towards the goalkeeper, so it wasn't offsides.

just terrible management on the ref's end, just not in the flow of the spirit of the game.

Senegal over Poland.

That's a huge upset. If the critics think Mexico beating Germany was a huge upset, this is on par with that.

This group might have just become the most interesting of the 8 groups.

Senegal and Japan with 3 points with Poland and Colombia (Easily the two favorites ahead of the games to advance) with 0.

I don't think either Poland or Colombia are dead...even with a tie in their next game (the two play each other), but are going to need help and will probably only get thru on goal differential.

Poland definitely has the harder road as Senegal was thought to be the weakest team in the group.

What? Going in to the tournament everyone knew that Group H was the closest in terms of parity and anyone could come out of it.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Naw...Poland player interrupted the pass and kick the ball back towards the goalkeeper, so it wasn't offsides.

just terrible management on the ref's end, just not in the flow of the spirit of the game.

I don't think the ref mis-handled this at all. When he signaled for the player to come on, the ball was still in the Polish side of the field and the Senegal player was a forward, who probably wouldn't have been tracking that far back anyways. It just so happens that the Polish player gets the ball on a pass and then decides a ridiculous back pass that had no chance of ever reaching the GK (or he grossly over-kicked it thinking the CB was further back than he actually was), all while Niang is coming back onto the field.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Senegal playing very well, and getting great play from their attackers. Their speed an athleticism are causing a lot of problems for Poland.

Bad officiating to let that player on, giving Senegal a huge advantage. That was terrible...absolutely terrible

Yep, how on earth did the referee and 4th official allow an "injured" player to come directly onto the field right near where the ball was being played? The player was given an obvious, unfair advantage that led directly to a goal.

And then why wasn't VAR used to overturn the referee's clear error?

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Senegal over Poland.

That's a huge upset. If the critics think Mexico beating Germany was a huge upset, this is on par with that.

This group might have just become the most interesting of the 8 groups.

Senegal and Japan with 3 points with Poland and Colombia (Easily the two favorites ahead of the games to advance) with 0.

I don't think either Poland or Colombia are dead...even with a tie in their next game (the two play each other), but are going to need help and will probably only get thru on goal differential.

Poland definitely has the harder road as Senegal was thought to be the weakest team in the group.

Most people who know anything knew this group was wide open and had Senegal as a dark horse in the World Cup, not the weakest. No way is it near the Mexico upset and really not nearly as big as people seem to think

Reality is real wrote:

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Senegal playing very well, and getting great play from their attackers. Their speed an athleticism are causing a lot of problems for Poland.

Bad officiating to let that player on, giving Senegal a huge advantage. That was terrible...absolutely terrible

Yep, how on earth did the referee and 4th official allow an "injured" player to come directly onto the field right near where the ball was being played? The player was given an obvious, unfair advantage that led directly to a goal.

And then why wasn't VAR used to overturn the referee's clear error?

I don't think VAR can be used to overturn a judgement error such as that because technically it is legal. Just a poor decision by the refs and lack of awareness from Poland

Watch the replay again. The ball was nowhere near the player when he was signaled onto the field:

https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/video/1258964035937

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Naw...Poland player interrupted the pass and kick the ball back towards the goalkeeper, so it wasn't offsides.

just terrible management on the ref's end, just not in the flow of the spirit of the game.

I don't think the ref mis-handled this at all. When he signaled for the player to come on, the ball was still in the Polish side of the field and the Senegal player was a forward, who probably wouldn't have been tracking that far back anyways. It just so happens that the Polish player gets the ball on a pass and then decides a ridiculous back pass that had no chance of ever reaching the GK (or he grossly over-kicked it thinking the CB was further back than he actually was), all while Niang is coming back onto the field.

My problem is that the player was prevented from coming on before that, so he had to wait. Now, Senegal goes on a counter, and while Poland is clearly focused on the counter and what is going on in front of them, they have no idea that a sub is being made, which is why they didn't react to it.

Subs are usually made when the play is stopped. This is not Hockey where line shifts take place in the movement of the game, just a bad action in my opinion to sub in a player during intense action of the game. It just does not fall in the spirit of the game, and to me, that gave Senegal a huge advantage, because the player was in the right place to pick off the pass. I don't think the poland player makes that pass if he knew a player had just been subbed in

Idontreallyknow wrote:

Reality is real wrote:

Yep, how on earth did the referee and 4th official allow an "injured" player to come directly onto the field right near where the ball was being played? The player was given an obvious, unfair advantage that led directly to a goal.

And then why wasn't VAR used to overturn the referee's clear error?

I don't think VAR can be used to overturn a judgement error such as that because technically it is legal. Just a poor decision by the refs and lack of awareness from Poland

You could be right. However, it does seem like a "clear and obvious" error to allow a player on to the pitch in those circumstances.

I don't know why they just don't make players wait until a stoppage occurs before they can come back on.

correction on the second paragraph: injured player.

The problem is that opposition players who are actively participating in play are unaware of the player coming on to the pitch unannounced. That player then gains a big advantage from being allowed to enter the play when some opposition players are not aware that he is back on the field.

Players should not be allowed to come back onto the pitch while the ball is in play. Ever.