Julius

Even if Spain lost 2-1 to Morocco, if the score remained 1-1 in the Portugal v. Iran game, Spain still would have made it through to the knockout stage ahead of Iran thanks to a superior number of goals scored (as they would have been on the same number of points - 4 - and would have had an equal goal difference - 0). It’ll either be Ronaldo or the goal frame

Spain v. Morocco was great, but it became a right mess at the end. Linesmen have been told to keep their flags down in the event that the ball goes in from what may seem an offside position — so that the VAR crew can intervene and assess the goal thoroughly. The chaos that ensued for a good four or five minutes at the end of that game for VAR just goes to show why exactly they’ve been told to do that. Add in the fact that the linesmen actually runs on the pitch (hence why he probably didn’t have a good enough angle to make a call; he seemed to be repositioning his feet at the same time the call was made), and it wasn’t a great time to make such a call. Not to mention the way they messed up stoppage time: the goal was scored prior to the 90th minute, before the length of stoppage time was revealed, and play was delayed by a good four or five minutes for the Aspas incident alone; add in the stoppages accrued prior to the incident and the faffing around during stoppage time and I think we probably should have seen a few more minutes played. I think we would have seen some people from the Spanish NT arguing that if they went on to lose. Aspas’ goal was excellent, but sadly completely overshadowed by the VAR chaos; Morocco were great all around, besides sometimes being overly aggressive; I have no idea how Pique didn’t end up with a yellow card. I don’t think that he should have got one for when Carvajal, from a few yards away, chipped it at his arm (nor should a penalty/free kick have been given), but going in with a pair of studs showing was very dangerous. Something I haven’t seen mentioned about Portugal v. Iran is the Iranian keeper’s save of Ronaldo’s penalty. He’s very clearly stood behind the line, and if I’m not mistaken, the laws of the game state that the defending goalkeeper should be positioned on the line during a penalty kick. Spain looked without purpose tonight, and it’s worrying that their best game was against Portugal. Were they just lazy and complacent in the other two games, or just without the purpose that they clearly had in their group stage opener? Portugal v. Uruguay should be a cracking match (at least on paper), and Spain v. Russia should be a good chance for La Roja to find a bit more purpose and confidence in their playing style. They really need to start being more direct, I think, by going through the middle of the pitch to drag the opposing defenders away from the wings before deploying their speedy fullbacks in the final third with some well-timed sprints. We’ve already seen in the group stage alone that having both fullbacks deployed in the final third during every attack has a lot more drawbacks than it does benefits, because it’s such a big part of the modern game, meaning that everyone’s ready to counter it with a swift counterattacking manoeuvre.

So, Uruguay have won all three of their group stage games for the first time at a World Cup — and without conceding a single goal. Dark horses?

Yeah, I agree. I definitely think that there a few ideas better than the current ruling of coin flip, but alas, this is FIFA we’re talking about Would love to see this Uruguay team come up against Portugal in the Round of 16, as I think their defence v. Ronaldo would be a very interesting matchup to see. Diego Godín has been imperious in this game against Russia.

That’s exactly what I was hinting at; it’s a bit pesky that we’re up against them anyways, and a draw and a balance of yellow cards sees it taken to what is essentially a televised coin flip. There’s no way to balance it in the rules across the board, for obvious reasons, but it’ll be a shame if it comes down to that. What I’m saying is that the pure coincidence that we have our final group game against them should be a chance for FIFA to take the initiative, for fans watching the game and for the sake of stopping potential backlash, by taking it to extra time and/or penalties, should a decider be required (which would seem very unlikely, anyways). However, as I went on to say in the rest of my post, coming second would likely work better in the long run for us than coming first would, which goes against your original suggestion that coming second would see us come up against strong opposition sooner. That’s the point that I was trying to make in the three other substantially sized paragraphs in my post.

I meant by drawing lots to see who wins the group, coming second and then getting a stronger team who knocks us out. Oh right, yeah, it’s odd to me. If we’re already playing Belgium anyways, why not just take it to extra time and/or penalties to decide it? The flip of a coin seems to go against the whole point of having a group stage, and I’m not the fan of the televised gamble like this would bring about. However, it doesn’t make much of an immediate difference where we finish in our group, as the three teams we could end up against in the Round of 16 from Group H (Senegal, Colombia and Japan) have so far shown themselves to be around the same level, with no clear “stronger” team in their group. It’s in the quarter finals where it actually makes more of a difference: if we came first and then went through to the quarter finals, as things stand, we could come up against Brazil or Germany; adversely, if we came second, we’d currently end up against Mexico or Switzerland. The quarter finals is as far as I think we could realistically go to be honest (I’d love to see us go further and push on, though), but, clearly, coming second in our group would be a more realistic way of going further than that, when compared to the likely opposition should we come first. That’s all thrown out of the window if Germany hammer the Korean Republic and Mexico lose to Sweden, though, as coming first would likely see us come up against Brazil in the quarter finals, whereas coming second would then likely see us come up against Germany.

Do you mean by drawing our knockout stage games, or by “drawing” a strong side in the round of 16?

Clutch as hell from Kroos thank goodness!

EZA have passed $50K on Patreon for the first time, meaning that a studio is within reach (so long as this can be sustained). On the one hand, I’m really going to miss Brandon’s garage if and when they move. It’s just so homey! But, in the other hand, I suppose it’s about time he got his garage back...exciting times!

So I guess you’re holding out for a Germany v. Portugal final, huh? I’m a huge fan of Germany’s style of play, but for me, Portugal either turn up in force (like against Spain last week) or quickly fade out of the game (like against Morocco the other day). Besides that Spain v. Portugal game last Friday, the big teams really haven’t turned up so far, which is a bit of a bummer. I’m hoping that it’s just nerves and that they all come out firing on every cylinder when the knockout stages begin. I think Russia have been the most exciting team to watch so far this tournament, and by a considerable margin. It’ll be interesting to see if they’re as outright in their attacking against bigger opposition (like Uruguay next Monday) as they have been against lesser teams.

...who do you enjoy/not hate watching? Because so far in this thread we’ve established that you hate both Messi and Brazil...

Great use of VAR to deny it, but I don’t think that it was much of a dive. He clearly loses his balance, and I think he noticed that the ref saw that there was contact (however small), so he then went on to make more of it once he was down. But no, I don’t think that his going down was necessarily a dive. Thank goodness that Neymar got off the mark and that Brazil won, though. It’s bad enough Argentina are staring down the barrel of knockout stage omission, but this would have been a little nuts. Feel sorry for Costa Rica, because they kept Brazil at bay for 90 minutes, and were clearly just too tired come stoppage time. Also glad to see the effect of the first goal on Brazil’s players and the confidence that it gave them. Coutinho’s and Firmino’s little exchange in stoppage time and Neymar’s rainbow flick were great to watch.

Argentina were an absolute shambles, and their performance tonight was a sorry sight. Not only are they below par everywhere else on the pitch, Sampaoli didn’t build a system to make the most of their attacking players prior to the tournament, and not much has changed since they scraped through to qualify for the tournament. Not to mention that Dybala is a straight swap for Messi in the same way that Higuaín is, in many ways, a straight swap for Aguerö, meaning that they couldn’t offer the Croatian defence a different type of challenge with their substitutions in the final third. Let’s not forget that the silly decision was made to not take Mauro Icardi to this tournament, a player who could have offered such a different dynamic to the others in that he resembles more of a typical No. 9 (in height and pace, and is much more than that in raw ability). Croatia played very well, to no surprise, as the core of their team is completely solid. Both teams were very shaky in the first half, and they both completely failed to capitalise on each other’s early mistakes. Such a strange showing from the referee, might I add. There were some good decisions made, and then there were some very, very ones: waving advantage to Croatia when Rakitic got winded only to rescind it when Argentina were on the break; waving off Vrsaljko’s complaints about having his ankle stamped on, which he did — for a good few seconds, whilst travelling; and Otamendi should have got a red card for pelting the ball at Rakitic’s head at point blank, in my opinion. This is a football match, not a public execution. Argentina’s only realistic chance of going through sees them beating Nigeria next week, with Iceland drawing against Nigeria tomorrow, and then drawing or losing to Croatia next week. And, on the odd chance that they end up level on points with another team for the second spot, they’re basically going to have to annihilate Nigeria and not concede. Part of me wants them to go through, because it’s always horrible to see a footballing nation crash and burn like this on the biggest stage. It was rough to watch it happen to Spain four years ago, or Italy four years before that, and I still can’t that both Italy and the Netherlands failed to qualify for this tournament. That being said, unless Argentina wipes the floor with Nigeria and dazzles us with football that we haven’t seen from them in a very long time, they don’t deserve to go through. Which sucks to admit, but there has been nothing cohesive about their play thus far in the tournament, and I reckon that I could find some complete strangers with more on-pitch chemistry than these guys.

Such a weird game for Spain. They were in total control for the entirety of the match, but there was no-one effectively bridging the gap between the midfield and Diego Costa like there was last Friday night. Some great defending from Iran for the most part, but I can’t imagine them maintaining Ronaldo like they did Costa — for the most part — tonight. Portugal v. Iran should be a very interesting game nonetheless. Uruguay are being weirdly conservative, and though they’ve qualified for the knockout stages regardless of the result against Russia, they’re playing in the exact same way that Simeone sets up Atlético against relatively “bigger” teams — despite having so far played against only relatively smaller teams. Playing in such a way in the knockout stages against the like of Germany or Brazil is one thing, but to play like they did today against Saudi Arabia, especially after their opposition had shown how poor their defence was in their 5-0 defeat to Russia, is nothing but shameful.

That’s a great trailer

Nope, I’m with you guys too. There are actually some games that I’ve purchased digitally that I plan on purchasing physically for the sake of my physical collection. I only really purchase games digitally if it: a) gives me an opportunity to try out a game I’m interested in prior to the physical price being just as low (i.e. I got MGSV Definitive Edition for ~£8 digitally, when it was ~£20 physically), to figure out if I really do want it to be part of my collection. b) is a game only available digitally/had an extremely limited physical run (these are typically indie titles), meaning that physical copies are either extremely rare or considerably pricey. c) is a game that I’ll play mindlessly (and normally on sale), where I don’t really mind that it’s not part of my physical collection, and the convenience of having it already on my console outweighs the space that it might take up on a shelf, as I only play the game sporadically/when in a mood for some aimless gaming. E.g. FIFA I’m the exact same way with books, and my film collection, actually. Beyond the physical v. digital debate there, I also have to consider the format (i.e. paperback v. hardcover; DVD v. Blu-Ray — and soon to probably be v. 4K UHD, too) and my preferred appearance in my collection (cover art, box set v. individual copies, etc.).

We have a release date for all platforms: September 25th! https://twitter.com/SEGA/status/1009104141652713472?s=20

Agree with Kane not being a suitable fit for captain. He might be the best traditional No. 9 in football at the moment, but all that means is that he is good at putting the ball in the back of the net, not leading a team, as you rightly said. Some might argue that players like Ronaldo captain a nation, so why can’t Kane? Well, as selfish as Ronaldo might sometimes be at club level, he puts the team well beyond his ego when it comes to international football, and drops back deep plenty of times, playing in a free-roaming role as opposed to as an out-and-out striker. He’s also ridiculously fit, and thus can be a striker who drops deep and still outruns half of the opposition. Kane looked very sloppy tired tonight when he wasn’t scoring goals. As for the penalty given, I do think that it was a penalty. There’s not much to it, but it’s very clumsy of Walker: there is no reason why he should be raising his arm at that angle in that particular situation, seeing as he really should be jumping for the ball, and he was clearly obstructing the opposition player from attacking the ball. That being said, the two penalties not given to us makes me wonder if referees (on the pitch and off it) — or maybe just this one in particular — are becoming somewhat reluctant to award more penalties with VAR, especially after the amount that we’ve already seen awarded in the opening round of the group stage and after having awarded one earlier in the match, because those were very clear penalties from the replays that we got to see. I don’t think that Brazil’s argument against the Switzerland goal last night was particularly strong, but that was another case of the referee seemingly brushing off (judging from body language and his reaction) players’ requests to at least take another look at the situation. Maybe a challenge system like the one in tennis is needed for situations like these, but instead of having a limited amount for the whole game, like three in a whole set in that sport, you have three opportunities to have a challenge proven wrong. If you have three challenges proven to be wrong, then you can no longer challenge for the remainder of the game. Or something like that. Hey, I’m not a corrupt FIFA official, so I don’t know Anyways, back to tonight’s game: the formation has me concerned going forwards. Tunisia and Panama were always going to be our easier games, so an attacking, 3-5-2 seems warranted, but, by the time Belgium comes around in our final group game, the players will already be accustomed to a formation which would surely need to be changed when against the bigger teams, such as Belgium. Makes me concerned that Southgate has completely overlooked how dominant other major teams’ attacks are, and just how weak our defence is.

Typical English display against a much weaker side: dominate the opening 20 minutes, make a silly mistake, and go missing until the end of the match to pop in with a winner. We were very, very lucky to win tonight (and maybe equally unlucky to not have a penalty or two). Hopefully the nerves will have gone by Saturday so that we can sustain a strong performance against Panama.

I watched my first traditional anime series a few years back — Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Up to that point, my relatively limited exposure to anime came from shows that I had watched as a child (such as Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Digimon), and a number of films by Studio Ghibli, which I had become obsessed with a few months prior. The heavily anime-influenced world of Avatar, with both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, were also major proponents in my wanting to delve into the anime medium — at the very least, just to find out what I might be missing out on. My worry with a serial anime series at that point was that it wouldn’t be able to hold my attention for a long enough run; that an ongoing series might not have the payoff one might hope for judging from the first few episodes; and that the vast majority of anime goes without a dub, which, as a newcomer to the medium, is my preference simply because I like to appreciate every frame that I can, which I might find difficult to do with subtitles. I plan to watch a short run, subtitled series to alleviate this in the near future, and I think that Mushishi will be my anime of choice for that. I dabbled with the opening few episodes of Cowboy Bebop shortly after finishing FMA:B, but I simply couldn’t focus on and appreciate it like I wanted to, as I was still processing the epic adventures depicted in the latter’s world. I’ve returned to and watched the entirety of FMA:B since my initial series viewing, and I found that it really does get a lot better the second time around, with a lot of minor references going over my head the first time around making the story feel much tighter and cohesive upon second viewing. Yesterday, with the density of my exam periods rapidly falling after a hectic, exam-filled week, I finally found that I was ready to watch my second anime. The anime that I chose was Death Note, and I’m ten episodes in so far. I have to say, I’m really enjoying it for the most part, with the mind games, manipulation and investigation being the highlights so far for me, and getting into the deductive mindsets of both L and Light has also been particularly engaging. I did find it somewhat jarring just how quickly Light seemingly surrenders himself to using the titular Death Note within the space of the first episode, but I suppose that direct jump to the main crux of the show is to be expected with pilot episodes.

Oh yeah, I totally agree. When I said “he” in that final line of your quote, I was actually referring to Messi not being a natural fit as a leader, and his inability to grow into one, not Ronaldo I think Ronaldo’s transformed in a lot of ways since 2006 - his playing style, his physique, etc. - which has allowed him to change and grow into a strong leader. Messi, on the other hand, hasn’t gone through such a growth, in my opinion, and thus hasn’t given himself the opportunity to grow into the role of captain/leader.

Out of all of the teams that could realistically stand a chance at winning the tournament, or at the very least are expected to top their groups, only France and Uruguay so far have a win. The former required an unhealthy amount of VAR and was a serious struggle for France, and the latter saw a last minute winner. Brazil v. Switzerland in one hour. There’s no chance of an upset in that one...right?

Well done Mexico, what an excellent performance. It’ll be interesting to see how Germany bounce back next Saturday against Sweden. That match has the makings of a tough fixture, too.

Mexico were very shaky those last ten minutes or so. Going to be interesting to see if they can stave off the German bombardment.

Blistering, end-to-end start to the Germany v. Mexico game. This should be a good one