[Football] World Cup - Day Twenty - The Quarters Begin

[Eeyore]

Good Lord, what do people find joy in?

That was FANTASTIC. The Dutch. The. f***ing. Dutch. Playing like Burnley.

Four goals in regular time, the last one a 100th minute equaliser from a set piece that was totally shit or bust. Literally the football equivalent of putting all the money you have left on red at the end of the night.

Subs fighting each other, incompetent refereeing, extra time, extra, extra time, penalties. Fans crying into their face paint. This is football FFS. I hate to be Gladiator but ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

I thought the referee was fine, aside of not booking Messi for a handball.

Players out of control is the fault of the referee ?They are not primary kids.

 

[Swansman]

Epic game. Sad to see the Netherlands... not because they play great football right now, but because I want them to win a title...
Happy for Alexis though.

 

[Eeyore]

Italy won in 2006, Spain in 2010 and Germany in 2014

I don't think any of those have reached a quarter final since.

 

[WhingForPresident]

How was this not two yellows/a straight red?:

 

[Braggfan]

It’s strange how Neymar gets so little flack with his diving and general shithousery… Great player obviously but that yellow shirt protects him a tad.

If Neymar is the best player in the world, why did he bottle taking a penalty in the shootout?
5 years after he retires Neymar will be remembered as a great player in his generation but no one will think of him in the same bracket as Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Messi.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The Dutch. The. f***ing. Dutch. Playing like Burnley.

What’s happened to them? Even their kit has gone to pot. I used to love their bright orange numbers, now it’s a Wolves old gold colour.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I thought the referee was fine, aside of not booking Messi for a handball.

Players out of control is the fault of the referee. They are not primary kids.

In my view it almost always is the ref's fault. Once he did pretty much nothing about the Dutch bench invading the pitch they had carte blanche to do it again. But I'm pretty glad he didn't, it just added to the simmering tension and was great fun to cheer on in the pub.

Not Primary Kids? Agreed. But many are just out of being teenagers and are being paid as much as a minor Royal and are constantly pampered and sucked up to.

 

[Zeberdi]

If Neymar is the best player in the world, why did he bottle taking a penalty in the shootout?
5 years after he retires Neymar will be remembered as a great player in his generation but no one will think of him in the same bracket as Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Messi.

Did he ‘bottle’ though? - while the 4th is probably statistically the most important and the 1st you’d expect your top striker to normally take to give a psychological advantage, I wonder if the thinking from Tite was that the 5th would be the pen with the most pressure (being the decisive one ). Except that doesn’t work when you’ve missed the 1st and 4th and the opposition goes 4 out of 4 perfectly - gross mis-calculation by Tite (and underestimating Livakovic’s match form) I think rather than ’cowardice‘ of Neymar.

 

[nicko31]

Well I have to give if to the Dutch, the most disciplined fans boycott of Qatar 2022. No one has come close.

 

[Swansman]

Italy won in 2006, Spain in 2010 and Germany in 2014

I don't think any of those have reached a quarter final since.

Indeed. None of them have one a single knockout game since they won the tournament. Can't think of any other team sport where that would realistically happen.

 

[The Fits]

How was this not two yellows/a straight red?:

Big player bias. Commentators totally ignored it.

 

[Wozza]

Not very classy really.

Context:



Several Netherlands players were goading Martinez before he took his kick - and well outside their half.

Not classy either.

 

[Bodian]

Big player bias. Commentators totally ignored it.

Van Dijk or Paredes?

Paredes should have had two yellows (if not a red for the tackle alone), and Van Dijk at least a yellow.

 

[hart's shirt]

Not very classy really.

True, but not entirely unexpected given the exact moment, the tetchiness of the game, the ref's loss of control and the Dutch physicality.

The Netherlands committed 30 fouls during the game, 12 more than Argentina's 18. That's a ridiculously high number.

For comparison, the Ghana v Uruguay game had 29 fouls total (18 and 11 accordingly). Even with the additional 30+ mins, it's a lot more.

The 2 players with the highest number of fouls during the tournament so far are Dutch - Timber with 17 and Dumfries with 16.

Whilst Argentinian players (Simeone, etc.) have always been proficient in the dark arts, the Dutch have previous here as well.