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Thanas wrote:

Havok wrote:

Thanas wrote:I wonder if I should be a trash talking patriot that's having fun douchebag and tell Australia and Serbia to....nah, that would be an unkindly thing to do.

Yes, yes, my good man, quite uncivilized.

Of course you HAVE to know that I was rooting for a Ghana win, just so we could face off.

What, and repeat 2002?

Oh you dirty...

hongi wrote:

SancheztheWhaler wrote:Straight red for diving is just absurd... I wonder if anyone advocating for that is really a football fan, or just an ESPN watching wannabe meathead who thinks it's "cool" to bash soccer players for being pussies?

I have loads of friends who play soccer. They don't dick around, diving just isn't common in their matches because the rewards aren't big enough to justify it. So no, I don't think all soccer players are pussies. I just think professional players need to be hit on the head for being idiots.

As has already been stated more than once, if the referees start giving free kicks when the player stays on his feet, we'll have far less of a problem. However, at present if you don't go down, you don't get the decision. Diving is far, far less of a problem than defenders holding players, blocking them off, tugging shirts, etc. The whole outrage about diving is ENTIRELY driven by a "bunch of pussies - REAL men don't play act" attitude.

Actually, the whole outrage about diving is ENTIRELY driven by "referees are fucking useless if they can't spot an infringement without someone acting like they're in an 80s action movie and just got punched in the face by Dolph Lungren".

Everything about the argument stems from the fact that football refs are apparently so useless that they cannot spot a penalty without a player doing their best "OH MY GOD! I'M HIT MAN! I'M HIT! TELL MY MOTHER I LOVE HER!"

Maybe if a ref would actually watch closely rather than look on the ground for someone rolling around like a landmine just too him legs off or shock horror - if FIFA would actually implement the reforms that everyone (except Italy - cheating scum) wants them to then we could actually have the infringements noted and free kicks awarded instead of the infringement missed until someone jumps in the air clutching their face and screaming like a little girl and someone gets a completely unwarranted yellow or red card and the original infringement is still not correctly enforced.

Thanas wrote:

weemadando wrote:2) After match review. Most sports in Australia have after match review policies where if a player is caught doing something on video, but it is missed by all the refs on the day, then they are still called to account for it. The knowledge that a shitty dive or cheap handball will be picked up after the game and you will be suspended for it might prove to be penalty enough.

Already in place.

Just to clarify on this point - if it is already in place, how is it handled? In most Australian sports there'll be meetings of the judiciary/disciplinary/whatever panel during the week after the games and usually by Tuesday or Wednesday everything has been sorted - players have appeared if they are being charged and penalties (fines and suspensions) have been put in place in time for the next round of matches.

So, if this system is in place, why have none of the completely abhorrent penalties that the refs have missed been corrected in this manner during this World Cup? Or is this yet more of Sepp Blatter's "I hate anything that came along after 1920" thing?

weemadando wrote:Actually, the whole outrage about diving is ENTIRELY driven by "referees are fucking useless if they can't spot an infringement without someone acting like they're in an 80s action movie and just got punched in the face by Dolph Lungren".

Bollocks. Hongi doesn't even mention the refs in his comments and you are the first person I have ever known to blame the referee in this way. Any criticism aimed at the man in black is usually of the "why don't they send the bastards off for diving" variety.

To quote you: "if the referees start giving free kicks when the player stays on his feet, we'll have far less of a problem"

So obviously the refs are getting blame from more than just me...

For diving - have you seen the recent matches? For example, in the Germany-Ghana match I only saw one dive and that one did not fool the ref one bit.

weemadando wrote:Just to clarify on this point - if it is already in place, how is it handled? In most Australian sports there'll be meetings of the judiciary/disciplinary/whatever panel during the week after the games and usually by Tuesday or Wednesday everything has been sorted - players have appeared if they are being charged and penalties (fines and suspensions) have been put in place in time for the next round of matches.

So, if this system is in place, why have none of the completely abhorrent penalties that the refs have missed been corrected in this manner during this World Cup? Or is this yet more of Sepp Blatter's "I hate anything that came along after 1920" thing?

It mostly handles complaints, so unless nations will complain there is little they can do IMO. For some reason none of the national teams really want to complain against diving.

That said, I still think you vastly overestimate the actual problem of diving

Holy crap, go Slovakia! This world cup is turning into a good one for giant killing.

What the CRAP ITALY! Fuck, both my half people are sucking ass. (Mexico and Italy)

Hah, France and Italy gone. Awesome.
Now we only need Chile to beat Spain and the preliminaries will be next to perfect.

Haha yeah, can the world champions embarrass themselves any more than Italy did? Fucking pathetic. But hilarious

So that makes Germany the only nation to have always gone beyond the group phase in every world cup.

(unless Brazil did as well, but I am not so sure about that).

Man, the Danish keeper is HURTING right now. 2 for 2 on free kicks by Japan!

Yay, 1-0 for us .

Japan are winning? they must have Captain Tsubasa on their team. (And i thought 'the Hurricanes' was irritating enough!)

Cameroon just tied with the Netherlands.

And now we're not tied anymore . 2-1!

Denmark finally managed to score a goal.

But Japan scored again. 3-1 for Japan and the match is almost over.

Aaand it's in the bag. Three wins in a row; only one goal scored against the Netherlands so far. Still not playing as well as I think the team should be able to but hey, it's the result that counts. Go team!

Netherlands and Japan advance into the next round.

As it stands now here are the next matches.

Uruguay vs. South Korea
Mexico vs. Argentina
U.S.A. vs. Ghana
England vs. Germany
Netherlands vs. Slovakia
Japan vs. Paraguay


I'm not going to call on the last two matches as the standing for the top three of Group H are in flux.

Thanas wrote:So that makes Germany the only nation to have always gone beyond the group phase in every world cup.

(unless Brazil did as well, but I am not so sure about that).

Brazil went out in the first round in 1966. However they are the only team to qualify for/play in every single World Cup. And Germany has the most runners up medals (4).

I believe that Germany have gotten through the group stage of every World Cup that they've been in, assuming we're counting Germany and West Germany as the same entity. However, they didn't enter the first World Cup in 1930, and weren't allowed into the 1950 competition because of political reasons.

So more accurately would be that only Germany has past the group phase in every World Cup they participated in.

weemadando wrote:5) Get rid of offside.

I have to agree with everyone else; offside is fine learn to play.