The Football Thread

[victor meldrew]

Originally Posted by Meini Again

Only at Blues.....


They sacked Rowett (7th in Table) to bring in Zola.

Zola sacked, 'Arry employed

Redknapp allowed to sign 13 (3rd or 4th choice players) in the last day of the Summer Transfer Window... THIRTEEN....
'Arry sacked and his ex-coach Cotterill re-employed.
Cotterill sacked and out-of-work Monk employed.
Monk sacked.


One strange thing..... all the backroom staff from James Beattie onwards, have remained in place. They usually fall on their swords, don't they?
It probably didn't help that our totally useless Chinese CEO Placeman~Dong~ moved his offices from St Andrews to our Training ground 2 weeks ago, and deleted his patronising Twitter account at the same time.


All in 3 years..... beyond crying, we just gotta laugh now....

While looking at football odds early found this little article on oddschecker.

https://oddschanger.com/football-new...m-manager-odds

Third & fourth paragraphs make interesting reading.

[SanteeFats]

Okay bear with this Yank. I have ransacked the net and guess I just don't know the right wording to get what I am looking for.
The WWC what the hell are fair play points? Also I thought a win was 3 points, a tie/draw 1 point. They are showing standings in group with teams who won 2 games out of 2 having 9 points, WTF??

[pierrelm]

Originally Posted by SanteeFats

Okay bear with this Yank...
The WWC what the hell are fair play points? Also I thought a win was 3 points, a tie/draw 1 point. They are showing standings in group with teams who won 2 games out of 2 having 9 points, WTF??

Bearing with, dear boy...
FIFA love a 'Fair Play' Award; I think it's fair (sorry) to observe that they are the only ones bothered about it. It doesn't (as far as I'm aware) have any direct bearing on a teams' progression during the tournament but is the equivalent of a 'nice handwriting' award. There again, I might have missed something crucial and you may gain extra merit for good behaviour. As long as they can analise the handshaking on VAR I suppose?

Meanwhile, back on the pitch, England wriggled through a match against an extremely competitive Japan side, courtesy of two very well taken goals and some crucial saves and interceptions. The English midfield looked ragged and shambolic at times in the second half and will need to improve considerably in the knock out rounds. Japan might rightly consider themselves unlucky not to have at least drawn, but progress as the second side in the group.

Whereas Scotland threw away a 3 goal lead against a very game Argentina, and to cap it all the game climaxed (no, stop it) with a farcically prolonged VAR penalty incident right at the very end of the match, which resulted in the Scots missing out on potential qualification by conceding a penalty from a clumsy challenge. Cue: VAR check which took far too long to give the Argentinians a chance of making it 3-3. Up steps the penalty taker only to have the shot saved...by, it turns out, a Scots goalie who had been the recipient of an all too lengthy briefing by the ref about staying in contact with the goal line when the kick was taken She didn't.
Furore as the penalty was retaken and tonked straight down the middle as the Scot keeper obligingly decided to move out of the way. Not her finest hour, but the media storm centred on poor Scottish misfortune, which appeared to be entirely of their own making.

I must be uber grumpy - I thought the officiating took a ludicrous amount of time, but in fairness was correct. The Scots went out feeling sorry for themselves, because they conceded three goals and threw it away at the end of the game, not because of decision making that was lamentable in execution but correct, nevertheless.

One thing the Women's WC has excelled at is the attitude of the players:
1. Towards the officials - the hissy fits and belligerence that pervades the male game is delightfully absent and
2. the players just get on with the game - fouls are generally clumsy (although I suspect cynicism will be a little more evident in the knock out stages) but there's been no diving, rolling around etc. and the game is more fluent and entertaining as a consequence.

The women should be applauded and the men's game really needs to follow their example.

[tsunamiSD]

The US women have dominated the first half, at least in possession and percentage of passes completed. But they have stalled in the last quarter of the pitch. I wonder if the Swedes are pulling a 'rope-a-dope' - they are counter-punching and had a few opportunities to score because the US back four go caught being too bunched in the middle.
Just as I was sorry to see Scotland cough up that 3-goal lead, I was sorry to see New Zealand crash out of the competition. But I also am glad that Argentina and Cameroon have played so well, especially considering how little their federations have supported them.

[DrSerizawa]

Another VAR farce in the USA v Sweden match. There was no way the second goal should have stood - the American player was clearly offside and caused the Swedish defender to hack at the ball. Not only that, but because Carli Lloyd was there, the scorer for the US was left completely unmarked because two Swedish defenders were marking Lloyd.

[victor meldrew]

You have to remember the people operating VAR are also match officials and its no surprise that some of the decisions are as bad as those you see across the world of football on a regular basis.

[Meini Again]

I wouldn't let a Russian Ref/Linesperson/VAR Observer anywhere near any USA match.Ever Again.

The Trumpettes could walk this World Cup just on "NO COLLUSION"

And being 2 Feet taller than their opponents, until today... strange rotation from Sweden.... were they really wanting 2nd place, which they had anyway.... for an "easier" passage ? USA played their best X1 and Sweden had a completely new defence, with a GK (ex-Chelsea) a free agent and hoping her WC performances gets her a better job..... she actually said that....

USA now meet Spain and Sweden v Canada.... meanwhile 'waistcoats' face Cameroon.

Some heavy-hitters going out in this next round. AND I fear VAR and Officials may have too much influence on the outcomes.

[pierrelm]

Originally Posted by Meini Again

AND I fear VAR and Officials may have too much influence on the outcomes.

An impending sense of the inevitable - whatever happened to use only for 'clear and obvious' errors? Not 'just in case' an infringement, real imaginary or subjective, may be detectable but only if you look long and hard enough.

Rugby suffered horrendously for a season or so, from an overly officious,examine every try for legality approach. Let's hope football moves on, and quickly. You shouldn't have to scrutinize every single goal to the point of the last pixel.

[pierrelm]

Last night's game was a cracking contest, with both sides leaving everything on the pitch and no little skill on show. The Norway team deservedly won, after extra time, on penalities.

Should be good news - but once again the tedious VAR interruptions knee'd any sense of enjoyment in the 'nads. The ref looked to be one of the slightly more competent ones but came in for some heavy criticism from the pundits. I think it was Casey Stoney who compared the ref's default reliance on VAR to being an officiating 'comfort blanket' and sadly, that's precisely what it has transformed itself into. Whether this is imposed by FIFA or at the request of the officials, it's really not helping...

The constant, preposterously time consuming interruptions may give the players a breather, but they are visibly stressed by the proceedings - it's like the stand is full of auditors, picking over their play to approve. Not in anyone's best interest.
Whoever is in charge of this tournament is in danger of making the officiating the story, rather than the quantum leap in the quality of much of women's football.

Oh, and the 'interfering with play' aspect of the offside rule seems to be serially overlooked, judging by the Germany-Nigeria match. Plus there was as blatant a penalty for an over the ball, take her off at the knee tackle...it still got referred to VAR! Bring back 'clear and obvious errors' only please. Immediately.

[Motorboater]

I'm satisfied with the result for Australia. There's been an insidious campaign to undermine tye previous coach, and they thought they were better than what they are.

Knocked out in the second round when it was thought semi's and even making the final was possible.

I'm satisfied with the result for Australia. There's been an insidious campaign to undermine tye previous coach, and they thought they were better than what they are.

Knocked out in the second round when it was thought semi's and even making the final was possible.