2023 World Cup General Match Thread

[kacbru]

Swiss - Norway 0-0 draw. Really even game, not much difference between them, but Norway had slightly better chances. 

All of group A still in the mix to advance going into the last group game. 

[TGAA_Star]

Philippines with the shock of the tournament... I just love to see it

[Goal_Kick]

9 hours ago, kacbru said:

Yeah, I think she was literally offside by an earlobe. What is gained with that level of precision? Ridiculous. 

What about flipping the rule:  if any part of the player is onside, the player is onside?

[rkomar]

I haven't looked recently, but the rule used to be that you were onside if two opposing players were nearer to the goal line.  I know that the old interpretation changed when being in line with the opposing players was still considered to be onside, but adjusting the rule for whose body part is furthest from the goal line seems to me to be a significant change in meaning.

[Gian-Luca]

In this particular case, the player who was deemed offside by part of a shoulder and part of her forehead ran to get the forward pass that was ultimately played into her feet, where she passed it back to the goalscorer. The VAR rule should be that it should be clear & obvious that the player gained an advantage, which, unless she used part of her shoulder or forehead to control the ball on the ground or used those parts of her body get to the ball quicker (as opposed to using her legs to run to the ball, which is what most humans would use in that circumstance when they need to run somewhere), is obviously not the case. It is clear and obvious that no advantage was gained. Common sense should have prevailed here - the only positive I can see from this is that it suggests that the hosts aren't going to get all the calls their way as NZ really got screwed by this.

Given that this is women's football we are talking about, if they keep up this rule being interpreted and applied by VAR, I can eventually see a situation where an attacking player is penalized because she has larger breasts than the player marking her and thus has a nipple or two in an offside position when in reality the players are otherwise level. As ridiculous as this might sound, the irrelevant margins on the call disallowing the NZ goal last night were that fine.

[The Ref]

On 7/22/2023 at 4:10 PM, red card said:

There has been a pk called in every match so far ex DEN/CHI which was overseen by Canadian/CPL ref Marie Soleil-Beaudoin. VAR was involved in half of them. 

But half the pks have been missed. Half made were retaken pks due to keeper coming off the line early.

When the VAR PKs start deciding the winner in games, that is all wrong and makes a mockery of the game and the scoring of goals to win.  The VAR interventions will start creating a total new form of coaching and strategy to get by the people refereeing games from a TV screen somewhere hidden inside a trailer.  What a joke!

[BearcatSA]

5 hours ago, The Ref said:

When the VAR PKs start deciding the winner in games, that is all wrong and makes a mockery of the game and the scoring of goals to win.  The VAR interventions will start creating a total new form of coaching and strategy to get by the people refereeing games from a TV screen somewhere hidden inside a trailer.  What a joke!

Just wait until the officiating is done entirely by AI.  I'm sure David Squires of The Guardian has alteady done a cartoon episode about it.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Watching Spain, one of the few teams playing the contemporary game. Japan does. The States mostly. A few more have moments. We have very few moments, we play the old way mostly.

Must say though, love how Zambia rises to the occasion, with some nice counter play. Or playing out of pressure. Overall, we are seeing the less experienced teams doing a lot more than expected, the overall level is rising incredibly.

[kacbru]

Just back from the Japan vs.  Costa Rica game - Japan looks really good. Completely dominated the game, got two quick goals and coasted. You had the sense that they could just flick a switch to raise their level of they wanted to. Quite a contrast in quality in relation to the Netherlands, Swiss or Norway who have all struggled at times. 

Spain vs Japan should be a good game. 

[BearcatSA]

9 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Watching Spain, one of the few teams playing the contemporary game. Japan does. The States mostly. A few more have moments. We have very few moments, we play the old way mostly.

Must say though, love how Zambia rises to the occasion, with some nice counter play. Or playing out of pressure. Overall, we are seeing the less experienced teams doing a lot more than expected, the overall level is rising incredibly.

 You can still  see a fair number (including on our current roster) of those "athlete first/footballer second" type of players who just use their physical advantages 1 v 1 to make things happen (and we have seen a few blowout type games which show this).  I am still surprised by the number of said players who can't shield the ball properly and still get easily dispossessed of it without much of a fight or drawing a foul.

The level is rising, however.

 

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

9 hours ago, kacbru said:

Just back from the Japan vs.  Costa Rica game - Japan looks really good. Completely dominated the game, got two quick goals and coasted. You had the sense that they could just flick a switch to raise their level of they wanted to. Quite a contrast in quality in relation to the Netherlands, Swiss or Norway who have all struggled at times. 

Spain vs Japan should be a good game. 

Spain and Japan should be excellent, agreed. Though without playing for a lot they may rest players. 

Spain had that player boycott of 15 key players of the core 25 roster. Most are back but some sure starters are not there, like Sandra Paños in goal, Mapi Leon as CB, then Guijarro in the middle. I seriously think those gaps may cost them in the crunch. Other than that, having had to include another group of 12-15 in the WC leadup helped the team as they (we  ) have seen a whole new set of fringe starters step up. One is striker Alba Redondo who was leading scorer in Spain last season and is very clinical. No one knows her as she's at Levante. 

[Joe MacCarthy]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:39 AM, TGAA_Star said:

Philippines with the shock of the tournament... I just love to see it

18 U.S.-born or based players in the Philippines squad

[TGAA_Star]

19 minutes ago, Joe MacCarthy said:

18 U.S.-born or based players in the Philippines squad

Even so they still got the job done

[BearcatSA]

42 minutes ago, Joe MacCarthy said:

18 U.S.-born or based players in the Philippines squad

I find that hard to cheer for, especially the p.r. spin around it:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/we-share-blood-the-us-born-players-leading-the-philippines-world-cup-charge

[TGAA_Star]

That USA/Netherlands contest was pretty physical but I just love seeing that even if it ended in a 1-1 draw

Portugal 🇵🇹 beats Vietnam 🇻🇳 2-0 so they are still alive...I love that too

[Shway]

Nigeria currently beating Australia 3-1.

Group B is still a toss up, till the last game.

 

[Colonel Green]

Well, looks like we’re heading for the most dramatic possible version of our game against Australia.

[TGAA_Star]

Yeah for Canada we basically have to beat Australia in our last group game but even with a draw against Australia, we could still go through regardless. But for us to win the group, we would have to beat Australia and Nigeria loses to Ireland.

[Colonel Green]

1 minute ago, TGAA_Star said:

Yeah for Canada we basically have to beat Australia in our last group game but even with a draw against Australia, we could still go through regardless. But for us to win the group, we would have to beat Australia and Nigeria loses to Ireland.

We’re guaranteed to advance as long as we don’t lose. Australia are the ones sitting in third.

[nolando]

This may have been asked somewhere here already, but how did two CONCACAF teams, Jamaica and Panama, teams end up in the same group? That's unusual, right?

[JamboAl]

10 minutes ago, nolando said:

This may have been asked somewhere here already, but how did two CONCACAF teams, Jamaica and Panama, teams end up in the same group? That's unusual, right?

Yes, it is unusual but the draw was made before the intercontinental playoffs and it just happened that way.  Probably didn’t expect 5 CONCACAF teams in the tournament with 2 of them coming through the playoffs.

[dyslexic nam]

2 hours ago, Shway said:

Nigeria currently beating Australia 3-1.

Group B is still a toss up, till the last game.

 

Damn - forgot about that one.  That is a bit result.  On the bright side, if Australia are losing to a team we clearly underperformed against, we should be well positioned to take 3 points from them. 

[Gian-Luca]

52 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

Yes, it is unusual but the draw was made before the intercontinental playoffs and it just happened that way.  Probably didn’t expect 5 CONCACAF teams in the tournament with 2 of them coming through the playoffs.

6 Concacaf teams - Canada, US, Jamaica, Haiti, Costa Rica, Panama and somehow still no Mexico 

[dyslexic nam]

So now that Nigeria has beaten Australia 3-2, we have the same points (4) and goal differential (+1) as Nigeria but it looks like they are ahead in the standings.  Presumably the next tie-break is goals scored where they currently have one more. Rounding out the table, Australia has 3 points and Ireland has 0.

A win or a draw against Australia gets us through, but a win doesn't ensure us of 1st place since Nigeria can also beat Ireland and stay ahead on GD or total goals scored.  So while advancing is definitely in our hands, topping the group is not (insofar as we don't control the Nigeria result - but we could smash in enough goals to realistically grab 1st spot through GD).  Am I missing something?  

[Shway]

The game against Australia will and should feel like a final. The ladies and x will be going up against a tough home crowd, who know whats at stake. 

I just hope Bev doesn't have them sit back,,,because they gotta go for it.