Here we go, here we go, here we go ... it's the WORLD CUP! (soccer)

[joserra]

Thank you all for your condolences. Robben diving felt terribly unfair but the reality is that Mexico lost because of himself. When you're only 1 goal ahead and want to keep the advantage until the end of the game, the right thing to do is to have the ball. Consume time, take the ball to the corner, give it to the goalkeeper, pass from one side to another, the point is not letting the other team have the ball (and specially one as dangerous as Netherlands). Mexico didn't do that, Mexico gave the ball to Netherlands, locked himself in his own part of the field and said "Hey, you can attack us once every minute for the next 30 minutes"...

Mexico lost because of its own mistake, it is really depressing

[Thunder_Snus]

Questions for you soccer guys. If I am a goalie and my team has the lead....then I pick up the ball....whats my incentive to throw it back into play?

[joserra]

Questions for you soccer guys. If I am a goalie and my team has the lead....then I pick up the ball....whats my incentive to throw it back into play?

You can't have it for too long. If you do, the referee will give you a yellow card (the max time is based on the referee's criteria)

[squeezyjohn]

Haha thunder - in the old days the goalie could only take 3 steps with the ball in hand. But to speed the game up they changed it to 10 seconds with as many steps as he wants at the same time they made it a foul for the goalie to pick the ball up from a deliberate back-pass from his own team. The rule has now been relaxed so that the referee has the discretion as to whether it's time-wasting or not - but players seem to adhere to the 10 seconds rule more or less these days.

[squeezyjohn]

I've been following the USA vs Belgium match ... for a country that doesn't really give a flying fig about soccer, it's a bit sore to watch how good the United States (or should I say States United) are with England out of the world cup.

Oops - Belgium have just scored ...

Anyway - the US team has a great work rate and a pretty solid Dee-fence. With some of the dreadful misses I take offence at the offense - and the ... umm ... mid-fence I can take or leave.

I'm struggling with the differing UK and US terminology so I'll stop!

[alopezg1]

Belgium vs USA ... what a game! sad to see the USA go out , what an incredible performance from them

[Andy105]

Belgium vs USA ... what a game! sad to see the USA go out , what an incredible performance from them

Yeah, they did a great job. That Green kid will be 23 next time, then watch out.

[Burnsey]

Belgium vs USA ... what a game! sad to see the USA go out , what an incredible performance from them

It was like a knife in my heart..............

[Thunder_Snus]

So a lot of these rules seem to be up to a certain ref's discretion. Is there a lot of corruption with the World cup or soccer in general?
Also how the hell does the time work. A game lasts 90 minutes but not really if someone decides it should go longer.....?

[Thunder_Snus]

I've been following the USA vs Belgium match ... for a country that doesn't really give a flying fig about soccer, it's a bit sore to watch how good the United States (or should I say States United) are with England out of the world cup.

Oops - Belgium have just scored ...

Anyway - the US team has a great work rate and a pretty solid Dee-fence. With some of the dreadful misses I take offence at the offense - and the ... umm ... mid-fence I can take or leave.

I'm struggling with the differing UK and US terminology so I'll stop!

[joserra]

So a lot of these rules seem to be up to a certain ref's discretion. Is there a lot of corruption with the World cup or soccer in general?
Also how the hell does the time work. A game lasts 90 minutes but not really if someone decides it should go longer.....?

Yes, there is a lot of corruption in soccer in general. Either at match level (referees or teams paid of for a specific match) and at an institutional level (FIFA, national football associations, etc.). For example, there are a lot of rumours about two recent corruption cases: 1) That referees are helping Brazil so it can win the World Cup (being the host and not winning would represent a social problem for Brazil) 2) That lots of folks at FIFA were paid by Qatar so that the World Cup of 2022 is going to be held there.

And yes, there is a lot of decisions up to the referee's criteria. The purpose of adding time besides de 90 minutes is to compensate time lost during the game. So for example, if a lot of player changes were made, the game stopped because of a fight/injury/problem, there were a lot of fouls at the game, etc. the referee is likely to add more additional time than usual. It is entirely up to the referee's criteria and this gives some room for corruption to happen. I'm pretty sure a lot of referees give more extra time than they're supposed to to give space for a team to score or something like that.

I don't understand why soccer doesn't start using more technology. I find it unbelievable that referee's don't use instant replays of the game in order to decide on difficult plays like red cards, offsides that derive in goals, penalty kicks, etc.

[whalen]

Darn Belgium! I will never drink Guinness or eat felafels again!

[Andy105]

Darn Belgium! I will never drink Guinness or eat felafels again!

I gave up Belgian waffles in retaliation

[whalen]

I gave up Belgian waffles in retaliation

Probably be stale by the time you got em anyway!

[whalen]

I am going to drink up all my remaining Belgium style Tranny beer! Then I am going to die from alcohol poisoning!