Kaizero

wat They literally won the one before this, what’s that guy on?

According to the studio over here the reason it didn’t go to VAR was that the on-field ref blew a free kick against Mitro. Still confused, as VAR surely can overturn that? If they can’t, VAR should get that power, IMO.

Horrible that this can happen when the VAR is available. The on field ref needs sacking and banned from the sport.

It's fucking shite. Its fans moaned about people not wanting to remove the talking points and human error from officiating decisions (like robotic perfection is somehow desirable) and yet this is miles worse. Don't give me that shit about how it will get better either. Agreed. It's bad enough a referee making a mistake in the heat of the moment without the benefit of replays from 20 different angles, but this is ten times worse. I understand there will always be contentious decisions that could go either way, but not something like this. Simply unacceptable. There’s been around two-three contentious decisions so far this WC. That’s almost infinitely better than usual. However, I agree the errors are much more unforgivable than usual due to the nature of VAR.

Iceland was definitely a pen today Not for me. A mistimed shielding of the ball. Soft as owt and that's before you get into the comparison with this howler just here. Guy kicked the Icelandic player straight in the leg. 100% penalty I didn't think it was a kick and it certainly didn't look intentional. You give a pen for things like that you may as well give five each way every game. The issue is it's now apparently up to whoever looks at monitors to decide the outcome of games at the highest level, it's completely ridiculous. They are actual refs, though. They’re not random TV viewers or pundits Has anybody actually checked who does it? May as well be a panel of baboons from the decisions they've come up with at times They are announced straight after the on field refs with a picture of them in the «bus». Haven’t googled their names, but according to commentators they’re normal refs from various leagues specifically trained to do VAR.

Iceland was definitely a pen today Not for me. A mistimed shielding of the ball. Soft as owt and that's before you get into the comparison with this howler just here. Guy kicked the Icelandic player straight in the leg. 100% penalty I didn't think it was a kick and it certainly didn't look intentional. You give a pen for things like that you may as well give five each way every game. The issue is it's now apparently up to whoever looks at monitors to decide the outcome of games at the highest level, it's completely ridiculous. They are actual refs, though. They’re not random TV viewers or pundits

Honestly one of the clearest, if not the clearest penalty this WC. Two men wrestling a guy down. A blind guy could call that.

Iceland was definitely a pen today Not for me. A mistimed shielding of the ball. Soft as owt and that's before you get into the comparison with this howler just here. Guy kicked the Icelandic player straight in the leg. 100% penalty

Given how many blatant holding pens they haven’t given they must be under instruction not to give them on VAR. Has to be something like that. Don’t understand why though, and they should be more open anout what they don’t use VAR for if so.

Give the VAR full power. Fuck the on field ref.

First time so far this WC I’ve been genuinely angry at VAR. Not because VAR is bad, but because how the fuck isn’t it used for something like that when you have VAR.

Ref blatantly hate Serbs.

How is that not a fucking penalty?

Serbs love cards, man. Horrible bet

GOOOALTROOOOVIIIIC

Nah, and he used to get annoyed with that suggestion when it was popular back in around 2010. Pretty sure his heritage is Argentinian and Italian as well. Catelonian and Italian, according to Wiki. And I mean, (not saying it’s not true, just a possible alternative) of course he’d have to act annoyed by that suggestion since Arentina already disliked him - if he suddenly went «Yeah, maybe I should have played for Spain» that wouldn’t come off very well

Kosovo could’ve had an amazing team if they had access to all «their» players, tbh.

Think 17 out of the 23 Swiss players are either immigrants or children of immigrants, and thus could have played for other nations if they wanted. Such a weird situation just due to the sheer number. Have no issues with immigrants playing for their new nation, obviously. But also feels like the Swiss FA has been on the ball to essentially secure the best talent before their «original» nations grabbed them. They’ve been handing cameos to tons of these type of players in competitive fixtures just to lock them to Switzerland.

Think what someone mentioned earlier rings true, Messi surely feel more Spanish than Argentinian anyway, surely? Even his grandparents are Spanish, iirc. Should have opted to play for Spain.

Can’t believe how much Mitro alone has me cheering for Serbia, been hype for days

£50 on Serbia and Mitro anytime @ 5.50

So hype for Mitro

It’s literally not, beacaue you don’t have a 48 team tournament to compare with You have the quality in the World Cup qualifiers to compare it with, clever dick. Also not a great comparison, since as you can tell from the teams in this WC - actually being in the WC has them raising their game and the big teams struggling. Even if there’s more teams, teams being at the WC will in itself make matches clmpetitive because it’s the biggest stage on earth in football. Not saying the quality might not decline, as I’ve not seen it in action yet, but the Euro was significantly more entertaining with more teams, and people kept saying that expansion would ruin things too. Hell, even when the WC expanded to 32 people said it’d ruin the WC.

I love how there’s a shit bucket en route to the fridge

It’s been really annoying me. Been happening all the time in this WC for some reason.