Sunday (Round of 16 - Day 2) World Cup OPEN Thread
Sun, Jun 29
11:30 a.m. ESPN Netherlands vs. Mexico Fortaleza 51
3:30 p.m. ESPN Costa Rica vs. Greece Recife 52
http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2014/02/espn-schedule-2014-f…
I think that would be a good rule change as well.
The best players convert at over 80%. They should make the player fouled shoot it and move it back so the percentage is more like 50-50. If that player is hurt and can't shoot then he's out for the rest of the game. These PK's have too much impact on the outcome of a game.
But if they make it too difficult to convert, then defenders will just hack someone down on a breakaway. Is that more fair? Doesn't seem fair to me. Maybe the penalty area is too big or something, but the penalty needs to be as harsh as the foul or else it just tips the balance to blatant fouling to deny scoring.
I like soccer more than the NBA, but the diving in soccer is definitely worse. At least when NBA players dive they don't scream bloody murder making a face like someone is holding a torch to their skin. It's also not as constant.
I hate the NBA because, more than any other sport, it's full of divas giving 50% effort who only care about their paychecks.
Miguel Herrera, by himself, made El Tri worth rooting for. His hilarious actions on the sidelines and his great shows of expression were classic. The lad is emotional and a great tactician that helped turn around Mexico's misfortunes
Herrera almost got himself in a lot of trouble, taking a little physical snipe at RVP when Herrera was bitching at the refs at the end of the game. But, yes, all in all, he's been instrumental to Mexico's success in this tournament, and good for some serious laughs.
So a ticky tack foul on a guy who was surrounded and in no position to score results in 1/3 of the scoring for the entire game. PK's are 80%+. Name another sport where a ticky tack foul has such a great impact on a game. Hockey power plays are only 30%, basketball free throws are only 1 point, football penalties are only 15 yards for the worst penalties. Soccer rules are just horrible. Go back and look at the replay, the guy wasn't in scoring position, was surrounded by 3 guys and would have had the ball stolen by #5 anyway. I didn't even want Mexico to win and I think this is a BS result because of soccers idiotic rules.
Pass interference in the NFL. Ticky tack PIs result in large yardage gains. Same thing. Also, name another sport where hacking a player down when he might score would then deny that team half it's scoring. The PK rules are harsh because fouling someone who may score denies that team a lot. Hell ESPN just had a big article on the 'art' of catchers selling boarderline pitches as strikes. Every sport has rules that players exploit.
Yes, it was a soft call, but if they call the one in the first half this may have been a different game.
The rule isn't idiotic. A foul in the box, regardless of whether a player is in a scoring position, should result in a penalty. What is problematic is players taking advantage of this rule. Defenders get away with murder during corners and set pieces. Attackers get away with acting as if they've been murdered when they enter the box. It is up to the refs to sort it out or this will continue in the game. Another ref or a review of PKs would help. I'm not sure if FIFA will be eager to change. And I've seen football games changed by b.s. PI calls (Seahawks vs Steelers Superbowl). The difference is that soccer has fewer opportunities for scoring. But today's dubious penalty is no worse than a late PI or roughing the passer/quarterback that leads to a field goal or touchdown late in a game.
This is why I think there should be two levels of penalties. A run-of-the-mill foul in the box should lead to a free kick just outside it (which is still a pretty good chance for the offense). A really blatant, score-denying foul should lead to a PK. If referees had the former option, they'd call a lot more fouls in the box and it would clean things up. As it is, they're very reluctant to actually call fouls there and practically every corner kick results in a mini-scrum.
I'd be all for this.
The strength of the Dutch team was there offense, why give them chance after chance to play their ace? Then, why in the world would Mexico - in this case the captain of the team - ever RISK getting that foul called on themselves. While I do think he didn't purposefully go for Robben's legs, YOU DO NOT give the ref a chance to make that call unless it is absolutely essential. Poor play by the Mexicans at that point.
The Dutch created very little, aside from set pieces. This isn't your typical attack happy, swashbuckling Dutch team. Their speed of passing was very slow, outside of Sneijder and Robben. Mexico's mistake was taking off Perralta, who was giving Vlaar a hard time. Nothing wrong with parking the bus against a team that relies on counterattacking. This Dutch team isn't even as creative as the dour 2010 side.
Did you see them hang 5 on Spain? Don't be a hater. This Dutch team is as good as any team with the exception of Germany.
Mexico stopped playing after they scored, much like the US did in the Ghana match. We were lucky it did not bite us. Mexico got bit.
You just can't passively stand there and let elite teams keep reloading the rifle and taking shot after shot at you. They eventually hit you.
Definite penalty. Defender no where near the ball:
Yeah, it was a penalty. And Robben made sure the ref saw it. Same as a basketball player going to the lane to try and get a basket/draw a foul. I remember last year with the USMNT, Mix Diskerud was fouled, but stumbled through it in a very admerable attempt to score a goal without a PK. But his stumbling allowed another defender to get there before he could do anything. If he would have just gone down on the penalty he earned by faking the defender out of his pants, the US would have had a goal.
Yeah, but a free throw in basketball is a very small percentage of the scoring for a game and the player fouled has to shoot the free throws.
Agree with the fouled player taking the shot, but a free throw is a very small percentage of scoring in a game because a basket, and thus denying a basket because of a foul, is also a very small percentage of the game. In soccer, a goal, and thus a foul denying a goal, is a very large percentage of scoring in a game, thus their 'free throw' is also a large percentage of scoring in the game.
But making rules that increase scoring so that these types of plays have less of an impact is just crazy. This world cup only averages 2.8 goals per game and everyone is talking about how high that is.
This may suck as a comparison, but if you ask anyone but us Michigan fans about the charge that JMo drew late in the game against Tennessee in the NCAA tournament, they would say that was a flop. I thought it was a clear charge and then JMo expertly made sure there was no doubt he was charged.
I think it's a great comparison. It was clearly a charge; JMo was in the primary defender in a legal defending position. The offensive player cannot just go through him. Sure JMo could have kept his feet, but that would have just let the TN player score when he committed a foul. Instead he made sure the ref saw the foul, and UM won. I don't remember a bunch of people complaining on this site that college basketball is a terrible sport and will never catch on in the US because JMo sold the foul.
JMo knew how to sell it. And he sold it like a man, without pretending he was hurt like a little girl.
The picture also shows #11 was in no position to score or even pass the ball to another player in position. He would have had the ball taken and obviously flopped after his foot got stepped on. Because soccer rules are so stupid another player who had nothing to do with the play gets to shoot a PK that has an 80% chance and results in 1/3 of the scoring for the entire game. Do you really think that kind of penalty should result in a goal 80% of the time?
If he's really got no chance of doing anything dangerous with the ball then why would those defenders be so desperate to try and stop him? Anytime a player has control of the ball that close to the goal, it's dangerous becuase there's plenty of options to pass or shoot so I don't think that premise is correct.
Yeah, so dangerous that there is a goal every 30 minutes in soccer and that includes set pieces and penalty kicks.
Robben is a world class player and is ALWAYS dangerous with the ball. As a Bayern fan I can say, this place on the field is is favorite. He doesn't end up there by accident.
So just give him a goal becase his tippy toe got stepped on a little when he was surrouned by 3 players and the goalie was in position. That's soccer for you I guess.
He ends up there because every defender tries to force him to his right and the touchline to the right of the goal is the inevitable endpoint if he's defended properly.
You're done if you let him cut back to his left foot. Until the foul Marquez had played it just right...he had teammates behind him to clean up the mess and all he needed to do was not put his foot in.
But he did.
Do you think it's fair that Stauskas' denied scoring opportunities should result in an almost 90% conversion rate even when he's so far from the basket with a guy in his face?
Yeah because it's only 2% of the scoring for the game. This PK was 33% of the scoring for the game. Stauskas shoots 44% from 3 and 82% for free throws. #11 had a 0% chance of scoring and is awarded a PK that is converted at over 80% for 1/3 of the scoring for the entire game. No comparison.
Well I guess that's the difference in our opinion. I think Robben had a chance to score, he is a world class player, and even if he didn't, him just putting the ball in the box could very well result in a goal by someone else. Thus the PK resulted in 33% of the scoring, because the foul denied the Dutch a chance at 33% of the scoring during play.
Really? You think they had a 33% chance of scoring on that play? #5 would have stolen the ball, go back and look at it. You see plays like that all the time and most of the time the defender kicks the ball out.
It was a really stupid play by Marquez, turning a 5%-at-best chance of scoring into an 80% chance.
Wow, that was a fast copyright claim. FIFA doin' work.
He went down like he was shot. It looked like somebody should be arrested, not booked.
If you are going to sell it, then sell it.
Coach Herrera just shut down the counter attacks too early in the match after they scored the first goal. Mexico's defense particularly against set pieces has been awful, so you were playing with fire against the talent the Netherlands has. Chicarito has lost his offensive flair and I think he was the one who should have been near Sneijder who was unmarked at the top of the box.
Midfielder Herrera gave away at least three balls on the counter attack that were unforced errors. Maybe in the heat he didn't realize that the Netherlands changed their midfield formation and were occupying the flanks, which were easy runs in the first half? These errors seemed to sap the energy out of Mexico.
Marquez definitely slowed down in the second half heat and was ripe for the picking. I am a ref and do think it was a PK foul. Not a hard foul like the one missed in the first half, but one nonetheless. Either it it or it isn't. It is not a shade of grey. The whole world knew Robben was going left and MArquez had two other defenders helping him. Why he chose to make a late challenge and put himself in that position is a decision he will regret for the rest of his life. Did Robben embellish it? Yes. But was it a foul? Yes.
I think Germany is the class of the field, with the Netherlands close behind (goalkeeping may be an issue) . Brazil could obviously win it but have to step up their game.
If we are looking at performance in this tournament, I'm not sure how you can put any team ahead of Colombia at this point. Easily the most impressive side for me so far.
their wins were against boring Greece (who I think Costa Rica will beat), Japan (Awful), Ivory Coast (who looked lifeless all tournament) and a Uruguay team without Suarez. We'll see how it goes v Brazil, who I said have to step up their game to beat Colombia.
France could be another contender. They looked lethal offensively in their first two games before resting some starters in the third.
France and Germany seem headed for a collision course for the quarters.
They have some serious speed and skill even without Ribery and not many are talking about them, so there is no pressure.
France vs. Germany is going to be epic. I think 1 of them is going to win it all.