Arena The *Official* 2018 FIFA World Cup Thread

Previous winners haven’t automatically qualified for the last two or three world cups.

 

True and I'm actually kinda glad they got it against England as it will mean more to them than if they scored it against a San Marino for example (that being said it would mean a lot to them irrespective of who they score it against)

 

You learn something new every day..

 

POST!!!

Japan with two near misses, and another wasted chance - should be leading

 

2-1 Senegal!

 

Goal Japan! What a game

 

And a tie finish - 2-2.

 

That was such a fun game to watch. On par with Spain-Portugal for me

 

Next up are Poland and Columbia in just under an hour.

 

Just finished watching my recording of the England Panama game. Man that ref had terrible control on the game. England is lucky no one was injured.

 

didn't see every minute but it seemed to me that after he awarded a penalty for 'wrestling' they behaved a lot better .

 

But he didn't do anything about Panama's players standing on the penalty spot, delaying it substantially earlier. Which is probably why we had a pen for two Panama players performing American Football tackles.

 

Panama and Tunisia have both shown in their games Vs England that "the beautiful game" is a misnomer. England, on the other hand, have shown that it is. No bitching, no surrounding the ref, no diving, no complaining.

 

I agree that England played with high Fair Play in spite of everything

 

That's partly down to how much their domestic leagues prevent that kind of behaviour.
English leagues are pretty physical in general, and diving is something the referees generally clamp down on.

European & South American leagues less so. So the national teams tend to have players that are used to having that behaviour as part of their tactics.

 

Columbia has the better national anthem , quite jaunty .

 

I ****ing hate Lewandowski


Halibut, did I do that right?

 

BEAUTIFUL work from the short corner. I love well designed sorry corner. GOAL Columbia

 

don't know why we don't see more short corners , seems to be a better way of setting up a goal .

 

Analytics say xG is higher from a short corner, too. People just stuck in their wait

 

Goodbye, Poland.

 

Take away Lewandowski and Poland aren't much better than Panama. Dreadful.

What a pass from James to set up Cuadrado.