There has been a pretty consistent whistling/booing whenever the play slows down or the players are just lazily passing it back and forth. Maybe there are a lot of neutral Brazilian spectators?
Greece has been more impressive so far. Everyone expected them to lock it up tight and not attack but it has been the opposite. They seem to dominate the possession and push it forward more. That being said, I still think Costa Rica are more dangerous overall and especially on the break.
Amen. Though it shouldn’t happen the threshold for calling a penalty in the area is higher. And I can’t say I blame the official. Would you want a whole country calling for your head and maybe be the reason a team is eliminated from the WC?
And yes, we need more yellows for dives. Or players need to be fined after the game. People here though seem to hate that idea for some reason I don’t quite understand.
A lot of us would prefer to see more open play and less diving.
I entirely agree. But that makes it all the more irritating that he’s such a diver.
Yep.
About penalties I think there should be a second penalty spot maybe 2-3 times further away from the goal which the referee can use for borderline cases. This penalty spot should also be used in shoot-outs making them a bit less of a lottery.
That was a yellow card just now!? He played the ball. He made contact with the ball.
The goalie didn’t even move… huh…
Los Ticos!
What an extremely odd goal! Snail-paced.
Good defending by Greece there. People diss them maybe somewhat rightly but they look better than the US did against Germany.
Sneakiest goal of the tournament!
WTF Greece?
Keeper and defenders just looked at it gently rolling by. Guess it didn’t look very threatening.
Yuck. Terrible goal.
And somehow, this has awoken the Costa Ricans instead of the Greeks, who are falling apart.
Ridiculous.
Yeah, that was a rather odd goal. Really just passed it into the net, past some Greek statues.
And, as others have noted, scoring seems to have woken the Ticos up, and not the Greeks.
But you make it sound like he had one unfortunate incident years ago, and it is unfairly following him around.
This is a player who, way back in 2007 apologized for diving. And not just for a single dive, but for a pattern of diving over the course of his career. Most of my soccer-watching is in the Premier League, and Robben was well-known as a diver during his time with Chelsea. Even a friend of mine, who bleeds Chelsea blue, conceded as much at the time.
Then, four years later, Robben apologized for an exaggerated dive in a Bundesliga game.
And now, in this very match, he took a huge dive barely 15 minutes before the match-winning penalty. And he has already conceded that he did it, and that it was wrong.
Just how much slack should this guy get? I agree with you that each situation should be judged on its merits, but calling him a diver IS dealing with facts. He’s done it so many times that it’s practically the defining characteristic of his career. The fact that he’s openly apologized for it on (at least) three separate occasions over a period of seven years is pretty good evidence, no?
What was the bench card for?
I agree thoroughly, especially because if we can manage to (effectively) crack down on diving, we can enforce the rest of the rules re: contact more effectively as well, and hopefully get more towards the beautiful football that’s so fun to watch.
… but I also I just want to point out that we get your skepticism of the US team at this point. You don’t need to get a post about how poor or overrated you think our side is on EVERY page of this thread. 
Works for me. I almost have never enjoyed Greece’s gameplay.
¡Vamanos los Ticos!
I assume for excessive bitching about that handball in the box that wasn’t called against Greece.