A brisk start! Probably more excitement than the entire 1990 final.
I can’t imagine being Khedira - you make it that far, then hurt yourself warming up . . .
Both teams look strong. Messi’s being Messi.
Both teams look like they came to play.
That looks like a concussion - the guy shouldn’t keep playing.
ETA: That was almost a goal for Argentina!
Yikes, that was a brutal hit that Kramer took there.
Oh wow. What an absolute gift that was.
You have to at least hit the target on a chance like that. Make the goalkeeper save the ball.
Not sure Kramer knows where he is.
Higuain: “I did it! I did it! I actually did it! I . . .
. . . didn’t do it.”
Kind of love the ESPN commentators accusing a player of theatrical diving by using, weirdly, figure skating terminology. As a figure skater, I should be offended, but it’s cute.
Oh, so it’s an 8pm BST kick-off then, FFS :smack:
Argentina’s strategy quite clear here. Soak up pressure, make dangerous counterattacks. They’re looking better than Germany overall I think.
Should have put that header in.
Great half of football that was.
What language are the officials speaking when they speak to the players? It seems they are speaking to players from both teams at the same time, who seem to understand them.
That Germany miss was unbelievable! It was offside, but . . . so close. It’s weird how there have been so many chances for both teams, yet it’s still 0-0 at halftime. They really are evenly matched.
ETA: Oh, and JohnMace: it’s actually pretty interesting - here’s a 2006 article about it from Slate. Apparently soccer players pick up the basics of tons of languages in their travels, so generally there’s a common tongue, but all referees (at least when that was written) have to know some English. As a last resort, crude sign language is used.
The miss wasn’t offside, the rebound would have been.
It was not offside and would have counted. The offside flag went up when the ball bounced off the post and hit Müller, who was the offside player.
The offside only mattered on the rebound off of the post, right? If the original header had gone in it would have counted as the offside German player was not involved in the play?
ETA: And my question is answered before I even ask it…
The offside was after the header. If the header had gone in, it would have counted.