Well, I tried to avoid the scoreline and watch the highlights early this morning… I tried… I did the usual ‘no spoilers highlights’ search on YouTube, which has worked a treat up to now, but of course what comes up as the top video preview? ‘Mexico 2 3 England’… sigh… I decided to watch the full playback on BBC, although it wouldn’t let me go back any earlier than 30 mins for some reason
Obviously I am delighted at the result, and what a fantastic backs to the wall performance, but jesus they looked exhausted and I worry how much it has taken out of them for Saturday (good thing it is Saturday and not earlier…). I thought the ref actually had a terrific game, can’t argue with the red or the pen against us, despite Shearer on comms saying it wasn’t a pen (Alan, it was, he kicked through the attacker). Watching that live must have been incredible… gutted that I knew the score but I’ll take it!
Just a word on the Balogun thing, I thought it was a red but I can understand some people not being happy with it. But regardless, what has happened is a total farce. I’m fairly sure FIFA have broken their own rule about non-political interference in a country’s football matters? Might need to check that. But if they have then it makes a mockery of the whole competition.
Oh and one more thing, top trolling by the PA at the Azteca - no sooner had the ref blown for full time, ‘Three Lions’ comes belting out. Somehow I don’t think it was a local in charge of the music in the stadium!
With the attendance breaking records, I have to wonder if there was a conversation somewhere in the world before the event that went something like this:
“You know, the government over in the U.S. is rounding up people who don’t look white and sending them to Nicaragua, no matter where they’re from.”
ricepad - thanks for your response. It was very informative. I got sucked into refereeing for 1 game when I was in my late teens. Never again. I was waaaay to slow to blow the whistle.
I’m a Spurs fan so first heard of Harry Kane 15 years ago when he was coming through the club academy. Seeing his entire career unfold from not really being on the radar of anyone as a future prospect to Spurs’s all time top scorer, England’s greatest striker, one of the greatest strikers of all time, and in my opinion the frontrunner for this year’s Ballon d’or award has been a special journey. If you look back to when England were knocked out of the group stages in 2014 no one predicted the next era of the national team would feature this blond haired 20 year old who wasn’t pulling up any trees on his multiple lower league loans.
If you haven’t followed football closely before the World Cup it’s stuff like that which makes it worth it in the long slog of club seasons. International football at the World Cup where the best of the best turn up for six weeks is a dopamine that hooks you quickly but it’s seeing the development and journey of how the best players get there in between tournaments that are the best rides. Once in a while you have a teenage sensation like Yamal or Messi or Ronaldo or Bellingham or Neymar or Wayne Rooney who play like confident men while still being boys because they’re better than most players already. But I like the journeys of the guys who get there a little later and with more obstacles in their way to overcome. Kane, Mo Salah, Bruno Fernandes, Michael Olise.
Soccer is a weird outlier where there is a clock, but the game doesn’t end when the clock runs out. Some sports allow the final play or shot to finish, but soccer kicks it up a notch by allowing the final possession to finish after the clock runs out. Net result is that the less time left on a hypothetical scoreboard clock the less accurate it would be.
Technically it is because the amount of time added on is a minimum
The stadium announcers in Premier League games always say “the referee has indicated there will be a minimum of X minutes of added time”
So there is a lot of power to the referees on when they want to call it. Part of this is undoubtedly because there is no stopped clock when the ball is out of play or a player is down and play is stopped in stoppage time. So the referee takes into account that too. But the amount of time added on isn’t exactly a science either. Because if a team is winning 5-0 but there has been a lengthy stoppage for an injury it’s very unlikely the referee will determine that length of time will be played and instead the game ends after 1 or 2 minutes at most to put the other team out of their misery.
In last season’s Champions League Final when PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 the referee blew the final whistle exactly on 90 minutes without adding on any time even though there had been stoppages.
Half of the R16 is completed, and three of the four quarterfinalists are from Europe. There will be another European team to qualify, as Spain plays Portugal today. Belgium and Switzerland are both still alive, so there’s a potential for six of the eight teams in the quarterfinals to be European.
No, I meant including stoppage time. But after a cigarette I changed my mind.
From my disinterested American perspective, I’d like to see two scoreboard clocks: one that counts up to 90 minutes, and then a second clock that counts down the stoppage minutes. This stoppage clock would start each half at zero, and then the ref in charge of timing would add minutes to it in real time. Everyone could see when and why each stoppage minute is added. I think that would be cool.
I imagine this idea would be widely hated by actual soccer fans.
Well that certainly takes some of the fun out of my goofy idea. And I do kind of like the discretion given to the ref. I certainly see its merits, at least.
It would really be hated more by referees. Think about it; you’ve added 5 minutes to the game, but there has been a couple arguments and slow-play by one team during that so you decide to add another minute or so, or let the ongoing attack continue to it’s conclusion (loss of ball or out of bounds). Meanwhile the stoppage clock gets to zero and the players, coaches and anywhere from 50 to 100,000 fans lose their minds all at once and all at you…
No, it’s not a perfect system, but then, what is?
And yes, I’ve been a soccer ref (youth only) for 30 years.
Ha! Now I’m imagining the stoppage clock counting down five, four, three, 1:02, oh shit, the ref just added another minute!
Stipulating that in any and all cases both real and hypothetical, once the time is finished, the game still does not end until the next change of possession. That was my original thought as to why there couldn’t be a clock, but I don’t think that matters either way.
There should always be more time added on than is displayed when 90 minutes elapses. There are always going to be stoppages in the added time to account for as well.
Yes, you’re right, at least for the WCs in 86 and 90. He famously netted the penalty for the 1-0 in the 90 final in Rome against Argentina, when Matthäus dodged because he was too chicken to kick it (IIRC he later stated he didn’t want to because he was wearing a new pair of boots).
I’ve thought that maybe Pochettino should bench Balogun for the game, for the same reasons. But then it occurred to me: Pochettino was hired to win the World Cup, not to be the USMNT’s Beacon of Integrity and Sportsmanship. It would be colossally stupid for him to do that.
This USA fan is sorely disappointed in how this matter shook out. Yes, Balogun didn’t deserve that red card. But FIFA shouldn’t have pulled a last-minute fast one, either. Particularly if (as seems to be the case) the USA’s Dictator “requested” it.
But here we are. Balogun isn’t the villain here. Nor is Pochettino. Nor is anyone else who collects a paycheck from USMNT. This is all on Trump and Infantino.