I realize I’m 3 months late responding here but… you don’t see the difference between a bad call – because humans are fallible and sports are subjective – and a breakdown in communication in which the agreed-upon decision was not communicated to the field?
If a game was played that ended in a scoreless draw, and the scorekeepers screwed up and submitted it as a 1-0 victory, and there was a bylaw that said that once a scoresheet was entered into the official league table it could not be changed; would you just say “oh, well, bad calls happen to everyone”?
Also, what Klopp actually said is a lot more measured than that headline implies.
(Granted, I’m a Liverpool fan, so, probably not totally objective here.)
AFC Asian Cup about to enter the knockout stages soon. Japan and South Korea looking a bit weaker than usual, Iran looking strong, and China shockingly failed to score a single goal in 3 games and was eliminated in the group stage. Palestine got its first win, Hong Kong was a minnow against sharks, Vietnam disappointing, Qatar looking in good shape to defend its title.
After the last WC, I could never understand how Qatar could win the last Asia Cup, and also that they’re now playing again a good role in the current tournament. I saw most games of the WC, and Qatar was clearly the weakest team of all, on their home turf. Other Asian teams like Japan and South Korea were miles ahead.
Speaking about football and Qatar corruption, it seems that seven years after the fact some French journalists are beginning to accept that Neymar’s signing from Barcelona for 222 Million Euro was not completely kosher, politicians were bought, taxes evaded eluded, and rules broken:
I particularly like the part where the former budget minister Gérald Darmanin — a heavyweight in Emmanuel Macron’s government — explains how wonderful it was that he acted like he did:
Earlier this week, Darmanin — who is now interior minister — declined to confirm or deny the story. He stressed, however, that France’s state coffers benefitted from Neymar’s transfer to Paris: “If Mr. Neymar hadn’t come, no taxes would have been paid, no soccer shirts with his name on them would have been sold, and no social security contributions would have come in,” he told reporters Monday.
That means “of course they paid too little taxes but I got my cut and it is better than nothing, you suckers!”, right? OK, Monsieur le Ministre, I’ll stop complaining.
The man gets a serious knee injury and is deregistered in Saudi Arabia, is busted cheating on his pregnant girlfriend and offers a public apology, and now the Qatari team that sold his rights is in trouble…at least this last one doesn’t affect him directly, I don’t think, but what a year.
Do they keep track of the number of rotations in every Rolly-Dive? Like how competitive diving has a “three and a half twist” or whatever?
“And down goes Neymar! He writhes and revolves across the pitch… and it looks like it’s a one…two… three four five… SIX…SEVEN! Seven and one-half flips all while clutching both ankles! It’s hard to conceive that any player will ever surpass seven full rotations, much less seven and a half!!”
Mbappe apparently confirming he’ll head to Real Madrid. No real surprise, but as a Barcelona fan it’s pretty disheartening to see the differences in players brought it.
I suspect he’d lead the line with Vinicius on the left. He has complained about doing that at PSG though, stating that he prefers the wing with a traditional 9 like Giroud for France. I suspect they could throw them out there without tactical instruction and they’d still do well though.
Just wondering if Ancelotti might be too much of an exacting strategist to just let KM go out there without specific directions from CA. Sure, you’re probably more well-versed in Ancelotti’s overall apporaches than myself; I just figured KM might have a shorter leash at RM than PSG, where there was a carousel of five coaches in the five years he was there.
The blue card has been notionally tested before, though I have not seen a game with it. Have any of you?
What is first read about this I did not like it, however, the more I read, the more I like. The notion of closing down dissent is attractive… technical fouls I’m less clear on, although I’ve seen some pretty ugly ones, so I won’t argue it.
I think I was able to make the link below from The Athletic shareable.
After supporting VAR and not liking the implementation at all, I’m now in the “If it’s not broken don’t fix it camp” for the foreseeable future.
No more innovations please.
Oh man, do I love VAR. Not only because it increases the odds of a correct call following the dozen Hi Def replays we’ll inevitably see after a controversial play, but also because (in my opinion, at least in the Bundesliga) it has substantially reduced simulation.
But I do understand that it is slowed the game down, and reduced some instances to microtechnical decisions.
I frankly prefer a bad decision immediately to a good decision after 10 minutes of deliberation, not to mention goals being invalidated by an infraction committed minutes ago in the other side of the pitch at the start of the play.
I didn’t realize that VAR was going to work that way and that’s why I supported it, for some of the same reasons you do, but I very much dislike it now.
The points you make are the reason why I’m still undecided about VAR. It reduces bad calls, it stops simulation, it objectively calls offside, all true, but the endless delays it brings is a clear downside, especially to the spectators in the stadiums. And the decisions should be better explained, to the fans watching on the telly but especially to those attending.
ETA: concerning the last point, I just remembered that the refs in the latest women’s WC always explained their VAR calls over microphone to the crowd. Granted, it was sometimes a bit wonky, but that mostly relied on language barriers. Why hasn’t this practice been applied FIFA-wide?
