Sigh,another penalty shootout After the excitement of Saturday’'s matches, today has been a downer.
Absolutely. As obvious a red as it gets. Croatia will be upset that they have to finish extra time attacking a full team. Probably wouldn’t have minded had Modric scored.
Yes
PKs are good!
I like em too 
Are both these sides English? 
Hard night for Schmeichel the Younger: to save three PKs in total and lose at penalties nonetheless…
Well, Modric’ll be a relieved guy.
You know Southgate’ll have his squad practicing hard on that stuff.
He was great and his Dad was proud. He has nothing to be ashamed about. It was a good professional performance by both sides.
Out of curiosity, I see a lot of talking on the field, between players from diverse countries and with officials from yet other countries. Is there a Footie Tongue that these guys need to master to play at the international level?
Interestingly Croatia was basically a carbon copy of Spain today. Lots of possession, a little bit of dazzle, but not a whole lot of credible chances. Russia will presumably try to smother them the same way.
Magnificent goalkeeping by both sides saving three penalties each.
Magnificent goalkeeping does not include letting an attacker get past like that.
Isn’t saving penalty kicks a matter of luck more than skill? To get a save, the goalie has to guess which direction to go before the ball is kicked
There’s a lot of skill involved. Looking at the hips, knees and feet can clue in a keeper in which way the shot is going. Studying a shooter’s prior history can clue the keeper in (for instance, Argentina’s Romero guessing that Dutch striker Wesley Schneider would shoot to his left like he did against Costa Rica.) Various taunting techniques can be used to bait a shooter into kicking a certain way (i.e., Chile’s Bravo pointing one way and leading Brazil’s Hulk to shoot the othet way, which Bravo saved.)
Finally, the shooter will sometimes kick straight down the middle, hoping the keeper preemptively jumps to one side. A clever keeper will stand pat and not fall for the trick.
Hulk v Bravo WC 2014.
A couple questions have occurred to me while watching this tournament.
Is the goalie allowed to pick up the ball when it’s kicked back to him by a teammate? Obviously, they can field the ball with their hands when it’s kicked by an opponent, and I’ve seen them field with their hands when the ball is headed by a teammate, but never when it’s kicked by a teammate. It was rather conspicuous once I started to notice. it.
What are the rules on performance enhancing drugs in the World Cup? There’s certainly enough money and prestige for players, and national federations, to take any advantage they can get. And I would think there are drugs that improve endurance that would be very useful in soccer (football). I can’t remember ever hearing of a player suspended for drugs, or testing protocols, or even rumors. Russia was banned from the last two Olympics for systematic doping. With their run of success in this World Cup, is there any possibility that they’ve had some illicit pharmaceutical help?
Goalie can’t handle if kicked directly by his teammate. A deflection is okay. Been the rule as far back as I can remember.
I alluded to this earlier. There has been some news that many or most players on the Russian soccer team were apparently caught doping, but somehow absolved, presumably to save the embarrassment of banning the home team from playing.
I think after the last couple of year he has earned the right to be called simply “Schmeichel”. He is an excellent keeper in his own right. Might get a move soon to a top club.