Jordan. Delph said “Hendpo” sent his wife into labour with that penalty miss, but mostly because of Pickford.
Yes, England are better. Only two goals out of 11 now have been scored without being penalties, corners or free kicks. Delph’s header today and Lingard against Panama.
They’re all decent at this stage of the world cup.
Croatia could easily make an argument for being the best team in the world right now in July 2018. Evidence: going undefeated thus far and destroying Argentina. Russia can make no such claim.
You are watching a different game. Belgium beat Brazil at their own game and were up 2-0 at the half. They only had to hold on. Stats are fairly meaningless in soccer. They are situational. The only stat that matters is goals. And again Brazil hasn’t shown itself to be a dominate side since 2002.
possession ≠ domination
When Belgium took possession it very often ended with something interesting, Brasil less so.
Mmmmh, the irony is delicious…
Kyle Walker’s a funny guy.
I can probably find the answer to this elsewhere (maybe in this thread, even), but I’ll just ask:
I’m sitting here watching Croatia-Russia and the referee, who appears to be Latin American, periodically scolds the players. What language is he using? I assume he doesn’t speak Russian (and almost certainly not Croatian). English? French? I actually find the fact that referees need to speak a standard language less interesting than the fact that the players are clearly expected to understand him (and the conversations seem to be beyond simple commands… although there are some hand signals). Does your average national team member speak sufficient English (or whatever) to communicate?
Russia seem determined to play at a 1000mph, It is a bit “headless chicken” you have to wonder if they’ll run of of steam.
Yep, his twitter game is strong
Lordy! sweet feet!
Russia ahead
I can’t put my finger on it, but for some reason I am absolutely terrified of Vladimir Putin right now.
Napolean…Hitler…Me…underestimating Russian determination to fight on their home turf. 
Yes, although Martinez did change to a Back 4 right at the beginning. That said, :smack:
And I’m very much aware of that stats don’t tell the whole story. But Brazil truly created more scoring chances all game long. I agree that Belgium’s tactics changed after the first goal. But we all clearly disagree on what we saw.
Oooooo we got ourselves a game…
Croatia ties with a beautiful header!
CRO 1 - 1 RUS
Random question. Jersey number 10 has a special significance as being the team’s leader/playmaker/scorer. But who decides who gets to wear it? What if there’s a hot new player who is clearly the star but the now-fading previous star is still a good player and doesn’t want to give it up?
About ENG-SWE: Pickford is CLUTCH.
About RUS-CRO: I really don’t know which side I want to win.
Hmmm, second half is full of sound and fury but it is a bit short on quality
Home-field host advantage seems to be a bigger advantage in football, internationally, than almost any other sport. France winning it all at home in 1998, South Korea going to the semis in 2002, France going to the Euro final in 2016 and now the Russkies are just one good shot away from going to the semis at home.