World Cup 2022 - discussion, predictions, and thoughts

Oh right, I thought USA had won against Wales.

Plus, if this game ends in a draw, Iran has 4 points and US has 3.

Iran qualifies with a win or a draw.

Heh, until today I was wondering “hmm… wonder if USA ends up with a perfect streak of 0-0 draws?”

But they tied 1-1 against Wales.

Nine excruciating minutes of stoppage time.

These will be the longest 9 minutes in US football.

If they dig in any deeper they might hit oil:)

Yes, but if human judges consistently erred in favor of the attacking player, changing it to automatic ones would have a deleterious effect, to balance that we could add a bit of tolerance.

Oh crap, that was close!

(Iran had a free kick just outside the box, and Iran with a header just wide.)

Uh, USA looked terrible in the second half. If we hold them off the next two minutes or so, we are LUCKY.

Watched that almost goal just now. USA is LUCKY X10 if they win.

Oh, crap, damn near a PK

Herdman is a good coach but I agree he should be more sportsmanlike. He is largely responsible for Canada being there for the first time in decades. Belgium is a good team, seemingly weaker this year than in the past. Canada played about as well as they did and Herdman let it get to his head. Croatia is one of the best teams in the world and finished second in 2018.

The Canadian media could have praised these efforts and soft pedalled a stupid comment which looked worse after the game. I wonder if the media was miffed he did not make players very available for interviews. They mentioned it again and again. But who cares what a Croatian tabloid has to say?

Herdman was likely annoyed at the media and losing to a much better Croatian team. He need not be embarrassed by that. Not shaking the coach’s hand was worse than anything he said.

Still, Canada needs him. The team can get better still, but if he is to remain credible he has to learn to check his ego at the kickoff whistle.

Wow wow wow

And even without a PK being awarded, the ball was still past the US keeper and cleared by a defenseman maybe two feet from the goal. Close doesn’t being to describe it.

Whew!

I think our boys won’t have much trouble with your guys:)

Hup Holland!

My stupid recording cut off with 90 seconds of stoppage time left. Whew!

Now… what are our chances of upsetting the Dutch? 5%?

34%, per 538, thankyaverymuch.

How much tolerance? It has to be a certain amount. Let’s say 20 cm. Then you have merely moved the offside line 20 cm forward, and people will make exactly the same argument when someone is 21 cm offside.

Damn that was a chaotic finish. Good for the US for creating pressure forward in the last third of the match.