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*Official* Semi Finals Thread

Shady Slim

International Coach
shady slim is going to be at the king tom croatian club in edensor park on wednesday morning to watch the mighty vatreni knock out messi tbh
 

morgieb

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The only thing stopping France is the back-to-back barrier. And that’s probably just a truism of some sorts. They’ve been the best team out there IMO.
 

Salamuddin

International Debutant
The only thing stopping France is the back-to-back barrier. And that’s probably just a truism of some sorts. They’ve been the best team out there IMO.
They need to tighten up at the back.France has conceded in every game so far - that's not good enough for a wc winner.

The history of this tournament suggests strongly that it is the sides with the best defence that triumph.

The Morocco game will be tough but I think France will prevail.
Argentina or Croatia may prove a bridge too far unless the defence shapes up.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Don’t care who wins the tournament, but I hope decent officials have been selected. I don’t say that because England didn’t get the rub of the green. The standard started off pretty good and has got steadily worse.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
As long as Lahoz plays no further part in the tournament the standard of officiating should increase exponentially.
 

Victor Ian

International Coach
whats the deal with faking for free kicks? Some of Portugals acting efforts seemed reportable. didnt they make taking fake dives a cardable offense? has it ever been enforced. that said, i was pretty happy in the way the ref mostly didnt fall for it, but there were a few non consequential frees portugal got that I though were due to faking.
 

Uppercut

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whats the deal with faking for free kicks? Some of Portugals acting efforts seemed reportable. didnt they make taking fake dives a cardable offense? has it ever been enforced. that said, i was pretty happy in the way the ref mostly didnt fall for it, but there were a few non consequential frees portugal got that I though were due to faking.
They give yellow cards for diving occasionally, usually when it's in the box and/or extremely obvious.

Mistakenly giving a yellow card for diving to a player who was fouled is kind of a big deal. It would be taken quite personally and the ref will completely lose the respect of one team for the rest of the game over a pretty inconsequential mistake. Even the other team will probably think he's a prick. If he's not 110% sure it was a dive it's just not worth it.

They should definitely punish players more for stuff like going down clutching their face when someone brushes against their chest. You never see bookings for that.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
The bloke who refereed the England game hasn't been sent home, so is still in contention for the Final. Michael Oliver is back home, but Anthony Taylor is still out there.
 

Victor Ian

International Coach
They should definitely punish players more for stuff like going down clutching their face when someone brushes against their chest. You never see bookings for that.
Agree with the first part. The above describes an exact incident that happens. Moroccan player swings an arm back which hit a Portugese player somewhere around shoulder or neck. It looked like a finger. Portugese player loses his footing and goes to ground clutching his face. (Got a free kick. Fair enough as contact was made) Then there was the guy who dramatically fell over in the penalty area having been touched by no-one. (No free kick). As I said, I thought the umpire was decent and didn't fall for any of these antics. I'm not really keen on cards being given either. Just some after game shaming of the player would do.

Penalties aside, I wonder how beneficial these fakes (or perhaps overreaction a are). Bias displayed here but I saw a number of times Moroccans had their legs hit from a tackle and they kept their balance and continued forward. They could have gone to ground and got a free kick, but that would allow the other team time to get back. Maybe it's preservation. If you make money from your legs you might retract them at the first sign of danger. Dunno. Portugal pissed me off though. They started dropping all over the place once Morocco got their goal.
 

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