Thread to discuss the football itself.
This is not a thread to discuss the hosting of the competition in Quatar.
You can discuss the hosting in the relevant thread.
2-0 and Wales are cooked. Another terrific finish.
2-0 and that's a fair scoreline.
I think the better Iranian team does the more the Iran government will be under pressure at home. Second goal now. Could become a beacon.
And that's why I love football.
I'd imagine Americans didn't fear the Iranians much after the England game but if they play like they did today, they could turn the US over like they did in '98.
7 minutes into injury time and it looked like Wales had almost completed their daylight robbery. Iran deserved that so much, they would have been sick had it ended in a draw.
Enjoying this slightly more accurate version of added time alright.
Wonder will it continue into league football, or will we be back to 3 minutes in January as the default?
I am delighted for Iran. They were by far the better team. I am glad VAR intervened on that ridiculous booking for Hennessey.
Am I right in saying that RTE has not changed that 'Gareth's' Quiz question for the last few tournaments?
I know who I am shouting for in that one, and it's not America!
Wales need USA to beat England now, and get a result against England. I can't see either happening,
Turned over to BBC to hear Ashley Williams describing the Hennessy red as 'unlucky', conceding that 'he does catch him'. You'd swear it was a marginal call listening to these pundits.
THe henesy red card reminded of a q i didn't ask the other day....
If the Saudi keeper had clattered an Argentine player with his knee - would it have been ok because he got the ball, or a red because for any other player on the pitch it would have been reckless indangerment? If it would have been a red, why is it not a red when it is your own team mate? You are allowed to recklessly indanger them?
Kenny thinks it should have been yellow too... insane stuff.
Ya, can't agree with him there. Hennessy was far, far closer to taking the Iranian players head off than to getting the ball. It was a red card all day long.
In fairness they all agreed Iran were the better team on BBC.
I agree with Kenny in terms of he was trying to win the ball and not kick the player so not like the Schumacher challenge.
But he was high and out of control so definitely put the opponent at risk, so red card
If USA lose, they go into their game vs Iran on 1 point, and Iran would be on 3.
If Wales beat England they'd go to 4 points.
So you'd have England on 6, Wales on 4 and then some combination of Iran on 6 (wales out), Iran on 4 and USA on 2, USA on 4 and Iran on 3
So Wales can end the group tied on points with Iran (if USA/Iran is a draw) or with USA (if USA Beat Iran - having lost to England).
How is a tie on points worked out? With USA the H2H is the same, vs Iran they lose out. But if they tie on points vs Iran in this scenario they would have better goal difference overall.
Or is my math completely wrong?
Robbie Savage was saying the last night that it's only Iran, what an ass.
If points and GD and GS are all the same it goes down to yellow and red cards, it is how Senegal were knocked out in the last World Cup they and Japan drew 2-2 ended up with the same points goal difference and goals scored so it went on fair play and Senegal had more yellow cards so were knocked out
Your'e right I think,
Tie-breaking criteria for group playThe ranking of teams in the group stage is determined as follows:
I always find it a weird one when they start talking about intent, as if that's even really relevant to whether it's a red card or not... if it was found to be intentional, they'd more be looking at a lengthy suspension, Ben Thatcher-style.
Kenny is old school he would have taken the belt in the head, and shrugged it off.
The amount of empty seat for a game involving the hosts is staggering
Never seen so many empty seats for a host nation. Terrible.
Hope to see a Senegal win, a Senegal clean sheet, and an Ismaila Sarr screamer.
Isn't there some fair play thingymajig in play for this too if teams are tied?
Just about the size of Qatari crowds, Doyle does not seem to realise only 313,000 of the population are Qatari citizens. He seems to think the Qatari have a population the size of Ireland to support them! Most of them are foreigners though about 90%. He seems very clueless on the basics.
Their real support for Qatar is a pick from about the same population of Kildare. And it would be like people wondering why Kildare don't support their hurlers in large numbers. Not much of culture of hurling in Kildare.
What happened this morning ?
Are Iran actually good, are Wales crap ?
Is this a bad sign for the USA tonight or are the games unrelated ?
I think if Kildare were in a World Cup for 3 games, they'd have no problem coming out in force in fairness!
And why are you ignoring all the non-citizens? Many of whom were born in Qatar and raised and live in Qatar. The population is close to 3 million. Even if you ignore all the migrant workers, you've still got a million 'locals'.
Iran today looked a different team to the one that played England. They were good but at the same time Wales were terrible.
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