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.
Happy to see the dominant side in normal time progress
For their population, not sure there is a country on the planet that punches above their weight better than Croatia. They have less people than Ireland, and yet they consistently produce top players and go deep in tournaments.
I always wonder why more don’t go down the middle. Most goalies dive have to be brave to stay still.
Vida must have some Targaryen blood in him.
Would have liked Japan to continue their jersey, but scoring one penalty after settling for a shoot-out back-fired. Never understand that policy- go for the jugular be damned.
And they're also pretty good at other international sports such as handball and basketball and waterpolo.
It's incredible isn't it. Just look at what they achieve in tennis too. Makes you wonder what Ireland could achieve if there was proper investment in sport here.
Would have liked Japan to continue their jersey,
Are they going to be the Samurai beige from now on?
Scheduling is cleverer than it first seems, as you are always playing an opponent who has had the same amount of rest days as you from their previous games (until the final where one team has an extra day).
This fairness does cause the inconsistency that both France and England have that extra time, but again crucially both teams will have had the same rest so not an advantage with respect to each other. Ditto Croatia and Brazil/SK.
Ireland punches way above its level for the size of the country.
No 1 golfer in the world, multiple Major winners, No 1 ranked team in Rugby.
This Croatian side are dogged but limited enough, they have drawn 3/4 games and only scored 1 goal in 3 games against Morocco,Belguim and Japan.
We are annoyingly way behind similar sized countries like Croatia and Denmark in the sports I actually like 😂
Surprised Neymar starts as I thought they might ease him back as a sub. It should help the spectacle. I think this looks a tough ask for South Korea, so I'll say Brazil to win 3-1.
We're good at sports that aren't popular on continental Europe is how I see it.
Babies. Big cry babies, rolling around feigning injury or feigning how injured they actually are. Babies.
Well they dont have the GAA to contend with.
Apart from football what other sport does Denmark excel in ?
I cant think of any
Nah, we punch way above our weight given the level of our investment which is tiny but in terms of our population the best measure is the Olympics and we are only about average or worst compared to other countries.
We invest heavily in golf and horse racing and we are excellent in horse racing especially so we could be elite at other sports if we invested in infrastructure
Croatia got the Czechs to take their penos ? Sneaky.
Yep, couldn't give a toss about Golf, Rugby, boxing or horse racing.
Always a fine judgement call these situations. Case for saying he would benefit from a full (or 70-80 minute) game, bring him up to match fitness...
They have 206 total medals in Olympics and Ireland has 35 so many many sports.
Cycling. They are very well represented in the pro peloton.
Ireland's big plan in sport is usually to hope some generational legend comes along for free.
Hopefully Sports Campus Ireland is the start of something. We can stop relying on other countries to train our athletes.
Cycling and Sailing it seems .
Our facilities up until maybe 15 years ago were third world.
I played for my local town underage and we used to train on what could be described as a field that was shared with cows.
The manager hadnt a clue, get rid of it was his favourite phrase.
We'd do a few laps of the pitch then play a game and that was training.
Didnt even have any floodlights so often trained in the dark.
Facilities now are vastly superior so it will take time.
I don’t want to go too off topic but facilities are way off what a country our size would normally have. Don’t hold your breath if you’re expecting us to achieve in the near future.
Can't leave Vini Jr like that.
Cool as you like from Vini Jr , great finish
I never gave South Korea any chance against Brazil. And they're 1-0 down already. Uruguay would have been way tougher for them.
peno now
Penalty Brazil
Stupid penalty to give away. And you know Richarlison will make the most of any contact. It was the slightest of touches.
Penalty. 2-0. Game over.
Keeper, was useless. I think he could have got that.
