Group B Discussion

First topic message reminder :

Spain
Portugal
Morocco
Iran

Iran 1 Portugal 1

I don't think Portugal nor Spain are going to win the World Cup. R16 QF or SF probably.

Iran have a great chance to win - but miss - the spirit of Sterling enters the Iranian player.

Not a pen but Iran have almost just won it.

This World Cup continues to thrill - penalties and last minute goals.

The knock-out stages can be far more physically demanding than the group stages - because of the possibility of extra time and penalties. Portugal don't seem to have the legs to last while Spain defensively keep making mistakes.

So Spain top, Portugal second
Spain v Russia
Portugal v Uruguay.

Agree with Shearer, VAR has increased cheating & play-acting.

Uruguay vs Portugal a decent contest. Might be penalties, both well drilled but reliant on inspiration from their forwards

An awful game for VAR. But generally has enhanced this tournament so far. This was precisely the nightmare of it, people asking for every niggly foul hoping for a slice of luck. Up to now it generally went the other way.

I don't agree it's increased play action though, this craps been going on for years. Spain were the masters of it when they won 3 tournaments in a row.

Seems like VAR isn't good when in the hands of a terrible referee, just like a game without VAR.

I'd wager FIFA needs to improve the quality of its officials. VAR isn't the issue here.

Speaking of Spain, the home team at a world cup is never an easy out and they look incredibly fragile.

I think Uruguay match up well with Spain: Spain in possession with Uruguay solid in defence but very fast on the break. I don't think Uruguay match up so well against Portugal, but I have to put Uruguay as favorites to beat Portugal.

Spain v Russia - have to make Spain favorites.

I have to say it was amazing to listen to (radio) - it was an absolute roller coaster ride. On paper Spain should have hammered Morocco and Portugal should have hammered Iran. But I think both Spain and Portugal need fresh legs.

Pr4wn wrote:Seems like VAR isn't good when in the hands of a terrible referee, just like a game without VAR.

I'd wager FIFA needs to improve the quality of its officials. VAR isn't the issue here.

The ref lost control of the game after the first pen, but the ref being called over 2 minutes after the incident to take a look was farcical.

Should stick a 30 second limit on it, if you can't see anything worth flagging in that time move on.

I didn't watch the Spain game, but Portugal are pretty much the same as 2 years ago, well organised, disciplined but they're fairly ordinary outside of Ronaldo. 2 years ago the draw opened up for them (Wales in the semi final of a European Championship) and France choked.

Spain will soon regret to have fired their coach... their defensive positioning is getting dodgier and needs to be fixed or...

Russia are abysmal. No issue with Spain progressing through, but Croatia waiting for them in the QF is another story.

Croatia are always primed to no show in the knockout rounds mind

Just seen the highlights (at work).

How the hell was the Iran penalty given. There's something seriously wrong if you give that despite watching replays of it.

The Spain Morocco game looked very entertaining. And the equaliser is good use of VAR.
The thing with Spain is they're through, and despite all there faults they're unbeaten.

I'm not all that frequent an observer of normal League football, but was not VAR also brought in to hamper 'actors'?  Was it designed to weed out the divers and the guys who look like they've been snipered from the stands?
On the evidence of watching that Portugal v Iran game I think the very opposite has happened.  VAR seems to be a licence to act with impunity.  The ref with his VAR toy on the sidelines was only looking for one thing, victims of melodramatic acting.  He was after the victims and was intent on penalising them.  

It's been a long time since I've seen a game so littered with players going down so violently as though taken out by a bullet.  In the case of Ronaldo's possible red card.  What the hell was everyone looking at?  Not just the ref but most of the commentators in the studios - they were all fixated on whether the ref was right or wrong in giving a yellow to Ronaldo.  Should it have been Red?  Should it have been none?

I'll tell you what it should have been from my observation - it should have been a Red alright, for the Iranian guy's acting talents.   He continuously pushes against Ronaldo to try to seem as through he was been dragged backwards.  And then when Ronaldo uses his arm to curl past this eejit, the guy waits until Ronaldo is quite clearly past him before finally getting hit by the 'ghost elbow' in the face.  It's as clear as daylight that the impact moment from Ronaldo's elbow 'strike' happens well after the seeming collision.  You can see him clearly do the acting of the hit and going down.... but didn't time it right to get past VAR.
Yet it obviously got past the Ref watching VAR who still gave Ronaldo his yellow.  And it got past most pundits, who only seemed to argue about whether the card colour was the right one for Ronaldo.  I don't think I heard one person on the night suggest the Iranian should have gotten a bloody red for wasting VAR time.  I thought VAR was there to clean up the game and cut out cheating?

Spain considering dropping De Gea apparently

From the Morocco vs Spain highlights video I thought De Gea played well. He was left exposed several times by his defenders. The two goals conceded I thought he had little chance - a bullet header from a corner and a one on one situation - but saved Spain on a few other occasions.

However as I only saw the highlights (and listened on radio) I defer to the views of others. For example - in the BBC ranking of players where anyone can rank players from Spain and Morocco - De Gea was voted the worse player on the pitch. From what I heard and saw I did not get that impression. Yes he had a howler in the first match, but apart from that I think he has played well given the various Spanish defensive lapses.

Maybe the issue is more having a leader in the defensive section for Spain - but that should be Ramos. Maybe De Gea is not gelling with the rest of the defence ...