VAR at the 2018 World Cup is the 21st century Russian Revolution. It is the football equivalent of “Seven Days That Shook The World” over 100 years ago. As happened in Europe and the world, for decades thereafter, nothing in football refereeing will remain the same after the VAR revolution at the 2018 World Cup.
Despite the bitter, vicious whingeing in the media by the luddite pundits who bang on endlessly that it is the end of football, i.e. the end of those “good times” when referees, wittingly or not, could erroneously award penalties and off-side goals without real-time review, despite the doubters, VAR has burst on the world stage proving that with technology the accuracy of refereeing decisions can decisively increase, especially on those game-changing decisions.
VAR is 99.3% correct
According to FIFA’s referee committee head, Pierluigi Collina, so far at the World Cup, 99.3 percent of “match-changing” decisions were called correctly at — “very, very close to perfection” — based on assessments by him and other senior ex-referees. Who in their right mind, after seeing world cup after world cup (my 12th tournament since 1970) where usually “smaller nations” get screwed over by a decisive penalty or off-side call, could be against VAR? Which England fan, with two working neurons and the ability to think independently, could be opposed to a video ref review after Maradonna’s infamous “hand of god” goal? Which Gooner, having experienced in the PL a 120% plus increase in Penalties-Against the club in the ten years up to 16-17 compared to the previous period, be satisfied with the current state of affairs?
Defining the revolution
So why is this a revolution? There is no bloody uprising, no raging factions of Girondists vs Jacobins, Mensheviks vs Bolsheviks, etc. engaged in terminal struggle. Yet it is my hypothesis that the impact of VAR is potentially as significant as any other revolution in the sport. First, the absolute power of the refereeing authorities to make game changing decisions without recourse has ended. It may take some months to become reality but the success of VAR on the world stage is the beginning of the end of those refereeing organizations who have delayed and procrastinated on the use of technology to ensure football officials get the big decisions absolutely right.
It is remarkable that up to 2018, football will be the last among the major sports to adopt technology. Is there anything more incongruous; in a world of 4k, ultra definition TV, where viewers can literally see every bead of sweat on a player’s brow, much less a blatant foul or hand-ball offense in real time, the Premier League with all its multi-billion tv revenue, will be the last among the major European leagues to adopt VAR. Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction.
How often have we seen referees dismiss with arrogance and impunity appeals made by players-managers-fans to reverse decisions that were blatant errors on their part. A mealy-mouth apology at end of season via a journalist or some other friendly audience regretting the error will not bring back 2 or 3 points dropped because of a bad decision. Multiply such “errors” two or three times over a season and three lost points multiply to as much nine. One doesn’t have to be a statistical genius to appreciate that in a league of fine margins, with a top-4 place more than a trophy (now the equivalent a gold or platinum plated Preferred Card to the riches of the champions league) that refereeing errors are simply unacceptable in deciding the results of games.
Even more revolutionary, to my mind, is how VAR will restrict the ability of the honchos who are the real power in the various leagues (Premier, UEFA, FIFA, etc.) from being able to appoint their favorite referee to manipulate a game to achieve a desired result. The biggest and most recent scandal, Calciopoli in Italy, centered on the fixers being able to have their favored corrupted referee appointed to do certain games. Fortunately for the Italian investigators, who busted the perpetrators, they had recorded telephone conversations between the plotters. No hard evidence has emerged of English referees being corrupted despite the increased legitimization of gaming companies being involved with English football, the massive rise in sports-related gambling rings in Asia and elsewhere and the reports of certain referees receiving favors from bookmakers. But some of us refuse to be intimidated by accusations of being conspiracy theorists, refuse to abandon commonsense, and refuse to ignore the laws of human nature. Throughout history wherever there is massive amounts of money to be had, without transparency and aggressive policing of the players, corrupting forces will flourish with gay abandon.
Disarray in the English media
The striking thing to date is how the VAR revolution has the English media in general disarray. Until recently, anything about the World Cup, particularly Russia, was negative. Football lovers were urged to avoid land of Putin as it was a cesspool of racist, violent football hooligans. Apparently the legions of fans who traveled from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and many European countries to support their teams simply ignored the advice of certain media and were/are only too happy to enjoy the hospitality of the Russians and to party from city-to-city, unmolested.
Pre-world cup the English football media was generally united that they, with a few well chosen propaganda points, could deceive the public that VAR doesn’t or couldn’t work. One prominent example is Barney Ronay of The Guardian, in my opinion their best exponent of Orwellian double-speak, who as recent as last January after only the 3rd trial of VAR by the Football League concluded:
“The fact is, for all the expertise, the manpower, the money spent, VAR just doesn’t work in football. It diminishes the experience of watching in the stadium. It skews the game decisively one way. It is one of those ideas, like bendy buses, or communism, that would simply be better off abandoned.”
Notice by the way the allusion to communism. Apparently you have to be a communist to want fair-play in football. Is there anything more Orwellian?
Eight months later the Guardian is a little more “guarded” (pardon the pun), one may say even ebullient in their assessment of VAR. In a column headlined The video ref is the rising star of this World Cup, penned by a Jack Bernhardt and published on June 19th, long before the conclusion of the group stages of the World Cup, he wrote:
“Sure, there have been a few high-profile mistakes. VAR should have spotted Harry Kane being wrestled to the ground by Tunisia’s defenders last night, and if England hadn’t won the Sun would have run the headline “What a bunch of VARseholes”. But to me, VAR is much more than a silly extra gimmick, or something new and shiny that exists just to irritate Mark Lawrenson – it’s actually changing the dynamic of the sport.
“But if a referee knows they can review a decision, it becomes inherently less arbitrary. As such, everyone has more faith in the system, so there are fewer frustrated outbursts, and less of a need for a referee to stamp their authority on the game. That’s borne out by the stats: with no red cards in the first 14 matches, this is officially the cleanest start to a World Cup in 32 years.”
Beware the counter revolution
The success of VAR is not guaranteed. Like any revolution, there will be a counter revolution. Europe is replete with examples. The French are now into their 5th Republic. The Soviet Union has ceased to exist.
The Powers That Be (PTOB) may be off-balance by the current success of VAR but it won’t be for long. Without a vigilant footballing public I am absolutely sure it will be corrupted to the detriment of fair play. The referees are not perfect and they are swayed by their inherent, historical bias towards the traditionally big footballing nations (easily change that to big-spending football clubs). Carlos Quieroz is absolutely correct that Ronaldo should have been sent off for that deliberate foul vs Iran, not a yellow card after the VAR review. The Moroccans have filed a complaint to FIFA showing 10 instances where they were shafted during their game vs Spain. Similarly the Serbians are still incensed by decisions against them in the game vs Switzerland particularly that incident when Lichsteiner and cohort wrested Mitroivic to the ground with absolutely no call. Already The Telegraph via Keith Hackett are arguing that “VAR officials are hunting for decisions to make and interfering when not needed.” But, as the smaller footballing nations at the World Cup have experienced, there is need for more VAR when the referees have made errors, not less.
As for those of us who support Arsenal and follow the Premier League, it will be interesting to see how our lords and masters react to the success of VAR in Russia. As ArsenalAndrew, who is a long-time advocate of VAR tweeted:
All I shall add, there is a crying need to “ReformThePGMO.”
Positively Arsenal 
some good news, Josh DaSilva was back training at Arsenal today, there was lots of concern when he was not part of the academy group photo on Sunday, hopefully there will soon be news on his contract
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Smith Rowe among six youngsters to train with Arsenal with first-team under Emery
by jeorge bird
New Arsenal head coach Unai Emery held his first training session at the club today, with a host of youngsters in attendance.
Midfielder Emile Smith Rowe was amongst them along with defender Jordi Osei-Tutu.
Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah and Matt Macey also trained with the squad.
Krystian Bielik, Cohen Bramall, Ben Sheaf, Stephy Mavididi and Julio Pleguezuelo, meanwhile, were amongst those overlooked as they instead trained with the U23 squad.
As far as first-team players are concerned, new signing Sokratis Papastathopoulos trained, and was joined by Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Sead Kolasinac, Aaron Ramsey, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Alexandre Lacazette.
Returning loanees Emiliano Martinez, Chuba Akpom, Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Carl Jenkinson also trained with the squad but Lucas Perez only did gym work.
Goalkeeper Bernd Leno wasn’t involved, while Laurent Koscielny remains injured.
Alex Iwobi, Granit Xhaka, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Mesut Ozil, Mohamed Elneny, Joel Campbell, Nacho Monreal and David Ospina will all be afforded extra time off following their involvement in the World Cup.
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WWB
Game came to life with the amazing Pickford save (not shown as a replay!) and thereafter. England crestfallen for a spell then finding a second wind.
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I wrote that England would do well on these pages in this tournament many moons ago.
You heard it here first.
But, to be fair:
– It was just a simple statistical projection: what are the odds of one of the big football nations completely and utterly arsing three tournaments in a row…you can all do the maths if you don’t freak out and start oscillating between dimensions at the sight of a humble calculator (or your phone).
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But if England are going to do or play well against say Brazil or France or Uruguay or Belgium as they gather momentum they’ll need more CMs on the pitch then Henderson?
What is Alli? Apart from a well packaged product I mean: in terms of a Footballer/athlete?
He won’t get the Neville Neville treatment.
Neville, who also said on air he’d hack and kick Rosicky. Yes. It certainly is remarkable coverage but I won’t expect the friends of the Moron including the likes of the blagger to ever comment upon that.
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I love Fins, but you have to be Alan Turing to understand some of his posts.
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So fins is an enigma??
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George: If you having it hard following Fins elliptical metaphors and historical references, and you are English, then what about poor us from the rest of the world? I love Fins though. We have been through thick and thin although many a time he sends me to the internet to do a search.
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I posted the following on twitter yesterday which I want to share:
“This is my 12th World Cup and based on history the tournament is now perfectly set up for Brazil to win it. England could make the finals though. But avoid the hype from the English media, yes that same media who up to recently discouraged the English from going to Russia.”
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BTW: A good source of World Cup news and fan reactions is the RT channel and nothing infuriates more is the boost it is giving that scamp Crucial Robbie from AFTV who is now the voice of Arsenal & English fans. My lord.
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LOL. Power to Robbie Lyle.
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finsburyp
July 4, 2018 at 9:20 am
Untill that save Colombia just forgot to play football luckily for England
Penalty shoot-out saved the game a bit
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Fins
Also runs under the tag
‘Bletchley’s Finest’?
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so only Arsenal player left at the world cup is Danny Welbeck, and reported signing Lucas Torreira
which means nearly all our squad should play at least some part in preseason and be ready for the start of the season.
could do with England going as far as the semi finals, hindering the liverpool and spurs squads prep
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Arsenal Women’s team busy adding quality to their squad too with the signings of German international Tabea Kemme and Austrian International Lia Walti.
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I like fins very much, and his references.
Am I alone in thinking that Japan were a bit hard done by: There was a point where Kompany brought down a player near or in the penalty area and the lino gave the foul to Belguim. Kompany, buoyed by that decision then went through the back of a Japan player – no card. Whilst Japan were getting tired I thought the way they went about playing was splendid. Ah well, maybe I’m just wrong?
Rich
Ta for the list of books and ongoing conclusions.
I’m glad I didn’t see the plundits slagging off Xhaka and everything Arsenal. They’re pretty sick with their bolux, what!
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[Bit of therapeutic writing for me and maybe reading for anyone aggravated by the attack on Xhaka yesterday]
Calm now but still annoyed by neville’s shite.
I don’t watch the pundits much but I’m still fairly confident no player during the tournament has come in for the type of criticism Xhaka did (apart from Ozil, of course).
Anyone seen another player get that treatment?
He didn’t even have a bad game. He had a generally good game with a rough 5-10 minute period. Maybe a 6.5 out of 10. Don’t think any of his teammates did better and a few must have done worse.
Guess it’s all part of the same thing whereby if you could quantify criticism aimed at a premier league manager or team over the last 5 years or more I’ve no doubt Wenger and Arsenal would be miles out ahead for both the most and the severest criticism.
With the only way that can be halfway logical (imagining that’s a requirement), given all the teams and their managers who do much worse, is by saying it’s about reasonable expectations, resources,etc. Though it’s still, of course, bollocks.
So anyway, Xhaka was monstered in a manner none of the other 736 of the players at the tournament were, despite clearly being better than hundreds of those players, and despite there being many hundreds of worse performances at the tournament, in which he’d played very well in the three group games…can it be explained by something similar to the reasonable expectations/resources detail which, logically, is the only explanatory factor for the bashing of Wenger/Arsenal?
Hard to see how that applies unless Xhaka is a player who is expected to do much better (because he’s an incredibly good player or because he cost 30 million).
Anyway, it’s all bollocks. Luckily for Phil Neville, he is free to do it because logic, fair-mindedness and intelligence are not required for his job. Nor his other job, going on everything he has ever shown with the poverty of his ideas, thoughts, character and general intelligence.
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By the way folks, what would you advise in case of ex-pgmol linesman I follow on twitter who is a rabid Liverpool fan and yet used to do their games.
I’ve interacted with him a couple of times. Doesn’t seem a pleasant bloke to me. Extremely anti-VAR and a dick to anyone who challenges him on it, including a very polite ex-FIFA ref, South African I think, who did the last two world cups.
Anyway, would you continue to watch him from afar for the insights he provides into a certain mentality, or put him on the spot and ask ‘hey, did you tell pgmol you were a huge Liverpool supporter, and they had no concerns letting you do their games and Everton ones; or did you tell them you were a Woking supporter or something?’
I expect he’d probably combust and then block, and there’s even a possibility he could shit it and lock the account.
Not my preferred route (I like the insight and the clear evidence at least one pgmol figure officiated the team he is a big supporter of) but oh boy he’s been pushing me with his rudeness, refusal to engage with fair points about VAR and general douchebaggery.
Intriguingly I found an old Everton blog from 2008 where they posited he must be a liverpool supporter because of the decisions he had made against them, some of which are listed and discussed. A common thing with fans to do that, but in this case they were actually correct.
Should be noted that from a quick glance Liverpool didn’t do great in the games he did, and I don’t believe the guy is corrupt or anything. I think he’s likely an arrogant character who believes he is beyond being affected by bias.
All the world’s best studies on the subject show nobody is, but you can reduce it greatly by being fully aware of the potential for it and planning accordingly (for instance, as administrators, don’t have Manchester refs doing Manchester games, etc; and don’t allow a huge North South imbalance to remain unaddressed indefinitely)
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Both the Nevilles have a deep rooted hatred of all things Arsenal and are allowed to spout nonsence with impunity. I wish someone would stove their ugly Northern inbred heads in
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markyb
Succinct, to the point and fair!
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One tiny consolation for me if Torreira doesn’t happen is it will surely mark the end, won’t it, of people following these things as they currently do?
That would be good for me as I resent the stupidity it brings out in me.
This one has been flat out nuts, for anyone who follows a lot of Arsenal accounts on twitter anyway. probably it has only gone this way because of the unusual circumstances provided by supposedly getting a deal (almost) done a few days before a world cup, but still.
If the reality is there were productive talks and reassurances but nothing binding, I don’t think the odds favour us should he perform again even once more like he did against Portugal, and if they were to go the whole way…
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Watch Unai Emery’s first game LIVE on Arsenal.com
Arsenal Media 04 Jul 2018
Unai Emery
Unai Emery’s first game in charge will come against Boreham Wood – and you can watch our clash at Meadow Park LIVE on Arsenal.com.
The match will take place on Saturday, July 14 at 3pm (UK time), and kicks off a packed pre-season schedule, which takes us to Singapore, Dublin and Stockholm.
Digital members can watch the game for free. Click here to sign up to digital membership
Further details of our squad for the match will be announced closer to the day.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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a rumor that Arsenal are set to sign Cristian Pavon, the Argentine forward from Boca Juniors, as part of the deal David Ospina will join Boca on loan for the season
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one thing that the world cup has highlighted for me is this continued inability of refs to spot the clear faking of injury by players,
a simple question to you all, who of you have suffered a sports injury, in fact any painful injury, say from a big collision, or a kick to your ankle, shin, knee, was the pain fairly severe, I know any time I got a fairly painful injury, or any of my team mates did the one thing that would never happen is to roll around, a la neymar every time he goes down,
The fact is that when anyone is actually suffering severe pain, especially from an impact, like a kick or collision, the natural reaction is to not move at all, especially the part of the body that has suffered the impact, or is in severe pain, we all know to not move in case we make it worse. We might once we realize or think we know the full extent of the injury, bang the ground or wave about a hand etc, but all the time we keep the injured part of the body as immobile as possible,
yet we see Refs ignore logic and accept that the footballer in front of them doing four or five rolls, twisting and turning, all the time roaring in pain, waving about their arms, is actually injured. Also why do pundits and commentators seldom if ever point out this absence of reality in the players cheating
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Ed, thought that for years.
Worst knock I took, and I think cause of the frequent back problems i have these days, was when some lump smashed into back of me with forearm or something just as I was flicking on header and not expecting any contact.
Anyway, i was on floor wondering what the hell had happened because I couldn’t breathe properly for quite a while, and rolling about is the last thing you’d do.
Even better way to look at it is to watch a game of rugby, union or league. Giant blokes constantly smashing into each other, few games pass without a player or three going off injured, often seriously, and for the most part nothing resembling the actions of footballers who are supposedly in pain.
Boxing is even funnier: they’d fall with every hit, their faces twisted in agony as they did so, screaming, rolling around on the canvas.
It’s an alternate reality indeed. Not sure how the game got there and seems no way out of it.
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We can all take the Moral high ground and criticise Neymar.
He cries and rolls around too much
You are all wrong!
This is a Forward that attacks and provokes all the time . A trait Mr Wenger prized more than most.
You or I have no idea how his ankle feels or his shin feels after constant contact in games and or training. Jack Wilshere knows what that is like.
Some of it is to get protection from the officials to highlight the sneaky treatment from the defenders.
I have admired all sportsmen/women for thir ability to recover from and play through illness and injuries that would flatten most people.
If you don’t appreciate Neymar , I think you are missing a lot of the great things about football.
Neymar is not the problem to be fixed in football, you are being wilfully distracted if you think so.
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Wwwb
What you say might be true. But what of all the other players who manage to play without rolling around like Neymar does regularly? Neymar is a great player. Or at least has great individual skill. But his attitude is less than pleasant and his on field theatrics are annoying and deserve no sympathy as far as I’m concerned.
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I tore my ligament. It doesn’t even hurt really. But I was absolutely still as I lay on the ground. Because something was really wrong. The only time you move when injured is when you stub your toe or twist your fingers or something.
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no wwwb neymar and anyone else who feigns injury, is to be laughed at, he is the boy who shouted wolf, his skill is to be admired, his play acting should be laughed at, we should be very critical of his feigning of injury
as I stated above, the last thing anyone really hurt does is roll around, to do so is totally counter intuitive
Ref of course need to protect the players, but they also need to stamp down hard on players faking injury
we have seen here at AFC enough of our players actually get badly hurt, Diaby, Ramsey and Eduardo spring to mind, and I do not recall any of them being able to roll around. I in my time suffered a number of injuries, some very bad, some the sort that sting for a minute or two but you can continue to play on afterwards, but even in those cases, you just don’t roll around twisting and turning, at most you might do what Giroud does, a bit of hand gesturing, the natural reaction is to immobilize the pained area.
What neymar and so many others do (cos this is not about neymar alone, he is just the most high profile player that partakes in this awful practice) is laughable, and so obviously fake, and that is the point, and the point of my original post, why do Refs fall for something that is so very obviously fake
A player hit on the shoulder clutching his face, a player hit on his left leg clutching his right leg, a player rolling over four or five times after being tripped all the time clutching an ankle, etc etc, its cheating, plain and simple, its no different than diving, and should be punished accordingly.
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It is the reason people give the ‘benefit of the doubt’ when players make bad tackles.
You cannot always be sure what the REAL intentions are wether it is was intent to cause harm or not.
Neymar’s game provokes contact (sometimes overly violent contact), he consistantly is in the top three dribblers in the world . Hence it seems like he is always in the discussion, he uses his ‘Theatrics’ as a defensive shield, to allow him to impose his game against men who are generally bigger and stronger than him.
These Angles that Neymar goes up against, normally have one thing on their minds, Stop Neymar by any means necessary. Neymar knows this , yet he goes onto the pitch with just little shin pads and his imagination.
If you think Neymar’s so called ‘Theatrics’ is the problem with football , I reiterate you are being willfully distracted.
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wwwb
It’s true that (a) Neymar’s a great player, (b) he gets fouled a lot, and (c), in general, if you stay on your feet all the time you’ll miss out on plenty of free kicks or even pens (as well as reducing chance of getting opponents carded) you may well get, which can see fouls go rewarded and, obviously, puts your team at a disadvantage.
But I still can’t accept what he and many others do is justifiable. If it’s ok for him to do it at any moment, to any degree, then it is for all players, and that makes for a squalid sport.
Perhaps my least favourite aspect, above the crazy exaggerations of contact and pain, is seeing the players who are conditioned to fall the instant the ball gets away from them in the final third, especially in the box.
Suarez, who at one instant is fighting mightily like the strong aggressive athlete he is, might be the biggest proponent of it. At the other end of the scale in toughness, Son does it a lot.
It seems to be done in the spirit of ‘why not? The balls gone and while there’s very little chance of getting the call in my favour so long as there’s a whisper of contact I shouldn’t be booked’, but more disturbing than that is the sense it is done, through the range from ‘no hope of pen, a little hope, some chance, decent chance…’ as active training to hone the skills, and to make sure an opportunity is never missed when there is a real chance for a pen.
Occasionally they get it wrong and the desired contact doesn’t materialise, but as long as they react instantly and get up they should be spared a booking.
Pochettino has clearly done a lot of work developing these instincts and ‘skills’. At the lowest I’d say it will yield about 5 points a year, but it could easily be 10 or so. A huge advantage.
Funnily enough, it looks like England are receiving benefits from it. Kane was extremely adroit at winning crucial free kicks the other night. Meanwhile, on the one replay I saw of the pen, while I couldn’t see who began the holding, Kane was surely doing some as well, and looked to me like he pinned Sanchez’s arm once his desperate opponent had taken hold of him, and then, as a coup de grace, applied the brakes at the last, meaning Sanchez’s hopes of letting go at that point were foiled and he had nowhere to go but into the back of Kane, who i expect used a bit of expertise to finish the move well.
Voila. It works.
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Yes Harry was going to fall down no matter what. Think allowing yourself to fall will become a feature next season.
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markyb
Can imagine pgmol salivating at the possibilities if, next year, prem replicates what we’re seeing at corners, to an incredible degree in England games especially. *
Might give them some enthusiasm for VAR as well. Something which can be fairly easily let go or punished, 1st or 2nd time around. Marvellous lever.
*Have all teams totally and inexplicably lost their heads when facing England at corners? Or have the team put in some serious work to help make it look like that?
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Strange little thing I learned yesterday: Boro Primorac only did a few years as a manager but in that time he worked with *arguably the best player he or Wenger ever managed- Zidane.
Currently reading a Zidane autobiography, and got a real shock when his name came up, as new Cannes manager who put Zidane instantly in team as an 18 year old who had played two senior matches previously, both at the end of the season before last.
No comment so far on what he was like as a manager, other than that he had to defend his decision to play the youngster immediately to some director who came in after the first game (a defeat) insisting a more experienced player should have played instead.
Seems in first year they had a rough start but rallied for a very impressive second half of season.
I’d always wondered if, should Wenger have arrived a year or two earlier, it would have given us a shot at Zidane before Juve, and even if Wenger ever pursued him with Monaco. Who knows, but his trusted lieutenant Boro certainly knew the player well.
* I know, there won’t be a single non-Arsenal fan who would try to make the case, but Dennis. It’s closer than those non-Arsenal fans believe, anyway.
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Rich
July 5, 2018 at 10:43 am
Overly aggesive tackles,fouls,shirt -pulling , Achillies raking ,ankle walks and fiegned injuries and fouls , etc for the defender
Diving and rolling around for the attackers
These are tools in football
It’s all part of it a thus we wil not like all parts of the game
But Football is all about ‘The moments’
Only in the last 20 years have we been lucky enough to see the ball in play for 60 of the 90 mins.
These are tactical tools to waste time.
The more time the ball is in play the more difficult it is to deal with a Neymar
Football is all about ‘The moments’
Neymar makes those moments
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One more crucial thing to remember
Neymar outrageous talent sparks desperation and jealousy, in a insanely intense ego driven competitive sport at the elite level.
None of these players want to be ‘Posterised’ or ‘Meme’d’,they mostly have social media presence and families ,there is a over a billion people watching.
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I did not watch the whole of the Colombia game, so can anyone tell me did Kane do anything other than engineer the penalty and a number of free kicks and take the penalty, as I did not see him do anything else?
He seems brilliant at being fouled, which seems to be the new important skill nowadays, as opposed to actual skill with the ball.
I note that Ospina had no save to make before or after the penalty, which says a lot about the England attack, which is its potent weapon.
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Wwwb
Thumbs up for the basketball reference.
Neymar has produced many excellent moments. Yet, honestly, the two moments I remember are of him rolling over and over against Serbia and of him rolling around after the Mexican guy stepped on him.
I like to think the Mexican would have gotten a red were it not for the embarrassing overreaction by Neymar. But maybe not. Either way, the point is that those are the moments Neymar is being remembered for. And it’s no one’s fault but his own.
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Some very interesting transfer moves happening in Italy. Roma have been revamping bringing in Cristante, Pastore and Justin Kluivert among others. And they sold Nainngolan to Inter Milan. Roma have Monchi as their director of Football, a guy who worked with Emery at Sevilla where they won the 3 ELs together. I think Roma will get better.
Juventus meanwhile are apparently going to get Cristiano Ronaldo for 100m euros. They’ll likely sell some players (maybe Higuain, maybe Dybala) and God knows who Real Madrid will buy. They denied the bids for Neymar and Mbappe. Psg probably won’t sell either. (Unless FFP bites) So…Harry Kane?
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My favourite Neymar moment was the tribute by Brazil before the last WC SF. Talk about techniques for self-immolation, that’ll take some beating.
I don’t deny the right to be upset, it was a dirty deliberate foul that took him out the last WC. But that wasn’t the right method to focus a team before a big contest!
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But the fact he was taken out deliberately at the last WC is probably a factor in his behaviour at this moment.
It wasn’t a career threatening foul that took him out, not like some we see at the Arsenal, like with the departing JW on a few occasions, the obvious one involving the obvious one as the pgMOB rep (not ref he’s not worthy of such a title) so I can understand the critique.
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I fancy France to win quite comfortably tomorrow to set a final with Brazil which they’ll also win IMO. I would hate to see Neymar win anything.
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Semi final with Brazil of course
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Who remembers Kane stepping on Coq to get him sent off? Clattabugger always up for fkng up Ars. Was it Chadli, ex totty, who stamped violently on Theo’s achilles, which the clatta saw and pretended nowt happened. D Rose then smashed into Theo sparking generosity from totty fans as they threw coins onto the pitch. Theo was starting to play CF but he wasn’t the same after that injury. Clatters watched and approved of it all. Lest we forget it was the same *rep who oversaw the physical destruction of our midfield, Santi & Coq, at WBA, but poor C.bugga didn’t see WBA destroying the penalty spot/area when he (for him) inexplicably awarded Ars a plenaltee, innit. Forget about RvP getting his face stamped on, fact is, dat rep done so good he’s got a job in middle east land, following in the footsteps of mobocop (he who don’t see kung fu kicks an shit), and following Waltons promotion to MLS leader after fkng up Gervinho’s debut/Ars career at Newcy, and more importantly allowing Barton and Taylor to injure and/or get Song and others sent off retro fashion to weaken Ars ahead of their trip to the O toilet, and we know what happened there. Howard didn’t haffi do anyting. Surely deano is due a job at fifa?
(Song kinda faked a step on Barton after said sage tried to break his ankle. Hence plundit outcry & subsequent retro ban).
All of above badly written, which is why I mainly leave this stuff to Rich, and other references to fins.
*rep, so appropriate.
Multiple smileys. Back into me box.
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Diamond-ish eyes here.
Deleting old documents yesterday and found a page from a few years back where I’d written names of a few youngsters I thought could make it. Just for my own interest and because I think memories can be unreliable on these things (remember more what you get right than wrong,etc)
Anyway, I’d made note after seeing Pavard first time (his 8th game).
‘(Lille). Centre back. [right back, apparently. Seemed more central to me,though. Versatility could be good sign) 19. Looked part- nothing too spectacular but solid, composed, determined, quick- on first game of season against PSG. On not too much evidence, I’ll admit, I had some sense Wenger would like him as a player (7 aug 2015)’
Sign me up. Six other names I wrote down haven’t been quite as successful, mind. Tyler Roberts. Callum Slattery. Joe Gomez. Patrick Roberts and two Russians, Aleksei Tataev and Ivan Galanin, who appear to have done nothing yet.
Best of recent times, though, is prob when I watched Kane first time at u20 world cup in 2013 and decided he was decent but surely doesn’t have pace to be a prem striker! Still not fast but somehow managed to quicken up a fair bit.
Team had Barkley, Stones,Dier in it but were pretty crap, drew with Iraq and didn’t win a group game.
Meanwhile, Yaya Sanogo was France’s striker, in team with Pogba, Kondogbia, Umtiti, Zouma, Thauvin and that Barca left back.
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As much as I want England to win the World cup I think it’s a massive shame that the best four teams left in the competition are in the same side of the draw. I don’t think its good for football if a second tier team win it
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That was the best game of the tournament. Marcelo is the best left back in the world…Lukaku was excellent on the wing…what a game of football…
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Ornstein says Torreira will join Arsenal in the coming days, once he passes a medical in London, the timing is only depending on if he flies from Russia direct to London or if he goes back to Uruguay with the rest of their squad first.
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