Official Soccer Thread

[Scott W.]

This is what I have for my Euro predictor.

 

[UK-Trigg]

Lol mine's not who i think will win.
It's who I want to win

So who do you think will win?

 

[Wolf359]

So who do you think will win?

Croatia, Poland & Germany lol

 

[UK-Trigg]

LOL, good call.

 

[anihilnation]

Wow ... Brazil got knocked out of the Copa America yesterday. Anyway, an hour and 15 minutes 'till Belgium goes against Italy.

 

[Mad Dog]

Wow ... Brazil got knocked out of the Copa America yesterday. Anyway, an hour and 15 minutes 'till Belgium goes against Italy.

Brazil always has so much individual talent, but sometimes the team concept is lacking.......On another sports news. Our Pittsburgh Penguins won the NHL Stanley Cup last night. Six months ago, when the team was barely over 500, you couldn't even find a hardcore fan that thought the team would make the playoffs. New coach, some great trades, and a bunch of youngsters up from the farm club, certainly changed that around.......I'm watching the ESPN pre game right now. Looks like it's raining, but that often makes for a more interesting match. I'll be rooting for Belgium. :thumbsup:

 

[Wolf359]

Belgium are really on the ropes at the moment, they're lucky not to be 2 down

 

[anihilnation]

They're not playing bad, Lukaku seems pretty lazy though.

 

[rooney08josh]

Great finish from Giaccherini - expect Belgium to come out flying for the second half now

 

[amityboattours]

Belgium are what happens when a manager actually tells a talented group of players to 'just go out there and play'

 

[anihilnation]

Italy's defense was really good, did not help Belgium really lacked creativity up front. But I stay positive, in the Copa America the USA lost their first game with the same score and still ended up topping the group.

 

[Wolf359]

Belgium played much better when origi came on, very unlucky to concede the second goal

 

[anihilnation]

Belgium played much better when origi came on, very unlucky to concede the second goal

Yes, Lukaku just stood there most of the time hoping the ball would go by him.

 

[MillenniumDragons]

Hello! American Football Fan here! I will say that Soccer is my 3rd favorite sport, behind American Football and Basketball, but with the poor reffing by the NBA officials, Soccer might become 2nd.
Orlando City is 7th in the MLS Standings, hopefully they will make it into the MLS Cup their 2nd year!

 

[Wolf359]

If you don't like bad refereeing then don't watch "soccer" lol. It has probably the worst refereeing in existence.

 

[anihilnation]

If you don't like bad refereeing then don't watch "soccer" lol. It has probably the worst refereeing in existence.

It is all part of the fun
I don't think it is necessarily bad refereeing, it is just that often it is hard for the referee to see it all. Only thing I don't like is referees who blow for every little thing.

 

[UK-Trigg]

Gutted, rushed home from work and no afternoon game today

 

[Mad Dog]

It is all part of the fun
I don't think it is necessarily bad refereeing, it is just that often it is hard for the referee to see it all. Only thing I don't like is referees who blow for every little thing.

Exactly. I've coached, played & officiated for like forever. You're talking about a field much larger than an American football field, and there is really only 1 center official to cover all of that and 22 players. (I discount the two sideline officials because they don't really don't do much). This is mostly by design. Soccer is a fluid game and needs to be nearly non stop to be good. By just having one official, for all intents and purposes, the game does not get "over officiated", and the players are allowed to play. (As a player the thing I hate most is a nit picking official who calls too many minor infractions and screws up the flow & chemistry of the game). Subsequently a lot of calls will get missed (sometimes you might end up 50 yards from the play), but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't usually matter. The only thing they really probably need to do, when available, is video review on a goal or possible goal. That's the only real crucial thing, and goals don't happen often. Otherwise, the game works fine as it is with one center official. Any more would ruin the game.

 

[Wolf359]

Nope , first kick off @ 5 iirc

As for the refereeing, some of it has been appalling, and FIFA's reluctance to engage the technology that's been available for years drives me mad lol
I think the worst so far was a player being dragged down in the box, 2 yards away from the official behind the goal, who claimed to not see anything.


We need a system similar to US sports where there are multiple referees, all armed with flags, who can throw a flag if they see something, play continues & then the head referee talks to whoever threw the flag and decides what action to take. No more "I didn't see it" no more "he should have played the advantage" etc etc

 

[Mad Dog]

Nope , first kick off @ 5 iirc

As for the refereeing, some of it has been appalling, and FIFA's reluctance to engage the technology that's been available for years drives me mad lol
I think the worst so far was a player being dragged down in the box, 2 yards away from the official behind the goal, who claimed to not see anything.


We need a system similar to US sports where there are multiple referees, all armed with flags, who can throw a flag if they see something, play continues & then the head referee talks to whoever threw the flag and decides what action to take. No more "I didn't see it" no more "he should have played the advantage" etc etc

Soccer needs to flow. It's not like American football where you play for 20 seconds and stop for a minute or two. Multiple officials would kill the game. Missed calls are part of the game. A lot of it is official judgement too. Did the player get taken down or did he dive or overact (not referring to the play you mentioned). It's all part of the game. The game works well as it is. No reason to mess with a good system.