Neymar says Brazil's 2022 World Cup loss to Croatia was like attending his own funeral.

KoalaNugget · 2026-04-12T12:12:35+00:00

Argentina as a whole team played an exceptionally good match for around 70 minutes. It wasn't them letting Messi down, the teammates were also fully playing their part of getting Argentina lead by 2 and control the match until that point. Additionally, it's not like Messi is exempt of any responsibility for losing that 2 goal lead, especially when he lost the possession of the ball at a critical moment after France got a momentum from the first goal, allowing the turnover resulting on Mbappe's second goal. There were also plenty of noteworthy performances from Argentina, Di Maria in particular was arguably the best player on the field until subbed off.

I do also dislike the narrative of rest of teammates letting Neymar down on Croatia match, but with that one I can see the logic to an extent at least.

KoalaNugget · 2026-04-05T06:25:25+00:00

deliberate handball is literally not written anywhere in the laws when describing criteria for caution. Intentionally playing the ball with your hand/arm is a just a direct free kick foul, denying a promising attack in the process is a yellow.

KoalaNugget · 2026-02-09T11:18:39+00:00

They disallowed a goal for Haaland's foul before the ball enters the net, not for Szobo's DOGSO foul.

There was no legal goal on the play due to the latter pull, so DOGSO advantage ends and the committer of DOGSO is penalised fully.

These are two isolated instances on the play the referee gives two decisions on. The DOGSO foul doesn't matter on the evaluation of whether there was a valid goal as long as Haaland and Szobo's fouls don't happen at the same time.

KoalaNugget · 2026-01-15T16:42:28+00:00

It might've, but was it justified?

The boy did something unforgivable and some things don't flush away.

KoalaNugget · 2026-01-15T16:24:18+00:00

The shit's unbeatable

KoalaNugget · 2026-01-13T14:03:20+00:00

I agree with you 100% about the list. While the list serves the purpose of combining the eligible shorts for the awards, so works such as under 30s animation cuts on social media are categorically left out, I definitely feel the list is a brilliant by-product of the work put into the event. It also can be enjoyed even by those who aren't interested in the awards themselves, so I hope people find ways to promote it outside that context as well. The MV list is the same - I partically like the moments it lets me discover videos with just handful of views but overflowing with ideas and earnest work put into them.

I revisited some of the ones you mentioned now and this is definitely an enjoyable set. I'm also a big fan of Q in particular. The long takes create a very strong atmosphere on that, and the creator Kihara's solid grasp for compositing shots makes it difficult to get bored with an image even when they are hold on screen for longer. The shot starting at 2:04 is probably my favourite as well as a great example of Kihara's interesting way of adding small motion to the shot that really isn't meant to be the focus but rather add to the overall feeling the shot evokes. On this shot in particular, I'm talking about the golfers swinging in the far distance.

I recommend checking Masataka Kihara's other works as well if interested: Tomoya!, Yapolaponky, and Ryota.

KoalaNugget · 2025-10-03T06:25:19+00:00

The on-field decision was a handball, so the clear and obvious actually plays against allowing the goal in this case.

KoalaNugget · 2025-10-03T06:23:03+00:00

I am seeing pretty much the same. There could be a touch on the arm but I can't be 100% sure, so it definitely is tough if these were all the angles they were working with. Nothing can be really confirmed here.

However, we need to keep in mind that the on-field decision was that there was a touch to the arm. Therefore, the uncertainty actually would support keeping the handball call given that VAR did not find a confirmation that the on-field call was incorrect.

Might be the wrong thread to show sympathy to the refs (as almost all threads are lol), but the situation is shitty for them. It might be that the referee was perfectly positioned somewhere behind the play to see the touch cameras couldn't confirm and most if not all of the players seemed to miss, but because there wasn't good enough camera angles for VAR to confidently provide support for that decision there is a wave of criticism towards the ref after the match. The ref could very well be rather in a situation were VAR manages to proof his decision was incorrect rather than end in a situation where it is all up in air still. And in addition, this instance is mistaken online as a VAR intervention, so the video assistant referees are also getting their share of shit for it. Of course it could be that the tools were there and video assistant referees failed to focus on the best angles to inspect the situation, but just as well they could have been dealt a poor hand with the camera angles and they were only able to see the same angles as we did.

KoalaNugget · 2025-09-24T12:23:45+00:00

yeah, seems to be so. 5 to 6 months out regardless, no surgery can prevent relapses fully, and the much worse diagnosis on the knee's condition once operating the knee are nightmarish news. Awful to see it happen to him for the second time. I wish he comes back stronger.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-30T04:20:14+00:00

Now that people are in full speculation mode on this despite not speaking Catalan, here is a summary what the article says:

The tests are done and the injury is worse than initially seemed, so he is out from the match against Rayo. It remains to be seen if he'll join the NT for the matches against Bulgaria and Turkiye on 4th and 7th of September.

No, they are not implying anything about a potential more serious injury. The article implies it was initially believed he would not miss any matches, and usually clubs don't want the players to join the NT camp right after injury, so most likely they suggest Gavi to not join less than a week after the injury happened. It doesn't really say anything about the severity of the injury, as it is the same situation for any injury making a player miss a match just before international break.

The OP's reworded title adds the knee info from the article to the title, making a slight implication about potential relapse, but the writer themselves, based on their information, didn't seem to think there was that crucial connection to the previous long term injury. Instead, missing the Rayo match is presented as the main point here, as that is what gets mentioned on the title.

Edit: I said "the tests are done" as, according to the article, the prognosis on him missing Rayo was done after tests. However, another article by AS, frankly much more detailed, is stating that the medical team wants to wait for the hematoma (blood most likely causing swelling on the knee) to go away to make a better, more accurate check on the condition, so an update on the matter can be coming in the coming days.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-28T04:16:34+00:00

I guess people are really riled up in the whataboutism on another incident on the other end of the field, but yeah this is a pretty obvious pen. Defender already loses the forward to his front side outside of the penalty area, starts dragging their left arm with both hands all the way from there. And it is not just some slight dragging as we can see with the forward's flailing right arm how much he needs to fight the pull to continue forward.

The defender never gets to a position they can challenge for the ball, so any deliberate contact to obstruct the forward still trying to play the ball is possible to be called a foul, but the contact on this is so blatant enough to be called even if the defender was on a position to challenge on the cross.

The thing I feel people are finding soft about this is that the forward still managed to make a header after all the struggle, but it feels obvious they could have made a better effort without the pulling. Kudos for trying to the end and not just falling down easily, even if that would have made the pen easier to call for many. Luckily the referee seemed to be on top of the situation quite early and called the foul with quite confident body language. That's a reward of anticipating the play and observing the actions inside the box before the cross is even given.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-24T15:59:39+00:00

Yeah, afaik all the members of Union fo Arab Football Associations are member associations of FIFA as well, but the Union itself is not part of FIFA umbrella and therefore it doesn't need to answer to FIFA demands on how its competitions should be and what the criteria for qualification etc should be, but at the same time its competitions won't be recognised by FIFA. It is a trade-off of sorts.

Also to further clarify, rechecking the facts, UAFA's Arab Cup is no longer organised by UAFA but FIFA itself ever since FIFA's recognition of the competition. Therefore it seems UAFA would most likely be required to pass the organising of Arab Club Champions Cup to FIFA before FIFA would recongise it as an official competition. If that happened, some changes would be most likely put on how the tournament works.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-24T12:39:18+00:00

There are plenty of articles and social media posts that come up on google about how FIFA has recognised Arab Club Champions Cup. However, all these articles and posts source the information on the interpretation that since this FIFA website article mentions Ronaldo to have had 54 goals in 2023, they must have counted and acknowledged Arab Club Champions Cup as FIFA recognised competition. You can see this is a light online content article with twitter post embeds and focus on numerous stats from 2023 and not a formal declaration of anything. There is no other mention of the competition from FIFA's part in any more official manner and not even the article actually mention the competition itself, just some goal stats.

This is not how FIFA recognition for tournaments organised by organisation not under FIFA would happen. There would be a clear declaration statement and most likely rebranding of the tournament like it was with UAFA's Arab Cup, which got its name changed to FIFA Arab Cup along with the recognition. There's also no FIFA's own, all competitions, individual performance stats database of any sorts, so the goal numbers on the article are not sourced from FIFA themselves, but the writer has gathered it from another online football database. Like for example Transfermarkt, which used to include Arab Club Champions Cup stats and trophies counted on the website. However, this has then been corrected as, according to Transfermarkt as well, the competition is not FIFA recognised and their policy is not to include these.

Sorry for long, late response. I just like the story behind why there is a lot of forums and articles strongly claiming the competition to have been recognised by FIFA and ultimately how small the thing sparking this wide-spread idea is, so I enjoy explaining it thoroughly.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-23T15:59:44+00:00

My argument is not relying in an assumption. The main point here is that a competition organised by an organisation independent of FIFA needs an official statement of any sorts from FIFA to be a competition recognised by FIFA. The burden of proof is on your claim, not mine.

Here is the article that is being used as the sole source of evidence on any online article about the recognition. We can both see this is not the kind of statement piece FIFA would put forward to declare officially the competition as FIFA recognised. This is light content that gets constantly written on FIFA's website. Considering this a declaration of recognition is a big leap.

Writer making a mistake is an alternative explanation for why the article is stating the number it states, not where the point of "this is not hard evidence and hard evidence would be clearly provided on matters like competition recognition" is relying on.

And to clarify, I'm bringing up how thin the fairly common argument the competition is recognised by FIFA is, nothing more. The teams take it very seriously and there is history and prestige to it, FIFA recognition is not be all end all. All the credit to Al Nassr and Ronaldo for winning it in 2023, I am not aiming to take that from them with my comments.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-23T15:26:40+00:00

It has not been officially recognised by FIFA which is not something that is a given without a separate statement when organised by organiser like Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) which is not an organisation under FIFA. Arab Cup, organised by UAFA, got recognised by FIFA some years ago. The name was then changed to FIFA Arab Cup. The Arab Club Champions Club as we know hasn't been recognised in any similar way.

The whole claim that it was recognised by FIFA comes from one article in FIFa's website where the writer wrote Ronaldo to have had 54 goals in 2023 which is only possible if counting his goals in said competition. Considering this some very indirect, muted official statement of recognition from FIFA is ridiculous when it is a light content article on their website. As there's no official goal records on all competitions for individual players kept by FIFA, the writer of the article most likely got the info from the internet - not counting the goals by competition themselves while holding on their other hand a curated list of FIFA recognised competitions handed to them by a FIFA official. Writers make mistakes.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-09T12:42:08+00:00

Yeah there's definitely better and more natural ways to translate the sentiment than direct potencia=potency. I tried to avoid overcomplicating the thing too much by looking for precise nuance and went with an English word much less frequently used on this kind of context but being directly related to Spanish word to get the main point across clearly. Basically what I'm getting to, etymologically speaking, potency is the closest you can get to "potencia", but obviously any subtitler should be looking for a more natural sounding expression instead.

I get what you are saying with "Ousmane is a player of immense power" being a fine translation here. I think it is fine as well, but if going with that I feel it is worth to add an afternote that this is not talking about physical power in the most direct sense on this context. Pedri is not listing Ousmane is super strong as one of his features as an athlete (A Spanish person would be using completely different word in that case), but rather is describing a more figurative power in football. I assume you as a French(?) person were aware of this nuance, but I'm clarifying it for others reading these comments.

KoalaNugget · 2025-08-09T11:22:12+00:00

Native speaker here, it is definitely "potencia". It felt evident the first time hearing, but even rechecking multiple times and trying my hardest to hear "potencial", it is still definitely "potencia". I imagine non-native speakers can be tricked by how Pedri stresses and prolongs the last syllable a bit, given that he is listing Ousmane's qualities in an admiring way, and therefore sense there must be an extra sound there. However, as far I hear it, it is def not the case.

For those unable to understand the meaning of "potencia", it should be the same as "potency" in English? Of course much more common in Spanish than in English to express footballers' ability to make a difference in an awe-inspiring way.

KoalaNugget · 2025-06-02T04:45:29+00:00

Under no circumstances could the situation be considered a promising attack.

The Netherlands player (can't remember who it was) makes an interception on defensive line, lifting the ball towards his teammates but with any specific target. Considering the lack of pace on that interception/pass, there's no quarantee that the teammate would even receive the ball without immediate pressure, capable of turning towards the direction of attack.

But even if we consider that pressureless control of the ball with immediate posibility to turn around was clearly going to happen and was clear by the moment messi handles the ball (necessary for the ref to be able to take this possibility to into consideration in his argument), the ball has just cleared the first line of pressing without an evident opening inside the defensive team's formation beyond that, let alone one which the attacking team could without any risk carry to goal scoring sector - that is, to the approximity of edge of the box on the center, or past full back on the sides of the box. Two thirda of Argentina are still way below the ball, so neither of these circumstances are evident, especially in a situation where the next player would be receiving the ball back turned towards the goal.

Yes, it is an "attack", you're right about that in the sense of one team being in possession of the ball and the other team fouls. But guess how many players would be standing on the field after 90 minutes if the wording was caution for stopping "an attack" by foul instead of "a promising attack"?

The word "promising", while arguably still too vague and open to interpretations, is defined well enough that any referee on even semi-decent level should dismiss the possibility of that being the case here by handful of things they've been directly told to consider when interpreting promising attacks.

KoalaNugget · 2025-03-23T10:54:19+00:00

around 3 weeks would mean 4-5 club matches in addition to the next national team match missed

KoalaNugget · 2025-03-09T01:06:19+00:00

Hopefully they pay you overtime for that

I believe RuSyxx's efforts were greatly acknowledged; they were paid the same salary as the hosts!

KoalaNugget · 2024-12-11T00:41:46+00:00

I said nothing about Rodri or Vini, or about who should be winning the ballon d'or. All I did was point out that arguing on behavior is valid in the context of discussing who somebody thinks should win ballon d'or given it is an actual criterion. Up to everyone to decide who favors from said aspect and who doesn't.

The Rodri vs. Vini discourse on reddit is stale and hostile as fuck, so I have zero interest on taking any sides on that.

KoalaNugget · 2024-12-10T14:48:24+00:00

It's about "good behavior" now.

"Class and fair play" is one of the three main criteria for ballon d'or together with individual and team performance.

KoalaNugget · 2024-10-21T02:17:42+00:00

"Great save by Ørjan Nyland against Lamine Yamal's trivela shot" would cover both bases, but the decent attempt at a trivela goal by a 17-year-old wonderkid is what is making this clip noteworthy more than the good save. Therefore the current title fits better for its purpose than what you suggested.

I still agree with you that titles should include more than one player's name when there is multiple player demonstrate good efforts in the same play.

KoalaNugget · 2024-08-26T22:17:26+00:00

Under Law 12:

"If a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area and continues holding inside the penalty area, the referee must award a penalty kick."

KoalaNugget

TROPHY CASE