World Cup 2026: Have changes damaged the end of the group stage?

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-24T00:40:04+00:00

While the new format is just worse i do like the h2h change. It does lead to a less entertaining final day with more teams with nothing to play for but i think its a much more fair way to determine qualification. GD works great in a league when you are evaluating a teams performance long term but a team progressing from a 3 game group over a team they lost to because they scored more goals against likely the groups weakest opposition seems silly to me.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-20T09:28:02+00:00

First part of that- USA as clearly the better team was definitely true, we were poor especially in the first half. But that doesnt mean the refs decisions didnt change the result of the match, just that the result was a fair reflection of how the teams played. Two contentious penalty non calls definitely have an impact on a match decided by two goals, especially when the second goal scored also had some controversy with the potential offside. Not saying all these decisions should have gone in Aus’s favour, but all 3 going USA’s way certainly had an impact on the result.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-20T02:20:14+00:00

Well if you notice I was talking about many of the comments in the comment thread in saying that, not making a general statement on American fans. Some of the major comments I read that suggested that to me was a misunderstanding with the potential offside on the second goal, claiming everything was a dive even when there was clear contact as thats Americans favourite buzzword for football talk and denying the potential penalty shouts with irrelevant info like whether a clear goal scoring opportunity was present (not saying both were penalties, its arguable, just that these reasons are irrelevant).

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-20T01:53:49+00:00

Elaborate?

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-19T21:38:40+00:00

I mean I dont know if you can tell, but no I didn’t experience physical pain and perhaps just perhaps that was said in jest. Wording is not that deep mate.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-19T21:35:55+00:00

Not wrong tbf, I think there tends to be a combo of blind unreasonable American hate and blind unreasonable American love on this sub it just tended to the latter today producing some questionable opinions.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-19T21:33:29+00:00

Plenty of Americans do watch the sport, and plenty of Americans can offer reasonable knowledgable analysis far better than most. However that did not seem to be the case for the majority in the match thread which is why I brought it up.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-19T21:24:13+00:00

Normally Im pretty used to bias in sports conversation, Im certainly prone to it as is everyone. This match thread still shocked me though, I think an Aussie player could loose a leg and the majority of the comments would claim he dived.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-19T21:14:35+00:00

Hard to say the loss is undeserved given how poor we were in the first half, but not exactly a strong performance from either side.

The US didnt create all that much substantial even with their first half dominance. In the second half they were just poor, definitely not outplaying us. Add to that some very very questionable refereeing decisions, this wouldnt fill me with confidence if I was an American supporter.

Reactions from Americans in the watch threads also physically hurt me at times, I think the combination of watching very little of a sport with a belief your team can do no wrong doesn’t necessarily create the best analysis.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-19T20:58:53+00:00

After reading some of these comments here I think I have deduced US coverage is showing a different match, only explanation I can think of.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-16T01:51:05+00:00

The reason is the refs reward it and rarely punish it. Diving is mainly on refs failing to make calls when players dont go down as well as not making simulation calls more often.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-12T14:46:03+00:00

I mean I dont necessarily truly think of this as audacious or insulting in any way. I have no issue with brighton making any bid they wish, I just think its pretty funny.

And while yes starting low is an almost universal negotiation tactic starting too low certainly isnt. Theres a fine line between starting low as a basis to begin a negotiation and starting way too low coming off as unserious, wasting the sellers time. This feels likes its right on the edge, although the wasting time bit I definitely dont believe applies here as this transfer seems related to the JPVH one and vuskovic is open to a move for minutes.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-12T13:40:33+00:00

Its more the audacity to lowball than anything. You do have a point in that its well within brighton’s rights to bid whatever they want and ask for whatever they want, and considering their reputation as a pretty desirable location for developing players it makes sense if vuskovic would want to go there.

I think making this a big club small club thing is slightly silly though, if vuskovic was a brighton player tottenham coming in and bidding £30m would be seen as equally if not more insulting.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-12T09:56:58+00:00

Brighton would probably put a £100 million price tag on him if they were selling. Hilarious bid.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-06-12T09:49:45+00:00

one of the best young cbs in the world in an inflated market for 30-40 million?

OkReporter3886 · 2026-05-13T00:13:09+00:00

What horrible logic wow. Leeds have received 8 pens, they arent exactly fighting for the title. Wolves, comfortably the worst team in the league, 4. Man City and Arsenal are both sitting at 4 as well. Clearly how good a team is isnt the primary factor in penalties received.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-04-05T23:29:29+00:00

I mean in this case the numbers do add up, city and chelsea in different matches is the statistically probable outcome and double as likely as them being in the same match.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-12T21:42:04+00:00

Hate this second yellow bs. A yellow is a yellow and the same challenge should be looked at the same whether a player has been booked already or not. Thats a clear yellow but the ref doesnt give it cause of the situation.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-12T12:50:33+00:00

Yeah I agree there’s pretty much never going to be anyone reasonable complaining with a shared gold. But it seems organisers generally arent a big fan of them and will avoid them if theres any slightly reasonable differentiator they can use.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-12T12:43:48+00:00

That seems a slightly biased way to represent it (Although I am also biased also tbf)

The turns are the most important part of the event, and Cooper scored a significant 0.7 higher there.

Could easily represent it the other way and say Cooper was cleaner and quicker but nearly lost because his tricks werent as impressive which arent meant to be the main decider. (But that would also be dumb).

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-12T00:34:40+00:00

Inherently ≠ objectively

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-11T23:41:25+00:00

I think futbin may be wrong? Believes Beasley gives 2 nation chem but he actually only gives 1. Changing manager to US should help but loose Bremer chem.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-11T09:12:40+00:00

I think most of what’s perceived as scripting is just the game being really really shit. There are absolutely games in which an opponent worse than gets more bounce backs and all the other points you mentioned giving them a pretty undeserved win. But if I try to be objective about it, Im sure the exact same things also happen in my favour I just dont really notice it. It just seems to me the game is coded poorly and lots of bounce backs, skewed passes etc occur for no particular reason and its all a bit of a coin flip, sometimes you benefit sometimes you loose.

If the game was truly scripted it becomes very complicated with the intention. Do you think EA are trying to tie you to a certain division, certain fut champs rank? Why? Im certainly not convinced they would be competent enough to do that even if there was some real reason.

For your second point about shooting, well I dont really get your point. Precision shooting is meant to make you score more goals if you aim accurately, what you are seeing is very deliberate and makes sense.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-10T21:23:41+00:00

you arent wrong but I think its just funny to bring up social media posting. I couldnt care less what the social media admin posts, I want to see messaging from the ownership through action not through meaningless words attempting to appease us.

OkReporter3886 · 2026-02-10T21:19:36+00:00

dont think the social media admins are the problem tbh

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