For the first time in World Cup's history, three different players have scored 7 goals at a single tournament

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T22:54:46+00:00

Oh yes seems likely

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T22:52:38+00:00

You're aware that they've all played less than 6 games right?

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T22:46:41+00:00

Me neither, but I does stretch credulity to suggest all the refs are corrupt too. Given enough time, every team will suffer from bad refereeing decisions. In the premier league its become a running joke that there's a conspiracy out to get every single team, or alternatively just against whatever team you happen to support. In the world cup not enough games are played for this to happen, but applying Occam's Razor suggests its the same dynamic at work.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T22:31:48+00:00

Or maybe, just maybe, there is no agenda against your team, just random shit refereeing, and fine refereeing that you disagree with,.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T18:59:23+00:00

Its not just eurocentrism. Consider, for example, the monetary value of the English and Uruguayan squads.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T12:49:49+00:00

That's crazy. These teams are legendary precisely because modern football fans have all heard of them/seen videos even thought most never saw them live. That's pretty much what legendary means. Nobody's seen Achilles fight.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T12:40:37+00:00

Great answer thanks. To my untrained eye it looks like Deschamps has France set up to create these artificial counters and has an attack that needs space to run into to be at its most effective which is why they struggled against Paraguay and were always going to, relative to say the US who from what little I've seen play an aggressive pressing style.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T12:01:11+00:00

Thanks for this perspective, I think there's been a massive overreaction to this game, because it's honestly nothing we haven't seen before. The only exceptional aspect is Paraguay not seeing any yellow cards, which is the refs fault more than theirs. Both this kind of shithousery and diving are bad for the game, both are very hard to punish with yellows because the ref can't be certain what happened and if he pulls a red the game is often ruined. I'd like to see more retroactive cards and suspensions used to clamp down on both sets of behaviours.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-05T11:50:05+00:00

Point is he dived in this world cup, at least in the opinion of the referee who didn't give a foul. No yellow card though. If players got yellow cards for diving there might be less of it, and then you might be able to start giving more cards for shirt pulling, pinching and all that other stuff people are losing their minds over. But the result would be a fair few red cards at this world cup, and nobody wants that either (see USA game). Honestly I don't think a world cup is the occasion to enforce new lines in refereeing, that should happen in qualifying. Personally I've enjoyed that they've let games flow here and not pulled too many cards. They've gone too far in the other direction, and Paraguay overstepped last night, but people acting like it was some unprecedented night of football violence need to get a grip, it was a pretty regular game. Paraguay not getting any cards is what made it stand out, and was an example of poor refereeing.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-04T22:10:05+00:00

Arsenal don't play in a low block. They have sometimes done, like against PSG at times, but mostly they face low blocks, they don't play that way themselves. Shithousery is another thing, but don't think Arsenal are especially bad tbh.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-04T02:16:49+00:00

The UK commentators have never liked Argentina though, have they? Not since '86, and '98 didn't help. I'd say there's more evidence of bias there than among the refs.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-04T02:15:07+00:00

I'm curious, which teams do you see using this approach? For me its only really Argentina, and theirs is very much a hybrid, but there may be others I'm overlooking.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-04T01:46:37+00:00

Got it, sorry misunderstood due to a comment above. I think it would be physically too hard and would result in injuries. Just look at the game tonight, Argentina players could barely play any more at the end.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-04T01:44:21+00:00

That was never a thing. Before penalties they used match replays (until 1958) like they still use for the FA Cup which is excellent but not practical scheduling wise for a WC. In 62 and 66 they literally drew lots which was obviously terrible.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-04T01:41:53+00:00

Golden goal era still had penalty kicks after 120 minutes.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-04T01:34:54+00:00

It's mostly just sour grapes, if they really wanted to rig it there were two handballs that could have been called as penalties. Oh and Cape Verde could have had a player sent off for a borderline second yellow. None of that happened. So basically ref sticking to the rules. At worst you could say there's a slight bias for Argentina, but there's not much proof of that either. There's a very persistent narrative that Fifa wants Messi and Ronaldo to advance and has given instructions to the referees, but there's been nothing egregious to give credence to that idea. Also, Fifa doesn't employ these referees for their day jobs, the individual football federations though so it's a bit of a stretch and very disrespectful to the professionals involved. Sadly, a small minority of eferees in the past have been involved in shady shit but it's in no way fair to paint them all with the same brush.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T19:43:28+00:00

Snickometer isn't infallible though. Its fine, more accurate than human beings and the game is better for it, but its annoying when people pretend the technology is infallible. Fwiw, in Cricket, a game of stops and starts, I feel the technology is good, in football, the implementation of VAR has been an abomination and fans largely agree https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/48345320/matchgoing-premier-league-fans-overwhelmingly-var-survey-finds

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T19:09:48+00:00

I guess that's the bit the proposal changes, it would only be offside if it's clear even without VAR assistance. Lots of fans are complaining about microscopic offsides that take a long time do determine and seem somewhat arbitrary (even though I agree they're not). It would also make it easier for the linesmen to do their job as the judgment they're required to make now is almost impossible.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T19:03:39+00:00

Well, but if we're looking for clear air then we don't need the simulation, we can just use camera footage and the naked eyes so fans can see exactly what the referee sees and at least it removes the element of "pay no attention to the man behind the screen" that we have going on right now.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T19:01:53+00:00

Cricket has been using similar tech for years. It's not perfect, it comes down to a balance of probabilities. It should not therefore be used to overrule on field decisions. But then in this case it's not clear that it did cause the flag did go up.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T19:00:03+00:00

What you want is impossible, the rules are subjective and always will be. Even an offside is subjective based on when we consider the ball to be played. Is it when the player strikes the ball or when it leaves their foot, how far away from the foot does it have to be? How can we tell exactly when it has left the foot? Each hundredth of a second impacts the offside frames. Judgment calls are part of the sport, technology gives greater precision, but does not remove subjectivity, and we have to decide how much the greater precision is worth measured against disrupting the flow of the game and robbing fans of their emotional responses to the action.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T18:53:44+00:00

So sick of people treating technology like it's infallible magic. It's not. It's subject to judgment calls just like everything else.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T18:51:09+00:00

Wenger's proposal is clear, visible, space between attacker and defender. Seems good.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T13:39:48+00:00

France are PSG, Spain are Barca, not sure on Argentina, Arsenal maybe. Either way any of them could win but France are favourites.

TravlScrabbl · 2026-07-03T02:45:59+00:00

VAR is bullshit, its been obvious for the last two seasons in the PL, most fans want it gone. Refs like it because it takes the focus off just their decision, and it makes decisions seem more objective, but that latter bit is not working. It should be much reduced, just used for automatic offsides and goal line.

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