unbelievable jeff

Never seen so much hypocrisy in my life with those England pundits/commentators. Calling Japan/Poland a 'farce' and a 'disgrace' and then England go on to lose on purpose and that's perfectly acceptable to them lol.

Believe it or not that's how they play when they're trying to win.

Sugar Nut been a prolific poster since the Germany defeat........oh wait.

Which pundits and commentators are these?

Most of the ones I've seen have been talking about it like it was a normal game and critically analysing the performance of England's second string.

I'm assuming that this is the first time you've heard Mark Lawrenson pundit then? He's a joke

Altering my vote to 1 thread per side of the bracket.

Alternatively, 1 thread per quarter of the bracket.

How did I not see this before? Loooool

That is pretty hilarious.
With today's technical players and fields in good conditions, I believe they would have a convertion % higher than pens.

they had a 5 or 6 second timer back then so its not that easy

No way

Ye, I worded that wrong.
What I mean is that the likes of Messi probably get way over 75%.
However, the like of Jones probably get way less.

Yes, I think it's 6 seconds, so there really isn't enough time to just go around the keeper.
But they can't even put the ball forward without it starting to jump and their shots are absolutely terrible.
My point is that the most gifted players would shine at this.

the fact that not even one of them tried to shoot over the gk annoys me so much

Was it 6 seconds to cross the goal line or 6 seconds to no longer touch the ball?

So been out of the loop - what's the consensus? Pretty fun so far right?

Germany - Sweden was a five star group stage match for me. Brazil - Costa Rica excellent too. Spain/Portugal/Iran group finale was excellent, watching Nigeria-Argentina in an empanadas restaurant next to a woman I just met but had fallen in love with was a enjoyable as was Group H ('tho I watched Colombia-Senegal and missed the apparent Japan-Poland lolfest). Colombia winning meant England & Belgium could play a real football match which was optimal. VAR is frustrating and inconsistent but it so greatly reduces the indisputably incorrect refereeing decisions and is better than no VAR.

RO16 wishes

i) England win
ii) Messi-CR7 QF
iii) Mexico win
iv) Japan win

Reading more into it, they started 32 meters from goal (35 yards) and they had 5 seconds until they had to shoot.
So yes, 5 seconds seems like a very small window.

Here's another one.
Also, GK #0

Yea..............

That was when the MLS thought we all wanted the game “americanized” for it to be viable. I forget how many seasons that crap ran for, but I was certainly glad when they did away with that. I think the main reason they did away with it was due to injuries to players and keepers instead of admitting it was dumb.

Why Japan win? Worst team to qualify plus the farce of that end of game Vs Poland? They should have got 0 points in the group stage. Complete abberation.

I actually love it. This should be the new shoot out. Shoot outs from the spot are terrible compared to this.

I thought it was also because FIFA refused to sanction it as “real” soccer.

Yeah I wouldn't mind that. Seems like there would be more skill involved which can be interpreted as good or bad I suppose.

those mls shootouts were great. lol at hating on that.