Football World Cup 2018

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

I'm thinking Spain and Croatia will triumph today.

Spain just lost to Putin's reality warping powers.

[Catfish]

Croatia wins, with 11 meter ..
Very good, fair game, exciting.
I was on the danish side, a pity

And Russia goes on, too. Some doping experts say they examined the strange peak in performance of the russian team, in the last months.. only one conclusion. I guess reluctance is not the russian forte, when it comes to winning at all cost for the glorious dear leader.
On the other hand, they also only scored with a 11m

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Spain just lost to Putin's reality warping powers.

Yep, when it comes down to a penalty shootout it's really just a lottery but they won that, got through and that's all that matters.

[Jimbuna]

The last of my two fancies Brazil beat Mexico and surprisingly Japan are currently leading Belgium.

[Catfish]

Belgium wins against Japan 3:2, in the last minute

Japan was surprisingly good, i really expected extra time.
It is great fun to see Belgium playing, though they were not so much better than Japan this time.
But to win after a 2:0 is worth an applause

Well played, both teams!

[Jimbuna]

Japan must feel totally gutted but play isn't over until you hear the final whistle.

[Skybird]

Physically at a disadvantage, the Japanese neveretheless played absolutely on same eye level with Belgium, in parts even superior. I was with them, sad that their fighting spirit was not rewarded.

One Japanese after the match kneeled on the gras, face on the green, both fists slamming on the ground repeatedly. They really had their hearts in this. Their goalie was their doom, however, not en par with the rest of his team. Several flawed by him, uncertainties, one of the three goals at least he should have prevented. - Every chain is only as strong as the weakest link.


Belgium totally underestimated them. They had a truckload of luck today, and then some.

[XenonSurf]

Question:


There is a very good russian rap song that - officially or not - is accompanying the Football WM in German TV.

Unfortunately I don't know the title, I have googled in Youtube but didn't find it.
Can someone give me a download link of that one?



Thanks,


[EDIT]
I found it!! It's



Kasta - Vokrug Shum






This should be the official FIFA song for the cup 2018 not this nonsense english/spanish song that comes from nowhere...huh, I'm polite here...

[Jimbuna]

Tonight is Englands turn. Time to find out if we are worthy contenders or simply making the numbers up.

[Catfish]

Hope the Brits win, however right now i feel sorry for both teams.
What a !"§$%!! referee

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Tonight is Englands turn. Time to find out if we are worthy contenders or simply making the numbers up.

ENGLAND OWES ITS SUCCESS TO GARETH SOUTHGATE, THE BRIT COACHE'S TRIP TO WATCH THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES...VS THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS ; THE RESULT HAS BEEN SPECTACULR:

Originally Posted by 2DAY'SWSJ

HOW ENGLAND STOLE FROM THE NBA: SAMARA, Russia—It was the night before the Super Bowl, and sitting courtside at the New Orleans Pelicans vs. Minnesota Timberwolves game was a man who had traveled all the way from England with his mind intensely focused on another global sports event: the World Cup.
There has never been anyone more interested in a Pelicans vs. Timberwolves matchup than England manager Gareth Southgate.
Southgate bombarded his companions with detailed inquiries about strategy, arena operations and even Crunch, the wolf mascot. Chris Wright, the chief executive of the local MLS team Minnesota United, was stunned by his curiosity about this sport that’s about as British as sauerkraut.
“Here’s this English guy, the England team manager, trying to figure out Basketball 101,” Wright said.
But these are strange days for England. They have emerged as a serious contender at the World Cup. They lucked into the weaker half of the knockout bracket. They play Colombia on Tuesday for a spot in the quarterfinals. And they can attribute some of their unlikely success in soccer to basketball.
Wright was delighted when the Football Association contacted him before Southgate’s visit to the Super Bowl in Minnesota. He is English himself, which is why he wasn’t expecting this request from the manager: “Is there any way we can go to the Wolves game?”
There was a reason that he was so eager for this outing, and it wasn’t Crunch. On the ride to the arena, Southgate told colleagues that he was especially curious about how NBA teams created space around the basket. He thought there might be something he could steal.
Was there any way he could apply the principles of NBA plays—the pick-and-rolls, the off-ball screens, the constant movement—to the English national soccer team?
There are precious few moments in every soccer match when a manager can actually choreograph the action by designing a play. They’re called set pieces, and for many years, they were better known in England as a bloody disaster.
All of which makes England’s set pieces at this World Cup nothing short of a national miracle.
Their six goals on set plays were the most of any country in the group stage. But there’s a better comparison than England vs. the world: England vs. England. They have scored four goals on corners and free kicks so far. They scored four goals on corners and free kicks in the previous three World Cups combined.
“On set plays, we’re a real threat,” Southgate said. “We’ve identified that as a key area in tournaments and a key area we felt we could improve on.”
England’s ineptitude on set plays before Southgate’s hiring in 2016 was a bigger national drama than Brexit.
At the time, England star Harry Kane took their corners and free kicks, one of the many questionable tactical decisions that eventually cost Roy Hodgson his job. That paved the way for the unproven Southgate, a retired player whose prior managing experience included a stint with the country’s youth team and three seasons with a middling English Premier League club that was relegated under his watch. Southgate was an improbable choice, and he was given the job only after Sam Allardyce was fired in disgrace.
Southgate now looks like the manager who might be able to solve England’s problem of face-planting in spectacular fashion at the worst possible time. His inventive schemes have benefited one player in particular: Harry Kane. In England’s opening World Cup win against Tunisia, Kane slammed home a header on a corner kick in the 91st minute to avoid an embarrassing draw. It was his second goal of that match: Kane had already scored on another corner kick.
But the clearest example of how England implements basketball strategies on their set plays was a corner kick during their 6-1 blowout of Panama in the group stage.
It started with Kieran Trippier’s bending corner. Once the ball was in the air, two English players cleared out the center of the box, almost like they were 3-point shooters flaring away from the basket. Meanwhile, at the top of the box, Ashley Young threw his body into the defender guarding John Stones long enough for Stones to get free in the middle of the box and head the cross for a goal.
It was a primitive basketball play: the back-screen. And it worked to perfection.
It’s not like Gareth Southgate invented the pick play in soccer. But even he said, through an England spokesman, that he was influenced by what he saw watching basketball. The people who sat next to him that night were not surprised.
“In areas where he was specifically interested,” Wright said, “he wanted to go deep.”
Southgate had already proven by this point that he was not afraid to seek out ideas in unorthodox places. He entrusted his assistant, Allan Russell, with England’s set pieces, for example, even though the last teams that Russell had coached were the Carolina RailHawks and Orange County Blues, minor-league clubs in the soccer hinterlands otherwise known as the United States.
Southgate is not the first soccer manager to study basketball for inspiration.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who happens to be the coach of the English Premier League champion and the most dominant team in global soccer at the moment, has long been intrigued by the NBA. He attended a Finals game in 2016 wearing a LeBron James uniform, and he has utterly befuddled English reporters by citing the Golden State Warriors in his press conferences.
(This being England, of course, Southgate watched not the Cavs or Warriors but the MINNESOTA Timberwolves and Pelicans. Neither team has ever won an NBA championship.)
There’s an obvious similarity between a corner kick in soccer and the pick-and-roll in basketball. The whole point is to create enough vertical air space for a header or dunk. But what basketball plays and soccer set pieces really have in common—the reason that Guardiola paid careful attention to the NBA—is they are both an opportunity to seize a small advantage, said Philadelphia 76ers vice president Daniel Medina, who worked under Guardiola at FC Barcelona.
“He used to look at not only basketball, but other sports like handball and indoor football,” Medina said. “Similar collective ideas with different constraints can lead to different solutions.”
Which is why Southgate was so inquisitive at the Pelicans vs. Timberwolves game.
“He was the one asking questions all night,” said Ben Grossman, a Minnesota United minority owner.
Southgate had so many questions about how everything from how offenses create space to how defenses protect the basket that he stayed long after the game was over. Grossman realized when they finally left that Southgate was not at the NBA game simply to have a good time. He was there to work. “I know this is going to sound a little silly, but I actually left that night expecting England to do well in the World Cup;” he said. “You could just tell the way he went about his business that he was going to leave no stone unturned.”

THUS: THE OL' NBA PIC N' ROLL ON A SET PIECE SOCCER PLAY... >> >COACH SOUTHGATE... I FOLLOW THESE PROCEDINGS WITH SOME INTEREST ...ENGLAND UBER ALLES!

[Catfish]

England wins with penalty goals The curse is broken.
At home they must be thinking "that i may live to see this"
Well done!

[Cyborg322]

Originally Posted by Catfish

England wins with penalty goals The curse is broken.

Broken ! I'm broken after the first missed penalty and the last two mins of ET it was here we go again alas the show goes on along with my nervous twitch

[Jimbuna]

This is the second team England have played in this tournament that thinks play in the box changes the rules to that of a game of rugby.

I originally predicted we'd reach the quarter final stage so bring on Sweden next Saturday.

The climax of England's World Cup penalty shootout win over Colombia was watched by 23.6 million viewers on ITV, according to overnight figures.

More people tuned in between 21:50-21:55 BST on Tuesday than at any other time since the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony.

[Cyborg322]

do they play Piggybacks in Rugby ? It was more like watching the Grand National