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Bronze medal play-off games, Rogan. A bronze in a 100m race is fair enough. But forcing people who have achieved a semi final to play again for the sake of seeing which has failed to make the final the least is insulting, and exists purely for the finances of the organisers. That's why boxing doesn't have a bronze medal fight. They have more respect for the competitors and award both non finalists a medal.

Ooh Belgium made it! They managed to create a team and make it 2-0 against England after all. Belgium had the individual qualities, but the question was all the time if they would be able to form a "team". This was the first time they got a medal in a World Cup.

Congratz Belgium!!

That was the question? I don't recall any one asking it... France, certainly. Even England... but Belgium? I thought they came across as a decent team long before the world cup started.

Anyway, today's the day! C'mon Croatia!

Octavious wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:14 pm

I thought they came across as a decent team long before the world cup started.

Of course. For everyone who follows soccer, Belgium was among the favorites, at the contrary of eg France. And that's also a reason why the strategy of France was legitimate even if frustrating.

Let's not also forget some statistics such as :
- they scored 15 goals (1st) by 10 different players (team)
- they won 6 out of their 7 games
- they defeated Brazil and England (2 times)

I’m going to cry

France is a worthy and expected World Champs! Congratz France. Vive la France!

Well done, France. It's a shame about the VAR penalty controversy, but on balance the result went the right way.

All in all, an excellent tournament. Couldn't really ask for one better. A shame the template is being scrapped, to be honest.

In the final match. The first and the second goals resulted from a questionable interpretation of the referre concerning a fault on Griezmann (1) and a penalty (2). Football is played this way, depending too much on referee judgements. The continuation of the match was only the consequence of these two interpretations.

France is the winner, they deserved. Croatia could have won, they would also deserve. The two best teams in the Cup.

Not sure why swatting down a ball is a questionable call. The instant I saw the replay it was totally obviously a penalty. And yes, I am a (low grade) referee.

Griezman dove, but having a free kick outside the box didn't force Mandzukic to head it into his own net. That was a freak accident that the referee had little to do with.

I called handball realtime. But what I don't understand is when the ref didn't initially give it why was VAR called upon at all? Hardly clear and obvious. Had he initially given the penalty, as I would have, would there have been a VAR? Presumably not.

I would suspect it was because the center ref didn't see it in real time, and the VAR could see it to send it down as a missed incident.

Had he seen it and not given the call, the conversation would have been something like:

VAR: "there was contact with the hand in the box:
CR: "Yeah, I saw that. not enough for me."
VAR: "Oh, Ok."

and no on field review ensues.