Holy crap!!! Wooohooo!
The OT and PK’s were the best part of the match. France vs. England would be cool.
Croatia looked like they’re headed to the nearest hospital. The goalie pulled a hammy, another player on the back line went out because of a knee issue and another was keeled over from exhaustion or maybe a groin pull. England should be “licking their chops.”
Subasic, the Croatian goalkeeper did amazing despite the pulled hamstring or cramp or whatever it is.
Love Mordic. Also like Vida. A team with passion and unity.
I rooting for Croatia and Belgium in the semis.
Start a new thread, please, if you want to complain about the Warriors, @sushiritto. Your numbers are a little bit high (each was under 40 minutes per game in the finals, for example), and why would you not play your studs 2/3 of the game? And, heck, Curry was pretty fresh after coming back from that late injury. And, why are you dissing on what appears to be your team?
England over Croatia, @doschicos. France & Belgium? Either one is fine by me. I was surprised by how clean the Russia-Croatia match was. Judging by their respective prior performances, I expected a thug fest. I thought England played one of their best games in years. Glad not to see Rooney on the pitch any more.
Oh. I just realized. We’ve gone from the all-Europe final to the all-NATO final.
Late to the party here, but rooting for France to make the final as we will be in Paris that day!
^ You can have the pre-game celebration at the Bastille.
That’s the point, going back to the original soccer-related tangent about changing soccer for more scoring, benches are weaker by defintion. And allowing for more substitutions ruins the flow of the soccer match. And lowers the quality of play. The addition of the 4th sub in extra time is actually a new rule.
The Warriors are now beyond critique? Puh-leeze. =; BTW, in a 4-0 sweep of the Cavs, what would you expect for the star’s minutes? Check the Rockets series. :-B
And if you desire no basketball talk, then stop with the basketball comments and questions. I was using the Warriors weak bench (in basketball) to illustrate the point that in soccer matches you want to see the best players on the pitch, not players 16-22 from the bench.
Rooting for England to win it all. Don’t really have a real preference with the France and Belgium match, although might lean a little more toward Belgium.
The Russia-Croatia match was great.
@sushiritto : As you know, football does not get that many (“players 16-22 from the bench”) substitutes – much less any in-and-outs, so I think the analogy you were trying to make was confusing (and probably confused me). B-) The “best” 11 can be a very tricky call. We’ve seen a couple of games recently (Belgium over Brazil, for example) where the substitutions appeared to make a huge difference. So, what was the best team? The starters or the reconstituted team after the break? I’m not arguing for more substitutes, and I have no problem with the difficulty of scoring in football. The difficulty is part of the appeal.
Simply put, MORE subs (like basketball) lowers the quality of play.
Up-thread someone mentioned more subs for soccer to increase scoring. My argument is that watching even MORE subs play, beyond the first 3-4, most of time, like basketball where they often use most of the bench, is not watchable. I don’t want even more subs in soccer, because: a) the best subs are the first 3-4 and, more than that, the match becomes unwatchable. Additionally, subbing in soccer takes FOREVER. Basketball substitution is quick and almost seamless.
Sorry @doschicos for my derailment of the thread.
Here’s my order of preference to win it all:
- England
- Belgium
- France
- Croatia
That is probably my order of preference too. England to win, because I have English ancestry. Not much logic with the others, beyond having been to Belgium and France, and not to Croatia!
OMG @sushiritto, you and I agree. Well, I could easily switch 2 & 3. I think I’d rather see an England-France final than a replay of England-Belgium, but I’m a Chelsea fan, so … I can’t really root against Courtois and Hazard. Looking forward to the next three games.
If the Russia vs. Croatia game was so “clean,” why were 5 yellow cards given out?
I didn’t see the game; went to the Whitney Houston documentary.
Belgium
Croatia
England
France
This World Cup has to be one of the best ever - so many nail biters! It’s great to see so many “unusual suspects” go so far - and to see England come back after so many years in the wilderness. I admire the French side but as they won recently, I would rather see one of the other three go all the way.
I put England in the top spot, because they’re our buddies and I enjoy watching the EPL. However, Belgium plays the way I love watching (and coached), fast-paced, attacking, almost at the edge or detriment to their defensive effort. Fun to watch. I almost put Belgium #1 in my list.
England all the way! Although I would not mind Croatia to win, but chances of that are slimmer than slim.
England was a little better than usual but still not anywhere close to the 1966 level. The real final will be France-Belgium semi-final.
Sir Bobby Charlton was in the Royal Box at Wimbledon tournament today and missed England-Sweden match as it is not allowed to watch soccer at Wimbledon on any media.