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World Cup 2026: Mexico, USA and Canada

“Warnock is such a fudging clam

thats a great dive, bought the yellow

outstanding first quarter from Paraguay

a joy to watch

thats it lad, take every stoppage you can

what a game of football this is

wonderful stuff

we should buy Caceres, I'm in love

he reminds me of Pepe

can't remember seeing a better game than this

its fudging awesome

pure football

Paraguay have been perfect

an amazing performance

I'm going out and buying a Paraguay shirt tomorrow

I want hours of this

game ruined

fudge off ref

again, a great game of football ruined by a goal

Paraguay have been absolutely mugged here, it was a heavy touch away from goal, he'd given possession away, never a penalty

c'mon Paraguay, you don't deserve to lose this

fudge off Warnock you dipper clam

gutting, Paraguay have been the best thing at this WC so far

almost a perfect performance tonight

that was never a penalty

France are brick, just attack attack attack, nobody wants to watch that brick, goals ruin football matches”

Yeah, I can’t for the life of me figure out why Baleforce is a troll. Along with his love in for Arteta and congratulating Arsenal on winning the league on a Spurs forum.
Rent free. :)
 
thats what you have to do against teams with a huge technical and resource advantage
Yeah they needed to make it difficult for France, deny them space and get “stuck-in”, I get that. It’s up to the ref to enforce fair play and ensure that limits aren’t broken. And he failed abysmally to do that. Paraguay saw that and took advantage, again understandably. But that ref was an absolute disgrace.
And to agree with @Jurgen the German , Mbappe and his team handled it magnificently.
 
Yeh, TBH I get this train of thought, you don't have to like it, but in the ultra competitive nature of the sport I can see why a team with less edge would do it.

Don’t encourage him. Some of his posts last night were borderline childish.

Cape Verde didn’t play like that against Argentina.

Doctor Congo took the game to us.

There’s being streetwise and then there’s that last night. Paraguay were a disgrace and so was the referee. So glad they lost the game. My favourite moment was Mbappe laughing in their faces.
 
Don’t encourage him. Some of his posts last night were borderline childish.

Cape Verde didn’t play like that against Argentina.

Doctor Congo took the game to us.

There’s being streetwise and then there’s that last night. Paraguay were a disgrace and so was the referee. So glad they lost the game. My favourite moment was Mbappe laughing in their faces.

Hahaha

I caught some of it and France were diving all over to wind down time, its just part and parcel of the game, or was and less so now.
 
Considering everyone hates international football, and club football is more important than your country we've done well to get to 114 pages of posts.

I though international football was just inferior and boring nowadays :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
It generally is .....BUT I love (and always have) the tournaments. And the WC really showcases the reach and meaning of football to so many.

Not fussed about England though, that died with the Steve McClaren appointment.

Conversely TTID.
 
Hahaha

I caught some of it and France were diving all over to wind down time, its just part and parcel of the game, or was and less so now.

It doesn't have to be like that. Most teams don't play the way Paraguay did. I also reject the idea that they had no choice but to approach the game like that. I'm all for working hard and making life difficult for your opponent, but it should be within the spirit of the game.

Cape Verde didn't have to resort to those tactics against Argentina and still came close to taking them to penalties. Doctor Congo weren't overly aggressive against us either. Playing like thugs is basically an admission that the other team is better—that you're scared and don't believe you can compete on merit. If that's your mindset, why enter the competition in the first place?

The fact the referee booked three French players and not a single Paraguay player is laughable.
 
It doesn't have to be like that. Most teams don't play the way Paraguay did. I also reject the idea that they had no choice but to approach the game like that. I'm all for working hard and making life difficult for your opponent, but it should be within the spirit of the game.

Cape Verde didn't have to resort to those tactics against Argentina and still came close to taking them to penalties. Doctor Congo weren't overly aggressive against us either. Playing like thugs is basically an admission that the other team is better—that you're scared and don't believe you can compete on merit. If that's your mindset, why enter the competition in the first place?

The fact the referee booked three French players and not a single Paraguay player is laughable.
Not saying they had to, but it was their preferred choice and TBF it nearly worked against a team who are far far far superior in all areas. There is a difference on competition and then thinking you can win it, they tried what they thought worked for them, it didn't they went out and the whole world moves on.

I think there is a line not to cross and they were very close to it TBH, but conversely I think and TBF I think it of many on this forum (not saying you BTW) that people get far too protective about the idea of how the game should look and how players should be and IMO that version is far to vanilla for my tastes. Years of slating Romero, how Djed acts, how teams plays "ohhhh he is far to patriotic for his country" "how dare Argentinians sing about the Falklands, should never play again" its like people want football in some utopian version thats in their head and fcuk me that would be boring, its half the reason I think footballs becoming more boring now, its sanitised to death

TBH, from the parts I saw, it was a bloodied and entertaining game, more than 80% of some of the dross I have seen thus far.

Ultimately France won through, they get the bragging rights and Paraguay go home, so all is good in the world for people
 
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Haven’t seen such a disgusting display of the dark arts since LEGOhead’s ASSnal team tried to steal the CL final!

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Not saying they had to, but it was their preferred choice and TBF it nearly worked against a team who are far far far superior in all areas. There is a difference on competition and then thinking you can win it, they tried what they thought worked for them, it didn't they went out and the whole world moves on.

I think there is a line not to cross and they were very close to it TBH, but conversely I think and TBF I think it of many on this forum (not saying you BTW) that people get far too protective about the idea of how the game should look and how players should be and IMO that version is far to vanilla for my tastes. Years of slating Romero, how Djed acts, how teams plays "ohhhh he is far to patriotic for his country" its like people want football in some utopian version thats in their head and fcuk me that would be boring, its half the reason I think footballs becoming more boring now, its sanitised to death

I agree, but my only thought for football to be free to do what it wants is about the current officiating. That should be rock solidly consistent and based solely on the laws of the game. In the current climate it just isn't. A lot of what we see stylistically in football is based on how managers and players have adapted to really poor officiating where refs simply ignore the laws. Under Howard Webb the quality (on the eye) of football has just got a lot worse because yellow card offences around professional fouls (example) just get blatantly ignored. That means the ball players just don't get to play with the freedom. The Permier League has become very attritional and the winners of the league were the team that adapated best to the current officiating.

Personally, I would like to see officiating completely transformed including the way technology is abused by the humans running it.
 
Haven’t seen such a disgusting display of the dark arts since LEGOhead’s ASSnal team tried to steal the CL final!

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Didn't see the game but just enforces the argument that officiating needs a complete overhaul. I've watched way too many games where only a couple of cards have been branded and according to the laws it should have been double figures and less than 22 players on the pitch.
 
I agree, but my only thought for football to be free to do what it wants is about the current officiating. That should be rock solidly consistent and based solely on the laws of the game. In the current climate it just isn't. A lot of what we see stylistically in football is based on how managers and players have adapted to really poor officiating where refs simply ignore the laws. Under Howard Webb the quality (on the eye) of football has just got a lot worse because yellow card offences around professional fouls (example) just get blatantly ignored. That means the ball players just don't get to play with the freedom. The Permier League has become very attritional and the winners of the league were the team that adapated best to the current officiating.

Personally, I would like to see officiating completely transformed including the way technology is abused by the humans running it.

Yeh the officiating is poor, really poor
 
Yeah Paraguay crossed the line last night, stuff like digging up the penalty spot is not aceptable just because you're underdogs - I'd be thoroughly embarrassed if we ever resorted to a performance like that.

But the biggest culprit was the referee who was weak and did nothing to stop it. One of their players should have had at least four yellow cards but got nothing, so they knew they could continue to get away with things.

Delighted to see France go through....
 
Not saying they had to, but it was their preferred choice and TBF it nearly worked against a team who are far far far superior in all areas. There is a difference on competition and then thinking you can win it, they tried what they thought worked for them, it didn't they went out and the whole world moves on.

I think there is a line not to cross and they were very close to it TBH, but conversely I think and TBF I think it of many on this forum (not saying you BTW) that people get far too protective about the idea of how the game should look and how players should be and IMO that version is far to vanilla for my tastes. Years of slating Romero, how Djed acts, how teams plays "ohhhh he is far to patriotic for his country" "how dare Argentinians sing about the Falklands, should never play again" its like people want football in some utopian version thats in their head and fcuk me that would be boring, its half the reason I think footballs becoming more boring now, its sanitised to death

TBH, from the parts I saw, it was a bloodied and entertaining game, more than 80% of some of the dross I have seen thus far.

Ultimately France won through, they get the bragging rights and Paraguay go home, so all is good in the world for people

I think they crossed the line on more than one occasion, and the officials allowed them to keep doing it. If the referee books players early and consistently, it usually puts a stop to it. Instead, France eventually reacted and ended up with three bookings themselves.

I watch football because I enjoy seeing skilful players score great goals, produce brilliant passes, and find ways to unlock stubborn defences. I'm not against great defending at all, but attacking quality is what makes the game special for me. I don't want to tune into the World Cup final in two weeks' time only to find the spectacle diminished because players like Messi or Mbappé have been kicked out of the tournament through cynical, overly physical play.

By all means, don’t make life easy for the best players—but don't reward thuggery. Paraguay got what they deserved last night: nothing.
 
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