2014 FIFA World Cup (The real thing, not the video game)

[FlyingMongoose]

This post has been updated to reflect only the winners.

1st Place: Germany
2nd Place: Argentina
3rd Place: Netherlands

[FlyingMongoose]

Todays matches over, the Chile Australia match up was a fun one to watch, I am so glad the Netherlands beat Spain 5-1 in their first round. That's a HUGE deal.

[CaffeinePowered]

That was a complete face stomping by the netherlands

[FlyingMongoose]

That was a complete face stomping by the netherlands

It really was, and what a beautiful header that was. Once they gained momentum they just didn't stop.

[FlyingMongoose]

Todays matches posted, but no final scores yet

US Referee, Mark Geiger the only american at the world cup. Did an awesome job during Greece vs. Columbia. He recognized dives, and had plenty of non-calls because of it.

I will not be surprised to see him start giving cards for it.

[cbre88x]

I watched one match.

Costa Rica v Uruguay 3-1

[FlyingMongoose]

I watched one match.

Costa Rica v Uruguay 3-1

Match scores updated according to completed matches so far.

[CaffeinePowered]

Fucking England, god damnit :V

[HeK]

Wtf is with the clock that counts up to a random time? 90 minutes... Plus 4, the clock says 95 minutes 50 seconds....

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[FlyingMongoose]

Wtf is with the clock that counts up to a random time? 90 minutes... Plus 4, the clock says 95 minutes 50 seconds....

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Soccer/Football at the FIFA level has two 45 minute halves, plus the potential of stoppage time. Part of the referee's job is to be a time keeper, but also enforce that the play of the game continues WITHOUT excessive interruption, the timer in the sport NEVER stops. That being the case, additional time can be added to the end of a half in representation of any stoppage time that occurred during the course of a match, this can range from a free kick, to a corner kick, to a throw in, to a player taking their time getting off the field, and so on.

Some referees take the "movement of the game" so seriously that if a player is substituted from opposite side of the field as the bench, in order to enforce play continue as quickly as possible the referee will force the player coming off to leave the field at the CLOSEST sideline (not the half near the benches). Basically as soon as the substituted player is off the field, and the new player is on the field play can continue (even if they are not fully in position).

Many teams, coaches, and players try to run the clock out this substituting this way, those refs who do not enforce leaving at side line, might add time for the amount of time it takes for players to come off.

The longest recorded stoppage time I am aware of, is 15 minutes.

Basically unlike hockey, basketball, football, or any other sport, the ONLY time the half is called over is when the referee says so (this applies to ALL levels of play). The reason the timer usually ticks up in the sport is because it's a lot easier to read and simpler to display on most scoreboards than represnting negative values (while possible it's just commonly counted this way). There are even soccer referee watches (I use to ref, I owned one) who can be set to beep at 15 minutes (many youth levels run at 15 minute quarters), 30 minutes (this is usually middle school), and/or 45 minutes (high school and above), and even though it beeps, the timer will continue to count up (they're usually pretty nice and solid watches too).

I had a friend who refereed a high school team game, one team started to leave the field when a scoreboard buzzer sounded, the other team understood that the referee's whistle is all that counts, the team that started coming off actually got scored on and LOST the game because of this.

During FIFA the group stage ties are worth 1 point, wins are worth 3, when two team have the same number of points it comes to goal differential. As far as I am aware there is no overtime or shoot outs during group stage.

After group stage we get to two overtime halves (15 minutes each I believe), and then if still tied by the end of that (there is no sudden death), there is a shoot out. The ONLY players allowed to participate in a shootout are players who were ON the field by the end of play, no players may come from the bench to shoot.

Offside in football, hockey, and soccer (real football to me), are all quite different.

American Football has to do with the line where the ball is being snapped from, and in American Football the call is called "Offsides", in Hockey it, of course, has to do with the Blue Lines, in Hockey, like soccer I have often heard it called "Offside", in Soccer, "Offside", is based on player positioning. The specific rule is as follows:
"There must be two or more defenders (opposing team) between the player and the goal (not the goalie, the goal, so the goalie counts as one of those defenders), AT THE TIME in which the ball is played forward, TOWARD that player." (Basically no cherry picking essentially).

Now, a player who shows absolutely no intention of playing that ball by removing themselves from the advantage gained by offside positioning doesn't necessarily have to be called, however, most players usually try to play it anyway, so most referees just call it anyway.

In soccer in terms of line crossing it all revolves around the ball (has nothing to do with players, unlike basketball and American Football). So even though the visibly touching portion of the ball may be across the line, if the WHOLE ball is not across the line, the ball is considered in (this is similar to Hockey and the puck crossing the line on a goal).

[K2]

Wtf is with the clock that counts up to a random time? 90 minutes... Plus 4, the clock says 95 minutes 50 seconds....

Stoppage Time. Basically extra time added at the ref's discretion to make up for injuries, substitutions, etc. Not sure why they don't just stop the clock during those things, but they also don't let the refs see instant replay, so who knows what the hell they're thinking.

[FlyingMongoose]

[quote author=HeK link=topic=7281.msg279157#msg279157 date=1402802232]
Wtf is with the clock that counts up to a random time? 90 minutes... Plus 4, the clock says 95 minutes 50 seconds....

Stoppage Time. Basically extra time added at the ref's discretion to make up for injuries, substitutions, etc. Not sure why they don't just stop the clock during those things, but they also don't let the refs see instant replay, so who knows what the hell they're thinking.
[/quote]

It was decided years ago, the ruling on the field (always) stands, look up "World Cup Hand of God" and you'll see a fantastic example of this being bad.

But it ultimately in the long run ends up being fair to all players and teams, because they all have consistency in the ruling decisions, plus, as I pointed out, in real football (soccer), the play is NEVER suppose stop (if possible). It's about keeping the movement of the game going. If anything causes it to be delayed or stopped, more time is added. In fact, excessive delaying can be a caution-able offense (yellow card).

Also, today's scores, and tomorrow's line up posted.

Also, just to point out; the "Rules" in Football (Soccer) are called "Laws" not "Rules"

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/football...eutral.pdf

Law 11, Offside, understand it fully and you will be less confused about a lot of calls on it. As a referee I got more questions about this Law than any other Law of the game.

Note, that different leagues and different levels of play have other rules and stipulations in place, like limited number of substitutions (either per game or per half), and a number of others. I am uncertain, but I believe it is a maximum of 3 substitutions per half in the world cup (but if someone wishes to correct me they are welcome to.

A bit of history and trivia for you,
1: Association Football (where the word Soccer was derived from, the Association part, the term Soccer did originate in England, so if a brit ever tells you that you're using the wrong term, it's fun to shove that in their face).

2: Also called "the beautiful game" and is considered the most popular sport in the world, the nickname is attributed to being first said by Brazilian superstar Pelé (if you look up videos of his highlights from way back when, you will easily see why he is to this day considered the best football player who has ever lived). Though the term was popularized by a British sports caster throughout his career.

3: Known as "The Poor Man's Sport", with good reason, ultimately in order to play the sport, all you need is a ball, and your feet. You don't even necessarily have to have a goal, but you can easily make them up. This is also the reason the sport is considered "the most popular sport in the world" because anyone can play it. During early days of association football many teams and even villages couldn't afford very many balls (sometimes there was one ball hand stitched by the local tailor, or just whatever they could find for an entire village), because of early limited supply, to this day it is a gesture of respect for the game that if you receive a ball from the field of play you ALWAYS return it to the field. If you do not do this there will be a LOT of pissed off people at you.

4: Apart from the United States high school, youth, and the MLS leagues, this sport is the only one I am aware of (except maybe rugby), that has MANDATORY fan seating separation, this has been applied to the sport due to it's kill count throughout it's existence (seriously, riots and all kinds of violent actions happen between opposing fans... and you guys thought hockey fans could get crazy).

For those of us who love the sport, as many of us (and John Oliver pointed out: Here) say, football (soccer) is a religion.

There is not a populated place on the planet you can go in which you can not find a small pick up game of the sport (or some variation). Or even just find someone who might be kicking the ball around. And this is even becoming more common right in the United States.

There are also 4 major variations of the sport all of which have their own World Cup, Indoor, Outdoor (most common and most popular), beach, and street.

[cbre88x]

Fucking England, god damnit :V

They were playing like garbage at the end. They screwed up so many crosses in that last 20 minutes. They deserved to lose that one.

[FlyingMongoose]

[quote author=Caffeine link=topic=7281.msg279153#msg279153 date=1402792549]
Fucking England, god damnit :V

They were playing like garbage at the end. They screwed up so many crosses in that last 20 minutes. They deserved to lose that one.
[/quote]

I unfortunately didn't get to watch that match :-( (was helping the woman with wedding invites >.< )

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...KC9zvzj9Rj You don't have to watch all of these, but the "not seeing is believing" one is just... awesome...

[FlyingMongoose]

Switzerland, Ecuador score posted, I was not impressed by the play on either side here, both of them had a lot of really elementary mistakes. Lots of bad crosses for the Swiss.

[FlyingMongoose]

France and Honduras score posted, I unfortunately have not been able to watch much of the matches today.

KillerObe, are you going to be coming down for any Crew Stadium Viewing parties for US games?

[FlyingMongoose]

Little disappointed I couldn't watch all the matches today, but tomorrow is the United State's first match in what is being called their "Group of Death", their first match is in the city of Manaus, in which there is very few roads to get there (most people get there by boat).

The Columbus Crew Stadium and local bars and restaurants run viewing parties for the world cup, you should check your nearby major metro MLS team stadiums, they may do the same.

Here in Columbus, at Columbus Crew Stadium, of course, home of the Columbus Crew and one of the largest rock concerts out there (Rock on the Range) houses their cup viewing parties starting at 11:00 AM (except vs. Germany that's 10:00 AM) and they go all the way to 8:30 PM including street soccer set ups in the parking lot for in between matches. Ref: http://www.thecrew.com/brazil/cuphq

[Vongore]

Chile-Australia was fun, although Chile could have scored a lot more. If they play just like they did against Spain or Nederlands they're going to lose. It's a shame our group is the toughest along with England's.

Spain-Nederlands was a complete surprise, the bar where we saw it was going nuts. It was so much fun.

But my favorite so far has been Brazil-Croatia for all the tinfoil conspiracies and expectations. FIFA's website updated the result for that match the previous night saying it was going to end in a 2-2 tie with the first goal going for Croatia in a self-goal (dunno the english word). You can think how everybody was reacting when the first goal was Croatia's and then there was that awful penalty.

And like somebody was pointing out.. I kind of like the fact that referees must make their decisions based on their own judgement in the spot. Being so precise ruins the fun for me. The whole arguing with the referee, claiming bullshit and saying everything is rigged. It's just Part of the sport.

[FlyingMongoose]

Chile-Australia was fun, although Chile could have scored a lot more. If they play just like they did against Spain or Nederlands they're going to lose. It's a shame our group is the toughest along with England's.

Spain-Nederlands was a complete surprise, the bar where we saw it was going nuts. It was so much fun.

But my favorite so far has been Brazil-Croatia for all the tinfoil conspiracies and expectations. FIFA's website updated the result for that match the previous night saying it was going to end in a 2-2 tie with the first goal going for Croatia in a self-goal (dunno the english word). You can think how everybody was reacting when the first goal was Croatia's and then there was that awful penalty.

And like somebody was pointing out.. I kind of like the fact that referees must make their decisions based on their own judgement in the spot. Being so precise ruins the fun for me. The whole arguing with the referee, claiming bullshit and saying everything is rigged. It's just Part of the sport.

It enforces consistency and flow of the game that the play doesn't stop for replay or any bullshit like that. Also, it's own-goal, often marked as "OG" when scores are posted.

[Cineo]

France and Honduras score posted, I unfortunately have not been able to watch much of the matches today.

KillerObe, are you going to be coming down for any Crew Stadium Viewing parties for US games?

Nope I'm part of the American Outlaws Cleveland chapter and will be watching the games with them.