The Soccer Thread (Version 9)

VAR taught me today during France-Brazil that offsides does not mean offsides.

If Amari Cooper false-started on a play that was a Zeke Elliott run all the way, it's still a false start. Doesn't matter that it was away from the play. And we say NFL officiating is fucked up?

 

But that is how offsides has always been in soccer. That's how the rule is written. You are only off once you affect the play.

 

This is nothing new.

 

Looks like the US White Suburban Women's Team should worry more about playing well and less about getting paid; another unimpressive effort. Kudos to Alexi Lalas for calling out Morgan and Rapinoe for decidedly sub-par games today, and to one of the other analysts for openly wondering why there wasn't earlier subbing, especially on a very warm day.

And Hope Solo may be a POS as a person but she's a lot better goalie than the current one. The amount of fawning over this team by the game commentators (not so much the studio analysts) is tough to swallow. JP Dellacamera was almost begging someone to score in the final 30 minutes.

 

Spain does not suck and will be one of the favorites in international play going forward, but only scored due to a defensive mistake by Becky Sauerbrunn (she took credit for the mistake, and quite rightly; the keeper was not to blame there). Substitution issue is valid. Megan Rapinoe did the work today. Also, why was Alex Morgan trying to take the PK when she’s only converted 2 PKs for the USWNT and Rapinoe is the best PK shooter in the world? I understand that leaders try to take things on themselves, but leaders should also try to do the best thing for the team.

Alexi Lalas can get fucked with a rusty nail.

USWNT got stronger today because the game was close. If they win a blowout today, they’d have lost on Friday.

 

We can agree to disagree about many things, but you can't seriously believe that keeper is better or even anywhere near as good as Hope Solo. It's not even close.

Rapinoe plays hard, and she did bury the two PKs. But she also gave the ball away about 150 times. The speedy midfielder (I'm awful with names) who got subbed late was USA's best player today.

I guess we'll see Friday if they got stronger today. Lalas's analysis was pretty much on point.

 

Alyssa Naeher played well today. 2011-era Hope Solo is not walking through that door, although you’ll never convince Hope Solo that her best days are behind her. (Does anybody have that “attention whore” image we used to post back in about 2005? It applies to Hope Solo.)

Alexi Lalas’ wins-above-replacement-analyst value is pretty low at this point.

 

Dan Wetzel says FIFA, France and Paris don’t care enough about the women’s World Cup. Not enough advertising, semis and finals in the wrong cities, etc etc.

Where's FIFA? Failing to promote a fun, high-quality Women's World Cup, that's where

We’re increasingly reaching the point where there’s more negativity and complaining around elite women’s sports events than joy.

 

If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.

 

French soccer and its federal and local governments spent a lot of money in the early part of this decade building new soccer stadiums. Bigger cities got rewarded with Euro 2016 games. This World Cup deliberately chose venues in some of the smaller French cities such as Le Havre and Montpellier which also build new stadiums. They didn't want empty seats. I don't see why Wetzel's pissed. MLS did the very same thing in our country.

 

In this world cup, if I am a team having a hard time scoring goals, I would just shoot at the defenders in the box, instead of at the goal. You are going to get an arm or hand after not too many tries.

 

That would imply that the teams had enough buildup enough times to actually warrant firing a shot on frame. In a haves-vs.-have-nots match - and it's probably still a little occurring for matches other than United States-Thailand - the pitch is so tilted that getting off legitimate shots that can trigger a whistle and ensuing penalty kick is difficult.

Additionally, the referee has to see intent on the defender's part to block it with a hand or arm. Not every ball that makes contact is intentional, therefore, penalties for such infractions are not automatic.