2018 World Cup running thread

Nope. Final group stage game which we needed to win.

 

No, it was a group stage game. US needed a win to advance to the Round of 16.

 

I might have misheard, but I think the commentators just said this was the first time a team has lost a two-goal lead in a 90-minute knockout game since 1966.

 

what a crusher for Japan. Within a minute, came from almost winning on a free kick to losing in the final seconds.

Great game to watch!

 

I'm not covering the tournament directly this year, but I can't help thinking how hard some of these games are to write on deadline, and the best games are also in some ways the worst. This one is a brutal deadliner.

 

In the old days of print deadlines, the timeframe would work OK for U.S. papers. In the online world, yeah, tough to churn these out when they're so tight down the stretch.

 

I agree with you, and also feel this is a tricky element of being a neutral fan. In a similar vein, I think it might have been early in this game (they're running together) in which an offensive player played through a tackle in the box and kept going to send in a cross that didn't result in a goal, when he reasonably could have fallen due to the tackle and likely would have gotten a penalty kick. The announcers said something like, "Brave play, fighting through the tackle... but maybe he should have fallen."

Those moments make me feel uneasy as a fan because I wanted the guy to play through the contact rather than fall, and (like you) I wanted Japan to keep going forward even up 2-0, when a cold-eyed appraisal clearly points toward the more cynical choice as the smarter one in each case. Therefore I want them to do things that are worse for their team simply for my enjoyment. I feel complicit somehow in soccer's dark side.

No matter—Belgium v Brazil!

 

Least floppy wc game I have seen this tournament. Contributed toward its quality

 

Yes, think they said West Germany, forgot the other team and if WG was the team who came back or blew it. Looking at the scores, can't be WG, but thought they did say WG.

Looks like it was North Korea, who blew a 3-0 lead to Portugal, must've been a crazy game.

1966 FIFA World Cup - Wikipedia

1966 FIFA World Cup England ™ - Matches - Portugal-Korea DPR - FIFA.com

NK 3-0 in the 25th minute, then Eusebio took over.

 

The one I heard was North Korea losing to Portugal, 5-3, after being up 3-0.

World Cup Classic Matches: Portugal 5-3 North Korea (1966 quarterfinals)

 

Yup. did they say that year England beat West Germany in the final? thought i remember them saying WG.
Meola and DellaCamra (sp?) are pretty good.

 

That North Korean team blew the lead, then probably got blown up by a hail of lead.