The Soccer Thread (Version 13) — Winter World Cup Edition

Is Kim an incredibly common name in the Koreas? Or is this the equivalent of the entire US back line being named Smith?

 

Yes, Kim is an incredibly common name in Korea.

 

That’s awesome.

A few years ago, we blocked all the 24/7 news channels on the DIRECTV system at our hunting cabin. I was tempted to block everything but ESPN and the oldies channel that shows Andy Griffith and Bonanza. But it took the conversation temperatures way down.

 

Penaldo to the rescue.

 

We don't even get all of the area's over-the-air channels from deer camp, since we're in a valley. My cousin brought a hotspot for the first time this year so we were able to watch Monday Night Football and the MSU-Kentucky basketball game. We run a generator at night for power, but we have wood-burning cookstoves and heat stoves (my allergies love this) and some gas. My family is nearly evenly divided between the Packers and Lions (with one Bears fan). I don't want to hear about the Packers these days and some of the Lions talk is surprisingly conspiratorial for the Lions. As for the politics part, there's kind of a mixed bag. I have a cousin who works in construction who said this year he knew people who were in DC on 1/6, though he's pretty apolitical. As far as Trump is concerned, he doesn't have a lot of support but there were multiple people who considered him preferable to Hillary Clinton. But on the other hand, I have relatives who I think are consistent Democratic voters too.

 

I don't understand some of this reffing, VAR, etc. Did they even look at it? Almost looked like more of a foul on Ronaldo. Then there was a clear penalty against Canada yesterday, and they did look at it, and nothing.

There is no consistency. At least don't use VAR if you are not going to use the actual rules.

 

This second half has gotten rather lively. The last 20 minutes have been like an Arena League version of soccer.

 

I'm one of those annoying people who pretty much only dives into soccer when the World Cup rolls around, so please forgive my ignorance. Did they change a rule to add all of the stoppage time at the end of the match, instead of at the end of each half? There's nine minutes added in this one, which seems like an ungodly amount of time. It's usually four or five minutes, isn't it?

 

Both halves get stoppage time but there is an emphasis this year on clawing back all of the bullshit time wasting. As one who follows a USL team, it feels familiar.