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Matchday 3 Discussion

Sorry Sammy. We needed a call, it could have gone our way. I thought it was 50/50. Live dogs don't get the calls I guess.

I thought it was ridiculous Nigeria didn’t get a penalty kick on that handball! How much more blatant can it get than that? In fairness I do think they kinda let Nigeria get away with a few down by their goal where no fouls were called so maybe it evened out a little, but still, that should have been a pk no question.
 
those of you betting cards ... a pretty good angle for a low amount of cards in the belgium/England game (sort of). If they tie, the winner of the group will be the team with less cards in the tournament. It's 3 cards to 2 heading in. Should be less ugly fouling than normal IF, IF you think there is a difference to the teams about who they play from group H. I am not convinced either would care all that much but they will know the result prior to playing. I would want to avoid Colombia if I were either of them. Anyway, with both advanced already and cards determining a winner on the draw .. it should be a clean game.
 
Mentioned it elsewhere but an attorney type investigation of Fifa tiebreak rules shows that if there is a 3 way, if Germany do enough to take 1st place, winner of SWE/MEX would finish 2nd regardless of score
 
Man shit like the team w less cards advances is the kind of crap that turns me off from soccer. Don’t get me wrong, in truth the WC is prob my favorite sporting event to watch anymore, don’t know lot bout soccer and this only time I bet it but man is it exciting imo! Just can’t stand fact a team advances over another by something as arbitrary as who has committed less fouls drawing cards, which is incredibly judgmental anyway!
 
Cards are the 4th tiebreaker...they would be tied in the first 3...5th one is coin flip I believe lol. But they're both advancing anyway
 
Mentioned it elsewhere but an attorney type investigation of Fifa tiebreak rules shows that if there is a 3 way, if Germany do enough to take 1st place, winner of SWE/MEX would finish 2nd regardless of score

Feel for Mexico, tough that they 2-0 and still could potentially be eliminated.
 
Info for Group F from German newspaper
index.php


Dark green - GER 1. place
Light green - GER 2. place
Yellow - GER 3. place
Red - GER 4. place
Square means draw decides

Maybe helpful.
 
those of you betting cards ... a pretty good angle for a low amount of cards in the belgium/England game (sort of). If they tie, the winner of the group will be the team with less cards in the tournament. It's 3 cards to 2 heading in. Should be less ugly fouling than normal IF, IF you think there is a difference to the teams about who they play from group H. I am not convinced either would care all that much but they will know the result prior to playing. I would want to avoid Colombia if I were either of them. Anyway, with both advanced already and cards determining a winner on the draw .. it should be a clean game.
Now let's extrapolate after today

Who has 3, who has 2? I don't kno that...

The 2nd place finisher in group G has what looks to be a smooth path to the semis (winner H, then Swiss/SWE winner) while the winner will be on the side of the bracket with all the power. Who wants to lose? Do you want that late card to guarantee 2nd place? Keep this in mind, loser of ENG/BEL odds will likely increase to win the cup
 
Your point is well made. I had a similar thought when I wrote the original post. It may bot play into their heads at all either because .. well, they are athletes.
 
ENG and BEL is really tough to know because they are about dead-even and the yellow cards sound like the deciding factor. The bracket is looking like it will have an easy side, which actually benefits the group runner-up here. Martinez stated after the second match that he's got some injury concerns, which could have been politicking to set the stage for a weak lineup in Matchday 3. It wouldn't be the sporting way for Southgate to say he will match BEL trying to finish runner-up, but we could see some rotating to match a missing Lukaku, Hazard, etc. I would suspect Rashford starts over Sterling, as was rumoured for game two, but not really sure where else he will go. The motivation to lose here is clear, but Southgate may be looking for momentum and the British media will be all over him for sacrificing that if he matches a weak BEL lineup. This tells me BEL will have a weaker lineup and ENG is probably more likely to win the group.

you could read the posts in the thread that was made for just this reason kale
 
Southgate further dug in his heels about wanting to win the game in his press conference, while Martinez talked about resting players and not jeopardizing people playing on yellow cards. I think that's why ENG is now favored, it was a fair pick 'em before that. Ultimately we'll see depending on who he puts out there, but i can't imagine it'll be as weak of a lineup as BEL
 
Belgium going think they are doing the right thing by getting second then they lose to Senegal, Japan, and/or Colombia first knockout game
 
Possibly, but it's the right play to make if you want to make the quarters. Really hard to pull off if you're a real life athlete/manager, but Martinez has done a great job blaming it on injuries and card concerns
 
Really putting the cart before the horse by saying “ second place gets us an easier quarters matchup”

This is knockout soccer/ one game , anything can happen

I understand resting the players on cards , especially Debruyne and Vertonghen, but saying Lukaku , Hazard , and Mertens have “knocks” is laughable.
 
Belgium going think they are doing the right thing by getting second then they lose to Senegal, Japan, and/or Colombia first knockout game
They've been playing together for years, I get the fade em til they do something angle but at some point they're gonna do something. Too much talent

Tomorrow doesn't matter tho
 
They've been playing together for years, I get the fade em til they do something angle but at some point they're gonna do something. Too much talent

Tomorrow doesn't matter tho

I’m rooting for Belgium failure so Martinez becomes toxic
 
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