Posted on 07/01/2018 1:08:15 PM PDT by xp38
I’d have been more impressed if the Russians put forth a real effort to win the game in regular play. All they did was try to stop the Spaniards from moving close enough to get a shot on goal, hoping just to hold them off until penalties where they might get lucky.
The Spanish have much better players on their team over all, but clearly made some major mistakes, primarily not changing their typical way of playing to be more adventurous once the game was tied. I partially blame their newby coach. I think Iniesta should have started, instead of coming in after any momentum was long dead. He’s good at running in towards the goal and setting up goal scoring opportunities. I don’t think the ball would have stagnated in mid-field so much if he were there from the beginning.
As it was, the coach still should have had them alter their strategy during half time. Instead of playing so far forward, they should have kept Pique and Ramos farther back in case of a Russian break away, and then the players up front should have taken more chances and made something happen. Having a massive advantage in possession of the ball and then making nothing of it was ridiculous. And, of course, Pique’s hand ball essentially cost them the game. A player with as much experience as he has shouldn’t have done something that foolish.
The three goals Spain scored earlier in the tournament against Portugal showed they are still capable of scoring; they just didn’t bring their A game against the “easy” Russian team.
Credit to Russia, they did the only thing they could do to give them a chance to win the game, and it worked.
I think their luck will run out against Croatia. Although I was a bit disappointed in Croatia’s performance today, but I think a little rest should take care of their issues and they should beat Russia.
Be funny if it’s a Croatia-Uruguay final.
Two countries with a combined population of less than the DFW metro area.
The Croatia vs. Denmark game was something else. Two goals scored in the first very few minutes of the match for tie, and then no more scoring all the way through regular and overtime, and then into the penalty kick phase which Croatia won 3-2, for a final score of 4-3.
Croatia has a population of 4.2 million, making it smaller than an average state in the US, where the average population is around 6.2 million per state.
Uruguay has 3.1 million.
“Be funny if it’s a Croatia-Uruguay final.”
How about a Russia-Mexico final? The MSM would bill it as Trump vs Immigrants.
Yeah, it’s amazing how competitive some of the smaller nations are against those with many times their population.
OMG, Agree. The Croatia-Denmark game was the most boring of the World Cup. I pray no one takes that ‘prize’ away from them.
Realize also that the four most populous nations on the planet: China, India, US and Indonesia didn’t even make the WC, and outside of the US, I believe have never even been in the WC. So it kind of puts a damper on soccer being the “World’s Game”, it’s Europe and Latin America’s Game.
LOL! Like one of those old NC State games where they would 4-corner forever and win 12-10.
Snore.
Clearly Putin hacked the World Cup.
I guess Brazil (208 million), Mexico (128 million), Russia (144 million), Japan (127 million) and France (67 million) are the largest nations still in, with the others under 50 million and down to Uraguay at 3.1 million.
The final score was 1-1.
The France-Denmark game was almost as bad. At least France-Denmark was only 90 minutes.
So many teams now just pack the box then hope to score on a breakaway counter attack. The strategy occasionally works and allows a much inferior team to pull out a win. But it’s absolutely ruining the game.
Russian defense bested a superior offense until they could hope for the best in Sudden Death.
I hope John McCain was watching. He he he.
“Be funny if it’s a Croatia-Uruguay final.”
The way that this World Cup has been, that may very well happen.
Respect to Russia. They have come much further than anyone have expected and have displayed great heart and National pride.
It will never happen but if Russia won it all, leftists’ heads would explode.
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