soccer soccer soccer

[Derwood]

You feel sick for these players who choke on these kicks

[jersey cubs fan]

4 hours ago, bukie said:

Lesson to be learned from thr first two knockout games: Don't play like a coward hoping for PKs.

Or not 

[bukie]

 

[UMFan83]

Soccer is the best

[soccer10k]

Not sure how I feel about that disallowed goal. The German player clearly intends (and succeeds) at screening the goalie. But at the same time, is he not allowed to stand where he wants to? He didn't go into the goalie, the goalie went into him and then flopped. And I do hate how goalies are given the benefit of the doubt any time there's the slightest bit of contact and they fall, like the Paraguay GKer did.

[bukie]

I have high expectations for tonight's game. #6 vs #7 ranked teams (aka both higher than 5 of the 6 teams that have played so far). Hope it's as fun as it should be. 

[Derwood]

Netherlands has been pretty ineffective so far

[soccer10k]

Thought for sure Gakpo got hurt on the goal until they mentioned what happened to him and his partner the last couple days.

[Derwood]

DAMMIT

[Derwood]

These PK's make me sick to my stomach

[Derwood]

Welp, it's USA or bust for me now

[bukie]

Cowards 1 for 4 so far in the knockout round.

[Jason Ross]

Man, unreal couple of games tonight. Morocco is a really good team, and Paraguay is way better than they showed against the US. Fun night. 

[Derwood]

Netherlands just looked so bad most of that game.

[UMFan83]

2 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Man, unreal couple of games tonight. Morocco is a really good team, and Paraguay is way better than they showed against the US. Fun night. 

And tomorrow has 3 awesome matchups: Ivory Coast/Norway, France/Sweden, Mexico/Ecuador

[Derwood]

You know the pressure is unbelievable when the best players in the world can't hit a mostly wide open goal from 10 feet away

[soccer10k]

13 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

And tomorrow has 3 awesome matchups: Ivory Coast/Norway, France/Sweden, Mexico/Ecuador

I have my doubts on France-Sweden being good. Maybe I'm wrong and Sweden uglies it up and keeps it close. But I could easily see France rolling them.

[UMFan83]

14 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

I have my doubts on France-Sweden being good. Maybe I'm wrong and Sweden uglies it up and keeps it close. But I could easily see France rolling them.

Yeah that one is more 'sweet we get to watch France play' but who knows.

[bukie]

44 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Man, unreal couple of games tonight. Morocco is a really good team, and Paraguay is way better than they showed against the US. Fun night. 

The US scored 5 minutes into that match and forced Paraguay to chase, which exposed them badly. Since then, they've been mostly able to stay ahead or level at worst and muck up games enough to get a point.

[UMFan83]

18 minutes ago, Derwood said:

You know the pressure is unbelievable when the best players in the world can't hit a mostly wide open goal from 10 feet away

It's probably because I didn't play soccer growing up so I don't have the muscle memory (though have gotten passable playing with my kids!), but I've always said PKs in soccer and game winning FG attempts are the most pressure filled moments in sports.

Reasons for PKs:

-PKs on average have a very high success rate, something like 80%.  The number is high enough that the fans expect you to make them just about every time so if you make it, you were supposed to, if you miss you completely choked.

-It's literally just you and the keeper all alone one on one with 60,000+ fans watching you play mind games trying to out think them, completely different mindset than the 120 minutes that were just played

-A miss can dramatically shift your teams chances and overall mindset (though as we saw today in both PKs, they can be recovered from)

-A high profile miss is replayed for years and you are forever associated with it

Clutch FG kicks are similar, except literally your only job on the field is to make those kicks and what you do can validate or erase what 50+ teammates have done all game to get you in that position.  And even worse for FG kicks several things can go wrong but if that kick is attempted and missed, the blame goes squarely to the kicker even if the snapper or holder screwed something up (Laces out Dan).

I could never do either of those things for a living.