2014 World Cup

[bennocelt]

I suspect Jones' contrition was largely motivated by the fact he had just kicked Muntari in the head and didn't want to get sent off himself.

Ha yeah probably to be fair

[NeverFeltBetter]

Croatia do have a slight motivation to just pile it on here. If they win and then draw against Mexico, they could progress on GD if Cameroon beat Brazil

[NeverFeltBetter]

No one's scored from a free yet have they? Is that a side effect of the vanish spray? Does it make it harder to score, since kickers might not be used to trying to get the ball over the bar from the exact amount of yards the rules require? Does that make any sense?

[DannyInvincible]

I envisage a total Cameroon capitulation here.

Some trivia thanks to ITV: Alex Song's cousin Rigobert was the first player to be red-carded in two World Cups. He received one against Brazil in 1994 and another against Chile in 1998.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Cameroon looked wrecked. Would have thought the African team would have adjusted better to the heat than the Balkan one.

[pineapple stu]

Thought everyone knew that! A staple bit of world cup trivia.

Cameroon are playing like a Junior team now. Everyone breaking forward when they get the ball and trotting back casually when they lose possession. Definitely more goals here if Croatia want.

[pineapple stu]

Entire Cameroon defence standing in line admiring that goal. Shambolic. Not even a call for offside.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Croatia are only not scoring more because they have too many options to pass to inside the Cameroon box and hesitate.

[DannyInvincible]

No one's scored from a free yet have they? Is that a side effect of the vanish spray? Does it make it harder to score, since kickers might not be used to trying to get the ball over the bar from the exact amount of yards the rules require? Does that make any sense?

They've been using the spray in Brazilian league games for a while, but I don't believe it's thought to have had any effect on the number of free-kicks converted though. Proportionately-speaking, how many goals from free-kicks might we have expected from 20 games so far? To use a very rough and quick make-shift comparison, there were 32 goals scored directly from free-kicks during the 2012-13 English Premier League season. That was out of a total of 380 games over the whole season. Based on that, am I right in thinking then that you might roughly expect a goal from a free-kick every 12 or 13 games or so? Or have I gotten my maths horribly wrong?...

I'm sure we'll see someone score a free-kick soon.

[NeverFeltBetter]

The Croatian boss never smiles. Celebrating the scoreline by sitting down, drinking some water and staring grimly at the evisceration happening in front of him.

[pineapple stu]

Bizarrely, Cameroon do deserve a goal here.

Granted, they deserve to have conceded about eight. But still, credit where it's due.

[DannyInvincible]

Benoît Assou-Ekotto lucky to remain on the pitch after sticking his head Pepe-style to the head of his own team-mate. Mad stuff. The ref must have missed it.

I dread to think what the Brazil-Cameroon scoreline will be...

[nigel-harps1954]

I dread to think what the Brazil-Cameroon scoreline will be...

0-0. Guaranteed.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Cameroon are a joke. Clownish from before the tournament to now.

[geysir]

Interesting discussion about Song's 'assault' on RTE.
Sadlier just wanted to go with 'moronic', 'disgraceful', etc etc.
Hamann explained what triggered Song's assault, Sadlier looked puzzled as he didn't consider there might be a context, but he cried out 'it doesn't excuse what he did'.
Hamann replied 'it's not an excuse, as it's clearly a red card offence, but I'm just explaining what triggered it, he was being fouled'.
Sadlier looked even more puzzled, unsure of himself, as he was itching to go on a rant and here was Hamann, cool composed and explaining what happened with objectivity.

[Charlie Darwin]

No one's scored from a free yet have they? Is that a side effect of the vanish spray? Does it make it harder to score, since kickers might not be used to trying to get the ball over the bar from the exact amount of yards the rules require? Does that make any sense?

Was thinking the same thing myself, but I don't think the wall being further back would affect the way the players strike the ball - all it does is give them more of a chance to get the ball up and over the wall.

[DannyInvincible]

Out of a total of 145 goals scored in the 2010 World Cup, only five were scored directly from free-kicks, according to the Independent. There were nine scored in 2006.

[Charlie Darwin]

Watching the second Chile goal again on BBC. Baffling decision by Casillas, but it is still such a difficult chance. He has no backlift whatsoever but he finds a way past the goalkeeper when the odds must have been well against him (although had he missed, Casillas possibly would have punched it back to him, we just don't know).

[BonnieShels]

Sooooo I seemed to have missed quite the day at world cup of soccer Fifa championship.

Thankfully I'm off work tomorrow.

So 0-0 all 'round.

[SkStu]

Just devoured today's games. Only game I've not watched was Iran v Nigeria. Deleted on the advice of Facebook. One thing that is ruining it for me is that it is nearly impossible to avoid the scores before I get to see them. Sports news on the drive home and I'm going "la, la, la, la, la, la" while reaching for the volume, pretending to myself that I didn't hear the score. Or a casual midday visit to Facebook where people like Bonnie and Nigel are yammering on like aul ones... ;-)

Saskatchewan, by the way, is a f*cking great place to be all things considered. But it is like 90% of North America and is at least 10 years behind Ireland and Great Britain and therefore 20 years behind the rest of Europe.

Some goal from Cahill.