The only way for it to happen is the final or the third place match.
Nah, Spain may not be what it used to be but they'll rape Portugal. And Yamal is next generation's marketing pet so Infantino won't be too sad about Spain winning.
My secret unreasonable wish was Iran somehow stumbling into its way to winning the WC, defeating the US along the way, just for the seismic seething it would have caused.
I really do wonder about the psychology of anyone that willingly decides to become a referee. Are all the traffic warden jobs taken or something?
Where there is good, there must be evil, and when the positions of politician, parking warden, speed camera volunteer (yes that's a thing) are all taken up, then evil must make do with being a ref in a sport.
At least the Germans are doing something about it.
, it felt bad to not see the Italians qualify. They truly, TRULY need to get their shit together.
I do it for youth soccer, but it's really more of a teaching position than Serious Business. Sure, the coaches try to teach the rules, but when you have 20 kids on a team, getting all of them to pay attention and absorb the info is difficult at the best of times. My rule chalk talks are usually about 3 minutes long followed by a quick practice session to drive the concept home. But even then, you can't get everything in. A good ref will explain the calls to the players in the moment, which helps them internalize them better than playing grab-ass during training.
See I have no problem with that, good on you for helping out the kids and getting them into the game, it's very civic minded.
If it wasn't for the offsides rule someone would be camping next to the goalie all the god damn time. To use an American football analogy, it would be like if the offensive line was allowed to station people behind the defensive line for every play. Since both American Football and Association Football are based on the original game of "Gridiron" they follow similar rules. Among those rules is the requirement that the offensive play is not allowed to start behind the defensive line. That is all the "offsides" rule is. But since Association Football is a dynamic game that rarely stops, it looks a bit different then in American Football where each play starts with the two teams lining up.
