Confederations Cup 2017

Because sometimes you've got nothing better to do on a Saturday evening than watch Russia play New Zealand.

Russia are up 2-0 with ten minutes to go. New Zealand fairly dire obv but Russia should be up by more. Read somewhere that the winners of the Confed Cup never go on to win the World Cup.

Smolov / Poloz seems a better pairing than Kokorin / Dzyuba has in the recent past.

LOL Russian interviewer."Thankyouverymuch"

Portugal goal ruled out for offside on video evidence!

yeah this video bullshit is really improving the spectator experience

The second Portugal goal went to video referee as well - but was cleared after a minute. There is no communication about what the issue is supposed to be so the viewer is left sitting for thirty seconds wondering whether the goal is going to be called into question and another minute, in the dark, about whether it will stand. It is barely worth supporters celebrating until the match kicks off again.

If its once in a while it might be fine but three of the last six 'goals' have been called into question and two ruled out.

Chile have had a goal ruled out after celebrating for about a minute. All the pundits are talking about is this silly gimmick, I don't really care to argue the pros and cons I just know for me this is an annoying spoiler and I hope it dies. But it won't, this is TVball for the future

haha at least this has given me a lolz reasons to watch this competition

Here we go again.

lolz

They both looked offside when the first ball went through.

all we need is for the video ref to decide everything, then it'll be perfect

dammit missed the goal. Did they review it?

poland v sweden u21s right now is v good fyi

well we switched over (in the pub) to the england u21 match, missed england coming back because then the darts match took over. One day in a pub I'll get to watch a fucking full game.

lol

It looks like it's over for Russia. 20 mins left and they are 2-1 down to Mexico and they just had a player rightfully sent off

Vid ref correctly called a goal for Mexico as offside. Still unsure how this works but it was the right call. Is the video ref consulted for each goal?

Feel bad for Akinfeev as he is a very solid keeper 98% of the time but so terrible at international level he should never play again.

I think the video ref flags to the ref if they think the goal might have been dubious, the ref decides whether to formally refer it back for video review, the video ref gives an opinion and the ref can either agree or ignore it.

I still reckon it's a better idea to give each team 2 video ref calls per half

GER-CAM yesterday threw up the funniest video reffing yet.

Ref books Siani for high foot on Can, CAM players point out to the ref he's got it wrong, he goes to view on screen. Ref watches incident again in slow motion and it's obvious the player is #2 (Mabouka) and not #15 (Siani). Ref realises he's got it wrong. Ref shows straight red to Siani for the tackle. CAM players surround ref and Siani refuses to leave the pitch. Ref watches the incident again and finally twigs he has the wrong player and gives Mabouka a straight red. He doesn't rescind either the yellow or red he gave to Siani, but allows him to stay on the pitch.

All this took well over 5 minutes to sort out, and actually watching the clip made me think it wasn't really a foul and more a clumsy challenge. Can's foot is just as high and I'd argue the ball's there to be won.

Dire, dire semi between Portugal and Chile. Believe Alexis Sanchez lost possession 16 times in the first half alone.

yeah this is bloody awful football.

..but that double woodwork was insane

;_;

Chile hit the post and bar in the final minute of extra time. This game doesn't deserve a winner, it's too bad and vile for that, but Portugal do deserve to lose tbh. Pens coming up now, if anyone's interested.

(that was an xp)

Germany's 3rd tire will walk this tournament won't they?

Bravo!

Bravo!!!

Yeah, fuck off Portugal, bored of you lot.

BRAVO!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

that was about the worst set of penalties ive ever seen

Did Portugal have a bet on losing or something?

Shame he didn't get to stop a Cron penalty, and this is easy talking afterwards, but he's looked way more confident these 120 mins than all season at ManC.

idk i reckon i couldve saved those pens

3 finals in 3 years for la roja

bravo is consistently great for chile

Chile totally deserved that

They totally deserved that! Were robbed of a penalty in extra time already.

yeah where was the video ref then? (ok i thought it was a dive at first)

I thought that as well, until I saw the replay. (and yeah when the vid ref gets called in is still a ~mystery~ to me)

Brutal.

Germany had the right idea in fielding a young B team for this tournament

^^ Sure did. Lots of players making their debut, wanting to impress etc.

How on earth...?

some goal!

Poor Mexicans still have to play for 3rd, and not only that, a week later it's the Gold Cup! Some of these players will be dead when the new season starts.

That's insane, I'm sure they'll have to rest the majority of those players

Totally crazy! I'm sure they'll rest quite a lot of players, mostly the ones playing in Europe - like Germany is doing as we speak - but still. Call me old-fashioned, but as a football fan I enjoyed the three months without football every summer. Those days seem long gone, with every summer filled with 'tournaments' like this.

the gold cup and confederations are both 25 years old

also confederations basically an extended international community shield of a mickey mouse competition so can be easily ignored if one wishes

That depends on your team though , doesn't it? I mean Chile for example is all in on this tourney. For one thing the "golden generation "'s window is closing. Also FIFA ranking is at stake: a win places Chile 6th, a loss 11th. This could be critical in getting a top spot in the group stage, which in turn can help us avoid the fate that always seems to befall La Roja: make it out of its group only to run into Brazil in the first knockout round . So this is far from Mickey Mouse territory for that team, and the game is expected to significantly depress voter turnout for Sunday 's primaries.

(Hi everyone, by the way, I've been away from ilx for about six months or so )

(Obv referring to World Cup implications above)

yeah, i am totally stoked for this tournament because of those reasons, but i have never care anytime before!

also hi collardio

Chile looking tidy at the moment.

oh

this could be coffin nails ....

got away with it imo

the magic of video reffing

lmao. so the ref sees the vid the whole world saw and still only gives a yellow. shambles.

umpteen minutes delay just to make a terrible decision

this is the sad, sad future of football isn't it?

nah, in the next 10 years they'll find lots of other ways to ruin it too, so you end up forgetting how shitty this is

reassuring. van basten's got some mad ideas up his sleeve (three thirds instead of two halves, hockey like pen's, bringing a gallon of goat's blood equals a goal extra etc)

Vidal really should've scored there.

okay that would have been a spectacular goal

What a fucking joke

I'm gutted by this loss tbh. We should have been up 2-0 by halftime; instead it was 0-1.

There are a lot of obvious analytical remarks I could make , but I'm too dispirited to bother. I just hope the players (esp Diaz) recover from this , learn from it, and for fuck's sakes, forwards: how about keeping a cool head in front of the net?

I love La Roja and the fight in them, but the golden generation seems to be running out of ammo.