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England-Colombia was the poorest match in this round. Colombia, missing their best player, were lucky to keep 11 on the pitch and England did a lot of running around with little penetration or ball control.

   

England played well in the first half I thought. In the second half, they started to slow down when Colombia started to play better. But Colombia also played like they were in competition to see how many players could get yellow cards.

Still it was good to see England exprcisectheir penalty kicks demon. At least for this round anyway.

   

I hope the next round of matches are more like Belgium-Japan. That was a lot of fun. England-Sweden could be another dreary affair.

   

That was kind of my point - there are far too many rewards for players who act injured (like Neymar does). Neymar may be the worst actor of the bunch, but it seems like every high ranked team has at least one player like Neymar who over reacts, contact or not.

   

It wasn't a fun match to watch.. The American ref lost control early, and most of it was a shit show until both te4ams realized at some point that they should play some soccer.

But they don't all have to be pretty.

   

Hopefully VAR will cut down on some of this. But it has to be understood that star players get harassed and fouled constantly, so it's not just histrionics, it's partly self-preservatr5ion. If you go down easy and make the other team pay, they are less inclined to rake their cleats on you.

   

Every high ranked team does, and for a reason.

Heavy enforcement creates very skilled players. Great actors too. And that is the problem. The very thing that creates what we want, also creates what we don't want.

How do we fix it? Literally, you figure this out, you have a billion dollar system, easy.

   

That was pain to watch.


If I was a ref...
You dive or act, you get a yellow
You don't obey my rules (you get one chance), you get a red
You crowd me and don't move back when I tell you, you get a red

   

The first time you reffed a game with a South American team you'd hand out 11 reds. ha ha ha.

   

They'll probably start behaving after 2... then, they'll be real nice for the next 10-12 games.


Note: I'd also start reviewing film after each game and hand out suspensions for obvious diving infractions.

   

If FIFA really wanted to get rid of all the play acting, they would issue a directive to referees to clamp down on it more. But they won't.

They won't sanction one of the world's biggest stars in Neymar anymore than the NHL would go after Ovechkin or Crosby.

At the very least, I'd like to see some post-match sanctions for play acting or diving. And also instant yellow cards for haranguing the red the way the Colombian players did. He didn't help himself by being the usual card happy MLS ref, but he totally allowed the players on the pitch to bully him around and that's why that game got so ugly at times.

   

Oh, and Brazil is OOOUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTT

   

wow.

   

Wow indeed. All the big names are out save for England and who knows what will happen tomorrow when they play Sweden. If the Swedes score first then England will have a tough time clawing back the goal.

Brazil played well in the second half IMO but they couldn’t put their chances away when they got them because the Belgian defenders were immense.

And sadly for me, Uruguay lost rather meekly to France earlier. With Cavani out due to injury, their attacks were listless and ineffective.

   

And the semi final round of games are set.

France will play Belgium in what passes for a NATO derby matchup. And England will play Croatia for the other spot in the final.

I have to admit, I thought England would have a hard time breaking down Sweden’s defense. But instead they played really well and Pickford made some exceptional saves to keep England in the game.

I also expected Croatia to beat Russia soundly. But Russia definitely used the home field advantage and refused to say die.

   

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