FU - Portugal V Croatia a tactical question

Why sub Christiano off at the 80m mark in a knockout game. Ronaldo is Portugals best offensive weapon and he's also their best PK maker (Portugals only goal came on CR PK).

I think at this point Portugal is lucky NOT to be losing this game and should be trying to get the game to the PK stage. If they do Ronaldo won't be able to shoot b/c he was subbed off.

I'm just trying to figure out "why" behind the decision to take out you best player with possibly 30m left in the match.

Update - Welp, the question became moot in the 93 minute.

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First WC appearance and they took the defending champions to the 120th minute.

Great showing for that little island.

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According to the prediction markets its almost exactly a push, w the US getting just a slight home field advantage. Its basically deadlocked, except the US has a slight homefield advantage.

I think that means there’s pretty even odds it could go a number of ways with no obvious outcome.

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Can the US backline go mistake free and handle the Belgian attack? Will Matt Freese make a save or two when they need him to?

Feels pretty balanced, and have to imagine the Monday Night Futbol Seattle crowd will help.

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When he blasts three or four good chances ten feet over the crossbar.

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Portugal, on the other hand, have better players, and building their tactics around Ronaldo is eventually going to get them killed.

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He was one of the world’s best goal scorers. Was.

He’s their “best” penalty taker because his legend status and his ego mean he gets to do it unchallenged by manager or teammates.

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He’s pretty damn good at it.

But he is definitely not their best player.

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He’s definitely not their best player - he barely touched the ball in the second half - but he is still good at penalty kicks. He’s 85% in his career.

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In a skill that is needed about once in every four games.

He is not the player he was.

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Except on penalty kicks.

I don’t think Roberto Martinez is worried about what Ronaldo would think of him if he chose someone else to make that kick. Which he did hit.

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His hair is perfect.

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If you think being marginally better at penalty kicks (a skill that is rarely required) than the GLOBAL AVERAGE makes Roberto Martinez smart….

Also, Ronaldo is 100% Martinez’s boss.

You watched the game. Portugal won because they took Ronaldo off.

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if he was already in the game, there was no reason whatsoever to not have him take the kick.

Whether he should have been in the game in the first place, at all, is an entirely different question that I’m not even arguing.

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POR was getting murdered in the midfield. It could have easily been 3-1 Croatia because Portugal could not stop them. The moment they subbed Ronaldo out the game changed.

FWIW, that pen was Ronaldo’s first goal in a WC knockout game. He’s 41. They will get smoked by Spain.

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He's the ¹ in their defense and is always pretty far forward. But so are Messi, Haaland and Mbappe.

Are you saying CR should have drifted back more?

Agree on Spain. They MAY be the best team that I have seen so far.

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He’s a 41-year-old show horse. They would score more goals if he didn’t play.

He used to be great. Not anymore.

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Croatia just scored 3 minutes after the game should've ended.

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This game is nuts.

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BTW - Injury time during extra time sometimes throws the clock off.

FWIW, I noticed that too and thought Croatia was down to their last shot.

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The offsides rule makes the game mostly unwatchable to me except if the U.S. is playing. It needs a "blue line" like ice hockey.

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No player from the offense can be deeper than the 2nd deepest defender when the ball is thrown.

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Every time the keeper punches/defender clears the ball out would be the literal death of these guys.

The rule is fine, I'd just adjust it to any body part onside makes it a good play. You'd have the leg drag like hockey so there's your crossover.

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...having a half-inch of one's foot or finger ahead of the last defender, that can only be seen on stop-motion, eliminate a totally amazing and fun and exciting and frankly life-affirming goal is bad.

In the new world of VAR, a new offside definition could be added to the rule. Something like "the center of gravity of the offensive player was ahead of the center of gravity of the defensive player" or "all of the offensive player was ahead of the defensive player" - of course, with the "defensive player" still being the second-to-last or in almost all circumstances the last but the goal keeper - might make more sense.

Because really? Having beautiful goals wiped out by VAR when the ARs and ref can't see a thing is anti-joy. And Andreas Cantor says let's have some joy.

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would be better and would disallow fewer great goals.

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https://www.cplsoccer.com/news/how-daylight-offside-rule-would-have-changed-the-world-cup

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In the new VAR world it seems like a better balance.

Could we also do something about stutter-stepping on PKs? The kicker already has a huge advantage with the strict enforcement on keepers coming off their line - a good thing, I think - but the stuttering and silliness seems unsporting.

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What’s the margin of error and speed of the camera? (Ie how many frames per second is it capturing?)

When the ball is being kicked, it compresses, so does offsides occur when the ball first begins to compress or when the ball comes off the foot? How much margin of error is there around that starting point?

How much total margin of error does that create? (Its something like 1-2 feet of distance based on the speed of the player I think)

Anyways, its pretty hilarious to hear them explain how there’s quite significant room for error in the process that isnt appropriately being considered on these calls …

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slow motion is deceptive in some circumstances, particularly in control of the ball. Life doesn't happen in slow motion. Just because the ball wiggles in a player's hands in slow motion hardly means he didn't "control" is in the common sense of the word.

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Offsides should be when there is a gap between your body and the last defender. If any part of their body aligns with yours, you're still onsides.

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but I continue to insist that it needs a version of ice hockey's blue line. There would be more scoring and more excitement once the ball got into the scoring zone. So much of the darn game is taken up with guys passing it around in their end, then passing back to the goalie, then passing it around some more, then someone on the other team tries to get the ball, the guy with the ball falls down and screams like he has been shot, they call a foul, they pass it around some more, then someone makes a bad pass so the other team gets the ball and passes it around in the same fashion.

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That's totally cool--to each their own and all that--but the offside rules are fundamental to what association football is and how it's played. What you're proposing isn't quite on the level of saying "maybe players should use their hands," but it's not that far off, either.

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I only watch it when I have a heavy rooting interest.

It clearly has a much bigger following in the U.S. in the post-Boomer generations. There's a lot to like about the game. For one thing, it can be played at youth levels without a ton of fancy equipment and as far as keeping kids in shape it's vastly preferable to almost every other sport (except maybe cross-country).

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade. In fact, right now I'm watching Argentina-Cape Verde and Argentina just took the lead back.

But I'll tell you this, NOBODY is going to make me watch cricket.

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You have no leg to stand on with cricket either. Every sport in every country is available via streaming and a world of research is in every pocket, the era of any chauvinism being charming or supportable is long over.

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my position isn't that nobody should like cricket it's just that I'm not in a position to learn enough about it to enjoy it. My son gets it. He actually covered cricket games (matches?) for the Omaha World-Herald because there are enough people (mainly of Indian descent) who grew up playing it to play it competitively around here.

I don't follow baseball any more. I only get interested in college baseball if ND is playing though I will go to CWS games for the atmosphere.

I guess I'm coming off as raining on the parade of others, which I don't mean to do but that's obviously the way I'm projecting it, so sorry about that.

I'll definitely watch the match with Belgium and at least I understand the offsides rule better even if I think it could be improved.

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Soccer is a nice game. The rules are what they are. Somehow it's captured the imagination of the world. I would argue it's because a ball and some space is easy to come by, not because it's so great. If somehow the rules could be massaged so everything looked more like this Cup's France I think most would agree that would be an improvement. Apparently only Messi and Mbappe are capable of making the game consistently interesting, but that's a flaw. That's probably Philistinism to a real fan, but I'm never gonna get passionate about a game that's filled with so much dead time and decided so arbitrarily.

On the above terms, American football is no great shakes either. Barry Sanders and Randy Moss only come along sometimes. It does help that the action is linear though.

I used to argue watching American world cup teams of recent decades that at least we were trying to pursue the ball and move it forward. Was it smart football? No. But at least we were trying as opposed to European clubs playing some cowardly rope a dope with us.

In basketball, if you're playing better, you're ahead. The ball changes ends. Shots are taken. You can't just stand around the goal and kill the game action. There's no need to result to shootouts to end games. It's reasonable to argue that the physical limits of basketball distort the game further at the elite level due to the way humans fit on the court, but yeah soccer is relatively boring.

The world Cup is a spectacle that brings the world together in a neat way, but the actual game makes it hard for me.

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I find the end of basketball games intolerably dull, and I cannot fathom why anyone would willingly watch golf. Other things I find boring include Led Zeppelin, John Milton, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I also hate Chinese food.

I'll happily go all Free Beer Movement with anyone willing to listen to me extol futbol's virtues over a beer, but you and omahadomer are entitled to your opinions, as were the sportswriters who authored the once-ubiquitous "Real Americans Don't Like Soccer" columns, and as is my soccer-hating wife.

The game isn't for everyone. Fair enough, but that doesn't mean it needs radical rule changes to fix it.

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not the intrinsic nature of soccer.

I can tell you lots of things I think are fascinating about baserunning and infield positioning, but I grew up playing baseball and among a community that appreciated it. In many possible worlds I became an upper middle class white millenial "football" hipster, but my sense that the game is not mine culturally is probably the biggest reason I haven't.

I think the offside rule is elegant. I think the philosophical discussion around the physics of replay in soccer reveals quite clearly the importance of human judgment and perception to sport by revealing how machines corrupt it. I'm glad people are into soccer.

In my position of willfull ignorance, I still think a wide open game is more fun to watch and I wish there was a way to require teams to come forward.

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But American football fans arguing about how the most simple, most popular game in the history of the human race is shooting its foot off with overly tendentious rules and video review is pretty goofy.

It’s 2026, soccer is popular in America — it’s basically the only new property that NBC has continually and successfully invested in — and we can all approach it with a little humility. This is like showing up to a hurling match and telling all the guys around you what lacrosse rules should be put in place. A country defined by baseball and fifteen minutes of endgame free throws can’t honestly begin its arguments with dead air, downtime and cynical play.

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if there weren’t rules and rulings to argue and complain about.

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Beyond the way that sort of thing engages fans of anything. Simplicity, the brilliance of starting the FA Cup and colonialism.

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The ball was redirected, which made the guy offside. It sucks (imo) but it was the right call.

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I continue to insist that soccer needs a blue line like ice hockey. Ball needs to get into the attacking zone ahead of any offensive player. Once in the zone, all's fair in terms of player position. You'd probably need a rule like protecting the goalie in the crease. If the defense gets the ball out of the attacking zone, the attacking team needs to get its players out and regroup.

This whole notion of the guy with the ball can be offsides because his body is briefly in front of the ball is crazy.

My son sent me a tweet that said: "I don't understand why Americans are confused about the offsides rule. Every time anything exciting happens, it's offsides."

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There might never be another goal scored. All the defenses would have to do is sit in the penalty area and clear the ball over and over.

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Just as I finished typing that Portugal scored.

That pass was the quintessential “beautiful ball”.

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the Polo Grounds

FU - Portugal V Croatia a tactical question

Argentina Vs Cape Verde is coming down to wire

Much respect to Cape Verde

Unreal. Cape Verde ties it back at 2 in extra time.

What's Portuguese for "Golazo!"?

Now it is

What's the vibe on the US-Belgium matchup?

Winnable, but far from a gimme.

Can the US find goals without Balogun?

Pepi is going to brain a fan behind the goal

Ronaldo might be Al Nassr's best offensive weapon

He’s not Portugal’s best player.

Well, it’s hard to argue with his PK record

wut

Just what I said

Which makes him 8% better than the global average

Well, no kidding he’s not the player he was

I didn’t know Ronaldo was 41!

Jack. With all due respect.

Again, though, my only point was that

That’s why

Q - How does CR factor into Portugals defense

He doesn’t

Like when does the game end?

OK, now what was wrong with that goal?

Looks like they ruled offsides

Because it touched somebody's hair?

What about adding offsides to American Football?

We tried that with Davie. Didn't work.

If you split 5 out wide, your QB must run forward.

You'd need to roll lines/subs with a blue line. Tagging up

Not sure about the "blue line" but...

All of the attacker in front of the last defender

That’s the Wenger “daylight” offside rules proposal

Thanks. Read up on it.

You dont even want to hear the physics guys talk about it …

It's an issue too in video review in football --

There's a fix

I guess that would be better --

Maybe the game just isn't for you?

It's probably not --

if you watch baseball, let alone college baseball

Fair enough --

Not gonna lie. This is where I fall

I feel much the same about baseball

I admit my position comes from acculturation,

Look I'm not a big soccer fan either

There’s a good chance it wouldn’t be nearly as popular,

Has nothing to do with it

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There is a chip in the ball.

It probably was the right call on a terrible rule --

If there were a blue line

I think his 41 year old self was gassed

OMG, what a game this is