2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

Ahmed Musa (CSKA), Ogenyi Onazi (Lazio) and Emmanuel Emenike (Fenerbahçe) are very good players. You might also be familiar with Vincent Enyeama (Lille) and Efe Ambrose (Celtic). Iran's key player is Jawad Nekounam.
 
The Flash said:
While Müller did do a Busquets, he was hit in the face. There was absolutely no reason for Pepe to react like that.
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But there was no need for Muller to react like that. That's the point. There's no sportsmanship in that behaviour; it's not "in the spirit" of the game, or any other sport; and there's nothing admirable in players who conduct themselves in this manner. Pepe was punished for his reaction; Muller went on to score a hat-trick. That isn't right.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
But there was no need for Muller to react like that. That's the point. There's no sportsmanship in that behaviour; it's not "in the spirit" of the game, or any other sport; and there's nothing admirable in players who conduct themselves in this manner. Pepe was punished for his reaction; Muller went on to score a hat-trick. That isn't right.
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One is a moral issue, other is a ruling issue. Pepe not only fouled Müller with his arm on the face (would've gotten him a yellow card), he also teased him and contacted him physically (red card).
 
Nigeria had a perfectly good goal disallowed. Classic case of overprotection of goalkeepers - the Nigerian player did nothing wrong, he challenged a defender in the air and the goalkeeper ran into them both and fell. I hate to see free kicks given for that.
 
Now that we have a hockey fan here - for the sake of comparison: How much are attacking players allowed to interfere with the goalkeeper before play is stopped (and how much does it take to get a 2 min penalty)? A hockey goalkeeper has to be a little crazy, but he can't be tackled. So - how much?
 
If the interference is sufficient to stop play, a 2 minute minor is almost automatic. There's two ways of looking at goaltender interference - there's the possibilities of collisions during an attack where the puck carrier enters the crease and hits the goalie. The rule there is that the player must attempt to avoid contact. But if you're talking about intentional - then it's any contact within the crease that stops the goalie from having a clean chance of stopping the puck. ANY contact.
 
Alright then. The difference from football seems to be that even accidental contact might be seen as a foul in football when the goalkeeper is involved. Just stand in his way and the whistle goes.

I like the hockey way better. But then I think that on the international level, football referees are awarding far too many fouls in general. Too many bookings for relatively harmless tackles, too few bookings for outright twattish behaviour (surrounding the referee, sabotage against quick free kicks, feigning injury)
 
Still 30 minutes to go ... but right now it seems it will take a mistake from either team to create it, because neither team seems able to create anything right now.
 
I don't know, it's not a bad game, the Nigerians are alright but the Iranians seem to have good defense. I'm enjoying it.
 
Meh. Their defense looks good because Nigeria don't have the tempo in their passing to break them. If they play like this against Argentina they will be steamrollered, and I won't be surprised if they both lose to Bosnia-Herzegovina as well.
 
Yes, but we already knew both sides were the weaker in the pool. Sometimes a game between two less-talented squads is just as enjoyable because of the lack of skills, as long as they're evenly matched.
 
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