Group H Thread - Colombia, Japan, Senegal, Poland

[Leicester City]

the only reason japan made it out of the group is because they played a 10 man cololmbia for 87 minutes and barely won 2-1

iran is the best team in asia and should be in the round of 16 with morocco. but VAR and corrupt FIFA took that dream away from both of us

Belgium is going to have a field day!

[Under Lahaf]

They got 4 points, and so did we. difference; pure luck!

they will earn my respect if they beat Belgium or keep a tie or play as close of a game as we did against Portugal or Spain.

[Sam van Dam]

instead of having 1A V 2B and 1B V 2A etc. FIFA should do a draw with two pots. Pot A with group winners and Pot B with runners up. that way teams can't tie or purposely loose so they can avoid playing a certain team. but knowing FIFA they'd probably rig that too.

[Keano]

No way Japan can Survive Belgium clash. I speculate Belgium and Croatia or Spain in the final. The rest of the teams are all so so

[pandora]

There should be things like team yellow cards for lack of sportsmanship. That way Japan would have been issued 3-4 additional yellow cards after the game and knocked out.
There are ways to discourage time wasting even under the current rules but FIFA just don't enforce them.
Middle Eastern teams including Iran will be hard hit if these are implemented by AFC.

[Zamboor]

I dont want to be the one but passing the ball around and not attacking to secure yourself is not against the rules

[forzatm]

I actually didn't mind Japan making the knockout stage until I saw what they did today. Of all of our Asian rivals, I hated Japan the least but it was truly shameful what they did today.

They basically back passed to each other and stopped playing once Colombia scored on Senegal. It also looked like Poland was fine letting that happen and just going home with a 1-0 win. I wish Senegal had scored and tied the match with Colombia and eliminated Japan.

So much for the Japanese honor... right?

Japanese people are not as clean as you think. They did worse things than the Nazis in Asia and they don't even regret that. I've met a disgusting Japanese person who says all Asians should thank Japan for developing Asia.

Back to the topic - Let's give Japan credit. They were the second best team in the group. Their game against Senegal was one of the most exciting games in the group round and they outplayed powerful Senegal including beasts like Mane, Keita and Koulibaly with attacking football. They would have beat Poland if they had fielded their A-team.

Unfortunately we will struggle if we play open football like Japan. Our players (especially defenders) are inferior to Japan's. As I said before, we need to improve scoring ability to get out of the group stage at the WC.

[pandora]

I dont want to be the one but passing the ball around and not attacking to secure yourself is not against the rules

Years ago in an Olympic Badminton match, players played to lose to get a better match-up in the next round and they were severely punished.
It is not strictly against the rules and the judgment was subjective but it was enforced.

[pandora]

...They would have beat Poland if they had fielded their A-team. ...

It was their A team. They chose to play defensively and dropped star players because they are less useful defensively.
Yet they conceded. They are overrated. They might not have been here had not the corrupt Korean referees gifted them several decisive calls.

[teammelli91]

Congratulations to Japan for getting out of their group

At least we have 1 team from AFC make it out to the round of 16. Make Asia proud Japan!

[elnino99]

I don't have anything against what Japan did yesterday....It was risky for them, but it was within the rules of the game and it worked. If anything, I think it was pathetic of Poland not to press and push for more goals when Japanese were just passing it around....at least go out with a bang, not a whimper. Really summed up Poland's pathetic world cup campaign. Having said that, imagine Senegal scored last minute and then Japanese all of a sudden rushing to score having wasted the last 10 minutes
I mean, now imagine if Japan had continued to push for an equalizer, got countered a goal of times and either was scored on or got yellow cards and got knocked out. If we were Japanese, we'd be pulling our hair damning how the coach wasn't pragmatic enough and we blew it!
Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.


btw, just having another look at Colombia's goal....wow, garbage defending by Senegalese player on the post. He looks stoned and just stares at the ball as it goes in.
https://twitter.com/rehnato/status/1012467998613999617