2014 World Cup

[Liep]

I will from now on fiercely root for the anti-Status Quo team.

[Monoriu]

I will from now on fiercely root for the anti-Status Quo team.

Well, I fiercely rooted for Putin's team last night, and played the Soviet anthem a couple of times.  Didn't do much 

[dps]

Both yesterday and today I noticed hard core soccer nerds at the bar/pub watching the game on their laptops and on the big screen above the bar.  I guess they were watching feed with some slightly different camera angles or something but it seemed a bit odd.

Closed-captioning or the like on the laptops, perhaps?

My wife and I watched a match last week in a restaurant, and they had it on multiple TVs so that you could see it from most any seat in the place, but only 1 of the TVs had closed captioning on, so on that screen the match wasn't actually live, but on like a 3-5 second delay.  It was kind of disconcerting, because it was out of sync with all the other TVs.

Not to derail this again, but a red card is the most draconian punishment I can think of in a popular sport. It is like taking a giant dump on the game. Does anyone actually get hurt from this stuff?

There were just two critical world cup matches derailed by red cards for dangerous tackles, and in neither case did the person at risk sustain an injury enough to even make them leave the game

You'll get tossed from a baseball game for throwing a spitter, using a corked bat, or saying something that pisses off the umpire, even though none of those things are likely to lead to any serious injury.  I don't see that red cards are all that different.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I will from now on fiercely root for the anti-Status Quo team.

Viva Mexico! (they were my "other American team" vote in the poll)

[Admiral Yi]

You'll get tossed from a baseball game for throwing a spitter, using a corked bat, or saying something that pisses off the umpire, even though none of those things are likely to lead to any serious injury.  I don't see that red cards are all that different.

The difference is you can replace an ejected player in most other sports.  Hockey is the one I can think of in which you can't.

[FunkMonk]

Red cards can be harsh and certainly can change the dynamics of games but they're usually handed out for pretty clear offenses and it's not like there are two red cards handed out a game or something. It's just something you live with and IMO makes the narrative of the game a lot more interesting than if you could simply sub on another player.

A team holding onto dear life for the draw after their player gets sent off and desperately needing the points is incredibly dramatic and contributes to the allure of the game.

[Duque de Bragança]

The red card is suppose to be a severe penalty to discourage dangerous play (that can easily cause knee, leg, foot injury). And a match isn't derailed because of going a player down, it's only changed.

And when it's that clearly stated by FIFA that a studs first tackle won't be tolerated it's just inexplicably stupid to still do it.

Poor Pepe then  

[sbr]

Ok, time to leave the past behind and concentrate on today:

USA will win (wishful thinking but hey)
Ghana will defeat Portugal, plus, Ronaldo will score and Ghana will end up winning 3-2
My first thinking was that Russia would overcome Algeria until I realised the latter is basically the French reserve team. Algeria to win, Russia to be humiliated.
Belgium will win both halfs.

You really need to find a new hobby.

[Duque de Bragança]

Ok, time to leave the past behind and concentrate on today:

USA will win (wishful thinking but hey)
Ghana will defeat Portugal, plus, Ronaldo will score and Ghana will end up winning 3-2
My first thinking was that Russia would overcome Algeria until I realised the latter is basically the French reserve team. Algeria to win, Russia to be humiliated.
Belgium will win both halfs.

You really need to find a new hobby.

Well, Ronaldo scored, Algeria qualified and Belgium won. Not bad for Tamas.

[The Larch]

You'll get tossed from a baseball game for throwing a spitter, using a corked bat, or saying something that pisses off the umpire, even though none of those things are likely to lead to any serious injury.  I don't see that red cards are all that different.

The difference is you can replace an ejected player in most other sports.  Hockey is the one I can think of in which you can't.

Rugby doesn't replace ejected players.

[DGuller]

I knew that the ref can technically yellow card people other than the players on the field, but I've never actually seen it happen until the Algeria-Russia game. 

[Duque de Bragança]

I knew that the ref can technically yellow card people other than the players on the field, but I've never actually seen it happen until the Algeria-Russia game. 

He can even send them away, it happened before.

[Admiral Yi]

Rugby doesn't replace ejected players.

I didn't know that.

[alfred russel]

You'll get tossed from a baseball game for throwing a spitter, using a corked bat, or saying something that pisses off the umpire, even though none of those things are likely to lead to any serious injury.  I don't see that red cards are all that different.

The difference is you can replace an ejected player in most other sports.  Hockey is the one I can think of in which you can't.

Yeah, and in hockey you get to replace the guy after a few minutes or if the other team scores.

[jimmy olsen]

Silver gives us a 42% against Belgium

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-u-s-s-odds-of-beating-belgium-and-every-other-world-cup-opponent/