“Apart from the instruction to [assistant referees], I believe there is a more fundamental flaw, which is the referee must first refer the incident to the VAR, then is referred to the sideline VAR monitor and, as we saw in many World Cup incidents, a long time can be taken …
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“Teams that couldn’t adjust defensively and show patience and discipline to withstand those spells [of possession from opponents] found themselves chasing the game. France were without question the best at this…” “There was […] a return to what we would consider ‘outdated’ centre forwards like Mario Mandzukic, Olivier Giroud and, …
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Compelling, crazy, comic, controversial… France are now the World Cup champions and the greatest international team on the planet, after a 4-2 win over Croatia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow today. The first own goal of a final, a controversial penalty, VAR, a teenaged goal scorer, stifling reactive tactics, …
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World Cup 2018 ends today and I have discerned some lessons of general application. Not many in this region would have foreseen that France and Croatia would be the two teams in the final. Even fewer would have foreseen that Argentina, Brazil and Germany would have failed as early as …
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On Wednesday, England will contest a FIFA World Cup semifinal for the first time in 28 years. But should we be surprised by their success in Russia? In 2017, England secured a historic treble of international titles at youth level as they were crowned FIFA Under-20 and Under-17 World Youth …
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Argentina’s Diego Maradona put his stamp on the 1986 World Cup, the Brazil duo of Romario and Ronaldo had 1994 and 2002 respectively while France’s Zinedine Zidane cast a long shadow over 2006. But 2018? So far, it has been the tournament of VAR; and Morocco wing back Nordin Ambarat …
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