Nan Ferra comments

The referee should be investigated for corruption as it was clear he was favoring France from the start. Reminded me of the corrupt Ecuadorian ref who gifted Korea a victory against the Italians a few years back.

FIFA should go full out farce and reward the team who is ranked lower in the FIFA rankings for punching above their weight. It would be hilarious as everyone tries to climb down the FIFA rankings in order to get an advantage.

This was the ultimate farce game here, where each team tried to score against itself and the other team tried to prevent it. Must have been great to watch!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados_4%E2%80%932Grenada(1994_Caribbean_Cup_qualification)

Btw the best way to break a tie is to schedule a 3-4 day break b4 the round of 16 and allow a tiebreaker game(s) to be played.

and then we had,

Thailand 3–2 Indonesia, where an Indonesian defender deliberately scored an own goal so his team did not have to face the host Vietnam in the semi-finals of the 1998 Tiger Cup.

AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne, where SO l'Emyrne players deliberately scored 149 own goals in protest of refereeing decisions that had gone against them in the previous match.

Disgrace of Gijón, where a 1982 World Cup game between West Germany and Austria was played out as a mutually agreeable 1–0 win to West Germany as this result ensured both teams qualified for the next round.

This was the ultimate farce game here, where each team tried to score against itself and the other team tried to prevent it. Must have been great to watch!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados_4%E2%80%932Grenada(1994_Caribbean_Cup_qualification)

Colombia will have trouble to win without Rodriguez....they seem very disorganized.

England needs to import these Russian thugs to control British hooligans at Premier league matches. These cowardly punk hooligans seem terrified of the Russians.

Good article here.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/29/how-to-stop-world-cup-teams-from-trying-to-lose-in-the-group-stage.html

Better to turn the whole thing into a single knockout FA cup style competition over a 2 month period. All the countries in the world compete, and the top countries join in the 4th or 5th round.

JimizoToday 05:02 pm JST

Reduce the African and Asia participants....most were simply horrendous.

Why not concacaf if that’s your reasoning? The concacaf participants were pretty abysmal with the notable exception of Mexico."

Let's throw a few numbers at this to check your statement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North,_Central_American_and_Caribbean_nations_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup

Concacaf 5 top 8's , 1 top 4, and a 3rd place(the USA no less in 1930)

I dont think the combined asia/africa numbers come close......next.....

JimizoToday 05:02 pm JST

Reduce the African and Asia participants....most were simply horrendous.

Why not concacaf if that’s your reasoning? The concacaf participants were pretty abysmal with the notable exception of Mexico. Panama were particularly below standard. The Panama manager saying he was glad to get away with a 3-0 beating by Belgium summed up the gulf in class."

Concacaf is also weak and is also geographically illogical. And many Central and South American teams (incl. Mexico) rely on altitude at home matches to easily win as opponents are acclimatized.

However, over the years concacaf has done much better at the World Cup than asia/africa combined with mexico into last 16, 5 or 6 times in a row. I agree that Panama was a woeful team, but after Belgium beat Japan 5-0, maybe your opinion might change?

LudditeToday 04:03 pm JST

The reason European and South American teams do so well is that they have played the game for much longer than the rest of the world, and because it's embedded in their countries' cultures."

Not true, China claims to have been playing for 2000 years and they are still sub-standard.

wtfjapanToday 04:13 pm JST

Wiki Says about Korea: “were able to reach the Round of 16 in the 2010 World Cup”

Korea reached the last 4 of the 2002 WC and finished 4th overall, considerably better than Japan in the last 20yrs"

Yes, but they cheated alot to achieve this. Ask Spain and Italy. One of the Ecuadorian referees favoring the Koreans is now a convicted drug smuggler.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/from-bandit-referee-to-drug-smuggler-what-happened-to-byron/19k8pz1j2pamu1etxnvqxy8v6j

Nice friends they have!

zichiJune 28 09:55 am JST

I swear I heard the roar from South Korea when the whistle went. Who would have believed. Last happened to Germany in 1938"

And looked what happened after, 6 years of war, led by a madman with a funny mustache. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail this time!

1glennJune 28 09:08 am JST

My take: Mexico has a lot of talent. On any given day, they can beat any other team. The problem is that they are not consistent. This did not look like the same team that defeated Germany. Furthermore, the goalie for Mexico is just too short. He cannot cover the corners the way taller goalies can.."

Nonsense, he is 183cm and has been one of the best keepers to date. If height was everything, Lebron James would be tending the onion basket.

Reduce the African and Asia participants....most were simply horrendous.

LudditeToday 12:00 pm JST

I can see FIFA tightening up the rules in the future, maybe using goal difference in the qualifying rounds as a tie breaker."

What a dumb idea....somebody who beats Samoa 47-0 would have a huge advantage.

Ganbare Japan!Today 06:53 am JST

Football is about winning through to next stage, not playing pretty. Some people just dont understand. This was tactic by Nishino-san. Samurai Blue got through. They can show all their skills in the next games. Go Samurai Blue!!"

You are kind of like a modern day football equivalent of Tokyo Rose. Belgium will absolutely hammer these guys. Will be happy to hear your reaction then, probably something to the effect that winning isn't everything.

Belgium 5 - Japan 0

They will do the opposite of time wasting, wishing that the clock will go faster to stop the embarrassment

Germany did not look like a quality side in any of their matches. Losing to the woeful Koreans kind of sums it up!

They need to reduce the number of Asian and Africa teams in the future. The like of Australia, Korea, Saudi and Tunisia are simply dreadful. The numbers speak for themselves!

Am guessing Poland will field a B squad for this and give the game away.

It doesn't matter much as they get Belgium or England in Round of 16 and will face a similar fate to Panama....5-0 most likely either way.

Arm all passengers with guns like in the US. It could turn into a shootout like at the OK Corral...LOL.

I hope taxpayers don't get stuck with the bill for these idiots. They should reimburse the full cost to the state.

Isn't that pic of Kitadake?

zurcroniumToday 08:17 am JST

Vastly overrated."

Have to agree. In addition to being one of the slowest players ever to play the game, his lone skill seemed to be crossing the ball which he was marginally good at.

Ganbare Japan!Today 07:00 am JST

Samurai Blue showed Japan have finally arrived as a football nation! Best team Japan has ever sent to world cups. Rest of the World is in shock"

Alot of nonsense here. This Colombian team is terrible quality and despite being down to 10 men for 87 minutes had Japan on their heels for much of the match. Some of the Colombians appeared to be trying to lose intentionally, especially the handball guy and Cuadrado(who used to be good but now looks like a bedraggled meth head). FIFA should investigate these 2 players in particular.

www.buy-my-gomi.com would have been a more suitable name!

JimizoToday 11:05 am JST

England was purposely put in a week group,

By whom? I’m surprised people think we have that much power to influence things.

Must be a new thing. We were thrown in with Italy and Uruguay last time. We have come a long way in 4 years. Keep it up!"

You are naive if you do not think corporate interests have a huge infuence over the morally bankrupt FIFA. Even Russia was thrown in a weak group to get them through, because local interest drops whenver hosts get knocked out. Korean and Japanese games were schedule to be on at peak viewing times in those countires as well in order to sell the most advertising. It's all about the money. (watch the movie "The International" with Clove Owen to see how the international system is rigged.

SilvafanToday 11:14 am JST

What is silly is your lack of knowledge about the US and more importantly logic! The Southwest use to be apart of Mexico territory. "

Mexico was a colonial territory itself , so it had no right to any lands anywhere, anytime, especially in God Bless America!