Who will be next World Champion in Soccer?
I'm a traitor. I gladly let you the cup, only to avoid the mandatory dumb victory songs like the ones we got in 1998, "On est les champions, on est les champions, on est, on est, on est les champions" and "Et 1, et 2, et 3-0 !" for the next 4 years at best.
And my little cousins are already way too much into football, they'll live only for that if we win.
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I tend to agree with you since all the cheering songs are plain stupid, but if you avoid the masses and public viewing of the games and tend to watch them with your friends and family, this seems to be a rather good compromise :))
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Thank you - the World Cup and everything so far has been great
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Thank you for your giveaway and good luck for your team! ^^
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Congrats on your country's victory nalf. I wish you guys luck in the final. However, my head says France who have been the best team in the tournament so far so I wish you the best of luck. :-)
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This is more coming out of the gut/emotions rather than from the brain :)
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Thanks for the giveaway and cheering for Croatia since the beginning!! I really hope they manage to win somehow, even if France's stronger!! :')
Great GA btw, I won it some days ago and it looks an awesome game <3
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I'm totally fine if France wins, some players in there are really good and would deserve it...
...but Croatia wins my heart because of the kind way the players treated that Salvadoran photographer after totally trampling the guy. :D
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I'm French and British, 2 great reasons to not be rooting for Croatia. ^^
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Hope you are not depressed when both England and France lose to the Croatian team XD
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Pozdrav iz Bugarske i sretno!
Gonna be some tired legs in the final, and France have been the most consistent team in this tournament so far, but Croatia has heart and team spirit as well, and it's just one game, so anything is possible. Revenge for the 98 semi-final maybe? Gotta wait and see :)
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R.I.P England national football team, since 1966
R.I.P United Kingdom, since 2019.
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As we've discussed in other threads, I am a supporter of France and a lifelong francophone. But I have good memories of Croatia from the 1998 WC and rooted for them up until they played France. I wish both teams good luck, and if Croatia wins...I will be sad...but I will be happy for Croatia and their people. They have played a wonderful tournament and give hope to all smaller countries.
What's funny is that if Denmark had managed a late goal in their group stage match against France, France-Croatia would have been the round of 16 matchup. Much better to meet in the finals, no? :)
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Yes finals is amazing and the whole thing is about hope and positive emotions, showing that small countries can rise up and be world champions :) Even if we lose to France it's so fantastic that we can send this message in today's world, which emphasizes power and selfish interests...
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Ima da pobjedimo da napokon cijeli svijet vidi sta možemo!
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Since Brazil was shameful, we Brazilians are with Croatia.
Va-tre-ni, va-tre-ni !
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I'm Argentinian so it's hard for me to pick (as both teams have won over mine lol), but I really like Croatia more. Also, it'd be your first World Cup if you won, so I'm excited for that! The best of the best for y'all and thanks for the GA. ♥
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Good luck for Croatia tomorrow and for those that don't know or heard it yet, Belgium did in England with 2 - 0 for the third place! ^^
Their best result ever in a WC! ❤️🤘😎
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In many ways, Croatia was the better team in this Final. It's terrible that the first goal for France came essentially as the result of a dive. Croatia was dominating at that point, and continued to do so until the second half.
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A little bit of luck and a bit of referree's influence, but it doesn't matter now, most people here are fairlly happy about the WC :)
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I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but where did you most notice the referee's influence? The foul called for Griezmann, resulting in the first goal, the PK after VAR review, just general fouls called, or something else?
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Both the foul before the first goal and a penalty could have been someehat different, and those set the tone for the rest of the game - not saying that some other referee wouldnt have the same opinion... VAR is definitely changin the game as well, maybe for better, but also for worse in cases where you didnt mean to play by hand and in older days this would be left to referees free judgment....
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The foul before the first goal was clearly a dive, although it looked convincing in real time. Sadly, diving is alive and well in football, as even the most obvious dives do not result in yellow cards. The diving and whining for calls (by all countries, although maybe more by some than others) is the single worst thing about football in my mind.
The penalty probably could have been called either way. Nobody can know whether the defender stuck his arm out there to block the ball, stuck it out there knowing it might block the ball but still look natural, or have no thought about blocking the ball but it happened to hit it. The referee did not call a penalty and it would not have been a penalty in 2014 or before. VAR worked, IMO, in the sense that it flagged the fact that it was worth the referee looking at to see if he missed the call. The ref looked at it, and changed his mind. It was still left to the referee's judgment, but allowed him to get a better look. VAR did not change the call, it only gave the referee the opportunity to change it if he felt it warranted. I would not have been surprised at his decision either way because I think most would agree that it was a close call either way.
I think VAR in general worked well in this tournament, but maybe one change would be not to show the referee slow-motion views from every angle. Just show it in real speed from maybe two angles-- if his call was obviously wrong, then change it, and leave it at that. It will be interesting to see if they change VAR for future tournaments.
In any event, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "referee's influence." I do not think that the ref was against Croatia (or pro-France). He missed Greizmann's dive. He decided, upon review, to call the penalty, in what to me could have been called either way. I didn't notice his influence much other than that.
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After the Griezmann's dive, there's been a goal that's not regular (even own goai) beacuse the french player was behind the Croatian's last man?!
The penalty wasn't a penalty because the french player has missed the ball and croatian player in a run couldn't possibly move his hand anywhere, so the first decision that it wasn't intentional was right. Judge fall under pressure of a french players and changed decision. Who knows where it would lead if the result was, let's say 1:1 after 1st half. 3rd and 4th goal was just a result of stressed decisions of the judge..
Well it is what it is, i am just happy that Croatia did its best result in the history!!!
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Following a great excitement in Croatia, which WON England yesterday and now plays with France in the FINALS of the World Cup, have another GA - this time it's Deponia Complete Journey. Sorry I am not so good with making private GAs, but here is the link:
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/Fk3qf/deponia-the-complete-journey
Thank you guys for the great discussion at my semi-finals discussion post and come to Croatia for holidays, we are a very good place for any kind of holidays and parties !
EDIT: find out from our best players why you should visit Croatia XD
https://youtu.be/0XbIR7e9PYM
Va-tre-ni, va-tre-ni ! (That's how we refer to our team :)
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