World Cup 2026

[anewbie]

I have two questions not really following soccer very closely:
a) Have the red card been fairly uniformly fair across the tournament? What i mean here isn't if the card should be thrown but has it been thrown fairly evenly on all incidents (i'm specifically talking about the practice to review plays after the game and then make determination of 1 game ban as happened to usa and england).

b) do the rules say that the red card should be thrown if a player spike another player even if in accident as there as been numerous cases of such or should be reserved for intentional cases ?

It does seem a *lot* of red cards are being thrown for serious but accidental spiking. Serious mean the opposing player suffers an obvious wound or damage - accidental in that the player is going for the ball and not the opposing player.

[And yes USA deserved to not win due to political interference. In truth they should have either held their player out of the game or withdrawn from the game given this obvious bullcrapper. Btw did you see england and france public and almost satirical appeals for their players given the precedent set for usa ?]

 

[GaryE]

The red card is a referee's judgment. It isn't always right, but it isn't supposed to be overturned by politicians. It's one of those things you deal with in a sport, like any strong penalty. You can disagree, but it's there.
The idea is that if you make a challenge that can injure another player, whatever your intent and whatever the results, and you don't appear to be aiming to touch the ball, you're in trouble. It's like the broken leg suffered by the young Canadian. I don't think there was malice there. It was an accident. But the red carded player created the dangerous situation by playing carelessly, and he was sanctioned. A 200 pound man flying at you with metal spikes on when you aren't armoured up like a hockey or NFL player is dangerous.
Yellow cards are for more minor spikings and such. Two yellows become a red.
I believe there was one World Cup incident in the early 1960s where a red card was overturned without a real suspension, but I don't know the story. This scandal was a blatant embarrassment. Football is run by embarrassing people.

I haven't seen many red cards in this World Cups. Lots of yellows, as usual.

But someone from a football background could correct me on this. I never played, and don't watch the regular leagues. In hockey, I played defence and sad to say, I loved it when a player tried to get between me and the boards. I'd wallop him, within the rules (sometimes). The ref's judgment gave penalties, and I never saw one overturned.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I'm disappointed the U.S. lost, but clearly they didn't deserve to win. Belgium was my sleeper team to win it all.
I'm rooting for everyone but France.

 

[anewbie]

The idea is that if you make a challenge that can injure another player, whatever your intent and whatever the results, and you don't appear to be aiming to touch the ball, you're in trouble. It's like the broken leg suffered by the young Canadian. I don't think there was malice there. It was an accident. But the red carded player created the dangerous situation by playing carelessly, and he was sanctioned.

The BIG difference with this world cup is a lot of the bans are being made via video review so the judgement isn't what the ref sees on the field but what he can see in the video. I'm not claiming it is good or bad just noting a distinct difference in how things are being called.

 

[GaryE]

I like France, but I really want good exciting games now. I suspect the red card scandal may have awakened some teams like Belgium. It should be livelier now.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The USA was saddled with bad karma. They got what djt deserved for interfering.

 

[MattW]

The past two fifa presidents have been pretty useless. I wonder how Sepp Blatter would of dealt with the situation

 

[GaryE]

The past two fifa presidents have been pretty useless. I wonder how Sepp Blatter would of dealt with the situation

I'm sure he would have at least demanded cash for the change!

 

[elephantnose3334]

Argentina just had a thriller win against Egypt (3-2). It was really stressful until the 79th minute when Romero scored and the rest was history. I literally stayed up at midnight to watch the match, what a surprise.

 

[Fishmanic]

is anyone watching the Switzerland/Columbia game which is on right now. It's 0 to 0 and is now in overtime. Very defensive plays on both sides... Quite interesting to watch.

 

[MattW]

Think it will be Columbia to be honest they are creating more than the Swiss.

 

[Fishmanic]

It's now in the second overtime period. If no one scores, I believe they allow each team a kick at the goal till one team scores.

 

[MattW]

After extra time is played a penalty shootout decides the winner. 5 penalty takers are chosen for both sides and if one misses the other team has the advantage and can win on the 5th pen. If it’s all square at 5-5 it’s sudden death until a player has their shot saved or misses, leading to the winner of the match.

 

[Fishmanic]

These players have to be utterly exhausted. I've never seen a soccer game go on for this long. Unreal.

 

[MattW]

Search up golden goal then Before penalty shootouts there was golden goal. Basically the next team to score after full time won. I’m fairly certain my local town was in the longest ever football game many years ago over 3 hours of I recall.