FIX
Not only did they not show the VAR on a possible offside on the one goal that did count, that second disallowed goal ...
I guess you can foul your opponent all over the place, but he still has to abide by handball?
At minimum, that should've been a free to Belgium and a card for Promising Attack.
FIXED MATCH
You got a fixed match, period-end.
You got fucked without lube on the second disallowed goal, and the goal they did score should've been VAR'd as well.
What did ref do against Belgium? I am Turkish so i was paying attention to calls. As far as i saw refereeing was tournament standart. Maybe it was Lukaku's finishing skills that did not help.
I am not gonna say anything about the first part. It is your opinion and it is subjective. But as you already said ball is changing its trajectory and the attacker is gaining advantage over it. It does not matter how slight the touch is. Rules are very explanatory.
Of course it is a pen but there was a foul before that position. First of all attacker clearly gaining advantage by handball. I see your point about pushing. However even it was a foul that does not give you right to handball. Which i do not think it was a foul. I have watched almost every game and as far as i have seen pushings and pullings are pretty much tolerated. I totally do not agree with this stand however for people who complain about whistlings like yourself this is the correct route i suppose.
People love to hate on our generation but genuinely, with the exception of Uruguay 1000s of years ago - world football has been dominated by countries many times bigger than Belgium.
Been saying this all day in work, that we’ll win today. Belgium is really past its golden generation, with an average coach. KDB and Lukaku can carry the whole team in tandem, but they can’t do it on a game to game basis anymore. Lots of good players on paper, but really disjointed in midfield and attack. Seems like the system today was find Onana to pass it to KDB and then inshallah. Trossard looked absolutely off, honestly never seen him so clueless in Arsenal shirt. Doku likewise, burnt everyone for pace only to take 5 seconds to dribble into dead end and lose possession. And that defence is shambolic, honestly.
Anyway. TOTO SMEEE TUUU EŠTE NEMALI!
Nah england and Belgium both play like shit. Serbia and Slovakia are decent teams, but the difference in terms of squad, which I know its not everything, is massive.
Congrats lol don’t take it poorly you won.
Coming into the tournament everyone was saying Hungary was the dark horse. They were on a crazy good run. Had great games against many teams and good teams
It wasn't exactly an awful group and most European qualifying groups are fairly similar in strength. I wouldn't call Romania dark horses or anything but they've looked solid and Ukraine isn't exactly a top team (no, having players in the Premier League doesn't make you a top team).
Romania topped their group without losing a game.
Not the strongest group but you can only beat what’s in front of you. It isn’t tremendously unexpected that they could beat Ukraine.
Yeah, with respect, if Ukraine aren't robust and make life hard for teams by defending well then they're likely to be one of the weakest sides in the tournament. Romania look really good.
yea you're right actually. I think it may be because even though Serbia v England wasn't, it kinda felt like one... and Spain v Croatia was quite a surprising result
I don’t get that argument, I rather the better team won through fair play. People are just regarded.
Edit; in the spirit of it, think of Frank Lampard infamous goal or Maradona, Hand of god. This why we need those technologies.
Sure, but that is for possible future rules.
Current rules are clear, offside is offside, 1cm or 10cm, its players responsibility to keep onside. Tiredness and stress comes into play when you are behind. In my opinion that is also part of the game!
What would be the cut off rule then, would every ref decide on spot, due to interpretation of the ref or what? Does not make a lot of sense, does it.
Also they let the players play and only pull it back, so it doesn’t stop the flow that much if at all. The time gets added anyway…. But I hear you and I kind of agree, but that is for the future rules.
In that case just change the rule over all, make the offside more offensive and so that offside is only whistled if you are fully behind a defender (beyond defender line). More goals and more fun that way and it would play more into the spirit of the sport!
> Sure, but that is for possible future rules. Current rules are clear, offside is offside, 1cm or 10cm, its players responsibility to keep onside.
I know lol?
> What would be the cut off rule then, would every ref decide on spot, due to interpretation of the ref or what? Does not make a lot of sense, does it.
No obviously not. Haha there would be a set amount. No shit
> Also they let the players play and only pull it back, so it doesn’t stop the flow that much if at all. The time gets added anyway….
I never talked about this. But regardless we all
know the proper time does not get added
> But I hear you and I kind of agree, but that is for the future rules.
I know lol
> In that case just change the rule over all, make the offside more offensive
Yes ahahha that’s what I’m saying lmfao
> and so that offside is only whistled if you are fully behind a defender (beyond defender line). More goals and more fun that way and it would play more into the spirit of the sport!
But no haha that’s way too much
Weird comment
The only argument that has some logic is the one that it's say that sometimes the took a lot of time in the offsides call but this semi-automatic thing it's seem to be working fine
It's a lot of Premier League fans that complain about it because their FA and ref association were shit in using it. The tech is good if you have competent people behind it.
Not surprised one bit that these so called golden generation lost once again, ill be surprised if they actually win, such overrated generation of players who only play good under certain system and in that system everything has to be on their favor, because one thing goes wrong and they all become lakaka
WC2018, 3rd isn't bad for a country with 10 million inhabitants.
Stop with the "Lakaka" by the way - which besides vaguely racist, ignores he's an incredibly lethal striker for Belgium.
Uruguay has a population of 3 million and has 15 copa america, two world cups so thats a terrible excuse especially when you had a generation full of talent that almost no other country had at that moment besides france, no one is mentioning lakakas skin tone, because theres amazing players who are dark, lukaku is just trash a meme.
You're citing the biggest outlier in global football, and one with a massive asterisk:
* Uruguay's World Cup glories are ***old*** - they won the World Cup in 1930 and 1950 - get real please. (If we're being pedantic, only ten years before Uruguay's win in '30, the Olympic Games were seen as the global football trophy and it was won by... Belgium. )
* 15 Copa Americas is impressive yes but
* they are played with much more regularity than the Euros (16 versus a whopping 47 lol)
* Competition for one is a lot weaker than in the Euros
* They won the vast majority of them a long time ago (more than half before WW2, and some even before Belgium's Olympic triumph!)
Then, let's look at World Cup winners besides Uruguay - and all winners since 1950 (that's over 74 years) - all with populations multiple times larger than Belgium, ranging from 48 million (Spain, Argentina) to 200 million (Brazil).
Finally, the Belgian generation was *golden* because they produced a crazy XI (albeit no really strong wingbacks) for a relatively small nation. From a Belgian POV, this was unseen - finally we had a XI as strong on paper as our much larger neighbours. It's just going to be so much less likely to produce a strong team if your country is smaller.
Notwithstanding that yes, Belgium underperformed most tournaments besides WC2018 - but the hate is just overblown imo. Just like the hate for Lukaku, who just gets shit on undeservedly (he's statistically one of the best strikers of international football of his generation), and yes, I doubt he would be if he were white.
Stfu, use logic and reasoning or just jog on lad. Belgium are a decent side that have the QF as their limit, nobody has them on par with France/England etc. They're still on course for R16/QF. This team isn't their golden gen but they're fairly rated.
They were definitely overhyped on reddit. It was a great generation on paper, but not as good (again on paper) like an England 2006 or Netherlands 1998 etc
Saying that this Belgium team shouldve won a tournament is a popular statement here on reddit. To me theyve performed as you could expect, except for 2022
It’s also normal to here that England should have won. Or that France should walk it again. And Portugal too. The sun doesn’t understand that only one team can win
Forget being contenders; there’s a possibility they may not even qualify for the next international tournament. Their saving grace may be the expanded World Cup, but their best players are aging, and there don’t seem to be many generational talents coming through Belgium at the moment.
I’m also usually wrong about these things too, so we will see. But I think their best chances were the 2018 World Cup and the 2020 European Championship.
A centimetre onside and Openda's fingers miss the ball and we would be looking at a different world. Football is a game of luck. Lukaku has proven to be massive for Belgium many times before.
Bad luck, sure, but the tactics were just all wrong. Huge gap in midfield, players in the wrong positions, no pressing. Honestly Martinez impressed me more than Tedesco at this moment, I'm not sure what he was thinking changing it up this much.
You think I forgot?
Man's scored nearly 90 goals for Belgium. Plenty of those goals were really important. Has been a leader figure and generally good at linking up with players around him.
His flaw is inconsistency, but he's mostly been an icon for Belgium.
What are you smoking lmao, he is by far the best striker Belgium has ever had. He is a club legend at RSCA and i think Everton Fans still have a spot for him.
u/Jelboo thanks for not using the word "ball knowledge" I'll upvote you (you're welcome)
Belgium today was actually quite fine while in possesion. Slovakia offcource with being lucky were brave and had nice rhythm to their defence and wasn't just parking bus. Questionable decision by todesco to not bench Carrasco or sub on opeda earlier. Belgium had decent offensive option on the bench which if properly utilised could still hold themselves as at least as dark horses. De bruyne shouldve played deeper and tried to gel the team never saw him as captain meterial unless I'm missing something.
He shit the bed by being centimeters offside in one play and his teammate handling the ball on the other?
The idiotic pun name was clue enough, but blaming this one on Lukaku is just some personal grievance on your part, not what actually happened.
Man i fucking hate this narrative, dude literally had to rush his comeback from an injury and still created the most chances and was an actual threat that match. Blame the rest of the team for not stepping up all the other matches
I just had to be Belgian and support Barcelona - two of the biggest memes in football.
Though tbh I'm still very proud of what we have accomplished internationally, I just wish that when we did bad, we didn't do it in such a clownesque fashion.
I would see the good side, i think that Belgium can have a nice team in the future, Casteels looks good he's not Courtouis but he's good, Onana is a beast, Doku and Bakayoco could become great players they need more experience that would help them to make better decisions, Openda made a good impresion, the only thing they need imo is a good CB but in a few years if some of the golden generation retired form the NT it wouldn't be the end of the world like other golden generation
I think the point is you support one of the most successful club teams in the history of the game and will likely revive to remain as such. Come over to sincil bank for a few days, hot cup of bovril and a sausage roll and complain about your meme club and see how you get on! I'm joking, but success is never guaranteed and the ascent is where the fun is anyway.
Someone had the exact same post yesterday about Man Utd playing terrible football like England and I could only think they literally must have been about 14 to say that lol, Man Utd were unbelieveable in the late 90s and 00s.
The amount of butthurt Belgians and KDB defenders in this and the match thread is astounding. Lose against a team you should have beaten 5-0... but we can't examine Lukaku, KDB, Carrasco or Troussard's positions in this squad? HA
Belgians were never going to get as far as possible, by leaving their best player at home. That's mainly because of Courtouis' antics, but a good coach would have handled this internally instead of bring it out in the open and make it explode in the media. You have the best goalie in the world, and he's not playing. That's the end result.
A good coach likewise probably wouldn't have made some of the decisions with the team either in tonight's match. Belgium like some other bigger European nations have gone down in quality with their latest batch of players, that they aren't going to win easily simply because of their class, but you'd think they'd still be able to deal with Slovakia on a normal day.
Why didn't that happen tonight? Players not playing in their position? Better in-form players not starting and/or being subbed in (too late)? I saw some comments in the live thread "to Doku and inshallah" and honestly that's how it felt, mostly in the first half, the problem being Doku just dribbles without a game plan. Didn't help either that the other attacking side was pretty useless with Trossard.
3rd teams going through is a thing, so it's not the end of the world. I almost can't imagine Belgium not getting out of this group even now.
Doku on the right to start the game was a waste. Switched him to the left to start the second half but was subbed out too early to really try anything.
Maybe as a captain he could have pushed the team more or organize the defense better. But on that goal there really wasn't much that Casteels did wrong.
The Roku part is interesting. That's basically the dynamic he brings to Man City that works - he plays a style antithetical to Pep's plans, and that makes him a value piece to throw on when chaos is needed.
But that only really works when used to compliment Peps overly regimented style. It doesn't work the aame in International Football
What did the "expert" commentators say about the handball in your country?
In Norway one lady said that it should be allowed, it happend so early in the attack it didn't matter or help and using VAR this way destroys the game...
Don't know if I should laugh or not
One of the Anslysts(former ref) said it should be disallowed, other analyst(former player) said it should be allowed, so kinda 50 50. I personally believe it should be allowed since it clearly wasn’t intentional and the hand barely changed the balls movement
But then if he didn’t touch the ball it looked like the defender would got the ball first and we don’t know what would happen otherwise.
Just play fair and don’t use the hands, it doesn’t matter if it’s accident, this is on Belgian player, not on ref!
The rules are clear that handball is a handball, if the hand is not close to the body or it interferes with the play.
How do you know his intentions. For all we could know, this was his intention.
This was fair judgment by the ref, fault is on Belgian player to give opportunity to ref to rule it this way. So again just keep your hands off the ball.
That’s not what the rules say.
https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/29/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-handball-law-explained
Rules also copied below.
Intention does matter. You can tell whether it’s deliberate or not by watching the full clip, and you’ll see that in the struggle his hand is forced towards the ball. The way you describe it someone can push a player or their arm towards the ball and it’s still be handball.
It is an offence if a player:
- deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball
- touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised
- scores in the opponents’ goal: directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental
We get a goal disallowed for an unintentional handball in the buildup. Meanwhile their players can just fall over randomly in their box, push the ball out with their hand and no check or pen.
Wonder who payed to see this upset.
Why the fuck do we get this Make a Wish referee?
Clearly this guy isn't up to the standards needed. Jesus fucking Christ, so many small & big decisions just completely wrong
Big ups SLovakia for sure, they played their heart out. But this should just be 1-1 or a Belgian win. We messed up but those 2 disallowed goals are VERY debatable
We scored 2. At least 1 of those should have been allowed. The 2nd disallowed goal is nitpicking at its finest and Openda doesn't even cause any advantage by involuntarily touching the ball while running.
Nah it's a wrong decision, very simple and not the first time this ref took a wrong decision this season/this game
Did you see what you typed?
Take off your country pride and read you type objectively.
You are defending the allowance of the second disallowed goal while also admitting that there is a involuntary handball. Even though there was no advantage gained from it is still an violation that can be called.
Fair play to Slovakia, deserved it. We we're wastefull
Ref was shit tho, the goals were correctly ruled out, but that doesn't change that the ref made quite a few weird calls, mainly the first half.
Not looking forward to Saturday, but we move
Belgium were disappointing, but Slovakia did well to protect their early lead, although they got slightly lucky regarding the two disallowed goals.
Group E is shaping up nicely with Romania also pulling an upset earlier.
Yeah but the thing is this feels like it's copy pasted from so many Belgium games.
Unlucky for Lukaku is almost mandatory opening sentiments after a Belgium match. It's actually remarkable.
And the first one i wouldn't say it was his fault either, it was barely offside and in the moment i don't think you can calculate cm so you just put it in the net.
He didn't play well or good but it was the same for all the Belgium NT
The 7 min added time was a joke. Bring qatar WC refs back. Two var check is like 2 min each. 6 times the game stopped for subs in the second half, 30 seconds each at minimum. "Knee to the face" episode took 1.5-2 min. All this without counting the consistent diving. That's all I have.
Brother, I am not blaming Slovakian players for doing it. Kudos to them if it means that their team wins. Neither did I say Inter doesn’t do it. I meant for the purpose of the game in general, ref should try to limit time wasting by punishing it.
That was a fun match to watch. If you fell on the Slovakia side of things, I guess.
#BRINGBACKHAZARD
They had so many great players. Hazard, Mertens, Vertongen, Alderweireld, Kompany, Dembele, Witsel, hell even Fellaini😅
Lukaku never getting over the "LAKAKA" memes at this point...
Was pure ecstacy when Belgium has their second goal ruled out by VAR
Man, Belgium is awful.
Slovakia yoooooo!!’n
Belgium is the most overrated team in th history
Add De Bruyne to that list.
Ah yes, Belgium, famous club
did they edit their comment? because it currently says "team".
Yes, I did
FIX Not only did they not show the VAR on a possible offside on the one goal that did count, that second disallowed goal ... I guess you can foul your opponent all over the place, but he still has to abide by handball? At minimum, that should've been a free to Belgium and a card for Promising Attack. FIXED MATCH
how much did you lose
I don't bet on fixed soccer matches.
The timeline dont add up. You just concluded the match was fixed but the reason you didnt bet beforehand was that you knew it was fixed. Haha
I believe most matches are fixed in one form or another. I've read the work of Declan Hill and seen how far this shit goes.
I feel like everyone foresaw Belgium underperforming. The facade of being an international superpower is over
Let’s see about that
Don't worry Belgium! At least your streets won't be burning after this Slovakia win.
We were shit, but the ref certainly didn't help
You got a fixed match, period-end. You got fucked without lube on the second disallowed goal, and the goal they did score should've been VAR'd as well.
I don’t understand the Tielemans on sub. The move to KDB going deep seemed to be working then it just got changed and made worse.
What did ref do against Belgium? I am Turkish so i was paying attention to calls. As far as i saw refereeing was tournament standart. Maybe it was Lukaku's finishing skills that did not help.
[удалено]
I am not gonna say anything about the first part. It is your opinion and it is subjective. But as you already said ball is changing its trajectory and the attacker is gaining advantage over it. It does not matter how slight the touch is. Rules are very explanatory.
[удалено]
Of course it is a pen but there was a foul before that position. First of all attacker clearly gaining advantage by handball. I see your point about pushing. However even it was a foul that does not give you right to handball. Which i do not think it was a foul. I have watched almost every game and as far as i have seen pushings and pullings are pretty much tolerated. I totally do not agree with this stand however for people who complain about whistlings like yourself this is the correct route i suppose.
Watch the lead-in to the second disallowed goal. Watch, also, the Slovakian goal and wonder why they didn't look at offside on that one.
They showed the lines on my broadcast for the Slovak goal.
They didn't on the highlights.
Lol. You didn’t even watch the game but spam here your nonsense?!
I hope to see the sequel to this amazing [clip.](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/4H47n2iREv)
Not a good few years for the Belgium NT it seems
People love to hate on our generation but genuinely, with the exception of Uruguay 1000s of years ago - world football has been dominated by countries many times bigger than Belgium.
The golden turds
They’re too old now it’s over. Pep had KDB for too long
KDB is absolutely NOT the problem here though
He doesn't perform for Belgium the way he does for city. Not since 2018.
Been saying this all day in work, that we’ll win today. Belgium is really past its golden generation, with an average coach. KDB and Lukaku can carry the whole team in tandem, but they can’t do it on a game to game basis anymore. Lots of good players on paper, but really disjointed in midfield and attack. Seems like the system today was find Onana to pass it to KDB and then inshallah. Trossard looked absolutely off, honestly never seen him so clueless in Arsenal shirt. Doku likewise, burnt everyone for pace only to take 5 seconds to dribble into dead end and lose possession. And that defence is shambolic, honestly. Anyway. TOTO SMEEE TUUU EŠTE NEMALI!
Also helps when they fix the match. Belgium is an underratedly good team and a lot of people aren't comfortable with that fact.
Belgium isn’t underrated what are you smoking.
Yeah, they are. Even though they have had the results otherwise, they still don't have the regard of England, France, Germany, Spain...
It kind of puts the England result into perspective none of these teams are bad they are at the euros for a reason.
Nah england and Belgium both play like shit. Serbia and Slovakia are decent teams, but the difference in terms of squad, which I know its not everything, is massive.
NA, England still performed way below average
I agree they could have easily draw that game but held out and got the win I bet Belgium would have taken that.
We conceded one shot on target how could we easily have drawn 😂
"Questions need to be raised about de bruyne's intl career" like mate he was belgium's best player by far?
He was casually making 30 yard blind passes like most people make eye to eye 10 yard passes, and not sweating it.
Hazard by a country mile
Tonight
this be the Euro of upsets what the actual fuck
Just the two so far, this one and Romania/Ukraine
Romania was favoured to win in that match
Switzerland against Hungary
How is that an upset ? We've consistently done better than Hungary in big tournaments
Congrats lol don’t take it poorly you won. Coming into the tournament everyone was saying Hungary was the dark horse. They were on a crazy good run. Had great games against many teams and good teams
That wasn't an upset. Ukraine are not that good.
Bruh Romania?
Unbeaten in qualifiers
In a shit group
It wasn't exactly an awful group and most European qualifying groups are fairly similar in strength. I wouldn't call Romania dark horses or anything but they've looked solid and Ukraine isn't exactly a top team (no, having players in the Premier League doesn't make you a top team).
Romania topped their group without losing a game. Not the strongest group but you can only beat what’s in front of you. It isn’t tremendously unexpected that they could beat Ukraine.
Based on recent form, I'd argue the Romania/Ukraine wasn't an upset
Based in recent form as in romania drawing bulgaria and not scoring at lichtenstein?
Yeah true, based on recent form. Historically though, Romania haven’t done well at the Ruros
Yeah, with respect, if Ukraine aren't robust and make life hard for teams by defending well then they're likely to be one of the weakest sides in the tournament. Romania look really good.
I thought that Ukraine would defend better, their defending against Germany in the last friendly before the Euros was relativly good
yea you're right actually. I think it may be because even though Serbia v England wasn't, it kinda felt like one... and Spain v Croatia was quite a surprising result
For the people complaining about no upsets here you go, first upset of the tournament *I can't believe I missed this match*
And the first fixed match.
And it was in part thanks to the VAR, and they try to argue that "kill the spirit of the game"
I don’t get that argument, I rather the better team won through fair play. People are just regarded. Edit; in the spirit of it, think of Frank Lampard infamous goal or Maradona, Hand of god. This why we need those technologies.
Tbh there should be some offside leniency. Being one cm off doesn’t really change what would have happened. Take away from the joy of the game
Sure, but that is for possible future rules. Current rules are clear, offside is offside, 1cm or 10cm, its players responsibility to keep onside. Tiredness and stress comes into play when you are behind. In my opinion that is also part of the game! What would be the cut off rule then, would every ref decide on spot, due to interpretation of the ref or what? Does not make a lot of sense, does it. Also they let the players play and only pull it back, so it doesn’t stop the flow that much if at all. The time gets added anyway…. But I hear you and I kind of agree, but that is for the future rules. In that case just change the rule over all, make the offside more offensive and so that offside is only whistled if you are fully behind a defender (beyond defender line). More goals and more fun that way and it would play more into the spirit of the sport!
> Sure, but that is for possible future rules. Current rules are clear, offside is offside, 1cm or 10cm, its players responsibility to keep onside. I know lol? > What would be the cut off rule then, would every ref decide on spot, due to interpretation of the ref or what? Does not make a lot of sense, does it. No obviously not. Haha there would be a set amount. No shit > Also they let the players play and only pull it back, so it doesn’t stop the flow that much if at all. The time gets added anyway…. I never talked about this. But regardless we all know the proper time does not get added > But I hear you and I kind of agree, but that is for the future rules. I know lol > In that case just change the rule over all, make the offside more offensive Yes ahahha that’s what I’m saying lmfao > and so that offside is only whistled if you are fully behind a defender (beyond defender line). More goals and more fun that way and it would play more into the spirit of the sport! But no haha that’s way too much Weird comment
The only argument that has some logic is the one that it's say that sometimes the took a lot of time in the offsides call but this semi-automatic thing it's seem to be working fine
It's a lot of Premier League fans that complain about it because their FA and ref association were shit in using it. The tech is good if you have competent people behind it.
The Red Devils Syndrome 😭
Slovakia ❤️
If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium……. lol
Belgium truly play like individuals, not passing to the teammate with the better positional chance etc. So frustrating.
I feel like England, Belgium and The Netherlands have some shared values.
Trossard most guilty of this tbh, played so selfishly
Not surprised one bit that these so called golden generation lost once again, ill be surprised if they actually win, such overrated generation of players who only play good under certain system and in that system everything has to be on their favor, because one thing goes wrong and they all become lakaka
WC2018, 3rd isn't bad for a country with 10 million inhabitants. Stop with the "Lakaka" by the way - which besides vaguely racist, ignores he's an incredibly lethal striker for Belgium.
Uruguay has a population of 3 million and has 15 copa america, two world cups so thats a terrible excuse especially when you had a generation full of talent that almost no other country had at that moment besides france, no one is mentioning lakakas skin tone, because theres amazing players who are dark, lukaku is just trash a meme.
You're citing the biggest outlier in global football, and one with a massive asterisk: * Uruguay's World Cup glories are ***old*** - they won the World Cup in 1930 and 1950 - get real please. (If we're being pedantic, only ten years before Uruguay's win in '30, the Olympic Games were seen as the global football trophy and it was won by... Belgium. ) * 15 Copa Americas is impressive yes but * they are played with much more regularity than the Euros (16 versus a whopping 47 lol) * Competition for one is a lot weaker than in the Euros * They won the vast majority of them a long time ago (more than half before WW2, and some even before Belgium's Olympic triumph!) Then, let's look at World Cup winners besides Uruguay - and all winners since 1950 (that's over 74 years) - all with populations multiple times larger than Belgium, ranging from 48 million (Spain, Argentina) to 200 million (Brazil). Finally, the Belgian generation was *golden* because they produced a crazy XI (albeit no really strong wingbacks) for a relatively small nation. From a Belgian POV, this was unseen - finally we had a XI as strong on paper as our much larger neighbours. It's just going to be so much less likely to produce a strong team if your country is smaller. Notwithstanding that yes, Belgium underperformed most tournaments besides WC2018 - but the hate is just overblown imo. Just like the hate for Lukaku, who just gets shit on undeservedly (he's statistically one of the best strikers of international football of his generation), and yes, I doubt he would be if he were white.
Please stfu, your team is overrated deal with it
Stfu, use logic and reasoning or just jog on lad. Belgium are a decent side that have the QF as their limit, nobody has them on par with France/England etc. They're still on course for R16/QF. This team isn't their golden gen but they're fairly rated.
The golden gen was crazy good. It wasn’t overhyped. But this isn’t the golden gen
Only KDB and Lukaku (and maybe Carrasco) are from that "golden generation".
They were definitely overhyped on reddit. It was a great generation on paper, but not as good (again on paper) like an England 2006 or Netherlands 1998 etc
(If you adjust for their era) I don’t think anyone said so?
Saying that this Belgium team shouldve won a tournament is a popular statement here on reddit. To me theyve performed as you could expect, except for 2022
It’s also normal to here that England should have won. Or that France should walk it again. And Portugal too. The sun doesn’t understand that only one team can win
Crazy good? lol they won’t nothing or even played a final
Very few teams win something. It’s only once every 2 years. Tons of good teams don’t win.
Still should be a fairly strong team nevertheless.
The Golden Generation is done. This lot is just eating their leftovers.
Is this a Hazard reference?
If so then it’s unintentional lol
I don’t see Belgium being serious contenders anytime soon if they don’t win the euros this year
Forget being contenders; there’s a possibility they may not even qualify for the next international tournament. Their saving grace may be the expanded World Cup, but their best players are aging, and there don’t seem to be many generational talents coming through Belgium at the moment. I’m also usually wrong about these things too, so we will see. But I think their best chances were the 2018 World Cup and the 2020 European Championship.
Agreed, apart from Doku what other world class prospects does Belgium have? I wouldn’t say De Ketelaere is a world class prospect at the moment
Romeo Lavia will be world class, if he can stay fit
Openda is good and players like Onana and Bakayoko probably won't be world class but they're good
They’re not even top 5 team at the euros lol
A centimetre onside and Openda's fingers miss the ball and we would be looking at a different world. Football is a game of luck. Lukaku has proven to be massive for Belgium many times before. Bad luck, sure, but the tactics were just all wrong. Huge gap in midfield, players in the wrong positions, no pressing. Honestly Martinez impressed me more than Tedesco at this moment, I'm not sure what he was thinking changing it up this much.
Lukaku is erratic. It isn't anything to do with luck. He scores important goals and also messes up many simple opportunities
Lukaku also fucked up against croatia last world cup lol.
You think I forgot? Man's scored nearly 90 goals for Belgium. Plenty of those goals were really important. Has been a leader figure and generally good at linking up with players around him. His flaw is inconsistency, but he's mostly been an icon for Belgium.
He misses when it's important though. I'm not saying we shouldn't play him, but he's far from being a real star player.
[удалено]
What are you smoking lmao, he is by far the best striker Belgium has ever had. He is a club legend at RSCA and i think Everton Fans still have a spot for him.
aweful for club and country, meanwhile he as a better international goal ratio than Ronaldo, Messi, Kane, Lewandowski, Neymar,....
Nobody cares about your dumb Lakaka meme either. Your lack of football knowledge is just as painful.
u/Jelboo thanks for not using the word "ball knowledge" I'll upvote you (you're welcome) Belgium today was actually quite fine while in possesion. Slovakia offcource with being lucky were brave and had nice rhythm to their defence and wasn't just parking bus. Questionable decision by todesco to not bench Carrasco or sub on opeda earlier. Belgium had decent offensive option on the bench which if properly utilised could still hold themselves as at least as dark horses. De bruyne shouldve played deeper and tried to gel the team never saw him as captain meterial unless I'm missing something.
He shit the bed by being centimeters offside in one play and his teammate handling the ball on the other? The idiotic pun name was clue enough, but blaming this one on Lukaku is just some personal grievance on your part, not what actually happened.
Your forgot the other 3 free goals.
Have to give credit to Slovakia. A huge win for them.
I love Trossard but man, where was he today? Should have been subbed off during half time.
Trossard need to be like Mertens in NT. Sub on when they're tired.
That's how he's used at Arsenal, for the most part. Seems to work well.
He and Lukaku were seeing who bitched more to their teammates
Doku knows how to dribble and literally nothing else
[удалено]
Man i fucking hate this narrative, dude literally had to rush his comeback from an injury and still created the most chances and was an actual threat that match. Blame the rest of the team for not stepping up all the other matches
I just had to be Belgian and support Barcelona - two of the biggest memes in football. Though tbh I'm still very proud of what we have accomplished internationally, I just wish that when we did bad, we didn't do it in such a clownesque fashion.
Why don't you support a Belgian club?
I would see the good side, i think that Belgium can have a nice team in the future, Casteels looks good he's not Courtouis but he's good, Onana is a beast, Doku and Bakayoco could become great players they need more experience that would help them to make better decisions, Openda made a good impresion, the only thing they need imo is a good CB but in a few years if some of the golden generation retired form the NT it wouldn't be the end of the world like other golden generation
Barcelona had its glory years like ten years ago man
Your point?
I think the point is you support one of the most successful club teams in the history of the game and will likely revive to remain as such. Come over to sincil bank for a few days, hot cup of bovril and a sausage roll and complain about your meme club and see how you get on! I'm joking, but success is never guaranteed and the ascent is where the fun is anyway.
Someone had the exact same post yesterday about Man Utd playing terrible football like England and I could only think they literally must have been about 14 to say that lol, Man Utd were unbelieveable in the late 90s and 00s.
You're joking right. Barca dominated club football up until fairly recently. Try being a Spurs fan or an Everton fan or something. You're delusional
Not really much of a meme, your comment makes it sound like you are peak Tottenham or something 😂
Could be worse...
I think at least 150 belgian supporters died watching this match!
The amount of butthurt Belgians and KDB defenders in this and the match thread is astounding. Lose against a team you should have beaten 5-0... but we can't examine Lukaku, KDB, Carrasco or Troussard's positions in this squad? HA
Ok
Belgians were never going to get as far as possible, by leaving their best player at home. That's mainly because of Courtouis' antics, but a good coach would have handled this internally instead of bring it out in the open and make it explode in the media. You have the best goalie in the world, and he's not playing. That's the end result. A good coach likewise probably wouldn't have made some of the decisions with the team either in tonight's match. Belgium like some other bigger European nations have gone down in quality with their latest batch of players, that they aren't going to win easily simply because of their class, but you'd think they'd still be able to deal with Slovakia on a normal day. Why didn't that happen tonight? Players not playing in their position? Better in-form players not starting and/or being subbed in (too late)? I saw some comments in the live thread "to Doku and inshallah" and honestly that's how it felt, mostly in the first half, the problem being Doku just dribbles without a game plan. Didn't help either that the other attacking side was pretty useless with Trossard. 3rd teams going through is a thing, so it's not the end of the world. I almost can't imagine Belgium not getting out of this group even now.
Our "golden generation" was wasted by bad coaches...
Doku on the right to start the game was a waste. Switched him to the left to start the second half but was subbed out too early to really try anything.
I doubt Courtois would have changed the result with the way this team played today.
Courtois would have caught the second shot.
Idk, they literally only had like one chance and they scored it. Courtois stops clear chances in big games without trying.
Maybe as a captain he could have pushed the team more or organize the defense better. But on that goal there really wasn't much that Casteels did wrong.
The Roku part is interesting. That's basically the dynamic he brings to Man City that works - he plays a style antithetical to Pep's plans, and that makes him a value piece to throw on when chaos is needed. But that only really works when used to compliment Peps overly regimented style. It doesn't work the aame in International Football
What did the "expert" commentators say about the handball in your country? In Norway one lady said that it should be allowed, it happend so early in the attack it didn't matter or help and using VAR this way destroys the game... Don't know if I should laugh or not
That it was handbal...
On Fox they just agreed with VAR like always
One of the Anslysts(former ref) said it should be disallowed, other analyst(former player) said it should be allowed, so kinda 50 50. I personally believe it should be allowed since it clearly wasn’t intentional and the hand barely changed the balls movement
But then if he didn’t touch the ball it looked like the defender would got the ball first and we don’t know what would happen otherwise. Just play fair and don’t use the hands, it doesn’t matter if it’s accident, this is on Belgian player, not on ref!
Where the fuck are you supposed to keep your hands then, it happens so fast and he was having to fend off the defender.
Clearly not on the ball 🤔
It wasn't intentional though. Whether it's intentional or not does matter according to the rules.
The rules are clear that handball is a handball, if the hand is not close to the body or it interferes with the play. How do you know his intentions. For all we could know, this was his intention. This was fair judgment by the ref, fault is on Belgian player to give opportunity to ref to rule it this way. So again just keep your hands off the ball.
That’s not what the rules say. https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/29/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-handball-law-explained Rules also copied below. Intention does matter. You can tell whether it’s deliberate or not by watching the full clip, and you’ll see that in the struggle his hand is forced towards the ball. The way you describe it someone can push a player or their arm towards the ball and it’s still be handball. It is an offence if a player: - deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball - touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised - scores in the opponents’ goal: directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental
It also didn't really seem intentional. The decision, however "correct", left a sour taste
We get a goal disallowed for an unintentional handball in the buildup. Meanwhile their players can just fall over randomly in their box, push the ball out with their hand and no check or pen. Wonder who payed to see this upset.
Try to score one of the 500 clear chances you have and you wouldn't have to be crying to correct decisions
Why the fuck do we get this Make a Wish referee? Clearly this guy isn't up to the standards needed. Jesus fucking Christ, so many small & big decisions just completely wrong Big ups SLovakia for sure, they played their heart out. But this should just be 1-1 or a Belgian win. We messed up but those 2 disallowed goals are VERY debatable
So you wanted to rob Slovakia while missing your chances?
We're robbing them by asking for correct decisions?
What correct decisions are you referring to that weren’t made?
We scored 2. At least 1 of those should have been allowed. The 2nd disallowed goal is nitpicking at its finest and Openda doesn't even cause any advantage by involuntarily touching the ball while running. Nah it's a wrong decision, very simple and not the first time this ref took a wrong decision this season/this game
Did you see what you typed? Take off your country pride and read you type objectively. You are defending the allowance of the second disallowed goal while also admitting that there is a involuntary handball. Even though there was no advantage gained from it is still an violation that can be called.
Still kind of fucked that we didnt get a penalty for pretty much the same type of handball though. It's one or the other...
Fair play to Slovakia, deserved it. We we're wastefull Ref was shit tho, the goals were correctly ruled out, but that doesn't change that the ref made quite a few weird calls, mainly the first half. Not looking forward to Saturday, but we move
Fair play to Slovakia? Since the 0-1 there was always a player on the ground holding the game up
tf did doku do entire match
Give the ball to the Slovaks for them to score their only chance
Create two crucial changes that should've gone in the early game
run run run and then take too long to make a pass and lose the ball for a goal kick repeat 30 times
The belgian mudryk
AWB still haunting him after the cup final
Belgium were disappointing, but Slovakia did well to protect their early lead, although they got slightly lucky regarding the two disallowed goals. Group E is shaping up nicely with Romania also pulling an upset earlier.
Feel bad for lukaku. He's going to get a ton of flack, but he wasn't at fault for the second disallowed goal. His position and finish were good.
Yeah but the thing is this feels like it's copy pasted from so many Belgium games. Unlucky for Lukaku is almost mandatory opening sentiments after a Belgium match. It's actually remarkable.
And the first one i wouldn't say it was his fault either, it was barely offside and in the moment i don't think you can calculate cm so you just put it in the net. He didn't play well or good but it was the same for all the Belgium NT
Belgium could have done with that guy who was playing in Soccer aid the other week. Used to be pretty good.
I'd like to hear Mourinho's take on this game.
The 7 min added time was a joke. Bring qatar WC refs back. Two var check is like 2 min each. 6 times the game stopped for subs in the second half, 30 seconds each at minimum. "Knee to the face" episode took 1.5-2 min. All this without counting the consistent diving. That's all I have.
Belgium could play an entire day but they wouldn't have scored
They literally scored 2 times, but were ruled out by the joy killer of modern soccer, the VAR...
I think the guys from Slovakia are pretty happy right now
Yea, I do miss the "Qatar Extra Time" tbh. Really penalized time wasting.
Belgium could have had 50 minutes of added time and they wouldn't have scored
That has nothing to do with the refs decision. If they don't punish time wasting, more players will waste time. It's bad for the game in general.
Every single team does it, Inter certainly do as well, no one has any issues with it when it means their team wins
Brother, I am not blaming Slovakian players for doing it. Kudos to them if it means that their team wins. Neither did I say Inter doesn’t do it. I meant for the purpose of the game in general, ref should try to limit time wasting by punishing it.
Belgium reminds me of tottenham
Belgium was not good today but it’s insane they called hands when [this happened in the first half](https://imgur.com/tXJFPWf)