A day of upsets at the WC Reigning champions Germany shocked by Mexico, and then Brazil held to a draw by Switzerland
Argentina was earlier held to a draw by Iceland yesterday, France ground out a 2-1 victory over Australia in an attritional battle yesterday and Spain were held to a 3-3 draw against Portugal Based on these group stage results, the so-called 'underdogs' would certainly be fancying their chances
The World Cup on Sunday became the first for 32 years to feature no red cards in its opening four days – with video technology given the credit.
The tournament also boasted the lowest number of bookings per match since at least 1986, with just 32 shown in 11 matches.
The Telegraph has analysed the number of red cards shown in the opening days of the last eight World Cups, as well as the average number of yellows by the end of each edition.
It has compared them with those issued during the current tournament, which is the first since the advent of video assistant referees.
At least one red card has been shown in the opening nine matches of every World Cup staged since 1990. At Mexico ’86, it took until the 14th game for a player to be sent off.
England play the 14th match of Russia 2018 in Volgograd tonight.
David Elleray, the technical director of the International Football Association Board and the chief architect of the VAR, had predicted trial-by-video would improve player behaviour’.
He told Telegraph Sport on Sunday: “The results from competitions that have used VARs show a similar trend. I believe the biggest impact of VARs will be improved player behaviour as they know they cannot get away with anything, as Gareth Southgate said to the England players. A great benefit for football!”
On the eve of the World Cup, Fifa’s director of referees, Massimo Busacca, warned players there would be nowhere to hide under VAR, revealing a video each team had been shown of incidents for which there would be “zero tolerance” in Russia.
Keith Hackett, the former head of Premier League referees, said on Sunday: “I do think that the introduction of VAR is a deterrent at this stage of the World Cup. Managers and players have been made fully aware that many eyes are watching their every move. If they make an off-the-ball challenge, it will be picked up and punished during the game. So this becomes a player and team sanction on the day. They must also be aware of the consequences of a red card and the impact that it has in a tournament."
A row broke out on Saturday after VAR was used to overturn a decision at the World Cup for the first time and on Sunday brought the tournament’s first red-card controversy when Serbia’s Aleksandar Prijovic was shown a stoppage-time yellow card in his country’s Group E opener against Costa Rica.
Referee Malang Diedhiou conducted a pitchside review after being informed Prijovic had caught Johnny Acosta in the face with a flailing arm but decided it warranted only a booking. Seconds earlier, Diedhiou also appeared to postpone a restart to allow his VAR to examine an ugly clash between Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic and a member of the Costa Rica coaching staff.
Australia were still fuming on Sunday about the use of VAR to award France a penalty against them on Saturday when Josh Risdon brought down Antoine Griezmann.
Risdon branded the decision “a slap in the face”, while team-mate Mat Ryan, the Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper, said: “Speaking to Josh afterwards, he said he touched the ball himself, and I don’t think he’s a liar or anything like that. On the replays I have seen, it didn’t look conclusive.
“I feel hard done by. I feel like we were beaten by a better team and almost by technology a little bit.
“I don’t want to cause more controversy or anything like that and I’m not here to make excuses, but there’s a lot of grey areas nowadays in that area of the game."
Red cards at World Cups:
2014: first in the sixth game. Two after the 10th.
2010: first in the second game. Three after the eighth.
2006: first in the third game. Second not until the 12th.
2002: first in the ninth game. Three after the 10th.
1998: first in the fifth game. Three after the 10th.
1994: first in the first game. Two after the second and three after the 12th.
1990: first and second in the first game. Three after the fifth.
I am in Russia now for world cup , I met few Columbians in our Hotel and discussed on football. When I said Columbian player Steven Mendoza was top scorer in our league they were surprised. Firstly they never heard that football exist in India and also the player Mendoza is unknown for them. When I show the picture one guy identified him and told that now he plays for one Brazilian club.
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Mexico Shocks Germany, Serbia Beat Costa Rico
http://www.indianfootballnetwork.com/blog/2018/06/17/mexico-shocks-germany-serbia-beat-costa-rico/Brazil fail to win the opening match in a World Cup for the first time in 40 years
Reigning champions Germany shocked by Mexico, and then Brazil held to a draw by Switzerland
Argentina was earlier held to a draw by Iceland yesterday, France ground out a 2-1 victory over Australia in an attritional battle yesterday and Spain were held to a 3-3 draw against Portugal
Based on these group stage results, the so-called 'underdogs' would certainly be fancying their chances
However, we have a long way to go
The World Cup on Sunday became the first for 32 years to feature no red cards in its opening four days – with video technology given the credit.
The tournament also boasted the lowest number of bookings per match since at least 1986, with just 32 shown in 11 matches.
The Telegraph has analysed the number of red cards shown in the opening days of the last eight World Cups, as well as the average number of yellows by the end of each edition.
It has compared them with those issued during the current tournament, which is the first since the advent of video assistant referees.
At least one red card has been shown in the opening nine matches of every World Cup staged since 1990. At Mexico ’86, it took until the 14th game for a player to be sent off.
England play the 14th match of Russia 2018 in Volgograd tonight.
David Elleray, the technical director of the International Football Association Board and the chief architect of the VAR, had predicted trial-by-video would improve player behaviour’.
He told Telegraph Sport on Sunday: “The results from competitions that have used VARs show a similar trend. I believe the biggest impact of VARs will be improved player behaviour as they know they cannot get away with anything, as Gareth Southgate said to the England players. A great benefit for football!”
On the eve of the World Cup, Fifa’s director of referees, Massimo Busacca, warned players there would be nowhere to hide under VAR, revealing a video each team had been shown of incidents for which there would be “zero tolerance” in Russia.
Keith Hackett, the former head of Premier League referees, said on Sunday: “I do think that the introduction of VAR is a deterrent at this stage of the World Cup. Managers and players have been made fully aware that many eyes are watching their every move. If they make an off-the-ball challenge, it will be picked up and punished during the game. So this becomes a player and team sanction on the day. They must also be aware of the consequences of a red card and the impact that it has in a tournament."
A row broke out on Saturday after VAR was used to overturn a decision at the World Cup for the first time and on Sunday brought the tournament’s first red-card controversy when Serbia’s Aleksandar Prijovic was shown a stoppage-time yellow card in his country’s Group E opener against Costa Rica.
Referee Malang Diedhiou conducted a pitchside review after being informed Prijovic had caught Johnny Acosta in the face with a flailing arm but decided it warranted only a booking. Seconds earlier, Diedhiou also appeared to postpone a restart to allow his VAR to examine an ugly clash between Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic and a member of the Costa Rica coaching staff.
Australia were still fuming on Sunday about the use of VAR to award France a penalty against them on Saturday when Josh Risdon brought down Antoine Griezmann.
Risdon branded the decision “a slap in the face”, while team-mate Mat Ryan, the Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper, said: “Speaking to Josh afterwards, he said he touched the ball himself, and I don’t think he’s a liar or anything like that. On the replays I have seen, it didn’t look conclusive.
“I feel hard done by. I feel like we were beaten by a better team and almost by technology a little bit.
“I don’t want to cause more controversy or anything like that and I’m not here to make excuses, but there’s a lot of grey areas nowadays in that area of the game."
Red cards at World Cups:
- 2014: first in the sixth game. Two after the 10th.
- 2010: first in the second game. Three after the eighth.
- 2006: first in the third game. Second not until the 12th.
- 2002: first in the ninth game. Three after the 10th.
- 1998: first in the fifth game. Three after the 10th.
- 1994: first in the first game. Two after the second and three after the 12th.
- 1990: first and second in the first game. Three after the fifth.
- 1986: First in the 14th game.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2018/06/17/var-credited-cleaning-world-cup-no-red-cards-nine-games/