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Wow that Germany, Korea game got intense at the end. Germany looked in control and had some great opportunities with a lot of pressure, then Korea scored. Then, Germany pulled the goalie. And, Korea scored again. #5 for Germany is going to be kicking himself tonight. Had 1 golden opportunity when the score was 0-0 and completely missed a header on a great cross. Then, had a tough chance and missed a header again. Then, had another opportunity and hit the crossbar with a header.

Nice to see how excited Korea was to get a win despite already being eliminated.

That was a fun end to the game. I didn't get a chance to bring it up on my tablet at the office until the final couple of minutes but the empty netter was something you don't see much in soccer especially when it comes as the direct result of the ball being taken from the goalie down on the offensive side of the field.

Per FIFA's rankings, that's the 57th ranked team defeating the 1st--in a World Cup elimination game.

FWIW, the US is ranked 25th.

Here are those rankings, BTW. Pretty interesting, at least for a casual world fan like myself. I wouldn't have guessed Peru would be 11. I thought Nigeria would be higher than 48. I wish I would have looked at this before the tournament.

https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking ... index.html

Also, if anyone hasn't seen Next Goal Wins, you should watch it. But the premise was that American Samoa was trying to become NOT the worst team in the world. So I was happy to see a dozen teams below them in the rankings.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Wow that Germany, Korea game got intense at the end. Germany looked in control and had some great opportunities with a lot of pressure, then Korea scored. Then, Germany pulled the goalie. And, Korea scored again. #5 for Germany is going to be kicking himself tonight. Had 1 golden opportunity when the score was 0-0 and completely missed a header on a great cross. Then, had a tough chance and missed a header again. Then, had another opportunity and hit the crossbar with a header.

That pass from Ozil was gorgeous. That it was Germany's only real opportunity against Korea is pretty telling as far as how bad Germany was in this tourney.

Swooning over Mbappe today. His pace and skill decided that game. He outshined Messi, no easy task for anyone but especially impressive as a 19 year old in his first major world tournament.

Wow can’t believe Spain and Portugal both lost. Uraguay actually looked decent. Spain just looked boring against Russia. Also I’m convinced the ruskis are cheating somehow.

PKs to end a game are cool and all, but I'd be in favor of a sudden death first goal wins switch sides every 15' or so instead of penalty kicks which seem to be somewhat luck oriented moreso than skill based. I'd guess there's a skill to it, but a lot of it seems to be the goalie picking a spot and going to it. If they guess right, they get a save; if they guess wrong, it's a goal.

I thought Russia-Spain was all defense, with Spain passing back and forth and accomplishing nothing. Croatia-Denmark was even weirder: two goals scored in the first four minutes then nothing until the penalty kicks.