This was a squeaker: after being down two goals against Japan, Belgium scored three—one in the four minutes of added 90+ time, to save a spot in the World Cup. Japan goes home, and now Belgium faces Brazil in the quarter finals on Friday. An exciting game, and my condolences to the Japanese, who played some game matches.
Belgium, down two goals, gets three to beat Japan
July 3, 2018 • 5:28 pm
Nothing similar has been seen in a World Cup since Bulgaria -Peru in 1970. Perú was losing 0-2 and went 2-2 in 4 min 57 sec. Belgium did it in 4 min. 29 sec.
Peru also won 3-2.
I am a world cup and euro cup casual soccer fan but that third goal by belgium may be the best goal sequence I’ve ever seen.
Yes, very clever roll by Courtois, fast sprint by de Bruyne, pass to Meunier who created miles of space on the right, a low cross and then the most brilliant move: the ‘let through’ by Lukaku to give Chadli, with a good run in, a virtually open goal, It was so fast and ‘flowing’, beautiful. I must have replayed that movement at least half a dozen times.
I think four of the five goals were outstanding. That unconventional header by Vertongen that surprised everybody, and the absolutely deadly accurate cannonball from Inui (A cross for a header to a tall man may be efficient, but I would not qualify it as outstanding),
An epic match.
I hope Belgium will win against Brazil now, Their defense is their weakest point though, which is dangerous when playing Brazil.
I hope they win the championship.
Belgium and Uruguay are the most impressive teams until now.
I don’t think he meant to score with that header, I think he was just putting it back across the goal for someone to get on the end of it… but they all count
He definitely didn’t mean it. Not that he’ll care.
I’m not so sure it wasn’t intended, it depends on the angle you see it. Viewed from behind Vertongen it does look deliberate, not so much from the other angles.
O my ! I am sad in re Japan !
And i see that England made a dramatic
penalty kick – win ! W h o a ! There are
very many in re PCC(E)’s contest who ‘ve
at various scoring totals chosen England
as … … The Finalist’s Actual Winner * !
Hhmmmm !
Blue
ps * Not me. I am out of it all !
I wish it were a Belgium v France final – the two most exciting footballing teams.
I think you could say they’re the best two teams left, but France have not been exciting in this tournament – they’ve been soporific in the group stages and only played well vs Argentina. Belgium’s only really exciting game was vs Japan, where Japan outplayed them.
Improving teams – do not peak too early! The other half of the draw should provide cannon fodder for whoever wins the better half of the draw!
France v Argentina was pretty good. It is the first entertaining game involving France since 1986.
France were brilliant when they had Platini and Tigana in midfield (but sadly no decent strikers), but they have been soporifically tedious ever since (though often effective).
I’m still on for Belgium to take the cup, English though I am.
And if not Belgium, Uruguay, also a most impressive team.
I predicted a Belgium v Croatia final with Belgium to win…
Two weeks ago I would have laughed at you, but now I think you should be burned at the stake for being a witch…
It has been a crazy tournament so far, I hope it continues to be so
“They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” Carl Sagan
Japan can cold their heads high
that is hold their heads high … bot cold is good too.
Go England … though I am not English.
They were awful against Poland, when they should have won that… playing for a draw is never wise.
Great try though in that game! 🙂
One finalist will be either
– Uruguay, France, Brazil or Belgium,
and the other finalist is either
– Russia, Croatia, Sweden or England.
I must say the first group of semi-finalists sounds more awe-inspiring, but one of the finalists will necessarily be one from the latter group.
“Less awe-inspiring” is a pretty charitable description of the second group.
Sweden plays an incredibly effective defense, and an unbearably dull game. Croatia has shown signs of good play. Russia had some excellent moves mixed with unbelievable mistakes…
All the teams in the first group had 10-minute flashes of absolutely brilliant play. If any of them could sustain it for the whole game they would be unstoppable.
Continuing the debate I started in the last World Cup post, where I suggested that the game would be more interesting if they got rid of the goal tenders:
My point is that the fundamental objective of competition is to determine who’s the best.
A long, time-consuming game that typically results in scores like 1 to 0, or 2 to 1, ignores much of what happens during play, and the outcome is largely dependent upon luck. One might say that the scoring system lacks precision due to rounding errors. Games with higher scores tend to filter out luck and focus more upon skill.
Getting rid of the keepers would make penalties very easy, and penalty shoot-outs rather boring!
The fact that goals are difficult to score is *the whole point of the game*.
It is precisely this fact that produces Uncertainty of Outcome. The last thing you want is a game where the better team always wins.