Japan vs Croatia, Round of 16, 3PM GMT, Al Janoub Stadium

[Pukey]

My word this is an awful shootout  

[Haguey]

Must be the pressure because surely players know that low paced penalties into the off-centre of the goal rarely go in right

[CFuller]

Japan are like Mexico in the last 16, and like England at penalties.

[skybluedave]

Worst shoot out ever this 

[GunmaN1905]

Going down as an all-time great keeper shootout performance.

[Astafjevs]

Thought Livaja's penalty was alright really. Just a bit unlucky to drag it onto the post. 

[Orzelek]

Croatia through  

 

Some deradful penalties by Japan

[Pukey]

The 3 easiest penalty saves he'll ever make

[PMLF]

Croatia will eliminate Brazil in the quarterfinals then!

[Darren Moores Mum]

They were some of the weakest pens from Japan I've ever seen. Weren't even difficult saves.

[skybluedave]

I thought Japan would be decent at pens. Clearly not

[Darius1998]

Shades of Paraguay 2010 from Japan.

Superb from Livakovic though. Awful penalties but he went the right way for 3 out of 4.

[GunmaN1905]

1 minute ago, Astafjevs said:

Thought Livaja's penalty was alright really. Just a bit unlucky to drag it onto the post. 

He had 100% career conversion until he missed one a month ago.

 

World Cup at holiday time is a bad idea, shootouts and fireworks started already.

  

Just now, Darius1998 said:

Shades of Paraguay 2010 from Japan.

Superb from Livakovic though. Awful penalties but he went the right way for 3 out of 4.

This sells him to a desperate EPL club, could be good for Leicester.

Edited December 5, 2022 by GunmaN1905

[Astafjevs]

Brazil are going to murder Croatia. Criminal acts all over the pitch in that game

 

[Darren Moores Mum]

Horrible game.

[Haguey]

You just can't kill Croatia, reckon they'll do over Brazil or Korea.

[GunmaN1905]

Just now, Astafjevs said:

Brazil are going to murder Croatia. Criminal acts all over the pitch in that game

Yeah, we actually have no chance without huge bottling on Brazil's part.

QF is the limit for this team, as predicted weeks ago.

 

Now just Brazil-Korea left and we're done with bad teams.

[aiston]

Probably the worst bunch of penalties ever from Japan

 

[Rob1981]

Why have they started using that horrible camera angle for penalty shootouts?

Hard to tell whether they are good saves or awful penalties for the most part.  They would never use that for a penalty in normal time.

[Astafjevs]

'put under pressure in that situation '

I feel like when you miss the first two, the pressure is eased a bit off the opposition penalty takers.

[error username in use]

Croatia one of the most miserable teams ever to grace a football pitch

Look forward to a full on sit in their own box performance against Brazil

[skybluedave]

I weirdly think Croatia will do Brazil. They such a horrible team to play against. They just never know when beat

[kpain16]

Phew. That was close. Luckily Livaković is a PK saver through his entire career. Would have been world class if he wasn't that bad at judging crosses. Don't mind it though, since he's still at Dinamo because of it. 

[Rob1981]

4 minutes ago, skybluedave said:

Worst shoot out ever this 

Nah, this one from WC2006:

 

Both sides playing for penalties after about 20 minutes and then the Swiss didn't score any of them

[darren1983]

2 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Yeah, we actually have no chance without huge bottling on Brazil's part.

QF is the limit for this team, as predicted weeks ago.

 

Now just Brazil-Korea left and we're done with bad teams.

Croatia still in it though?  

[enigmatic]

3 minutes ago, Astafjevs said:

Thought Livaja's penalty was alright really. Just a bit unlucky to drag it onto the post. 

nah, keeper had it if he didn't hit the post. I like casual penalties but that was even worse than the Japanese ones

 

Still, I see why Croatia played for penalties.

[darren1983]

 

[skybluedave]

Just now, Rob1981 said:

Nah, this one from WC2006:

 

Both sides playing for penalties after about 20 minutes and then the Swiss didn't score any of them

That was the worst game ever. 

[kpain16]

Livaja usually takes penalties like Jorginho, with that hop. Probably changed his mind mid-run, so he missed.

[av3ry]

He may be a great penalty saver but have you seen his profile picture on Football Manager?

[kpain16]

Just now, av3ry said:

He may be a great penalty saver but have you seen his profile picture on Football Manager?

You mean him looking like he's facing a death sentence? Yeah, looks like that all the time. Has that face in casual conversation.

[The_jagster]

5 minutes ago, Rob1981 said:

Why have they started using that horrible camera angle for penalty shootouts?

Hard to tell whether they are good saves or awful penalties for the most part.  They would never use that for a penalty in normal time.

They do it quite a bt normally, Salah had one where it looped up after a save and you couldn't tell what was happening.

[av3ry]

3 minutes ago, kpain16 said:

You mean him looking like he's facing a death sentence? Yeah, looks like that all the time. Has that face in casual conversation.

Yeah.

Shame for Japan, but their players looked like they have never taken a penalty before. Croatia, of course, very experienced at them now going through in what feels like about 5 penalty shootouts since 2018?

[Weezer]

I think I could have saved a couple of those Japanese penalties.

[Heartwork]

Gutted for Japan but Croatia are screwed in the next round.

[Weezer]

36 minutes ago, ginnybob said:

Cheaper to get a wine is wild!

That’s not usually the case, but there’s not normal much difference between the two.

I don’t know how so many of the England fans I’ve seen can afford to get obliterated before the games. Some of these guys must be spending their life saving out here.Takes me at least 6 pints before I start showing signs of it. To get into the state I’ve seen some of the English here it’d be at least a £100 session.

[Bunkerossian]

Croatia activated their zombie mode once again. Cannot put us away, we just won't die. And Livaković outdoes Subašić.

Maeda getting Japan's goal is nice. Hopefully he gets confidence for Celtic. IMO, the best defensive forward in the world. Paralyzed Croatia's build-up.

Japan have lost, but their tactics were decent, and forcing the runners up of the last WC into penalties is proof they belong in the upper tiers of world football. As a secondary Japan fan (rooted for them until this one), I'm gutted my homeland had to face them this early.

[GunmaN1905]

Quote

Three goalkeepers have saved three penalties in a single World Cup shootout:

🇵🇹 Ricardo vs. England (2006)
🇭🇷 Danijel Subašić vs. Denmark (2018)
🇭🇷 Dominik Livaković vs. Japan (2022)

All of those were great shootouts, tbh.

1 hour ago, error username in use said:

Croatia one of the most miserable teams ever to grace a football pitch

Look forward to a full on sit in their own box performance against Brazil

Who's rattling your cage?

Croatia is a team with bad coach, class midfield and huge lack of quality up front. Please do find me one game where we sat in our own box over the past 15 years, we don't know how to do that. We just know how to keep possession and not create anything with it. We defend by keeping the ball, you put pressure on this team and defense crumbles, like it did against Belgium. Even in that match, we kept control for 75 minutes until stamina ran out and coach refused to make subs.

Not Croatia's fault teams don't want to attack us from the start.

[The_jagster]

1 minute ago, GunmaN1905 said:

All of those were great shootouts, tbh.

Who's rattling your cage?

Croatia is a team with bad coach, class midfield and huge lack of quality up front. Please do find me one game where we sat in our own box over the past 15 years, we don't know how to do that. We just know how to keep possession and not create anything with it. We defend by keeping the ball, you put pressure on this team and defense crumbles, like it did against Belgium. Even in that match, we kept control for 75 minutes until stamina ran out and coach refused to make subs.

Not Croatia's fault teams don't want to attack us from the start.

Against England in Euro 2020 for one, that was just playing for a 0-0. You might have kept the ball but you never bothered about scoring.

[GunmaN1905]

Just now, The_jagster said:

Against England in Euro 2020 for one, that was just playing for a 0-0. You might have kept the ball but you never bothered about scoring.

We never bothered about scoring because we got no quality upfront, except for Perišić. And I was referring to knockout phase more than groups. Morocco game was similar to England from EURO. Take other 7 teams in the QF, no Croatian forward except for Perišić makes any of those rosters. Having Callum Wilson would be massive for us, let alone someone better.

And the coach is scared to experiment with any kind of unorthodox setup or formation.  He just fields the three best midfielders and hopes they create something based on their football IQ.

Actually, when I go through results on every big competition up until Dalić, we were always either massively unlucky or had refereeing decisions against us, up until Dalić took over.  Since then, he just keeps getting to penalty shootouts, more or less.
But then again, we didn't eliminate anyone who should've beaten us and had way more chances created.

I don't recall a single victory against top nations where we defended and sh*thoused a win. 2002 against Italy the ref disallowed two of their clear goals, but we didn't park the bus. The only parked buses were in '04 when we were between generations and pretty bad, England just destroyed us that game. A match before that, we're up 2-1 against France, Trezeguet scores a clear hanball goal.

We literally don't know how to play defensive football, as in park the bus and hoof it. It's just that with current roster we have no solutions against parked buses from lesser teams.

[The_jagster]

Name one game we played like this...

Name one game in the knockout stages we played like this.

[GunmaN1905]

10 minutes ago, The_jagster said:

Name one game we played like this...

Name one game in the knockout stages we played like this.

Where did I say you played like this? I said Croatia never parked the bus in a single match, we can't play like that. On Friday it would be better if we could, but we'll probably get demolished as soon as the first one goes in.

Southgate's England plays more or less the same until you score, then your overwhelming pace and talent upfront finishes the job. While it's 0-0 you're a pain to watch, like a shackled team.

Just to be clear, I was never hating on this England squad, I'm just hating on Southgate because I think a proper coach would be able to destroy almost any team with the talent you have.

[Firehouse]

We're through, all that matters to me. Being top 8 in the world is great for a country as small and poor as Croatia.

Still, one would expect we would play a bit better than we are playing. 

EDIT : Oh, and yeah, everyone cheering for Japan just means we do matter in the world of football. Its easy to cheer for the outsiders.

Edited December 5, 2022 by Firehouse

[kpain16]

We played great football in Euro 2016. A joy to watch. Did nothing. We were beaten by a pragmatic Portugal in the 117.minute after dominating them for the entire match.

This is infinitely better when compared to that. Incredible mentality and players that don't mind playing the extra time and penalties because they know they have a mental advantage. Just another day in the office.

But yeah, would be better if we could finish off teams sooner. It's painful to watch.

[Firehouse]

We showed some great football in nations league, and we played really well in the group stages of 2018 WC.
We just set ourselves to play this way this time around. And I kinda hate it since we were scared of Japan, who were crumbling at any sign of our press. But we just walked around for most of the match, only starting to play once we were down.

Still, I really dont think we have enough for Brazil, they are few level above us. But I repeat, being top 8 in the WC should not be considered bad, even though it is a drop off 2018. I just hate it when people say Croatia is old, when in reality we've gone through generations change pretty seamlessly. We just don't trust some of those players at this tournament, but we only have like 5 players from 2018 in the squad now

[kpain16]

Yeah, our team is not an elite set of players, but it's pretty good. We have a good foundation with some emerging players coming through as well. Can't do much better with a population of 3.9 million. QF of the World Cup is a fantastic result. Just look at the teams that will be in the QFs and we're there 2 times in a row with the likes of Germany already at home.

What a lot of people often seem not to realise, a great set of players doesn't equal a great national team that will go far in Cup competitions. It's a very different beast to club football. 

[PMLF]

1 minute ago, kpain16 said:

Can't do much better with a population of 3.9 million

The Uruguay of Europe.

My city (Rio de Janeiro) has a population of 6.8 million.  

[kpain16]

Yeah. We have a lot in common with Uruguay 

[Weezer]

[Bunkerossian]

1 hour ago, GunmaN1905 said:

We never bothered about scoring because we got no quality upfront, except for Perišić. And I was referring to knockout phase more than groups. Morocco game was similar to England from EURO. Take other 7 teams in the QF, no Croatian forward except for Perišić makes any of those rosters. Having Callum Wilson would be massive for us, let alone someone better.

And the coach is scared to experiment with any kind of unorthodox setup or formation.  He just fields the three best midfielders and hopes they create something based on their football IQ.

Actually, when I go through results on every big competition up until Dalić, we were always either massively unlucky or had refereeing decisions against us, up until Dalić took over.  Since then, he just keeps getting to penalty shootouts, more or less.
But then again, we didn't eliminate anyone who should've beaten us and had way more chances created.

I don't recall a single victory against top nations where we defended and sh*thoused a win. 2002 against Italy the ref disallowed two of their clear goals, but we didn't park the bus. The only parked buses were in '04 when we were between generations and pretty bad, England just destroyed us that game. A match before that, we're up 2-1 against France, Trezeguet scores a clear hanball goal.

We literally don't know how to play defensive football, as in park the bus and hoof it. It's just that with current roster we have no solutions against parked buses from lesser teams.

France in the League of Nations can be a template for parking the bus.