[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

I had to look at a replay after reading your post, because I thought the opposite happened. His foot went over the ball with every intention of hitting the Mex. player. His calf grazed the ball first, but the ball wasn't his target.

I can't understand why the English player didn't just kick the ball.

I was thinking you were talking about the Kane foul. The red card, he did make contact with the ball. But the English announcers said he was overly aggressive. & contact w/the ball was more of an accident. And it was a consensus among them even before the ref got summoned to the video. So I'm guessing it makes sense to futbol folk. From ESPN's review of the incident...............

Verdict: A clear red card challenge by Quansah and a good use of VAR. The nature of this challenge met all the criteria for a red card; speed, intensity and high contact all endangered the safety of his opponent, and Quansah was rightly sent off.

I don't get a lot of the decision making. Again, I'm not surprised cause this is, after all, FIFA.

People who are powerful enough to write the rules aren't going to write rules that limit their power. They are going to leave a big enough loophole so they can be "flexible" to their hearts' content. I.E., Balogun. That's why while I may be puzzled at the decisions made, I'm never shocked by the decisions made.

We had similar convos when the NCAA named the teams for the football playoff. This is why I'm against the NFL "conduct policy". People in power do not like to follow rules. They like to force us to follow the letter of the law. But they don't hold themselves to the same limitations.

But so far the WC, it baffles me the intentional fouls aren't punished as hard as the accidental ones. Guys get into shoving matches & receive nothing. Someone gets their foot stepped on & he gets awarded a penalty shot & the opponent a yellow card.