***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

[enisthemenace]

That’s got to be a penalty. Wow.

 

[enisthemenace]

A penalty in the last minute of extra time. Incredible.

 

[packattack425]

Laying down pretending to be hurt on the penalty kick marker is a technique

 

[AppleCornCy]

His name is P.I. Ciss lol

 

[BigJCy]

 

[harimad]

How much stoppage time is there??

 

[clonedude]

I love watching soccer, but admittedly no expert on all the rules…. but that penalty seemed like a completely BS call.

Looked to me like the Senegal player was there first, was going to clear it, and the Belgium player’s foot landed right in the path of his foot.

Senegal was way better than Belgium today, choked it.

 

[clonedude]

I don’t think so at all. Senegal player was there first, doesn’t he have as much right to that ball as the Belgium player? I don’t get it?

 

[alenz95]

It was cool that Belgium won that game, but I didn’t see much tonight that changed my opinion on them from the group stage. USA needs to take care of business tonight and will get to play a very beatable Belgium team.

 

[3TrueFans]

Ragebaiting by only showing the worst angle of the replay, he kicked him in the back of the leg before the ball got there, easy penalty.

 

[alenz95]

I love watching soccer, but admittedly no expert on all the rules…. but that penalty seemed like a completely BS call.

Looked to me like the Senegal player was there first, was going to clear it, and the Belgium player’s foot landed right in the path of his foot.

Senegal was way better than Belgium today, choked it.

It’s a pen if you’re going strictly by the letter of the law. The problem here is that it was a tight play and only becomes a pen from VAR check. Seemed tight enough that you have to stick with on field call.

 

[enisthemenace]

I don’t think so at all. Senegal player was there first, doesn’t he have as much right to that ball as the Belgium player? I don’t get it?

He made clear contact with the Belgian player’s leg without touching the ball during the challenge. It was a foul, Man.

 

[CysFive]

I love watching soccer, but admittedly no expert on all the rules…. but that penalty seemed like a completely BS call.

Looked to me like the Senegal player was there first, was going to clear it, and the Belgium player’s foot landed right in the path of his foot.

Senegal was way better than Belgium today, choked it.

Yeah that's the kind of penalty that is always given, but pisses me off. Attacker comes from the defenders blind side and sticks his foot in when the defender had inside position. The ball is there bang-bang, which makes it tough, but if you imagine each player attacking the ball in isolation without his opponent, the hypothetical Senegal player is going to get to the ball before the hypothetical Belgium player. So who really impeded whom? But it was officiated correctly, technically, and won Belgium a game that probably deserved a draw. It ticks me off.

 

[AlaCyclone]

Am definitely jealous we don't have something that really rivals that for a homefield advantage. I will say it's a good thing that our potential Round of 16 match would be in Seattle. That's probably the best homefield the USMNT has going at the moment outside of Columbus, which is only 20,000 seater so not an option for World Cup.

Yes and No. I love the fact that the USMNT plays home game all over the country. I've seen them play @ Philadelphia, PA, @ Washington, DC and @ Kansas City, KS. Spread the wealth!

 

[clonedude]

Yeah that's the kind of penalty that is always given, but pisses me off. Attacker comes from the defenders blind side and sticks his foot in when the defender had inside position. The ball is there bang-bang, which makes it tough, but if you imagine each player attacking the ball in isolation without his opponent, the hypothetical Senegal player is going to get to the ball before the hypothetical Belgium player. So who really impeded whom? But it was officiated correctly, technically, and won Belgium a game that probably deserved a draw. It ticks me off.

Agree completely. Senegal player was there first and had inside position. Goes to kick it out of there and before his foot gets to the ball, the Belgium player sticks his foot in there.. and gets the call. If that’s the rule, so be it…. but that is stupid.

 

[CloneJD]

Yeah that's the kind of penalty that is always given, but pisses me off. Attacker comes from the defenders blind side and sticks his foot in when the defender had inside position. The ball is there bang-bang, which makes it tough, but if you imagine each player attacking the ball in isolation without his opponent, the hypothetical Senegal player is going to get to the ball before the hypothetical Belgium player. So who really impeded whom? But it was officiated correctly, technically, and won Belgium a game that probably deserved a draw. It ticks me off.

Well don’t have your keeper come out and miss his punch in the 88th minute and problem solved. Senegal gave up two in 3 minutes and didn’t deserve anything imo.

 

[enisthemenace]

Agree completely. Senegal player was there first and had inside position. Goes to kick it out of there and before his foot gets to the ball, the Belgium player sticks his foot in there.. and gets the call. If that’s the rule, so be it…. but that is stupid.

How can you say he had “inside position” when he kicked the back of the dude’s leg? If he had a play on the ball, he would have made it. He didn’t, he made contact and committed a penalty.

The only thing that sucks about it is that it took VAR to get there. It was ultimately the right call. Ref should have made the call in real time. VAR could have reversed it if justified. That happened in the US/Paraguay game.

 

[clonedude]

Deserving it has nothing to do with it. Either it was a penalty or it wasn’t. I don’t know the rules enough to know, I fully admit that.

I only know that if that was the correct call…. that’s BS imo. Not sure what the Senegal player was supposed to do?

 

[pulse]

It’s a pen if you’re going strictly by the letter of the law. The problem here is that it was a tight play and only becomes a pen from VAR check. Seemed tight enough that you have to stick with on field call.

It's what VAR is for. How many sports (football, basketball, whatever) are people annoyed when the ref doesn't make a call, but everyone can see a penalty on the screen.

 

[clonedude]

How can you say he had “inside position” when he kicked the back of the dude’s leg? If he had a play on the ball, he would have made it. He didn’t, he made contact and committed a penalty.

The only thing that sucks about it is that it took VAR to get there. It was ultimately the right call. Ref should have made the call in real time. VAR could have reversed it if justified. That happened in the US/Paraguay game.

If I go to kick a ball, and at the last millisecond you come in from my right side and stick your foot right in front of mine, I’m going to kick your foot instead of the ball, nothing I can do.

You know what…. it’s funny because I really don’t give two sh*ts about who won that game. Just didn’t like it decided like that is all.