World Cup: Group C discussion

Sio stopped a direct attempt at goal from behind , which regardless of the intention or if that was to end as goal or not , it was a definitive about to be goalscoring chance which was stopped by innapropriate means in the box . Obvious , direct touch on Samaras from behind that prevents him to shoot at goal. It was a clear penalty and bravo to the ref who gave it . Sure i thought Samaras had faked it at first , like everyone else at the moment , yet the replay is quite enlightening , not sure what you are on about here .

Going by the rules , that is a penalty . And i say bravo to the ref because not many refs would have risked their heads with such a dubious at first sight incident , which eventually decided the qualification for Greece's favour .

@ Robes , well , it's mostly the group man. I am quite sure any other group and the Greek NT would have been back home by now

But they did well with 10 men against Japan and had quite a good game against Ivory Coast if truth be told. We deserved it really , though i suppose Ivory Coast would seem a far better choice to most neutrals given some of their names. One thing that one should never forget with this particular nt is that , no matter how much behind they are in quality , they will never be afraid of their opponent. No matter how good they are. They have some great mentality going there and they are all very united as a group. All that matter in tournaments , but yeah , it was mostly the group tbh

I personally had us out even before the first game

Forgot to mention and even myself forgot at the time , Samaras never dives. Not sure i have seen him dive once , with the NT at least. He's very sportsmanlike and after the replay i was like , yeah , he never dives ffs . But again , even me who knew that , i thought he dived there . First sight it seemed fake , but it was a legit penalty .

Dante, in order for something to be a foul there has to actually be a challenge. There was no attempt to win the ball or trip the man from Sio, Samaras just hit him on his way to shoot.

Most definitely not a penalty  

And this wasn't an attempted challenge to prevent him from shooting? It's pretty obvious that Sio , although that was quite the foolish decision obviously , puts his foot with hope of doing something to prevent Samaras from shooting there.. it cannot be that you don't realise he fully intentionaly spreads his leg there? I mean , it's right there , you see him spreading his leg

Come on Rox , i have nothing else to say , pay attention to his body language. It was a VERY stupid decision by Sio and thus , a very stupid peno , but it was well given and besides , the ref was quite near them , i fully trust the decision taken. I don't really feel like discussing that anymore , because you know , there's actual contact from behind there that prevents a clear goalscoring chance , which would have been legit otherwise , goal or not . It cannot get more clear .

Not sure what else to tell you , i am pretty sure everybody says it's legit , i've yet to read an actual refs opinion after the game but , lol , i am quite sure it's legit. You say there was no challenge , which there was however lame , but let's keep it for the discussion.. And ? If there was hand contact without a challenge or intention inside the box , wouldn't that still result in a penalty?

It would , unless i forget a particular and extremely specific rule regarding hand contact. So i don't agree with the no challenge arguement really.. having said all that , i see how stupid it seems on the eye , but it's legit in the end. At least the ref did nothing wrong by giving it and he was in a position to tell . But anyway , think what you want m8 , who i may to say anything

we through , ready to get our arses handed by Costa Rica next Sunday

It was a penalty, imo. What a bottle job by the Ivorians, incredible.

Yeah... on replay, Sio made contact with his leg when he was about to shoot. Clear pen and very stupid.

Greece will win the whole World Cup

(if you cant cop racist humor, dont watch it)

Sio you utter dumb***. I hope Drogba and Yaya backhanded him in the dressing room for undoing all the hard work they and their teammates did.

As if Yaya can have a go at anyone for the hard work he did lol.

Meh, looking at it again in real time, I see the extension of the leg from Sio...

It's worth noting though that slow motion replays exaggerate it a lot...The contact with Sio's leg wasn't enough to trip him or that's where he would have fell. Samaras' leg continued its movement almost unfazed until he kicked himself.

Anyway, it's done, stupid from Sio.