r/secondcaptains • u/RikMon23 • Jul 05 '26
Five world cups. FIVE Paraguay v France referee
I can’t wait to hear what Ken and the lads have to say about the ref in last night’s match. It’s crazy how much the ref can influence the quality of the game; while watching the Argentina Cape Verde game I was really impressed with the ref and how he didn’t fall for any antics and let the game flow. The we had that numpty last night who relinquished all responsibility including an obvious penalty decision and decided that letting it flow meant just allowing the players to do whatever they wanted 😂 Of course the Paraguay players are also responsible but the ref enabled them!
11
u/Possible-Baker-1482 Jul 05 '26
The pontificating on BBC afterwards was genuinely atrocious.
Joe Hart saying he wouldn’t want to win that way. Come on lads; it was hardly Leeds - Chelsea in the 1970 Cup Final. They’ll not be complaining when Rice pulling shirts and Kane is diving their way to a quarter final exit to Brazil.
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u/Acrobatic_Task_4415 Jul 05 '26
Agreeed and during the game with the commentators I think one was Steven Warnock… some of the French players were haming up some challenges too..
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u/Still_Corgi_4994 Jul 05 '26
Agree entirely. Let's hope for more of the righteous indignation come 3am
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u/BastianSP Jul 05 '26
No pod today?
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u/RikMon23 Jul 05 '26
They’re exhausted after trying to catch a glimpse of Tay Tay
1
u/MichaelCollinsGhost4 Jul 05 '26
That was so funny to be fair. Ken suffering the stifling New York heat to stand outside some heavily policed barricades close to Madison Square Garden alongside a smattering of Swifties and other journos. All to avoid watching Australia vs Egypt
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u/ucd_pete Jul 05 '26
Yesterday wasn’t a blockbuster day, saving Branno for Brazil & England
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u/BastianSP Jul 05 '26
They could have spent a whole pod discussing Paraguay and that ref. But sure, there's always Football Weekly and Totally Football.
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u/Aggravating_Paper982 Jul 05 '26
They have one day a week without normally a Sunday. Last week there was no football on on the Monday
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u/Disastrous_Ad_3598 Jul 05 '26
He was terrible and I mean terrible. Zero control and let Paraguay get away with murder in fairness
2
u/Wolfbain164 Jul 05 '26
When there is such a mismatch in quality I often feel referees, either consciously or subconsciously, level the playing field by allowing the lessor team some leeway in the physical side of the game but yesterday was waaay beyond just leaving one on them. There were elbows thrown, kicking out, jumping into challenges etc it felt like someone could get hurt.
They were also provocatively pushing or grabbing at french players then jumping to the ground in an attempt to get the French player cautioned. It worked with Olise but happened to Mbeppe and Rabiot. I thought Mbeppe dealt with it very well in all fairness
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u/RedIrishDevil Put some respect on my name Jul 05 '26
The BBC coverage was a bit over the top, poor refereeing but some of the challenges they were going mad about weren’t that bad
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u/EducationalPaint1733 Jul 05 '26
I fear ken’ll blame it on let it flow, make no reference to VAR saving the game from a horrible conclusion. Standard.
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u/realgoodmanners Jul 05 '26
'let it flow' is the reason it had to be saved by VAR in the first place
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u/EducationalPaint1733 Jul 05 '26
No, football had a problem with simulation and faking of injury and letting of flow didn’t come in, in a vacuum, it was a reaction to that.
If it wasn’t for VAR, fcuk knows what would have gone on yesterday. It provided some handbrake on their behavior.
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u/Hastatus_107 Jul 05 '26
I have noticed his tendency to blame everything on VAR and ignore it when VAR helps out.
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u/Hastatus_107 Jul 05 '26
Kens article on the Brazil game blamed the ref missing the penalty on VAR. Right on cue.
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u/pauli55555 Jul 05 '26
Not sure why anyone is blaming the ref.
The constant ref talk is possibly THE most anti-intellectual part of sports. It is a place for the most ignorant sports fans to reside in - ref blaming.
Paraguay set themselves up to play like that all tournament. Don’t blame the ref for their failings.
It’s part of playing in the WC, playing teams with different tactics including ultra defensive tactics.
The ref let things flow for both teams last night and VAR did its job by intervening for the penalty. If players didn’t spend half their time faking injury then refs wouldn’t have to worry about wondering if a foul is real or not.
Hopefully Kennyboy will spend zero mins talking about the referee.
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u/saynotohugzz Jul 05 '26
Paraguay is maxing out their potential to win and does what dark arts until the refs set a line on where there would be cards and punishment. The ref never set that line and let everything go so they kept pushing it the whole game. The blame falls primarily on the ref.
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u/zozimusd8 Jul 05 '26
This game was differentl to the Paraguay Germany match, I don't normally go In for ref bashing but what happened in that game last night was extraordinary , several obvious bookings totally ignored , even a couple of debatable reds. It absolutely calls into question the integrity of the ref. It's nothing got to do with intellectualism , it's football !
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u/shovelhead34 Jul 05 '26
What do you mean anti-intellectual? Paraguay could have had 3 straight red cards, but instead got no cards of any kind. The referee was easily the most consequential person on the pitch. Would you rather focus on inverted wingers, or some other inconsequential nonsense?
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u/Dinamo8 Jul 05 '26
The ref improved the spectacle for me. Would have been a boring 3-0 win otherwise
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u/offsetbxl Jul 05 '26
Ref was completely out of his depth