best time for England to play poorly and still grab the points. Thought the entire front line, apart from the first 15 mins, were *%^@. Sterling crap, young gave ball away constantly and then followed up with a foul, Lindgard 4 howling misses to my count, Kane - 2 goals but largely anonymous, alli looked like he'd never played with Kane before.

Cheek looked good and think Welbeck should replace Sterling.

Japan beating Columbia and Senegal over Poland great to watch and both deserved it. Overall a very entertaining World Cup so far and expecting even better for round 2.

Bernard - did you get my PM ?

Yes thanks.

It's very hard work not to be drawn into the 'omg, gosh Christiano' hype so I really do hope that Iran do the business to spare me the effort. I fear that if this continues the corks will really come out and the gushing will be overwhelming.

All I need to do is rename the old, faulty 'Bernard' account

The salutory lesson from yesterday was that VAR now makes celebrating a goal a pretty fraught experience.

Lol. You'll be happy to know that the boycott is now over and I'll be gracing the forum with my unique, nuanced presence again. Who knows, I might drop you a PM or 2 if you're lucky.

Per Mertesacker departs

Arsenal have released 33-year old German defender Per Mertesacker from the club.
He becomes player number 6 to leave the club this season.

I think he's great and the World Cup would be much poorer without him. Proper showman, total cock, absolutely brilliant player.

I think this is a really interesting point actually.

I quite like the fact that VAR is getting contentious decisions right and I can see its benefits. How boring.

This is hypothetical, but LETS SAY its the final game of the season, we're at The Lane needing 3 points to win the league. Its 1-1, its 90 mins on the clock, and we score that goal that Iran scored against Spain. Mass frenzy, only for it to be chalked off by VAR for the most marginal of offsides that the naked eye couldn't spot. What does that do to the psyche of the average fan, who's just gone spazz about winning the league at white hart lane and now has to come down from that to be denied winning the league at white hart lane? I'm not sure I could cope.

Could I be magnanimous and accept that fair's fair, the right decision has been made, well done everyone else, hard cheese for us? I expect I would be bitter as a bitch and probably give it some "Fergie wouldn't have won *%^@ with VAR". But how does VAR affect the fans in the stadium? Can you celebrate any more when you score or do you now have to wait for VAR? What's the ettiquette here if you've scored, celebrated, had to wait for VAR, and do you then celebrate again if its ok? But its not as good right, the second time?

The salutory lesson from yesterday was that VAR now makes celebrating a goal a pretty fraught experience.

ahh ok - so, was that a yes or no ?

The reason I ask is, we are 95% done fixing the quote problem.

All I need to do is rename the old, faulty 'Bernard' account which is causing the quotation error, then create a new account for you called Bernard. I just want to make sure you will be able to log back in again.

.

That's my main problem with it - sucks the fun and spontaneity from the game. Oddly the reverse happens with cricket where reviews make it more exciting (realise I have just offered a massive hostage to fortune for the world-classers I can see lurking).

I just think it should only be for very specific things and not offsides. I really don't mind a few marginal mistakes when it comes to offsides. I do mind unjust red cards or blatant penalties or acts of violence not called.

Anything that results in Sergio Ramos suffering would be great fair or unfair.

In the Australia France game I STILL can't make up my mind if it was a pen having seen all the replays!

Var has been a lot less intrusive in this competition in comparison to the Fa cup last season. I disagree with Daz, I think it's very exciting when the ref heads over to take a gander.

Btw hahaha with instant replay in cricket. The only thing more certain to induce a coma than watching a bit of cricket is to watch the same bit twice. Unless your man trips and falls when delivering the drinks for the poor souls who don't do anything other than stand around a large field for 9 hours a day, 5 days in a row. Unless it rains.

Var has been a lot less intrusive in this competition in comparison to the Fa cup last season. I disagree with Daz, I think it's very exciting when the ref heads over to take a gander.

Btw hahaha with instant replay in cricket. The only thing more certain to induce a coma than watching a bit of cricket is to watch the same bit twice. Unless your man trips and falls when delivering the drinks for the poor souls who don't do anything other than stand around a large field for 9 hours a day, 5 days in a row. Unless it rains.

*instant replay*

I don't think there was anything beautiful about Arsenal's possession game under Wenger, toothless or not. The keeper rolls it out to a centre half. He gives it to the nearest full back who gives it back to him. He then gives it to the other centre half who gives it to the other full back who is nearest him. That full back gives it back to the keeper and the routine starts again, maybe with the variation of the keeper giving it to a full back or the other centre half.

Look, when the midfielders get the ball there is plenty of sideways passes or passing back. But I don't think Özil can be blamed as the main cause for our possession football being so boring, which if you want him sold I presume you do. His assist stats suggest he is more likely to pass it purposefully forward than many.

Also, selling Özil could be dangerous for another reason. Getting rid of him six months after signing a contract extension could give the next big player we have approaching the end of his contract, or at least his agent, doubts whether Arsenal's contract offer is to keep him longer-term as a player or to avoid losing him on a Bosman. Selling Özil for a hefty transfer fee now will surely cost him a lot of what he could have got as a signing on fee had he joined whoever on a free transfer. Can Arsenal risk that in future negotiations with players nearing the end of their contracts? I doubt it.

Rog, I'm having problems sending you a PM. Could you please send me a new stand alone one and I'll see if it will let me reply to it? Thanks in advance.

I have created the account for you and activated it.

Just login as Bernard with the password you supplied.

You just need to log off first, then back on again.

Technically the Argies aren't out, but if Iceland beat Nigeria then Iceland and Croatia can engineer a draw that puts them both through and Argentina out.

Am I the only one who gets p*ssed off when the TV cameras briefly focus on small sections of the fans and when they see themselves on the stadium's screens, they start waving, clapping, pointing at themselves and so on. I don't mind children doing it so much. Young kids are immature, after all. But when adults do it, I'm not so forgiving. 'ang 'em!

Who was the last person to be hung for that?

There was a time when you could get hanged for practically anything. Someone was for shoplifting an apple once. So if football had been televised back then, I'd hope the tarts (non gender-specific) who did that would be topped.

Well, we have first huge shock result of the tournament.

Am I the only one who gets p*ssed off when the TV cameras briefly focus on small sections of the fans and when they see themselves on the stadium's screens, they start waving, clapping, pointing at themselves and so on. I don't mind children doing it so much. Young kids are immature, after all. But when adults do it, I'm not so forgiving. 'ang 'em!

@Bernard - you'll see your quote problem is fixed now ...