Czechia v RSA

South Africa were abysmal against Mexico (Mexico not much better), and with 2 players banned, you wouldn't fancy them.

Sewth Efrica the worst team in the tournament so far..

Mind you, I would've thought Czechs would be a bit better than this.

I told myself I couldn't be backing the Czechs at all at this tourney after watching them stink the place out while scraping through the qualifiers. Lucky for them they're playing such a hopeless side in SA.

Yes, two very average sides here. Neither belong in this tournament.

This 48 team tournament is going to give some lucky sides a practical bye into the final 16.

What a waste of 45 minutes south africa walking around dont know they bother to come  here

"Talksport 2" are behind the TV pics, nearly a minute behind real time.

What kind a game of football is this nothing happening none of them can pass a ball all this game i s stopping every 10 seconds

Penalty South Africa

1-1

whilst spending a 80 mins criticising FIFA,hydration break, s, Africa , in 2 mins stephen Warnock has been wrong about
short free kick
corner decision
pen
and south Africa wont score

How an earth can that be hand ball?The defeder turned sideways and ha his right arnm by his side.

What is the point of VAR if they don't overturn ? What's he supposed to do with his arms?

Ever since the introduction of VAR the game has become farce.

The game's gone, how is that a penalty?

I reckon if the ref was a bloke they'd have sent him over to the monitor!!

Deserved leveller. Rotten Czechs tried to just bore their way to 1-0. Always good to see that type of pathetic negativity get PUNISHED!

haven't seen the whole game, but from what I've seen, Czechs only have themselves to blame. No point in sitting on a one goal lead against such a poor side.

Both teams are shiit.

Never a penalty.

Warnock is the most irritating co-commentator I've ever heard, said a couple of days ago he wouldn't relent on managers using hydration breaks for tactical interventions, when it makes no difference if they're all doing it. Hope someone at the BBC pulls him up as he's a big turn off.

Did VAR even look at that pen, it was blasted straight at him.

I'd like to see FIFA's top officials lined up against a wall and have someone like Alan Shearer

Strike a ball at them as hard as he can from 8 feet away . Let's see if they can get their arms out of the way!

South Africa are the worst team I've seen at this World Cup, even worst that Curacao, only way they were ever going to score was a pen

agree it was a very harsh pen.

At 60 MPH the ball travels at 88 feet per second so the player had about 1/10th of a second to react!

Warnock is tedious to listen to. Over-explains everything and ties himself in knots. Another useless pundit stealing a living.

At least that pair of trash will be both out when they both lose their last games

hope both these teams go out.

penalty decision made a poor match even worse

Czech why did nt they finish the game when africans were doing nothing disgrace of a game

Pen might seem harsh but he has his hand out away from his body His left arm wasn't always positioned as close to body as possible. He moves it outward as the ball was being struck. He clearly knows what he's doing by making his body bigger. The guilt was written all over his face.

WALOFS

He put his right forearm across his stomach to protect himself, the ball them flew up and hit his left arm which was suppose to be where, tucked down his trousers?

"left arm which was suppose to be where" IF it was where it initially was(RIGHT BY HIS SIDE) he'd have been fine. The fact is he moved it outward in obvious effort to make it bigger obstacle for ball to pass by.. which it did. Which resulted in the punishment.

In 1/10th of a second DBL ?

The timing is irrelevant. It's all about the act/intent.

Footballers aren't Irish Dancing experts. See how high you can jump with both arma by your side!

It was an obvious effort - he decided to make that obvious effort in absolute nano seconds did he? - bullets have left barrel of a gun slower than that shot ffs

The timing is everything DBL. How on earth can you get any part of your body out of the way of a

missile fired from 10 feet away travelling at 88 feet per second or more?

Timing is only relevant to how big you can make obstacle before ball gets chance to fly past you. The Czech player clearly managed that.

It was a very fortunate penalty. Imo it was in a natural postion but it's subjective.  Your arms are away from your body.  It wasn't outstretched and it was at point blank range 

Aside from the subjective interpretation the rule is dumb.  It should be outstretched, deliberate or preventing a goal bound shot from being a goal, not this subjective unnatural position BS.

Anticipating a shot, he turned sideways on (if you value the family jewels a sensible thing to do),

but he would have had no idea where exactly the ball was going until it hit him. For hand ball it has

to be deliberate.

The reality is that defenders are putting their arms in unnatural positions to try to avoid giving penalties.  You couldn't really make it up

Since the introduction of VAR the 'intentional' part of the rule seems to have been erased.

Excellent point Clydebank.

Play football at any level, have the ball blasted at you from point blank range, in nano seconds, and your natural instinct is do what both his arms did, would be surprised the female ref got another game.

Players have 3 legal options. 1) Keep arms behind back. 2) Keep arms in front of body. 3) Keep arms by side. The Czech player chose the punishable option 4) Sharply move arm out with the obvious intent to illegally stop the ball passing by body.

pen or no pen. two absolutely dreadful teams

He didn't 4) Sharply move arm out with the obvious intent to illegally stop the ball passing by body imo. 

But that is subjective so can see why the ref gave it

Arms are an integral part of movement.

Try twisting really quickly like a ball has been blasted at you or jumping up to compete for a cross with your arms held rigid to your body. It can't be done.

It's physics ffs.

The ball struck his right arm first, his right arm was protecting his abdomen area, the ball then then flew up on to his left arm, his left arm was not 'sharply' moved with the intent to stop the ball, that was a completely natural reaction to a ball being pelted at you from yards away not a conscious decision made in nano seconds, if that's the dumbness of refereeing decisions that they're allowing then the tactic is clear for other teams, just blast the ball at players in the box and hope for the best.

VAR don’t make the rules they are there to make sure rules are enforced and  vast majority of pundits don’t seem to understand that.
Do I agree with a lot of new rules ? No but I don’t blame VAR

Blast the ball all day long all you want, as long as the opp doesn't have outstretched arms, or intentionally moves his arm outward away from body the way the Czech play did in this incident, there's NO PEN.

DBL, you aren't fooling me, clearly on a wind up

No wind up duffy.

"The Rule Interpretation: Ex-referees analyzing the footage point out that while Pavel Šulc’s arm looked relatively tucked, Penso's angle on the pitch clearly showed his left arm moving away from his body contour to block Thalepo Maseko's strike, making it a modern-rule penalty."

Unlike many, I remain consistent, whether it's FOR or AGAINST the outcome I'd like personally.

Nice try, you're not going to kid us into thinking that there was two people on the planet that thought it was a pen, you and the bird, no way

They say a pic speaks a thousands words. This pic certainly speaks at least 4



"SHEET, I'VE MESSED UP."

I think it's the look of resignation from a player who realizes that VAR won't get involved to correct the decision for fear of making the referee cry.

Looks like a man that's just had his hard drive checked to me

He looks like the man who just come up with the idea of having a substitute coming on for a red carded player and heard the crowds reaction to it

Sorry duffy, Conference level reply vs mesmerised's Champions League

Peasant