Copa america centenario!!!

[YmoBeThere]

That second red card was poorly utilized...replay would have helped on that one.

[OldPhiKap]

End to end action in the overtime!

[OldPhiKap]

Congrats to Chile!

[YmoBeThere]

Messi's "futility" continues. Maybe he needs the "hand of God" to intervene.

[luburch]

I thought the US played pretty well against Colombia. Got caught ball-watching a bit on the first goal, but overall it was a nice response from the Argentina match.

[YmoBeThere]

Messi no longer playing for Argentine National Team.

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/socce...231.html?nhp=1

[gurufrisbee]

It was a very entertaining and hard fought game. Wonderful to watch.

Perhaps Messi is true about this. I'm still guessing (and hoping) we see him in Russia.

[elvis14]

I thought the US played pretty well against Colombia. Got caught ball-watching a bit on the first goal, but overall it was a nice response from the Argentina match.

I thought the US played very well against Columbia. It seemed like a winnable game (unlike the Argentina game).

[DukeTrinity11]

Messi is quitting the National Team because he's sick of losing on the big stage??? That's ridiculous to me.

It would be like Lebron James just retiring from the NBA because he's pissed off at losing in the Finals if he hadn't won it all this year. Can you imagine the backlash James would get if he did that?

I have to imagine Messi just said something stupid in the heat of the moment there.

[cato]

Messi is quitting the National Team because he's sick of losing on the big stage??? That's ridiculous to me.

It would be like Lebron James just retiring from the NBA because he's pissed off at losing in the Finals if he hadn't won it all this year. Can you imagine the backlash James would get if he did that?

I have to imagine Messi just said something stupid in the heat of the moment there.

Well, there is also something going on between the players and the national association. So, it would be like LeBron saying he wasn't going to play for the USMNT, with a background dispute between the players and USA Basketball.

[Highlander]

As I understand it, this is exactly what the ref does. He pauses his watch during injuries, after goals, etc. and then sees how short of 90 minutes he is as the game clock approaches 90.

Agree with you other points. I've heard it suggested elsewhere that we stop and start the clock as in other sports - and maybe even allow *timeouts* (which would completely change the game). I fear that if we "Americanize" the clock (i.e. actually stop the game clock at various points), it won't take long for someone to stick a commercial in there.

As someone who used to be a soccer referee (rec only, level 08 IIRC), we were taught to NEVER stop our watch during a match. The rationale was that if you stop your watch it is easy to forget to start it again, and then you have no idea how much time has expired. Adding time to the end of a game is a bit subjective, but does allow for teams to finish their attack, take that one last corner, etc., without time running out. But it's also subjective as to whether a player is wasting time on a throw in or during an injury.

IMO, it's part of the culture of the game and not easily changed unless you are going to keep the official time in the press box rather than on the field.

[CDu]

As someone who used to be a soccer referee (rec only, level 08 IIRC), we were taught to NEVER stop our watch during a match. The rationale was that if you stop your watch it is easy to forget to start it again, and then you have no idea how much time has expired. Adding time to the end of a game is a bit subjective, but does allow for teams to finish their attack, take that one last corner, etc., without time running out. But it's also subjective as to whether a player is wasting time on a throw in or during an injury.

IMO, it's part of the culture of the game and not easily changed unless you are going to keep the official time in the press box rather than on the field.

Right, it is very easily fixed by having an official timekeeper keeping an official clock. FIFA just chooses not to do so.

[gurufrisbee]

Messi's "retirement" lasts six weeks.

A fake retirement because you couldn't win and wanted the attention to stroke your ego?

Sorry Messi - we've already seen Jordan do that twice.

[YmoBeThere]

Something to consider in all this was his ongoing court case in Spain on tax evasion charges. Perhaps he was trying to leverage political contacts on both sides of the ocean.