nah, you can just continue cheering for Croatia :P

Maybe they are still trying to figure out the rules - so throwing in a few stats helps to even the playing field

I'm going to encourage Croatia to beat Iceland, so we have a chance to qualify by beating Nigeria :)

:)

I don't want to sound like a dick, and of course it's always good when a host nation does well, but am I the only one who was getting a little weary about how Russia was acting after beating up on two pretty mediocre teams?

They are facing an actual contender for the first time and, as of this post, they are getting it handed to them.
Feels like poetic justice to me.

The again, they could come back and win this thing 8-2. :P

The host country is usually placed in the easiest group, as it is in the organization's interest that a lot of spectators attend the stadiums. Possibly the least corrupt thing that FIFA does.

This leads to a false sense of security and bitter frustration later on.

What is more worrying is the unjustifiable help from referees that some of them get sometimes (ahem... South Korea 2002 ahem). And guess what? Russia will be facing in next round one of the two teams that advance in group B (current most likely, Spain and Portugal).

Russia is actually the biggest surprise so far for me, and it's a positive one. I've actually fallen asleep during their games at the last EC. They've been a lot better here so far and played some convincing and entertaining football in the first two games. If Russians want to celebrate their team, I say go ahead, it's well deserved.

Russia may be the biggest surprise, but Mexico is the most intriguing one.

I've never seen so many people so quickly go from "This coach is an imbecile!" to "This coach is a genius!"

Ah right, Mexico. I completely forgot about them. Weird.

But yeah, Mexico were pretty great. But they're anything but a pushover, anyway, I think they always had that in them.

Mexico has always been a serious candidate, Russia is indeed a big surprise.

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Not at all. I'm taking some downtime over blatantly wrong calls.
In general, at least. Iran - Portugal is excessive, but I suppose in a game with many close calls that's unavoidable.

Just to follow up, the Portugal va Iran game is a prime example. This is not football! I gave up watching league football as all they did was talk about money, now the World Cup is being ruined by video replay.

Poorly officiated. Just make a call. Go to replay if you have to, but don't stand there 5 minutes and THEN go to replay. Horrible. The other games I've seen did replay okay, but that ref was bad.