Penalty was gutless call from ref.

Denmark brought it on themselves. They decided to bunker with ten minutes remaining in regulation. They struggled after that.

I also didn't under the Denmark substitutions. I think they used all five in first 85 minutes or so. Manager left no bullets in his gun. They played tired. No opportunity to change momentum.

aggiephoenix02 said:

---

Max Power said:

---

Ballgame. England/Italy in the final, that should be a fun match.

---

Go England! Beat those cheaters!

---

Really? We're talking about England winning a match via a Sterling dive and you're calling Italy cheaters?

This has the making of a nice 0-0 (5-4) penalty win for Italy.

Max Power said:

---

Hmmm, anyone on that field that isn't Sterling probably doesn't fall down there. I get it, but dang.

---

Have you EVER seen Grealish and Kane play? Grealish would've looked like they broke his femur

Long rant post.

I've said it before and gotten blasted here, but if you want to see why soccer isn't as popular in the US as many think it should be, look no further than tonight.
Two hours of play and they mustered three goals.
First was a brilliant goal but off a soft penalty.
Second was an own goal.
Third and deciding goal was a joke.

So zero good goals in the run of play in two hours, Denmark bunkered in for the last 45 minutes basically making it like watching paint dry, players acting like they were trying out to play JFK in a Zapruder film remake when they were so much as touched, and again, had the awful call not been made, it would have been decided on 10 one on one plays that involve one tenth of the skill of the game. And this in a tournament where there have already been 11 own goals.

My suggestions for making tournaments like this better:
First have a review of every game for dives to be completed within 24 hours. If someone is found to have dived, yellow for mediocre offense, red for a bad one, Stuff would end tomorrow. It's the worst part of the game.
While it didn't help much this year, keep the allowance of additional subs.
Allow indirect free kicks in the box on those plays at the discretion of the ref.
Get rid of the offsides rule. If a guy is sitting back cherry picking, that's still him and a defender miles from the play, which opens up the field.
Accurately capture extra time, which would seriously curtail time wasting. I saw a study that the average game has 14 minutes, and only about five are added.
Put in a rule for red card offenses that they can be seen off for 20 minutes or some other number depending on the severity of the offense, Because deciding the game on one call ruins it. Ask Sweden. If it's in the first half, the best you can hope for is 70 minutes of "heroic" bunkering, with the team with 11 winning something like 90 percent of the time.

/rant.

Genuine question and not trolling. If you spent two hours watching the game and feel that strongly about so many fundamental or innate parts of the game, why even watch? Or care?

Because there was some good human interest between England's long drought and Denmark's great run.
And it's European football that bothers me the most, generally I like the sport, and the skill level is really great in the European games which usually keeps me interested or overrides the other stuff, but days like today crush that.
Without getting into my background, I'm not a drive by viewer, it's a sport I I understand, I want to see it be more consistently enjoyable and so many small things they could do seem straight forward to me. But people just accept that a good chunk of the games are decided on borderline calls with no critical thinking to how it could be improved.
But to each their own. I am used to being in the minority on this among fans. And I know none of it will happen, which is why I called it a rant,

It wouldn't be a major soccer tournament without the traditional "I hate soccer, let's change the rules" post.

All of your complaints are also part of why people can't get enough of the game. The bad calls are infuriating, but they are also part of the human element of the game. I hate the flopping too, but I understand when certain teams are on the field it will be part of the game.

I think we often forget about the fact that it is a global game. Which means different styles of play, and different cultures bleeding into those styles. Which yes, even means certain teams are going to roll around for awhile. I guess I just don't know why we always have to have the attitude of "If they would just play like the Americans it would be even better." Enjoy it for what it is. And yes, that means mocking the guys that feign death when they feel a breath on them.

Soccer is doing fine.

Keep in mind that a lot of the exaggeration and flops in soccer ARE in fact fouls, the player just embellishes to make sure the ref sees it or calls it...

Basketball players flop, football players embellish PI calls and baseball players constantly find ways to cheat. It's all the same.

I agree on doing something to reduce flops. Though it wouldn't have helped the England flop, I think that if a player has stopped play by rolling around on the ground in either real or fake pain, then it should be an automatic 2 or 3 minutes rest on the sidelines. The team can either sub the guy out or play down a man for those few minutes.

Also every foul should be reviewed and if the person was not touched then it should be an automatic yellow card. No exceptions.

Kevin the 3-legged dog said:

---

...but I called the last 2 WC champs prior.

---

Wow, you actually predicted two of the prohibitive favorites (Germany/France) would win the WC?! Bravo, man... Bravo!

I'm going to correctly predict more simulation dives from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane going to the ground multiple times as if he got hit by a truck, both them only to be outdone by several Air Italia crashes and rolls.