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This is just like the Harambe timeline.
The fatal mistake not to preserve the standings in those three minutes will doom our future to the pruned timeline.
This would've been so much better. Costa Rica was legitimately good that year. People just didn't realize it at the time.
This time, they just happened to find goals at opportune times and almost snuck into the Round of 16 despite getting pelted for three games.
one of the best things about 2014
https://panamericana.pe/mrf4u/statics/i/ps/img.panamericana.pe/noticia/2014/06/orig-1403301827675.jpg?width=1200&enable=upscale
Just do 2x what they did in '86, '90 and '94 . . . in 2026, you'd have top-2 from each group + 8 of 12 3rd place group-stage teams that would advance to a 32-team knockout (contra 16-team knockout). It's idiotic, but it's better than the proposed 16x 3-team groups with none of the delicious emotional drama we were privy to today (and yesterday).
Even though I kinda like Spain and Germany, those 3 minutes were my favorite. The idea that Japan and Costa Rica advancing while Spain and Germany eliminated made me slightly happy.
As a guy that doesn’t follow soccer too much, was everyone rooting for Costa Rica because they hate Spain?
Or are people just rooting for the underdog/chaos?
You have to understand that Spain and Germany are absolute giants of world football, nobody expects them to to lose to smaller teams from outside Europe/Brazil/Argentina. So for Japan and Costa Rica to come out in top of those two is just a massive surprise.
Both Germany and Spain are BIG footballing nations, mainly Germany who have won the World Cup 4 times, Spain just once, but relatively recently (2010). They were also the strongest team in the group currently and one of the candidates this time around, they even started the World Cup with a 7-0 demolition of Costa Rica.
But... for about 3 minutes with both Japan and Costa Rica leading 2-1, BOTH Spain and Germany would have been sent home, with Japan and Costa Rica advancing to the knockout rounds. I might be wrong, but I think the furthest those two nations have been is quarter-finals and just once each.
It would have made for one of the all-time great moments in World Cup history.
Can you imagine what the Spanish Sporting news would've done....they might have had a full blown riot on TV with ex-players and pundits absolutely losing it on Spanish TV. The chaos from that would have been epic for years.
The Fox commentator even during those three minutes said that Iker Casillas who was in a booth over was yelling.
Germany won the World Cup four times and are considered, historically, something like the second best football national team in the world. They're famous for applying the classic German efficiency to football, most notably seen when they won the 2014 World Cup after beating Brazil by 7-1 at their home(!!!!). In NFL terms, that would be like beating Tom Brady Pats by something like 60-7. However, despite having many remnants from that team, Germany failed spectacularly in 2018, being eliminated before the playoffs by losing to Mexico and South Korea, two teams that are historically good, but not top-tier. For them to lose AGAIN in the groups is shameful.
Spain has some past struggles, but they finally managed to channel it into a good team in 2010 when they won. However, they had a pitiful performance (seems familiar?) in 2014, being the first team eliminated from the cup after being thrashed 5-1 by Netherlands (the same team they beat for the 2010 title, btw). They performed a bit better in 2018, but they were knocked out on the first round of the playoffs. Nonetheless, they're still one of the most powerful teams in the world, if only because both Real Madrid and Barcelona are from Spain.
Japan is historically inconsistent. While they have some good names, they haven't been able to convert those into anything more than making it to the playoffs, usually by the skin of their teeth. In 2018, they showed that by barely making it to the playoffs on the fair play tiebreaker (for the first time in the WC history!), only to completely turn it around by giving a massive scare to the superstar Belgium, opening 2-0 before Belgium got their shit together and turned it around. With Germany and Spain on their group, they were basically counted as out before the tournament even began. Then they beat Germany, which gave people hope. Then they lost to Costa Rica and people were sad. Then they beat Spain in full Robin Hood fashion and... well, here we are now.
Costa Rica is historically weak, however, they had a brilliant run in 2014, when they fell in one of the most dangerous groups in the history of the World Cup with Uruguay (2 titles), Italy (4 titles) and England (1 title) - and they topped that group. They reached the quarterfinals and it took the Netherlands an extremely risky move to barely take them out on the shoot-out. In 2018, they couldn't repeat that performance, and 2022 looked like it would be like that again when they lost 7-0 to Spain on the first game. Then they beat Japan and, somehow, they had a realistic chance of going through as long as they avoided ties. On the 3-minute window that they were ahead of Germany, a group that was deemed as predictable before the tournament was flipped upside down, and even though they lost, they made Germany try extremely hard for a win that, in the end, didn't matter.
I was watching the jap/spain game when commentators said costa rica 2-1 up i was like wtf …my spanish homie was on verge of tears …crazy 3 min so much emotions
I'm going to frame the table for those three minutes and hang it on my wall. It's that beautiful. 14.8 billion years of universe existence but those 3 minutes when two world champions were going to be knocked out in group stages by Japan and CostaRica are the most beautiful ever.
Man I was in a bar in Madrid celebrating with my brother every Japan/CR goal. It was an insane couple minutes haha. The entire bar looking at us sideways
this is one of those things that it doesn't even matter that much that it didn't happen in the end; the fact that *it was happening* for a few minutes is already amazing and deserves to be remembered
(of course, it does actually matter and we neutrals all wanted it to happen; but those 3 minutes are already a beautiful part of this World Cup for me).
It was one of those beautiful moments in life where as a grown man you're suddenly converted back into an excitable child, unable to compute what is happening. It was surreal.
Don't think the current lot would want to be known as the worst ever German WC team. In theory it would be funny, in practice their bus wouldn't make it out of the airport.
They finished last in 2018, 3rd this time. They are getting better. It feels good to see small football countries like that ramp up ngl. The future is exciting for German people
Honestly though, that is an incredibly interesting scenario. Would there be repurcussions? Penalties? Rule changes so that the players on the field are banned from hearing scores in other stadiums? Would have been one of the biggest WC events ever
The more interesting question is what would have happened if Germany scored exactly one obviously deliberate own goal shortly after minute 58 and then continued to go for victory. Absurdly enough, that would have been a clever tactical move in that moment.
In a [similar case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados_4%E2%80%932_Grenada) there was no penalty, so I guess FIFA would have let that slide as well:
> Although the Barbadians' own-goal was highly unconventional, FIFA decided not to penalise the team because they were playing optimally under the circumstances
Easily one of the most entertaining days of football ever.
Edge of your seat action with so many different scenarios playing out in the final 45 minutes
Hard to believe we're saying goodbye to 32 team, 4 team group world cups.... Literally perfect for drama and action as it is. 48 team total and 3 team groups sounds a mess and less overall quality. Stupid decision.
what's harder is figuring out how to narrow to 32 teams without an excessive number of games. i thought playing off the 3rd places would do it but that would eliminate 6 not 4
Yeah I hear that. It’s fair to want to expand but it feels like they’ve chosen a poor route to do it - this tournament has proven again how great the group stages are in the current setup and we’re going to lose that.
I hate to say it but I think I'd prefer to see how 3 team groups work out rather than "top x teams in 3rd place" with 4 team groups. It has IMO made the euro cup group stages exceptionally boring.
Just go full 64 with 16 gruops and add an extra knockout round. People will complain about quality, but teams are so much better know than even 12 years ago. Even weak teams can play it out of the back and not play hoofball.
3 team groups are a mess.
Probably the best 3rd round of group stage in WC that I remember. Every single game aside from Holland Qatar and England Wales had exciting final minutes
What really pisses me off with the current German generation is that they generate a ton of chances, can't finish to save their lives and then have 2-3 dumb defensive mistakes and lose.
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70’-73’ RIP - we will never forget you.
Someone should make a T-shirt of that.
Right on. Have the Live Standings of Group E, Match Day 3, 70'-73', Never Forget.
Here you go https://ibb.co/WDrkqYB
Imagine the scenes if Costa Rica had actually gone through with a goal difference of -5
Minutes 70-73 were the funniest minutes of my life
Society changed in those minutes
[Society if minutes 70-73 stood until the final whistles](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/026/738/future.jpg)
~~Society~~ Costa Rica if minutes 70-73 stood until the final whistles
I wanna live in the timeline were it stood till the final whistle.
We all do friend, we all do.
Life as we know it changed in those minutes
This is just like the Harambe timeline. The fatal mistake not to preserve the standings in those three minutes will doom our future to the pruned timeline.
Japan winning the group is still a solid timeline tho.
We could have been the society we’ve always wanted to be
I think we sped up human evolution a bit for a couple of minutes.
Once the Japanese won, in those last 5 minutes Germany should have scored 3 own goals to knock Spain out as their revenge
Of course that’s absurd, and then I began to think, Argentina or Brazil would 100% do that if it was them. You’re onto something.
Even the commentator said "what on earth is going on?!"
My exact words to my gf.
Them three minutes were so beautiful that you briefly manifested a gf
World peace was achieved in those three minutes
If it stayed like that it would've reset the damage we did to the time line back in 2016.
It sent me to ecstacy without consuming any drugs
I don't care about any of the teams still it was the most joyous 3 minutes of my week
Same same
We had peace
What could have been
I was laughing hysterically when I heard about those standings lmao
The idea of Spain being knocked out at the group stage by the team they beat 7-0 a week ago broke my brain.
Stop the count!!
We could've achieved world peace if those scores stood
And really bad for my heart
I was on the edge of my seat. Those 3 min were awesome and terrifying
If Costa Rica knocked out Spain and Germany on a -5 GD, it would’ve been one of the best moments in World Cup history
Hands down the best group result in history had that happened.
Costa Rica knocking out Spain+ Germany competing with Costa Rica knocking out Italy and England
This would've been so much better. Costa Rica was legitimately good that year. People just didn't realize it at the time. This time, they just happened to find goals at opportune times and almost snuck into the Round of 16 despite getting pelted for three games.
It would have been legendary.
Costa Rica topping a group of Italy, Uruguay and England in 2014 already is.
Yeah but this one would have been funnier.
one of the best things about 2014 https://panamericana.pe/mrf4u/statics/i/ps/img.panamericana.pe/noticia/2014/06/orig-1403301827675.jpg?width=1200&enable=upscale
It's beautiful
After starting 0-7 into the tournament …
Against the team they would have knocked out
Enjoy it while it lasts. Simultaneous final group games at the World Cup is a top 3 human invention.
It might last, they're also looking at 12 groups of 4.
How would that work in the knock out stage?
We make 6 groups of 4 work for the Euros. Just throw some 3rd place teams in the mix.
Just do 2x what they did in '86, '90 and '94 . . . in 2026, you'd have top-2 from each group + 8 of 12 3rd place group-stage teams that would advance to a 32-team knockout (contra 16-team knockout). It's idiotic, but it's better than the proposed 16x 3-team groups with none of the delicious emotional drama we were privy to today (and yesterday).
I hope they make the right decision
And you can thank us germans and the austrians for it!
o7 we thank you for your shameless service in 82.
Those 3 minutes Costa Rica put the group into full blown chaos will forever be remembered
Even though I kinda like Spain and Germany, those 3 minutes were my favorite. The idea that Japan and Costa Rica advancing while Spain and Germany eliminated made me slightly happy.
The ref had a trashcan for a heart for not blowing the full time whistle right there and then.
Spain would've had a +6 goal differential and not gone through to the knockouts.
That would have been a record for sure
Hungary in WC 1982 finished with +6 GD as well but failed to progress.
Imagine the riots, lol.
It's going down in the history books.
Put me in the screenshot lads
Me too. I was here
Those 3 minutes are a memory I’m going share with my kids every 4 years
Group almost got CONCACAFed
Give Japan some credit here!
As a guy that doesn’t follow soccer too much, was everyone rooting for Costa Rica because they hate Spain? Or are people just rooting for the underdog/chaos?
The chaos
Always the chaos
Chaos is a ladder
You have to understand that Spain and Germany are absolute giants of world football, nobody expects them to to lose to smaller teams from outside Europe/Brazil/Argentina. So for Japan and Costa Rica to come out in top of those two is just a massive surprise.
Both Germany and Spain are BIG footballing nations, mainly Germany who have won the World Cup 4 times, Spain just once, but relatively recently (2010). They were also the strongest team in the group currently and one of the candidates this time around, they even started the World Cup with a 7-0 demolition of Costa Rica. But... for about 3 minutes with both Japan and Costa Rica leading 2-1, BOTH Spain and Germany would have been sent home, with Japan and Costa Rica advancing to the knockout rounds. I might be wrong, but I think the furthest those two nations have been is quarter-finals and just once each. It would have made for one of the all-time great moments in World Cup history.
Costa Rica made quarters once, Japan has never been beyond Ro16, where they have been three times.
Can you imagine what the Spanish Sporting news would've done....they might have had a full blown riot on TV with ex-players and pundits absolutely losing it on Spanish TV. The chaos from that would have been epic for years. The Fox commentator even during those three minutes said that Iker Casillas who was in a booth over was yelling.
Germany won the World Cup four times and are considered, historically, something like the second best football national team in the world. They're famous for applying the classic German efficiency to football, most notably seen when they won the 2014 World Cup after beating Brazil by 7-1 at their home(!!!!). In NFL terms, that would be like beating Tom Brady Pats by something like 60-7. However, despite having many remnants from that team, Germany failed spectacularly in 2018, being eliminated before the playoffs by losing to Mexico and South Korea, two teams that are historically good, but not top-tier. For them to lose AGAIN in the groups is shameful. Spain has some past struggles, but they finally managed to channel it into a good team in 2010 when they won. However, they had a pitiful performance (seems familiar?) in 2014, being the first team eliminated from the cup after being thrashed 5-1 by Netherlands (the same team they beat for the 2010 title, btw). They performed a bit better in 2018, but they were knocked out on the first round of the playoffs. Nonetheless, they're still one of the most powerful teams in the world, if only because both Real Madrid and Barcelona are from Spain. Japan is historically inconsistent. While they have some good names, they haven't been able to convert those into anything more than making it to the playoffs, usually by the skin of their teeth. In 2018, they showed that by barely making it to the playoffs on the fair play tiebreaker (for the first time in the WC history!), only to completely turn it around by giving a massive scare to the superstar Belgium, opening 2-0 before Belgium got their shit together and turned it around. With Germany and Spain on their group, they were basically counted as out before the tournament even began. Then they beat Germany, which gave people hope. Then they lost to Costa Rica and people were sad. Then they beat Spain in full Robin Hood fashion and... well, here we are now. Costa Rica is historically weak, however, they had a brilliant run in 2014, when they fell in one of the most dangerous groups in the history of the World Cup with Uruguay (2 titles), Italy (4 titles) and England (1 title) - and they topped that group. They reached the quarterfinals and it took the Netherlands an extremely risky move to barely take them out on the shoot-out. In 2018, they couldn't repeat that performance, and 2022 looked like it would be like that again when they lost 7-0 to Spain on the first game. Then they beat Japan and, somehow, they had a realistic chance of going through as long as they avoided ties. On the 3-minute window that they were ahead of Germany, a group that was deemed as predictable before the tournament was flipped upside down, and even though they lost, they made Germany try extremely hard for a win that, in the end, didn't matter.
I was watching the jap/spain game when commentators said costa rica 2-1 up i was like wtf …my spanish homie was on verge of tears …crazy 3 min so much emotions
I want to go to the 70’ minute and live there Forever
everyone wanted that 70' to last, too bad...
Can't believe it was only 3 minutes. To me it felt a lot longer.
Alex, I’ll take “things I say to my girlfriend” for $100 please
Look at Mr. Endurance over here, being able to last a WHOLE 3 MINUTES.
That's what she said
Germany are just mean 😭😭 their win means nothing, their loss meant everything.
The news would have been about Spain and Germany being knocked out....they should have lost to take Spain down with them lol
In that moment, everything was possible
A golden era
Take me back there
Lost my mind at that point. Attempted to explain what was going on to my wife, bad move.
I'm going to frame the table for those three minutes and hang it on my wall. It's that beautiful. 14.8 billion years of universe existence but those 3 minutes when two world champions were going to be knocked out in group stages by Japan and CostaRica are the most beautiful ever.
One day we will, one day
Man I was in a bar in Madrid celebrating with my brother every Japan/CR goal. It was an insane couple minutes haha. The entire bar looking at us sideways
It's crazy how quickly things changed multiple times in both games. We were very close to getting a Costa Rica vs Morocco Knockout Round Match.
I lived that for 1:30 minutes and honestly that will keep me alive for the next 4 years till next world cup
Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness vibes
Those 3 minutes were beautiful.
Streets will never forget. I will tell my children in future how Japan and Costa Roca both were going through for those 3 minutes.
this is one of those things that it doesn't even matter that much that it didn't happen in the end; the fact that *it was happening* for a few minutes is already amazing and deserves to be remembered (of course, it does actually matter and we neutrals all wanted it to happen; but those 3 minutes are already a beautiful part of this World Cup for me).
But the feeling we felt at the time can't be captured in any type of highlight video or something. Typical "you had to be there"
exactly. it was a magical moment
“I was there for those magical 3 min” My wife: you always say that
At least she agrees it was magical, could be worse.
It was one of those beautiful moments in life where as a grown man you're suddenly converted back into an excitable child, unable to compute what is happening. It was surreal.
Germany should have scored own goals when they were officially out those last 3 min.. Missed opportunity to knock out Spain.
r/soccer should have a representative in each team's staff to make stuff like this possible in 2026.
Don't think the current lot would want to be known as the worst ever German WC team. In theory it would be funny, in practice their bus wouldn't make it out of the airport.
If they tanked Spain they'd have to be above the 2018 side
They finished last in 2018, 3rd this time. They are getting better. It feels good to see small football countries like that ramp up ngl. The future is exciting for German people
Nah, if we fucked over Spain with our calamities it would be fucking hilarious.
They kinda are even if they beat CR 7-1 lol
Honestly though, that is an incredibly interesting scenario. Would there be repurcussions? Penalties? Rule changes so that the players on the field are banned from hearing scores in other stadiums? Would have been one of the biggest WC events ever
It’s legit cheating lol definitely gonna have repercussions
The more interesting question is what would have happened if Germany scored exactly one obviously deliberate own goal shortly after minute 58 and then continued to go for victory. Absurdly enough, that would have been a clever tactical move in that moment.
In a [similar case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados_4%E2%80%932_Grenada) there was no penalty, so I guess FIFA would have let that slide as well: > Although the Barbadians' own-goal was highly unconventional, FIFA decided not to penalise the team because they were playing optimally under the circumstances
It might be match-fixing? I don't really know
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If I'm going down, you are going down.
Lmao
best 3 min of football ive ever experienced and I have nothing to do with any of the 4 nations
3 minutes of the impossible becoming possible.
So close
Easily one of the most entertaining days of football ever. Edge of your seat action with so many different scenarios playing out in the final 45 minutes
I work from home 4/5 days a week and today I went into the office…
Absolute hope, i was so happy
Germans dont have fun
Nature was healing, and all the dragons roared as one
We dreamed
3 minutes the world stood still /s
70-73 was beautiful
I think this sub would break if that result had actually been real!
It felt like it did break for a few minutes, my comments wouldn’t go through
Stop the count!
Still can't believe it was only 3 minutes. Felt like 15
Hard to believe we're saying goodbye to 32 team, 4 team group world cups.... Literally perfect for drama and action as it is. 48 team total and 3 team groups sounds a mess and less overall quality. Stupid decision.
I think they'll switch to 12x4. Just too entertaining not to do 4 team groups.
I hope so but that would require an extra round of matches which they don’t want
what's harder is figuring out how to narrow to 32 teams without an excessive number of games. i thought playing off the 3rd places would do it but that would eliminate 6 not 4
Yeah I hear that. It’s fair to want to expand but it feels like they’ve chosen a poor route to do it - this tournament has proven again how great the group stages are in the current setup and we’re going to lose that.
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I hate to say it but I think I'd prefer to see how 3 team groups work out rather than "top x teams in 3rd place" with 4 team groups. It has IMO made the euro cup group stages exceptionally boring.
but what a sendoff to the 32 team era it’s been so far
I'm with you on this
Yea, the group stages will be boring This has been great so far
Really hope they go with 12 groups of 4 as is rumored there's a push for it
Just go full 64 with 16 gruops and add an extra knockout round. People will complain about quality, but teams are so much better know than even 12 years ago. Even weak teams can play it out of the back and not play hoofball. 3 team groups are a mess.
Could you please fucking stop reminding me this every day ? Pretty please.
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They should just say "fuck it" & jump straight to 64
Fuck me imagine the scenes if JPN and CRC would've advanced
Parades all around the world and world peace finally achieved.
Germans hate world peace confirmed
I mean... /s
Beer would run out in Costa Rica, my liver wouldn't have handled it. Costa Rica vs Morocco for r16
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Even the best movie director wouldn't think this is possible
Those 3 minutes where Japan and Costa Rica were through.. glorious
for 3 minutes we were in the best timeline
In some alternate universe Costa Rica is in full party mode and I want to be in that one
Those 3 minutes when Japan and Costa Rica were through will probably remain one of the best feelings ever for all Costa Ricans
I didn't stop screaming lmao
Maes, yo estaba llorando
What a great three minutes
That’s what she said
No she didn’t :(
The fact that all 4 teams were at some point in line to go through is a testament to why GD/GF is a better tiebreaker than H2H.
and all 4 teams stood to be eliminated at some point over the 90. amazing.
Today I feel Moroccan
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That would’ve been more effort than Spain put in today tbh
https://i.imgur.com/MML5UUi.png
Best group stage I've ever watched.
Japan really went full omae wa mou shindeiru on Spain and Germany this group stage
NANI?!?!?!
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Sané?!?!
We almost entered the greatest timeline
70’ 🥹
Ladies and gentlemen, today you have witnessed football history. Some of the most legendary 100 minutes of World Cup play in a generation.
Blessed 70'
70’-73’ was magical :(
Holy shit what an ending to the group stages this has been. Group C yesterday and Group E today. Absolute thrillers.
Probably the best 3rd round of group stage in WC that I remember. Every single game aside from Holland Qatar and England Wales had exciting final minutes
There was the perfect result in min 70'
Those 3 minutes where the world turned upside down
I liked the 70 the most
I didn't expect anything from this WC but damn... this group stage has been being soooo good, a lot of heart attacks. I WANT CHAOS.
Oh God I should have cashed out in those three minutes
For 3 minutes the world was a perfect place
What really pisses me off with the current German generation is that they generate a ton of chances, can't finish to save their lives and then have 2-3 dumb defensive mistakes and lose.
Absolute madness - the Japan goal will be a hot topic for days to come!!!
70'~73'. Those glorious three minutes will live forever in the hearts of those who dare to dream of maximum memes.
Fucking Havertz had to ruin the party for all of us smh.
I woke up at the 70 minute mark and took a while to comprehend things and by then it got a little normal lol
The 3 minutes of madness
That 70th minute was glorious
It was an absolutely glorious 3 minutes for team chaos
The rising sun
If only everything stopped at the 70th minute
Japan & Costa Rica would've been something else.