2014 FIFA World Cup Finals Discussion [Archive]

babu

05-08-14, 05:12 PM

2014 FIFA World Cup Group stage teams:

http://www.iafrica.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Fifa-World-Cup-2014-groups-iAfrica.tv_.jpg

To view the complete World Cup 2014 match schedule, click here (http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/).
____

The provisional Brazil squad has been announced.

Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Toronto FC, on loan from QPR), Jefferson (Botafogo), Victor (Atletico Mineiro).

Defenders: Marcelo (Real Madrid), Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Maicon (AS Roma), Maxwell and Thiago Silva (both Paris St-Germain), David Luiz (Chelsea), Dante (Bayern Munich), Henrique (Napoli).

Midfielders: Paulinho (Tottenham Hotspur), Ramires (Chelsea), Willian (Chelsea), Oscar (Chelsea), Hernanes (Inter Milan), Luiz Gustavo (Wolfsburg), Fernandinho (Manchester City).

Forwards: Bernard (Shakhtar Donetsk), Neymar (Barcelona), Fred (Fluminense), Jo (Atletico Mineiro), Hulk (Zenit St Petersburg).

Surprised not to see Filipe Luis, Miranda and Lucas. Maxwell at least not on the same level with Filipe Luis.

Provisional German squad:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnG8GkWCIAAJ18o.jpg

Lasogga and Gomez left out for Germany.

Jack1

05-08-14, 05:14 PM

I'll stick my neck out and plump for Colombia.

Can't see England doing anything special - we'll struggle with the heat and humidity, no doubt, and probably get knocked out in the group stages.

The South American nations should do well, though I can also see Belgium performing well.

Brodinski

05-09-14, 02:35 PM

Well, I'm Belgian, and if you look at the players in our selection, it's not hard to see we can go a long way. I would streak across my neighbourhood if we win it.

honeykid

05-09-14, 03:28 PM

It's in the Southern Hemisphere, so I'm going with Brazil. It could just as easily be Spain, especially as I can see the immense presurre getting to the team when they reach the final. It's happened before, as I'm sure any Brazilian football fan could tell you. However, I don't think this Spain team is as good as the previous tournament and, let's face it, they've pretty much been playing non-stop since 2008, so I've plumped for Brazil. Though the Spannish teams style of play should work perfectly in the conditions. However, can you imagine if Diego Costa scores the winning goal for Spain against Brazil in the final? :eek: Could he ever set foot in Brazil again?

honeykid

06-07-14, 09:59 AM

Ribery, Reus, Grenier, Montolivo, Shirokov, Falcao are all out with injury. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ronaldo are both struggling with injuries and Suarez? Anyone else we're going to miss at the World Cup? Not including the obvious from teams that didn't qualify.

Also:

https://i.imgur.com/XXn1oN8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BrkcBuq.jpg
https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10334396_876339642392697_6661241720769762492_n.jpg
http://giant.gfycat.com/AcclaimedFatBetafish.gif

-KhaN-

06-07-14, 10:08 AM

I watched Brazil 1-0 Serbia last night ,Brazil was horrible,they scored from mistake Ivanovic made,if they play like this on WC they will get out very fast.I'm still sad Serbia is not in Brazil...So yea,I think Brazil won't do anything special,I also think Columbia wont get to next phase if Falcao dosent play.I always liked Italy and Greece so I hope they do good,Italy has a chance to go all the way because if someone knows how to play after groups its them,hard group but they can handle it,England will probably get that second place but you can't be sure.So yea,I voted for Italy.

Nausicaä

06-07-14, 06:35 PM

I'd love it if a team like Australia manage somehow to get all the way into the final and win it. Any team that would shock everyone if they kicked out all the big teams and won - that would be amusing to see. :D

That's if England, or France can't win... my two teams.

Skepsis93

06-07-14, 06:52 PM

Stopped giving a sh*t about football a while ago after getting burned by club and international teams one too many times. But there's £60 up for grabs in the family World Cup pool this year, so I'm somewhat interested again. :p

honeykid

06-07-14, 06:54 PM

Burned how?

Skepsis93

06-07-14, 07:01 PM

By getting my hopes up too high and being disappointed every time.

Cobpyth

06-07-14, 07:28 PM

By getting my hopes up too high and being disappointed every time.

That's part of supporting a club. You stick with them no matter what the results are. There's no point to it if you leave them if they don't win. :p

Anyway, I'm a Belgian, so I'll support my national team of course, but I've always had a soft spot for Portugal and England, so I hope they get far as well.

Spain are the most logical winners (based on their qualities) yet again, I think, so I vote for them in this poll, but it would be really something if they ACTUALLY pull it off and win their fourth big tournament in a row. Germany and Brasil are always contenders too of course.

Skepsis93

06-07-14, 07:42 PM

That's part of supporting a club. You stick with them no matter what the results are. There's no point to it if you leave them if they don't win. :p

I realise that. I supported Birmingham and England for about 18 years, or at least from my first conciousness of "fandom" until about 4 years ago. It wasn't really the losing that finally did it now that I think about it, though, even though it did get to a point where I was taking it way too seriously - perhaps unhealthily so. I came to hate the culture that surrounds football, especially here in England. I hate the general atmosphere of bad sportsmanship and the arrogant, vapid players.

Or maybe it's as simple as growing out of it. I just watched the first half of England-Honduras and was bored out of my skull.

But now there's a decent wad of cash on the line, I have a reason to care again. :p

Cobpyth

06-07-14, 07:50 PM

I realise that. I supported Birmingham and England for about 18 years, or at least from my first conciousness of "fandom" until about 4 years ago. It wasn't really the losing that finally did it now that I think about it, though, even though it did get to a point where I was taking it way too seriously - perhaps unhealthily so. I came to hate the culture that surrounds football, especially here in England. I hate the general atmosphere of bad sportsmanship and the arrogant, vapid players. But now there's a decent wad of cash on the line, I have a reason to care again. :p

I see what you mean. I'm not a too serious supporter myself, but I can get pretty vivacious once in a while during certain games. I'm not part of the true "football culture" or anything like that, though. I go to the home games of my favorite Belgian team (FC Bruges) and I support a couple of foreign teams (especially Liverpool FC), but I'm not the kind of guy who always talks about football or who can get negatively wrought-up because of it.

I also have a nice little World Cup bet going on with a couple of friends (we joined a certain internet WC poule), by the way. I can win 150 bucks if I end up first!

Daniel M

06-07-14, 08:36 PM

Being a Birmingham and England supporter I can completely understand your pessimistic attitude here Skepsis :p

England are so bad now, Roy Hodgson is a dreadful negative manager with no (well, a limited) footballing philosophy that will get them no where. Honduras game was dire.

I think Brazil or Spain will probably win, the first because of location and quality, and the latter because of quality, everyone wants to doubt them and expects perhaps a change, but they have kept proving themselves to be the best so far.

Ribery out is a big blow to France (I like them, mighty Mamadou Sakho), same with Reus for Germany although they have good depth. Argentina got a good squad and I want Messi to win a WC whilst he's around. Columbia and Belgium got really strong squads too so no surprise if they go far.

honeykid

06-07-14, 08:40 PM

I think I'd put Argentina third favourites. If only because the Argies winning the World Cup in Brazil would be mental.

Daniel M

06-07-14, 08:45 PM

Yeh I would too, being a South American country. They've got some great players obviously too, arguably the best attack with the likes of Messi, Aguero, Lavezzi, Palacio, Higuain and Di Mario, and whilst their defence is normally criticised the likes of Zabaleta, Garay, Campagnaro and Mascherano are all quality too.

-KhaN-

06-08-14, 05:37 AM

I don't understand why you think Brazil is going to win it,maybe I end up wrong but...Where did they prove,they played 4 years of friendly's...They don't have fantastic team,its very easy to stop them,personally,Brazil was never this weak,look at first eleven...Everybody talks about Neymar but what is special about him?He can dribble?Is that becoming a thing?Because as soon as Brazil gets to play against team with smart defenders Neymar will get eaten.One more thing,how can someone support players like Messi,Ronaldo,Neymar,Suarez etc They just fall down,they have skills that is ok,but they are all pricks at least in my eyes.Its good they are not in acting because they would take all Oscars.

babu

06-08-14, 05:38 AM

Awesome advert and i am so pumped for this tournament to kickoff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_i3Lcjli84

honeykid

06-08-14, 12:22 PM

I don't understand why you think Brazil is going to win it,maybe I end up wrong but...Where did they prove,they played 4 years of friendly's...
Now this is a problem, no doubt, but it also works the other way. Playing all those friendlies means you're not seeing the 'real' Brazil. Plus, they're the home team. It does help.

They don't have fantastic team,its very easy to stop them,personally,Brazil was never this weak,look at first eleven...Everybody talks about Neymar but what is special about him?
It's not about individuals, it's a team game and the way Brazil play makes they a tough proposition. This isn't to say that they're going to walk it or anything, but it's odd to think that others wouldn't think they could win. Especially as the host nation. Look at Germany. Even when they don't have a good/great team, you still back them to do well in a tournament. It's what they do. Klose is a goal or two away from becoming the highest scoring player at the World Cup. Have you seen his numbers at club level? They're decent, but compared to his international numbers you'd expect them to be a lot better and compared to the numbers by the guys he's beaten ,Muller and Ronaldo, they're pathetic. OK, that might be a little harsh, but look at them. They're truly amazing and, with the exception of Ronaldo at AC Milan, they did it wherever and whenever they played.

International football and club football is different and it suits players differently. This is one of the reasons I wouldn't necessarily pick national teams on club form. Some players just can't do it in International football as it doesn't suit their game. That, or they don't have the right mentality for it.

He can dribble?Is that becoming a thing?
It's always been a thing. Now, with the changes to the laws of the game and the way it's refereed, it could be argued it's more important than ever. It's not the long dribbles from the half way line, it's the ones in and around the box. Plus, I think you'd admit that he's a player that can do something that can win a game on his own with one piece of magic. Those players are always important, especially against smart, well disciplined teams.

One more thing,how can someone support players like Messi,Ronaldo,Neymar,Suarez etc They just fall down,they have skills that is ok,but they are all pricks at least in my eyes.Its good they are not in acting because they would take all Oscars.
Because they're among the best in the world? Because they have amazing ability? They might go down easily sometimes, but they all get kicked more than most, too. I'm not telling you they're the most pleasant people on the planet, but that's not why they're admired, either. There again, I'm not telling you that Neymar is quite in their class yet, either. But he might be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH11fLjosgA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMuAWWbxj50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIGJNlpI5XU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9ktJ3JHXA

Personally, I think this guys is the worst of them all. Can't stand the man. But as a footballer? I'm going to miss him at the World Cup this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmRW-wU-u9A

honeykid

06-08-14, 12:34 PM

Not bad, Babu, but I'm more old school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biKIREqfsOk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=munMGzeqCQE

Guaporense

06-08-14, 12:40 PM

Now this is a problem, no doubt, but it also works the other way. Playing all those friendlies means you're not seeing the 'real' Brazil. Plus, they're the home team. It does help.

Indeed. In 1950 was the last time we had the world cup at home and we went to the final but lost. In one of the most spectacular defeats in the history of football. Anyway, Brazil won 2 of the last 5 world cups and now is playing at home, so I think it's the team who has the highest probability of winning though I don't think the probability is higher than like 40%, Germany, Argentina and Spain are very good too.

honeykid

06-08-14, 01:08 PM

1950 was a huge upset. As I'm sure you know, there were even newpapers printed up with World Champions on them.

I'd call it a big upset if a team other than one of the four you mentioned wins the tournament. It will be interesting to see how the S.American players who live and play in Europe deal with the conditions, having also played a European season.

Daniel M

06-08-14, 01:20 PM

Brazil also beat Spain comfortably in the Confederations Cup as well, remember. Not too serious a cup, but still.

donniedarko

06-08-14, 02:00 PM

I filled out a bracket for my moms company competition (couple 100 dollars up for grabs for the 3 best), really haven't been keeping with football, so mainly went off odds and some instinct. I have Brazil beating Spain for the final, I feel Germany has the second best chance though.

-KhaN-

06-08-14, 04:47 PM

Dont take me wrong,I dont want to say Ronaldo and others are horrible people,wanting to rule the world in their evil ways :)
But before people always admired players like Raul,Lampard,Gerrard,Buffon,Del Piero,Nedved,Scholes,Ronaldo,Zidan,Camoranesi,Kaka,Zanetti...But now...How can you admire someone who goes down like a 10 year old girl.I'm not saying they are bad players,I'm saying they are not players you should look up to,I would always take player with good personality and good skills than the player with fantastic skills and ****** personality.Suarez bit a person,2 times! How can you admire him?

If player can dribble that dosent make him special,a lot of people in this world can dribble,half of Brazil can dribble.They can dribble good for them,they can,fantastic but dribbling compared to good passing and good defending is nothing.Good dribble will always lose to good defender,when you get in right position he can dribble all day but he wont go next to you.Again this is how I see it,I would always take players like Pirlo,Guti,Zidan over dribbles,why?Because with good mid you make good attack but with good dribble...I'm not saying dribble overall sucks or something like that,I'm saying compared to other parts its really not that important.

I know its not about individuals,I'm first guy to say that but they played very bad just 5 days before wc,that is why I don't see them as winners of this wc.I didn't see any tactic or plan.Don't take me wrong,I'm not hating on Brazil I don't have anything against them,this is just my honest opinion.

Daniel M

06-08-14, 06:15 PM

If Brazil don't win I think Scolari will come under some criticism. He has his favourites and refuses to bring new players into the team, look at how Jo keeps getting picked. His reluctance to call up Diego Costa sooner has seen them miss out on a player who would have been perfect for arguably their weakest position, then there are the likes of Felipe Luis, Coutinho and others who have been ignored.

JayDee

06-08-14, 09:04 PM

I filled in a bracket and am predicting a Germany - Argentina final. At the moment I'm going with Germany for the win. They were a terrific young team at the last World Cup and I thought they would take the Euros two years ago but came up rather short against Italy. However if Lionel Messi can find top form after a poor (by his standards) season then he could make the difference.

One team I'm really interested in is Belgium. In terms of individuals there are few ahead of them but it's whether they can come together as a real team or not, and they might just be a little too young. I'm also intrigued by Chile. They've got a tough group but if they can get out of it they could be a real dark horse. Same with Bosnia.

Stopped giving a sh*t about football a while ago after getting burned by club and international teams one too many times.

You little weakling you Skepsis! :p I'm still a football fan despite being a Rangers supporter!!! :eek: Try staying positive after the few years Rangers fans have had. And still the whole thing is a bloody mess!

One more thing,how can someone support players like Messi,Ronaldo,Neymar,Suarez etc They just fall down,they have skills that is ok,but they are all pricks at least in my eyes.Its good they are not in acting because they would take all Oscars.

I'll give you some of them. I'm not a fan of Ronaldo for all his diving over the years. And I'm also really not a fan of Suarez for his diving, his hacking and his biting. However I think you're being a bit harsh on Messi by including him. In fact I've always rather admired him for the way he plays the game. Frequently he gets an absolute kicking in games, especially when against Real Madrid and Pepe, but rarely do I see him throwing himself around the place or rolling around the floor the way that Ronaldo does.

the samoan lawyer

06-09-14, 05:37 AM

Anybody else here think Chile could be the surprise package? I know i'll be backing them in individual games anyway.

-KhaN-

06-09-14, 06:28 AM

Jay this is why I included Messi,it is true,Ronaldo and Suarez are worse but still...Just to repeat again,I'm not saying they are bad players,I'm saying you want to kick them so hard they have a reason to cry on the pitch,I mean ffs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljcxPyrTooA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnesOQTbWeQ

-KhaN-

06-10-14, 01:48 PM

Truth!This was fantastic.Watch it,funny and interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I&feature=youtu.be

Daniel M

06-10-14, 01:50 PM

Anybody else here think Chile could be the surprise package? I know i'll be backing them in individual games anyway.

Yeah, I kind of like them as they have Medel from Cardiff. They've got quite a talented squad with the likes of Vidal and Sanchez, I remember they comfortably beat England not too long ago.

JayDee

06-11-14, 09:14 PM

Jay this is why I included Messi,it is true,Ronaldo and Suarez are worse but still...Just to repeat again,I'm not saying they are bad players,I'm saying you want to kick them so hard they have a reason to cry on the pitch,I mean ffs...

The first video there is absolutely nothing. If that's your criteria for listing someone as unworthy of respect and adoration then I'm not sure there will be anyone left for the list. For example I'm guessing you would remove Zidane from that list you posted after his headbult assault. Second video fair enough is a bit daft. Whether he meant to do that or more likely just blast it off the advertising boards he should have apologised if he realised what had happened

Anybody else here think Chile could be the surprise package?

Oh I don't know, perhaps the guy who mentioned it in the post just before yours!!! :D Yes as I said I think they could be this year's surprise package. They've got a tough group with Spain and Holland but if they can get out of that then I think they'll be a very dangerous side.

honeykid

06-11-14, 09:33 PM

Chile are about as dark horses as England are. Spain, Germany Brazil and Argentina. If it's not one of those, consider it an upset. Even Italy or Netherlands.

Just think, this time tomorrow we'd have seen the first game. :eek:

-KhaN-

06-12-14, 04:21 AM

You cant compare that and Zidane are you kidding me,look at his face man,look at him he is going at him like he is a beast or some ****,he knows he is protected so why not.But yea,its not a topic for this thread.World Cup starts today so let's get on that.
Brazil - Croatia,let's see what Brazil can do. :)

The Sci-Fi Slob

06-12-14, 06:53 PM

The referee in Brazil's opening game must have come with them on the plane - the crooked bast!rd!

Cobpyth

06-12-14, 07:28 PM

Kind of embarrasing how biased the referee was.

Guaporense

06-12-14, 07:50 PM

The referee in Brazil's opening game must have come with them on the plane - the crooked bast!rd!

Nah, he is the ideal referee. We can trust the Japanese. :D:D:D:D

But the opening ceremony takes the cake, it was the worst opening ceremony I ever watched by a long shoot. It appears to be a satire of an opening ceremony. Made me feel embarrassed by my country.

Guaporense

06-12-14, 07:56 PM

Also:
http://giant.gfycat.com/AcclaimedFatBetafish.gif

So only first world countries can host world cups? Brazil is richer than South Africa, who hosted the last world cup as well, and much richer than China in 2008, when they spent 50 billion dollars on the Olympics.

-KhaN-

06-13-14, 08:57 AM

Daniel M

06-13-14, 09:14 AM

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 09:20 AM

That game proved Brazil are not the favourites? Huh?

Croatia have one of the best sides outside of the usual suspects expected to go far, and were always going to prove difficult to beat. To win 3-1 after going a goal down is a great result. Fantastic performances from Neymar and Oscar, the latter is always exceptional for his country.

It would've been a good result if they had actually earned it themselves. This was just a present from the referee.

Oscar was great, though, and Neymar played a very good first half.

-KhaN-

06-13-14, 09:21 AM

Guaporense

06-13-14, 12:21 PM

First of all,they won 3-1 with gifted penalty,it was 1-1 when they had that penalty so without it,who knows what could happen.Second:As you said,Brazil was a goal down,first half was horrible,Croatia still had chances later on.Nothing special in this game.

Brazil had about 70% of the ball possession in the first half and 3 times more passes, they were under pressure for most of the game as the ball was always on their side of the court. Croatia did not score a single goal in the game and the only point they scored was a gift from Brazil, yet they lost 3-1. Clearly they were playing something out of their league. It felt like a game between two Brazilian soccer league 1st division and 3rd division teams to me.

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 12:41 PM

Brazil had about 70% of the ball possession in the first half and 3 times more passes, they were under pressure for most of the game as the ball was always on their side of the court. Croatia did not score a single goal in the game and the only point they scored was a gift from Brazil, yet they lost 3-1. Clearly they were playing something out of their league.

He's not saying Croatia deserved to win or played better than Brazil, but if everything would've been just, the game would've ended with a draw.
The own goal could just as well have been a normal goal if the Croatian player in front of Marcelo would've touched the ball better. It was definitely not an out of the blue present, it was a proper offensive action (the second solid attack from Croatia at that moment of the game, while Brazil hadn't done anything yet).
Also, Croatia actually scored a legitimate goal, but the referee saw a fault against Julio Caesar, while he actually just let the ball slip out of his hands (to be fair, the referee whistled very early, but if they would've played further, it would've ended in a goal anyway, I think).

Brazil's second goal was a gift from the referee. If the referee didn't call the penalty, it would've probably been a draw, plain and simple, and Croatia would definitely not have stolen it.

Also, ball possession and passes say nothing about the result. Brazil is just a team that likes to play the game with a lot of ball possession, while Croatia's strategy was to organize well in the defence and to set up quick counter attacks. Their strategy worked wonderfully, until that incomprehensible penalty.

I was supporting for Brazil, honest to God, but this wasn't a good game of theirs. I genuinely believe it would've been a draw if the game had been fair and square.

Guaporense

06-13-14, 12:44 PM

Well,I love World Cup,I love football,but I dont want my country to host it,not for now.You do understand you get nothing with this?They tell you all kind of crap,but when you host wc FIFA takes tax on income and everything else.You build that stadium,I can't remember the name,but you build it in place where nobody else can play on it after wc,so you build stadium for 200milion and you will use it for 4 games.Do you know how much schools,hospitals,houses...can be built for that amount of money? You spent billions on this.That moment when Brazilians go in riots against WC,then you know something is very wrong.You think Qatar will be host because they are something special?There is no way that you can play football there,no way,but still they will host it...

There was a huge amount of corruption involved in this world cup, about several billion dollars were stolen in various ways and that's what the protests are about and yes, there was a problem with the cup's organization that they scheduled games in major cities in the country that have no football culture (such as Manaus) just to have the whole country covered and so they built stadiums were they will not be used afterwards. But these are point problems and they do not justify banning the world cup from the country.

IMO they should have used only the cities of São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Salvador, Vitoria and Florianopolis for the cup and reduced the amount of money to build new stadiums while reducing corruption. They also should have used the cup as a reason to improve security in the cities as Brazilian cities are notoriously dangerous. The cost of the world cup would be a couple of billion dollars, nothing compared to the government budget of 900 billion dollars (about 1/4 of the US's government budget).

Of course they wasted 14 billion dollars on the cup, but note that's still only 1.5% of the government annual revenues so the long run cost of the cup is still zero on Brazilian society.

However, banning Brazil from hosting the world cup, the 6th largest economy in the world and 5th largest country by population and land area, is completely absurd.

Guaporense

06-13-14, 12:47 PM

Also, ball possession and passes say nothing about the result.

Disagree completely. The correlation between ball possession, number of passes and outcome of football games is extremely high.

Brazil is just a team that likes to play the game with a lot of ball possession, while Croatia's strategy was to organize well in the defence and to set up quick counter attacks. Their strategy worked wonderfully, until that incomprehensible penalty.

Wonderfully indeed, they scored zero goals, had a very small number of chances and were under pressure for the entire game while suffering 3 goals. :D

Playing on the defensive and trying to counterattack is what happens when you pit a 3rd division team against a 1st division team. They usually lose.

Daniel M

06-13-14, 12:54 PM

I think whilst Croatia gave it a real good go, and maybe deserved a point. Brazil, whether they were helped or not, still got the job done. It was always going to be a tough game, huge pressure on them against a very good side with nothing to lose. A 1-0 scrappy win would have still been a great result in my opinion. Huge pressure off their back, and a very professional win despite the circumstances, IMO.

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 01:24 PM

Disagree completely. The correlation between ball possession, number of passes and outcome of football games is extremely high.

Wonderfully indeed, they scored zero goals, had a very small number of chances and were under pressure for the entire game while suffering 3 goals. :D

Playing on the defensive and trying to counterattack is what happens when you pit a 3rd division team against a 1st division team. They usually lose.

Croatia scored 2 goals (one unfairly disallowed) and Brazil didn't know what to do against their defence at all. The first goal from Brazil was a well placed ball from a quality player, the second goal came out of an undeserved penalty and the third goal came out of a counter from Brazil after Croatia was forced to attack because they were undeservedly behind and because their second goal was unjustly rebuked.

Brazil was not AT ALL ruling over the game, except for the second part of the first half, which was good. They're NEVER going to beat teams like Germany, Spain or Argentina if they keep playing like that for the rest of the tournament.

Stay objective and just admit that your team was not anywhere near worthy of being the next World Champion last night. It's only the first game, so they can still improve, but they were just not really doing well during most of the game.

@Daniel: I disagree. Justice didn't prevail last night and I can't support a win that was caused by wrong decisions from the referee, even if I wanted Brazil to win. They weren't any good in the second half and didn't play like one of the greatest teams in the world at any point.
I think pretty much everyone will agree that we expect much more from Brazil than what we saw last night.

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 01:46 PM

The referees are even worse this game! Truly atrocious what they're doing to Mexico here. :p

Masterman

06-13-14, 02:01 PM

I thought it was a great game to start the World Cup. Brazil was gifted that win tho. I can't see them winning the World Cup, it's one of there weakest teams in years. Neymar was Meh, Hulk and Fred where terrible. Oscar was fantastic, and I've always been a big fan of Marcelo.

Brodinski

06-13-14, 03:23 PM

it's one of there weakest teams in years.

What? Have you forgotten their team for the 2006 and 2010 world cup?

This was by no means a terrific game of theirs, but the same can be said of Spain's 2010 opening game. That was WAY more dramatic, and look where they ended up. Offensive, Brazil is just a whirlwind. They key is neutralizing Oscar, then take advantage of Luiz' and Alves' absent-mindedness in the back.

That being said, BELGIUM FTW VIA KOMPANY SMASH!
http://giant.gfycat.com/SardonicImperfectKoodoo.gif

Masterman

06-13-14, 04:16 PM

Nope I haven't forgotten. Brazil is driven by Oscar, shut him out and they become a very average team. There defence is constantly caught out of position. Neymar is one the most overrated players in the World Cup.

christine

06-13-14, 05:49 PM

What an entertaining game this is. Well done Holland!

jiraffejustin

06-13-14, 05:52 PM

Nobody in here has pooped their pants over that RVP header? You guys disappoint me.

The Sci-Fi Slob

06-13-14, 05:52 PM

I fancy Holland to win the tournament now. My money is currently on Brazil. I may have to put a few quid on Holland.

honeykid

06-13-14, 06:02 PM

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee123/rainbow30_bucket/Spanked.jpg

Losing's one thing. But losing like that is going to take a lot to come back from. It's all about mental strength now. Spain weren't good, Holland were great, but Casillas was really poor.. Despite that, Pique and Ramos shouldn't escape comment. They looked out of position all night.

honeykid

06-13-14, 06:04 PM

I fancy Holland to win the tournament now. My money is currently on Brazil. I may have to put a few quid on Holland.
I wouldn't wet yourself just yet. That was a fantastic game. But it was one game and, had Spain been Spain, the game would've probably been beyond the Dutch before they scored their first goal.

The Sci-Fi Slob

06-13-14, 06:08 PM

I wouldn't wet yourself just yet.Too late.:blush:

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 06:18 PM

Very happy for The Netherlands. That was freaking amazing.

honeykid

06-13-14, 06:18 PM

So only first world countries can host world cups?
Only countries with the infastructure in place should do it. It should be in place before the bid, not after the bid's accepted.

Of course, all this has nothing to do with sport and everything to do with politics and business, so that won't happen.

Disagree completely. The correlation between ball possession, number of passes and outcome of football games is extremely high.
This depends on the type of football being played, however, it is usually the case that the better team will make more passes and have more possesion. However, in the Premier League or with a counter attacking side, dominating possesion in the final third is usually a better indicator of who won.

Playing on the defensive and trying to counterattack is what happens when you pit a 3rd division team against a 1st division team. They usually lose.
Usually true, however it's also true that it's what happens when you decide to play a counter attacking style.

-KhaN-

06-13-14, 07:14 PM

#Guaporense
http://www.zonalmarking.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/greece-euro-2004.gif
Greece,team that said,f*** possession,team that scores more goals wins,ofc having more possession helps,but there is a difference,Brazil had that mid,def possession,their ball went to wings then back to mid,then to Fred then back to mid again etc etc,so possession is not worth much,Croatia had 1-1 without epic possession or passing,Olic scored but ref said no.So what is your possession?Also,you avoid to say ref stole a goal from Croatia and gifted a penalty to Brazil,so result of 3-1 is really not the real picture.You always talk about the result,it gets so irritating,I know you support them,but ffs,you cant ignore everything.You also talk about 1st and 3rd division,Germany,Spain,Holland,Argentina,Italy...if they are 1st division and you say Brazil is in first division,in that case Brazil is a team fighting to stay in it! Saying teams that play counters will lose is wrong,very very wrong...This is all based on results so far.

Let's move on.Mexico was fantastic!Whenever I see Mexico I think about how Villarreal plays(not because of Dos Santos)...Ref made a lot of mistakes and I thought Cameron will score because of it,but it didn't happen,Mexico was fantastic,good plan,good tactic,and good,offensive possession.I found my fav in this group :) .

Holland was fantastic,great comeback,Spain was not on their level and against Holland that can't happen.Great game from Van Persie.

honeykid

06-13-14, 07:54 PM

I didn't see the Mexico/Cameroon game, nor most of the Brazil/Croatia, but from what I saw and the highlights, the officials made a real balls up of many decisions. Neymar, probably, shouldn't have been on the pitch, the pen wasn't close to being a pen, and Croatia had a goal disallowed that should've stood. Alves should've been punished for his clipping of, I think it was, Jelavic, too. I don't think it was done on purpose or that there's a conspiracy or anything stupid, but there's a lot of pressure for Brazil to do really well, more than usual and I suspect they'll get more than a few home decisions.

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 08:02 PM

@Guap:

To end the issue about ball possession:

Spain 63% - Netherlands 38%

=> Spain 1 versus Netherlands 5

Ball possession doesn't mean crap if you don't do anything with it. Football is about which strategy works best. Brazil's strategy was not effective and they needed the referee to win the game.

JayDee

06-13-14, 08:12 PM

Will be really interesting to see where Holland go from here. So often they set tongues wagging early in tournaments with terrific performances and results only to disappoint when it gets to the knock-out rounds. Was it the 2008 Euros where they absolutely battered France and Italy in the group only to lose in the 2nd round?

Also perhaps someone can answer this for me - is Diego Costa actually any good? Considering the number of goals he got last season and the big fee Chelsea just paid for him I guess he must be but I've never seen him have anything even close to a decent game. I'll admit I've not seen much of him but the handful of games I have seen he has usually been poor and I've not actually seen him score a single goal so far.

Chile are about as dark horses as England are. Spain, Germany Brazil and Argentina. If it's not one of those, consider it an upset. Even Italy or Netherlands.

To be honest I will never consider Italy winning to be an upset. So many times in the past I've written them off and yet they always seem to be able to pull it off. They're like the anti-England/Holland/Portgual/Spain up until the last few tournaments; so often they seem to overacheive. I mean look at their teams at the 2006 World Cup and the 2012 Euros. I wouldn't say either of those were exactly vintage Italian teams and yet they got to the finals at both and actually won the World Cup.

Out of interest does anyone think it's possible a rank outsider could ever win the World Cup in the same way that Greece won the 2004 Euros? Or with it being 32 teams instead of 16 are there just too many top teams to allow a relative minnow to sneak through? Is it even possible it could happen again at the Euros or was that just a one-off never to be repeated?

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 08:19 PM

I wouldn't call the Italian 2006 team NOT a vintage team.

Cannavaro, Totti, Del Piero, Buffon, Luca Toni, Nesta, Pirlo, etc.

Seems pretty vintage to me. :p

-KhaN-

06-13-14, 08:24 PM

I'm only one who voted for Italy so yea... :D

JayDee

06-13-14, 08:40 PM

Cannavaro, Totti, Del Piero, Buffon, Luca Toni, Nesta, Pirlo, etc.

Seems pretty vintage to me. :p

On paper perhaps but I seem to remember them being pretty unimpressive right up until the epic battle against Germany in the semis. Wasn't that the tournament where they were lucky to barely squeeze past Australia at one point?

Oh and I'll give you the rest but Luca Toni? :confused: He may have had a decent record at club level but I also thought he looked a bit of a donkey for Italy.

Cobpyth

06-13-14, 09:56 PM

On paper perhaps but I seem to remember them being pretty unimpressive right up until the epic battle against Germany in the semis. Wasn't that the tournament where they were lucky to barely squeeze past Australia at one point?

Oh and I'll give you the rest but Luca Toni? :confused: He may have had a decent record at club level but I also thought he looked a bit of a donkey for Italy.

He has 47 caps and 16 goals with two of them in the 2006 WC (he killed Ukrain in the quarter finals on his own), so that's not atrociously bad, but yeah, not great either. He was always better at club level. Toni is still a vintage Italian attacker and a resounding name in 21st century's European football, in my opinion (he scored 20 goals, while playing for a promovendus, this season).

Also, Australia had a very good team that year and was very well organized. Italy was still playing pretty impressively, especially defensive-wise.

JayDee

06-14-14, 11:08 AM

(he scored 20 goals, while playing for a promovendus, this season).

Well if you're just going to make up words I'm not playing anymore! What the f*ck does promovendus mean? :D

donniedarko

06-14-14, 05:20 PM

Uruguay is ****ing blowing it, atm. I picked them over Italy to move forward, but they're looking like ****. Their ****ing orange goalie is stiff as if he's playing in a coffin.

-KhaN-

06-14-14, 05:23 PM

Why would you pick them over Italy o.0 ?But yea,they are really bad,Costa Rica will be hard to defeat if they win today.

Bihotza

06-14-14, 05:34 PM

Yesterday's game was so amazing (Spain - Holland). My god, the Dutch team has more in them than I expected and I have high hopes for them this year. :D

honeykid

06-14-14, 05:38 PM

I saw the first half and Costa Rica seemed to be holding their own, threatening occassionally. I've had to miss the second half, but I'm surprised Uraguay haven't pushed on. If they lose, you can be sure Suarez will be starting against England, even if he only lasts 5 minutes, they'll have to risk him.

Swan

06-14-14, 05:39 PM

I want the soccer ball to win. He's the underdog here, always getting kicked around.

Cobpyth

06-14-14, 06:22 PM

Well if you're just going to make up words I'm not playing anymore! What the f*ck does promovendus mean? :D

I guess it's only used in Dutch. :p

It means 'a club that just promoted from 2nd division to first division (in this case Serie B to Serie A)'.

honeykid

06-14-14, 07:50 PM

Not too terrible for the first half of the first game. Poor defending and a little unlucky with the corner, but a good goal to get back. Good pass from Sterling, cross from Rooney and then Sturridge didn't finish like he did last Saturday. Thankfully.

honeykid

06-14-14, 09:08 PM

A shame, but I'm not too disheartened. A better final ball, a finish from Rooney and a defending horror show for their second goal was what cost us.

I know that he put in the cross that got us the goal, but Rooney needs to play up top or not at all. Sterling played very well, our best player and he looked dangerous from the first whistle till the last. After Sturridge went off and Rooney went up top, we looked a lot more balanced, though, obviously, Italy were 2-1 up by then and they sat back more and more. Still, it's possible that we were a Rooney finish away from getting something out of a game most of us weren't expecting to win.

A marked improvement from two years ago.

donniedarko

06-15-14, 12:00 AM

Today was a bad day in my pool. I started off 3-1, but went only 1-3 today (only picking Columbia correctly). The good news Is I did have CIV moving on to stage 2, and this looks very likely now. Hopefully Ecuador, France, and Argentina win Sunday.

Tacitus

06-15-14, 02:28 AM

At least England are going to go out trying to play attacking football this time round, as opposed to going out looking shell-shocked and one dimensional. Their (possible) saving graces from this group are that Uruguay looked awful and can Costa Rica play as well again?

It'll be interesting to see if Roy goes balls-out next game as well - I mush have been watching a different Sterling to everyone with an English passport. After his fantastic pass which led to the goal he lit a cigar for 20 minutes then spent the rest of the game losing the ball and shanking crosses. I was sure Hodgson would bring him off - The kid was busting a gut but was flagging - but Sturridge's injury probably solved that conundrum.

If they're going to play such an attacking game from the wings England need full backs who can defend. We all know Johnson never could (and it's frightening that he would still be my first choice for the next game, but they've got no one else) and the weakest part of Baines' game was exposed time and again. Poor Cashley. :p

England didn't run out of heart, which is a massive improvement, but they didn't have anyone on the pitch to put their foot on the ball and settle everyone down.

Masterman

06-15-14, 05:31 AM

I love the Way Baines is taking sh**. The problem down that side was Rooney. He wernt getting back to help, which left Baines with 2 players to defend all night.

-KhaN-

06-15-14, 07:57 AM

Hm,all of you are talking about this from England's side of view so I'll go to other side.
Italy really surprised me with offensive part of their game,Pirlo was great as always,ball was moving very good,they had chance to go 1-2 in the end of first half,they didn't use it then but they did later on.But one part of Italy surprised me in a bad way,defending,it was horrible! I know you all talk about that ball from Rooney,it was a great ball,but defenders failed there,you can't let player stay alone infront of your goal.They really need to improve defending part of the game because attack was fantastic.I think they will fix it fast but we will see.

Masterman

06-15-14, 01:37 PM

honeykid

06-15-14, 01:58 PM

Their (possible) saving graces from this group are that Uruguay looked awful and can Costa Rica play as well again?
Exactly what I'm thinking/hoping. :D

It'll be interesting to see if Roy goes balls-out next game as well - I mush have been watching a different Sterling to everyone with an English passport. After his fantastic pass which led to the goal he lit a cigar for 20 minutes then spent the rest of the game losing the ball and shanking crosses. I was sure Hodgson would bring him off - The kid was busting a gut but was flagging - but Sturridge's injury probably solved that conundrum.
I can see what you're saying about Sterling running and losing the ball, but we all know the alternative is passing the ball backwards and trying to keep not. It's what we do because, eventually, you know it's going to go Hollywood. By the end he was obviously shattered and his crossing was poor but, unlike someone like Lennon, who you're sure will shank it or run into a corner, with Sterling there's actually the possibility that he could do something. After years of 50 yard diagonal crosses that get cut out or run out of play or crosses put in for midgets and, of course, the punt up to the lone front man who has to knock the ball onto no one or hold it up for 10 seconds while the rest of the team get up to him, it's nice to have the possibility of a piece of skill and some running. The same's true of Sturridge. We'll see if we can make this work in the next two games. Get behind the defence and I'm confident we'll have some success.

If they're going to play such an attacking game from the wings England need full backs who can defend. We all know Johnson never could (and it's frightening that he would still be my first choice for the next game, but they've got no one else) and the weakest part of Baines' game was exposed time and again. Poor Cashley. :p
Our defence is the obvious weakness of this England team. Look at that back four. Baines is the only one who could be there with good players available. We've all dispaired at Johnson for years now, but I really don't know that we have better and, if we do, it'll be a very young and relatively inexperienced player, such as Flannagan, Jenkinson or Chambers.

England didn't run out of heart, which is a massive improvement, but they didn't have anyone on the pitch to put their foot on the ball and settle everyone down.
But England hardly ever have this and, when they do, they don't have another one to pass it to. This is why England should just play Premier League football at International level. Yes, they'll tire and we won't win anything, but we're not going to anyway and, at least this way, it'll be entertaining.

Did anyone see the Ivory Coast/Japan game? That was a good game. I think it's the best game that ITV have had and, unfortunately for them, it was on in the middle of the night. I, however, loved having live world cup football in the middle of the night. Felt really good.

It's amazing what an icon can do for a team, too. From the moment Drogba came on the pitch, IC looked a completely different team. Suddenly they looked like they thought they'd win. Not that he'd win it for them, but they could win. That was the important bit. They weren't looking for him to win it for them, they were looking at him to inspire them to win it.

The Sci-Fi Slob

06-15-14, 02:00 PM

honeykid

06-15-14, 02:20 PM

England need to drop Rooney. He's was terrible last night, I'd play....

..........................Hart

Johnson, Cahill, Jagielka, Baines/Shaw

............. ....... Gerrard............

............ ...... Wilshere.........
..Sterling. ............... ....... Barkley
............. ...... Sturridge
I can see that. Personally I think I'd start

..........................Hart

Johnson, Cahill, Jagielka, Baines

............. ....... Gerrard............

............ ...... Barkley.........
..Sterling. ............... ....... Lallana
............. ...... Sturridge

But I really like Lallana and don't trust Wilshere. I'm not convinced he's as good as many seem to think he is, but more than that, he's made of glass. I definitely don't want him facing Uruguay, as they'll have him out of the game within 20 minutes.

While Sterling/Sturridge and Lallana/Barkley could swap just to change it up from time to time, if needed to offer something different. Do we know about Sturridge? If he's injured then Rooney should start anyway, which might be a good thing. Is Oxlade-Chamberlin likely to return for the Uruguay game?

I agree that Roy needs to make the big decision about Rooney. Play him where he's effective or don't play him. I think this World Cup hoodoo is really starting to affect him, but if you don't start him, he rarely performs at all, so I don't know if he'll work as an impact sub or not. But this problem is a problem that England managers have dodged for years. We lost Scholes because he wouldn't play on the left with Gerrard/Lampard in the centre (not that I blamed him. That's when I lost confidence in Sven) It took Capello to drop Owen, who you either played alone and played over the top or didn't play. I think the only partnership he ever had in his career was with Heskey and that meant, effectively, not having a second goalscoring forward because he was there to feed Owen. Beckham, Rooney, Keegan. We always look to a Saviour, rather than a team.:(

Tacitus

06-15-14, 05:01 PM

I can remember a very astute criticism of Beckham (can't remember who said it though :p) and saw exactly the same with Gerrard last night. Well, throughout Gerrard's career but it's more apparent now that he's less mobile.

Beckham would ping a 40yd pass cross field and land it on a sixpence. The problem was that he lofted it, golfist style, with a bit of backspin and the receiving player had to take the ball at a standstill - all momentum was lost.

Play the ball in front of the man, as Sterling did for the goal last night, and you stand a chance of stretching the defence.

honeykid

06-15-14, 05:44 PM

Quite, we forget it's a team game. Perhaps now more than ever? This is what I meant about Sterling's running. We can't do the short passing game, for some reason, so when you have someone of his speed and ability, I think it makes sense to be that direct.

We need to get around the back of the defences and, with the speed and movement of many of our attacking players, we should be able to do that.

Sadly I've not seen much of this France/Honduras game. Has it been any good?

Tacitus

06-15-14, 05:54 PM

Cracking game. The Honduras gameplan seemed to be to mame Pogba and Benzema but once they had their man sent off the gulf in class was obvious.

Best moment was Henry owning that oaf Savage at half time.

JayDee

06-15-14, 09:20 PM

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/JayDee87/Italy_240-animated-flag-gifs_zpsd2f0b637.gif (http://s5.photobucket.com/user/JayDee87/media/Italy_240-animated-flag-gifs_zpsd2f0b637.gif.html)

Forza Italia!!!

:p

Got to say I was really quite impressed with Italy. They're usually amongst the dullest teams to watch but their more offensive approach was refreshing. While some of the numerous English people on here may disagree I certainly feel the better team won. I thought they had a lot more class and quality about them and played some really nice stuff.

England didn't really play much football but because of individuals they were a lot brighter and lot more dangerous than I expected them to be. One of their few bits of real team play actually led to Sturridge's goal. Other than that there plan just seemed to be give it to Sturridge and Sterling and let them run with it. Depite the number of 'close things' they had they didn't really create many actual chances. The huge majority of their efforts came from Sterling/Sturridge/Barkley picking up the ball, taking on a couple of players and taking a shot from outside the box. After the shocking display by Uruguay thought that seems like it could certainly be enough.

Just in general I've got to say how much I've been enjoying the tournament so far. While I've admittedly not seen every single game all those I have seen have been entertaining. Quite often the first round of games can be quite dull because so many teams are desperate just to not lose so don't really go for it. Here however most teams have been attacking and going for the win. And most have been able to contribute to the games with very few being poor; Uruguay being the main exception. And Honduras I would say don't deserve to be there as like Tacitus said there only plan seemed to be to give France a good kicking. Oh and like HK I loved having football (Japan v Ivory Coast) on in the wee hours of the morning; was terrific and just such a novel experience.

honeykid

06-15-14, 09:53 PM

I think Italy played better and I'm not complaining about their win. I just think that, with a little more luck, we might've actually gotten that draw. Hell, had we been able to hang on until the 70th minute we might've got the draw almost by default, as it wouldn't have surprised me, given the conditions and it being the first game, if both teams had decided that, unless they were given the game, they'd be happy with a draw.

Argentina were a little lucky, but I think they just about deserved their win.

Tacitus

06-16-14, 05:25 AM

Italy just did what they always do when protecting a lead - a line of 5, a line of 4 and the confidence to see the game out. Catenaccio. Ish.

Hit the sack last night just after Messi scored. My pre-tournament picks have started steadily and that's fine with me. ;)

France looked very good against poor opposition, though. They won't hold my attention like the Wild Geese of 2006 but Pogba looks like he'll be a hell of a player - Vieira with a little bit of Zidane.

EDIT - I edited the poll for spelling. Sorry babu. :)

adam-dvddaily

06-16-14, 05:27 AM

Englaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnndd! Its coming home, Its coming home, Its coming. Footballs coming home!

Bihotza

06-16-14, 09:42 AM

Can't wait for Portugal vs Germany. I'll be rooting for Port

Masterman

06-16-14, 01:10 PM

I think Germany will be to strong.

Tacitus

06-16-14, 01:12 PM

My stepdad's at the Germany match - He had his bag stolen at the airport this morning. Passport, wallet, laptop, everything. :(

honeykid

06-16-14, 01:46 PM

Pogba looks like he'll be a hell of a player - Vieira with a little bit of Zidane.
I still don't know what Fergie was thinking messing with this guy. I don't think there as anyone at United who didn't think he'd be absolute quality. Maybe not quite where he is already, but not far off. I don't blame him for going, though. If I saw Rafel being played in midfield rather than me I'd be looking to go, too. Let alone with the talent he has.

When people talk about Fergie running down United on purpose to make himself look good, this is the decision which makes me, at least, see where they're coming from. :D

Sorry to hear about your stepdad, Tacitus. It must be a thieves paradise when these things come to town.

Tacitus

06-16-14, 02:02 PM

Yep, if you see a skinny grey haired guy in his mid 60s in the crowd, looking like the most pissed-off man in the world, that'll be Steve. My cousin's arriving to stay with him (stepdad's working in Brazil all year) in a few days - That'll be a fun household. ;)

Re Pogba - Yep, the more I see of him the more astounding it seems that Fergie let him go but these things happen, I guess. There could have been attitude problems, problems adjusting to life in England, the fact that he was very young etc. Can't believe that Fergie would deliberately damage the club to make his tenure look better but I do believe he didn't strengthen the squad over the last few years when he had the opportunity.

I just think he'd realised that building another team at this stage of his life was beyond him. No conspiracy, just poor planning from him and the board.

honeykid

06-16-14, 02:29 PM

Re Pogba - Yep, the more I see of him the more astounding it seems that Fergie let him go but these things happen, I guess. There could have been attitude problems, problems adjusting to life in England, the fact that he was very young etc. Can't believe that Fergie would deliberately damage the club to make his tenure look better but I do believe he didn't strengthen the squad over the last few years when he had the opportunity.
I'd not heard anything like that, attitude, etc. I can only think that Fergie didn't trust him. But it does seem remarkable, given how he's played ever since he left. It's not like he's turned it on a year or two later. He looked good enough for United's first team as soon as he went to Juve.

I just think he'd realised that building another team at this stage of his life was beyond him. No conspiracy, just poor planning from him and the board.
I'm of the same opinion and I think the van Persie buy indicates that.

Daniel M

06-16-14, 03:05 PM

Another frustrating thing about Baines are his constant sideways passes. Yeh, Rooney is always sh*t for England in the WC and shouldn't play, can't believe you guys are all leaving out Henderson though, essential player in my eyes.

I'd play: Hart; Johnson (unfortunately), Cahill, Jagielka, Baines; Gerrard, Henderson; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling, Lallana; Sturridge.

Brodinski

06-16-14, 04:24 PM

Wow, that was more impressive than Holland - Roja. Germany is just a scary team. Right now, I favour them to win it, even if that'd be the first time a northern hemisphere team wins the cup if it's played n the Southern hemisphere.

Also, we're gonna miss this guy when he hangs 'em up. Perfect passing, insight, and that free kicking ability combined with economic efficiency. Juninho would've be proud if that one had gone in .

http://giant.gfycat.com/SilverDistantIrishwaterspaniel.gif

honeykid

06-16-14, 05:30 PM

Another frustrating thing about Baines are his constant sideways passes. Yeh, Rooney is always sh*t for England in the WC and shouldn't play, can't believe you guys are all leaving out Henderson though, essential player in my eyes.
You might be right about Henderson. He had a good game, but I'm hoping that Gerrard's lack of legs these days would mean that he'd stay back more, allowing the more forward thinking Barkley to come forward when attacking. We all know Gerrard hasn't got the discipline to do it himself

Wow, that was more impressive than Holland - Roja. Germany is just a scary team. Right now, I favour them to win it, even if that'd be the first time a northern hemisphere team wins the cup if it's played n the Southern hemisphere.
it wouldn't be the first, as Spain won in S.Africa

I missed the Germany game. :( Well, I missed the first half and didn't feel like watching a Germany training session against 10 men, so forewent most of the second half and got some dinner. :D

Nigeria have been poor. Even if they nick a win here, a win they wouldn;t merit, they looked bad.

mark f

06-16-14, 08:00 PM

Amazing! U.S. scores 32 seconds in against Ghana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnkFbZssFik

honeykid

06-16-14, 08:14 PM

I've had a terrible World Cup today. Missed the Germany/Portugal game, saw the Iran/Nigeria game and then turned over 1m 36s into the Ghana/USA game. :facepalm: I think I'll just give up today.

Cobpyth

06-16-14, 08:57 PM

Entertaining ending of the game. Congratulations, USA!

honeykid

06-16-14, 09:04 PM

USA second goal reminded me of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XOL8o-3TZ8

Not the action, so much, just the joy and disbelief.

JayDee

06-16-14, 09:05 PM

I just think that, with a little more luck, we might've actually gotten that draw.

That's a dangerous game to play though. On the other hand Italy could say that with a little more luck (if the two that hit the woodwork and one off the line all went in) they could have battered you! :D

Sorry just feel the need to temper all these English hopes! :p One admittedly quite impressive performance and all of a sudden lots of English people are back to being quite high on the team. I read an article somewhere that was mainly about dropping Rooney because even at just 28 he already represents England's past and they need to look to the future. This guy was already talking about looking good enough to compete at the next Euros and the next World Cup.

Argentina were a little lucky, but I think they just about deserved their win.

Yeah they were a little fortunate. They only really showed what they could do for a 15-20 minute spell after Messi's brilliant goal. Though that's why I don't think you should ever write a team off or go nuts about them based on the first game; takes teams a game or so to get themselves into the tournament a lot of the time. The important thing is just to get the win; do that and you've done well.

I've had a terrible World Cup today. Missed the Germany/Portugal game, saw the Iran/Nigeria game and then turned over 1m 36s into the Ghana/USA game. :facepalm: I think I'll just give up today.

Oh boy you've had a bad day of it! :D I saw the Germany/Portugal game and skipped most of the Iran/Nigeria game because I just felt it was going to be the tournament's first stinker. Sometimes I wonder about how many teams each region should get. I know Europe already has lots but surely the likes of Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Serbia and yes even Scotland (stop laughing! We've been playing good stuff for the last year :D) could contribute more than the likes of Nigeria, Iran and Honduras.

Anyway Germany looked absolute class. They were my pick before the tournament and nothing I saw there made me question that. Good keeper, solid defence, good footbal and in attack got so much movement, link-up and creativity. Also how good is Thomas Muller? He may not look like the most naturally gifted of players but I think he's a cracking player. Really intelligent, works hard for the team, makes great runs, always seems to find himself in the right positions in the box and more often than not scores when he does. I think he'd be a massive success in England and would have been a great signing for Man Utd if the stories about them wanting him were true.

Anyway what are we thinking is the best goal of the tournament so far? Van Persie's header? Messi's trademark goal against Bosnia? Something else?

honeykid

06-16-14, 09:19 PM

That's a dangerous game to play though. On the other hand Italy could say that with a little more luck (if the two that hit the woodwork and one off the line all went in) they could have battered you! :D
Oh, that's quite true. Had we been unlucky, it could've been walloped.

Sorry just feel the need to temper all these English hopes! :p One admittedly quite impressive performance and all of a sudden lots of English people are back to being quite high on the team. I read an article somewhere that was mainly about dropping Rooney because even at just 28 he already represents England's past and they need to look to the future. This guy was already talking about looking good enough to compete at the next Euros and the next World Cup.
I didn't think we'd get out of the group and, while I'm more positive than I was at the start, thanks to Costa Rica's win, we still need to win both games to be sure of qualifying, so in that respect nothing has changed despite the loss, but we looked better. Hence the confidence.:D

I know Europe already has lots but surely the likes of Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Serbia and yes even Scotland (stop laughing! We've been playing good stuff for the last year :D)
:rotfl: :p

Also how good is Thomas Muller? He may not look like the most naturally gifted of players but I think he's a cracking player. Really intelligent, works hard for the team, makes great runs, always seems to find himself in the right positions in the box and more often than not scores when he does. I think he'd be a massive success in England and would have been a great signing for Man Utd if the stories about them wanting him were true.
I'd have loved to've had him at United. I think he gets slightly overlooked, here anyway, because of other players in the Bayern team, but he's top quality and, like Gotze and Reus, he's been on United (and every other top European team probably) radar since his late teens.

Anyway what are we thinking is the best goal of the tournament so far? Van Persie's header? Messi's trademark goal against Bosnia? Something else?
At the moment, I'm saying van Persie.

Cobpyth

06-17-14, 11:28 AM

Let's see what Belgium can do today....

There's 1 hour and 30 minutes left and then our country will finally play their first game of football on a big tournament since 2002!

Tacitus

06-17-14, 02:23 PM

I've just seen an advert on the rolling billboards at the Belgium/Algeria game for Moy Park.

A poultry processor from Dungannon alongside Addidas and Visa? Are minging chicken Kievs popular in Brazil? Or Ghent?

honeykid

06-17-14, 02:28 PM

Cheap food's popular everywhere, Tacitus. :D

1-1. Fellaini just scored.

Cobpyth

06-17-14, 03:18 PM

Well, that was a horrendous game from the Belgians (especially in the first half), but I'm very glad we won. :p

Let's hope we'll start better against the Russians!

donniedarko

06-17-14, 03:34 PM

I like both, The Belgians and Russians. I have Belgium winning the group, but I must say the first half performance against Algeria was surprising. They'll have to show much stronger against Russia, and S. Korea for that matter.

Russia vs S. Korea prediction:
2-0

donniedarko

06-17-14, 04:14 PM

Neymar is getting dangerously close to getting a yellow card...

Daniel M

06-17-14, 04:21 PM

honeykid

06-17-14, 05:17 PM

Neymar is getting dangerously close to getting a yellow card...
I think I'll get a card before Neymar does.

Cobpyth

06-17-14, 06:36 PM

I thought Algeria was going to be a tough game, they've got some decent players (Bougherra, Feghouli, Bentalab etc.), likely to be more used to the heat and were always going to play defensively. Add to that a Belgium side with pressure on them, and every time I have seen them they seem unsure on a system, weren't moving the ball fast enough in the first half. I think Chadli's a poor player, especially when compared to the rest of the team, and although definitely talented, Lukaku can often be frustrating. Were much more effective when they took of him and the two Spurs midfielders.

It went way too slowly indeed. Dembele and Chadli are not that quick. They like to walk with the ball and search for an opening or make an action. You can have one of those players in your team, but not two of them. Otherwise there's no pace in your game. We need another quick passer on the midfield, in stead of Chadli. Dembele is at least strong and keeps the ball in the team, so he can stay.

Brazil - Mexico was a fun match. Too bad nobody scored, though. The Mexican keeper was amazingly good!

honeykid

06-17-14, 06:42 PM

Ochoa is a great keeper to get in FM'10. :D

If England had played as poorly as Brazil just did, they'd have been caned by everyone.

Daniel M

06-18-14, 12:31 PM

It went way too slowly indeed. Dembele and Chadli are not that quick. They like to walk with the ball and search for an opening or make an action. You can have one of those players in your team, but not two of them. Otherwise there's no pace in your game. We need another quick passer on the midfield, in stead of Chadli. Dembele is at least strong and keeps the ball in the team, so he can stay.

Brazil - Mexico was a fun match. Too bad nobody scored, though. The Mexican keeper was amazingly good!

Yeh I'm not the biggest fan of Chadli anyway, but I always used to like Dembele when him and Sandro was together, he used to be a lot more direct and powerful and seems to have lost a bit of confidence and ability to influence games after last season with Spurs.

Yeah, Brazil match was good, both teams seemed happy for the draw. Great to see Marquez still going strong for Mexico too.

Ochoa is a great keeper to get in FM'10. :D

If England had played as poorly as Brazil just did, they'd have been caned by everyone.

Yup, Ochoa is a FM hero, expect to see everyone being linked to him now, he's a free transfer too apparently :p

honeykid

06-18-14, 12:56 PM

Yep, Arsenal and Liverpool are being linked to him today. :D

United have got Swansea first game again next season. And we're being linked with Khedira. *fingers crossed*

Daniel M

06-18-14, 01:02 PM

Every summer Man United are linking to almost every German international player, I wouldn't get your hopes up yet :D

Tough start for Liverpool though with Southampton (H), Man City (A) and Spurs (A). Only a related note Cardiff got a really tough start down in the Championship with Blackburn, Huddersfield, Wigan, Wolves and Fulham :(

What's everyones prediction for tonight's games? I think we'll see wins for Holland, Spain and Croatia. In the Spain game my heart says Chile but the more I think about it the more I think people are writing off Spain too quickly. For the majority of the first half they were dominating the game against Holland, and had they had gone 2-0 up through David Silva they would have likely killed the game off and won comfortably, then Casillas capitulated in the second half which made the result look at lot worse. If they finish second in their group, I think they face Brazil who I honestly think they could beat, I still think that overall they probably have a better chance in the competition than Holland.

Guaporense

06-18-14, 01:18 PM

If England had played as poorly as Brazil just did, they'd have been caned by everyone.

The way they are playing I guess Brazil might repeat the results of 2006 and 2010 of being able to qualify for the quarter finals and getting kicked out of the world cup. :D Playing at home would be extremely embarrassing but that's the way it appears to be going...

Guaporense

06-18-14, 01:21 PM

What's everyones prediction for tonight's games? I think we'll see wins for Holland, Spain and Croatia. In the Spain game my heart says Chile but the more I think about it the more I think people are writing off Spain too quickly. For the majority of the first half they were dominating the game against Holland, and had they had gone 2-0 up through David Silva they would have likely killed the game off and won comfortably, then Casillas capitulated in the second half which made the result look at lot worse. If they finish second in their group, I think they face Brazil who I honestly think they could beat, I still think that overall they probably have a better chance in the competition than Holland.

In football there is always a lot of uncertainty, even a significantly weaker team can win against a stronger one. However I would bet on Brazil if they faced Spain. Their team this year is not as strong as in 2010.

Chile is also a strong team so I wouldn't be so sure that Spain beats it.

honeykid

06-18-14, 01:27 PM

Every summer Man United are linking to almost every German international player, I wouldn't get your hopes up yet :D
Oh, I know. :D However, at least there seems to be some truth in Khedira leaving Real, so he's got to go somewhere. There's also a story about Hummels 'deciding' to stay at Dortmond. Which is great, as he's been leaving every summer for the past three years.:D

With VG at the club, I expect the Dutch more than the Germans to come over, but I'm not expecting any big names this summer.

Daniel M

06-18-14, 01:28 PM

I think both teams are similar in that their teams haven't changed much and they've struggled to integrate newer players into the team, and their weakest position is upfront (Diego Costa is great, but not fully fit). Fred is utterly useless, and the over reliance on Neymar is ridiculous. I think yesterday Scolari was happy to play for the draw, with his team selection (Ramires at RM and Oscar deeper on the left). We still haven't see the best from, same with Spain who I think people might be writing off to quickly. I think it would be a very interesting game so early on with both having to up their game probably from the group stages.

Anyway, what a f*cking hit Tim Cahill!

honeykid

06-18-14, 02:36 PM

Any chance this RVP can show up at Old Trafford this year? He likes the manager, so maybe he'll decide to show up. :rolleyes:

Wonderful goal by Cahill. There's still a chance the Aussies can nick a draw out of this.

honeykid

06-18-14, 03:57 PM

Here we go. I still don't see why Spain can't win the tournament, but if they lose here it's all over. This was always going to be a good game, but it's important now, too. I hope it's not a stinker. If Chile score first, things could get really, really interesting. :eek:

-KhaN-

06-18-14, 06:55 PM

annnnnnd they are out.I'm really happy,why?Because people are talking about Spain like they talked about Brazil before world cup started...

honeykid

06-18-14, 07:41 PM

annnnnnd they are out.I'm really happy,why?Because people are talking about Spain like they talked about Brazil before world cup started...
What, as one of the best teams in the world? That's because they are. Like Brazil, they've been poor at this world cup, but I think that has as much to do with confidence as it does anything else. Though, in Spain's case, Chile worked fantastically hard all evening but, once again, had Spain taken a couple of gilt edged chances, things might've been different.

I said to my physio last week that Spain might simply surrcomb due to having played non-stop for the last 6 years. But I didn't for a second think it'd be in the group stages. Semi's or final, sure, but not at the start.

BTW, did anyone else declare Spain out of the tournament the moment Busquets missed that sitter. :D

Who'd have thought it. Spain out before England. :p:D I'd have taken that before the start of the World Cup. Now, it doesn't sound as good. :shifty:

*edit* First Chile goal now the best goal of the tournament?

*Edit* Seeing as no one else is here, who'd have thought that Spain would be out after two games, having conceded seven goals, only scoring one (and that a penalty) and Casillas making three or four mistakes resulting in goals. Do you think Del Bosque is questioning himself and his selection? Or just thinking "what if...?"

Also, this is the second World Cup in a row that England have been in the tournament longer than the previous Champions. :D

the samoan lawyer

06-19-14, 04:57 AM

CHA-CHING

Anybody else here think Chile could be the surprise package? I know i'll be backing them in individual games anyway.

Tacitus

06-19-14, 05:40 AM

Anyway, what a f*cking hit Tim Cahill!

Always loved Cahill - Skilful and hard as nails. Always thought he left top flight football a couple of years too early.

A mate of mine did some charity work with him and apparently he's a lovely bloke too - He flew into darkest Tyrone for a little kid's birthday party (who he was helping raise money for) unannounced hours after he'd been playing for Everton and stayed all evening. No press, just a big lump of cash and signed gear. ;)

RIP Spain? When the spine of a great side begin to age is when a manager really earns his corn. Whoever Del Bosque's replacement is (can't see him staying, or even wanting to) might have a few retirements to ease the swing of his axe but all things come to an end.

Pity it was with such a whimper though. ;)

-KhaN-

06-19-14, 06:40 AM

What, as one of the best teams in the world? That's because they are. Like Brazil, they've been poor at this world cup, but I think that has as much to do with confidence as it does anything else. Though, in Spain's case, Chile worked fantastically hard all evening but, once again, had Spain taken a couple of gilt edged chances, things might've been different.

I said to my physio last week that Spain might simply surrcomb due to having played non-stop for the last 6 years. But I didn't for a second think it'd be in the group stages. Semi's or final, sure, but not at the start.

BTW, did anyone else declare Spain out of the tournament the moment Busquets missed that sitter. :D

Who'd have thought it. Spain out before England. :p:D I'd have taken that before the start of the World Cup. Now, it doesn't sound as good. :shifty:

*edit* First Chile goal now the best goal of the tournament?

*Edit* Seeing as no one else is here, who'd have thought that Spain would be out after two games, having conceded seven goals, only scoring one (and that a penalty) and Casillas making three or four mistakes resulting in goals. Do you think Del Bosque is questioning himself and his selection? Or just thinking "what if...?"

Also, this is the second World Cup in a row that England have been in the tournament longer than the previous Champions. :D

That is my point,people just ignore long season they had,as you said they played for 6 years.They can be best team in the world,with best players etc but they are out.Same happened when I said that Brazil wont have good world cup,everyone attacked me but I was correct.People just ignore friendly games,they ignore long seasons etc they just see first eleven and they think that is it(not saying you do that.)

honeykid

06-19-14, 12:21 PM

I understand where you're coming from, but Brazil are still in the competition and will, almost certainly, go through. Obviously anything less than a win in their home country will been seen as a disappointment.

Spain are also six years older and there just aren't the players coming through to replace, let's be honest, some of the best players that've ever played the game.

Spain were just poor last night, though. Still could've gotten a result, had things gone their way, but poor nonetheless.

Guaporense

06-19-14, 02:10 PM

Spain in 2010 was like Hungary in 1954. :) Just a particular generation of players that was much stronger than other generations from the same country.

And in 1998 France won, in 2002 they left without scoring, in 2006 Italy won, in 2010, Italy left in the group stage. In 2010, Spain won, in 2014, Spain left the group stage. European countries national teams usually have a particularly strong vintage of players when they win the world cup, afterwards their new vintage is weaker and the old vintage is well, old, so the team is naturally weaker.

Brazil, however, is a country of 200 million people that produces a huge number of great football players (Brazil is the most populous country where football is the national sport), hence, in every world cup Brazil always has a strong team. That's why they won more world cups and are always the favorites: we pick the 11 players out of a population 200 million while Spain, France, England, Italy and Argentina pick 11 out of a population of 40 - 60 million people (that's why FIFA's chairman once said that if the best team always won Brazil would have won 16 world cups). While Germany has been the second strongest national football team since the 1950's simply because Germany is the second most populous country that plays football.

Also, for Brazil, losing the world cup is always considered a disappointment, at home or not. We even had the joke that politicians would get reelected if the national team won the world cup and wouldn't if they lost. Though in reality if appears to be the inverse: in 1994 we won, the president didn't get reelected (he was impeached actually :)) In 1998, we lost, and the president got reelected, in 2002, we won, and the ruling political party was out of the government, in 2006 and 2010, we lost both and in both cases the ruling political party got reelected. I sure hope we win this time as to remove this corrupt political party from power. :)

Guaporense

06-19-14, 02:30 PM

Value of the national teams playing the world cup in million euros:

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2014/06/18/hxlly5w.png

On paper, it appears that with Spain out the strongest team in market value is Germany. Brazil is right after but note that France and Argentina are close by. Spain was overvalued though, since the team was older so the older players tend to be overvalued, while Brazil's team is very young so the team tends to be undervalued.

Shame to tie with Mexico which is a second rate team by market valuation. :sick: Though in that match we had 9 chances and Mexico had 3 (shoots inside the goal), usually that would yield a score of 2-0 or 2-1. For comparison in Australia and Netherlands the number of shoots inside the goal was 13-8 and the score was 3-2.

honeykid

06-19-14, 02:55 PM

Yeah, football doesn't work like that. I mean, the better teams usually win and the better players usually cost the most, but I think it's mental as much as anything else at that level.

Does anyone think that Spain are that bad? They're not and, in cup competition, upsets happen a lot more often and having a bad day means you're out.

Skepsis93

06-19-14, 03:05 PM

Only Guap would think "market valuation" has anything to do with the outcome of a World Cup match.

Anyway, from the terrible draw I got in our pool Belgium is my best hope to win. So, go Belgium! :D

Guaporense

06-19-14, 06:22 PM

Uruguay! Pure elan. They don't play the best football on a technical level but they never give up. :D

Ok, England and Spain are already out. So main competitors are getting kicked out one by one from this cup. I guess putting only second rate teams in some groups while putting 3 world champions in one group was meant to increase the chances of we getting a Brazil-Argentina final.

Nausicaä

06-19-14, 06:29 PM

Guaporense

06-19-14, 06:50 PM

Looking at the tables it appears that ignoring the home ground factor Germany is the favorite to win right now. The strongest team that they can face before the semi-finals is Belgium, which is strong right now but it has little tradition (which matters in world cup for some reason), then they just need to beat probably Brazil in the semi-final and probably Argentina in the final (or maybe France or Italy).

Guaporense

06-19-14, 06:54 PM

^ England are not out yet, depending on the next few games in our group. We need Italy in our group to win their next two games and then England winning against Costa Rica, something like that.

Fingers crossed.

It's not impossible but it's not likely.

My bets are that Italy will probably beat Costa Rica but I guess it's probable they will tie with Uruguay since they wouldn't have any incentive to win while England will beat Costa Rica and both will be out.

I guess in the semifinals we will have Germany X Brazil, Argentina X Italy. I am hoping for Brazil X Argentina in the final because we never got to beat Argentina in the final, it will be the greatest world cup final ever! Epic!

Cobpyth

06-19-14, 07:00 PM

Something tells me that Guap doesn't watch a lot of football. :p

Guaporense

06-19-14, 07:27 PM

Uruguay and UK was the best match of this world cup up to now. Spain and Netherlands came close as well as Chile and Spain (for the joy of seeing Spain being eliminated early :D).

Uruguay is the most fun team to watch. The European teams are boring to watch because of their pass intensive football is fun to watch (specially Spain's) compared to the "art football" played in Brazil.

@ Cobbyth, let me talk BS once a while (world cup football is to talk BS :D). :D It's not exactly like your bet is going well. :D I watched more football a couple of years ago though I watched mostly the Brazilian leagues so I don't have much idea of how European football is going.

mark f

06-19-14, 07:38 PM

Things rarely turn out the way you expect them.

Cobpyth

06-19-14, 07:42 PM

"My bet" disappointed, but I myself am more disappointed with England. I didn't care that much about Spain (although it's pretty upsetting as a football fan to see one of the greatest football generations any country has ever known being cruelly dethroned like that), but I do care about England (mainly because I'm such a huge Liverpool fan and because Gerrard is their captain). There's still a chance that they'll make it, but it's completely out of their hands. They have to count on two good games from Italy. I'm not sure if they'll have that kind of luck...

honeykid

06-19-14, 07:46 PM

Sadly, that's the England I'm used to watching. Nervous, anxious, half a yard slow and playing without conviction or belief. We had 10 minutes where we looked like they were playing with some belief, but then the second Uraguay goal and it was all over.

Strangely, I called both Uruguay goals. The moment the ball rattled off the midfielder (who was it? I didn't see. Henderson?) I said, "here's their goal". There was still a lot to do, but it's just the kind of innocuous thing which leads to important goals against England. For all the moaning about the defence, it's a damn good header from Suarez, though. The second was just a throw away comment. The kind of thing you say as a football fan. Having seen our attack break down, "you watch, he'll just lump this and they'll score" As I finished saying it, Gerrard back header. Again, great finish. I also declared that Rooney would never score a world cup goal when he headed against the bar/post, so maybe it's just all coincidence. :D

Despite all this, we still have a chance. Probably not much of one, seeing as we need an Italy that, most likely, will rest some players to beat a team that needs to win, but a chance nonetheless. Yes, they have to beat Costa Rica, too. But in the same way we weren't expecting Uruguay to play that badly again, I'm not expecting Costa Rica to play as well. Put it this way, I'm sure Spain would swap places with us. :D However, in truth, we don't deserve to qualify after losing the first two games.

Roy, please drop Welbeck for the next game. I'd play Lallana, but Barkley or the Ox (if fit) will be fine. Gerrard's had a poor tournament so far, but he's the captain, so he's going nowhere. Hart looked nervous all night and was too cautious and/or always caught on the back foot, but is he really going to be dropped for a game we, currently, must win? I can't see it. If anything, it'd probably be too much pressure on Foster.

BTW, I wish the ref from the Japan/Greece game was reffing. He's just sent off a player for two yellow cards in the first half. That's how it's done, Carlos. It's called having balls. :mad:

Guaporense

06-19-14, 07:46 PM

I am rooting for Uruguay as many people from my state are fans of Uruguay, specially because their style of football is similar to my team's and even the color scheme.

BlueLion

06-19-14, 09:31 PM

It really is no coincidence that Gerrard has failed once again in a big game, he's simply past it. Just not good enough anymore. Lampard is still better than him, always has been.

Cobpyth

06-19-14, 10:55 PM

It really is no coincidence that Gerrard has failed once again in a big game, he's simply past it. Just not good enough anymore. Lampard is still better than him, always has been.

Yeah, that's why he was the player with the most assists in the whole Premier League this season, along with 14 goals in total and that's probably also why he was part of the PL team of the season.

Lampard was NEVER better than Steven Gerrard in his whole career and never will be.

Also, what mistake did he make? He was unlucky, just like he was unlucky with the other mistake. Blaming it on "being past it " is absolutely ridiculous.

Tacitus

06-20-14, 04:41 AM

Sadly, that's the England I'm used to watching. Nervous, anxious, half a yard slow and playing without conviction or belief. We had 10 minutes where we looked like they were playing with some belief, but then the second Uraguay goal and it was all over.

Add that to the poorest group of players the manager has had to pick from since Taylor's days and the weakest defence I can remember - In an ideal world only Cahill would survive but you're struggling to think of three viable England-declared alternatives to Jagielka, Baines and Johnson. Hart's decent but he's nowhere near as good as the press have built him up to be.

As you said, it was the same old story last night. Even I, a non Man Utd, non England supporter applauded when Rooney finally broke his duck but he should have had at least one more. Gerrard's in the worst form I can remember, Henderson's only in the side because Gerrard can't cover the ground any more and, as said previously, three of the back four are only there because there's no one better.

Poor Cashley. Poor Roy.

-KhaN-

06-20-14, 05:55 AM

#Guap
I know you love Brazil and everything but come on...Are you even watching world cup?Brazil and Argentina final? Marketplace? Value? Brazilian super football? What!? European teams are maybe boring to watch for you but you know...we kinda have best leagues and your "magic"Brazilians come to play in those leageues...I guess China is best country in the world then? because you keep saying how Brazil has big population...Then India and China are in the top right...oh wait...

BlueLion

06-20-14, 07:19 AM

Yeah, that's why he was the player with the most assists in the whole Premier League this season, along with 14 goals in total and that's probably also why he was part of the PL team of the season.

Lampard was NEVER better than Steven Gerrard in his whole career and never will be.

Also, what mistake did he make? He was unlucky, just like he was unlucky with the other mistake. Blaming it on "being past it " is absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah... this season, when Lampard wasn't even a starter :rolleyes:

How about comparing their careers head-to-head?

Lampard is second in the Premier League's ALL-TIME assists table, behind only Ryan Giggs. He also is the highest scoring midfielder in the history of the Premier League (he is fifth in the list of all time Premier League top scorers), and based on his statistics he was named Player of the Decade in the Premier League in 2009.

He was also runner-up in both FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or in 2005. The highest Gerrard got to was Ballon d'Or third place in 2005, BEHIND Lampard and Ronaldinho.

Furthermore, Lampard has won three Premier League titles, Gerrard has none. Gerrard was always considered the better 'leader' because he led his team to that historic Champions League triumph in Istanbul, but guess what, Lampard did the same in 2012.

So you better check your stats again.

Cobpyth

06-20-14, 08:40 AM

Yeah... this season, when Lampard wasn't even a starter :rolleyes:

How about comparing their careers head-to-head?

Lampard is second in the Premier League's ALL-TIME assists table, behind only Ryan Giggs. He also is the highest scoring midfielder in the history of the Premier League (he is fifth in the list of all time Premier League top scorers), and based on his statistics he was named Player of the Decade in the Premier League in 2009.

He was also runner-up in both FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or in 2005. The highest Gerrard got to was Ballon d'Or third place in 2005, BEHIND Lampard and Ronaldinho.

Furthermore, Lampard has won three Premier League titles, Gerrard has none. Gerrard was always considered the better 'leader' because he led his team to that historic Champions League triumph in Istanbul, but guess what, Lampard did the same in 2012.

So you better check your stats again.

Gerrard played in a much worse team throughout his career. Lampard didn't lead his team to the Champions League win, he wasn't even the captain. He was part of it without a doubt, but in no way was he that important to his team as Gerrard was to Liverpool in the 2005 and 2007 campaign (in the last one they lost in the final). He just played in a much better team that's bought together by a rich Russian and that's why he has won more tropheys with his team.
Also, Gerrard should have gotten the 2005 ballon d'Or, because of his CL performance alone (I don't think any player has ever been so significant for his team as Gerrard during that European campaign for Liverpool), so the "Ballon D'Or" is not really a representation for me.

The difference in amount of goals is truly because Gerrard plays a much more defending role for Liverpool, a much more complete role than Lampard did with Chelsea. Lampard is pretty much exclusively an attacking midfielder, while Gerrard is much more than that.
The reason why Lampard has more assists (for now) is simply because he had much more competent players that could finish his crucial passes. The difference in assists is not that high, though, which says a lot about Stevey.

Gerrard is the most complete football player and the ultimate leader figure of the two, whether you like it or not. Football is much more than just making goals and assists (although Gerrard still doesn't disappoint in that respect). Defending is just as important. The statistics Gerrard has reached with his much less qualitative team are incredible and he still has a few years ahead of him (last season was one of his best in years), which can't be said about Lampard (there's a reason why he's not a starter anymore)... Your statement that Lampard is "still" better than Gerrard is therefore a whole bunch of crap.

Taking into account the team environment both players were in throughout their career, I think it's pretty safe to say that Gerrard's achievements are more impressive than Lampard's and I'm also pretty sure that he will be remembered as a much bigger player in the future. He's a legend, an icon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvMfq4OGnRc

BlueLion

06-20-14, 10:40 AM

Oh, the "Gerrard didn't have top players around him" and the Russian billionaire excuses again... aren't we all tired of those?

Lampard didn't lead his team to the Champions League win, he wasn't even the captain.

:facepalm:

Shows how much you know about football.

http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Frank+Lampard+FC+Bayern+Muenchen+v+Chelsea+74SF_4KPiKcl.jpg

That light green thing on a footballer's left arm was a captain's armband the last time I checked...

He was part of it without a doubt, but in no way was he that important to his team as Gerrard was to Liverpool in the 2005 and 2007 campaign

Again, :facepalm:

In the semi-final first leg against Barcelona, Lampard dispossessed Messi (then the best footballer in the world), provided Ramires with a long ball who then assisted to Drogba for 1-0, which turned out to be the only, and winning goal, of the game.

In the second leg, he again found Ramires with an excellent pass who scored for 2-1 after Chelsea were losing 2-0. Lampard was the captain for most of the game, after Terry was sent off for a silly foul on Alexis Sanchez.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mmYEi2jre4

Not to mention that he also scored in the penalty shoot-out in the final. Along with Cech, Cole, Terry and Drogba (the old guard), Lampard was key to Chelsea's success and he inspired the team to a historic triumph.

Also, Gerrard should have gotten the 2005 ballon d'Or, because of his CL performance alone (I don't think any player has ever been so significant for his team as Gerrard during that European campaign for Liverpool), so the "Ballon D'Or" is not really a representation for me.

No, he shouldn't even have been nominated. Liverpool's 2005 CL triumph is one of the most undeserved ever. Liverpool went to the final thanks to a goal that was NEVER a goal in the first place.

The statistics Gerrard has reached with his much less qualitative team are incredible and he still has a few years ahead of him (last season was one of his best in years), which can't be said about Lampard (there's a reason why he's not a starter anymore)... Your statement that Lampard is "still" better than Gerrard is therefore a whole bunch of crap.

Of course Gerrard still has a few years ahead of him, but you do realize that Lampard is a few years older than Gerrard, right?

He's a legend, an icon.

And Lampard isn't? Okay :rolleyes:

Cobpyth

06-20-14, 11:19 AM

:facepalm:

Shows how much you know about football.

That light green thing on a footballer's left arm was a captain's armband the last time I checked...

Oh please. Don't try to spell me a lesson on football. I forgot he got to play the captain for one and a half game, because Terry was suspended. I guess that automatically makes him the captain of the whole Champions League campaign... Give me a break.

Again, :facepalm:

In the semi-final first leg against Barcelona, Lampard dispossessed Messi (then the best footballer in the world), provided Ramires with a long ball who then assisted to Drogba for 1-0, which turned out to be the only, and winning goal, of the game.

In the second leg, he again found Ramires with an excellent pass who scored for 2-1 after Chelsea were losing 2-0. Lampard was the captain for most of the game, after Terry was sent off for a silly foul on Alexis Sanchez.

Was that the game where Chelsea was playing with 10 defenders? Anyway, I said he was definitely part of it, but still he wasn't that important as Gerrard in the 2005 campaign. Two good passes on two counter attacks don't change that.

Not to mention that he also scored in the penalty shoot-out in the final. Along with Cech, Cole, Terry and Drogba (the old guard), Lampard was key to Chelsea's success and he inspired the team to a historic triumph.

Drogba won that final.

No, he shouldn't even have been nominated. Liverpool's 2005 CL triumph is one of the most undeserved ever. Liverpool went to the final thanks to a goal that was NEVER a goal in the first place.

Is Chelsea still pissed about that? It may have been a goal or it may not have been a goal (nothing has been proven), but it would have been a penalty if it wasn't, because Cech floored a Liverpool player right before Garcia scores. Also Liverpool's 2005 CL win in Istanbul was the most spectacular and heroic win in the history of European football (together perhaps with Man U's win over Bayern Munich in 1999). It's a true win from a club with an amazing history. A win with emotions. Nothing like the fabricated stuff Chelsea produces.

Of course Gerrard still has a few years ahead of him, but you do realize that Lampard is a few years older than Gerrard, right?

Two years older, yes. That's why you shouldn't take Gerrard and Lampard's comparing statistics as definite yet.

And Lampard isn't? Okay :rolleyes:

He definitely is in his own way, but he lacks the charisma, completeness and personality of Steven Gerrard.

Cobpyth

06-20-14, 11:31 AM

Anyway, back to the World Cup. I just had to speak up for Gerrard, because he was being unfairly attacked by a frustrated Chelsea fan. :p

Looking forward to the game between Italy and Costa Rica! Now, we'll really get to see how strong Italy actually is.

Daniel M

06-20-14, 11:33 AM

Gerrard is and always has been far better than Lampard

BlueLion

06-20-14, 11:34 AM

Oh please. Don't try to spell me a lesson on football. I forgot he got to play the captain for one and a half game, because Terry was suspended. I guess that automatically makes him the captain of the whole Champions League campaign... Give me a break.

Please quote the part where I said he was captain for the whole CL campaign. You said he wasn't captain in the final and you were proven wrong, and now you claim I've said something which I haven't. Ridiculous.

Was that the game where Chelsea was playing with 10 defenders? Anyway, I said he was definitely part of it, but still he wasn't that important as Gerrard in the 2005 campaign. Two good passes on two counter attacks don't change that.

No, it was a game where Chelsea was playing with 10 men (and no central defenders) for about 70 minutes, in Camp Nou against the best team in the world.

Those two good passes secured the Champions League final. I'm not even sure if you're serious or what...

Is Chelsea still pissed about that?

Not as much as Liverpool is about this

http://media.joe.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Ba.gif

Two years older, yes. That's why you shouldn't take Gerrard and Lampard's comparing statistics as definite yet.

Whatever dude...

Daniel M

06-20-14, 11:35 AM

I did laugh at the bit where you say the CL was undeserving because of the "ghost goal". Chelsea fans...

BlueLion

06-20-14, 11:39 AM

Anyway, back to the World Cup. I just had to speak up for Gerrard, because he was being unfairly attacked by a frustrated Chelsea fan. :p

I'm not the only one, England fans and pundits alike are considering him flop of the match and some are even suggesting that he should retire altogether...

If Gerrard had left that ball just go past him, even if it got past Jagielka, Suarez would have been 5 yards offside. All defenders leave strikers who want to stray that much offside alone. In that moment you don't expect your own midfielder to back head it 20 odd yards directly to him. When that player is Steven Gerrard though, maybe the unexpected calamity should be expected.

Cobpyth

06-20-14, 11:47 AM

Please quote the part where I said he was captain for the whole CL campaign. You said he wasn't captain in the final and you were proven wrong, and now you claim I've said something which I haven't. Ridiculous.

Speaking about putting words in someone's mouth. I said he wasn't even the captain of the team. He's not the leader. I never said he wasn't the (substitute) captain in the final, although I did forget, because it wasn't a particularly memorable game to me.

No, it was a game where Chelsea was playing with 10 men (and no central defenders) for about 70 minutes, in Camp Nou against the best team in the world.

Those two good passes secured the Champions League final. I'm not even sure if you're serious or what...

I recognized the importance of the passes, but Gerrard was still 1000 times more important for Liverpool and he played with a team that would've never won the CL if they had to play with a guy like Lampard, who isn't complete enough to lift up a whole team, purely because of his personality and leadership.

Not as much as Liverpool is about this

http://media.joe.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Ba.gif

The difference between Liverpool fans and Chelsea fans is that everyone is still behind our club and our Captain after that. It was sheer bad luck.

We deserved to win the PL this year, but we didn't. We move on. you're the one who's bringing it up, not me. You had to bring up Garcia's goal from 2005, though, which is kind of laughable.

Cobpyth

06-20-14, 11:59 AM

I'm not the only one, England fans and pundits alike are considering him flop of the match and some are even suggesting that he should retire altogether...

If Gerrard had left that ball just go past him, even if it got past Jagielka, Suarez would have been 5 yards offside. All defenders leave strikers who want to stray that much offside alone. In that moment you don't expect your own midfielder to back head it 20 odd yards directly to him. When that player is Steven Gerrard though, maybe the unexpected calamity should be expected.

Oh please, let it go already. He fought for England and while trying to win a duel, he had some terrible bad luck. This could've happened to everyone.

If you're really blaming this on Gerrard himself you're just being pathetic. I didn't hear anyone mention that he should retire because of this and if anyone did, they don't know one single crap about the game of football.

BlueLion

06-20-14, 12:06 PM

Speaking about putting words in someone's mouth. I said he wasn't even the captain of the team. He's not the leader. I never said he wasn't the (substitute) captain in the final, although I did forget, because it wasn't a particularly memorable game to me.

Now that he's left the club he obviously isn't, but he was for most of his Chelsea career (during his later years), especially in the Champions League winning season. And you don't seem to get this.

Lampard was a Chelsea leader and captain just as much as Terry. A lot of Chelsea fans (myself included) and even non-Chelsea fans believe that Lampard should have been first choice captain in the first place. He always had the attitude and characteristics of a true leader, and has always been a better example than Terry both on and off the pitch.

Lampard always stepped up in Terry's absence, and Terry was absent for pretty much every big final apart from the Moscow final in 2008. Apart from the 2012 CL final, Lampard captained the side in the Europa League final as well, less than a year later. He was also captain in both European Super Cup finals (against Atletico in 2012 and Bayern in 2013), and even the Club World Cup final against Corinthians.

Unlike Liverpool, Chelsea has had two captains for over a decade. Have you noticed how every time Chelsea won a trophy, Terry and Lampard lifted the trophies together? Lampard wasn't merely a substitute captain.

He never got the credit he deserves so it's really not that surprising to see people (and what is more, Liverpool fans) disparage him. And it honestly doesn't bother me, when trophies and statistics speak for themselves.

Anyway, I believe we should get back on topic now.

Tacitus

06-20-14, 01:15 PM

Anyway, I believe we should get back on topic now.

Indeed. Both of you. ;)

honeykid

06-20-14, 01:41 PM

#Guap
Then India and China are in the top right...oh wait...
Once they get the set up, it'll only take a generation or two.

I recognized the importance of the passes, but Gerrard was still 1000 times more important for Liverpool and he played with a team that would've never won the CL if they had to play with a guy like Lampard, who isn't complete enough to lift up a whole team, purely because of his personality and leadership.
This makes him more important to Liverpool than Lampard to Chelsea. It's not the same as him being better.

We deserved to win the PL this year, but we didn't..
No, you didn't. Otherwise you would've. United finished 7th this season. Why? Because we deserved to. If we finish 7th again, it'll be for the same reason.

Anyway, as for the World Cup, Balotelli should've scored already. Can he really be going to Arsenal?

Also, I'm sure that Gerrard said before the world cup that he was going to retire from International football after this. After these two performances, it looks like he already has. Still, as he's Stevie Me, I'm sure he'll put in one last 'heroric' performance and, by heroic, I do, of course, mean poorly disciplined disguised as 'work rate' and passion.

Cobpyth

06-20-14, 01:58 PM

Gerrard poorly disciplined? :p
Please, Honeykid...

Anyway, South-America is ruining Europe in this World Cup!!!

Costa Rica - Italy: 1-0 HT!

honeykid

06-20-14, 02:05 PM

Gerrard's always been poorly disciplined Frankly, I think if he and Lampard didn't have the egos they do and were prepared to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team, they both could've played in midfield much more effectively and consistantly than they ever did. Though if the managers had had any balls, they'd have dropped one of them to the bench. But that's all long gone now.

With Ronaldo injured/out?, is the USA now second favourites to go through?

Tacitus

06-20-14, 02:25 PM

Much more pertinent WC news - When, exactly, did Hoddle turn into Mickey Rourke?

Has Glenda had some work done? Just as Joachim Low looks more likely to be touring with Blondie than coaching a national team, old Glenda should be starring in an Indie movie about a down at heel hoover salesman who moonlights as a mod enforcer.

honeykid

06-20-14, 02:34 PM

Are you watching Baker And Kelly Not In Rio, Tacitus? Someone had noted that Low looked like Brian Ferry. :D

It's all about taking your chances, as we've learned if we've learned nothing else from England in this World Cup, but Costa Rica are well worth this win against. Italy, should they get it.

Another poor decision from a ref, btw. Is it just because it's happening now, or have this been particularly poor, so far, for the wrong big decision this World Cup?

honeykid

06-20-14, 02:56 PM

And we're done. Congratulations to Costa Rica. You completely deserve it. :up:

BTW, has Inzaghi had anything to do with training the strikers when to make runs?:D

BlueLion

06-20-14, 03:08 PM

This makes him more important to Liverpool than Lampard to Chelsea. It's not the same as him being better.

Precisely, it's called being a big fish in a small pond.

That was really poor from Italy. The Uruguay-Italy game is going to be superb though.

Guaporense

06-20-14, 03:23 PM

Anyway, South-America is ruining Europe in this World Cup!!!

Costa Rica - Italy: 1-0 HT!

Thinking the same thing. Well, in the past 2 world cups 7 out of the 8 teams in the semi-finals were European and the champion was European in both cases, now we need more South America this time. :D

Tacitus

06-20-14, 03:28 PM

Are you watching Baker And Kelly Not In Rio, Tacitus? Someone had noted that Low looked like Brian Ferry. :D

Nah, I saw a couple of Baker & Kellys last season and it made me pine for the days when they were the best thing about football coverage and not two middle-aged men telling war stories. Decided not to watch again and remember them as they were.

JayDee

06-21-14, 02:50 PM

Messi to Argentin's rescue again! And another cracker. Iran came so close to causing one of the biggest upsets in the history of the World Cup but Messi just broke their hearts

honeykid

06-21-14, 03:00 PM

I had it on in the background, but Iran seemed to've held Argentina to a well deserved point, with the possibility of three. Was that a pen? I didn't really see it. Then, Messi. Maybe this will be his World Cup after all?

What do you think about playing the other 11 for the last game? There's nothing to lose.

Tacitus

06-21-14, 04:13 PM

This didn't strike me until today -

Loveable Irish 'I'll appear on anything' gardener, Diarmuid Gavin:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b69/greenspagbol/Lionel-Messi-the-Barcelon-011_zps86c16f9f.jpg~original (http://s17.photobucket.com/user/greenspagbol/media/Lionel-Messi-the-Barcelon-011_zps86c16f9f.jpg.html)

Lionel Messi:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b69/greenspagbol/Diarmuid_Gavin_zps0c204686.jpg~original (http://s17.photobucket.com/user/greenspagbol/media/Diarmuid_Gavin_zps0c204686.jpg.html)

honeykid

06-21-14, 08:03 PM

It does explain why Messi's face annoys me.

honeykid

06-22-14, 08:23 PM

1-1. USA just scored. Terrible first goal to give away, but at least Nani scored it. Hopefully that'll add a couple mill more to his price tag.

mark f

06-22-14, 08:23 PM

Whoa USA!

mark f

06-22-14, 08:40 PM

Woo Hoo!

honeykid

06-22-14, 08:51 PM

3 minutes till the last 16. You'll deserve it and it'll be good for the game in the States. :)

honeykid

06-22-14, 08:53 PM

Oh! Heartbreak!

honeykid

06-22-14, 08:53 PM

I guess if no one is going to give Ronaldo the ammo to score, he'll have to do it for someone else. He won't be happy about that.

mark f

06-22-14, 08:54 PM

Ouch.

gandalf26

06-22-14, 09:07 PM

Tough one to take USA. Still think you are likely to go through though.

Cobpyth

06-22-14, 09:10 PM

That was plain cruel.

On the other hand it gives Germany a better chance to become the group leader (although they would've probably become group leader anyway), which is better for Belgium, as we already qualified ourselves and are likely to become leader of our group. We don't want to play against Germany in the next round. :p

honeykid

06-22-14, 09:11 PM

Don't they need, at least, a draw against Germany? I'm not saying they can't get it, but likely?

Cobpyth

06-22-14, 09:19 PM

Don't they need, at least, a draw against Germany? I'm not saying they can't get it, but likely?

In case Ghana doesn't win with a difference of 2 goals or Portugal doesn't win with a difference of 5 goals, they can also lose.

Also, Klinsmann and Loew know eachother very well (Loew used to be Klinsmann's assistant). Don't you think they might talk to eachother about a fixed draw? ;)

honeykid

06-22-14, 09:24 PM

But the word was "likely".

However, having looked at the group, yes, they're likely to go through. :D

That said, with an injured Ronaldo having played another game and the general crapness of Portugal, it's not in the bag yet.

gandalf26

06-23-14, 08:20 AM

http://i.imgur.com/O8CycIt.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/8PjW0fb.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qMM3TYH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Gk8uNT9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AweovnD.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Q7ydPrn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oTpZhAE.jpg?1

Guaporense

06-24-14, 03:03 PM

Uruguay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

Really great game, specially the second half. Both team were really well organized in the defense and Italy made the "mistake" of not scoring because if you are trying to get 0-0 you usually defend all the time and a mistake in the defense may happen, which leads to a goal.

Guaporense

06-24-14, 03:13 PM

To bad we are going to play against Chile now. We would have to face the Netherlands if we were in second place. Either alternative is very hard. Brazil had bad luck this world cup: we have to play Chile now and maybe Uruguay in the quarterfinals or Colombia which is also very strong.

Brazil is not playing well, at least for our standards.

BlueLion

06-24-14, 03:58 PM

Suarez is a disgrace.

Guaporense

06-24-14, 04:02 PM

BlueLion

06-24-14, 04:28 PM

Suarez is the best player in this cup so far!

Obviously I wasn't referring to his football skills.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/1aad92ebf0e703666c7bf864f3b993b3/tumblr_mlnxkf6ern1sp06eqo1_400.gif

BlueLion

06-24-14, 04:31 PM

Also, he is far, far from being the best player of this tournament. Granted, the cannibal was incredible against England (weakest team in the group), but Neymar, Robben, Van Persie, Muller (to name a few) have all performed better than him.

Neymar is a Barcelona player btw.

donniedarko

06-24-14, 04:44 PM

Why would you pick them over Italy o.0 ?

That's why :)

donniedarko

06-24-14, 04:46 PM

Suarez makes Mike proud though

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.608042896865169266&w=360&h=388&c=7&rs=1&p=0&pid=1.7

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/21/article-2312673-196BEDE1000005DC-155_634x455.jpg

jiraffejustin

06-24-14, 04:50 PM

Chewie Suarez is a good player, but isn't this the third time he's been caught nibbling on an opponent?

Daniel M

06-24-14, 05:14 PM

Don't understand what goes through your head to do something like that, actually has mental problems to do that, something wrong with the guy and you kind of feel sorry that he actually does it.

-KhaN-

06-24-14, 05:22 PM

Oh good,I wont be first to say that Suarez did it again...So that is red card right? Italy was bad but yea...Well as we did with every country that got raped but the ref,we will just move on,also against England,Godin didn't get a red card and he should. :D

jiraffejustin

06-24-14, 05:39 PM

I don't really think it's mental problems. Some people are just dicks. There was a guy on my (American) football team who would try to rake opponent's face/eyes in a pile. There wasn't really any reason to do it, but he did it and bragged about it.

Daniel M

06-24-14, 05:40 PM

It has to be some type of disorder though, like anger issues. You could see after the game he was gutted and knew what he did, but it's like he can't control it in the moment.

gandalf26

06-24-14, 06:26 PM

What an idiot, he has come through all that previous controversy to become one of the best in the World, receiving universal acclaim..........and then he goes all bitey, bitey again.

Skepsis93

06-24-14, 07:25 PM

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bq6rjHqIMAA4DVA.jpg

JayDee

06-24-14, 09:50 PM

Suarez is the best player in this cup so far! In 2010, Forlan was the best one, in a similar situation. I guess if you put one very talented player in a team that is not that talented he must give all he got and has all the chances to show off his talent. Neymar, for instance, is shining more now than he was in Real Madrid.

Apparently Guap knows as much about football as he does films! :p As BlueLion said Neymar plays for Barca, not Madria. And he has been far from the best player of the tournament so far. He had one good game against England and will now be out of the tournament. The star performers so far have been Neymar, Robben, van Persie, Muller, Messi, Benzema and then perhaps the guy who may upstage all of them if he continues the way he's been playing, James Rodriguez of Columbia.

As for Suarez it's hard to know what to say. That's the third time he has now bitten an opponent during a game, which I imagine may get him banned for up to a year. You have to wonder just how close he's getting to being banned for life though. Partly for the image of the game, you can't have kids watching and idolising someone like that. But even just for the safety of the other players. He clearly has issues. At the very least he has some severe anger managment problems, at worst he has something psychologically wrong with him.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/JayDee87/Chiellini-bite_zps6aeaf112.jpg (http://s5.photobucket.com/user/JayDee87/media/Chiellini-bite_zps6aeaf112.jpg.html)

Powdered Water

06-24-14, 10:03 PM

I like this game, quite a bit actually. But when is it going to institute replay? And maybe sort of walk in the next century with the rest of us? C'mon, dudes are out there acting out sexual fantasies on the field and the one ref (why not maybe add, like one more ref too while you're at it?) out there doesn't see anything? C'mon. man.

If you want hardcore American sports fans to really follow this game then there has to be fair play. Some of the stuff that goes on and doesn't get called is just plain silly.

Cobpyth

06-24-14, 10:43 PM

I think Suarez should just play with a muzzle. That way we don't have to ban one of the best players of our time and he won't be a threat to other players anymore. :p

@Jaydee: Messi? He's hardly one of the stars of this WC, in my opinion. He had two great moments that resulted in two goals, but he was crap during the rest of those games. He's completely invisible most of the time. I know it's a quality to decide games for your team when it's necessary, but you can't call him one of the best players of the tournament so far. I'm sure he'll grow, but for now, he hasn't been that good overall (except for those two magnificent goals of his, of course).

For me, the best players at the moment are Benzema and Robben (Neymar is close, though). They've been very entertaining to watch AND they've also been very important to their teams.

BlueLion

06-24-14, 11:03 PM

Fabulous

06-24-14, 11:38 PM

I am beyond stressed that Italy has been knocked out. I really hope Suarez receives some serious punishment from FIFA. The dude can't stop biting people!

-KhaN-

06-25-14, 07:34 AM

"The game was decided by the referee.Suarez is smart because FIFA allows it because they want their champions to play.The referee saw everything. - Chiellini

Cobpyth

06-25-14, 07:36 AM

"The game was decided by the referee.Suarez is smart because FIFA allows it because they want their champions to play.The referee saw everything. - Chiellini

The referee was watching in the complete opposite direction (where the ball was). No need for Chiellini (if he really said that) to turn this into some kind of conspiracy.

-KhaN-

06-25-14, 07:41 AM

I think he was talking about that time when he was jumping around the referee to show him bite marks but ref just refused to look.I mean ffs he was showing him where Suarez bit him and he refuses to look,so rules of FIFA are ref stay ignorant?

EDIT: they have more ref than needed and they still cant see biting?

-KhaN-

06-25-14, 07:43 AM

You can't even talk about ref,as soon as you mention that he MADE mistake you get banned...

Cobpyth

06-25-14, 07:46 AM

I think the ref decided that there wasn't enough proof for him to ban Suarez. He has no video assistance or whatsoever like we have, so you should understand that.

(there should be video assistance, though)

-KhaN-

06-25-14, 07:49 AM

honeykid

06-25-14, 08:59 AM

To bad we are going to play against Chile now.
Am I wrong, or don't you have a really good record against Chile?
Neymar, for instance, is shining more now than he was in Real Madrid.
Everyone else has picked you up on this (and whether or not he's been the player of the tournament) but I'd like to mention what I think is the main difference between the Neymar of the World Cup and the one at Barcelona. I think there's two things. Firstly, it was his first season in Europe and a new team. Sometimes people just fit straight away, sometimes they don't. It rarely has to do with how well they play football. Secondly, and more importantly, IMO, Barca is set up to service Messi. Neymar isn't the main man. The team don't play for him. In a year or so I expect this to change. Messi is/will start to wane, IMO, and Neymar will slip in having already intergrated into the team and earned the respect of the players which will then play for him. In the Brazil team, he's the main man.

I think he was talking about that time when he was jumping around the referee to show him bite marks but ref just refused to look.I mean ffs he was showing him where Suarez bit him and he refuses to look,so rules of FIFA are ref stay ignorant?

EDIT: they have more ref than needed and they still cant see biting?
The point is it doesn't matter whether or not the ref can see the bite marks. If he didn't see the incident, he can't rule it.

BTW, is there any truth to the reports that the nickname of the referee is Count Dracula? Seriously, that's supposed to be his nickname. :D

Watching the highlights of the Columbia game and the commentary stated that Rodriguez is going to be a global star. Guess they forgot the £35m fee Monaco paid for him. :rolleyes: There should be a seperate commentary on the red button for people who actually regularly watch and understand football. They could talk knowledgeably, a little tactics and some analysis, rather than at a level aimed at England fans who only ever watch the big tournaments.

Reffing has been poor at this world cup, though. Most games seem to have at least one big decision wrong. Usually a penalty or a booking/sending off. Felt for Italy yesterday. Suarez should've been sent off and the goal was scored by a player who should've been banned for being sent off in the previous game.

Anyone else hear about the 9 Costa Rica players being drug tested after their win against Italy? Just two Italians tested, in case you're wondering.

Gotta love FIFA.

Daniel M

06-25-14, 10:32 AM

Yeh it annoys me to when commentators make statements like that about people like James Rodriguez, like you say Monaco paid 35m for him. And anyone who plays Football Manager knew he was going to be amazing a few years ago :D

Daniel M

06-25-14, 10:33 AM

I understand that,and its totally ok,but when someone has biting mark on his shoulder you need to look at it! Because this was his mistake,its not my job to be ref,when we make mistakes in school/work something happens,but no...Ref is protected like Panda...

Once the incident is over the ref can't go back and make a decision, even if he sees the bite mark. It's like when Mexico played Argentina and the offside goal played on the screen, the ref could do nothing about it, same with Liverpool v West Ham and Carroll's goal last year.

Daniel M

06-25-14, 10:35 AM

Apparently he has denied it this time. "These things happen in the box, we were in contact, chest against shoulder, and I got a knock to the eye."

Hilarious. It's obvious that he bit Chiellini and then tried to get away with it by pretending he was injured. He even held his teeth. So now he's a racist, cheater, and liar.

Well that quote is false, he hasn't denied it but said it shouldn't be made into a big deal and 'these things happen', obviously wrong, but yeh, he needs help. Make me laugh all these people shouting for him to never play again or to leave the PL, just because they want Liverpool to be weaker.

Daniel M

06-25-14, 10:39 AM

Also, and apologies for all these posts, but I keep going back through the thread and noticing more stuff and can't be bothered to edit, but: Italy deserved to go out, they were pretty sh*t, Balotelli is so overrated for a start, playing him upfront does not help.

honeykid

06-25-14, 12:20 PM

The funniest thing about the Suarez bite, well along with the fact he did it again, which in itself is hysterical, is that only last week he was banging on about how he wasn't respected in the UK and that people were laughing it him. How he wanted to change that and, after they won, how he enjoyed proving them wrong. Obviously none of what he did changed the reasons that he wasn't respected and was laughed at (the biting and racism) but even if it had, to go and do it again after all that. The man's priceless.

My g/f and I already used his name as a verb. This only gets better.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75818000/jpg/_75818100_compositefortop.jpg
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75821000/jpg/_75821912_miketysonpic.jpg
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75821000/jpg/_75821910_vampire.jpg

honeykid

06-25-14, 01:08 PM

Is this the best World Cup ever? I'm not sure I can think of a better one, though as an Englishman 1990 comes close, plus that was back when the world cup was still about the only time you saw the world's best players, but even with rose tinted glasses, this one might just top it. Especially if it carries on like this. OK, so no one can defend because it's not exactly a golden age for defenders and the reffing's been poor, but still. It's just amazingly entertaining stuff.

gandalf26

06-25-14, 01:14 PM

http://24.media.tumblr.com/1aad92ebf0e703666c7bf864f3b993b3/tumblr_mlnxkf6ern1sp06eqo1_400.gif

honeykid

06-25-14, 01:20 PM

He is the gif that keeps on giving, isn't he? ;)

Cobpyth

06-25-14, 01:50 PM

Alright, NOW Messi is deserving his place amongst the best players of this tournament. Great first half!

donniedarko

06-25-14, 01:53 PM

The only goal Argentina has scored without Messi was scored by a Bosnian.

honeykid

06-25-14, 02:57 PM

It just gets better and better.

According to Suarez, this is "a situation that happens on the pitch".

From his lawyer.

"We don't have any doubts that this has happened because it's Suarez and secondly because Italy was eliminated,"

"There's a lot of pressure from England and Italy. We're polishing off a defence argument."

"There is a possibility that they ban him, because there are precedents, but we're convinced that it was an absolutely casual play, because if Chiellini can show a scratch on one shoulder, Suarez can show a bruised and almost shut eye,"

"If every player starts showing the injuries he suffers and they open inquiries for them, everything will be way too complicated in the future. We're going to use all the arguments possible so that Luis gets out in the best possible way.

"You shouldn't forget that we're rivals of many and we can be for the organiser (hosts Brazil) in the future. This does not go against what might have happened, but there's no doubt that Suarez is a rock in the shoe for many."

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/9361282/Suarez-Lawyer-Polishing-Defence-

BlueLion

06-25-14, 03:13 PM

Is this the best World Cup ever?

For me, not even close. Personally I prefer the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, especially the latter, but maybe it's mostly because of nostalgia.

Cobpyth

06-25-14, 03:16 PM

2002 was one of the worst World Cups ever, in my opinion.

Belgium got screwed against Brazil by the referee. :p

honeykid

06-25-14, 03:18 PM

2002 could've been great, but there were so many upsets in the group stages that the knockout stages became a bit of a procession, IMO. With the exception of S.Korea, of course.

Was 2006 great? I dont' really remember it.

honeykid

06-25-14, 03:22 PM

Watching the end of the coverage of the Nigeria/Argentina game here reminded me of something I've been meaning to say almost from the start. We may not've qualified. We may not've played well (after the Italy game) but I've never been more proud of my fellow countrymen and women because, when the camera falls on them in their moment of despair as they watch their team losing/lose THEY DON'T SUDDENLY CHEER UP AS IF IT DOESN'T MATTER AND GRIN AND WAVE LIKE LOONIES!

God bless 'em.

Cobpyth

06-25-14, 03:28 PM

BlueLion

06-25-14, 03:33 PM

Was 2006 great? I dont' really remember it.

It had better players than this year's World Cup, for sure.

And it had crazy moments like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzihn2msbKg

Thing is, I feel as though I will always prefer the previous World Cups to the current one. I'm pretty sure that if I was older and if I watched the 1994 and 1998 World Cups, I would prefer them over the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. In about ten years time, in all likelihood I will appreciate this year's tournament more than the next two tournaments. You get the idea...

Maybe football is more entertaining now, but I don't think I'll ever enjoy watching it as much as I did during my childhood. Like I said, nostalgia.

donniedarko

06-25-14, 04:38 PM

Suarez Bit My Finger: http://youtu.be/WxU-cQvmi-k

christine

06-25-14, 07:26 PM

The funniest thing about the Suarez bite, well along with the fact he did it again, which in itself is hysterical, is that only last week he was banging on about how he wasn't respected in the UK and that people were laughing it him.

I can't stand him (obviously for rivalry reasons ;)) but never found him funny up till last night. The sight of him sitting on the ground acually holding his teeth was absolutely hilarious!

gandalf26

06-25-14, 07:33 PM

Suarez Bit My Finger: http://youtu.be/WxU-cQvmi-k (http://Suarez Bit My Finger: http://youtu.be/WxU-cQvmi-k)

This wins the Internet.

honeykid

06-26-14, 08:04 AM

Only African and South-American people have done that so far, to my knowledge, unless they're women. :p
I've not noticed, so I'm not disagreeing. But the only sad fans I've seen who've stayed sad when they noticed they were on camera were English.

I can't stand him (obviously for rivalry reasons ;)) but never found him funny up till last night. The sight of him sitting on the ground acually holding his teeth was absolutely hilarious!
It was brilliant. Like you, can't stand the man. He might be a wonderful person away from the field, but he's absolutely horrible on it. Even for a dirty, cheating, Johnny Foreigner. :D But that was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant and, wherever he's playing next season, I hope and pray that the first team to score against his team all sit on the floor and hold their teeth in celebration. It'll be the best goal celebration in the history of the game and every player in the world should be doing it every time they score a goal or foul someone. World cups, park level and all stops inbetween.

It's now one of my favourite things that's ever happened on a pitch and has overtaken Steven Taylor's "holding my side and falling down" routine for that handball as my most loved covering reaction. It's in the pantheon of great football reactions along with....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlqCCDh9XT0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XOL8o-3TZ8

And, for those who've no idea what I'm talking about

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl3HnU0HOhk

Cobpyth

06-26-14, 11:29 AM

I don't like the fact that Liverpool is now being punished because of this incident. :( Seems a bit harsh compared to what some players get for other, much more harming incidents.

Oh well, let's just hope he gets the proper psychological supervision now to help him sort out his aggression issues and maybe then we'll finally be able to enjoy his talent without all the controversy around his persona.

Daniel M

06-26-14, 11:30 AM

F*cking ridiculous, I didn't see Uruguay being punished when he bit Ivanovic or the other player.

the samoan lawyer

06-26-14, 12:09 PM

Liverpool are not being punished. Louis Suarez is. Lets not forget who's fault this is. I think he got off lightly.

honeykid

06-26-14, 12:20 PM

Oh well, let's just hope he gets the proper psychological supervision now to help him sort out his aggression issues and maybe then we'll finally be able to enjoy his talent without all the controversy around his persona.
This wouild be great. Sadly I don't think it's going to happen as, I believe, Liverpool offered/tried to persuade him to have therapy after the last incident, but he refused it. I hope they're more successful this time around.

If the rumours are true, it won't be Liverpool enjoying his talents next season, either.

I agree with SL that he's gotten off incredibly lightly. This is less than his previous ban and the fine is, I believe, less than a week's wages (not that I'm bothered about a financial penalty). Typical FIFA.

Daniel M

06-26-14, 12:25 PM

But Liverpool are being punished, even if it's indirectly, the are, massively. It's only fans of Liverpool's rivals that seem to be shouting for a longer ban. Why wasn't he banned from all football the second time he did it?

Also I believe HK that Liverpool have been helping him and working closely with him over the season, and over the past year he's been great on the field, seemed a lot happier and also cut out a lot of his diving. Then he goes off with Uruguay, different enviroment and players and does this.

And it's not less than his previous ban, he'll miss three Champions League group games and nine Premier League games for Liverpool as well as the eight for Uruguay, so that's a twenty game ban.

Cobpyth

06-26-14, 12:25 PM

Guys who destroy people's career with insane tackles only get 9 games (most of the time). This was physically not really that harmful. It's just less accepted by society, because biting someone is just plain weird. I don't think he got off lightly, but then again I'm a Liverpool fan, so I'm probably biased.

What rumors are you talking about, by the way, Honeykid? I thought he declared that he was going to stay in Liverpool?

Daniel M

06-26-14, 12:26 PM

Cobpyth

06-26-14, 12:28 PM

3 normally.

Well, in the Belgian competition Witsel got 9 games a few years ago, so I was alluding to that incident, but yeah, most of the times it's actually much less probably.

the samoan lawyer

06-26-14, 12:31 PM

Its time he took some responsibilty for his actions. No doubt he's a great player but sadly this is what you get with Suarez.

I think i read somewhere (cant find the source) that since 2010 he has been banned for 34 games!!!

Incredible considering none were for a red card!!

Daniel M

06-26-14, 12:34 PM

Well, in the Belgian competition Witsel got 9 games a few years ago, so I was alluding to that incident, but yeah, most of the times it's actually much less probably.

I remember that actually, was an absolutely horrific tackle.

Cobpyth

06-26-14, 12:38 PM

I remember that actually, was an absolutely horrific tackle.

It was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANm73qFy6i8

FIFA is not really consistent in their bans.

honeykid

06-26-14, 01:45 PM

But Liverpool are being punished, even if it's indirectly, the are, massively. It's only fans of Liverpool's rivals that seem to be shouting for a longer ban. Why wasn't he banned from all football the second time he did it?
So now you want him to've been more harshly punished previously? Doesn't it make some sense that, given it's the third time, that he'd be punished more severley than either of the previous two?

Doesn't this just come with the good stuff, though? If he'd be injured on international duty you'd not have had him. What he's done is exceptional and so there's an exceptional punishment. There isn't a standard penalty for biting because it isn't a standard thing.

Aren't everybody Liverpool's rivals? You'd think so listening to the paranoia.

Also I believe HK that Liverpool have been helping him and working closely with him over the season
That's good. I was told he'd refused, but I hope that's not the case and that he's been getting help.

And it's not less than his previous ban, he'll miss three Champions League group games and nine Premier League games for Liverpool as well as the eight for Uruguay, so that's a twenty game ban.
That's true. I wasn't taking into account the games he'd miss for Liverpool.

What rumors are you talking about, by the way, Honeykid? I thought he declared that he was going to stay in Liverpool?
Barca and Real. No idea how much is behind it, but Real denied it, which is always a worry. :D According to todays story, though, it's Barca who are really keen, while this latest episode has put Real off slightly.

I've no idea if he's going to go or not (it wouldn't surprise me after this, though) but I do think there's going to be some big changes are Barca this season. There seems to be a lot of rumours about players leaving Barca. It's usually the other way around.

That wasn't a FIFA ban for Witsel, was it? I'd have assumed it was a UEFA and/or Belgian FA ban.