2014 FIFA World Cup Finals Discussion

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.

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.

Usually true, however it's also true that it's what happens when you decide to play a counter attacking style.

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

#Guaporense

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.

__________________
“By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.”

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.

@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.

__________________
Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

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.

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?

__________________

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.

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

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? 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.

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

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.

__________________

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.

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.

__________________
Check out my movie blog

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.

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

I guess it's only used in Dutch.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan