World Cup 2014

[betiko]

Yes, happy for costa rica too. I can t help not liking the greek team. Would ve been nice for the greek citizens though, they never made it to quarter finals either.

They did win Euro 2004 and have been jammy in the World Cup to even get to the knockouts.

Felt sorry for the dude who missed though.

f*ck Greece.

I'm sure that's what you meant to say

More or less (their team, I hold nothing against the greeks in particular)

Mexico's coach made a mistake by taking Dos Santos out.. Holland felt comfortable to over press. Dos Santos would have forced them to be wary about a counterattack.

The same mistake made by Comobia's coach in 2006 when he was Argentina's manager. His team had a 1-0 lead over Germany and he refused to use his fast demons at the time... he had Messi, Saviola and Tevez.

The problem with world cup.. one mistake means you are out.

Apart from that, it's Sunday and I had to watch the shitty Greece vs. Costa Rica game to write the match report. Imagine how crap I have felt when the boredom extended to extra and penalties!

Yeah I pretty much agree on everything, Mexico was too conservative once gio was out.

I tried the first 10 minutes of costa rica greece and thought i d rather watch a movie. Penaltys are always fun to watch though! Thought they all shot pretty well compared to yesterday with that fail fest between brazil and chile.

[virus90]

HUP HOLLAND HUP!!!!

The dutch are the new germans, win in injury time

robben did dive easily in my opinion aswell when we got the PK, but we should have gotten it first half though, clear penalty there. and to be fair, the score was 1-1 and at that point i think also in extra time the dutch would have made it, they where all over the place the last 15 minutes, working for getting the win, and they did it.
also compliments to the coach, because notmany coaches would have subsituted Van Persie, it worked out really well.

[virus90]

klaas-jan Huntelaar subsituted van Persie in the 76th minute.
He had 7 touches in the game of which 1 assist and 1 goal.
Efficiency level asian?

[AndyDufresne]

I'm continuing to cheer for all non-european teams, minus brazil.


--Andy

[Gilligan]

I'm continuing to cheer for all non-european teams, minus brazil.


--Andy

after tomorrow there will likely be only 4 of those teams left

Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, USA

[nietzsche]

Thats not fair play. Will Fifa sanction Robben like they did with Suarez?

Why, was there no contact? Got what he deserved putting his foot in when Robben was going no where... silly play. No doubt Robben made the most of it but a lot of refs would have given it. Plus he was denied a clear pen in the first half when he went down to late.

Not blaming Robben nor the referee for the loss really. I'm aware of why we lost. But Robben dived twice before the penalty in the first half, and dived twice more before the awarded penalty in the second half. To me that's not fair play. He's all the time looking for a rival foot to hook into. The referees in this WC are all confused as to what they have to do, in any league of Europe a dive like those is a yellow card and, even if they forgive it, after he yells at them he'd get the yellow card.

Of course it pisses me off, but I repeat, that's not why Mexico lost.

As I said in a post here in the first half, Mexico was playing the way Holland wanted them to play: Mexico was running, Holland was doing everything to avoid running. Mexico had Salcido playing instead of Vazquez at the defensive midfield position and he wasn't up to the task, he is good, he knows where to be and all, but he's old. The other defensive midflielder had injured in before the WC and they didn't call another.

The third point is the first substitution, Aquino didn't show himself, he wasn't up to the task like the rest. The idea behind the substitution was not bad at all, but Aquino never did what Herrera told him to do.

I did not like the substitution from the moment I saw it coming. I was thinking more of moving Guardado to the defensive midfield position, Salcido out and Fabian in, that would've allowed us to keep the ball in the offensive, as Fabian has some skills.

What happened at the end was what always happens to Mexico in this round. You can describe how it happened, but that's not why it happened. I think it's more of a mindset.

[Pirlo]

I wish dives and cheats were taken seriously. A committee could have been formed just to watch replays and hand bans like seriously, then no fucker would dare to do it anymore!

[Gillipig]

Felt glad that Costa Rica won, they got robbed of a penalty kick, had they gotten that it might not even have gone to overtime. It's also difficult to cheer for Grecce when they play so boring destructive football.

[oVo]

Greece became entertaining to watch once they were desperate to score and not before. So why not come out swinging and go for it right from the start?

[betiko]

I'm continuing to cheer for all non-european teams, minus brazil.


--Andy

after tomorrow there will likely be only 4 of those teams left

Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, USA

Likely? The odds for USA winning are twice as high as for belgium on betting sites. You are the underdog, they finished first of their group and have better playersin every single position and on the bench. Lucky for you, they have a crap coach and you have a great one.

Let s just put things in their context: belgium won all its games and finished first of it s group, you guys only beat ghana and only reached this stage because of goal difference.

[Gillipig]

Greece became entertaining to watch once they were desperate to score and not before. So why not come out swinging and go for it right from the start?

Because they're Grecce. lol


Okay so what do you guys think? Will any of the African teams gone pull a shocker?

[betiko]

Greece became entertaining to watch once they were desperate to score and not before. So why not come out swinging and go for it right from the start?

Because they're Grecce. lol


Okay so what do you guys think? Will any of the African teams gone pull a shocker?

I hope nigeria won't and I wouldn't mind if algeria does. I don't know if I should take my car tonight to go watch the game at a friend's house... Algerian people here just go mad and break stuff wether they win or lose. Paris was just mental after they qualified last thrusday, they had no respect of anything and were doing extremely dangerous stuff on the road.

for those who don't know: Algeria has a big extra motivation against germany. In the 1982 world cup, there was a group with west germany, austria, algeria and...? anyway, algeria managed to beat germany on the opening game, and could still have made it on the last game. West germany was playing austria and they agreed on not playing, just passing each other the ball as a draw would qualify them both. At the end of the game austrians and germans jumped in each other's arms, and this game is known as the "game of shame". At that time, the third match of the qualifying stages were not played at the same time, and since that incident, they had to change the format so that teams playing last wouldn't know if a specific score could be beneficial for both. Everybody thought of that story with the germany-USA game this year, with low and klinsmann being the head coaches.

[Gillipig]

Greece became entertaining to watch once they were desperate to score and not before. So why not come out swinging and go for it right from the start?

Because they're Grecce. lol


Okay so what do you guys think? Will any of the African teams gone pull a shocker?

I hope nigeria won't and I wouldn't mind if algeria does. I don't know if I should take my car tonight to go watch the game at a friend's house... Algerian people here just go mad and break stuff wether they win or lose. Paris was just mental after they qualified last thrusday, they had no respect of anything and were doing extremely dangerous stuff on the road.

for those who don't know: Algeria has a big extra motivation against germany. In the 1982 world cup, there was a group with west germany, austria, algeria and...? anyway, algeria managed to beat germany on the opening game, and could still have made it on the last game. West germany was playing austria and they agreed on not playing, just passing each other the ball as a draw would qualify them both. At the end of the game austrians and germans jumped in each other's arms, and this game is known as the "game of shame". At that time, the third match of the qualifying stages were not played at the same time, and since that incident, they had to change the format so that teams playing last wouldn't know if a specific score could be beneficial for both. Everybody thought of that story with the germany-USA game this year, with low and klinsmann being the head coaches.

If Algeria beats Germany I'll eat my own hat. Nigeria might surprise France though, we'll see, we'll see.
Not WC related but I really needed to post this image.

[pretender77]

average opponent rank for Belgium in group play =39
average opponent rank for USA in group play=13

'nough said. USA wins

[Gillipig]

average opponent rank for Belgium in group play =39
average opponent rank for USA in group play=13

'nough said. USA wins

Average points per game for USA 1.33
Average points per game for Belgium 3.0


Now that's "enough said"!

[betiko]

average opponent rank for Belgium in group play =39
average opponent rank for USA in group play=13

'nough said. USA wins

Average points per game for USA 1.33
Average points per game for Belgium 3.0


Now that's "enough said"!

Playing for belgium: hazard, felaini, mertens, courtois, van buyten, kompany, lukaku, mirallas, dembele, witzel, chadli, de bruyne, defour, vertongen, vermaelen, alderweireld, januzaj.. And a whole bunch of players all in the biggest european clubs.

Playing for USA: bradley... Howard... Depsey... Hummm... Nope, don t know the rest of these guys.
Oh yeah, there s this guy playing for Rennes in france (shitty team) who is pretty shit, but he s good enough to play in the national team

You guys have been at 100% of your capacities while belgium has probably been at 70% till now (yet at 70% they won all their games). You are by far the underdog. But who said underdogs never win...

Again, the FiFA ranking means shit all.
If you do care about rankings though, they are 11th and you are 13th.

[Gilligan]

I'm continuing to cheer for all non-european teams, minus brazil.


--Andy

after tomorrow there will likely be only 4 of those teams left

Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, USA

Likely? The odds for USA winning are twice as high as for belgium on betting sites. You are the underdog, they finished first of their group and have better playersin every single position and on the bench. Lucky for you, they have a crap coach and you have a great one.

Let s just put things in their context: belgium won all its games and finished first of it s group, you guys only beat ghana and only reached this stage because of goal difference.

I'm not saying that the USA will win. I'm saying that France and Germany will beat Nigeria and Algeria today, and the other I can't say one way or the other.

[betiko]

the game is in one hour!!!! go france!!!!! this will be just absolutely horrible to lose vs a theorically inferior opponent (that made it till here just because of a ref f*ck up by the way)

[pretender77]

the game is in one hour!!!! go france!!!!! this will be just absolutely horrible to lose vs a theorically inferior opponent (that made it till here just because of a ref f*ck up by the way)

I think Germany and france are both gonna have their hands full. Germany...has no defense because they play like a 4 forward front. If you get behind them enough they can really really get hurt. France is definitely gonna have their hands full.

@gillipig- you can score 3 points per game when you play crap teams. The USA had to play legit teams all the way through, we have not had one gimme

[betiko]

the game is in one hour!!!! go france!!!!! this will be just absolutely horrible to lose vs a theorically inferior opponent (that made it till here just because of a ref f*ck up by the way)

I think Germany and france are both gonna have their hands full. Germany...has no defense because they play like a 4 forward front. If you get behind them enough they can really really get hurt. France is definitely gonna have their hands full.

@gillipig- you can score 3 points per game when you play crap teams. The USA had to play legit teams all the way through, we have not had one gimme

Are you saying that the USA would ve done as well as belgium had they been in that group, and that belgium wouldn t ve done as good as you guys vs the opponents you had? Because if it s what you think it s bullcrap.
Ghana-Portugal, when it was going 1-1 had ghana pushing strong and had ghana scored you guys were out. What you did was very impressive compared to your theorical level, nothing more.

[Gillipig]

the game is in one hour!!!! go france!!!!! this will be just absolutely horrible to lose vs a theorically inferior opponent (that made it till here just because of a ref f*ck up by the way)

I think Germany and france are both gonna have their hands full. Germany...has no defense because they play like a 4 forward front. If you get behind them enough they can really really get hurt. France is definitely gonna have their hands full.

@gillipig- you can score 3 points per game when you play crap teams. The USA had to play legit teams all the way through, we have not had one gimme

Belgium is much better than USA whether you are talking about what they have achieved so far in the WC or if you're talking about the quality of their players. Only a total american homer would claim otherwise. Can USA still win though? Of course they can, this WC has seen Costa Rica defeating Italy, anything can happen, but nothing indicates that we should expect them to.

[pretender77]

the game is in one hour!!!! go france!!!!! this will be just absolutely horrible to lose vs a theorically inferior opponent (that made it till here just because of a ref f*ck up by the way)

I think Germany and france are both gonna have their hands full. Germany...has no defense because they play like a 4 forward front. If you get behind them enough they can really really get hurt. France is definitely gonna have their hands full.

@gillipig- you can score 3 points per game when you play crap teams. The USA had to play legit teams all the way through, we have not had one gimme

Belgium is much better than USA whether you are talking about what they have achieved so far in the WC or if you're talking about the quality of their players. Only a total american homer would claim otherwise. Can USA still win though? Of course they can, this WC has seen Costa Rica defeating Italy, anything can happen, but nothing indicates that we should expect them to.

I never said that Belgium had worse quality pllayers.....Betiko said earlier that Belgium has unlimited potential. They are young and have a super bright future. But the USA plays like a team and Belgium plays like a bunch of club players. Its like the Heat vs. Spurs. Team vs individual talent

France vs. Nigeria. Offensive oriented first half....pretty sucky defenses

[Gilligan]

the game is in one hour!!!! go france!!!!! this will be just absolutely horrible to lose vs a theorically inferior opponent (that made it till here just because of a ref f*ck up by the way)

I think Germany and france are both gonna have their hands full. Germany...has no defense because they play like a 4 forward front. If you get behind them enough they can really really get hurt. France is definitely gonna have their hands full.

@gillipig- you can score 3 points per game when you play crap teams. The USA had to play legit teams all the way through, we have not had one gimme

Belgium is much better than USA whether you are talking about what they have achieved so far in the WC or if you're talking about the quality of their players. Only a total american homer would claim otherwise. Can USA still win though? Of course they can, this WC has seen Costa Rica defeating Italy, anything can happen, but nothing indicates that we should expect them to.

I never said that Belgium had worse quality pllayers.....Betiko said earlier that Belgium has unlimited potential. They are young and have a super bright future. But the USA plays like a team and Belgium plays like a bunch of club players. Its like the Heat vs. Spurs. Team vs individual talent

France vs. Nigeria. Offensive oriented first half....pretty sucky defenses

I'd rather have an offensive game than a defensive game imo

[Gillipig]

France-Nigeria, most boring game so far? It's up there at least.

[Gilligan]

France-Nigeria, most boring game so far? It's up there at least.

Nononono, Iran/Nigeria was the worst by far.