Reply With QuoteLol Ghana and Germany? USA lost.
FIFA World Cup 2014 starts in less than a week, you may use this thread to share your overall thoughts such as your favorite team/s, players, expectations, anything related to this grand event, really.
First of all I'll start by saying Brazil proved to be a rather poor location to hold this years World Cup which is kinda ironic when you think about it. When entire nation literally obsessed with football strongly opposes an event such as World Cup you know how ****ed up their situation is right now. As someone whose country went through small revolution recently I can somewhat understand what they're going through and what they have to deal with. Overall a poor attempt of "Bread and circuses", sadly no bread for many, literally.
Friendly matches were all but friendly these days it seems, this year in general was unfortunate for so many great players some of which sadly won't see the World Cup, the likes of Reus, Falcao, Ribery, Montolivo, Strootman, Walcott... not to mention those who'll miss a game or two, Suarez for instance.
As a Croatian who lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina naturally I'll support these two teams. I have high hopes even though both groups with Brazil and Argentina in lead are nothing short of challenging. Croatia lost four important players last month or so, most noticeably Kranjčar, luckily there's no shortage of truly talented young players eager to prove themselves. This is a debut for B&H, hopefully they do well, they have a solid first team, however a pretty weak bench.
Honestly I'm not really impressed by Brazil, I'm not sure where all this arrogance and optimism comes from, all but impressive line up with "I fall at even the slightest contact" Neymar as their lead player. My money's on Germany this year, love their style and their attitude on the pitch never ceases to amaze me. Ever so close on so many occasions I feel they will go all the way through this year even though no European team has ever won the World Cup outside of Europe. First time for everything I suppose.
**** England! Seriously, I take them as serious contenders every time and every time they **** up or plain embarrass themselves. Netherlands seems to have way too many young inexperienced players this time around, that being said I don't see them doing as bad as they did at Euro Cup 2012. You never know with Italy, they are always at their best when no one's counting on them. Argentina is a bag of mixed feeling for me, as well Portugal, Uruguay might be a pleasant surprise.
Brief summary and expectations of mine, I'll add more later as the World Cup nears.
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Lol Ghana and Germany? USA lost.
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This is my absolute favorite thing that happens ever. It always feels like such a long wait, and then it's over so fast. Yes, Brazil and many countries have some very serious problems right now. So does FIFA. But my absolute favorite thing in the world is seeing everyone decked out with shirts and face paint of their country's colors, cheering and just in general drowning in excitement.
USA has an extremely tough group this time. It's not going to be easy for us, and I think everyone knows that. Germany is a freaking powerhouse. So efficient at everything. Many USA fans aren't even looking at this game as a possible victory. A victory for us over Germany would be a tie. Ghana is also a really tough match for USA, but I think it's our best bet to getting the points we need to make it past our group stage. Portugal, after seeing them play Mexico the other day. I honestly have to say they didn't really impress me much. Though they were missing Ronaldo, who many see as one of the best players in the world, the rest of the team didn't seem to triumph over Mexico as much as I expected.
Uruguay has Diego Forlan. They're going to do well in that group, maybe even coming out on top. I've not been a fan of Italy or England in the past...8 years at least. Same with France. They used to be really great teams but they have been sort of a let down recently. And with Ribery not playing...
I really, really wanted to see Falcao in this cup. It is such a shame about his injury. He is just great. But the entire Colombia team is actually really good, I see them coming out on top in Group C. Spain and Netherlands will no doubt triumph that group. I'm not even sure about group A, because I haven't followed any of the teams. Brazil is not the Brazil it was in the 90s that I grew up with. I guess I have watched Mexico the most, even seeing some of their players in the CONCACAF Champion's League with Cruz Azul and Sporting KC. They aren't really impressive at all, but they can surprise you.
Argentina might actually be a much better team than it was in the 2010 world cup. So I expect them to do much better. I'm not even sure on group H but I'm rooting for Belgium since they haven't been in a world cup in a while.
As for who I am picking as most likely to be in the final four, it's tough to call. There are going to be surprises along the way in group stages, and many other things that happen. I can probably safely say that Spain and Germany will both be there. Argentina and Colombia maybe, possibly Uruguay. Netherlands maybe, but they do have a young team as you said.
In any case, I can't freaking wait.
Along with Uruguay Belgium is my top contender out of the shadows, and for a good reason. They have by far the best young team I've seen in quite a while and they can only get better as the time goes by, just look at those names... Kompany, Fellaini, Hazard, Benteke, Lukaku, Mirallas, Vertonghen... got chills just looking at their team. No wonder they were ahead of Croatia in qualifications.Originally Posted by che
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The way that the England team behaves and how the fans behave has put me off football really, I could care less if England won or not, we don't really deserve to win. I used to love the world cup, but over the years as I've read articles about how the players have behaved outside of football and people arguing with the referees it makes me ashamed of my country. Whenever the football comes on it's like we all turn into gorillas. I wish all other countries the best, because we certainly do not deserve to win.
My flatmate and I are adopting Belgium as a team to support.
But part of me wants a South American country to win.
I'm going for Argentina to beat Germany in the final. I think the pressure will ultimately be too much for Brazil. England to make the quarter-finals. France might surprise people, they have a fairly soft group. And Japan might finally be the dark horses they're often tipped as.
Either way, I can't wait!
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Damn, France 8-0'd Jamaica. What even... Maybe there is hope for France after all? Haha
Funny yet extremely sad truth about this years World Cup and FIFA in general...
Last edited by Xanatos; 06-10-2014 at 08:43 AM.
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Holy shit, that is spot-on. Well ****ing done, and I hope this is brought to more people's attention. It seems many of FIFA's sponsors are at least backing investigation about Qatar. Maybe this will raise much more awareness and things can be changed. Absolutely ****ing disgusts me how some people can behave when they have money.
Nothing will change, especially as once the World Cup is over everyone will go back to transfer gossip and wondering who will the Premier League this season.
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At what time will matches usually be broadcasted in your country, guys?
As far as our time zone goes (CET GMT+1) unlike previous cups this one will mostly be played somewhere around late evening to past midnight, usually at 22:00 (10:00 PM) to onward, some matches will however begin earlier, though not many, not a bad schedule as I initially thought it would be.
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Brazil plays in about 15hours or so. 2:30 or 3:00pm here in the afternoon. This is central USA.
Ole ole ole ole, Argentina or Cameroon ftw, I know I'm Australian but I just can't bring myself to barrack for them theses days.
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The first game will begin around 8am tomorrow (Friday)... so many sick days. This is slightly better than the previous two, which I seem to remember watching at some ungodly hour.
The pubs down the road are all opening early for the games. Breakfast beer... Hmm.
Games here are at 5pm/8pm/11pm to start with (with just one game at 2am), and then 5pm/9pm in the final group games and knockout stages. Which works out pretty well.
"Excuse me Miss, do you like pineapple?"
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying"
I feel really left out during the world cup because it seems like everyone enjoys it except me. Enjoys it enough, to stay up all hours of the morining despite having work the following hours, just so they can watch it live. Never seen the appeal. I tried once, and the game ended on 90 minutes without either side scoring a goal. My brain felt stale.
Perhaps I'm not completely objective here, but **** me if that was a penalty for Brazil, Fred fell down way too easily. These things really tend to put me off of football. Now that I got that out of my system a lot of amateur mistakes by Croatia tonight, in fact they made the exact same mistake during the first and third goal for Brazil, a simple foul would have been crucial on both occasions. Olić and Pletikosa are ready for pension it seems, while to this day I'm still not sure how Jelavić got here, for the last two years he's been nothing short of terrible. Vrsaljko on the other hand was such a pleasant surprise. Certain amount of fear and anxiety amongst Croatian players, respect towards Brazil, not to mention youngest and most inexperienced coach at this World Cup, proved to be Croatians undoing tonight. Hopefully, we do a lot better against Cameroon and Mexico, in fact I'm certain of it.
Overall, deserved victory for Brazil, although I'm still not impressed. Neymar was firm on his feat which was unusual and unlike him, none of the other players really stood out to me, save for maybe Oscar here and there.
Last edited by Xanatos; 06-12-2014 at 03:55 PM.
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Yeah its quite boring, like all sports, i tend to not pay attention until its passed the group stages, then it gets exciting to watch..
However, check out the plane Japan flew in on:
Bp21eH9IMAA3P5N.jpg
And their mascot:
20140318-144026-g.jpg
... Is that legit?
Yeah, plane they traveled in and their mascot
That penalty was seriously bullshit. If it wasn't the world cup, if it didn't mean so much like a club match or something (and you already weren't down 1 on an own goal) I myself would have probably put it wide on purpose or chipped it over the bar. Because that didn't deserve a penalty, nor a goal result from him falling down in the box.
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Clear as day, nothing is there. In soccer, you have your hands on people constantly. Doesn't mean you are pushing, or pulling, or holding. He had a bad trap and the ball bounced too far up, and he just gave up. Not a very classy win by Brazil, but I'm sure the fans will be happy no matter what.
That being said, there were 2-3 times where I thought Croatia had sure goals. And I dunno how Oliver scored that last one... Croatia played well imo. The result easily could have been a lot closer. I was sad to see they didn't ever reach the back of the net themselves...
Definitely not as epic of a game as South Africa's home opener win as hosts in 2010. But, I guess in the end they still are the better team between the two tonight.
ps: And on one foul, right in the center outside the box, I saw Neymar was taken completely out. He definitely was fouled, but he got back up and then dove and rolled twice more. I was like...really? Looool Neymar.
The Pikachu mascot is legit.
The plane is not.
Those Pokémon planes DO exist, but they actually belong to a different airline than the one the Japanese team used to fly into LAX and then down to Brazil.
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Lol, I sense you're overestimating the sense of honesty and fairness in nearly every human being alive!
The referee had a bad game last night, but the Croatia keeper was at fault for all three goals (especially the penalty).
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It's not just a penalty, that deliberate elbow from Neymar, as Shearer said any other player would get a red card for that. I'm still not sure what referee saw during the second goal for Croatia, no hand play whatsoever and if that counts as a foul from Olić than ballerinas have my blessing to play professional football from now on. Don't want to sound overly bitter here but Nishimura was awful yesterday.
I have to agree, funny thing we have a way better keeper in my opinion. Subašić has been outstanding ever since he signed for Monaco two years ago.
Did not see the game between Mexico and Cameroon, was hoping Cameroon could manage to pull off a draw, from what I read Cameroon even had a pretty great chance in the last minute or so. Shame though, Croatia would benefit the most from a draw.
Edit: Apparently Mexico scored two completely regular goals that referee dismissed for some reason, what the **** is with these referees.
Last edited by Xanatos; 06-13-2014 at 12:18 PM.
It was the linesman in Mexico's case, not the referee.
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THAT VAN PERSIE GOAL THOUGH omgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg gggggggggggggggg
edit: oh my word.
Last edited by che; 06-13-2014 at 01:58 PM.
Just looking at it I don't think this was a penalty.
Either way Spain was demolished, so much for their infamous possession. And the funny thing is they can consider themselves lucky because Netherlands could have easily scored another goal or two. I get a lot of flak for saying this, but Iker's not a goalkeeper he used to be, two laughable mistakes in such a short notice. Robben's undoubtedly a great player but his selfishness is really getting on my nerves, never liked that guy to be honest.
Such a huge difference between this Netherlands and the one from two years ago, just shows you that a coach with actual authority and knowledge such as Van Gaal can make a difference.
Truly remarkable.
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In this case, Robben's selfishness definitely worked. The goal where he raced Ramos from midfield and beat Pique/Ramos AND Casillas, even having a teammate or two open he put it in the back of the net. I'm fine with that. He almost had a hat trick, too. No complaints here, but I can tell how selfishness can quickly become a problem.
Spain still had like 64% possession or something, it's just that when tiki taka loses, it loses real HARD. Honestly, I just felt so bad seeing Casillas' face. I wished they would stop showing it and especially in slow motion. Just pure devastation, he even knows that he is not the same keeper he once was. And that's hard to swallow, because for me he's been one of the most amazing keepers of all time.
I have been rooting for Spain since I was a little kid, in the under 12 teams. I have seen so many great players play for Barcelona and Madrid, and seen Spain and followed them in every world cup. It's almost like I feel that Spain is really the team I am closest to. But tonight was the night. This was going to happen sooner or later. The team is definitely showing age, and this era of football where tiki taka can be beaten is coming in full-effect. I wish Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Casillas could be 25 years old forever, but that's not the case.
If Spain ever were to begin their downfall, Netherlands was a great team to lose it to. There is no shame in losing to a team that played this well. Great job by them, and looking forward to seeing who leaves this group in 2nd place now.
edit: about the penalty, it's hard to say. another angle they showed you can see Vrij dragging his foot outward and into Costa. Tough call, I guess. But it doesn't really matter now, LOL
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