World Cup 2014

[Thanas]

Boring game. Utterly unimpressed with our team.

[Thunderfire]

Fucking ridiculous. The hysteria over this is just baffling, Pepe gets a 10 match ban for grievous bodily assault on the Getafe captain and no 4month ban from football;

Biting someone is a serious offense and he has bitten two other players in the past. Pepe is a asshole too. Both actions should have been the end of their career.

[ray245]

So Germany is playing Algeria. I would imagine the Algerians would want to get back at the Germans for what happened in 1982.

[Block]

So Germany is playing Algeria. I would imagine the Algerians would want to get back at the Germans for what happened in 1982.

Just 1982? ...

[Lord Pounder]

I've not managed to see many matches due to work and stuff but the matches I have watched have been pretty much snooze fests.

I actually think the winners this year might just be a team that's never won a world cup before. Columbia are actually looking pretty tasty. Ultimately I think this world cup is about the fall of quite a few European legacies. England, Italy, Portugal and Spain all out in the group stages. The African countries have been disappointing too.

I have been very amused to see all the Liverpool fans falling over themselves to defend Suarez. Yes other players have did nasty things, yes Eric Cantona kicked a fan, yes Pepe is a thug but the fact remains that Suarez has proven that he can and will make the same mistake over and over. He knew what he did, going to far as to try and act like he was shoulder charged in the teeth. On his day Suarez can be majestic, however no one can argue that he's a liability to club and country.

[Borgholio]

Boring game. Utterly unimpressed with our team.

As I understand it, Germany is supposed to be one of the best teams in the Cup this year. If they only beat us by 1 - 0, that means either we played really well or Germany didn't. Or both...

[Coop D'etat]

Boring game. Utterly unimpressed with our team.

As I understand it, Germany is supposed to be one of the best teams in the Cup this year. If they only beat us by 1 - 0, that means either we played really well or Germany didn't. Or both...

The score didn't really do justice to the gap between the two teams. Germany held an absurd edge in terms of controlling the game, for 90 minutes their keeper was pretty much irrelevant because the Americans didn't get any chances to score. The Americans never had any serious chance of winning the game playing like that.

[Irbis]

The Americans never had any serious chance of winning the game playing like that.

Also, as I have noted on last page, Germans would have won their group even on draw result, it was completely pointless for them to do anything more than try to maintain their 1-0 lead.

[Purple]

The Americans never had any serious chance of winning the game playing like that.

Also, as I have noted on last page, Germans would have won their group even on draw result, it was completely pointless for them to do anything more than try to maintain their 1-0 lead.

That kind of thinking is IMHO one of the failings of this championship. Too many games were played strategically rather than just entering the pitch and giving your best every time. And it leads to boring sup bar performances that just do not belong in a competition of this level.

[LaCroix]

That kind of thinking is IMHO one of the failings of this championship. Too many games were played strategically rather than just entering the pitch and giving your best every time. And it leads to boring sup bar performances that just do not belong in a competition of this level.

So you would have tired yourself out and given everything, including possible injuries on a match that you don't need to win, and risk your later performance in the part of the tournament where you absolutely HAVE to win every single match? Against the teams that also won their group tournaments?

Shows why you are no professional sportsman.

Even my mother knew that this match would end 1:1 or 1:0 for the 'actual' Germans - enough to secure the group victory, but not enough to give Portugal a chance to get back into the tournament.

[Purple]

So you would have tired yourself out and given everything, including possible injuries on a match that you don't need to win, and risk your later performance in the part of the tournament where you absolutely HAVE to win every single match? Against the teams that also won their group tournaments?

Shows why you are no professional sportsman.

I am not one. And I do not pretend to be one. I am talking from the perspective of what I am. That being a spectator who is annoyed by the fact that this season has been full of mediocre and boring games because of this approach. There are very few things that are as annoying as making sure your schedule leaves you with enough time to watch a game only to have it end up being crap.

So yea. I get why they are doing it. But I still think it's annoying.

[wautd]

So Germany is playing Algeria.

I'm glad we dodged that bullet. Belgium hasn't beaten Germany in decades.

Curious how USA-Belgium will turn out. USA has been doing better than I tought while Belgium has been rather underwhelming so far

[Replicant]

That kind of thinking is IMHO one of the failings of this championship. Too many games were played strategically rather than just entering the pitch and giving your best every time. And it leads to boring sup bar performances that just do not belong in a competition of this level.

So you would have tired yourself out and given everything, including possible injuries on a match that you don't need to win, and risk your later performance in the part of the tournament where you absolutely HAVE to win every single match? Against the teams that also won their group tournaments?

Shows why you are no professional sportsman.

Even my mother knew that this match would end 1:1 or 1:0 for the 'actual' Germans - enough to secure the group victory, but not enough to give Portugal a chance to get back into the tournament.

See this is a problem. Professional sports players and teams too often forget that they are in the ENTERTAINMENT industry. If you do not put out an entertaining product then why the hell do you expect people to watch.

[Crown]

I have been very amused to see all the Liverpool fans falling over themselves to defend Suarez. Yes other players have did nasty things, yes Eric Cantona kicked a fan, yes Pepe is a thug but the fact remains that Suarez has proven that he can and will make the same mistake over and over. He knew what he did, going to far as to try and act like he was shoulder charged in the teeth. On his day Suarez can be majestic, however no one can argue that he's a liability to club and country.

What is amusing is how the English speaking media (who totally doesn't have anything against him or anything honest) has been hyping this up as the worst thing ever! Think of the children! Why won't anyone think of the children?

And the press in Italy aren't that bothered, the press in Latin America can't believe that the ban issued is that strict, Chiellini himself has called it 'excessive' and expressed his solidarity for Luis and his family, and finally Maradona has gone into 'FIFA are corrupt mafia cunts' mode of a rant.

One might think that a mole hill is being turned into a mountain.

[White Haven]

I don't blame the teams. I do blame the format. Point-based group stages are always going to produce a certain percentage of irrelevant or nearly-irrelevant matches, which is why I always question their existence. Double-elimination is that way. *points*

[Napoleon the Clown]

So apparently the use of the word "Nazi" during the Germany/US game spiked massively on Twitter. Stay classy, Twitter. Stay classy.


Anyone else kind of surprised at how long the US is staying in the mix? Given how few people give a damn about the sport beyond something to use as a way to get their kids to run around for a bit, I wouldn't expect the US to have the greatest team. To put it lightly.

[Thanas]

The US team has a few capable players who manage to play on the European club level but there are more than a few who probably would never crack a top team. Actually, is there even one?

That said, Klinsman is an amazing motivator, especially if he can play the underdog card.

[Block]

Dempsey, Jones, Bradley, Howard, Altidore and one other I can't think of off the top of my head, Beasley maybe? They have all been starters for top European teams. It's not 1998 anymore Thanas.

[ray245]

Dempsey, Jones, Bradley, Howard, Altidore and one other I can't think of off the top of my head, Beasley maybe? They have all been starters for top European teams. It's not 1998 anymore Thanas.

Most of those players don't even play for a champion league team, or at the least a key role in it. Fullham, Everton and Sunderland are hardly big teams in the European sense.

At least Australia managed to produce a player playing for one of the top teams in the EPL and Champion league in his prime with Kewell.

[Thanas]

Dempsey, Jones, Bradley, Howard, Altidore and one other I can't think of off the top of my head, Beasley maybe? They have all been starters for top European teams. It's not 1998 anymore Thanas.

Really? When was the last time any of their clubs won their league or had international cup success?

[Welf]

Boring game. Utterly unimpressed with our team.

I took a late train to watch the game at my customers office and wasn't home before 2:30. Boy I regretted that.

See this is a problem. Professional sports players and teams too often forget that they are in the ENTERTAINMENT industry. If you do not put out an entertaining product then why the hell do you expect people to watch.

Yes, but the entertainment from a WC tournament is to a big part not from showing nice moves but from the tension if your team wins. and with so much pressure to win you get cynical plays and strategies.

[LaCroix]

See this is a problem. Professional sports players and teams too often forget that they are in the ENTERTAINMENT industry. If you do not put out an entertaining product then why the hell do you expect people to watch.

How many German fans do you think will be entertained if their team wastes ressources and energy one a 'useless' game in the group phase and is eleminated in the round of sixteen stage because their best players are injured or worn out?

Apart from that, it was a 'Germany vs Germany's little brother' kind of match. Nobody expected a fancy match, but rather ruthlessly effective dominance. Germany did exactly what it does in every game, but their opponents were trained in the same techniques by people who basically invented that kind of gameplay. Only that knowledge and preparation prevented a complete desaster.

[Purple]

How many German fans do you think will be entertained if their team wastes ressources and energy one a 'useless' game in the group phase and is eleminated in the round of sixteen stage because their best players are injured or worn out?

Probably more than the number of football fans world wide who are entertained with them saving their strength and thus playing a boring and uneventful game.

[Replicant]

So apparently the use of the word "Nazi" during the Germany/US game spiked massively on Twitter. Stay classy, Twitter. Stay classy.


Anyone else kind of surprised at how long the US is staying in the mix? Given how few people give a damn about the sport beyond something to use as a way to get their kids to run around for a bit, I wouldn't expect the US to have the greatest team. To put it lightly.

Stay classy?

Classy went out the window as the German tabloids (most specifically the paper with the largest circulation in all of Europe) went the lowbrow route leadng up to the game.

[Crown]

Gutted for Chile, so unlucky.