FIFA World Cup Thread

[Soontir C'boath]

Wow, give Neuer an extra couple million Euros! He stopped their strikers cold.

4:0! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!

[Thanas]

Olli Kahn:

"Usually I write things down, but this time I just sat there and enjoyed the training match against Argentina".

I guess Maradona and the rhetoric of the Argentinians is now coming back to bite them in the ass.

Especially his "Schweinsteiger looks nervous" part. Yeah, nervous after having just outplayed your entire defence singlehandedly.

[Lord Pounder]

Definately fancy Germany to win the World Cup now, excellent all round team performance. Liked the shots of Ballack in the crowd, guy looked genuinely pleased for the team, ironic considering that if Ballack was fit I don't think they'd be as good.

Did anyone else notice the Messi stamp?

[Coyote]

My God, or maybe I should say, Mein Gott, that was brutal. Argentina-- totally shell-shocked. That last German goal at 88 minutes had me asking, "why not just put out cigarettes in their flesh while you're at it?" I expected more of a fight from the Argentinians.

And Angela Merkel with that shit-eating grin on her face-- hee!

But still.... YAY DEUTSCHLAND!

Amazing how almost all the expected "big teams" are out. Has the Brazil team's plane even landed yet as the Argies get ready to pack? Now all of South America's hopes rest on... Uruguay and Paraguay.

Neuer's the man, though-- that guy is hard to get around!

I remember that when the Swiss beat Spain, it was "how can they beat us? They make watches and chocolate!"
And then when the Netherlands beat Brazil, it was all, "how can they beat us? They make windmills and wooden shoes!"
And now Argentina can say, "how can they beat us? They make... well, crap, they make beer and tanks. Okay."

[Thanas]

Definately fancy Germany to win the World Cup now, excellent all round team performance. Liked the shots of Ballack in the crowd, guy looked genuinely pleased for the team, ironic considering that if Ballack was fit I don't think they'd be as good.

Indeed, I do not think Ballack will be back in the national team after this. We do not need him anymore.

Did anyone else notice the Messi stamp?

The what?

[Thanas]

What would your thoughts be on a Holland-Germany final Thanas? I havn't really been able to watch much of the cup, but I'd make time to see that game if it happened seeing as both teams seem to be playing good football.

To be honest, I would not wager my money on a final against the Netherlands yet. We still have to beat Spain or Paraguay....though after today's performance, we do not have to fear anybody anymore.

[Thanas]

Also: If Joachim Löw is not crowned best coach, I will be very, very pissed off. He neutralized Messi with two-three players, two of those still having enough time to take part in offensive actions and score.

[Lord Pounder]

Did anyone else notice the Messi stamp?

The what?

Maybe it was only RTE that noted it but in one of the collisions it looked like Messi stamped on a German players knee (can't remember which player), looked kijnda deliberate to me.

[Gil Hamilton]

I'm hoping for a Netherlands-Germany final though. That would be fantastic.

[Thanas]

Did anyone else notice the Messi stamp?

The what?

Maybe it was only RTE that noted it but in one of the collisions it looked like Messi stamped on a German players knee (can't remember which player), looked kijnda deliberate to me.

Yeah, he stepped on Lahm or Müller, though it might not have been deliberate - he was struggling not to fall, after all.

[Captain Seafort]

Did anyone else notice the Messi stamp?

The what?

His studs went into one of the Germans' thigh - I'm not sure which one, Klose I think. To be fair, it looked more like a case of happening to land on him like that than a deliberate stamp.

And at least England now have the consolation that they're a better team than Argentina, given the results of the last two matches.

[Havok]

Well that is a helluva a thing to wake up to. Congrats Germany.

[charlemagne]

What a massacre, holy crap that was awesome. Just thinking back to how much of a struggle Germany : Argentina was during the 2006 world championship... our team is clearly incredibly better now. 2:0 would've been awesome, but 4:0, that's just devastating

[Thanas]

On reflection, I think Messi played a very bad game here. Compare him with Schweinsteiger, who was tasked to watch Messi. Schweinsteiger did not only do that, he also played defensively if needed (whereas Messi hardly ever took a step back to help out his defence) and outplayed the Argentinian defence. Messi...did nothing.

What a disappointment. Before the tournament everybody was like "Hey, Messi is great. He'll alone dismantle all opposition." Now he has not scored a single time.

[wautd]

Shit, 4-0 and I missed it

[ray245]

On reflection, I think Messi played a very bad game here. Compare him with Schweinsteiger, who was tasked to watch Messi. Schweinsteiger did not only do that, he also played defensively if needed (whereas Messi hardly ever took a step back to help out his defence) and outplayed the Argentinian defence. Messi...did nothing.

What a disappointment. Before the tournament everybody was like "Hey, Messi is great. He'll alone dismantle all opposition." Now he has not scored a single time.

Well, that's what happens when all the player was overhyped by the fans. Messi was not a team player in this match at all. The only thing he wants to do is to score goals instead of helping his team.

[Bottlestein]

Well, that's what happens when all the player was overhyped by the fans. Messi was not a team player in this match at all. The only thing he wants to do is to score goals instead of helping his team.

You haven't really seen the 2006 World Cup, have you?

[Master of Ossus]

Well, that's what happens when all the player was overhyped by the fans. Messi was not a team player in this match at all. The only thing he wants to do is to score goals instead of helping his team.

That's a little unfair. Messi had more assists going into this game than any other player in the World Cup (though he also took more shots). Germany was just better. They played defense better than the Argentinians attacked, played better offense than the Argentinians could defend, and played better and harder in the midfield. I don't think this is the sort of game that came down to one-player against one-player, because when you look at it it's hard to identify ANY Argentinians who outplayed any of the Germans they were matched up against.

[D.Turtle]

Man what a game.

What decided this game for us is quite simple:
Whenever the Argentinians attacked, there were 8-9 Germans helping defend.
Whenever the Germans attacked, there were maybe 6-7 Argentinians helping defend.

The entire midfield (and even Klose) moved around a LOT, constantly changing positions, attacking the Argentinians, getting possession of the ball, etc. If you looked at people like Messi (the savior of Argentina, praise be unto him, a god among mere mortals, etc if you believed Argentinian supporters), he never moved to help defend, he was simply waiting in the front for their defence to get their act together and pass the ball to the people in the offense. Basically, Argentina had two teams - an offense and a defense, while we had one team that helped each other wherever needed.

As an example: Messi covered 8.6 km this game, Schweinsteiger covered 11.3 km.

[charlemagne]

while we had one team that helped each other wherever needed.

True - and also, I just love how the German team did not get careless in the defense - they stayed sharp, never acted like they were ahead by 1, 2, 3 goals. And it's indeed awesome to see everyone including Klose playing this team-oriented style. It's great to watch how every player tries his best to be where he might be needed.

[D.Turtle]

Thats the thing that Löw accomplished: He made this team a TEAM.

The people in the team are successful because everybody is helping everyone. For example, Podolski was criticized for helping too little in the defense during the second game. Since then he has constantly helped out etc.

Other teams - *cough* England *cough* - think that they just need enough big names and then they will be successful. Look at Germany - how many big international names are there in that team? Where is our Messi, or Rooney, or Ronaldo, or whover? They are being created during this World Cup (Müller, Oezil). Löw took players like Friedrich (whose team just got demoted from the Bundesliga), Klose (terrible season), Podolski (terrible season), and look at what they are bringing in. Hell, we lost the one really big name we had (Ballack), and you don't really notice any hole in our midfield created by him.

THAT is what a good coach brings. Other teams have to stop complaining about them not having any good players, and take a good look at what Löw has done with Germany.

[Twigler]

Congrats Germany, that was a fantastic game to watch.
And then there was Maradonna's face as a bonus.

BTW the psychic octopus was right again.

[Thanas]

What is happening to Spain? They are nothing like the Euro 2008.

[Guardsman Bass]

Not sure. I'm loving that Paraguayan defense though - Spain is getting a decent number of passes but almost no good shots.

[Wedge]

I shit on Vicente del Bosque and all his ancestors. He killed Spain, he is the only one to blame. If Spain wins, it will be a miracle. He fucking made a good team suck. Congratulations.