World Cup Brazil 2014

[caffeine_demon]

Sorry - but I just can't take a player whose surname is so close to "buffoon" seriously!!

Shame David Marshall doesn't play for a team that qualified - on this years form he'd be an absolute shoe in!

 

[ECG]

With yesterday's submissions of the final 23 man squads it's interesting to see who's didn't make it. I'll submit this as my best 11 not selected for the World Cup:
ter Stegen (Germany); Rafinha (Brazil), Miranda (Brazil), Clichy (France), A. Cole (England); Donovan (USA), Nasri (France), Coutinho (Brazil); Rossi (Italy), Negredo (Spain), Tevez (Argentina)
Some names there that I really expected to see in the tournament and definitely deserved to be there. I left out Falcao because Colombia would have chosen him if he was fit enough to play. Other than Diego Lopez (Spain), who some of you might think should be there instead of ter Stegen, did I leave anyone else out that you think should have made it?

 

[jj23w]

Talking about it to a few people, England if they play strong against italy could come out with a win. Urguay we have no chance suarez unless he gets sent off for biting someone might tweet him to do that. Costa Rica we will have they got a good team? Seeing england play friday meant that i believe we can do this if we try. COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!

 

[Tomatron]

England will go out in the group stages. I have already bet on that. I'm not cynical, I'd like some more spending money for the CF Live in Sweden.

I'd like to see Belgium do well, as they have such a talented squad of great young players. Germany don't really have a top performing out-and-out goal scorer at the moment, which could be their downfall if the midfield machine misfires. Spain aren't the invincible team they used to be a few years ago, but I'd bet on them getting the the semis at least. But I'd say the winner is gonna come from a Southern Hemisphere team. And by that I mean Brazil or Argentina.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Almost two pages, and nobody have posted this picture yet?

I'm not going to watch the world cup a lot, but every glimpse of that logo brings a smile to my face. It's one of those rare "what were they really thinking?" things.

 

[spicy]

^ :lol:

Never noticed that before, but now I can't un-see it so now I'm going to be seeing a face palm everywhere for the next few weeks. Thank you :lol:

 

[jj23w]

I actually hope I have work so I don't have to see it. I feel England could do well.

 

[Lain]

England will get to the quarters; I think they'll get out of the group and all the teams in group C are worse than the teams in group D.

Argentina to win the whole thing.

 

[Jordanovichy]

IT'S TIME! The World Cup kicks off tonight! Cannot wait! I have decorated the front of my house accordingly...

 

[Jarrett]

^Jordan, you're a World Cup goon, and just about as bad of a World Cup goon as I am. I put my little American flag that I watch the games with in my pencil cup by my computer to commemorate the event and that was it, you plastered your house with English flags. That is AWESOME!!!!!! Wish I could do that to our front yard without people wondering why.

As for the game, it was a decent one to watch, but the refs were ****. Seriously, Brazil was doing all that hitting and shoving and got away with it all but once but the second Croatia bumps a guy it's a yellow card and Brazil gets to break the tie? I'm glad they got that third goal so that at least Croatia didn't get totally :xcensoredx:ed over but if I were in their shoes and their group tied up and I didn't get to go onto the bracket because of the goals used for tie breaking, I'd be REALLY mad.

But hey, it wouldn't be FIFA without completely ridiculous officiating, and I guess making such a bad call on the FIRST GAME was just their way of saying "Happy World Cup!"

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

The opening game was good, but yes the officiating was poor.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

As for the game, it was a decent one to watch, but the refs were ****. Seriously, Brazil was doing all that hitting and shoving and got away with it all but once but the second Croatia bumps a guy it's a yellow card and Brazil gets to break the tie? I'm glad they got that third goal so that at least Croatia didn't get totally :xcensoredx:ed over but if I were in their shoes and their group tied up and I didn't get to go onto the bracket because of the goals used for tie breaking, I'd be REALLY mad.

This paragraph is just alternative football isn't it? Brackets? Tie breaking? What is this?


I thought it was a penalty, soft as it was, enough contact and pulling to put the striker off and promptly fall over...

However, the disallowed second Croatia goal should be the focus, as the over-protection of goalkeepers is just daft these days... So, so overboard with it all it does kill the game somewhat, as quite often a keeper could just go for a ball they'll have minimal chance of getting and usually win a foul...

Neymar's a little git though isn't he?

 

[Jordanovichy]

Personally I thought it didn't really get going, not like a proper Cambridge United match anyway

That penalty? This was doing the rounds on Vine and Twitter last night after it

[vine]http://vine.co/v/hrEPVlFeWHF[/vine]

ugh, how do you imbed vines </3

 

[nealbie]

I thought it was a penalty, soft as it was, enough contact and pulling to put the striker off and promptly fall over...

Benin is right, a foul is a foul. It annoys me that many have developed a belief system that a foul in the area has to be of an abnormally high level yo be given. If that was in the centre circle, it's given every time without any fuss.

However, the disallowed second Croatia goal should be the focus, as the over-protection of goalkeepers is just daft these days... So, so overboard with it all it does kill the game somewhat, as quite often a keeper could just go for a ball they'll have minimal chance of getting and usually win a foul...

Benin is wrong here. Yes there's goalkeeper protection, but it's nothing new. One of the first and fundamental laws of football is that a team must consist of AT LEAST 7 players INCLUDING a goalkeeper. The game MUST be stopped when the keeper is out of action, that is just fact. Ever wondered why at kick off the ref requires acknowledgement from both keepers that they are ready and aware? And that keepers are the ONLY players who can request the game to stop? This is why. Obviously you have to apply common sense here, like if nothing much is going on and the keeper needs to do his laces or he has injured himself, etc. But a controversial keeper could (in theory) stop an attack in a similar fashion. Then it's up to the referee to make a decision.

I don't go to as many live games as I'd like to, but even still I've seen a handful of times where the keeper has been injured in a messy box mêlée gone down, a couple of kicks later the ball ends up in the net, but the whistle goes for an indirect freekick, even though there was no foul. It happens.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Benin is wrong here. Yes there's goalkeeper protection, but it's nothing new. One of the first and fundamental laws of football is that a team must consist of AT LEAST 7 players INCLUDING a goalkeeper. The game MUST be stopped when the keeper is out of action, that is just fact. Ever wondered why at kick off the ref requires acknowledgement from both keepers that they are ready and aware? And that keepers are the ONLY players who can request the game to stop? This is why. Obviously you have to apply common sense here, like if nothing much is going on and the keeper needs to do his laces or he has injured himself, etc. But a controversial keeper could (in theory) stop an attack in a similar fashion. Then it's up to the referee to make a decision.

I don't go to as many live games as I'd like to, but even still I've seen a handful of times where the keeper has been injured in a messy box mêlée gone down, a couple of kicks later the ball ends up in the net, but the whistle goes for an indirect freekick, even though there was no foul. It happens.

In regards to the keeper situation though most of these 'fouls' end up with it being a result of the keeper and attacker (or sometimes a defender) all challenging for the ball and coming together not in a violent or foul-like manner, but just as a result of all the momentum...

With yesterday, Cesar's flapping caused the ball to drop from his grasp more so than the giant Croatian next to him (and a defender if I recall)... He wasn't injured when he fell to the floor, there was no intent from the striker to cause a foul or direct harm at the keeper, it's one of these situations which need to be looked at because it does make a fair amount of set-pieces actually quite dull...

It's a very aggravating situation where a slight touch of the goalkeeper can result in a foul, even though there was no intent or indeed expectancy for the players to collide... I would say this idea of blowing up for any goalkeeper based collision has come as a direct result of the Cech incident a few years back though, because of the seriousness of that incident, whereas most of these collisions end up with no injury at all...

 

[DelPiero]

I thought both the Pen and the Keeper free kick were extremely soft, not nailed on in any way shape or form.
Brazil didn't look amazing, they will need to improve significantly if they want to win this. Defensively they aren't sound at all and don't look to be able to blow teams away in the attacking 3rd either.
Croatia gave a good account of themselves, it's just a shame that they have a useless pile of crap up front with Mandzukic out, as well as a pretty poor keeper.

Looking forward to Spain vs Netherlands tonight, one of the stand out group matches imo.

 

[Jordanovichy]

Looking forward to Spain vs Netherlands tonight, one of the stand out group matches imo.

Should be good, I put £5 on Spain to win 2-1, 17/2 potential return of £47.50. Luvly jubly.

 

[DelPiero]

I expect Spain to batter the Netherlands to be honest, be very surprised if the Dutch get a goal.

 

[jj23w]

£130 if Spain win 3-1 tonight and 150 if they win.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Goal of the tournament so far from Van Persie!