World Cup 2014: BRASIL

[KindGrind]

I was rooting for Argentina from the start of the tournament, but I'm getting increasingly concerned. The team leans way too much on Messi, and he can't do everything himself...

But a great match today, glad they won.

Belgium deserved the game today. Indeed intense final minutes... So close!

The coach was pissed when he saw they added a meager minute at the end of ET. You didn't have to be an expert lip-reader...

[GaijinPunch]

Glad to hear the played well. Sad they lost.
I'm under the weather so couldn't quite get up.

[brentsg]

My takeaways from the USA game..

1) Every US citizen should be required to admire Tim Howard.
2) I'm a DeAndre Yedlin fan.

Great game for sure. The best team won, but the other team had a chance to pull it off. I wish we could have seen if having Altidore in the lineup would have changed fortunes.

[null1024]

The USA game was exciting. Shame our side wasn't able to attack nearly as much as the Belgians.
And jeeeeeeeez, Tim Howard tried to save us so hard. Holy crap, did he try. If I was still a kid, Tim Howard would be my idol, since I wanted to be a keeper growing up.

Belgium deserved to win, but the US had a fair bit of heart.
and I was so mad when there was only 1 minute of extra time at the end, we finally had some momentum

[mastercello]

I'm glad i went to bed after the first half!
Another 90 minutes without a goal have would be to much for one day!

My hopes are now with Columbia, but certainly they will not pass the Brazilians.

[Skykid]

^ I wouldn't bet my life on it. What has Brazil done that's so great? They got taken to penalties last game against a team they should have whitewashed. Seem very average to me.

I've been saying Argentina are all about Messi for a while, but credit to them, they played some great moves in ET and deserved the goal.

Disappointed for USA. The keeper is special, and there are some great individual players in there. Belgium had the edge the whole time though, and keep getting stronger each game. There was so much pressure on the US in the first 25 minutes it was like the keeper was the only defender.

I wanted to see a US success, if only for some domestic encouragement of the sport. Last game they played I was sitting in the bar and the only two Americans there.... one was sloshed on Tsingtao and kept shouting "offsides" at the top of his voice for no apparent reason, and the other spent the entire time playing some shit game on his friend's iPad. Every time the bar made a reaction to events on the screen he would raise his head for a second and go "Ehhh..." like he was somehow involved, and then go back to the ipad.

It's a shame man.

[SharkSkin-Man]

What has Brazil done that's so great?

Not losing a competitive game in Brazil for 39 years? It's not been vintage thus far, but Brazil are hard to beat at home.

[Skykid]

What has Brazil done that's so great?

Not losing a competitive game in Brazil for 39 years? It's not been vintage thus far, but Brazil are hard to beat at home.

You've slightly broadened the question there sport. We know the record, but focusing on the team's performance this tournament so far? Bowled you over?

They've surprised me at how pedestrian they've been, and in terms of ethics they're pretty mean when it comes to fouling people. Neymar is a key, but I haven't seen anything that looks like a champion side. That said, they haven't really had to play any real threats.

In all honesty, that's my criticism of the tournament. I've seen better world cups for sure.

All the match ups have been lame. Spain and England sucked and off they went, but all the big guns have found themselves in lopsided matches. Germany, France, Holland, Brazil and Argentina have avoided each other, being offered the opportunity to pick off lesser teams to progress. There haven't been any big crunch matches, and it's now clear these will come right at the end.

But sort of knowing every game has a clear underdog is a bit deflating, especially when you want the underdog to claw victory but they predictably get sent on their way.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Bowled you over?

No, but they're serving up pretty much what was expected. Keep it solid-ish, fill the midfield with hard workers like Gustavo and Ramires, and hope Oscar or Neymar magic something up.

They've been playing this way for a while now, working themselves through a period where there just aren't many great Brazilian players. Neymar is excellent at times and has a mighty fine goals:games ratio, but I think he's still a couple of rungs down the ladder from the likes of Ronaldo (the real one, not the Portuguese twink).

It seems like some people were expecting the '82 side to turn up.


I have almost zero interest in international football normally, but I think it's been a pretty decent tournament so far, and is filling the gap nicely until the proper stuff starts again in August.

[Skykid]

Neymar is excellent at times and has a mighty fine goals:games ratio, but I think he's still a couple of rungs down the ladder from the likes of Ronaldo.

Oh I agree with that.

I don't there's any real dispute here, I just said I wouldn't completely write Columbia off against this tournament's Brazil, even if they haven't got the greater prospects - especially after Brazil's last match.

I have almost zero interest in international football normally, but I think it's been a pretty decent tournament so far, and is filling the gap nicely until the proper stuff starts again in August.

I completely disagree with that. The standard of premiership football versus international is like chalk and cheese: a much lower class of play. I have a long belief that the reason anyone considers it the other way around is because allegiance to a club simply makes the game more exciting - and you get that for an entire season.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Because of the way in which players are distributed now, I think the best club sides are some way ahead of the best national sides. A top European club side would turn over any of the sides left in the World Cup IMO. There are only a handful of top clubs, though.

But of course, following a club and going to the games, elevates club football to another level.

[d3vak]

What has Brazil done that's so great?

Not losing a competitive game in Brazil for 39 years? It's not been vintage thus far, but Brazil are hard to beat at home.

By that logic, Costa Rica wouldn't be where it is now.

No, but they're serving up pretty much what was expected. Keep it solid-ish, fill the midfield with hard workers like Gustavo and Ramires, and hope Oscar or Neymar magic something up.

They've been playing this way for a while now, working themselves through a period where there just aren't many great Brazilian players. Neymar is excellent at times and has a mighty fine goals:games ratio, but I think he's still a couple of rungs down the ladder from the likes of Ronaldo (the real one, not the Portuguese twink).

Come on, it's an obvious thing they're far from being a solid team and also they lack of figures compared with that '02 team we all remember, for some reason, even with all that individually awesome players, that team used to work well as a team too, a thing their current team hasn't achieved.

And about the other thing, at this point of his career it's just nonsense to claim that Cristiano Ronaldo is a bad player just because you think he is a "twink". I personally can't stand Messi but that doesn't make him a bad player, he is in fact great too. Back to C.Ronaldo, his situation was pretty similar to Falcao's: They both were just starting to recover from a lesion, the first one decided to play in the WC and the other one decided to rest and recover, which was in fact the best decision. The thing is that Falcao didn't win the Golden Ball and hadn't all the media pressure C.Ronaldo had.
As for your comparison between him and Brazil's Ronaldo, come on...Do you even remember what players did he have by his side? And what does C.Ronaldo has to support him in Portugal's team? Exactly.

My prediction is that Colombia will have what it takes to defeat Brazil just because they have been playing much much much much better than them as a team so far.
As for Argentina vs Belgium...well, bye bye Argentina.

[SharkSkin-Man]

I think C.Ronaldo is one of the best players to have played in my lifetime. Having said that, I still rate big Ronaldo as the better player (I think without the injuries he'd have gone on to be the best attacking player of all time).

[gbaplayer]

Tomorrow: Germany vs. France and Brazil vs. Columbia

Can´t wait to see these 2 quarters.

[Skykid]

The Germany / France match up is the first big crunch game of the tournament (finally!) Looking forward to it!

[gbaplayer]

I hope we will win it and i guess it will be 2:1 in the end for Germany.
7 team members are not in good health condition at the moment, but Löw said he guesses it will not affect his decision who will play tomorrow.
Hopefully he´s right.

[mastercello]

Well i would like the Germans to win, but please just under one condition -> No Müller Goal, a fucking cunt he is in my eyes!

[SharkSkin-Man]

As a result of both Ribery and Nasri missing out, this French side are actually quite easy to warm to (Evra aside, obv.). I hope they do it.

[Skykid]

I hope Germany lose. Sorry, it's tradition. Also I'm getting a bit irritated by Low's single overly serious expression.

Seeing how average both teams have been thus far, I'd say it was anyone's game. Although rooting against Germany nearly always means they win, it's uncanny. That was why Euro 2012 vs Italy was such a beautiful thing.

[d3vak]

Yeah, I hope France wins too...not likely to happen though...

[Shatterhand]

Brazilian team this year really isn't that good, but I remember in 94 no one had any trust on that team either (Except by the attacking duo of Bebeto and Romario, there weren't many great players on that team either), and we still won. We have Neymar, who's playing a lot better than I would expect, our 2 defense men are real good (Thiago Silva and David Luiz), but our side-backs are playing shitty (Daniel Alves mostly, he is playing nothing like he usually plays in Barcelona). And Fred.... argh... Fred. I saw Bebeto and Romario, I saw Adriano and Ronaldo ... have to see Fred as our main striker (With JÔ as his substitute, for Christ's sake) is really depressing. He is not a bad player, but considering Brazil always had the best strikers ever, he is not even close of being National Squad quality.... (Jô is even worse).

And it doesn't help our midfield plays like they are 5 players who never saw each other. Good individual talent with no teamplay whatsover. I really think Hulk is playing out of his position, and he is way overrated anyway (and he is named after a comic book character, which is ridiculous). Fred rarely ever receives any decent balls, because our midfield can't pass the ball around properly, and our wingers are playing like shit.


Colombia in the other hand has an AMAZING team, I've been saying this since before the World Cup begun. If Falcão was playing, they would be favourites to get the title in my eyes, and I still think they have a pretty good chance.

I don't think it's going to be an easy game at all.

[Hagane]

Argentina played well on defense against Switzerland, which was by far the weakest aspect of the team. We had a hard time scoring since everyone seems to play ulta consevatively against us, but against Belgium I expect a more open, offensive match, which benefits us. When USA went all out against them they were VERY fragile on defense.

I expect France to win their match; they were the most solid of the "power" nations. Based on how they played so far, Colombia has the advantage against Brasil, but still Brasil is Brasil and they are locals, so they might win. Netherlands vs. Costa Rica will be tough. I hope Costa Rica wins, and they might pull it off considering how well Mexico fared, but Netherlands has better individualities.

[Shatterhand]

Ok, but Pelé still better than Maradona.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Vertonghen is the weak link in that Belgium defense, playing out of position on the left. Lavezzi will give him all kinds of bother if the USA game is anything to go by.

[Hagane]

Lavezzi will probably not play from the start, from what I've been hearing. They are probably going to go with a 4-4-2 with Messi and Higuaín on offense, and add another midfielder (Maxi Rodríguez, most likely). Having lots of big names on the offense seems to be good on paper, but if they don't get the ball they are wasted players.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Interesting. I love Maxi, but I thought he had a poor game vs Bosnia.

[d3vak]

Just heard about this on the radio and confirmed it here.

7 german players got ill! Müller is one of them, he's got the flu!

[SuperGrafx]

Wow, that is something.
The flu of all things.

[R-Gray 1]

Colombia plays much better than Brazil but I think this kind of match is better for this Brazil.

Brazil and Argentina likes to play vs technique gr8 teams.
Remember Brazil vs Spain in confederations cup and Argentina vs Spain in a friendly match.

Also this Brazil is made more for "fight" in the game. No kaka, no robinho, no Diego...


In the other match i like Germany.

[gbaplayer]

Just heard about this on the radio and confirmed it here.

7 german players got ill! Müller is one of them, he's got the flu!

Wondering who´s playing today, i hope Klose gets the chance. He´s the best.