The World Cup

[Maestro]

Well, I living in England, so naturally I support English team (but, if the truth must be said, they don't have too big chances for title, aren't they? ), but I trying to watch as many matches as I can ( damn nightshift, damn difference of time :/ ). Honestly, I'm surprised by result of Spain and Nederland... I thought that current world champions wouldn't be beaten so easy... As well Brazil- draw with Mexico?...

My personal bet for winner is Germany (before was Brazil, but after last game), strong and well-organized team

 

[Ganado]

Although, it has to be said that there are some excellent goal celebrations out there :happy:

Agreed! You can tell how much it means to the teams when they embark upon a mass pile-on everytime someone scores

No tears from me if England fail to qualify, but I sure hope they do. Every game = night out in the pub. Today I'm looking forward to seeing if Spain can sort themselves out, which won't be easy against Chile. And another win for Van Gaal will be nice, I want him full of the joys of management by the time he arrives at Old Trafford.

@ Maestro - Brazil look very very ordinary, besides Neymar of course. That combined with the immense pressure they're under will quite possibly see them get hammered by the first big side they come up against in the knock-out rounds. God knows what'll happen then, full-on country-wide rioting probably. Hope not!

 

[Ganado]

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!!

 

[Jen]

Well, I living in England, so naturally I support English team (but, if the truth must be said, they don't have too big chances for title, aren't they?

I agree, I don't think we'll win. Still, I guess stranger things have happened...

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!!

I'm actually watching tonight, no birthday night's out to go to.

 

[Popo]

Looks like England is out too.. and don't worry on Sunday it's Portugal's turn to come home, they are the worst I've seen play out of all the games except for maybe Spain, they entered the game already defeated, no ambition to win at all, that's what has always been wrong with Portuguese coaches, except for Scolari(was just bad luck vs Greece in 2004 and France in 2006 imo) but it was a team I actually enjoyed seeing play and believed they could really win, now all I expect is for them to at least not embarrass us(which they have failed to do until now).

 

[Ganado]

Looks like England is out too.. and don't worry on Sunday it's Portugal's turn to come home, they are the worst I've seen play out of all the games except for maybe Spain, they entered the game already defeated, no ambition to win at all, that's what has always been wrong with Portuguese coaches, except for Scolari(was just bad luck vs Greece in 2004 and France in 2006 imo) but it was a team I actually enjoyed seeing play and believed they could really win, now all I expect is for them to at least not embarrass us(which they have failed to do until now).

That's a good point, I reckon England's only chance of international success is to start from scratch (ie at kiddies level) and teach kids the basics of technique, control and composure. But the right headspace is also important, as you rightly say regarding Portugal, who technically are on another level to us but still flatter to deceive when it comes to the crunch. Tonight England just very clearly weren't good enough to control the game, and it was the usual helter skelter panic as it always is. Simply not good enough. Sigh. Jen, you should have found a mate to go out on the **** with dude! Unless things change dramatically in 4 years time, I'll go out on the **** with you and avoid all the England WC games, it'll be so less stressful than sitting through the horror, the horror.

Ah well, come on Ecuador!!! Or Belgium! Or Chile or Colombia! Regardless of how ****e we are, the WC continues apace, and overlooking the fact that it was us and we lost, it was an exciting match tonight. Shame one team could only operate at Panic Stations level. God you'd never rely on any England team to hold back the hordes of undead in Racoon City would you. Zombies 1 England (and thus humanity) 0 is the only forseeable outcome of that desperate scenario.

Aaaaand exhale.

 

[Jen]

Jen, you should have found a mate to go out on the **** with dude! Unless things change dramatically in 4 years time, I'll go out on the **** with you and avoid all the England WC games, it'll be so less stressful than sitting through the horror, the horror.

Let's do it haha, tonight was painful to watch. I think there's always so much build up when England play that it makes it even more disappointing. Doubt we're gonna make it out of the group.

 

[Maestro]

Technically, England still have a chance, If Italy win two of their remained games with many goals, and England beats Costa Rica at least 4-0, they have chance for second round... Even if they fail, it's stilll better result than Spain, I guess...

At least Rooney get his first goal in World Cup

 

[Ganado]

Let's do it haha, tonight was painful to watch. I think there's always so much build up when England play that it makes it even more disappointing. Doubt we're gonna make it out of the group.

There's no chance of us making it to the knock-out rounds in reality, and given what we've seen that's just as well, whoever we'd play it'd likely be another 4-1 hammering as per Germany in 2010. Anyway it's a date, four years time, assuming England make it to Russia, we'll find the quietest pub in the country with no TVs and get rat-arsed

 

[Popo]

Oh ye, I got it wrong, England can still qualify, I got the math wrong and forgot Costa Rica beat Uruguay xD
Unfortunately for us, this is the best for years to come for Portugal, our teams like Benfica and Porto sometimes don't have a single portuguese player in the starting eleven, and in the other smaller teams it's mostly brazilians and barely any portuguese players, only Sporting bets on home players and that is not enough if we want to get somewhere(and I'm a Benfica fan). This disgusts me, it's not that I have anything against foreign players, it's just that portuguese players aren't given any chances at all, and we do have quality young players(Benfica U-20 for example only got beat on the final of the U-20 Champions League vs Barcelona). If it were me, I would make it a law to have a minimum of 5 Portuguese players in the starting eleven, and at least 2 built on the club's academy. That's the only way we are getting anywhere.

 

[Ganado]

Mr Scary, we're in exactly the same boat mate! For so long every team that wins the premier league is rammed full of overseas players, and they tend to be the star players. That includes us (I'm a Manchester United fan) last year when Van Persie practically won the league single-handed. Man City this year had an average of 3 English players, same with Chelsea. Liverpool had a few, most of which have been on the pitch for our two WC games so far, both of which we have of course lost. In some fairness to the powers-that-be, I remember well the mid-90s when Uefa imposed a 'maximum foreigner' rule on club squads for the Champions League and Uefa Cup, but eventually the european courts decided that was unlawful (no doubt aided and abetted by the cash-hungry owners of the big clubs and the TV corporations that bankrolled the whole thing).

It's entirely up to national football associations to impose rules and regulations. Germany and more recently Belgium have done it, imposing fairly strict training methods on youth teams countrywide, and well, whaddya know, both those countries now have ****-hot national teams full of technically gifted players who all have been taught to play in a specific way from youth level through to the national team. Obviously it's not that hard to do, just needs someone to have the balls to impose it. Sadly, given that the Premier League is such a major league worldwide, financially, I just can't see that happening over here. The short-term profits of the corporate twats at Sky hold far more power than any concerns for the national side.

 

[Jen]

Well, that's it for England. First time they've not got past the group stages since 1958...

 

[Maestro]

This World Cup becomes more and more interesting. I think about bet some pounds for Costa Rica, just in case if they'll get a championship (odds are 1:50 ) , lol. Anyway, mayby Italy will come back to Europe with England

 

[Ganado]

In all honesty, I'm glad Costa Rica have qualified at our expense, they're better than us. How can we get beat by Uruguay and Italy yet CR dispatch them both? Crazy, but brilliant to see the CR fans going mental at full-time yesterday Also great to finally see one of my teams actually win a match at this WC, nice one Ecuador, wish I'd been sat in the Magic Bean or Turtle's Head in Quito watching the game. Sadly they need a result against France to make the knock-outs, hmmmm.

Great that the tournament is still entirely engaging regardless of England's exit. Will be shouting for Bosnia-Herz today, they've been through quite some **** as a country in the recent past, time to have some fun....!

 

[Mr Sunshine]

England, Italy, Spain and perhaps Portugal are out of the tournament.. yet Greece somehow manages to get past the group stages.. for the first time in a world cup... WTF IS GOING ON????

Good times!!

 

[Maestro]

After I lost some money on bookmaker website (just my reckless), I just want to say that I wish to United States beat Germany, lol Good luck guys

 

[Ganado]

England, Italy, Spain and perhaps Portugal are out of the tournament.. yet Greece somehow manages to get past the group stages.. for the first time in a world cup... WTF IS GOING ON????

Good times!!

That's a very good question. WTF IS going on? England's early demise is no surprise really, but Italy and Spain going out is madness. It's all shaping up for a South American final unless the Dutch or Germans stick at it. It's all very watchable, there seems to be no comfortable predictions to be made (Greece beating Ivory Coast is just crackers, good on 'em they coulda scored 4!) and now there's the fabulous soap-opera that is Luis Suarez doing it's thing again.

Fingers crossed for Ecuador tonight, sadly I expect France to hammer them, but given the way the tournament has gone I certainly won't be putting any money on that.

 

[Popo]

I just hope for the love of god that Argentina doesn't win this, Messi fans make me go nuts, so many good players making excellent performances(Robben, James Rodriguez, Neymar, Muller, Joel Campbell, Herrera, Ochoa, Valbuena, Benzema, all playing A LOT better than Messi) but Messi doesn't do s**t all game and scores a goal and they all be like "Omg he is the best player ever, he is a legend give him Ballon d'Or right now!!" It's not him that ****es me off, it's his fans. Everytime he touches the ball commentators suddenly have their head shoved far up Messi's ass.

 

[Ganado]

I just hope for the love of god that Argentina doesn't win this, Messi fans make me go nuts, so many good players making excellent performances(Robben, James Rodriguez, Neymar, Muller, Joel Campbell, Herrera, Ochoa, Valbuena, Benzema, all playing A LOT better than Messi) but Messi doesn't do s**t all game and scores a goal and they all be like "Omg he is the best player ever, he is a legend give him Ballon d'Or right now!!" It's not him that ****es me off, it's his fans. Everytime he touches the ball commentators suddenly have their head shoved far up Messi's ass.

You don't suppose that's why he's playing so ordinarily do you...too many commentators heads up his arse is gonna make fancy football difficult

Good call with the standout players, Rodriguez and Valbuena in particular have caught my eye, Rodriguez looks perfect as 'the new Scholes', no idea who he plays for now but I hope Van Gaal has been taking note. Sadly I'd imagine the Spanish giants having first dibs, he'd grace any team on the planet.

 

[Popo]

He plays for AS Mónaco now, but he used to play for Porto from Portugal, a lot of amazing players used to play here in Portugal: Falcao, Ramires, Hulk, David Luiz, Di Maria, Guarin, James, Matic, Witsel, Javi Garcia, Fabio Coentrão, Ronaldo, Nani, Moutinho, Pepe... But unfortunately our teams don't have the economic power that teams like Chelsea, Man City, Real Madrid, Zenit, etc.. have, so all of them stay here one year and leave.