Football Thread (actual "football")

+
Exactly. At a certain point it was little running and lots of 'passes'. but still, England was pretty offensive, some nice 'passes'. Just didn't get lucky.
 
Am I the only one here who feels like this:

 
Not reassured after Argentina's display. That wasn't world champions quality.

No, it wasn´t at all. It seemed like they had been dragged out of the bed minutes before the match.
Hopefully, they were just nervous and overly cautious due to it being the first match. Let´s see how it goes next Saturday against Iran.
 
Portugal just left the door wide open for USA and Ghana. -4 in goals, and their center back red-carded for the sort of foul that should put him on the next plane home. Good result for Germany, but I don't think they were much challenged.
 
... and their center back red-carded for the sort of foul that should put him on the next plane home.

There are three certain things in life. Death, taxes and red cards for Pepe.

Had fun watching the matches with friends today.

GER vs POR was a pleasure to watch. Portugal was just clueless and if Goetze didn't waste his chance it could have been more than 4:0 for Germany. Tomas Mueller was splendid and Joachim Löw ate his boogers like he always does.

IRAN vs NIGERIA was a snoozefest for the most part. Two evenly matched teams playing it safe, it got interesting... in the last 3 minutes.

USA vs GHANA - had to go home. Dat goal in the first 30 seconds automatically makes it better than the above match : ]
 
USA vs Ghana had a nail-biter finish. I had to work and missed most of it. Not a game between teams that are even plausible contenders, but a fine game nonetheless. Ghana had the pressure on all game, the USA defenders didn't break until late, then they got it back on a well-executed corner kick.

These teams have a history (Ghana knocked USA out in 2006 and 2010), and there may have been an element of payback involved.
 
In American "football", they say a draw is "like kissing your sister". I don't think Brazil's too happy about that draw today, but Mexico sure is; all they need is a draw against Croatia to advance. I don't know if a keeper can win a tournament for you the way they can in hockey, but Ochoa's out there trying.
 
Brazil has nothing to be happy about. They failed to impress again and this time the referee didn't come to their rescue. Brazil played a solid match, but far from great - definitely not good enough for one of the top contenders for the title. Their offensive efforts lack target-orientation and creativity and rarely put a defence to the test. And Ochoa did an outstanding job of fending off the little that came his way - really, really great! Brazil's defence on the other hand did not press forward properly and allowed lots of long-range shots and they were lucky none hit the target.
 
Wichat may forgive me, but - Spain is all but out!!! LOL :lol:

Well, you could say Spain inspired the Netherlands and Chile to play outstanding games against them.

The only thing left for Spain and Australia is to try to get through a useless game without anybody getting hurt.
 
That's one way to put it, but Spain, especially last night, was appallingly weak. A far cry from the great team that won two consecutive european championships and one world cup in between. Even when they were down by one goal and needed to score desperately to maintain a chance, there was no reaction, no effort from the team.
So. Someone needs to put Italy out for us now, then we might just win this bucket, finally :D
 
Honestly, it looked like Spain gave up before the game even started. Their body language, the way they reacted to missed opportunities, even their "huddle" at half time. That game with the Netherlands and the subsequent fallout shook them up bad.

On the other hand, I have been really impressed with the Netherlands. Judging by the games played thus far, I say they are definitely the strongest. Looking forward to seeing them pushed by a strong Chile in their next game.
 
Hopefully VdB will get sacked and Spain will stop playing players based on their names.
Spain desperately needing a change so VdB gives Koke his 2nd ever cap for Alonso who has been as woeful as Casillas and shouldn't have started in the first place. Then takes Costa off (another player who shouldn't have started in the first place) for Torres... i mean wtf you have Spain's all time top scorer on the bench and you bring on a striker who has been shit since 2010.
VdB decides Spain needs a change and takes Xavi and Pique off the starting XI because fuck it Idk wut im doing. Instead of changing the infective broken 4-2-3-1 with Alonso doing nothing but giving the ball away and no width in attack whatsoever. He then puts in Martinez (a DM) next to Ramos (at fault for 3 Netherlands' goals) and completely forgets how rock solid the Pique-Ramos relation has been apart from the last game and again keeps insisting on the Barcelona high line except without the pressing. Takes Xavi off because he was the only player to produce 4 or 5 clear cut chances for his teammates in the first game (he had 3 through balls that put Costa and Silva 1 on 1 with the keeper in the first half alone).
[/RANT]
 
Top Bottom