SubJeff on 25/6/2014 at 18:59
I genuinely don't know how to take that.
You're not... serious, are you? :confused:
nickie on 26/6/2014 at 17:40
Nothing against Germany, but come on US, pull your finger out. Edit. You go through anyway so congratulations for that!
In other news, (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28023882) Suarez has a 4 month ban for any football-related activity and a 9 match international ban. Plus he'll miss the first 9 games in the Premier League. Wonder whether he still gets his £200,000 a week while banned.
N'Al on 26/6/2014 at 21:55
Of course. After everyone feared another 'Disgrace of Gijon' in the USA - Germany match, it'll now be Algeria facing Germany in the next round. You couldn't make this shit up if you tried.
Tomi on 27/6/2014 at 21:54
Alright then, the group stage is over and I think that this tournament is already shaping up to be the best World Cup of my lifetime. Many close games with plenty of goals, some great drama and surprises, and a nice atmosphere. During the last two weeks I've stayed up way too late to watch the games and messed up my sleeping pattern, but it's totally been worth it. :cool: The truly spectacular goals are still missing, but I have a feeling that we'll see some during the latter stages. Even the referees have been fairly good in my opinion, at least I can't remember any really shocking decisions.
On the top of that, many of my favourites got through the group stage, whereas Brazil is the only team remaining that I don't really care about. Spain were so shockingly bad that their elimination was even a little anti-climatic - I was hoping to see some more drama and tears, dammit! Watching Costa Rica dominate Italy was just delightful, and Italy vs Uruguay... well... wow... what can I say? Luis Suarez is one of my least favourite footballers, but I do feel a bit sorry for him - the guy's a fantastic footballer and great to watch sometimes, but he clearly needs some help, and a four months ban alone isn't going to help him. I still feel that he got what he deserved though - you just don't do stuff like that (repeatedly!) on the pitch.
Sadly the Asian and the African teams were big disappointments, once again. The Japanese and the Koreans played nice and most of all fair, but they'll really need to work on their finishing before the next tournament. Ghana and Cameroon messed things up both on and off the pitch. Watching the Cameroonian players pushing and shoving each other during the game was disgraceful, and the Ghanaian players' prize money demands was just as bad - I lost all sympathy towards them after that, and despite of both teams being among my favourites before the tournament, I wasn't too sad to see them lose. Ivory Coast were just a bit unlucky but at least their players can hold their heads up high. Thankfully my #1 African favourite Nigeria is still going strong! :D
Tomi on 27/6/2014 at 22:56
The knockout stage begins with Brazil vs Chile tomorrow (Saturday), so here are some predictions (that will probably go terribly wrong as always) and other thoughts of mine... Feel free to comment and mock me or whatever! :p
Round of 16 predictions:
BRAZIL 2 - 0 CHILE
Like I said in my previous post, Brazil is the only team remaining that I don't want to see to win the Cup. I've even started to "like" Neymar recently, but there's still something about Brazil that I don't like. Perhaps it's the fact that their playing style is always so overhyped and that they can be quite arrogant sometimes. Everyone obviously expects them to beat Chile tomorrow, but I hope and believe that Chile could cause an upset here.
COLOMBIA 2 - 1 URUGUAY
Now that Suarez got what he deserved and won't be playing, I wouldn't mind to see Uruguay win actually, but I still prefer Colombia. They've played some nice football in this tournament and they've also looked very strong. Losing Suarez is a huge blow for Uruguay, but at least the Colombians can sleep safe and sound knowing that their arms and necks should be safe.
FRANCE 3 - 0 NIGERIA
France did look pretty bad in their last game against Ecuador, but I'm afraid that they will still be too much for Nigeria. Despite of qualifying Nigeria still haven't really impressed me, but who knows, they could really surprise too. They did have their moments against Argentina after all, and France are always a bit hit and miss too...
GERMANY 1 - 0 ALGERIA
I want Miroslav Klose to smash Ronaldo's (the real one) scoring record, that's all I really want from Germany in this tournament. Algeria turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise (they were such a boring team four years ago), but I don't really care who wins this. Germany should be able to handle Algeria though... but that's probably what the Koreans and the Russians were thinking too.
HOLLAND 1 - 1 MEXICO
(Mexico wins 5-4 on penalties)
Holland were amazing against Spain, then a bit meh against Australia, and then fairly good again against Chile. Mexico on the other hand have been consistently good throughout the tournament, and since this is a "home tournament" for the South Americans and Holland's defence has looked a bit fragile at times, I'm afraid that I won't be seeing these lovely orange shirts again after this game. It's still going to be a close game though, and I think that Holland may even be favourites to win for most other people, I just have a bad feeling about this.
COSTA RICA 1 - 0 GREECE
The fairy tale of Costa Rica continues! It'd be pretty awesome, anyway. No one expected them to get a single point in this tournament, but here they are in the knockout stage. And what makes it even more cool is that they didn't just get lucky, they actually deserved to win those games and were rather entertaining at the same time too. I kinda like Greece too, though. Yes, they looked pretty bad and boring in their first two games, but in the last game against Ivory Coast they showed that they can actually play some proper football too when they really have to. These guys truly wear their hearts on their sleeves and I appreciate them for that. It's a shame that the "smallest" two teams will have to face each other here at this stage, but on the other hand it'll be nice to see at least one of them in quarter finals!
ARGENTINA 3 - 1 SWITZERLAND
Despite of winning all three games, Argentina haven't really impressed me yet. They've been a bit lucky in all of their matches so far, and without Lionel Messi they'd be in big trouble. Argentina haven't faced any of the "big" teams yet either, so it's hard to say how good they are. Then again Switzerland aren't exactly a "big team" either, so I expect Argentina to go through. Together with Holland, they're my favourites of the "realistic" winning candidates, so I hope that they go far.
BELGIUM 1 - 0 USA
I think it's cool that USA have made it this far, maybe they'll learn to appreciate the proper football one day. They haven't got any big stars, but Jürgen Klinsmann has done a great job at turning them into a very good team. Belgium have been probably the most boring team in the tournament so far, so I kinda hope that USA could beat them here and proceed to the quarter finals... thus probably making Argentina's way to the (semi-)final a bit easier. But well, let's not go that far yet. :p
faetal on 27/6/2014 at 23:08
Quote Posted by Tomi
FRANCE 3 - 0 NIGERIAFrance did look pretty bad in their last game against Ecuador, but I'm afraid that they will still be too much for Nigeria. Despite of qualifying Nigeria still haven't really impressed me, but who knows, they could really surprise too. They did have their moments against Argentina after all, and France are always a bit hit and miss too...
France were safe regardless of the result of the last game, so they fielded a highly changed starting 11 (6 subs I think), presumably to keep the subs warm.
