Mandatory 2014 Soccer worldcup thread!

[El Hadji]

[Falcon_S]

...Where is the magic Brazilian football ? ...

 

Killed in a business called European football.

[Aginor]

Yeah, I guess it is hard to do tricks with the ball when someone is literally standing on your feet most of the time. Football has become much faster and quite a bit more rough than, say, 30 years ago.

Imagine someone playing like Beckenbauer or Pelé or Cruyff did back in the days. I guess they wouldn't stand a chance. Much too slow.

But the Brazlians kept playing (somewhat) like that until recently and still had a chance with that style. So I still don't understand it completely. (But I admit I am NOT a football expert)

[Pilotasso]

Spain on the lose trend VS Chile, oh dear oh dear

[Feuerfalke]

Yeah, I guess it is hard to do tricks with the ball when someone is literally standing on your feet most of the time. Football has become much faster and quite a bit more rough than, say, 30 years ago.

Imagine someone playing like Beckenbauer or Pelé or Cruyff did back in the days. I guess they wouldn't stand a chance. Much too slow.

But the Brazlians kept playing (somewhat) like that until recently and still had a chance with that style. So I still don't understand it completely. (But I admit I am NOT a football expert)

 

That's just different strategies. Against enduring runners technical, slow and coordinated play with many exact passes may be the best counter-tactic.

[Feuerfalke]

The European and World-Champion is just being sent home by Chile. :poster_oops:

[Aginor]

Spain is down.

well played, Chile!

[mr_mojo97]

Chile were soooo much better tonight. Alonso was shocking. It's a shame but they were just a shadow of their former selves. The better side won by far. Although Spain should have had a couple as well if they could be bothered to run!

[Yurgon]

Were the Spanish players drugged tonight? What the heck happened to them?! :noexpression:

 

But congratz to Chile, a victory well deserved - and one less cryptonian arch-nemesis for the Germans... :D

[Foul Ole Ron]

Killed in a business called European football.

 

No it's not really due to do with how they play in European football. Brazil play the way they do due to a percentage based scientific analysis of their game that grew out of some soul searching after their high skill teams in the 80s did poorly in world cups. They started to emphasise strong physical players with high energy levels - particularly their full backs who had to get up and down the pitch and this has been drilled down to all the youth levels. To cover their full backs they employ these physical defensive midfielders. They'd then rely on one or two really top players to carry them through with some magic - such as a Ronaldo. The ideal of the magic samba team in Brazil died a long time ago at the hands of those who run Brazilian football themselves. In fact they've been pioneers in the scientific approach to the game and introduced advances well before some of their European counterparts to try and gain an edge. The only problem is that there's been a bit of a revolution in the game after the nadir of the early 90s and the emergence of high tempo, high skill teams has shown that modern football hasn't developed the way Brazil thought it would develop and they've in fact been left behind - I expect that they'll start to develop teams more in the mould of Germany who are able to match a high skill, high tempo game with physicality.

 

This year's team are no different to how Brazil have played for quite a while now. Paulinho, Gustavo and Ramires can run a lot and win some ball but they can barely do anything constructive in it. The full backs get up and down but they're not on the level of previous greats such as Cafu. The only flair they have in the team is Neymar and Oscar and neither of those are true greats like Ronaldo. Their defence isn't great either - Luiz and Alves are prone to making mistakes and getting into poor covering positions. Overall they're not a standout team in the new modern game and I think they'll struggle once they get out of their group. Still at least it does seem that the referees are on their side so far ;)

[sungsam]

Were the Spanish players drugged tonight? What the heck happened to them?! :noexpression:

 

But congratz to Chile, a victory well deserved - and one less cryptonian arch-nemesis for the Germans... :D

 

Spanish as most Europeans are "overburned". In my opinion this has to do with the ridicules stretch that been put on them during sesson.

 

Most European teams give me a sense of "tired"

Edited June 19, 2014 by sungsam

[Darkwolf]

Spanish team was obliterated.

 

Following up this defeat, King Juan Carlos retired at midnight this night.

 

 

:P :P :P

[Falcon_S]

Unbelievably! :doh:

 

[Aginor]

Rooney scored a goal in a world championship!

Finally :-D

[Pilotasso]

Aginor, you just jinxed the match. :D Uruguay 2 -England-1

[mr_mojo97]

Nnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Mr Ed scored twice!!! We'll I blame Gerrard for the second. Do miracles really happen? Not with England they don't. They're coming home, they're coming home, England's coming home. And if they aren't, I'll eat my own elbows

[Pilotasso]

Your Scottish grieving for England???:D

 

Edited June 19, 2014 by Pilotasso

[mr_mojo97]

I am bloody not!!! I just live here. But I do like the pic that will make a lot of Scottish people very annoyed!!

[Pikey]

God that was painful. Scottish wife enjoyed it though.

[mr_mojo97]

I'm lucky through, my Scottish wife doesn't like football. She just came in from work and said 'Oh, did they loose?' Oh we'll, get me a cup 'o tea then. ooh, the nerve.......well Celebrity Juice is on now so back to normality again, until Italy win both games and we beat the might of Costa Rica and we're back in it. Well probably not but you've got to hope, eh?

Edited June 19, 2014 by mr_mojo97

[Aginor]

Aginor, you just jinxed the match. :D Uruguay 2 -England-1

 

Well, actually my bet was on the Urus all along. England played a bit static IMO. But at least Rooney's curse seems to be broken. They retain a small chance, but... well, we'll see I guess.

[Griffin]

Aginor, you just jinxed the match. :D Uruguay 2 -England-1

Jose, 6 years old orphan, knew it all along. How can you win when even kids look at you pitifully? :D

[Foul Ole Ron]

We'll I blame Gerrard for the second.

 

Was more the combined fault of Cahill and Jagielka. Only Suarez was up front at that time so one covers him and the other covers the space. Gerrard (who was poor last night generally) has to challenge for the ball and he's missed it slightly which can happen. If the defenders behind him were doing basic defending that situation would have been easily dealt with.

[*Rage*]

Sigh...

[Aginor]

Oh boy, what a world cup until now!

England is out, Costa Rica proved to be very annoying for the Italians, and right now France is in the process of demolishing our Swiss friends. Surely not boring, looking forward to more. :-)