Mandatory 2014 Soccer worldcup thread!

[Aginor]

Oh noes, overtime! again...

[*Rage*]

Both teams saved by their keepers...especially Germany.

[Pilotasso]

Oh wow sudden death right at start of extra time.

[Hans-Joachim Marseille]

G-O-A-L !!!

[Pilotasso]

Huge chance for the Algerians now again, but dat aiming...

[Hans-Joachim Marseille]

Algeria is beaten (^^,)

Edited July 1, 2014 by Hans-Joachim Marseille

[Pilotasso]

The Algerians pay the ultimate price for missing their chances. heads high for Algeria but at least Germany VS France will be a more interesting clash.

[Hans-Joachim Marseille]

Good match ... bed time now. See y'all (^.-)

[Aginor]

Yeah, that will be hard for both teams. Still looking forward to playing against our neighbors. :-)

And the Algerians can be really proud. The played great.

[Pilotasso]

They walked among giants.

[Hans-Joachim Marseille]

Oh wow ... "Bild" tabloid gives the German team a good dressing down ... Schürrle and Neuer top, the rest are a disgrace!

 

[Yurgon]

Holy cow, an hour after the game's over my adrenaline levels have finally dropped back into the red zone (don't know the color above that, but they were there). :D

 

The first 45 minutes reminded me of Spain's demise when they were beaten by the Netherlands. As if the German players had shoes made of lead or something. They were a lot better in the second half but still missing those great ideas on how to actually score the goal.

 

With 2:0 and 2:1 within a minute, I feared the game might actually take yet another turn...

 

Congratulations to Algeria for a great tournament. They came incredibly close to reaching the next round. :clap_2:

 

For Germany vs. France I have a very good feeling. France played a strong tournament so far, but I think Löw will have a much easier time figuring out how to break their defense than he had with Algeria. :thumbup:

[upupandaway]

I´m surprised you poeple actually managed to watch the whole game. I turned it off during the first half and checked back every couple of minutes towards the end... Don´t have the feeling that I missed anything.

[Aginor]

OMG, the Bild exaggerates everything again, which is normal I guess....

 

For example Müller and Özil. They didn't score goals in the regular time but they certainly didn't play bad. Lots of actions by those two.

Boateng had a hard time with those fast strikers (although he is pretty fast himself), but in the later part of the game especially Mertesacker and him did their job much better.

The only guy that was a bit disappointing for me was Schweinsteiger. I love his dribblings normally, but he didn't show much much of that yesterday. Hoewedes and Mustafi were meh. But the defense wasn't all bad, otherwise Algeria would have scored a goal.

 

So yes, they didn't play as well as they can, especially in the first half. But since the 60th minute or so they were the clearly better team, not leaving the Algerians many chances. The 2:1 happened when they were already celebrating in their minds, they knew they had won. Of course that's not good but it doesn't matter much.

 

Against France... I think they are beatable. If you can take Benzema, Pogba, and maybe Griezmann out of the game they don't have much. If that fails you're in for a very hard game. So IMO maybe the defense will win that game. Löw will have to work on that, then they will probably be fine.

[Aginor]

And I forgot the funniest thing about the game yesterday: The interview after it, featuring a grumpy (and really tired) Per Mertesacker who was asked somewhat impertinent questions by a TV reporter. I LOL'd so hard.

 

 

Unfortunately I can't find an English transcript. So here's in short what happened there (not an actual transcript, just so you get the rough meaning):

- TV guy: What happened, what made the game so hard?

- PM: I don't give a sh**. We won and that's what matters. We'll analyse it in a few days.

- TV guy: But wasn't it hard to play against Algeria? You played not really as we expected.

- PM: What did you expect? It's the world cup round of sixteen, those are not carneval clubs. We fought hard and managed to not allow goals.

- TV guy: What are you going to change? You surely have to change something to win, do you?

- PM: What do you want to hear? Why are you asking me that. What do you expect? Should we rather play beautifully and lose?

- Ok, thanks for the interview, congratulations.

- PM: Kthx bye.

[Hans-Joachim Marseille]

And I forgot the funniest thing about the game yesterday: The interview after it, featuring a grumpy (and really tired) Per Mertesacker who was asked somewhat impertinent questions by a TV reporter. I LOL'd so hard.

Lol ... "What do you want (to hear) from me?" (thinking "get lost, you pr!ck") (^D^) Edited July 1, 2014 by Hans-Joachim Marseille

[Hans-Joachim Marseille]

Belgium - USA ... best chance so far :thumbup:

 

[Aginor]

A lot of action in that game. In fact the two teams seem to enjoy it so much, they want to play even longer! :-D

 

And now Belgium scored!

Without Howard playing so well it would be 4:0 or so right now. Let's see if the US boys can turn it around.

[Aginor]

Well, now I guess the Americans have to go home. I hope they won't be bashed too much, because the had great team spirit, and managed to come that far without someone like Robben, Ronaldo or Messi.

 

And while I am writing here they scored a nice goal!

So there is still hope, fighting until the last minute is something they are great at.

[Pilotasso]

it isn't over yet!!

[Aginor]

Now it is. Congratulations, Belgium, and thanks for the great game, USA!

[Pilotasso]

that was epic

[Hans-Joachim Marseille]

that was epic

No, it wasn't. Belgians owned US half of the field throughout the match, but failed to capitalize on their shots. Some good actions of US players, but they failed to play as a team.

[Aginor]

I disagree with you there, Hans-Joachim.

 

IMO the Americans didn't lose 0:4 just because they played as a team. That and because their goalie played the game of his life and saved fifteen times (new record btw).

They didn't manage to hold Belgium at bay that long because they were lucky or because Belgium played bad, they just were good enough. Not good enough to win, but good enough to give the Belgians a run for their money.

 

And that's why I also think it was an epic game.

 

As for owning the field: The Japanese are known to have lost games despite 70% ball possession, the Germans are known to often have 60-70% and spend lots of time playing in their opponents part of the field, still they don't win every match with many goals (Actually they had ~60% in all three of their last games, and one of those even was a draw).

Playing for ball possession and trying to keep control is just a play style. When playing kick&rush (like England or some teams from the Balkans) you sacrifice ball possession and field control for less running and maybe faster counterattack. It doesn't mean you play worse, just different. Although it looks like it, I admit that.

[Pilotasso]

I saw the USA give everything. They were lesser shots at the nets than Belgium that was the main difference I saw because they both had many chances.