FIFA World Cup Football 2014 Official Thread

Who will win the WC?


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Roby

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Finally. Spain lacked motivation and trying in this game and they got what they deserved. At this rate Spain might place last in the entire world cup, considering how many goals have been scored to them.
 

Bellion

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Lmao I can't believe I was right about Spain XD they got whipped
 

Escorpiius

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We'll have a new Champion this year for sure now :p

As for Spain, no matter how much I try to get onto tactics and what were right or wrong for them. Let's put it simple: They had no soul for me!
 

Dark Magician

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Rip Spain
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Frankenstein

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Very nice play from Chile. Especially the way they defended constantly pressing all over the field.
It's going to be very interesting to see how they will perform against Holland.

Spain out, time for a change anyway.
 

Bellion

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We'll have a new Champion this year for sure now :p

As for Spain, no matter how much I try to get onto tactics and what were right or wrong for them. Let's put it simple: They had no soul for me!

They've run out of ideas, the team is to 1 dimensional
 

CloudWalker

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Ahhhhhhh! Spain fans telling us they were gonna win it after losing the first match again, where you at? I hope you have comfy seats, and some good food for the flight home! And don't worry, you entertained us quite a bit this World Cup! We got to see some absolutely great goals, and great play on your team. Thanks for coming! Adios!
 

Xarpius

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The bolded part, that description exactly applies to their earlier match against Spain. Back then their defense was also very mediocre, did they play averagely and did they win on individual brilliance. The only difference is that Australia was simply playing better than Spain, which makes it that more obvious how bad Spain actually played.

I just realized that the Netherlands actually reminds me of Liverpool this season. They scored a hellish amount of goals, but Liverpool also had to take in a lot of goals, way too much for the #2 of the Premier League. The Netherlands is exactly the same. Van Persie and Robben are taking advantage of the mistakes of the opponents to their utmost efficiency. Fact is the weight of their team almost entirely falls on their attacking line. The moment something happens to that, they have a serious problem.

I'm admitting that I was a bit narrow-minded, but the thing you are saying makes no sense. How many times to do I need to repeat that van Gaal made de setup different in their match w/ Spain. They weren't any weaker, in fact if you forget about this nerve-wracking match between The Netherlands and Australia and instead look into the statics, you can see how easy things were for The Netherlands, I mean even one of their goals was a penalty;
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Its just that their setup in the first half was messed up and as RVP said after the match; "They kept running and running." <- they were more energetic but nothing more.

But hey, maybe half of us fans were prejudging Australia but the players certainly werent. Van Gaal knows that and you may not realize but everything he does happens for a reason, he did what he wanted. First setup wasn't a complete failure but he changed it nonetheless and he might bring it back. He will make things better, because he knows what he is doing. #Trustinv.Gaal #Wearegoingthrough!

And about this comparison with Liverpool. Have you watched the WC four years ago, we also scored a "hellish" amount of goals, even better. Because in every match we end up completely demolishing our opponents. But that didn't happen because RVP or Robben brought us to that point. Most goals happened because of Sneijder and an amazing goal from De Jong (or I believe it was him ._.) Anyway, main point of this jabber-jabber is that we got more good players now! And they all got their backs. Like Memphis Depay, is it wasn't for him I wouldn't be telling you how much of a freaking badass team we got! ;3

#Theygotourbacks!! #Depay's first
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#VivaHollandia
 

Silico

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I really hope Holland goes as far as possible and Portugal as far back as possible. (ಥ_ಥ)
 

Xarpius

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I really hope Holland goes as far as possible and Portugal as far back as possible. (ಥ_ಥ)

We zijn er weer bij en dat is prima, Vivaaaaa Hollandiaa!! ♫
 

Twilight

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Ehn ehn e fe ma so ede abi. Can someone tell me what happened to spain?
 

Totsuka No Tsurugi

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I wonder whats going on with the Spaniard Midfield, aside from Silva and maybe Iniesta ( Vidal keep him in his pocket ) none of them trying to created some goal scoring opportunity, they just stand there like a ****ing statue and let the Chilean cakewalk every last one of them,

And there is the useless forward
Costa is not that bad, the dude actually make some good run and tried to shake off his mark, and yet VDB decided to sub him for Torres ? Really ? I mean Torres ? again ? dude not supposed to be in the team to begin with !! that guy is not even making some move while Silva run his ass to get the ball forward, its like he's hoping for some kind of miracle that the Chilean defender will just roll over and let him pass, They have Villa in the bench for fck sake, that's their all time top scorer and he's having a blast with Atletico this season, and he played Torres instead,

The substitution is just Awful, in time of need you need player with experience, instead VDB put Koke a young lad playing his 1st big tournament for Spain when his team in the verge of elimination ( Genius ) Instead off Fabregas,

Cazorla who pretty much played the same role with Silva and Iniesta, bring on Juan Mata, you need more creativity in midfield not a player who make some useless run and then lose the ball far to easy,

but oh well i don't like Spain, this is the perfect end for that stupid Tiki Taka in 2010.

I really hope Holland goes as far as possible and Portugal as far back as possible. (ಥ_ಥ)
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fiend

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Cameroon and Croatia next
Do or Die match for both teams, Mandzukic might just make the difference for croatia today.
As for Cameroon, their over reliance on Eto'o is their problem.
2-1,2-0 in favor of Croatia
 

Luther

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I wonder whats going on with the Spaniard Midfield, aside from Silva and maybe Iniesta ( Vidal keep him in his pocket ) none of them trying to created some goal scoring opportunity, they just stand there like a ****ing statue and let the Chilean cakewalk every last one of them,

And there is the useless forward
Costa is not that bad, the dude actually make some good run and tried to shake off his mark, and yet VDB decided to sub him for Torres ? Really ? I mean Torres ? again ? dude not supposed to be in the team to begin with !! that guy is not even making some move while Silva run his ass to get the ball forward, its like he's hoping for some kind of miracle that the Chilean defender will just roll over and let him pass, They have Villa in the bench for fck sake, that's their all time top scorer and he's having a blast with Atletico this season, and he played Torres instead,

The substitution is just Awful, in time of need you need player with experience, instead VDB put Koke a young lad playing his 1st big tournament for Spain when his team in the verge of elimination ( Genius ) Instead off Fabregas,

Cazorla who pretty much played the same role with Silva and Iniesta, bring on Juan Mata, you need more creativity in midfield not a player who make some useless run and then lose the ball far to easy,

but oh well i don't like Spain, this is the perfect end for that stupid Tiki Taka in 2010.


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Agreed. Costa is a very good striker and one of the best last season along with suarez and ibrahimovic but i dont think his styles fits spain passing game, as seen in athletico madrid costa thrives in counter attacking football but apparently not in the passing game. Very poor substitutions indeed, javi martinez best role is central defensive midfielder i feel he should have replaced Busquets and pique should have been retained and the addition of koke and fabregas/mata for xavi and alonso should have been made from the start. I will have started costa and villa together too as that poses more of an attacking threat, but the coach decided to bring torres on when the damage was already done. Tika tika is not dead is just the philosophy and the passion in the players that i feel is lacking except for silva and iniesta the rest of the squad were sub par in my opinion and it has cost them. I mean its just a shame to see a group so talented get knocked out so early. Disappointing.!

I mean arent this the set of players who won the champions league and made it to the finals? They are better than this.
 
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Aertes

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I'm admitting that I was a bit narrow-minded, but the thing you are saying makes no sense. How many times to do I need to repeat that van Gaal made de setup different in their match w/ Spain. They weren't any weaker, in fact if you forget about this nerve-wracking match between The Netherlands and Australia and instead look into the statics, you can see how easy things were for The Netherlands, I mean even one of their goals was a penalty;
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I looked deep into the statics but all I see is this:
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For me Netherlands is not as brilliant as you present it. I saw some problems in their defense on this much as in the one against Spain, the midfield is mediocre to good but most goals are scored from individual attempts. I can't doubt that Robben and VanPersie have very good skills and they can take advantage of every mistake to create something beautiful. But the problem for me is mostly on that part, I haven't seen many organized attacks that begins behind the defense lines with a good cooperation of the midfielders. Most attempts depends on VanPersie and Robben taking advantage of a mistake made from the other team. Spain played terrible and Australia is not a top class team, so I still have my doubts about the Netherlands.

Spain, such a disappointment seeing so many great players not able to perform >.<
I liked the way Chile played though, they had a great way to manage the game, I am looking forward for their match with Holland.
 

fiend

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I wonder whats going on with the Spaniard Midfield, aside from Silva and maybe Iniesta ( Vidal keep him in his pocket ) none of them trying to created some goal scoring opportunity, they just stand there like a ****ing statue and let the Chilean cakewalk every last one of them,

And there is the useless forward
Costa is not that bad, the dude actually make some good run and tried to shake off his mark, and yet VDB decided to sub him for Torres ? Really ? I mean Torres ? again ? dude not supposed to be in the team to begin with !! that guy is not even making some move while Silva run his ass to get the ball forward, its like he's hoping for some kind of miracle that the Chilean defender will just roll over and let him pass, They have Villa in the bench for fck sake, that's their all time top scorer and he's having a blast with Atletico this season, and he played Torres instead,

The substitution is just Awful, in time of need you need player with experience, instead VDB put Koke a young lad playing his 1st big tournament for Spain when his team in the verge of elimination ( Genius ) Instead off Fabregas,

Cazorla who pretty much played the same role with Silva and Iniesta, bring on Juan Mata, you need more creativity in midfield not a player who make some useless run and then lose the ball far to easy,

but oh well i don't like Spain, this is the perfect end for that stupid Tiki Taka in 2010.


Some points:-
1.Iniesta- He has been underperforming for quite a while now, probably the bad Barca season has dwindled his confidence, I haven't seen the "Genius" Iniesta for a while now, I hope for Barca's sake he will bounce back

2.Xabi Alonso- One of his worst performances ever, if not the worst, there were no sign of that smooth Xabi, he was rough the whole night, he just recovered from an injury and a little lack of game time is effecting him.

3.Costa- He was the shadow of the player which we saw playing for Atletico Madrid this season, I think the general low morale of his whole team effected him, he might also be suffering from a nagging injury

4.Torres-Del Bosque trusts him too much, he had a poor season with chelsea and shouldn't have been given a chance, as you rightly said David Villa would have proved much more effective.

5.Overall spanish team- They weren't motivated, no enthusiasm at all, players weren't playing as a team, just looked as if they were forced to play.

6.Tiki-Taka- For tiki-taka to be anywhere near successful it requires 4 elements- speed, team-work, finesse/skill, unexpectedness/innovation. At the height of their powers Barcelona had all 4, the players were young ergo speed, they had been playing together with each other since childhood in la masia and were spoon fed with this style, therefore teamwork and finesse and it was unique because Barcelona were committed to it and had may genius players.
This spanish team is a reverse of it, they are old unmotivated and just patched together, hence tiki-taka can never work with this team.

7.Defense-Again team of 2010 world cup were based on a Barca shell, Barca for the past 2 seasons had abysmal defence, Puyol's absence has effected them too much.
Pep Guardiola introduced a novel concept of exploiting possession as defense which due to the failure of tiki-taka is not working anymore. the passing is substandard, they now can't hold the ball for long.

8.Goalkeeping- The very pubic spat between Iker Casillas and Jose Mourinho saw casillas on bench and his confidence destroyed, who at that time was one of the worlds best goalkeeper, this season's lack of playing time has made him rusty and as a result he now commits egregious errors, it would be in best interest of spain to use either David gea or Diego Lopez
 

Luther

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Some points:-
1.Iniesta- He has been underperforming for quite a while now, probably the bad Barca season has dwindled his confidence, I haven't seen the "Genius" Iniesta for a while now, I hope for Barca's sake he will bounce back

2.Xabi Alonso- One of his worst performances ever, if not the worst, there were no sign of that smooth Xabi, he was rough the whole night, he just recovered from an injury and a little lack of game time is effecting him.

3.Costa- He was the shadow of the player which we saw playing for Atletico Madrid this season, I think the general low morale of his whole team effected him, he might also be suffering from a nagging injury

4.Torres-Del Bosque trusts him too much, he had a poor season with chelsea and shouldn't have been given a chance, as you rightly said David Villa would have proved much more effective.

5.Overall spanish team- They weren't motivated, no enthusiasm at all, players weren't playing as a team, just looked as if they were forced to play.

6.Tiki-Taka- For tiki-taka to be anywhere near successful it requires 4 elements- speed, team-work, finesse/skill, unexpectedness/innovation. At the height of their powers Barcelona had all 4, the players were young ergo speed, they had been playing together with each other since childhood in la masia and were spoon fed with this style, therefore teamwork and finesse and it was unique because Barcelona were committed to it and had may genius players.
This spanish team is a reverse of it, they are old unmotivated and just patched together, hence tiki-taka can never work with this team.

7.Defense-Again team of 2010 world cup were based on a Barca shell, Barca for the past 2 seasons had abysmal defence, Puyol's absence has effected them too much.
Pep Guardiola introduced a novel concept of exploiting possession as defense which due to the failure of tiki-taka is not working anymore. the passing is substandard, they now can't hold the ball for long.

8.Goalkeeping- The very pubic spat between Iker Casillas and Jose Mourinho saw casillas on bench and his confidence destroyed, who at that time was one of the worlds best goalkeeper, this season's lack of playing time has made him rusty and as a result he now commits egregious errors, it would be in best interest of spain to use either David gea or Diego Lopez

I think puyol absence has played a role too but nothing so great that will cause them to fall out in the group stages. Spain still have young players who are still hungry such as koke, thiago, carzorla and isco who they didnt call up so i think the passion and desire to win is still possible albeit with a different set of players. Casillas had a bad tournament true and i feel bad that valdes missed the world cup he was very good for barca up to the point he got injured and i feel he would have done well for spain. The whole team not only casillas was at fault and i think iniesta had a good tournament along with david silva when you compare it with his other teammates.
 

fiend

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I think puyol absence has played a role too but nothing so great that will cause them to fall out in the group stages. Spain still have young players who are still hungry such as koke, thiago, carzorla and isco who they didnt call up so i think the passion and desire to win is still possible albeit with a different set of players. Casillas had a bad tournament true and i feel bad that valdes missed the world cup he was very good for barca up to the point he got injured and i feel he would have done well for spain. The whole team not only casillas was at fault and i think iniesta had a good tournament along with david silva when you compare it with his other teammates.

I know they still have young players but they still need to gel together to an extent where they can anticipate each others passes, thats how Barca rolled and frustrated their opponents using tiki-taka

As for Puyol, he not only played a defenders role but also the role of leader and motivator,thus his departure has had a great impact, I concur that the void will be filled but it will take a little more time.


Croatia leading 1-0, what a terrible foul by song on Mandzukic, straight red from the referee to him.
 
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fiend

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What an inspired performance by croatia 4-0 lead over 10 men cameroon,Mandzukic scores 2, 14 minutes to go they still can score one or two more.

EDIT- Croatia won 4-0, cameroon were extremely lucky that croatia could not convert some chances otherwise the score could have been 6-0,7-0

Song's mistake cost dearly to cameroon, there were some instances of in fighting amongst cameroon players, they tried in the second half but could not convert.

Croatia books winner takes all match with mexico.
 
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DoubleKamui

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Proud of my Socceroos. Tim Cahill's goal was boss as f*ck:
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