[POLL]: Who will win World Cup 2014?

[Den10kamp]

netherlands - complete and utter dark horses

[DB10GOONER]

Whoever wins it, John Terry will be front and centre in the celebrations. Shin pads and all.

Opening ceremony was absolute gash. What the fuck is this Brazilian obsession with dancing. Badly. And out of synch. Why not just throw $£€2million at a good old firework display and fuck off with the dancing arseholes?

Opening game was nearly as gashtastic tbh. Brazil won't win it. They are just not good enough. Too many average to good-ish players, not enough great players. And the ref last night was a shitbath. Absolute toilet.

As well as being a cheating scumbag, Danny Alves is the most overated player in the world. Bomb forward. That's it. No brain. His decision to track in and join the 3 midfielders as his man ran by him down the wing was something you'd give out shit to a 12 year old for doing. And for any retard that answers with "Ooh but he played for a great Barca team" I'll say go fuck your own arse. Playing in that great team covered the fact he is so limited. Ball retention can hide a whole host of sins.

[Theoperator]

Its all about numbers on the pitch, Brazil have 12, so will at least get to the Semis- real shocker pen gift last night, thought the ref was going to get squashed by angry Croatian players- it was a pretty shit match I thought

[augie]

I doubt if there has ever been as much pressure for a host nation to get to the final - absolutely everybody knows that as soon as brazil get knocked out, these protests will go off the rails

[Theoperator]

Protests were going on outside the ITV studio in Rio last night, someone threw a stone and broke a small hole in their window,

Dam England hooligans

[flash gunner]

Brazil

[northbank123]

Looking through the squad's Belgium have got some quality players ... and the three Spurs ones. Wouldn't mind seeing them or any new name on the trophy but cant really see it happening.

Am I right in thinking there has never been a world cup played in South America with a European winner? So will probably still be the case after this but I cant see it being Chile (who voted for them? )

It's true that no European team has won it in South America, but then again this is the first one over there in 36 years, in total only 4 tournaments played there. Football has changed so much since 1978, players are a lot more travelled in general so it will be interesting to see how well the European teams do. Being realistic from the Europeans you can't really look further than Germany and Spain but it does seem to be set up nicely for Argentina. Their group games, aside from being straight forward for a squad with their quality, are based near their border and in the cooler part of the country. I'd be amazed, even with their well documented defensive woes, if they didn't at least make the semi's.

Well looking forward to the whole tournament in general. Despite all the problems I think it will all turn out well, and just got the feeling Messi is finally going to leave his mark on the very biggest stage.

I think the first two are also skewed by the fact - and please correct me if I'm wrong here and this is only something I heard recently - some of the European teams like England didn't view it as a worthy competition and subsequently didn't enter. I've also heard that Austria were arguably the best team in the world before the Anschluss put paid to that.

Playing in South America might pose some challenges to players not used to it but as you say football has changed hugely in the last three or four decades. There is infinitely more focus day in day out at the top level on fitness and conditioning, and it is far more common for international players to be plying their trade abroad.

[Herd]

having seen some of the awful zonal defending at set pieces so far I think some teams have been watching us too much !

[DB10GOONER]

having seen some of the awful zonal defending at set pieces so far I think some teams have been watching us too much !

Yeah it's bizarre. I'm astonished that any interlull team would use zonal, a system that only works if you drill it into the players day in and day out for weeks on end. To use it in a tournament with players that really only get together once a month or so for a couple of days is madness.

I'll say it again; Zonal marking is shit. End. Fucking. Of.

[augie]

having seen some of the awful zonal defending at set pieces so far I think some teams have been watching us too much !

Didn't Portugal get exposed with zonal marking for hummells goal yesterday ? It seemed like they took up their position and were stagnant in those areas as hummel came flying in with momentum. Btw that isn't me defending zonal marking cos I too think that it is shite

[Herd]

TIKI TAK football is dead my friends , Athletico did it to Barca and now Holland and Chile has done it to Spain the 4-5-1 has been dealt a death blow last night and I do so hope Wenger was watching !
As we have all known for years it only works with Top quality players at the top of their game and has now been countered .
Last season our Tiki-Taka light program came badly unstuck against not only the top teams but Everton too and very nearly by Hull .
Can we consign this shit to the wastepaper bin and get on with some variations on themes please ,pretty please ,no Im fucking begging you !

Oh and well done Holland Australia came with a game plan which was working ,so Holland changed their game plan and came back to win ,its amazing that u can change tactics and styles DURING a match .

Arsenal will be asking FIFA to ban it as part of the Fair Play campaign

[gunner]

Goodbye Spain Thanks for coming

[Herd]

I see Scholari has been taking advanced coaching lessons from Wenger !

[DB10GOONER]

I have a sneaking feeling the Germans will win it.

Might just throw a twenty on it. Anyone any ideas what odds they are?

11/2

Cheers, mate.

Thought they might be about 8/1 or 9/1. Might just make it a fifty to make it worth my while!

Went with the 20 in the end. Fucking should have gone with the 50.

[augie]

I have a sneaking feeling the Germans will win it.

Might just throw a twenty on it. Anyone any ideas what odds they are?

11/2

Cheers, mate.

Thought they might be about 8/1 or 9/1. Might just make it a fifty to make it worth my while!

Went with the 20 in the end. Fucking should have gone with the 50.

I put €10 on them at 8/1 two months ago - nearly there now