World Cup 2014 Squads and Games

[Theoperator]

Still fancy Belgium to win, they are a great team, more than can be said for almost all the others left in, take away Messi or Neymar or even Rodrigez and the South Americans are nothing much. Similar perhaps for Holland or Germany without C**ting Robben or Mueller. Dont feel the French quite have it to win it this time. Costa Rica arent likely to do it though would be great if they did.

Belgium have both a good defence and pacey attack with options of pace on the bench as well.

[rodders999]

What's really sad is if wondolowski buries that tap in at the 93rd minute we go through.

Even though he was onside didn't the flag go up anyway***? Even though it was a horrible miss i think it would have been ruled out for offside.

(***Disclaimer.....I had been drinking )

[SteveO 35]

Watching Hayley McQueen's World Cup update on Sky I think its safe to say

SteveO is cumming

[northbank123]

It's high time the rest of the world started to respect the USA as a footballing nation.

Based on what? You basically get a free passage into every World Cup by beating a few part-timers, the standard of the qualifying group is woeful. The US would be battling for play-off places in the European section. Although some of the stereotypes about fans probably don't ring so true but the attendances at MLS games are pretty dire for a huge population that apparently is increasingly crazy about soccer.

[rodders999]

Watching Hayley McQueen's World Cup update on Sky I think its safe to say

SteveO is cumming

You got that 52 inch wide sceen TV after all then? Only way you'd fit all her arse in the same shot

[augie]

What's really sad is if wondolowski buries that tap in at the 93rd minute we go through.

Even though he was onside didn't the flag go up anyway***? Even though it was a horrible miss i think it would have been ruled out for offside.

(***Disclaimer.....I had been drinking )

You are right on both accounts - he wasnt within a mile of being offside and had he of scored only to see it ruled out for offside, then it would have been a much bigger fcuk up than poll's 3 yellow cards a few years ago Can you imagine the uproar over a decision that was soooo wrong ? I was hoping that the yanks would win last night, but their reaction if that lost to a decision like that would have been justified to a degree, but impossible to listen to at the same time

I know howard made some good saves last night and that he set the record for the most saves in a world cup finals match, but fcuk me some of his saves were tv saves A soft header was going towards the bottom corner in extra time and he should have easily dived to his left and held it, but instead he did this hollywood dive and tipped it around the post and gave them a corner that fellani should have scored from. In this first half he made a spectacular tip over the bar that he didnt need to make, and it seems to have been ignored that he totally misjudged the header that hit the bar (he actually waved it wide ). Anyway that is not to say that he didnt have a good game last night cos he did, but some of the opposition finishing was poor and that should also be acknowledged too

Wasnt it amusing to hear the bbc panel talking at half time about how the belgium strikers should know that howard goes to ground too quickly ? Pig lips ferdinand and shearer both spoke about how they always did video analysis of their opponents so they could assess their strengths and weaknesses and of course I straight away thought of le cock and his refusal to have any focus on opponents pre match

[Tomáš]

Mertesacker sitting in a Ice Cubes bath after the interview with german TV
https://twitter.com/mertesacker/status/ ... 0509886464
France vs. Germany with five? Arsenal players.

Cheers,
Thomas

[topgoon]

Mertesacker sitting in a Ice Cubes bath after the interview with german TV
https://twitter.com/mertesacker/status/ ... 0509886464
France vs. Germany with five? Arsenal players.

Cheers,
Thomas

Welcome back Tom, commiserations on the cup final with Bayern(unless you didn't really want to be reminded).

Anyway, I count 4 BFG,Kos,Giroud,Ozil. Who's the 5th or has the sun fried my memory

[northbank123]

Mertesacker sitting in a Ice Cubes bath after the interview with german TV
https://twitter.com/mertesacker/status/ ... 0509886464
France vs. Germany with five? Arsenal players.

Cheers,
Thomas

Welcome back Tom, commiserations on the cup final with Bayern(unless you didn't really want to be reminded).

Anyway, I count 4 BFG,Kos,Giroud,Ozil. Who's the 5th or has the sun fried my memory

Our beloved Polish German!

Have to say I thought the Germany Algeria game was exactly the sort of fixture Podolski would have come on and scored in.

[topgoon]

Mertesacker sitting in a Ice Cubes bath after the interview with german TV
https://twitter.com/mertesacker/status/ ... 0509886464
France vs. Germany with five? Arsenal players.

Cheers,
Thomas

Welcome back Tom, commiserations on the cup final with Bayern(unless you didn't really want to be reminded).

Anyway, I count 4 BFG,Kos,Giroud,Ozil. Who's the 5th or has the sun fried my memory

Our beloved Polish German!

Have to say I thought the Germany Algeria game was exactly the sort of fixture Podolski would have come on and scored in.

Can't believe I forgot him, I feel like AW for about 3months of last season...yes Arsene you DO actually have 2 strikers.

Granted his WC so far being a bit rubbish hasn't helped keep him in my mind

[LDB]

Championship team runs around a bit, packs out the defence and gets bailed out by their goalkeeper before losing heroically to a far superior team. Whoopee.

The brilliant thing is that most yanks probably had no concept whatsoever that Belgium are a very good side, as far as they're concerned they've just lost at sport to a small European country of 11 million people.

Anyone see the grief Klinsmann got before the tournament for saying the USA won't win it? Even the president was piping up about them winning the thing after scraping through the group stage. Fuck off Hulk Hogan

How could anyone not have wanted them to lose?

[1989]

Mertesacker sitting in a Ice Cubes bath after the interview with german TV
https://twitter.com/mertesacker/status/ ... 0509886464
France vs. Germany with five? Arsenal players.

Cheers,
Thomas

Welcome back Tom, commiserations on the cup final with Bayern(unless you didn't really want to be reminded).

Anyway, I count 4 BFG,Kos,Giroud,Ozil. Who's the 5th or has the sun fried my memory

It's actually seven. You forgot Debuchy and Schneiderlin.

[gp543]

It's high time the rest of the world started to respect the USA as a footballing nation.

Based on what? You basically get a free passage into every World Cup by beating a few part-timers, the standard of the qualifying group is woeful. The US would be battling for play-off places in the European section. Although some of the stereotypes about fans probably don't ring so true but the attendances at MLS games are pretty dire for a huge population that apparently is increasingly crazy about soccer.

Hang on. Let's look at the facts here.

1. The final qualifying group for The USA was made up of the following teams: USA, Honduras, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica. The argument that it's 4 spots out of six would factor in if the USA finished 3rd or 4th. They didn't. They topped the group by 4 points. A group with 2 other nations who also made it to the round of 16 in this World Cup.

Meanwhile England's group was Ukraine, Poland, Montenegro, Moldova, San Marino and England. Who really had the free pass?

Not to mention that qualification in CONCACAF is made extremely more difficult by the arduous travel and playing conditions. I'd had loved to see how England would have performed at the Azteca.

2. The MLS attendances aren't huge, but neither are the stadiums. The average capacity at each ground is about 20,000. I bet the rate of sellouts will grow dramatically after this World Cup. We also have 4 other major sports so a comparison of attendances with England probably isn't logical.

[gp543]

Championship team runs around a bit, packs out the defence and gets bailed out by their goalkeeper before losing heroically to a far superior team. Whoopee.

The brilliant thing is that most yanks probably had no concept whatsoever that Belgium are a very good side, as far as they're concerned they've just lost at sport to a small European country of 11 million people.

Anyone see the grief Klinsmann got before the tournament for saying the USA won't win it? Even the president was piping up about them winning the thing after scraping through the group stage. Fuck off Hulk Hogan

How could anyone not have wanted them to lose?

That's simply inaccurate. Everyone here was keenly aware of how good Belgium were.

At least we lost "heroically" in the knockout stage and didn't go home with our tail between our legs after only mustering 1 point like England.

Honestly mate, I don't know why everyone is giving stick to the US when your own team performed so poorly. The only teams to get less points than England at this World Cup were Cameroon, Honduras and Australia.

The first are being investigated for throwing their matches, the second looked more like a rugby side and the third could probably can take more out of their performances than England can.

[LDB]

Championship team runs around a bit, packs out the defence and gets bailed out by their goalkeeper before losing heroically to a far superior team. Whoopee.

The brilliant thing is that most yanks probably had no concept whatsoever that Belgium are a very good side, as far as they're concerned they've just lost at sport to a small European country of 11 million people.

Anyone see the grief Klinsmann got before the tournament for saying the USA won't win it? Even the president was piping up about them winning the thing after scraping through the group stage. Fuck off Hulk Hogan

How could anyone not have wanted them to lose?

That's simply inaccurate. Everyone here was keenly aware of how good Belgium were.

At least we lost "heroically" in the knockout stage and didn't go home with our tail between our legs after only mustering 1 point like England.

Honestly mate, I don't know why everyone is giving stick to the US when your own team performed so poorly. The only teams to get less points than England at this World Cup were Cameroon, Honduras and Australia.

The first are being investigated for throwing their matches, the second looked more like a rugby side and the third could probably can take more out of their performances than England can.

You're barking up the wrong tree if you think I'm remotely interested in defending England's performances. I had money on them to go out at the group stage and not to win a game. The only thing that surprised me was that some people were still surprised by it.

How old is this bloke now?

https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=12SfLuU00KQ