Football World Cup 2014

Argentina have been shit the entire tournament. Totally shit. If they win, it would be a travesty. And fancy wanting a shit team - who've phoned it in all tournament - to win, just because they have an exceptionally talented nice bloke up front. If they win, football has lost, because they're f*cking shit.

The Maradona teams weren't great, either... especially 1990 when all they had was him, a penalty saving goalkeeper and lots of petulant fouling. They lost to Cameroon and still made the final, which they lost with nine men after a late German dive on this case deservedly won them a decisive penalty! That was the worst team ever to reach a World Cup final, for sure...

Brass Monkey wrote:Argentina have been shit the entire tournament. Totally shit. If they win, it would be a travesty. And fancy wanting a shit team - who've phoned it in all tournament - to win, just because they have an exceptionally talented nice bloke up front. If they win, football has lost, because they're f*cking shit.

Agreed.

Has there been a good team in this anyway? Germany have demolished a couple of teams who pressed the self-destruct button, but were on the ropes for 45 minutes against Algeria... Holland had one decent performance which set them up with an easy route through the draw, which they made hard work of. Colombia and France looked good against weak opposition then froze when faced with a serious test.

Agree.
It's been a meh WC.
Nothing outstanding until the German demolition job on Monday.

They are therefore, the deserved winners.
The Argies can go f**k themselves.

Well, there's been plenty of good matches, but most of them involving plucky underdogs rather than the teams expecting to win the thing.

In terms of overall entertainment value, easily the best since 1986 - but in terms of pure quality and genuine great teams not much ahead of recent preceding ones. I suppose you just don't get great international teams these days, as they're essentially groups of virtual strangers brought together a few times a year, and asked to play in unfamiliar roles and systems.

beamer wrote:Has there been a good team in this anyway? Germany have demolished a couple of teams who pressed the self-destruct button, but were on the ropes for 45 minutes against Algeria... Holland had one decent performance which set them up with an easy route through the draw, which they made hard work of. Colombia and France looked good against weak opposition then froze when faced with a serious test.

If 45 minutes of relative weakness were all, that would hardly count against Germany being considered a vg/great team.

But they struggled against Ghana too.

The jury's still out, despite the caving in of the two Portuguese-speaking roofs.

But a convincing victory in the final would make them worthy winners of the tournament.


Personally, in the rather less likely event that Argentina were to come good in the final, I wouldn't begrudge them it either. Would stamp them as ... errr, workmanlike, with one conjuror and a handful of noteworthy players (goalie, Mascherano, Zabaleta, Di Maria - missed in the SF, and Aguero - whose fitness has sorely been missed by the Arge all tournament - even Messi can't do it all on his own).

So Germany scored a Brazillion goals in the semi, let's hope they can keep the scoreboard ticking in the final. A penalty shootout seems such an anti-climax.

In that case, I think they should have a caipi-out instead.

Last man standing.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/belgian-world-cup-fan-axelle-despiegelaere-lands-modelling-contract-with-loreal/story-fneszy80-1226983988348


A lucky break.

Do one of these teams get to keep the trophy?

I enjoyed this:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/quiz/2014/jul/10/world-cup-quiz-name-the-goal-diagram

Full disclosure: I scored 6/10 but I think the answer to the last one is wrong.

meh. 5/10. But I agree, one of them was absolutely certainly deffo wrong. Bastards.

6/10

Guessed the last one though... but no way did Diana Ross' penalty travel so far.

Merlin wrote:Agree.
It's been a meh WC.
Nothing outstanding until the German demolition job on Monday.

They are therefore, the deserved winners.
The Argies can go f**k themselves.

And yet there were 4 perennial semi finalists in the semi finals.

Brass Monkey wrote:Argentina have been shit the entire tournament. Totally shit. If they win, it would be a travesty. And fancy wanting a shit team - who've phoned it in all tournament - to win, just because they have an exceptionally talented nice bloke up front. If they win, football has lost, because they're f*cking shit.

Yeah, the best team always winning is what makes football great. I doubt if it would have the following it does if occasionally the underdog won.

Would be a total travesty if anyone other than the favourites based on form ever win a football match again in fact. I think I'll stop watching if it does, it will be the end of football. As you say, football will lose if ever such a terrible thing should happen.

Oh, and 6/10.

taipan wrote:Do one of these teams get to keep the trophy?

I don't think this one can be won permanently. Still slightly surprising nobody has won three since 1970, with Brazil, Argentina, Italy and (West) Germany taking two apiece and France and Spain one each.

Germany will out-efficient the Argies unless Messi can dazzle them.

6/10

skully wrote:Germany will out-efficient the Argies unless Messi can dazzle them.

They won't have the luxury of David Luiz being in the opposition in the final

Good old Sideshow Bob up to his usual tricks again in the third place JAMODI... Brazil now with nine conceded in 110 minutes of football. Their South American rivals haven't conceded in well over 300.

vilkrang wrote:
Yeah, the best team always winning is what makes football great. I doubt if it would have the following it does if occasionally the underdog won.

Would be a total travesty if anyone other than the favourites based on form ever win a football match again in fact. I think I'll stop watching if it does, it will be the end of football. As you say, football will lose if ever such a terrible thing should happen.

It would be a total travesty because they're barely tried to win a game through normal means. They've been negative all tournament.

Or opposing teams have concentrated so much on shutting down Messi that they've forgotten to actually try to score themselves?

Dave Lewis having another stinker in the 3rd place game. PSG must be horrified at how much they've paid for him.