Football World Cup 2014

skully wrote:Latest conjecture on the wires (well FoxSports) is FIFA will hit him hard with an international ban (up to 2 years) and the Scousers may top the 10 week ban they dropped on him for biting Chelsea's Ivanovic last year.

The FA banned him, not Liverpool.

@Skulls: Just a small point, but just because I am bemused.

Why "for the Spaghetti Eater"? I thought for a second they were hauling up the Italian for shoulder-charging Psycho in the fangs.

Spaghetti Eater is a stereotype usu reserved for the land of the Azzurri, I thought. Don't South Americans traditionally have a staple diet of rice (unless they've been gentrified/Mayanised into eating keeeen-wa, that is)? Though, in Psycho's case, maybe Vampire Dingbat is the epithet.

Or have I missed something?

The WC's "home continent bonus" seems to be working again.

How many Latin American teams have been knocked out so far? It can't be many, though some of them were not fancied to proceed.

In the last decade and a half, they've taken the WC to new continents, where previously it was either Central/South America or Europe. But IIRC, it's only about twice that a European team has won in Latin America, or vice versa. Brazil in Sweden (1962? or was it 1958?) was the first.

PeterCS wrote:The WC's "home continent bonus" seems to be working again.

How many Latin American teams have been knocked out so far? It can't be many, though some of them were not fancied to proceed.

In the last decade and a half, they've taken the WC to new continents, where previously it was either Central/South America or Europe. But IIRC, it's only about twice that a European team has won in Latin America, or vice versa. Brazil in Sweden (1962? or was it 1958?) was the first.

Only happened once IIRC. 1958.

If we exclude Africa and N America that is.

One other thing - a question for anyone who has an answer, or at least an impression.

Is it just me, or has "marking" been almost non-existent outside the penalty box in this WC?

I do understand that in tropical (or equatorial) conditions, if the match is played at any sort of pace, even in patches, "European-winter" man marking won't work. The marker would be exhausted after half an hour.

But what I'm getting at, is that the zonal marking has been so far stood off it might as well not be there. Midfielders have been free to roam, and in many cases even men mounting wing or central attacks, so long as they are not actually in the box.

Surely that has a lot to do with the high goal count in this tournament? And equally, the porousness of defences. (I'm not talking here of Joe Hart or other individually substandard defenders/keepers! I mean vulnerable defences because surprisingly few attacks have been nipped in the bud.)

Only the one "foreign-continental" win then. Hmmmm. You'd think in the contemporary highly inter-mercenary game, that might have changed a bit.

But then, as we said, if the WC finals are in Japan/Korea or South Africa, that won't be relevant.

And I suppose not many Europeans play club football in Spanish/Portuguese America. Next to nil, I guess. Even if the European crowds can be passionate, the European players are not generally playing through a lather of sweat, and adapting to that on a regular basis. (Or maybe it's level of support, pitches, a mixture of all of the above, or summat else ....)

I don't know the diagnosis, but still a striking fact. Which Spain, Italy and England are not in a position to challenge this time either. It's over to the Germans (once again!) and the flying Dutchmen as the only bets, it seems.

PeterCS wrote:
Spaghetti Eater is a stereotype usu reserved for the land of the Azzurri, I thought. Don't South.....

Almost as many Italians as Spaniards in the Uruguayan ethnicity...

Aye, and a lot of Italian-derived people in Argentina too (and not a few Germans in Brazil) ...

but I was talking of the derogatory national stereotypes. Otherwise we could start calling the English "the Bogtrotters", the "Curry Slurpers" or "the Ganjas", or the Irish "Cromwellian Planters", "the Dagos" ... or the South Africans "the Xhosa boys", "the Mixedracers", "the Cheese Eaters" or "the Pommies". Or the Aussies "the Convicts", "the Flaming Irish" or "the Stifado Noshers". It may feel good for the speaker, and there is a substantial ethnic component you could back up any of those "colourful" labels with - but it's basically nonsense.

What are Nigerians? Well they're part of a wicked end to end affair versus Argentina!

First footer game I've watched in years, don;t even recall seeing even the last WC.

Just can't tear myself away from this Nigeria v. Argentina game.  Amazing.

Yeah it's a f*cking pearler, you curry slurper

I could do with a curry.  You serving?

Well, I'm having a chicken and peanut curry in a half hour. Pop round. The wife only got American long grain rice though. Don't worry, I've already given her a backhander.

Only if you don't beat her with the long grain rice.  I find it skews the grain.

Meanwhile they've put some injured Nigerian in what looks like an upended plastic table to carry him off.  Fark, it may be have been a hell of a long time since I watched a footie game

Brass Monkey wrote:What are Nigerians? Well they're part of a wicked end to end affair versus Argentina!

Happily I love Nigerians.

They keep sending me messages from relatives I never knew existed.

All I have to do is give my banking details to some bank in Lagos and they will send me millions.

Fair enough, I have only sent the details 3 times, but I'm sure the money will arrive soon.

PeterCS wrote:@Skulls: Just a small point, but just because I am bemused.

Why "for the Spaghetti Eater"? I thought for a second they were hauling up the Italian for shoulder-charging Psycho in the fangs.

My line was nothing cleverer than Suarez was chowing down on a Chiellini - an Italian - making him a "spaghetti eater". Yeah, not very witty at all.   

MB's "Cannelloni" line was better.   

Good wins for the Argies (Messi living up to his legend) and the Swiss (whoda thunk they'd be so dominant?) and an entertaining 0-0 between France and Ecuador. The Frogs had a million shots, all straight at the keeper.

So it's France v Nigeria and Argentina v Switzerland next Tuesday for QF spots, along with the already lined up Brazil v Chile, Colombia v Uruguay, Holland v Mexico, and Costa Rica v Greece.

The Swiss are the second luckiest qunts in the tournament after the Greeks.  They conceded 5 straight goals in their opening match and then beat Ecuador with a 93rd minute winner.

Aye. But the Argies will make a Messi of the cheese-eating watchmakers in the R16 match.

Brass Monkey wrote:Well, I'm having a chicken and peanut curry in a half hour. Pop round. The wife only got American long grain rice though. Don't worry, I've already given her a backhander.

Are you about to be a father?

I thought maybe Dan had become a devotee of the BCCI.

Finally two Latin American teams bite the dust.

Woefully weak ones. (They couldn't even beat England in the warm-ups - THAT weak.)

The Ecuadorian attacker was good, though.

embee wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:Well, I'm having a chicken and peanut curry in a half hour. Pop round. The wife only got American long grain rice though. Don't worry, I've already given her a backhander.

Are you about to be a father?

No, I can see where you're getting confused, but we were on our own - no mates of mine to laugh at her