Football World Cup 2014

Think history has helped germans to not bluff...


and I say yay anyway...would like to see the French in the final

skully wrote:Have they been letting on-purpose lurgied French lasses into their dorms??

frogs in their throats

Surely the other way around?

skully wrote:Have they been letting on-purpose lurgied French lasses into their dorms??

That is more interesting than the punning on the first part of the Hun name.

Yes, that's hardly germane to the topic.

Early lead for the Germans in the battle for the Schumacher-Battiston Trophy...

I thought it was half the Germans who had the flu?

It looked more like all the French. What a shower of limp clueless arses, completely unworthy of a QF place. (Laugh if you like, but I'm sure England would have beaten that lot.)

The Germans didn't have to produce anything special, or break much sweat, despite the heat and flu - just rumble on their consistent way, and call on Meathead Schweini to pull out the odd few of his cynical fouls.

Who backed France to win this tournament? They're a load of rubbish when they're not beating up minnows.

beamer wrote:Early lead for the Germans in the battle for the Schumacher-Battiston Trophy...

Three decades on, and I still think Schumacher should have been banned for life - and also banged up for attempted GBH. The most cynically calculated violent foul I've ever seen.

So roll on the football match this evening. Hopefully both teams can manage above Lower Division level.

PeterCS wrote:

beamer wrote:Early lead for the Germans in the battle for the Schumacher-Battiston Trophy...

Three decades on, and I still think Schumacher should have been banned for life - and also banged up for attempted GBH. The most cynically calculated violent foul I've ever seen.

Yeah, not related to Michael and Ralf as far as I'm aware but certainly shared certain tactics in their sporting careers...

The French were strangely flat, very disappointing second half, but a lot more than they would have expected when 2-0 down to Ukraine after the first leg of their play-off... still a team in development and should be well set for a tournament on home soil in a couple of years' time. And Germany just doing what they always do, first team ever to reach four consecutive semi-finals. Given it's a surprising 18 years without a trophy for them now, I'm sure it means little to them unless they go all the way now though.

Well that was weak. Did France have something better on later tonight? Way to refute the old cheese eating surrender monkeys stereotype.

For all their possession in the second half the frogs hardly put the good guys under any pressure. Two relatively easy saves was all the keeper needed to make. I guess France were always going to be pants after jgk talked them up.

I loved the way "Para" (the German keeper) couldn't even be arsed to use both hands when he patted away a French "effort" at the death.

As if swatting away a dying housefly.

The last 20 minutes of the Columbia Brazil game was a joke. I have never seen so much time wasting, acting and cheating. Must be a Brazilian thing.

Apparently they play the beautiful game.

The Germans will smash them.

I thought Colombia's last touch continually let them down against some disciplined and desperate Brazilian defence. The Reds seemed reluctant to shoot from any distance, and hardly drew a save from Cesar.

Ponts is right, the Brazilians sat back on their 1-0 lead and wasted interminable amounts of time, but in the end the brilliant Luiz free kick was the difference.

And I agree that German discipline may find Brazil out in the semi.

It looked a disappointing effort from the Frogs.

Great free kick from Sideshow Bob for what turned out to be the winner anyway... shame Colombia didn't really turn up until they went two down, the occasion got to them a bit. Jimmy Rod's probably won the Golden Boot with that consolation penalty though, and a strong candidate for player of the tournament.

With Thiago Silva suspended and Neymar going off on a stretcher it's all set up for the Germans to spoil the party though, as they specialise in doing...

What a free kick from David Luiz! He kicked it with his instep as well.

That last 20 minutes was rubbish football. That knee in the back to Neymar was a disgrace.

Ugh. Looks like a Germany - Argies final . Boring.

I thought the Spanish ref did a good job in that last petulant 20 minutes. There were enough fouls to fill a chook shed, but he kept his head. Probably used to plenty of Real-Barca bloodbaths.

So, that's the quadrouple for Germany then: 1870, 1914, 1940 and 2014

Exciting match. Though a bit TOO hectically paced (these are supposed to be leisurely build-up South Americans!), too stoked with tension (especially on the home side), hence way too much fouling and play-acting for a classic.

Only once Colombia (for once) got the rub of the green and the ref could hardly deny the penalty (goalie should have gone, though - don't you hate the way the most cynical foulers throw themselves mortally wounded to the floor and roll around in agony - before promptly picking themselves up and getting on with it?) ... only then did the match become a cliff-hanger. The gaps started to open in the Yellow Sea .... and the Snorters showed a lot of skill, without a Brazilian or two (almost literally) on their backs or on their insteps.

Up until the Colombian goal, the Reds saw themselves as hard done by. They were dead right. The match was an object lesson why it pays to play at home. I'm not just talking of crowd support or home-team passion, though those both count. It's true I might not have liked to be any of the three officials in such a cauldron environment, but Hamm-ess (for once) was essentially marked and fouled out of the game, up to the penalty.

True, not all decisions went against the visitors - but too many did, and not enough went against the rather too pragmatic Scolari outfit.

Of course the Colombians fouled and playacted too - and they got ratty in the last quarter (understandably enough) and committed some bad fouls. But the ref had already buckled a bit too much.

It's a sign of the (Scolari) times, and a measure of the frenetic craving of many of the home fans for glory at whatever cost, that whenever a Brazilian defender desperately hoofed or agriculturally hammered the ball downfield or into touch throughout the whole second half, the crowd went wild with rapturous ecstasy. I wonder if Pele (or even Ronaldo!) was creaming his trousers too at such footballing skills.

Both teams man-marked to an unusual degree. No doubt with so much at stake, it was all very North European.(But again, how very un-South-American!) In the case of Scolari's strategy, this was a case of literally marking a bit too often.

But hey, it worked. (I rated Brazil as most likely to win the tournament above - I wasn't entirely thinking of the sides' relative talents.)

Unless they get a less impressionable ref, the Germans may also struggle to beat the homers. I expect it to be a close call, at least.

(Klose, but no cigar?)

Klose but no Cesar?

Better.

Cesar is a weak link I think, though highly praised by some.

Yeah, Championship reject over here, apparently worse than Bobby Green...

It's payback for 1950, Brazil winning ugly, they just have to do it on home turf this time whatever it takes. If they do so then they can just rip up that coaching manual and go back to the way Brazil is renowned for playing, having lifted that weight off their shoulders.

Neymar ruled out of the World Cup... Scolari will pay for having no plan B in terms of creativity up front, even a 95-year-old Ronaldinho would have given them a fallback option! You can't beat the Germans on penalties so the nation of samba football is now relying on parking the bus and getting a set-piece header. And Thiago Silva's suspended as well...

At least the hosts will be involved up to the last weekend of the tournament... third place match against Belgium in Brasilia.

beamer wrote:

PeterCS wrote:

beamer wrote:Early lead for the Germans in the battle for the Schumacher-Battiston Trophy...

Three decades on, and I still think Schumacher should have been banned for life - and also banged up for attempted GBH. The most cynically calculated violent foul I've ever seen.

Yeah, not related to Michael and Ralf as far as I'm aware but certainly shared certain tactics in their sporting careers...

Wasn't he banned as a result of alleging drug use in German football?