2014 FIFA World Cup thred

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Surprising show from France after their demolition of Switzerland.

I still think they're a contender for the finals and will handily defeat Nigeria.

Something interesting: if USA defeats Germany in the upcoming game and becomes group winner and then defeats the runner up of Group H (Russia or Algeria--which sounds a lot easier than beating Germany, tbh), it will be slotted to play against either Nigeria or France on the 4th of July. That would be an insane event.

Too bad it wasn't England. 131

Looks like rain for the US and Germany game. I don't expect the US to win, sadly, but it would be a pleasant surprise. I'm hoping howard can withstand their plays.

Suarez (who is an idiot besides a great player) banned for 4 months.

Love how FIFA has a policy of "if the Ref didn't catch it, oh well" most of the time, then on special occasions decides when it's time to watch replays, as the camera catches lots of eye pokes, elbows, head-butts and knees that the Refs miss.

Originally posted by Mairuzu
Too bad it wasn't England. 131

Looks like rain for the US and Germany game. I don't expect the US to win, sadly, but it would be a pleasant surprise. I'm hoping howard can withstand their plays.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
We can only hope he's out of the tournament for this, preferably out of soccer period.

There's playing rough, and then there's playing like an emotionally disturbed child.

It seems that FIFA agreed with your appreciation. We had some "bad kids" here in France that stirred some problem as national representatives in the football team, they are never good for teams in general, only a matter of time before they harm your team. Uruguay is pretty much f_cked now, but they have time to reorganize while facing a relatively weak foe in Colombia.

France was trolled by Ecuador who decided to play defense against a France composed of bench players. They still dominated.

Looking forward to Ghana vs US for the qualification.

Originally posted by Bentley
Looking forward to Ghana vs US for the qualification.

😕

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Howard's doing well so far.

He did pretty good today and could have taken Mullers second hit. Good game Germany, it looks like US will be playing Belgium next which seems to be less of a threat. Unless Korea can somehow beat them with Algeria winning.

U-S-A. U-S-A.

And thank you, Portugal. I reckon you owed us one after you stole our qualifying spot last week.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
U-S-A. U-S-A.

And thank you, Portugal. I reckon you owed us one after you stole our qualifying spot last week.

Its the least Ronaldo can do. It feelings weird loving the guy.

As for Suarez, 4 months is a pretty generous ban considering it was his third strike.

Originally posted by Mairuzu
Its the least Ronaldo can do. It feelings weird loving the guy.

1-0 against the 2nd ranked team in the WC and pushing through regardless. Not too shabby of a loss at all, imo.

It was hard to tell the genuine slip ups from the effects of the rain, so while America had a lot of lapses of quality, they held their own for most of the game and didn't at any point seem out of their league as many soccer pundits were suggesting they'd be before the World Cup began.

So far America has shown that it's a world class team, capable of competing with the established soccer powers and make them work hard for it.

Edit: Germany is honestly the top ranked team now, or they will be once FIFA takes the WC into account. Spain is set to drop down to the bottom half of the top ten, and unless Brazil wins the WC they may not rack up enough points to surmount Germany.

Hmm USA, had a german coach and like 10 german players, this isn't suspect at all.

It really isn't.

Are you suggesting they threw the match? It was pretty clear that the USA was doing its best to score, Germany just edged them out.

I hope Altidore will be fit to play on the 1st.

USA is a deserving team, glad to see Portugal eliminated. Too bad Ghana didn't get the pass, but they didn't play the game properly, they need more scoring power to be a match for the top tier teams. Still, I'm glad to have US and Germany in the competition. Here hoping the US spanks Belgium.

Ghana was gimped by having to send two of their best players home right before the match.

I'll agree that Ghana was more deserving of advancement than Portugal, so it's a shame that they both had to be eliminated for USA to move on.

This hasn't been Europe's world cup at all. Only three of the major nations remain, and the Americas have dominated so far.

I'd be surprised if the trophy came back to Europe, tbh.

By the same token, I'm not sure this is going to be Brazil's year either.

They haven't been dominating their games as most had predicted they would.

Algeria didn't deserve that win IMO. Looking forward to rooting for Germany when they smash them on Monday. Belgium isn't looking so good so hopefully that results in a USA win.

I see Germany and Brazil facing off along with Netherlands and hopefully USA.

The final round prediction.... Netherlands vs Germany.

(still hoping mexico can somehow beat NL, though)

I'm half Belgian, and in fact will be flying to Belgium in less than two weeks to see my family there, but I'm going for America to run a murder train on Belgium's ass.

Seeing them play against Korea, among the weakest teams in the tournament (only Honduras and Iran were less impressive) and struggle for most of the game (I understand they were playing man down for almost half of it--doesn't excuse their slow start when they had eleven men) fills me with confidence.

And, hey, if Belgium does win it's still not a total loss for me. At least then the people will be in a better mood when I visit.