World Cup 2014

[Terry]

Just a little gem that someone forwarded to me today..........................

http://www.flixxy.com/john-cleese-socce ... _source=nl

especially for the newly found football fans in the USA

[arcadianagain]

Just a little gem that someone forwarded to me today..........................

http://www.flixxy.com/john-cleese-socce ... _source=nl

especially for the newly found football fans in the USA

Couldn`t have put it better myself

On last night`s match at least I had the luxury of going to bed at a reasonable hour unlike the poor b.gg.ers around the world who stayed up until silly o`clock.
After the criticism of Van Gaal are the Man U fans so confident of his managerial skills?

[caller]

Agree it was poor. I was very surprised at how 'limited' the Dutch were. A half-fit Van Persie is no good to anyone and it seems that if you can contain Robben, you contain Holland. Argentina weren't any better and are too reliant on Messi!

On paper, it should be a comfortable win for Germany, but as the old saying goes, fortunately the game is played on grass! So we'll have to wait and see what transpires, but I'd be very surprised if Germany don't win and win comfortably.

There might have been lots of great football at this tournament, but I don't think there have been many great teams.

[PeteC]

Agree it was poor. I was very surprised at how 'limited' the Dutch were. A half-fit Van Persie is no good to anyone and it seems that if you can contain Robben, you contain Holland. Argentina weren't any better and are too reliant on Messi!

On paper, it should be a comfortable win for Germany, but as the old saying goes, fortunately the game is played on grass! So we'll have to wait and see what transpires, but I'd be very surprised if Germany don't win and win comfortably.

There might have been lots of great football at this tournament, but I don't think there have been many great teams.

I agree with the above completely. That's exactly what I saw and thought during the match. No creativity at all as we saw with the Germans who consistently had 2-3-4 men in the zone with each possession. The only fear for Sunday is if the Germans get too arrogant. Pete

[PeteC]

Apparently the Dutch have players who refuse to do things. .....in which case they should swallow their loss with no comment or complaint. Has sports become a democracy where a player questions a manager during a game?!

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28240152

[redzonerocker]

I would say that last nights game was what you would expect for a WC semi final, a tight, tense encounter.

Though we'd all like it, the game can't always be about flair and goals.
The discipline and defending of both sides deserves a bit of credit, especially when you consider some of the attacking talent that was on show.

Vlaar m-o-m for me, thought it was a bit odd when he walked up to take the first pen, shame on those players that bottled it.
Wonder who the bottlers were?
My guess would be two from Robben, Schneider or Huntelaar.

As for the final, I expect the Germans to win, but i'm not sure it will be as comfortable as a lot of people seem to think.
The result V Brazil was impressive but a bit of a freak result, as much to do with Brazil's poor showing, without taking away due credit to the Germans
The Germans have been efficient without being anything special in the other tournament games.

The Argies won't be so open and defend as poorly as the Brazilians and the way they nullified RVP and Robben was quite impressive
They also have Messi and Aguero up top (possibly Di Maria too), none of which have quite sparkled in the tournament so far and are more than capable.

We shall see

[Zidane]

I'd certainly agree with your choice of three who bottled taking the first Dutch penalty.....in complete contrast,it was Messi who took the first Argentinian one.
As a United fan this performance doesnt particularily worry me about Van Gaal.Upfront,Van Persie clearly wasnt 100% and maybe shouldnt have played,Robben was well shackled and Huntelaar would be a decent enough centre forward for a mid table Premiership club.....not really top class.....so Van Gaals options were a bit limited.
Equally,Sabella had Messi,Higuain and Aguero at his disposal and they were no better,so maybe some criticism should be levelled at him also ?

[arcadianagain]

I will want Germany to win because they have three Arsenal players in their squad, but mainly because they aren't Argentina.

[redzonerocker]

Equally,Sabella had Messi,Higuain and Aguero at his disposal and they were no better,so maybe some criticism should be levelled at him also ?

I don't think either manager should be criticised.
Ok, neither team scored or threatened much, but that's because the other part of their tactical plan was perfectly executed.

Like I said in the previous post, stopping the likes of Robben, RVP, Huntelaar, Messi, Higuain and Aguero from scoring is a hard task, limiting them to barely a handful of half chances between them is a huge success.

It's just a shame that such important matches are decided with the lottery of a penalty shoot out.

[arcadianagain]

[quote="redzonerocker
It's just a shame that such important matches are decided with the lottery of a penalty shoot out.

Maybe they should let the FIFA World cup committee decide the winner with a ballot, in secret of course.

[PeteC]

Did the ball cross the line and if it did, should it have counted as a score in a penalty shootout situation?

[dtaai-maai]

If you look at this video (scroll down a bit) you can see quite clearly that it nestles to a stop exactly on the line.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldc ... efeat.html

If it had taken another roll, it must surely have been a goal, and that would have been truly hilarious, with the keeper dancing obliviously in joy by the corner flag...


EDIT: And this video in the Grauniad suggests that the reason the ball span back toward the goal is that it glanced off Vlaar's shoulder.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... -argentina

[redzonerocker]

Did the ball cross the line and if it did, should it have counted as a score in a penalty shootout situation?

Hard to tell if it fully crossed the line, but if it did it would count as a successful penalty.

Here's one that did the rounds a short while back

[redzonerocker]

EDIT: And this video in the Grauniad suggests that the reason the ball span back toward the goal is that it glanced off Vlaar's shoulder.

Not sure it did, but Vlaars reaction at the very end does suggest that he didn't think it had fully crossed the line??

[dtaai-maai]

If you look at the daily mail vid, there's really no doubt it didn't.