World Cup 2014

[PeteC]

I read somewhere that Van Persie took off his 3rd place medal right in front of Blatter and handed it to some young Dutch fan in the stands.

[Big Boy]

I don't know if it was meant as a protest, but it sounds like a fantastic gesture to me. That young fan will treasure that for life.

[PeteC]

Does anyone know which Russian cities will host the 2018 Cup? I would hope it wouldn't be strung all the way from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.

EDIT: Found it per below.

cities_grid4.jpg (20.27 KiB) Viewed 266 times

[redzonerocker]

He looked really thrilled to get his trophy though and he was the only Argie to take his medal from around his neck, I can understand his disappointment but not a very good look.

I think it was probably more down to the shock and embarrassment of winning the award more than anything else.

If you needed any further proof of FIFA's incompetence (corruption } this was it.
For the record and just like to add a little spice, major sponsor of Messi = Adidas, one of FIFA's main sponsors . . . . . = Adidas

I'm sure it's just a coincidence though

[dtaai-maai]

I don't know if it was meant as a protest, but it sounds like a fantastic gesture to me. That young fan will treasure that for life.

Enough to bring a lump to your throat, isn't it? He actually gave it to the old boy in the orange Dutch uniform. No doubt he'll treasure it too. He'll probably wear it to bed. Or worse...

3rd place.jpg (9.24 KiB) Viewed 252 times

[Bamboo Grove]

prcscct wrote:

Does anyone know which Russian cities will host the 2018 Cup?

Russia has proposed the following host cities: Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, and Yekaterinburg.[20] All the cities are in or just outside European Russia to reduce travel time for the teams in the huge country

Anyway, as St. Petersburg is only less than two hours away from my hometown and 3,5 from Helsinki by train, there is a chance that I might be able to go to watch 1 or 2 games of World Cup finals live for the first time.

[PeteC]

^ I was thinking about you when I researched that. You live the closest to where the action will be of anyone on the forum that we know about. Get your tickets early! Pete

[arcadianagain]

Despite warnings of stadiums collapsing, strike chaos and mass murder of tourists on the streets I think the Brazilians should be congratulated on their organization of the world cup.

[caller]

I thought the ref bottled out of several really crucial decisions. I don't like seeing players sent off, but Argentina could have finished the game with 8 players on the pitch.
And the supposed foul by Higuain on the German keeper was an odd decision to say the least.

I agree. Towards the end of the game, even the beeb commentator was wondering why he hadn't dished out further punishment. He absolutely bottled it over the Neuer / Higuain incident. At the very least it should have been a free kick to Argentina and a yellow card.

I wonder what it is about the WCF that get's to referees? Webb had a pretty good game in an extremely difficult game to referee in 2010, bar the De Jong incident. But last night it looked as though the occasion had got to Rizolli, who is otherwise an excellent ref and it was no surprise he got the job.

I just wonder after the 2010 final, whether any pressure had been applied to reduce the number of yellow cards?

[PeteC]

A really good photo.

EDIT: Click on it and it will enlarge in a new window and give the full effect.

[PeteC]

The new FIFA world rankings as of the end of the World Cup:

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/

[dtaai-maai]

I see England are about where we should be for once - 20th, just below Bosnia Herzegovina!

Looking on the bright side, we've managed to remain slightly above Scotland...

[Dannie Boy]

I see England are about where we should be for once - 20th, just below Bosnia Herzegovina!

Looking on the bright side, we've managed to remain slightly above Scotland...

Yes Bosnia with a population of <4m are one place above us, and the one time Cinderella's of football USA, five places above us. Question is, where will England be in 4 years time?

[PeteC]

Just some advice for those who rant and don't know what they're talking about. No one on here but there's plenty of them in the media......imagine that. Many more articles like the below on the internet. Pete

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pstone/why.html

....and

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/sport ... -game.html

[PeteC]

I don't know if you can access the below link without a subscription, but if you can look at the "results and schedules" box at top right. For the NYT to list Premiere League schedules is a monumental shift IMO, although maybe going on for quite some time and not being back there I didn't know it.

If you can access the "soccer" tab at top, it lists schedules for just about everything. Pete

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/int ... index.html