World Cup

Worried about England tonight. Someone reassure me!

Seriously, short of bad luck or bad referree decisions we should be good for at least a draw to keep an interest in the contest. I hope we have a good start to ease the nerves a little.

Funny how the ref decisions favor the s. American teams. Is it any wonder only s. American teams have won when hosted in S. America.

Well, England made a fight of it again, but once again just aren't quite enough. A good game, just not the result I wanted (albeit the one I expected).

What a shit game that was. Doesn't help the fact that Andy was commentating again, he knows shit about football. The pioneers of football once again on the verge of going down. It's about time we re-thought about how we do football that's what the Germans did, but we won't due to the tight fucks and their precious money. Let the fans run the club I say. Dock the fucking wages of footballers too. If only we played just as well as we did against Italy, as the first three quarters of that game surprised me.

England did enough to deserve something out of both games but if you don't get it you're clearly not good enough. Uruguay did a good job of defending their 18 yard box and Suarez was the difference for them. On another day England might have scored 2 or 3 but any team conceding two goals in two consecutive games will struggle so I think you have to pin the disappointment on the defence.

purist said:

England did enough to deserve something out of both games but if you don't get it you're clearly not good enough. Uruguay did a good job of defending their 18 yard box and Suarez was the difference for them. On another day England might have scored 2 or 3 but any team conceding two goals in two consecutive games will struggle so I think you have to pin the disappointment on the defence.

I personally think only the first we did. There wasn't many positives out of this game. Our goal was good, Rooney was awake, saw the opportunity and went for it, yes, the defence needs greater improvement and it needed sorting a game ago, as Uruguay had three fucking chances within the first opening minutes of the second half, we need to start reducing those chances and that's a primary example of the defence.

As always, England fancied themselves a contender, but ended up being just mildly competitive. England needs to get rid of Gerrard. And Terry, Lampard, Rooney... just bury anyone even remotely connected to that overhyped megastar generation of underachieving flops. Start from scratch with the emerging talent, it is there.

Hellbent said:

Funny how the ref decisions favor the s. American teams. Is it any wonder only s. American teams have won when hosted in S. America.

Can you explain what do you mean by that? Brazil may seem like they can get away with murder because of homefield bias, but the other South American teams don't seem favoured over the rest of the world. Chile and Colombia simply overpowered their opponents decisively, Uruguay is 1-0-1 in pretty straightforward matches. Argentina might have fumbled to victory against Bosnia, but there was nothing truly fishy in there. Oh and I don't think anyone's accusing the refs of helping Ecuador.

The captain of the Uruguay side committed a foul that the commentators thought was cause for a second yellow card. Had he been red carded out of the game, the result would have been very different.

Eh, perhaps, but the refs tend to be more tolerant with red cards early in a game, because it destroys matches. Unless it's a plain retarded brain scramble, like Alex Song's send-off. The Greek sent off early in today's game was pretty much begging for it as well.

Also let's reiterate: Greeks play the worst, most boring football on Earth.

dew said:

As always, England fancied themselves a contender, but ended up being just mildly competitive. England needs to get rid of Gerrard. And Terry, Lampard, Rooney... just bury anyone even remotely connected to that overhyped megastar generation of underachieving flops. Start from scratch with the emerging talent, it is there.

Actually, in England almost nobody considered the team contenders this year with the wildest optimists predicting a semi final and most people I think would have considered the quarter finals a success. You wouldn't have to go far to find someone who thought we would not escape the group and when it was drawn our chairman Greg Dyke infamously drew his hand accross his throat. It will be interesting to know if that is not the perception from outside the UK?

I agree that was the case during our failed "golden generation" spanning 2002-10. We had good enough players to win something during that era and expectations were much higher then.

As for the players attached to that era? Cole, Terry, Ferdinand, Beckham, Owen are already gone Lampard and Gerrard have played their last World Cup, Gerrard might play on to the Euros. Johnson's inclusion has always been just because we have no one else remotely good enough (or fit enough). Rooney is the only one likely to stick around unless a new teen sensation emerges.

The amount of "we"-ing in that post obliges me to quote and link to Enjay's finest rant on the topic.

Enjay said about eight years ago:
And what is the whole "we" thing? "We played really well this weekend." No, you didn't. You sat on your fat backside swilling beer whilst watching TV. 11 guys who you follow maniacly ran around a field and managed to put a modern representation of an inflated pig's bladder between 2 posts more often than 11 other monkey-men in the same field.

Haha, well to answer Enjay's eight year old question: it's habit. Not going to make a concious effor to avoid it in the future just to keep pedants happy.

Now to start a Blair Witch Project thread...

COSTA RICA!!

Tell me why Costa Rica will not go onto win this World Cup? They are playing world class futbol. The other favorited nations are not playing at the caliber CR is playing. Very exciting developments today in this WC.

Judging by these first games, I would bet on Holland or Germany at the finals, if not both. Brazil is a strong candidate too, but they are not playing the football they showed at Confederations Cup one year ago.

Hellbent said:

Tell me why Costa Rica will not go onto win this World Cup? They are playing world class futbol. The other favorited nations are not playing at the caliber CR is playing. Very exciting developments today in this WC.

While I love what Costa Rica is doing, you are wrong. The Netherlands is sublime, Germany seems invicible and France is surprisingly in form. There's a long way to the cup and ambitious upstarts will be cut down mercilessly in the knockout stage.

Btw, why do you spell football in such a terrible way? I thought you were a white dude from around Boston.

Grazza said:

The amount of "we"-ing in that post obliges me to quote and link to Enjay's finest rant on the topic.

The amount of supreme anal devastation in that post is so amazing, thank you for linking that.

Amazing goal of United States, i'm really looking a draw or usa winning

Ledillman said:

Amazing goal of United States, i'm really looking a draw or usa winning

Almost famous, USA, almost famous. Gotta keep it together till the end.

Unbelievable. The drama just doesn't quit this World Cup. How USA bungles it in the last minute. That last goal by Portugal is going to haunt my dreams. It keeps playing over in my head.

My prediction for those tongi through to the round of 8:

Germany
The Netherlands
Costs Rica
Brazil
Mexico
USA
France
Uruguay

Making my prediction before result of ITA URU match and before any goals scored.

Uruguay just scores. I was gonna edit my post for the word that came out wrong (I'm on my phone) but didn't for time comparisons.

http://gfycat.com/AlarmedCostlyHound

Welcome to the madness that is Luis Suarez. The guy may be a football prodigy, but he's one of the lowliest human beings on this planet. Hope there's a really nasty ban, because that's not his first time, heh.

edit: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bq6cMxdCEAEjjKp.jpg:large

Good God that guy is dirty. I think that tops what Materazzi said to Zidane in 2006. This guy was just being plain dirty with no provocation.

I'm quite surprised and impressed with USA this time around. I have high hopes, but I agree that either Germany or Netherlands with take the cake this year. Also interested to see how Mexico fares as they seem on top of their game as well.

https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10498592_10152375402748159_3689636630723940369_o.jpg

Biting?! seriously?!

That piece of trash doesn't deserve to play in the World Cup.

Looks like its time to take down my Italian flag, and put back the stars and stripes just in time for the 4th of July. Go U.S. National Team!

Come on people, who here doesn't like Italian food?

Kontra Kommando said:

Biting?! seriously?!

That piece of trash doesn't deserve to play in the World Cup.

Are sports like churches, where idiots expect discipline only from within? If they can prove he bit a player he should be jailed by the local police.

Aliotroph? said:

Are sports like churches, where idiots expect discipline only from within? If they can prove he bit a player he should be jailed by the local police.

Seriously, that's assault.

I don't understand why you're so surprised. He's done it before, like, twice before. Should have been out of football since he chanted that racist slur I am glad that Arsenal did not make a bid for him in the end, a prime example of "talent gone to the head". Paid far too fucking much money too. He'll only get a slap on the wrist and possibly a three week ban, just you watch but if that was your average Joe, they'd get sentenced for assault. Utterly disgusting.

One last thing, I hope the USA do well, they're looking good so far! I do say this as an English man too, despite most Americans laughing at our early knockout. My money however, remains on Germany and I hope they win as the football they produce is truly wonderful.

Springy said:

Should have been out of football since he chanted that racist slur I am glad that Arsenal did not make a bid for him in the end

They did make a bid. A quite famous one for £40,000,000.01 because they thought that amount would trigger a buyout clause (it allegedly did and Liverpool simply ignored it).

Screwy Suarez is unbelievable though, FIFA are investigating and he'll surely receive a ban and it would be more than 3 games. It should certainly be enough to rule him out of the rest of the tournament. Even though he has done it twice before he has had a pretty quiet season this year in terms of controversy, I couldn't believe he did it again!