Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[soulnet]

I just made the picks for the bracket challenge. I noticed the "death group" is possibly the "death out of boredom group". All three strong teams (Uruguay, Italy and England) are among the strong teams that play ugly football. Uruguay is by far the ugliest playing team in South America, with their defensive style. Italy is its counterpart in Europe (Compared to Spain, Netherlands, even Germany). England, well, I just don't like their "lets throw balls and hope someone's head puts it in" attacking style, but at least they have an attacking style.

[Ozle]

Haha, unfortunately I don't think you'll see much attacking this year, too scared of losing to keep the ball.

Although we have some exciting players if they do play. Keep an eye on Sterling, Barkly and Lallana

[yuma]

We've got 7 people in our competition... pretty good, but could be better

[ipofanes]

Uruguay is by far the ugliest playing team in South America, with their defensive style. Italy is its counterpart in Europe (Compared to Spain, Netherlands, even Germany).

Even Germany? I'd say that right and left defense (unless Lahm is positioned there, which I doubt) and defensive midfield (with Schweinsteiger out of shape, Khedira long-time injured and with Gündoğan not playing) are their weak positions while offensive midfield is their strong suit. Four goals on average in qualifiers are not a sign of overly defensive style.

[soulnet]

Uruguay is by far the ugliest playing team in South America, with their defensive style. Italy is its counterpart in Europe (Compared to Spain, Netherlands, even Germany).

Even Germany? I'd say that right and left defense (unless Lahm is positioned there, which I doubt) and defensive midfield (with Schweinsteiger out of shape, Khedira long-time injured and with Gündoğan not playing) are their weak positions while offensive midfield is their strong suit. Four goals on average in qualifiers are not a sign of overly defensive style.

I think I have said this before, but European qualifiers are hardly competitive and have great variance depending on the group you get. Also, Germany beat Argentina 4-0 in the last world cup, and yet their play was largely defensive the entire match, IIRC (sigh) all four goals were on counterattack. In any case, I find Germany's game more pragmatic than colorful, so that is what I was referring to.

[Ozle]

Counter attack is a 'sort' of attack surely?

And I agree with the others, but I do think Germany are quite a fluid attacking team from the times I see them.

[ashersky]

Didn't see an own goal coming as the first score of the tournament...

[shraeye]

thaaaat card.  nope nope nope nope nope.

[2.71828.....]

That penalty was an awful call.  Absolutely terrible.  I could tell watching it live, and the ref has an even better view.  The Brazilian player should have gotten a yellow for diving.

[Teproc]

I'm getting flashbacks of South Korea in the 2002 World Cup... Croatia definitely deserved the draw there, although their goalkeeper made Julio César look good.

[ashersky]

I'm getting flashbacks of South Korea in the 2002 World Cup... Croatia definitely deserved the draw there, although their goalkeeper made Julio César look good.

The Neymar and Oscar goals were legit, and Croatia couldn't score on their own, so "deserved the draw" is a stretch.

Penalty was ridiculous, though.

[Teproc]

I'm getting flashbacks of South Korea in the 2002 World Cup... Croatia definitely deserved the draw there, although their goalkeeper made Julio César look good.

The Neymar and Oscar goals were legit, and Croatia couldn't score on their own, so "deserved the draw" is a stretch.

Penalty was ridiculous, though.

The penalty changes the whole dynamic of the game, it forces Croatia to take more risks, which opens them up to the Oscar goal. I also thought the Croatian goal could have been legit (the Croatian was trying to get the ball, not the goalkeeper), but it seems I'm alone on this one.

[Ozle]

I agree with Le Teproc, once Brazil went ahead then it forced Croatia forward and left massive gaps.

I watched this in a packed brazillian bar and nobody thought it was an actual penalty. (They still went mental when neymar converted though)

I didn't think the Croat thing before the goal was a foil, but if the ref hadn't blown the whistle then they might not have put it in the back of the net.

Brazil were clearly suffering from bad defending aprobably from nerves, and were lucky to get away with a win.

Now they have it though, and two for neymar, they will press on

[ashersky]

I generally like this ref, but there were a number of bad calls, PK included.  Brazil was clearly the superior team, but didn't play to potential.  I had to get up at 5 for this one; was a bit disappointed.

[ashersky]

As for the OG, if that doesn't deflect off Marcelo, it just rolls out of bounds for a Brazil throw on the empty far side.  There were no Croats waiting out there.

[Ozle]

Probably, but Marcelo  should have known that, that's how good defenders operate
And there was a Croat rushing in so he cooldnt take the chance.

It was a great ball into the box.

Ceaar looks like a liability though, no wonder he struggled at QPR

[ashersky]

Agreed on Cesar.

[2.71828.....]

Yes, Brazil is the better side and *should* win the match.  Croatia came out and played some inspired football though.  They really exposed some things that Brazil must improve upon if they want to win the World Cup.  Goal keeping being one of those.

I do like Croatia to make it out of that group though.  As long as they play like they did today I can see them beating both Mexico and Cameroon.

[yuma]

Oscar was the man of the match--even w/o his goal--that guy had some wicked passes and his off the ball movement was perfect--and was pretty good at tracking back defensively as well.

Brazil looked really shaky in the defense. I was hoping for a tie as I would really like to see Mexico advance, but a Brazil win is ok as well. I was getting nervous Croatia would pull out a win there for a bit and really put Mexico in a precarious position.

Fred's flop was horrendous--I doubt that ref will see another WC game... that sort of a miscall at this stage can cost you a career...

For those of you who missed the game here was the flop.

[ashersky]

Fred's flop was horrendous--I doubt that ref will see another WC game... that sort of a miscall at this stage can cost you a career...

I doubt it.  Nishimura's been around a long time and I thought is pretty well-respected.  I'd be surprised to see him pulled from the tournament.

[yuma]

Fred's flop was horrendous--I doubt that ref will see another WC game... that sort of a miscall at this stage can cost you a career...

I doubt it.  Nishimura's been around a long time and I thought is pretty well-respected.  I'd be surprised to see him pulled from the tournament.

Maybe... and I certainly hope he isn't as I think the trend of defining a ref based off one poor decision is a great way to end up with really bad refs... But I do know that if I was Croatia's coach I would be calling for his head.

[ashersky]

Fred's flop was horrendous--I doubt that ref will see another WC game... that sort of a miscall at this stage can cost you a career...

I doubt it.  Nishimura's been around a long time and I thought is pretty well-respected.  I'd be surprised to see him pulled from the tournament.

Maybe... and I certainly hope he isn't as I think the trend of defining a ref based off one poor decision is a great way to end up with really bad refs... But I do know that if I was Croatia's coach I would be calling for his head.

I really like Nishimura and think he's one of the better refs around (usually).  So I agree with all of this -- Croatia will be pissed, but he doesn't deserve to lose out on his job for one call.

[nkirbit]

Is this where we come to complain about that game?

Even leaving the call aside, I thought the quality of play was much, much lower than I would have expected from these two teams.  Brazil looked all over the place, which was surprising given their performance in the confederation cup, and Croatia also were worse than I would've expected given the talent level of some of their players (Mainly Modric, who I love and think is one of the best 10 players in the world... he wasn't bad but he just didn't have any impact on the game at all).

It's always a bit of a shock when I go from watching the very best teams in the world (Atletico vs Madrid in the champions league final) to International teams.. game are just way more sloppy.  You can tell the players don't play together that much.  I was hoping Brazil wouldn't fall into this trap, but they did.

Hopefully the games will get better!

[StrongRhino]

Go Mexico!

I think that was the preferable outcome for Mexico advancing, Brazil was going to get 1st in the group anyway, so we need Croatia to lose.

[ipofanes]

For an opener and for a WC game, I didn't find the game half bad. Third goal by Oscar should have been called off for Ramirez' foul in the buildup. Second goal for Croatia, I guess almost every ref would have called off the situation. Overall the refereeing decisions favoured the home team but were less blatantly off mark than what we've seen in the final four years ago.