2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

Fair score.

Gana with a quite intensive attacking football style, but here and there they are somewhat naif: sometimes they have offensive advantage 3-2 but one don't pass to the best man, and in defense too (Klose's goal could be avoided if the man near post run towards off-side).

I think Germany was somewhat tired, for some reason (weather?), and they didn't dominate the game on midfield all the time. Even so, it's pretty obvious they are one of the main candidates.
 
If I was Löw, I'd field the team like this:

GK - Neuer
RB - Boateng
LB - Lahm
CB - Hummels
CB - Mertesacker
CM - Khedira
CM - Schweinsteiger
CM - Kroos
AM - Özil
AM - Götze
ST - Müller

I think they're gonna sorely miss Marco Reus in the later rounds.
 
Tough group. Gana can score but allows too many. I wonder what really this US team worth.
 
Great game between Ghana and Germany! I think a draw was the right result in the end, as both teams had periods of domination, and the rest of the time it was fairly even. :)

The Bosnia v Nigeria game should be very interesting... Nigeria were awful in their first game against Iran, but Iran were also awful in that game, and they really gave Argentina a scare earlier today, so hopefully Nigeria can give a good account of themselves here. Either way, if Bosnia play like they did against Argentina, they will be hard to beat!
 
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The first half was fantastic, the second very, very boring, but a nice goal gets Belgium through. Fuck you, Russia.
 
All the time Brazil played before the Netherlands. Now, the final group match: they play after us. Which means they have an advantage. They can look at the Dutch result and can -in theory- take advantage of that.

FIFA fair play my ass.
 
Brazil is a Group A team. Netherlands is a Group B team. Obviously, Brazil played all their matches before Netherlands. Until the deciding 3rd game. Group B teams will play first. Brazil will try to avoid Netherlands and they'll look at the result of Chile-Netherlands game. If Chile gets the 1st place, you can be damn sure Brazil aren't winning their last game.

Belgium game was terrible except for the last 10 minutes. Glad Belgium managed to pull it off.
 
Well, the winners of these groups (A and B )play against the number two of the other group. I am not saying that Brazil does not want to be number one in their group, but I can imagine that they sure would prefer to not meet us. Same for the Netherlands. I guess they prefer to not meet Brazil, also because they are the home team. The audience is the twelfth man. :) Still, whatever they want to do, or will do, it is Brazil instead of the Netherlands who "suddenly" have the theoretical opportunity to take advantage.

If you ask me, I am not sure if I'd prefer to meet Brazil rather than e.g. Mexico. Mexico really did well, perhaps not in result, but I was quite impressed.

edit:
Also, Chili is very good. I expect them to be the most difficult opponent. So, perhaps we can't even have a choice for a final position in the group.
 
Do you actually think Brazil would take a dive to ensure they don't play the Netherlands? I do not find that likely. Besides, isn't the inverse true? Let's say Netherlands wants to avoid Brazil, would they take a dive to avoid that fate? Someone has to have the advantage.
 
LC, the problem is that they changed the fixture ONLY for this game. Group B teams didn't play before Group A teams in the first two matchdays.
 
I guess there is a possibility.
Someone has to have the advantage: the change of the order sure shows who needs to have the advantage. I don't really see another reason. Maybe there is one, but I don't think it is very convincing, because the Dutch coach is annoyed by all this. And he is never annoyed. ;--)
 
It looks to me like it is a ratings thing. Brazil and Netherlands have occupied the same timeslots the entire tournament, even if they are compacting and forcing 2 groups to play in 1 day. I think that's all it is. Not an attempt to give Brazil the chance to choose who to play, but merely an attempt to make sure that the Netherlands can watch their football game at an acceptable time (because if it was a late game, it would have worse ratings) and same for Brazil.
 
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