Official Football Thread

Belgium, I think, is one of the top teams of the tournament even though they're inexperienced. I'd consider anything less than a Quarter Final a fail, and anything less than a Semi Final a disappointment.
 
Germany looks set for the first place indeed, but the battle for the second place will be epic!
 
I'm rooting for Germany and Belgium in the World Cup. And I think Germany is winning it all this time round.
 
And if Germany do win you can claim it was made in Turkey. :)

Italy and Uruguay provide good opportunities for England to get knocked out in the group stages. Fingers crossed!
 
I am so happy France got the luck of the draw!!!!!!!!!!!
And with France facing either Bosnia or Nigeria in round 2 (hopefully not Argentina)it's a ticket to the quarter finals!
Vive La France!!!! Les Bleus!!!!!!
But holy shit! Brazil with either face Holland or Spain in the 2nd round! WOW!!!!! That would be a finals match any other year
But I am a realist and I believe it's the year Deutschland wins it all
 
here's my prediction
Group A- Brasil & Croatia
Group B- Spain & Netherlands (shame Chile got screwed here)
Group C- Colombia & Ivory Coast
Group D- Italy & England (I think Uruguay loses by thinnest of margins)
Group E- France & Switzerland
Group F- Argentina & Nigeria
Group G- Germany & Ghana (Portugal sorry about your damn luck!)
Group H-South Korea & Belgium

Round 2
Brasil vs Netherlands -Brasil advances
Spain vs Croatia- Spain wins
Colombia vs England- Colombia wins
Ivory Coast vs Italy- Ivory Coast (whats a world cup without an upset?)
France vs Nigeria- France wins
Switzerland vs Argentina- Argentina wins
Germany vs Belgium- Germany wins
South Korea vs Ghana- South Korea wins (need an Asian team in the 16 dammit)

Quarter finals
Brasil vs Colombia- Brasil advances (but barely this isn't Brasil's strongest team they've put out but home field pulls them ahead)
France vs Germany- Germany advances ( :(goodbye France you played well)
Spain vs Ivory Coast- Spain advances
Argentina vs South Korea- Argentina advances

Semi finals
Brasil vs Germany- Germany wins (riots in Brasil as the home team is eliminated)
Spain vs Argentina- Spain wins

Final
Germany vs Spain- Germany wins! free Bratwurst& Bier for everybody!!!!!
 
Here in the states people were at bars out in western part of the country cheering on (blind faith, but admirable). I think USA ends last in their difficult group

Now I have family living in Costa Rica & Colombia (I can't consider myself american even though I've lived here since I was 2)
Costa Rica last place in their difficult group (2 groups of death this world cup!)
Colombia as you see I have making it to the quarter finals
 
I am less enthusiastic about our group, now that I realize that two matches are played at 13 pm (local time) which is not ideal. We've never won from Australia (nor from Chile) and if we go through there's a chance we meet Brazil. In fact it's hard to have a more difficult group. Must confess that I am not that much impressed by Spain. They are not that good as a few years back.
 
Forostar said:
I am less enthusiastic about our group, now that I realize that two matches are played at 13 pm (local time) which is not ideal. We've never won from Australia (nor from Chile) and if we go through there's a chance we meet Brazil. In fact it's hard to have a more difficult group. Must confess that I am not that much impressed by Spain. They are not that good as a few years back.
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Even though I have Spain finishing first in their Group the Dutch can finish in 1st if they tie in their game against each other leaving Spain facing Brasil in round 2 and Brasil eliminating them
 
I really don't want Spain to win next summer, but I also really want them to play better football than they have since winning Euro 2008. In the last World Cup they played painfully slow football and the manager (del Bosque?) was utterly resistant to playing with a proper striker. In Euro 2012 they had Fernando Llorente in the squad who'd just had a great season with Athletic Bilbao (especially in Europe!) but he didn't get on the pitch for a single second. In that dull match against Portugal that Spain won on penalties Llorente would have been the perfect striker to break through Portugal's defence. Now Spain have Alvaro Negredo who is a world class centre forward on top form playing in arguably the strongest league in the world. Negredo can play as a traditional target man/battering ram (the Man City fans call him "The Beast") and he's also a brilliant footballer and finisher. Hopefully del Bosque takes note of this and actually uses Negredo instead of playing Fabregas in the "false number nine" position and dominating possession for 90 minutes but only winning 1-0 or on penalties.
 
Spain is the most boring national team in the world. More so than Greece, because they actually get eliminated rather quickly so you we don't have to see them again. Spain on the other hand goes all the way.
 
Holy cow, i just realized USA broke Mexico's record in CONCACAF federations' straight participations in the World Cup. That's seven in a row since 1990. :eek: Football did grow in the USA, that's for sure. USA was absent for 36 years. USA is now the seventh team with most consecutive participations of all time :eek:. And South Korea ranks 6th all time!

Rank of Federations straight participations (latest run) counting the 2014 edition:

* Brasil > 20
* Germany >16
* Italy > 14
* Argentina > 11
* Spain > 10
* South Korea > 8
* USA > 7
* Mexico > 6
* England, Japan, France > 5
* Portugal > 4
* Switzerland, Gana, Ivory Coast, Netherlands, Australia > 3
* Cameroon, Chile, Uruguai, Nigeria, Argelia, Honduras, Greece > 2
* Iran, Belgium, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Croatia, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (very first time) > 1

New geography with the appearance of non-European countries and non-South Americans countries dominating the rankings. That's 3 new teams already in top-11: South Korea, Japan, and the USA (i don't count Mexico, since it's the best team outside Europe and the classic South American duo). Eastern classic European countries gone. I know there's less competition in some areas, but still History tells teams taking part in the World Cup was never secure. I'm very curious to watch those 3 teams that are getting more and more experience in World Cups.

Ah Foro, be careful with the 2018 World Cup. Netherlands never qualified 4 times in a row for a World Cup... o_O
 
Greece are a mediocre team so at least their negative approach is understandable. What I dislike about the Greek team's approach is that sometimes they don't actually try to win. Still, their achievement in 2004 was impressive!

Spain, on the other hand, have some of the best players in the world and therefore the ability to play scintillating football. Why waste talents like Silva, Villa, Fabregas, Navas, Alba, Pedro and Mata at passing for 90 minutes?
 
Black Wizard said:
Greece are a mediocre team so at least their negative approach is understandable. What I dislike about the Greek team's approach is that sometimes they don't actually try to win. Still, their achievement in 2004 was impressive!

Spain, on the other hand, have some of the best players in the world and therefore the ability to play scintillating football. Why waste talents like Silva, Villa, Fabregas, Navas, Alba, Pedro and Mata at passing for 90 minutes?
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Their midfield is incredibly rich. Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Cesc Fabregas, Javi Martinez, Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Juan Mata, Isco, David Silva, Santi Cazorla, Thiago Alcantara, Jesus Navas. But as you've pointed out, they really need to get rid of the no strikers philosophy. It's not like they don't have good strikers either. How many teams have a group of strikers at the same level as Fernando Torres, Diego Costa, Alvaro Negredo, Roberto Soldado, Fernando Llorente, David Villa, Pedro Rodriguez?

If I was them, I'd play with 4-5-1.

Iker Casillas
Sergio Ramos
Jordi Alba
Gerard Pique
Javi Martinez
Andres Iniesta
Xavi Hernandez
Cesc Fabregas
Juan Mata
David Silva
Fernando Torres/Diego Costa
 
I'd play with Negredo up front as he's more likely to score than Torres. I have no idea who Diego Costa is.

The thing with playing a centre forward is that they'd have someone who can play with their back to goal. It's a bit of cliche but it allows the midfield to play off the striker and move beyond him. Take Arsenal as an example. They have the holy trinity of Wilshere, Ozil and Ramsey in midfield, but Olivier Giroud allows them to play while also being pretty good himself. The goal that Jack Wilshere scored a few weeks ago (with the two one-twos with Giroud) probably wouldn't have been possible with Fabregas in the "false nine" position, but a guy like Giroud can virtually stand still while the midfield tear the defence apart. Spain tend to pass the ball in front of the defence then eventually try to play through but there's usually too many defenders for that to work. All the Spanish strikers could probably play with the midfield at least adequately, but the advantage with Negredo, Torres and Llorente is that players like Silva can cross the ball to them.

It seems to be that the best way to beat Spain is to play at a high tempo from the start and try to streamroller them in the first half hour. That's pretty much what Brazil did in the Confederations Cup and what Italy tried to do but Brazil took their chances. I think Spain play so slowly that they can't handle that kind of tempo and if they start badly then they've had the stuffing knocked out of them, but if the opposition don't take their chances then they'll manage to play their way back into the match eventually.
 
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