FIFA World Cup

[eyeknow]

The Belgians never even had the championship yet.

Neither had the seattle sheskquacks but they won it this year

[Machinesworking]

The Belgians never even had the championship yet.

Neither had the seattle sheskquacks but they won it this year

The jelli is strong in this one!

[eyeknow]

Yeah, I hate 'em...I admit it. I wish nato would order a surgical ICBM strike.

But seriously, it's the second time this year with being let down when I thought there was a chance. And you just "knew" what was going to happen. I hate to see Howard had such a record breaking game and they lost because the rest of the team looked like they didn't want it. Bitter much, you betcha

[eyeknow]

And the giants lost again

So.......anyways, I'll set it back to the WC, I've vented, I feel better, and got my binky

[TomViolenz]

Yeah, I hate 'em...I admit it. I wish nato would order a surgical ICBM strike.

But seriously, it's the second time this year with being let down when I thought there was a chance. And you just "knew" what was going to happen. I hate to see Howard had such a record breaking game and they lost because the rest of the team looked like they didn't want it. Bitter much, you betcha

I don't think that's a fair assesment. For the limited qualities they had they played phenomenaly well.
But the problem is of course that while Howard is certainly World Cup class, the rest are not. (They are still good players, don't get me wrong)
If Soccer really does pick up in popularity in the US and there is more money in the MLS and young talented athlets see it as an attractive career opportunity, you will also be able to field your Messies, Ronaldos, Müllers. Often this one guy whith that extra little spontaneous idea, that sneaky trick in the goal area of the opponent is all that is needed. And what was mostly missing from the US game.
Btw, that Greene guy looked very good on his goal against Belgium in the way he took the ball running with his chest and directly made the shot without first dropping the ball. And I hear he is already at Bayern München (at the amateur section for now, but he is only 19), so there is hope that he will be well trained and can develop these sort of striker qualities further.

But saying they didn't really want it about a team that had one of the best fighting spirits of the entire tournament is just sour grapes.

[8O]

Netherlands to hammer Costa Rica 4:0

That too, but I don't think it will be 4:0, remember in the knock outs everyone plays more conservative and CR defends well. So I say 2:0

I forgot to mention that all four goals will be from penalties incurred by CR players accidentally breathing in a vaguely Robben-ish direction.

[sporkles]

Netherlands to hammer Costa Rica 4:0

That too, but I don't think it will be 4:0, remember in the knock outs everyone plays more conservative and CR defends well. So I say 2:0

I forgot to mention that all four goals will be from penalties incurred by CR players accidentally breathing in a vaguely Robben-ish direction.

Not gonna happen; no referee would dare to give Robben more than one penalty during one match.

[TomViolenz]

That too, but I don't think it will be 4:0, remember in the knock outs everyone plays more conservative and CR defends well. So I say 2:0

I forgot to mention that all four goals will be from penalties incurred by CR players accidentally breathing in a vaguely Robben-ish direction.

Not gonna happen; no referee would dare to give Robben more than one penalty during one match.

Both very clever observations

[TomViolenz]

Well, I got the goal difference right

1:0 Germany

Germanys best game in this tournament so far.
Good defence, with Lahm and Hummels doing outstanding work.
Great midfield with Khedira and Schweinsteiger having a good feeling for the spaces and being secure with their passes.
And an ok offense that kept up the pressure and got us a few good chances.
Schürle standing 2 times directly in front of France's GK and then shooting directly at him was weak though.

France was strong and it was very good that we brought our A game.

If we can keep this up we could achieve much more.

This could even be enough for the Dutch in the Finals...

Next game Brazil-Colombia

Go Colombia!!!

[TomViolenz]

Ugh...
Demasiado emotion!!!

This was more war than game. Very physical!

Brazil won because of their incredible defense (which is unusual for Brazil, but a smart development - because as they had to learn lately joga bonito may win games, but it doesn't win tournaments.)
Colombia didn't have a good strategy, too much of the indiviual awesome game looked random. (very interesting contrast to the US game btw, where the individual quality is mediocre, but the strategic team play very good).

Colombia will be missed for the high quality of their players, but certainly not for the many, many fouls.

Brazil won deserved a very ugly match.

The game against Germany will be totaly different and if we play as good as we did today against France we can beat them.
Because our defense is on good days (like today) a lot better than Colombias was and our offense, while not as magic as theirs regarding the individual players, a lot more organized!

But it will certainly be interesting!

[sporkles]

So, the Argentina game was predictably boring when Argentina got that early goal. I'm a little disappointed in the Belgians today; they seemed far from as powerful as earlier; it's a bit of a tendency in this championship, I think. The good games are better at making the opponent look weak than they are at actually impressing us with their own play. We saw it with Germany and France, and we saw it with Brazil vs. Colombia.

I'm a little psyched for Netherlands vs. Costa Rica, though: I think the Costa Ricans will go all in and really put the Dutch to the test.

[8O]

After my 100% success rate with the last predictions, here's the next batch:

Brazil 0 - Germany 2

Netherlands 2 - Argentina 0

Yours?

[TomViolenz]

After my 100% success rate with the last predictions, here's the next batch:

Brazil 0 - Germany 2

Netherlands 2 - Argentina 0

Yours?

I think the closer we get to the top and the more important each match gets, the less goals per game we are going to see.

So I'm going with your results, but I'll say:
Brazil 0 - Germany 1
Argentina 0 - Netherlands 1

Unless it goes to penalties

Colombia did us a huge favor by taking Neymar out of the match and Silva did us a huge favor by being a dumb ass and taking himself out. (I think the later is even more important, because it was the great Brazilian defense that won against Colombia)

(If we have a catastrophic game like against Algeria though, it will be bye, bye Germany for sure!)

[8O]

Who Won the World Cup of Arm-Folding?

[stringtapper]

Three goals in less the 25 minutes??