General World Cup and in-game discussion

[cristo]

Absolute genius to bring on your third keeper, who'd clearly been practicing penalties all week. What a manager!

 

[DennisN]

Ok, so what do we have got left? Four top teams will battle it out:

Brazil - Germany (8 July)
My thoughts: Ought to be a good game. Both teams have got good offence and good defense.
Brazil may strive to play more free and "improvised", while Germany may strive to play more organized. But Brazil must beware of Germany's ability to suddenly and quickly speed up their game - when the Germans do so they have a tendency to get very dangerous and hard to stop.

Netherlands - Argentina (9 July):
My thoughts: Will likely be a good game. Both teams have plenty of talent. Netherlands have got Robben, van Persie etc. and Argentina has got Messi, Higuaín etc. The two teams last met in a World Cup match in 2006 (group stage) and the result was 0-0.

 

[JorisL]

I expect Netherlands v Argentina to be boring.

Argentina didn't play football against Belgium. They are counting on Messi for those rare, albeit incredible, actions creating space and allowing for Shots on goal. Other than that they slow down the game.
Holland in general has used similar tactics with fast counters during the tournament.

Brazil - Germany should be a good game. And Germany will probably win.
Brazil hasn't been playing nearly as good as the Germans did so far.

 

[PhysicoRaj]

Netherlands - Germany for the final I think. Sometimes it occurs to me Netherlands and Brazil too.
Argentina is weaker than before.

 

[gfd43tg]

I'll root for the netherlands since they've never won the World Cup. We need for variety in winners in my opinion !

 

[D H]

Regretfully I did not see Argentina-Belgium today, and I did not see most of the Netherlands-Costa Rica match.

Regretfully I did not see any of the quarterfinal matches. I was taking a **long** drive. (13 hours on Friday, 12 hours on Saturday; total of 1400 miles or 2250 km). I caught part of the Brazil-Colombia game on the radio. I got to hear most of the first half and the last bit of the second half. (AM radio during daytime doesn't work all that well while traveling.) That must have been a nail biter! Thank goodness Uruguay was out; then it would have been much worse than a nail biter.

I'm afraid Brazil just scored a Pyrrhic victory over Colombia. They won the game but they lost Neymar and Thiago Silva. Nonetheless, I'm not changing my initial prediction that Brazil will win the whole enchilada. Go Brazil!

I also heard the tail end of the second half of the Netherlands - Costa Rica game. Those dang flying Dutchmen! Go Argentina! Sink that ghost ship!

 

[DennisN]

Regretfully I did not see any of the quarterfinal matches.

I think you would have liked the Brazil-Colombia game. It was almost full tempo the entire match (yet the 2nd half was a little bit rough). Brazil started the match with a full assault and very good playing. Colombia also played very well and never stopped trying. The last 20 minutes or so Colombia played better than Brazil IMO. Could Colombia have beaten Brazil? I'd say yes. But Brazil finally won this very enjoyable match.

I'm afraid Brazil just scored a Pyrrhic victory over Colombia. They won the game but they lost Neymar and Thiago Silva. Nonetheless, I'm not changing my initial prediction that Brazil will win the whole enchilada. Go Brazil!

Yes, that's regretfully not good for Brazil. The semi-finals will be very interesting, I personally believe Germany will beat Brazil, but I haven't decided what result to vote for in the PF cup thread yet...

I also heard the tail end of the second half of the Netherlands - Costa Rica game. Those dang flying Dutchmen! Go Argentina! Sink that ghost ship!

I am inclined to agree with you. But I haven't made up my mind yet how to vote in the Netherlands - Argentina match... Some tough decisions to make today...

 

[Fredrik]

As long as The Netherlands has Arjen Robben on the team, I will always root for their opponent. Even after the spectacular dive against Mexico, and the confessed dive in that same match, he still did at least one more against Costa Rica. This got The Netherlands the free kick that came very close to winning the game for them. To be fair, a Costa Rican player took a dive too, so Robben wasn't the only one. But he's doing it systematically. It seems to be part of his overall strategy in all his games.

I would really like to see FIFA introduce much stronger rules against this sort of behavior, so that anyone who behaves the way this guy does would have been banned for life by now. I'm not saying that Robben should be banned for life today. (Banned for the rest of the tournament is enough). I'm saying that the rules should be such that he would have been banned for life by now. Presumably that would have changed his behavior before it got to that point.

It's very hard to defend this sport in conversations with people who don't like it as long as the most important games are still settled by cheating that goes unpunished after the match, or by mistakes by referees that could easily have been avoided. This is the very thing that made me lose interest in the sport a couple of times before.

That being said, Robben was incredible in that game. It's sad that someone this good, probably one of the ten best players in the world, is actively trying to cheat in most of his games.

 

[Monique]

If you would watch the fall carefully you'd see it's for a reason. The referee didn't "award" previous falls in the game, certainly they are critical.

Did you ever notice the very tight shirt he always wears? He ones explained he was fed up with players from the other team grabbing a hold of him, that's why he started wearing tight shirts.

I do agree soccer players often exaggerate, you know the saying "soccer players pretend they're hurt, hockey players pretend they're not".

 

[PhysicsGente]

As long as The Netherlands has Arjen Robben on the team, I will always root for their opponent. Even after the spectacular dive against Mexico, and the confessed dive in that same match, he still did at least one more against Costa Rica. This got The Netherlands the free kick that came very close to winning the game for them. To be fair, a Costa Rican player took a dive too, so Robben wasn't the only one. But he's doing it systematically. It seems to be part of his overall strategy in all his games.

I would really like to see FIFA introduce much stronger rules against this sort of behavior, so that anyone who behaves the way this guy does would have been banned for life by now. I'm not saying that Robben should be banned for life today. (Banned for the rest of the tournament is enough). I'm saying that the rules should be such that he would have been banned for life by now. Presumably that would have changed his behavior before it got to that point.

It's very hard to defend this sport in conversations with people who don't like it as long as the most important games are still settled by cheating that goes unpunished after the match, or by mistakes by referees that could easily have been avoided. This is the very thing that made me lose interest in the sport a couple of times before.

That being said, Robben was incredible in that game. It's sad that someone this good, probably one of the ten best players in the world, is actively trying to cheat in most of his games.

But you realize that he is fouled more often and not given a free kick right?

 

[Fredrik]

But you realize that he is fouled more often and not given a free kick right?

I noticed that there were times when he was fouled and not given a free kick. Why are you bringing this up? Are you suggesting that it's OK to cheat to compensate for an earlier bad call by the referee? Are you suggesting that Robben only cheats in those situations?

If this happens more often to Robben than to others, it's almost certainly because he's a known cheater. Every time it's a close call, the referees will (and should) be thinking that since it's Robben, there's a good chance that he's faking it.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Germany up 3-0 in the first 30min! Who saw that coming!?

 

[WWGD]

4-0 now. 28 min.

 

[Borg]

5 - 0. The blitzkrieg continues.

 

[Monique]

0-5 at 30 min, I feel bad for Brazil but Go Germany! :D

 

[WWGD]

5-0 now. I may have too reedit next few minutes.

 

[WWGD]

I would not show my face in public if i was the Brazilian coach .For the next few years.

 

[Matterwave]

Wtf just happened... I predicted a high scoring game for Germany, but 5-0 in the first half is ridiculous!

 

[Borek]

Knockout. 4 goals in 6 minutes.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I wouldn't want to be in Brazil locker room at half

 

[fluidistic]

I woke up from my nap because people in streets were shooting about the goals... turns out that Brazil is hated here! (Argentina).

 

[WWGD]

Interesting that the 538 people , who predicted the national elections accurately, are in soccer/futbol prediction too: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/world-cup-semifinal-crib-notes-brazil-vs-germany/

 

[WannabeNewton]

Terrible performance by Germany at the end of the 2nd.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Astonishing score line

 

[micromass]

Terrible performance by Germany at the end of the 2nd.

Yeah, Germany needs some improvement if they want to win the world cup. That last goal totally ruined everything.

 

[WannabeNewton]

Yeah, Germany needs some improvement if they want to win the world cup. That last goal totally ruined everything.

I don't know how Neuer will ever live with himself again or even sleep at night.

 

[micromass]

I don't know how Neuer will ever live with himself again or even sleep at night.

He's the laughing stock of the world now.

 

[PhysicsGente]

I noticed that there were times when he was fouled and not given a free kick. Why are you bringing this up? Are you suggesting that it's OK to cheat to compensate for an earlier bad call by the referee? Are you suggesting that Robben only cheats in those situations?

If this happens more often to Robben than to others, it's almost certainly because he's a known cheater. Every time it's a close call, the referees will (and should) be thinking that since it's Robben, there's a good chance that he's faking it.

Because if you consider diving cheating, then fouling intentionally is also cheating, and all top scorers are always fouled intentionally and not always given free kicks. My point is that the game works that way. It won't ever change (unless it's not football anymore).

 

[Monique]

When I left Germany a few days ago I told them "see you in the finals". They told me "you first have to get that far". Sunday is the only option, tomorrow needs to be won.

 

[Travis_King]

Because if you consider diving cheating, then fouling intentionally is also cheating, and all top scorers are always fouled intentionally and not always given free kicks. My point is that the game works that way. It won't ever change (unless it's not football anymore).

I agree that "diving" or putting on a show when you are genuinely fouled (so that the ref sees) or when it was a close call (to potentially gain an advantage) is part of the game and it's part of playing strategically. It's similar to an nba Center posting up in front of a driving Forward and falling to the floor when touched to draw the charging call. Or drawing (and playing up) a foul to get that extra shot. Some degree of exaggeration is part of smart play.

Of course, flagrant diving is unsportsmanlike and I agree that consistent and obvious dive attempts should be penalized to some degree. I personally feel that it would be fair to book players who are consistently flopping in a game (though I think it should be taken on a game by game basis).

Robben gets the negatives of the boy who cried wolf, as the other guy pointed out. Sure, he gets some free kicks (some he truly deserves, some are borderline, and some are obvious that he flopped) but he is also denied many kicks because the ref's know him and if it is close, they would tend to let play continue.

When penalties result in advantageous opportunities, the strategic team will seek to capitalize on them.

 

[Fredrik]

Wow. That was insane. What a disaster for Brazil. They collapsed completely, and then several of the players made complete fools of themselves by trying to cheat in the second half.

Germany also had the at least the three best chances that weren't goals. If Oscar had failed to make that goal, I would have said that the game was closer to 10-0 than 7-1.

That last goal was amazing. What an incredible pass by the guy in the left corner. What a takedown. What a shot.

 

[WannabeNewton]

If I were in the Brazilian team I would fake my own death.

 

[PhysicsGente]

 

[DennisN]

Here are my feelings experienced during the Brazil-Germany match yesterday:

Brazil-Germany
0-1: Interesting
0-2: (I think I'm going to win my bet (I betted some money on Germany for fun))
0-3: (I'm missing out on one point in the PF league)
0-4: (This is going to get tough for Brazil too handle)
0-5: (No, this is just embarassing...)
(Going out for a walk since I feared a total humiliation was about to take place, which I did not want to witness)
0-6: Did not see it
0-7: Did not see it
1-7: (yeah, really great, this goal matters so much... or not)

 

[Borek]

After seeing what Germany did to Brazil, Argentina plan for today is a result that will let them avoid Germany in the next match.