FIFA 2014 World Cup - Official Discussion Thread

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Voting intentions of British people who claim to be 'very interested' in football as per YouGov:

Labour 45, Tory 31, UKIP 12, Nat 4, LDem 4, Green 3

LOL

Wouldn't expect to see the Greens that high. Also, going from my (limited) experience, Labour should be higher.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

LOL

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Argentine Commentary of Messi's goal versus Iran

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Surely today should be final straw in holding the WC in Qatar.

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Can't think of a better advertisement for the sport than that game.

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Such a letdown after BEL-USA.

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Everybody wants Colombia to win, right?

Yes.

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Colombia is being utterly destroyed... Thankfully for them Brazil play Hulk and Fred as Attackers.

Also the Ref is a complete terrible obviously.

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Belgium were awful, alas. Terrible game. I believe that's the last of early afternoon kickoffs though, thank god.

I hope whoever wins Netherlands vs Costa Rica wins. The Quarter Finals have turned into South Africa 2010 (although there were a lot of signs of that in the last 16), alas. As Lewis pointed out not surprising...

[Tetro Kornbluth]

A good omen for the SA teams:

In WC history, no European team has ever won against a South American team on South American soil.

Netherlands-Chile? Switzerland-Ecuador?

I have read it again: The statistic is only for the knockout-stage.

Not very impressive when considered that there was (the final and third place match apart) no knockout phase in 1978, only semi finals and the final in 1930 and none at all in 1950. Which leaves only this year and 1962 (where 6 UEFA teams made the quarterfinals).

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Ah, a classic football statistic then. Meaningless, but oft quoted by those who wish to be seen as very wise. Mind you, football doesn't really lend it self well to stat nerding: it is not cricket.

The classic one of this genre is 'no European country has won the world cup in South America/The Americas' (until 2010, it was 'outside Europe'). With this is true, it's really only been true by chance at this stage.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

RIP Alfredo di Stefano

One of the greatest players ever to never disgrace himself by taking part in a FIFA World Cup.

IIRC he was part of the Spanish squad in 1962 but never played due to injury.

Anyway RIP.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

This is terrible news for Ed Miliband.

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LOL @ the user-picked all-star team this year:

LOL. Do those people even watch football?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Probably the best way to solve these wrangles is more inter-continental play-offs, there are only two at present and they are on rotation... Here's how I would work it.

1) Merge the AFC and OFC
and
2) Arrange like this:
Hosts - 1
UEFA - 11
CONMEBOL - 4
CONCACAF - 3
CAF - 4
AFC/OFC - 3

And the last six spots to go between
UEFA - 4
CONMEBOL - 2
CONCACAF - 2
CAF - 2
AFC/OFC - 2

or something like that...

Of course this would never happen because FIFA politics.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

The AFC's record in 2014 was 0-3-9 and those 3 draws included two goalless games which were among the very worst games in the tournament and a game that was heading that way until a horrible goalie mistake gave the Koreans a goal. Australia, admittedly, were unlucky with their group but the other three, those that got 1 point, were in groups in the weaker groups.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Less than half of UEFA's qualifiers have made it through the group stage in the last two world cups  (6/13 both times). The days in which the likes of Denmark can automatically be thought of as better to the US or South Korea are well over.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Less than half of UEFA's qualifiers have made it through the group stage in the last two world cups  (6/13 both times). The days in which the likes of Denmark can automatically be thought of as better to the US or South Korea are well over.

Yes to the US....but I think Iceland would have beaten South Korea this year...

Russia didn't... and Russia won their qualifying group, ahead of Portugal.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Less than half of UEFA's qualifiers have made it through the group stage in the last two world cups  (6/13 both times). The days in which the likes of Denmark can automatically be thought of as better to the US or South Korea are well over.

Yes to the US....but I think Iceland would have beaten South Korea this year...

Russia didn't... and Russia won their qualifying group, ahead of Portugal.

Well, Russia also drew Algeria.

But then again, we did too after 90 minutes.

Yes but my point is that Russia were a) awful and b) managed to quality out of UEFA. I didn't make much claims about South Korea who were also pretty bad but they drew with Russia and barely lost to Belgium so much for UEFA dominance...

There isn't really an argument to claim that UEFA is underrepresented at the world cup now. Anyway, in all likelihood they will have 14 teams next time.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

UEFA's group record:
A - Croatia. 3 Points 1-0-2 defeats to Brazil and Mexico, victory over Cameroon
B - Spain. 3 points 1-0-2 defeats to Netherlands and Chile, victory over Australia
   - Netherlands. 9 points 3-0-0 victories over Spain, Australia and Chile
C - Greece. 4 points 1-1-1 Won vs Ivory Coast, Lost vs Colombia, drew vs Japan
D - England. 1 point 0-1-2 Drew vs Costa Rica, Lost vs Italy, Uruguay
   - Italy. 3 points 1-0-2 Won vs England, Lost vs Costa Rica, Uruguay
E - France. 7 points 2-1-0 Won vs Switzerland, Honduras, Drew vs Ecuador
     Switzerland. 6 points 2-0-1 Won vs Ecuador, Honduras; Lost vs France
F - Bosnia. 3 points 1-0-2 Won vs Iran; Lost vs Argentina, Nigeria
G - Germany. 7 points 2-1-0 Won vs Portugal, USA; Drew vs Ghana
   - Portugal, 4 points 1-1-1 Won vs Ghana, Drew vs USA, Lost vs Germany
H - Belgium. 9 points 3-0-0 Won vs Algeria, Russia, South Korea
     Russia. 2 points 0-2-1 Drew vs South Korea, Algeria; Lost vs Belgium

UEFA vs Non-UEFA group record: 13-7-9 (45% win ratio)

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Holland missed the 2002 world cup, while making the semi of the euros in 2000 and 2004. The reason of course being that competition for spots is so stiff in Europe. I doubt Holland could ever miss qualifying if they played in any other confederation (save maybe CONMEBOL).

Holland missed that world cup because they were awful (and Louis 'genius' Van Gaal was coach then). I remember that because I remember Ireland easily beating them.

I mean on paper perhaps they were better but on paper France should easily have topped their 2002 group with Senegal, Uruguay and Denmark. Instead they got 1 point and 0 goals. (and people complained before the tournament 'Holland should be here instead of Senegal'... there's no way of knowing how these teams comparing without them, you know, playing against each other).

[Tetro Kornbluth]

It seems to me that UEFA's number of places is about right (but in the binary, more likely slightly under-, rather than over-represented).

Actually I would agree with this.

I just don't see how UEFA should have 17 places when quite a few of its sides did rather badly. In both 2010 and 2014 only 6/13 have qualified from the group stages and has included some awful rubbish at the same level: Russia, Slovenia, France... Of course, this isn't to say there isn't rubbish from the other confeds.

I still think you're missing my point. Mexico was awful in this qualifier but they still qualified, narrowly getting the play-off spot and winning a play-off against New Zealand. A team of Mexico's calibre performing as poorly as they did this qualifier would have missed it had they been in UEFA. I also feel like you ignored the other points I raised.

Ah but under your proposal Mexico wouldn't have qualified either. CONCACAF top three was Costa Rica, USA and Honduras.

I don't know what other points I missed. I disagree that the confederations should be made equally difficult to qualify out of because we have no good way of measuring that except at the world cup itself.