FIFA 2014 World Cup - Official Discussion Thread

[Franzl]

Lewis told me personally that he will honor his promise to host the tipping competition this year.

[Franzl]

Sorry Tender and Cranberry.....I predict Uruguay to win 4-0.

[Franzl]

IIRC Lewis is not really a big national team supporter anyway.

Also it's becoming pretty clear that Germany will struggle to qualify from the group. All the players are either injured, out of shape, or in mediocre form. And Löw is clueless as ever.

I'd tend to agree, but the German national team has an odd habit of far outperforming expectations with mediocre teams.

I'm expecting our defeat in the Round of 16 at the latest...but I wouldn't be shocked if they made the final somehow.

[Franzl]

IIRC Lewis is not really a big national team supporter anyway.

Also it's becoming pretty clear that Germany will struggle to qualify from the group. All the players are either injured, out of shape, or in mediocre form. And Löw is clueless as ever.

He isn't a huge fan of the national team but he's still a fan of the team (really, his point is that real fans of the game can't value the national team over their club) and the game.

Oh, and the German fans drastically playing down expectations here is too cute. Round of 16 the furthest they'll go? Please.

Perhaps it's a moderate exaggeration, but things really aren't looking great for us at the moment. As said, though, mediocre German teams often go further than good ones. Think of 2002...

[Franzl]

Underestimate the US at your peril. They have a history of beating strong countries with subpar teams. If we want to advance, we need to get 3 points out of Portugal right away. If it comes to the last match against the US and we need 3 points, we probably won't get them.

[Franzl]

That was a joy to watch

[Franzl]

I must say, quite respectable performance from Australia here.

[Franzl]

That 5-1 yesterday. So beautiful. True fans of the game have been waiting for many, many years for the disgusting team to be so thoroughly humiliated. Unfortunate that the humiliation had to be performed by the Dutch, but I'll take it.

Some of the Dutch plays were f**king fantastic. They definitely deserved it.

I was in a beer garden last night watching the game and virtually everyone was cheering for the Dutch, even though you might not expect that here...

[Franzl]

I get the impression that the Dutch hate the Germans a lot more than the Germans hate the Dutch. But yeah, even players who I hate, like RVP for obvious reasons, were fantastic and impossible not to cheer for.

There definitely used to be hate for the Dutch national team here, but it seems to have disappeared. Not that we particularly like them, but seeing them humiliate the Spanish is something most can appreciate.

[Franzl]

What's with all the Spain-"hate" here ?

What have they done to you, other than being successful over the last 6 years ?



That's like trashing Germany for being economically successful for the past 6 years or so ...

Which is done quite often...

But admittedly, it's nice to see they aren't invincible.

[Franzl]

Predicting a win for us, but not feeling very confident...

[Franzl]

What a wonderful match

That said, I'm used to brilliant starts in tournaments. Doesn't necessarily mean much, but I certainly feeling much better. That was some true domination a good portion of the game.

[Franzl]

I'd like to see the US win, but they're incredibly lucky it's still 1-0 at this point.

[Franzl]

Just need a draw against Portugal and we're likely through

Easier said than done. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see the US advance than Portugal, but that wasn't a convincing performance tonight. Ghana screwed up too many scoring opportunities.

[Franzl]

I see no reason we shouldn't be able to defeat Ghana, but the second group  match against non-joke opponents does often seem to cause us problems. Still cautiously optimistic.

[Franzl]

Well, 0-0 at the half of this one is certainly a shocker.

Argentina is really sucking today...

[Franzl]

Germany putting in their traditional "second game of a tournament" performance right now.

Yeah sort of. There have been worse 2nd games for us, though. We do need to improve...

[Franzl]

2-2 was a fair result.

Hope the US at least draws Portugal, as I don't fancy a knockout game against them. I'm not as confident in an easy win as many seem to be.

[Franzl]

Excited to see the bro tears when USA finishes last in the group with two losses.

538 gives the US around a 2/3 chance of moving on.

I saw that. Not only is it silly, but if there's one thing we know we cannot predict results from soccer rankings or whatnot.

I think 2/3 is a reasonable probability, actually. Even one draw is probably enough to get the US through.

[Franzl]

Excited to see the bro tears when USA finishes last in the group with two losses.

538 gives the US around a 2/3 chance of moving on.

I saw that. Not only is it silly, but if there's one thing we know we cannot predict results from soccer rankings or whatnot.

I think 2/3 is a reasonable probability, actually. Even one draw is probably enough to get the US through.

Ok. You believe that. Focus less on the scoreline and focus on the game stats, in terms of shots, possession, and so forth. In terms of that, Ghana dominated. Don't let this victory go to your head and think it was all about the US's skill. It was luck.

I was one of the first to note that the US had no business beating Ghana with such a poor performance, but I think it's relatively likely they'll scrape by with a draw in one of the two matches and then narrowly survive on goal difference. They're obviously not a particularly good team.

[Franzl]

At any rate, go USA! Then we almost certainly get in even on a loss.

[Franzl]

Ghana, Portugal and USA would all beat Belgium.

You may want to finish 2nd in our group just to get a free pass to the quarterfinals....

[Franzl]

Good luck USA.

[Franzl]

The US are really playing quite decently.

[Franzl]

Lol totally outplaying Portugal and still losing because of a dumb mistake

Yeah the US had some good runs, but they don't seem to do much but shoot from far back whenever they get a chance.
It's really a shame they don't make more use of some of the good runs they've had.