FIFA 2014 World Cup - Official Discussion Thread

[Antonio the Sixth]

So the first goal of the competition was self inflicted... and from Brazil no less. ROFL.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Wow, beautiful goal from the Dutch. At this point they really deserve to win.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh wow LOL. THIS is what I call a game.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Ugh, we got a lead and we blew it after two minutes... We're still embarrassingly weak defensively, and we rarely ever get close to scoring. We're going to need to do better than that if we want to advance.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, that's good. These 3 points put us in a pretty good shape to advance, so let's celebrate. Still, I hope the team's game grows more audacious next times. So many times players didn't even try to gain ground, instead sending the ball backwards.

[Antonio the Sixth]

So, we are 7 matches into the World Cup and there were no draws so far. Useless trivia all right, but when was the last time it happened? (if it ever did).

That's the fact I can't get over. I'm not complaining though.

Now it's 8
I think it's great, at least we don't have any boring 0-0 or 1-1 draws so far. In Fact, Except the Mexico- Cameroon match, every other of the seven matches had at least 3 goals.

Hope this trend continues.

Yeah, draws are the worst. This is shaping up to be a very exciting contest.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No love for Marchisio's goal? It was definitely the most impressive of the three.

[Antonio the Sixth]

What an ugly game, so much foul play on both sides. France is clearly the strongest of the two, but they've stupidly wasted plenty of excellent occasions (and the Honduras defense is the only part of the team which is remotely competent). Normally the lead should hold on to the end, since Honduras has never even come close, but I'm still not sure France will actually score a legitimate goal.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No matter the outcome, Germany-Portugal should be glorious.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh wow, that's shaping up to be a curbstomp. Nice to see Germany at its best, I've always liked them. Though Portugal probably didn't deserve to lose that badly. Also LOL Pepe, that's some Zidane-level stupidity.

[Antonio the Sixth]

let's hope it stays

germany 3-0 portugal

It will be much more than that, unless Germany loses interest in humiliating Portugal ...

Germans never miss an occasion to humiliate their opponents when they can.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Face it guys, Italy is the only team that can beat Germany.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Diving is worse than the headbutting in my eyes, which is why Italy in particular are such a noxious team.

Divers winning again? Eww.

Lies and slanders, as usual. You guys are just jealous of our greatness.

[Antonio the Sixth]

YES!!!!!

Long overdue. Now I know this World Cup will be excellent.

[Antonio the Sixth]

That's terrible news for Ed Miliband.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh Italy, you will never easily cruise through the group session, will you? OK, a draw against Uruguay should be enough to qualify, but knowing our past history we definitely can screw this up. Come on guys!!!

ROFL @ France-Switzerland.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Of course, draws in group sessions are, all things being equal, a good thing for the other two teams, since fewer total points are awarded (1 each) than if one of the teams had won.

[Antonio the Sixth]

That was a great game! I generally like Germany, but found myself rooting for Ghana throughout the second half and would have loved to see them win. They did an amazing job throughout the game, except in the last 15/20m when they evidently got tired. Too bad, but still a great game.

Also, poor Iran. That was really unfair.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Vile, disgusting bastard of a referee. Go to hell.

[Antonio the Sixth]

In Suarez's defence, with teeth as large as his are, it would be a waste if they weren't used.

Buffon has a strong fist. Should have gone to use and knocked said teeth out.

Yes!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Italy-haters are evil monsters who should be eliminated with fire (sane).

[Antonio the Sixth]

Italy-haters are evil monsters who should be eliminated with fire (sane).

You played for a draw until Uruguay scored.

It's not our fault if you want to win games without attacking.

I'm not defending the way Italy played, by all means. Had we played half-decently we would have wiped you out of the picture in a few minutes. Doesn't excuse the catastrophic arbitration and Uruguayan foul play.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Italy attacked the first half. I was satisfied with the play. Immobile was a disappointment though. He and the rest of this team need to learn how to avoid being offsides so frequently. If we had capitalized on our chances early, we'd be having a difficult discussion right now. Instead, we remained tied (which was always dangerous. You had to know Uruguay would score a goal) and got bit (no pun intended) with bad calls that really put us on the back foot. Once Marchisio was sent off, you knew we would (have to) play for the draw and I had said leading up to this game that playing for a draw = loss.

Yeah, obviously things became very hard for us the moment we got this ridiculous red card. That's a wound pretty hard to forgive. Still I think we could have done a far better job in the first 60 minutes. Too little precision, too little energy.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I have seen literally a dozen actions so far in this World Cup that were worse than Marchisio's and only got a yellow card - or nothing at all.

[Antonio the Sixth]

She also claims that proper sport includes risk of major personal injury (because, ya know, its supplemented warfare...)

So American.