General World Cup and in-game discussion

[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.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

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

Brazil vs Argentina would be a great 3rd place game!

 

[DennisN]

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.

Update 9th July:
My thoughts: [STRIKE]Ought to be a good game[/STRIKE]. The game was a true disaster. [STRIKE]Both teams have got good offence and good defense[/STRIKE]. Germany had excellent offense and defence. Brazil had a feeble offense, a confused midfield and a comatose defense.
[STRIKE]Brazil may strive to play more free and "improvised", while Germany may strive to play more organized.[/STRIKE] Brazil strived to play soccer, while Germany was playing schoolbook soccer. [STRIKE]But Brazil must beware of[/STRIKE] Brazil did not understand 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.

 

[DennisN]

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

 

[Ken Natton]

1-7: (yeah, really great, this goal matters so much... or not)

Hmmm. Not sure I agree with that. I found great significance in it, and not just in how much it annoyed the Germans to concede it. Until last night, all the pundits had been talking about how anonymous Oscar had been throughout the tournament. Last night Neymar wasn’t playing and suddenly Oscar was far more prominent, and his goal was a piece of real quality. I understand that the match was a disaster for Brazil, but I still think that is one of the messages for the coach who replaces Scolari. I think most of the players in that team last night will not play for Brazil again, but Oscar will and obviously Neymar will. Future Brazil line ups will have to include either Oscar or Neymar, or, the new coach will have to find a formula that allows both of them to contribute.

 

[AlephZero]

Brazil vs Argentina would be a great 3rd place game!

I doubt Brazil vs anybody wlll be a good game within a timescale of a few months from now.

Watching the crowd riot when Brazil get wiped out out twice in a week might be fun though.

 

[Fredrik]

Hmmm. Not sure I agree with that. I found great significance in it, and not just in how much it annoyed the Germans to concede it. Until last night, all the pundits had been talking about how anonymous Oscar had been throughout the tournament. Last night Neymar wasn’t playing and suddenly Oscar was far more prominent, and his goal was a piece of real quality. I understand that the match was a disaster for Brazil, but I still think that is one of the messages for the coach who replaces Scolari. I think most of the players in that team last night will not play for Brazil again, but Oscar will and obviously Neymar will. Future Brazil line ups will have to include either Oscar or Neymar, or, the new coach will have to find a formula that allows both of them to contribute.

Haven't they both been playing and doing pretty well earlier? I haven't been watching much of Brazil's games, but I watched parts of the first one (the one where Fred took that incredibly ridiculous dive), and Oscar was very good, maybe the best player of the match.

 

[Borek]

So far it looks like one of these matches that should start with penalties.

 

[WWGD]

The mistery of the gigantic new yellow mountain with billowing smoke in the city dump solved: a million+ Brazilian futbol team t-shirts.

 

[Reshma]

Aww...such a nice gesture!

Perhaps Off-topic, but thumbs up to the Japanese fans for their outstanding gesture of cleaning up the stadium after their loss to Ivory Coast:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...er-losing-21-against-ivory-coast-9539793.html

 

[Ken Natton]

Haven't they both been playing and doing pretty well earlier? I haven't been watching much of Brazil's games, but I watched parts of the first one (the one where Fred took that incredibly ridiculous dive), and Oscar was very good, maybe the best player of the match.

Okay Fredrik, maybe you are right. I have to say that my general feeling about Oscar, when I have seen him playing for Chelsea, has been that he isn’t really all that good. He seemed to me to be more hype than genuine quality. There were some of the earlier matches in the World Cup where he barely seemed to be mentioned – you could almost have forgotten that he was on the pitch. As I said, it was an impression that seemed to me to be supported by some of the comments on earlier matches from the pundits on British television. But my feeling on Tuesday, even before he scored, was that he had been one of the few Brazilians to actually show some belief and some fight, and it just seemed that Neymar’s absence might not have been entirely irrelevant.