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+1,and waste so much time in front of the telly
FIFA World Cup 2014 - Final & 3rd Place Play-off [12th - 13th July] **spoilers**
- Thread starter Robbo
- Start date
Wonderful World Cup 
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Germany were fantastic throughout. GG Germany, WP. Argentina were worthy finalists, Messi looked a shadow of himself a ~year~ prior. Heartbroken for the Argentina squad.
2018 can not come round quick enough, absolutely something special the World Cup. Pinnacle of football.
Love football. Hate FIFA
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.Germany were fantastic throughout. GG Germany, WP. Argentina were worthy finalists, Messi looked a shadow of himself a ~year~ prior. Heartbroken for the Argentina squad.
2018 can not come round quick enough, absolutely something special the World Cup. Pinnacle of football.
Love football. Hate FIFA
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First time betting etc etc. Wasn't really clear.
I know that for next time now.
(If there's a next time). I was just expecting it to be a bit more straight forward.
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Just curious how much they lost on WC organization?
I wouldn't agree with that comment about the World Cup being the pinnacle of the football, that is the Champions League buy a long shot nowadays and is only going to get further ahead of the World Cup.
A lot of the players at the World Cup looked knackered, Messi was awful to be honest, how he won best player only FIFA can tell.
The group stages were good, the knock out stages not so good apart from a couple of games and that 7-1 match, but that was more on how bad Brazil was.
Russia 2018 doesn't inspire one bit.
Caporegime
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They are popularity contests. At least the golden boot goes to the best goal scorer which isn't based on popularity. Shame though, if Germany attacked a bit more they would have won a couple of games more comfortably and given Muller more chances, he'd likely have taken him consecutive golden boot awards.
For me quite easily the best player in the tournament. There were so many games, particularly when the rest of the team was poor, where he was dragging them forwards and running harder and faster than anyone else, winning the ball in midfield, dragging them forwards. Did loads of defensive work in the games that required it, less so in this game, more in previous games, he got further back and covered for Lahm excellently if he got caught forward.
Schweinsteiger was amazing in the final, easily the best player on the pitch, so much so Argentina tried to win the game by injuring him which they should have gotten two red cards over. Lahm had been excellent all tournament but I thought he was pretty dire today, messed up attack after attack by refusing to pass or cross early. Sure try and go down the outside sometimes but he tried to delay the pass or only cross from the goal line and it failed pretty much every time. Oh well, still a quality player.
For me quite easily the best player in the tournament. There were so many games, particularly when the rest of the team was poor, where he was dragging them forwards and running harder and faster than anyone else, winning the ball in midfield, dragging them forwards. Did loads of defensive work in the games that required it, less so in this game, more in previous games, he got further back and covered for Lahm excellently if he got caught forward.
Schweinsteiger was amazing in the final, easily the best player on the pitch, so much so Argentina tried to win the game by injuring him which they should have gotten two red cards over. Lahm had been excellent all tournament but I thought he was pretty dire today, messed up attack after attack by refusing to pass or cross early. Sure try and go down the outside sometimes but he tried to delay the pass or only cross from the goal line and it failed pretty much every time. Oh well, still a quality player.
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It's because the journalists polled voted for him. It wasn't a FIFA decision.
Course silly me, FIFA can't influence the journalists, doh.
The golden ball winner should be decided more scientifically rather than asking a bunch of journalists (who spent all tournament fawning over Messi), even during the post match scenes when Germany were celebrating the director could hardly keep the camera off Messi.
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I'm fed up with monopoly of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to the best footballers on the planet. Fifa and Uefa should go to hell!
No, I didn't. Argentina's ability to progress was derived from a rock solid defence and Mascherano was the key component of that.
[TW]Sponge;26602222 said:
Its cool to hate on Messi these days, he looked drained after the quarters which is a shame. Played well all things considering imo. Masch was a beast in the semi and final though, top quaility.
Fantastic World Cup, thoroughly enjoyable. Final was actually decent as these things go aswell! Really looking forward to the next one, in 4 years time..!
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That's why I kept choosing elimination or progression, with Germany as the overall winners.
Ever since the group stages I thought the WC was awful, apart from the Belgium/USA game the football to watch was really poor. Pass, pass, pass, keep the ball, keep the ball, keep the ball, zzzz. Messi, and he rarely did it was the only guy who actually attempted to beat a man.
The Dutch were bigged up for their counter attacking football, against Argentina it must have been the worst attacking I've ever seen from a side.
Argentina were similar, just absolute trash, they perked up a bit in the final but I think that was due to Germany's high/slow backline.
There were very few that impressed me as a team, Germany, Columbia, USA were up there, the rest were down to individuals.
I'm not drawn into the hype Kroos receives neither, under pressure I find him poor, if he has plenty of time on the ball he picks out a pass, he's got nothing on Schweinsteiger and them two in the middle of the park was pretty painful watching from someone who craved a bit of entertainment!
Also, Higuain, this tournament has been poor, Arsenal did well not splashing out 40m on him. Aguero, worse and Palacio, the less the said the better! I feel sorry for Neymar and Messi playing in these teams, they're not helped at all.
I think only Schurrle was an outstanding player from the EPL, pretty poor that from our league.
Roll on club football
The Dutch were bigged up for their counter attacking football, against Argentina it must have been the worst attacking I've ever seen from a side.
Argentina were similar, just absolute trash, they perked up a bit in the final but I think that was due to Germany's high/slow backline.
There were very few that impressed me as a team, Germany, Columbia, USA were up there, the rest were down to individuals.
I'm not drawn into the hype Kroos receives neither, under pressure I find him poor, if he has plenty of time on the ball he picks out a pass, he's got nothing on Schweinsteiger and them two in the middle of the park was pretty painful watching from someone who craved a bit of entertainment!
Also, Higuain, this tournament has been poor, Arsenal did well not splashing out 40m on him. Aguero, worse and Palacio, the less the said the better! I feel sorry for Neymar and Messi playing in these teams, they're not helped at all.
I think only Schurrle was an outstanding player from the EPL, pretty poor that from our league.
Roll on club football
Ever since the group stages I thought the WC was awful, apart from the Belgium/USA game the football to watch was really poor. Pass, pass, pass, keep the ball, keep the ball, keep the ball, zzzz. Messi, and he rarely did it was the only guy who actually attempted to beat a man.
The Dutch were bigged up for their counter attacking football, against Argentina it must have been the worst attacking I've ever seen from a side.
Argentina were similar, just absolute trash, they perked up a bit in the final but I think that was due to Germany's high/slow backline.
There were very few that impressed me as a team, Germany, Columbia, USA were up there, the rest were down to individuals.
I'm not drawn into the hype Kroos receives neither, under pressure I find him poor, if he has plenty of time on the ball he picks out a pass, he's got nothing on Schweinsteiger and them two in the middle of the park was pretty painful watching from someone who craved a bit of entertainment!
Also, Higuain, this tournament has been poor, Arsenal did well not splashing out 40m on him. Aguero, worse and Palacio, the less the said the better! I feel sorry for Neymar and Messi playing in these teams, they're not helped at all.
I think only Schurrle was an outstanding player from the EPL, pretty poor that from our league.
Roll on club football
Suarez was in the EPL at the time he was outstanding
The golden ball is sponsered by Adidas so I think there maybe commercial pressures/incenctives on who it is awarded to.
EDIT
Just found this tweet
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Ever since the group stages I thought the WC was awful, apart from the Belgium/USA game the football to watch was really poor. Pass, pass, pass, keep the ball, keep the ball, keep the ball, zzzz. Messi, and he rarely did it was the only guy who actually attempted to beat a man.
The Dutch were bigged up for their counter attacking football, against Argentina it must have been the worst attacking I've ever seen from a side.
Argentina were similar, just absolute trash, they perked up a bit in the final but I think that was due to Germany's high/slow backline.
There were very few that impressed me as a team, Germany, Columbia, USA were up there, the rest were down to individuals.
I'm not drawn into the hype Kroos receives neither, under pressure I find him poor, if he has plenty of time on the ball he picks out a pass, he's got nothing on Schweinsteiger and them two in the middle of the park was pretty painful watching from someone who craved a bit of entertainment!
Also, Higuain, this tournament has been poor, Arsenal did well not splashing out 40m on him. Aguero, worse and Palacio, the less the said the better! I feel sorry for Neymar and Messi playing in these teams, they're not helped at all.
I think only Schurrle was an outstanding player from the EPL, pretty poor that from our league.
Roll on club football
Everything except Schurrle being excellent I agree with. Quality level tanked so badly after the group stage, boring game full of bad passes, timid play and girly managers playing no risk football.
Schurrle was crap in the final, that run down the wing was literally the first time he got the ball and just ran full speed down the wing. It was a great ball, but that was basically the first time he did that in almost 80 minutes of football.
Argentina weren't good defensively and Masch didn't do an awful lot IMHO, teams just refused to get at that defence, one time they banged down the wing on the left and they made a goal. The entire previous 80 mins Schurrle was on he got the ball and like Kuyt, refused to run at the fullback, every time, get the ball look around, pass backwards.
When he attacked he was great, but he spent the majority of every game he played being a huge girls blouse and not wanting to attack or put in effort. He was like Messi frankly, anonymous for 90% of his time on the pitch, looked brilliant when he could be bothered.
If teams got at Argentina throughout the tournament more then Messi's 2 minutes of great football and effort a game wouldn't have been enough to carry them through.
Thing is almost every single team that went from open attacking football in the group stage to timid "we can't lose because it's a knock out game" rubbish in the knock out stage..... lost. A team can fluke it's way to a win of a tournament via defensive nonsense, like Inter, once in a blue moon. But the teams that usually win are those that play like they aren't scared to lose. Something that the majority of teams in the knock out stage were in this tournament.
If teams opened up and attacked, Chile, Holland, Colombia to some degree, Costa Rica, it would have been better games at the least and likely some of those teams going further than they did.
Ever since the group stages I thought the WC was awful, apart from the Belgium/USA game the football to watch was really poor. Pass, pass, pass, keep the ball, keep the ball, keep the ball, zzzz. Messi, and he rarely did it was the only guy who actually attempted to beat a man.
The Dutch were bigged up for their counter attacking football, against Argentina it must have been the worst attacking I've ever seen from a side.
Argentina were similar, just absolute trash, they perked up a bit in the final but I think that was due to Germany's high/slow backline.
There were very few that impressed me as a team, Germany, Columbia, USA were up there, the rest were down to individuals.
I'm not drawn into the hype Kroos receives neither, under pressure I find him poor, if he has plenty of time on the ball he picks out a pass, he's got nothing on Schweinsteiger and them two in the middle of the park was pretty painful watching from someone who craved a bit of entertainment!
Also, Higuain, this tournament has been poor, Arsenal did well not splashing out 40m on him. Aguero, worse and Palacio, the less the said the better! I feel sorry for Neymar and Messi playing in these teams, they're not helped at all.
I think only Schurrle was an outstanding player from the EPL, pretty poor that from our league.
Roll on club football
pretty spot on from what I saw
For how young he is, Schurrle looks frightening (if he progresses at the same rate, which because he is German is likely too lol)
I agree that most matches after the last 16 were awful - all of the"big teams" (apart from Germany) just failed to turn up.
Not going to be a memorable WC for me. Quality in the quarters and beyond was lacking and dull to watch. Holland went downhill (tbh they deserved to be knocked out by Mexico...) - no idea what possessed them to play so defensively - would be interesting to see a stat for passes between the back four or back into their own half.
Brazil should have been KOed by Chile - then we would have seen a cracking Chile vs Columbia quarter final.
Things I enjoyed the most were probably Iran's performance against Argentina, Belgium vs USA, Germany vs Ghana and Algeria. Sure there were a lot of mistakes by players, but at least they were trying to win.
Not going to be a memorable WC for me. Quality in the quarters and beyond was lacking and dull to watch. Holland went downhill (tbh they deserved to be knocked out by Mexico...) - no idea what possessed them to play so defensively - would be interesting to see a stat for passes between the back four or back into their own half.
Brazil should have been KOed by Chile - then we would have seen a cracking Chile vs Columbia quarter final.
Things I enjoyed the most were probably Iran's performance against Argentina, Belgium vs USA, Germany vs Ghana and Algeria. Sure there were a lot of mistakes by players, but at least they were trying to win.