FIFA World Cup 2014 - Final & 3rd Place Play-off [12th - 13th July] **spoilers**

The BBC's coverage drew a bigger audience, averaging 12.1 million viewers and peaking with 16.7 million during the match's final five minutes.

ITV averaged 2.9 million viewers, peaking at 3.9 million in the last 10 minutes before the 90-minute whistle.
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Maybe ITV might actually take note no one likes Chiles or adverts.

Or crappy online stream quality.
 
Congrats to Germany. In my opinion the most deserving team won the tournament.

Agree with the general sentiment that the tournament was at its best in the Group stages when games were coming thick and fast and the play was open and attacking in its nature. Even England played their part in that.

However, I think its fair to assert that we haven't seen a really great side or too many emerging stars. There was too much hyperbole about the likes of Dirk Kuyt who i thought was busy but awful in almost every match I saw. Robben and van Persie totally faded in the tournament after their victory over Spain. In fact as a United fan I wonder just how effective RvP will be next season as he looked rubbish in the last few matches.

The tournament will be remembered for Germany humbling a very poor Brazil side, Messi under performing when it mattered, Saurez's bite and another abject failure from England.

Few of the established stars of World football really did themselves credit. Players that impressed me were

Pirlo (but only really vs England)
Thiago Silva
Manuel Neuer
Philip Lahm
James Rodrigeuz
Tim Cahill
Daley Blind
Javier Mascherano
Herrera (Mexico)
Valbeuna (France)
Vidal (chile)
Yedlin (USA)
Muller (Germany)

I suppose I got a fair bit of enjoyment but it definitely felt like it fizzled out a bit. Lets hope that the upcoming domestic season is as competitive as last year.
 
There is a huge difference between rubbish and simple not involved. Robben wasn't poor against the Argies, he had 6 touches in the first half and attempted one pass. This is because when Sneijder/Kuyt had the chance to pass/cross to them... they simply didn't.

If Robben/RVP had loads of the ball and did nothing useful with it that is one thing and on them(to some degree, obviously with support from midfielders in/around the box there is more space). But those two simply didn't receive the ball from the midfield players behind them.... basically at all. This was entirely down to the players behind them. RVP was great overall when he had the ball, in games where you barely get a touch you look less good when you finally get a touch, that is also natural. RVP will have no issue for Utd..... as long as they don't buy Kuyt or Sneijder ;)
 
A lot of Messi fans around the internet seem to be already arguing that he "carried Argentina to final", I don't understand that argument at all.

Argentina had what was probably the best defense in the tournament, it's not like they were conceding 2-3 goals a game and Messi was banging goals in at the other end to make up for it.

If Messi contributed significantly to Argentina's (few) goals then you can give him some credit but that was his role, it's not like he exceeded all expectation.

If Argentina had defended poorly they would have gone out early on because there striker force was nothing special. IMO it was their solid defending that has carried them to the final (and very nearly won them it).
 
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There is the argument to be made that everyone else played crap because Messi was there.

Barca played better without Messi this season, they were more fluid, they were less limited. WHen Messi came back, particularly with this half arsing it, anonymous for 20 minute spells style, the team looked stifled. When Messi is in the team everyone looks to Messi and only Messi. When he doesn't do anything the team look clueless. Without him Barca didn't have that crutch, they just played on their own. They didn't look to pass to a single player and played more expansive football and looked more dangerous over the course of 90 minutes. Messi came back and not just Messi but the entire team played in fits and starts, 2 mins of good attacks, then Messi goes quite and the team did nothing till he came back in to it.

Argentina played VERY similarly, looked dead at times then Messi woke up for a few minutes and they looked like they might do something... they died again.

Messi to me looks to be carrying a significant problem, ongoing injury that isn't healed, permanent problem, badly healed injury because they/he didn't just rest it when it first happened, who knows. But Aguero looks the same, in and out of games as he came back from a hamstring injury also, then reinjured, as Messi kept getting. he looks crap compared to his pre injury form at City.

Ronaldo somewhat similar, hamstring problem, hasn't looked free in his running at all and was great in bursts and anonymous for spells. However, Portugal had crap players, without Ronaldo they would be nothing. Without Messi Argentina have a lot of quality, but they all looked crap.

Either way, club/country all playing the injuries poorly. City kept rushing Aguero back, Barca or Messi kept coming back when he clearly wasn't ready. It was like 9 months after the initial injury they did the whole "okay he's not going to play for 2-3 months" thing, before then he was playing and breaking down. His playing all summer in dodgy charity games was utterly ridiculous considering his repeated injuries at the end of the previous season.
 
World Cup moments re-created in 8-bit art

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28292902

KudBhSD.png


:cool:
 
People really need to realise that, anyone on here can get a job with Opta or any other index, and they'll have you sit down infront of a game and record everything that you think with your personal opinion, happened. One guy see's a tackle and thinks a player won a 50/50, another guy thinks it was a normal tackle. 5 of them in a season and you get a player who either stands out for 50/50 tackles, or doesn't.

You get games where one pundit will say player X was crap, and another pundit will say player X was brilliant. Same goes for the guys recording the stats, personal opinion influences loads of stats. 10 guys think was it Oscar deserved a penalty, another 10 guys see him drag his leg and cause the contact and call it a dive. Which gets recorded on Opta... random.

Kroos wasn't the best player at the tournament. You'll get say against a poorer team a 2-0 lead then the central midfielders waste time passing it around like retards, safe, simple, does nothing but pumps stats way up.

Have you ever seen Iniesta/Xavi towards the end of a game they are killing off literally stand 5 yards away and pass back and fourth say 5 times in the space of a few seconds. Central midfielders stats constantly get pumped up, Song used to do that a lot, worthless most of the time but great passing stats... Opta/other indexes don't put any weight into each pass. That is where personal opinion comes in.

For me Kroos was woeful in the final, under pressure he conceded possession made terrible mistakes, provided nothing offensively of defensively in the entire game where other players did. 58 passes in a dead game against Portugal, or the 5 key mistakes he makes in the final... same weight under Opta/everything else. My personal opinion from watching the games. under no pressure Kroos wasn't particularly impressive, under big pressure he was actually poor.

Even against Brazil he did absolutely nothing up till he scored the third goal, when Brazil fell to pieces after the second. Even the early pressure in the first half, Muller did more defensively than Kroos, and still more offensively.

Then this is before you even factor in the whole, advertising/sponsorship/stupidity of these things.

Popular players win MOTM awards more than unpopular ones, even if they had the much better game. Player who scores one but was otherwise crap wins MOTM's when a guy who was brilliant for 90 mins in defence, attack, whatever, gets nothing. Half of these things are made up, they are all subject to miss interpretation by the people recording all these things. Three pundits who work together watching maybe 5 games a week together still often disagree on almost every major decision........ Opta/the rest are just the same.
 
drunkenmaster said:
People really need to realise that, anyone on here can get a job with Opta or any other index, and they'll have you sit down infront of a game and record everything that you think with your personal opinion, happened. One guy see's a tackle and thinks a player won a 50/50, another guy thinks it was a normal tackle. 5 of them in a season and you get a player who either stands out for 50/50 tackles, or doesn't.

You get games where one pundit will say player X was crap, and another pundit will say player X was brilliant. Same goes for the guys recording the stats, personal opinion influences loads of stats. 10 guys think was it Oscar deserved a penalty, another 10 guys see him drag his leg and cause the contact and call it a dive. Which gets recorded on Opta... random.

Kroos wasn't the best player at the tournament. You'll get say against a poorer team a 2-0 lead then the central midfielders waste time passing it around like retards, safe, simple, does nothing but pumps stats way up.

Have you ever seen Iniesta/Xavi towards the end of a game they are killing off literally stand 5 yards away and pass back and fourth say 5 times in the space of a few seconds. Central midfielders stats constantly get pumped up, Song used to do that a lot, worthless most of the time but great passing stats... Opta/other indexes don't put any weight into each pass. That is where personal opinion comes in.

For me Kroos was woeful in the final, under pressure he conceded possession made terrible mistakes, provided nothing offensively of defensively in the entire game where other players did. 58 passes in a dead game against Portugal, or the 5 key mistakes he makes in the final... same weight under Opta/everything else. My personal opinion from watching the games. under no pressure Kroos wasn't particularly impressive, under big pressure he was actually poor.

Even against Brazil he did absolutely nothing up till he scored the third goal, when Brazil fell to pieces after the second. Even the early pressure in the first half, Muller did more defensively than Kroos, and still more offensively.

Then this is before you even factor in the whole, advertising/sponsorship/stupidity of these things.

Popular players win MOTM awards more than unpopular ones, even if they had the much better game. Player who scores one but was otherwise crap wins MOTM's when a guy who was brilliant for 90 mins in defence, attack, whatever, gets nothing. Half of these things are made up, they are all subject to miss interpretation by the people recording all these things. Three pundits who work together watching maybe 5 games a week together still often disagree on almost every major decision........ Opta/the rest are just the same.
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What is your point?
 
World Rankings.

1) Germania 1761 punti (2)
2) Argentina 1689 (5)
3) Olanda 1525 (15)
4) Colombia 1492 (8)
5) Belgio 1401 (11)
6) Uruguay 1330 (7)
7) Spagna 1229 (1)
8) Brasile 1220 (3)
9) Svizzera 1216 (6)
10) Francia 1202 (17)
11) Portogallo 1148 (4)
12) Cile 1090 (14)
13) Grecia 1085 (12)
14) Italia 1056 (9)
15) Usa 989 (13)
16) Croazia 955 (18)
17) Messico 930 (20)
18) Costarica 927 (28)
19) Bosnia Erzegovina 917 (21)
20) Inghilterra 911 (10)

It's in Italian but you should understand :p
 
mmj_uk said:
A lot of Messi fans around the internet seem to be already arguing that he "carried Argentina to final", I don't understand that argument at all.

Argentina had what was probably the best defense in the tournament, it's not like they were conceding 2-3 goals a game and Messi was banging goals in at the other end to make up for it.

If Messi contributed significantly to Argentina's (few) goals then you can give him some credit but that was his role, it's not like he exceeded all expectation.

If Argentina had defended poorly they would have gone out early on because there striker force was nothing special. IMO it was their solid defending that has carried them to the final (and very nearly won them it).
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Yes I have to quote this for truth, why do people not understand this? Their midfield ain't half bad either. I'm hoping for another final between the two and Arg to get revenge
 
BBC news just showed live coverage of the German team arriving at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to 500,000 pairs of hands clapping.
 
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