Brazil is through.... by an inch.... on the last penalty kick that hit too much of the post and went across the goal instead of going in.

Goodbye Chile, you played your hearts out.

so which country is most likely to open up the rioting and looting phase ?

Mexico is a very likely candidate... lead until what 86th minute and give up 2 goals in the final 10 minutes....

Good try guys. Thought that had the upset.

Sounds like the blues season

Go to hell, Miguel. If everyone is against Mexico, maybe it's because you bitch moan and complain at the slightest provocation. Maybe it's because your thuggish fans won't stop with their gay slurs every time the opposing goalie takes a goal kick, or when they throw cups of piss at opposing players or pelt them with garbage whenever they try to take a corner kick at the Azteca. You were lucky to even get into this tournament. Now shut your piehole and go home. 

Speaking at his post match press conference, Herrera raged: "Out of the four matches here in all of them the refereeing was disastrous."Robben did three dives and he should have been cautioned. You should caution a guy who is trying to cheat, and then if Robben did it again he would be sent off."And why did FIFA choose a referee from the same confederation as Holland instead of one from South America, Asia or Africa?"The doubtful decisions were always against us. We have to say it in capital letters, in three matches we had horrible refereeing. The man with the whistle knocked us."I want the referee committee to take a look and that the referee goes home just like us." 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2014/mexico-coach-miguel-herrera-left-3786393#ixzz365BlDIXW 
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Last edited by artie_fufkin (6/29/2014 8:49 pm)

It's the Mexican soccer mentality that I can't stand. They think they're the North American version of Brazil, but they've never really won anything. They were like the Ottoman Empire. They ruled CONCACAF for about 50 years, but that was because there were no real contenders except for a bunch of small Central American countries. Then when the U.S. started taking soccer more seriously, became a threat and eventually excdeeded them, they couldn't handle it and went into denial.
The most impressive thing about Mexican soccer - their home winning streak - was mostly a product of the altitude and pollution in Mexico City and their shitty fans intimidating opposing players by chucking garbage at them. And now that's been trashed. So they really have nothing left.

Nigeria folds late. Sad too, looked like they were doing well, but completely broke down on two corner kick plays there at the end.

windwalker wrote:

Saw a number of posts on Twitter regarding USA's "run" in the WC. As far as I know they played 4 matches and won 1, and even the one win was referred to by at least one poster as a phenomenon called "Ghana-rrhea". Our capacity for self-delusion when it comes to soccer is amazing.

That said, please tell me that the France-Germany match will be played during drinking hours, there is no way I'm missing that. As the learned sports saying goes, it's hard to punk a country three times in one century.

I have no idea what to make of that post. It seems very anti US, and pretty clearly geared at me and/or artie.

Perhaps it's geared towards the Twitter crowd, I'd suggest you post it there.

They were a better team, but the game was not beyond us. 

The frustrating thing for me is that the US has another gear entirely when they are desperate. I would much rather play that desperate game where we're exciting and creative. We had Belgium on the ropes at the end there and were generating all the chances we wanted. They were still trying to counter, but it wasn't working. 

I saw that same crap in Ghana. We only attack when we need to win.... That's a lousy way to play. Attack until you get a 2 goal lead.

Fors, I certainly do not want to counter anyone who finds the sport unenjoyable. It's a lot like watching trap defense first hockey, and it gets tighter and tighter as the tournament progresses. Soccer on a world level requires an offensive player to give a defensive player better initial positioning, and beat him anyway to generate a chance. 

I played Soccer for about 12 years total. I can do some of the fancy footwork with a ball at my feet, or even rolling slowly. While I'm sure most Americans chalk this up as "dribbling" and pay it no more attention than basketball dribbling, there's a massive amount of talent keeping the ball away from a defender who's pressing. 

For diving and fake injury, I hope you watched the Belgium US game, because that was one of the cleaner matches. Very little faking shown there, and to their credit, Belgium didn't do much time wasting (short of a couple of goal kicks that took a while to get struck), even with the lead. I found myself highly respectful of them for playing the game the right way, despite the advantages they could have taken. 

The rules are fine to me, although I wish they would work out something better for offsides (or just throw it out entirely, the game would be wide open if they removed it). 

What you miss however in your view of the sport is that a lot of these players run miles during a match. You simply cannot sprint for 90 minutes of a soccer match, and there is more focus on not getting torched on defense than there is in trying to torch the opponent. Forwards do not come very far back, and some are actually told to rest so they have nearly 100% energy when they need to make a run. It's a nuance of the sport, and lost on most Americans, but there's a very tactical plan to it. 

However, these nuances are generally considered boring, unless you know enough to appreciate the delicacy that goes into nearly every touch. Someone kicks a ball to you that comes to your chest. That first touch can put you by the defender, or get your dispossessed with only inches seperating the two. To me, it's beautiful. Watching the Netherlands first goal against Spain was a work of art equal to Picasso. A 52 yard curling aerial pass that hit Persie in stride perfectly as he lept for it, and put enough height to get over a goalie, but dropped fast enough to get into the goal. 

We could work on that for 10 years, and only get that result once or twice, if ever. 

Again, fors. I completely understand anyone else not "getting" soccer. Many people find tennis or golf boring as well. You'll find this a bit strange, but baseball bores the hell out of me until the pennant races are established, and the team is playing for something meaningful after the All-Star game. I can't stand 162 game seasons, it's just way too long to try to be interested in every day for me. 

Glad I'm not the only one. When Haladay goes against Carpenter in the playoffs and 1 run is scored, I'm hanging on every pitch. 

If that shit happens in May, I could care less.

But yeah for me it's just about appreciating the difficulty these guys are putting on display with the dribbling, and connections for offensive threat passes where you're trying to torch a back line of world class defenders. Seeing someone make a run, and watching the guy with the ball put it in a 1.5 foot wide window with the right pace that it reaches him. The touch needed for this is really pretty amazing. When I was playing JV, we were just getting to the point where header goals were something we were attempting from corner kicks. Every so often we'd get lucky and hit someone with a standing header, but nothing like the caliber of crosses covering the distances you see in the world cup.

It's one of those sports that you almost have to have done at a decent to mid level to really appreciate what the professionals are able to accomplish.
 

don.rob11 wrote:

I know zero about soccer, so I have a question that has probably been asked before . What are the disadvantages of starting a clock at 90 min. counting down to 0 . Say without or without rules for clock stoppages ?

The best answer is because it's always been done that way and they're not going to change now, especially to accommodate Americans who can't appreciate their traditions.

 

Last edited by artie_fufkin (7/02/2014 5:52 pm)

And windy, sorry man. I get a little touchy when I think somebody is shitting all over my team right after a loss.