2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Thread

[Camikaze]

Not for me.

I imagine this view is somewhat shaped by you, unlike most of the world (i.e. the qualifier of 'cup'), being a supporter of a team that's reached the semi-finals the last three times. I don't think those fortunate circumstances you find yourself in give you a greater claim to defining the 'purpose' of the tournament.

 

[Wrymouth3]

It annoys me when people say that weak teams shouldn't be in a world cup. I mean, it's a World Cup. World = whole world represented. Cup = unlikely run of results from "weak" underdogs who are in the form of their lives. That's what makes World Cups so exciting and entertaining! It's not supposed to be a showcase of the best footballing talent on the planet, it's supposed to be a World. Cup.

Right, and with the way the qualification system is set up, there are obviously going to be teams that are worse than others. Obviously it isn't a showcase of the best talent on the planet, but why shouldn't it be? I point out the example of the miracle League Cup run of Bradford City, they beat Arsenal in a fluke match and then get pummelled 5-0 by Swansea. Teams will have lucky runs or weak competition. Should FIFA change the qualification system is for another discussion, but i'm not holding my breath for such a genius organization led by Sepp Blatter (shudders) to make such a decision regarding future logistics.

 

[BirraImperial]

Give the little guys the chance to prove themselves. Football is boring when only the big guys get to play. Everyone loves an underdog story.

 

[Wrymouth3]

Give the little guys the chance to prove themselves. Football is boring when only the big guys get to play. Everyone loves an underdog story.

I agree, you make a fair point.

 

[Wrymouth3]

Mexico has turned the corner with Miguel 'El Piojo' Herrera at the helm. I think Mexico is looking better than the US team at the moment.

And just as you say this .

 

[Gucumatz]

You can only polish a turd so much. Mexico is not tournament ready and doesn't have the talent to compete, even in the relatively easy group they got

 

[BirraImperial]

Did Italy really drew 1-1 with Luxembourg?? Am I reading this right??

 

[BirraImperial]

Bad news for England: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain limped out the field during the friendly against Ecuador and it's feared that he has suffered a ligament injury. If this is confirmed, it would be quite a blow. Link.

 

[Mise]

Not the Ox!

 

[MacAttack]

Did Italy really drew 1-1 with Luxembourg?? Am I reading this right??

Luxembourg, the sleeping giant.

 

[MacAttack]

oh yeah, and the WORLD CUP IS NEXT WEEK!

 

[Arwon]

A nice piece about the end of Australia's golden generation

If Cristiano Ronaldo pontificates over every header with the ceremony and self-regard of an 18th-century monarch waving to the peasants from his palace balcony, Cahill heads the ball with something more like the nuggety resolve of a local politician giving a speech about pension cuts to a community hall filled with people called Norm and Bev. It’s all sh*t and sticks, small picture, borderline illegal stuff – a nudge here, a sharp-elbowed run there. And the goal, when it does arrive, always has an air of improbability about it, with only the faintest suggestion of a correspondence between what Cahill did in the lead-up and the ball hitting the back of the net.

Cahill’s great talent, if anything, has been to make himself inconspicuous; it’s been a non-telegraphed talent in the truest sense of the word. Unlike his more flashy contemporaries, 6ft-plus aristocrats of the front line towering above their competitors in a series of decorous leaps stage-managed for the highlights reel, Cahill’s headers have always emerged up and out of the tangle of bodies in the box, as if capturing the evolution of a collective kinetic mass rather than some deviation from it. The most typical of his goals have expressed less the exceptionalism of his talent than its utter normality; Cahill has stood out by not standing out at all.

In a way that’s appropriate, because along with Mark Bresciano – the other member of the golden generation being called to the national curtain in Brazil – Cahill captures the twilight of an era in which the defining feature of the Socceroos was a kind of ordinariness, and Australian football – struggling for recognition in a country dominated by the local football codes and unable even to cobble together a decent national club competition – still bore itself with a degree of humility.

 

[Mise]

I have a theory that you can tell a Guardian article from any 2 consecutive sentences chosen at random.

 

[Arwon]

I wonder if that still holds for the Australian Grauniad.

 

[Gucumatz]

Ribery ruled out for the world cup...

 

[BirraImperial]

Too many players injured, the WC should be delayed a couple of months after the seasons end in Europe /South America to allow the players to rest and heal.
EDIT: And now Marco Reus just went out injured...Man, they're falling down like flies!!

 

[kronic]

Losing Reus would be a big blow for Germany. I hope it's not that bad. We'll know by tomorrow. My expectations are already low though. Too many key players with injury issues.

 

[LoneRebel]

It seems like every year that there are those 3-4 teams that one wonders how they even qualified in the first place. It happened this year with Australia, Costa Rica, Cameroon, and Mexico. All of whom seem like very underwhelming and mystifying in terms of how good they actually are.

What, and not the USA?

 

[kronic]

Reus is out. Damn, he was the midfielder with the best form and a sure starter...

 

[salty mud]

Too many players injured, the WC should be delayed a couple of months after the seasons end in Europe /South America to allow the players to rest and heal.
EDIT: And now Marco Reus just went out injured...Man, they're falling down like flies!!

Reus is out. Damn, he was the midfielder with the best form and a sure starter...

Around the time of major tournaments this seems to happen to some degree or another. I suspect the clubs are pulling strings to keep the star players away from World Cups to prevent any injuries. And the best way to do that is to feign/exaggerate an injury.

I can tell a lot of players don't even care to play for their country. A good few England players are guilty of this.