World Cup 2014

think the hardest I laughed at the danny baker one was the bulldog mascot bit

U.S. soccer coach Juergen Klinsmann says American players can have sex during World Cup

Can't be bothered to poll it, but who do we think will win?

Argentina

okay, partly hope they will win and partly clearly they have a shout

I'd like to see Argentina or Brazil win but i have a feeling it could be Spain again.

Depends on the draw and I haven't looked clearly at it, but Spain are on paper the best, but could be taken down by a determined and/or inspired performance from Germany, Brazil or Argentina. Argentina's squad is lopsided but their attacking options are better than anyone else's.

I don't really think that looks like a World Cup-winning Brazil squad, midfield in particular, but, still home advantage. Something at the back of my head keeps saying Germany though.

I've barely watched any international football in four years so stoked for all this.

It's certainly very open. Germany have been fairly underwhelming in a string of recent friendlies and look quite light in terms of striking options, but obviously have a great midfield.

Hopes for the WC:

- Messi to have at the least a good WC.

- See an interesting team - e.g. Belgium, but any others too do well

- See a team or a player surprise/come out of the blue

The last two items is what most would want out of any WC.

It's possible that I'm fatigued by seeing most of them play week in week out in the Premiership but Belgium strike me as a team who will utterly fail to justify any of the hype.

There's nothing more exciting than seeing a great young player explode onto a World Cup though.

Same here, what are the other teams beyoond the top 4-5 people are looking at?

Mostly want to see Eng utterly humiliated at the group stages but I do like Woy...

dunno if England humiliation is fully enjoyable when it leads to the same old point-missing autopsies, but usually after a couple of truly cynical displays of boredom and self-aggrandisement from the usual suspects i'm ready for the coup de grace

there are players in the England squad who i'd like to get a chance to do something constructive, i guess

They have a tough group but i'd love Bosnia to do well.

don't feel like there's much potential for surprise packages in this lot. i like to see the West African teams do well.

There's definitely a part of me which would just love to see Messi take the tournament by storm and outscore everyone en route to the Cup, if only to settle all the debates about his status as the GOAT.

Starting to get irrationally hopeful about England's prospects as well, I never learn.

i think Ladbrokes spike the water around now

Yeah I don't think Eng we'll be humiliated really. The last WC might be a one-off.

It'll be some 'heroics' to another pen failure instead. The usual nonsense.

If I had to put money down, I'd say Spain, theyve got the best squad. Uruguay have potential too, they could go all the way. I can't see England getting out of their group but I've no idea what Italy are like right now, but its Italy, theyre always decent.

Italy tend to start slow but yeah i wdn't put my own money on England getting out of the group

Uruguay have potential too, they could go all the way

Really? What makes you say that?!

Japan is a good pick if you want an underdog that also plays nice football

Uruguay = Suarez, Cavani, great defence

backing spain at the last few big tournaments has served me well and i think they have one more in them. portugal, france and colombia all have the draws to go well. the latter will obv miss falcao but look like they have enough options up front to cope w/ gutierrez, martinez and bacca. had a few quid on benzema top scorer too.

I'm psyched as fuck for this WC I've seen hardly any football all season

psyched but with reservations, that heat is surely going to sap the life out of a lot games

Uruguay will struggle if Suarez isn't 100% fit. England are no better though and this isn't a vintage Italy team. The group is wide open.

I'm interested to see how Algeria get on as well. Korea aren't great and Russia are Russia so they might be a good outside bet for second place behind Belgium.

can't see flakers like the Belgian individuals ever going beyond first knockout

Prevailing attitude amongst Italian fans seems to be one of pessimism - they still think they can take us because they're well aware that we're shite, but they're definitely not confident in their squad. I watched the game against Ireland in a bar with a few mates last week, and they were really pretty dire.

Ordinarily I would never back England to get anything against a team like Italy, but it does feel like we've improved slightly since the penalty loss at Euro 2010, have more attacking options, players in better form and so on, while received wisdom here is that this Italian team is going backwards as the squad ages and that the youngsters aren't reliable. Everyone here also seems gutted about Montolivo, I hadn't previously realised they considered him to be such a big player for them.

So maybe England in with a fighting chance in the opening game if we go out with guns blazing? Welp, there I go again!

Theres no big Serie A scandal this year to get them riled up either

Opening game winner will be the heat = they shouldn't bother, so going to be 0-0.

it's good to have strong hosts, & I'd like to see a couple of south american teams in the semis even if the brazil/argentina final doesn't materialize. I also like that there's a replay of the previous final on the second day. be interesting to see how easily the argentine defence holds out in a p weak group. feel like italy &/or ivory coast might quietly creep into the QFs. group g has the best scope for decent teams getting humiliated & belgium/russia/korea seems v watchable & unpredictable in group h.

the important award for best kit might go to france for the v french collar, but I like the inverted algerian kits & their lovely green. argentina's kit is a massive downgrade, 2 white stripes was the truth. cameroon kit is p baroque, the colombian stripe is good, hoping for some good haircut action as always ofc

Should maybe note my above post comes with the caveat that when these Italian fans say "We're not that good" they mean "We probably won't be able to win the cup this year", whereas for England fans the same statement would mean "Shite we'll be lucky to even win a game".

Whatevs, I am an England fan and I cannot help getting giddy at this time of year. This is the first tournament in years where (aside from losing every game / losing BADLY to Italy and Uruguay) they can't really disgrace themselves, but just getting through the group will feel like a reasonable achievement in and of itself.

Think Spain may not get out of their group, and if they do will lose 1-0 in one of their first 2 knockout games. France or Brazil to win with Switzerland or Croatia surprise semi-finalists. Not that bothered who wins as long as it's not England.

It bodes well for England if ITV hire John Terry as a pundit, he'll be there waiting in full kit to join the World Cup victory celebrations.

Switzerland?!

Could see the Netherlands missing out if Chile turn up. I think Spain's style will suit the heat better.

Cote D'Ivoire run to the semi-finals would be fun.

The groups are stupidly imbalanced as well. I really don't understand why Switzerland are seeded at all.

they did beat the tournament winners last World Cup tbf

they're 8th in the world

anyway I have 1.50 e/w on Toure at 150/1 to be top scorer so I would quite like a Cote D'Ivoire run too

Portugal are third in the world and have a better record at international tournaments than Switzerland. I won't pretend to know how these things are worked out.

Portugal were 11th when the seeding was decided in October last year, i think.

14th, in fact, but it does show how quickly rankings can change.

Switzerland seem like the lower key version of Belgium. Drnic Xhaka and Shaqiri should be exciting. Hard to root for a team with a center back pairing of Senderos and Djouro though. Hope Fabian Schar starts instead.

Switzerland also have one of the highest rated young full backs (Rodriguez) and three central midfielders that play together at Napoli.

Manchester United's Adnan Januzaj has had his first cap for Belgium taken away after FIFA wiped last month's 5-1 win over Luxembourg from the official records.

Coach Marc Wilmots made seven substitutions during the May 26 World Cup warm-up in Genk - one more than the quota permitted by world football's governing body.

The decision means that Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku's hat-trick in the match has been erased, while back-up goalkeeper Sammy Bossut also loses his first cap.

does the US have any chance of advancing beyond group play?

Ronaldo is carrying an injury so...maybe?

just creeping over the line with that Julian Green goal

I would like imago to present my FF world cup trophy to me plz

I was surprised by how aggressive argentina were yesterday, I expected them to hang back more but they got forward quite a lot. ridiculously fine margins in the end, more than any other final I can remember

fine margin was higuain being a choke artist

if ye signed him tomorrow you'd be gargling out of him

Belgian 15 minutes of fame hunter girl is back, she did the celeb kickoff for a match in the Belgian competition.

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/949/Belgisch-Voetbal/article/detail/1979320/2014/08/03/WK-babe-Axelle-verzorgt-aftrap-in-Brugge.dhtml

fittingly, that link took me to an advertisement for the newspaper :D

Remove your hln.be cookie & try again

Ismael, you're not really worried about LFC are you? They'll be fine.

― pandemic, Thursday, 26 June 2014 14:41 (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thread is a total fucking joy obv

We hadn't sold Suarez then had we?

I miss IK :(

Darragh got me going thru that thread now.

poor old kuyt y'day, first half patrolled the wing with no shade, then 2nd half LVG had him swap wings so he was doing it again!

― pandemic, Monday, June 30, 2014 9:50 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no point coddling a workhorse

― do u like green ez & jam (darraghmac), Monday, June 30, 2014 9:55 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

noticed that, like his whole job was to soak up the u/v

― clockpuncher (Noodle Vague), Monday, June 30, 2014 10:56 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bit of the old u/v, a clockworkhorse oraanje

― do u like green ez & jam (darraghmac), Monday, June 30, 2014 11:01 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

our old friend louis van, rvp all nonsense now

― Ismael Klata, Monday, June 30, 2014 11:17 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my god what a post by me there

i just spent an hour reading this thread, cheers guys

feel like a bergkampesque revisitation of what I was thinking as I typed it, my process etc is in order

deems ilx is just an extension of fives for u isn't it

give me the tools and I'll finish the job

the lads at footy dont believe for a second about the brilliance of my message board posts obv

ha

https://youtu.be/Yc76VhT2a6U

rte2 ran a very fine programme today with every goal from this excellent tournament