World Cup

[Panther Al]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one here that's into futbol. It even looks like I'm not the only United States of American soccer fan!

My two foreign sojourn teams, Uruguay and Ecuador, are out. My home country is out too. So, I'm going to pull for the int'l team that has the most players from my club team, Arsenal [of London]- that's Germany (Per Mertesaker, Lukas Podolski, and Mesut Ozil). That said, France has two current Gunners (Olivier Giroud and Laurent Kocielny) and Belgium has one (Thomas Vermaelen). I've always been a fan of the way Brazil plays, so I wouldn't be upset to see them win it all, and Messi is just brilliant to watch, so the same holds true for Argentina. It's a veritable feast of football.

Ah... another Gunner. Knew I liked ya for a reason...


I'll waves the little French flag for a I work for the French, but... Being born in Germany, guess who is getting the large one flown

[mikeo80]

Sorry. I guess I am brain washed with American Football. I just do NOT get soccer. Oh well. I am glad the USA team did as well as they did.

My $0.02

Mike

[headquarters]

Trying the game on

Football ( soccer) like any sport needs to grow on you. Also it helps if you try playing it to get a feel for the difficulty level of the feats you see on tv.

I am quite fond of American /Gridiron football and I really like rugby union football. Neither sport is common here so building up knowledge of the rule and watching games on the internet etc got me started.

The US did great - had my support.

Sorry. I guess I am brain washed with American Football. I just do NOT get soccer. Oh well. I am glad the USA team did as well as they did.

My $0.02

Mike

[Rainbow Six]

Germany - Brazil.

Unbelievable.

Just...unbelievable.

[Raellus]

Such a disappointing performance by Brazil. No shape, no tactics, no heart. I feel bad for the fans. It's hard to assess Germany's performance because there was so little opposition. Still, Germany looked organized and strong, up and down the pitch. They've got to be the favorite to take the cup now.

[Cdnwolf]

So a few more Germans will have to lay low for the next little while in Brazil. History repeats itself.

[headquarters]

Brazil - Germany match

It was a shocking preformance imho. The first goal promised an openm match with real action. The second was a bit of a startler the third and fourth the toll of funeral bells for the Brazilian dream and the signal that he match would not be the nailbiting drama to be expected.

Brazil is - was - rated as the futbol nation super power. Germany too has always been rated as a strong side at least as far as organization, tactics and will to win - but Brazil is supposed to have both organization and the artistry of the South American footballer.

Definently time to rethink. Germany has steadily developed a very complete team the last say 12-15 years with exellent technical players, and I think they will win it.

The superpowers of old are Brazil, Argentina and Italy. I think the writing is on the wall for them for a few world cups at least.

Funny how it now seems that Argentina is the underdog ( to me). I guess I will root for them - though Germany is clearly the strongest side.

Germany - Argentina in the final!

[Rainbow Six]

Sorry, my post last night was probably one of the least coherent I've ever posted to this forum or its predecessors but I was in utter disbelief at the time (it was about fifteen minutes before full time).

I've been watching football for nearly forty years and I've never seen a match like that ever. Brazil were terrible...Raellus is correct in stating they lacked tactics...when you're three nil down you don't send your defence charging up the park and thus leave yourself exposed at the back...but at that level...the Semi Final of a World Cup...to have that sort of scoreline...just beggars belief...

But that shouldn't detract from Germany's performance, which was a fantastic team display. And when the Brazillians did manage to muster an attack Neuer was outstanding in the German goal. And much kudos to the Brazillian fans who applauded Schurrle's second goal.

[Cdnwolf]

It was a shocking preformance imho. The first goal promised an openm match with real action. The second was a bit of a startler the third and fourth the toll of funeral bells for the Brazilian dream and the signal that he match would not be the nailbiting drama to be expected.

Brazil is - was - rated as the futbol nation super power. Germany too has always been rated as a strong side at least as far as organization, tactics and will to win - but Brazil is supposed to have both organization and the artistry of the South American footballer.

Definently time to rethink. Germany has steadily developed a very complete team the last say 12-15 years with exellent technical players, and I think they will win it.

The superpowers of old are Brazil, Argentina and Italy. I think the writing is on the wall for them for a few world cups at least.

Funny how it now seems that Argentina is the underdog ( to me). I guess I will root for them - though Germany is clearly the strongest side.

Germany - Argentina in the final!

I think Netherlands is the real underdog.

[Raellus]

I enjoyed the final and I think that, in the end, the best team won. Hats of to das champions.

[Rainbow Six]

Agreed. Well deserved.

And someone has just reminded me that their next competitive game will be in September when they play their the first qualifier for Euro 2016.

Against Scotland.

Somehow I'm not overly confident about our chances...

Seriously though, well done Germany.

[kato13]

I don't get that if a match ends the overtime session they go to penalty kicks. To me that would be like if a tied baseball game was decided by a homerun contest or a tied basketball game being decided by everyone taking a free throw. It is a totally different execution when compared to a majority of scores within a game.

Personally I would like to see fewer players on the field in the overtime sessions. This would open up the field and allow more scoring.

I have been saying this for decades, but I see now someone at Forbes agrees me. (In addition to being mentioned in 2006 by FIFA's president apparently.)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimpagels/2014/06/30/a-simple-alternative-to-soccers-atrocious-penalty-kick-shootout/

I realize that the NHL uses penalty shots during the regular season, so perhaps such a system would be reserved only for the playoffs (as the NHL goes to unlimited OT during those) or high profile games like the world cup.

Figured with FIFA in the news this thread could use a bump

The reason I found it was that the NHL is going to use a reduced player overtime instead of shootouts (yay \o/ ) and I remembered that I posted about that here.

NHL Board of Governors OKs 3-on-3 OT

[Cdnwolf]

Figured with FIFA in the news this thread could use a bump

The reason I found it was that the NHL is going to use a reduced player overtime instead of shootouts (yay \o/ ) and I remembered that I posted about that here.

NHL Board of Governors OKs 3-on-3 OT

Of course there is the FIFA WOMEN'S World Cup going on... in Canada... Down to the final eight teams this weekend. Canada takes on England but the US gets to face China. Germany can win it all and make a Mens and Womens Championship season.

[Twilight2000v3MM]

Being Argentinian I have to say even tho we lost it was a good game and Germany came in hard the last 10-15 min. Well played.