Kaizero

Almost their entire squad (many of 'em at least) have history in the Norwegian league or are still there.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00699/sport-graphics-2008_699660a.jpg

I don't mind the Dutch. Of the "big" ones left they're most canny tbh. Just want an underdog to get their moment in the sun more than anything else, and it just so happens that if that should come to pass the Netherlands need to lose.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00699/sport-graphics-2008_699660a.jpg

Feel you're robbing the CR defenders of some glory there. They've been solid at cancelling just those threats more than Robben and RVP have been shit.

They're worried about the Dutch counters, and rightly so. If they didn't sit deep the Dutch would be ten inches deep in their ass by now.

If you can't appreciate the prospect of a World Cup final in Brazil between Brazil and Argentina you should stop following football tbh. As I say it looks cracking on paper but both sides must not lose mentality will see it overshadowed by the so called 'dark art's of football. Appreciate what the Prophet is saying tbh. In my head, the semi-final line-up is fucking mouthwatering. Germany-Brazil and Holland-Argentina... but I'm superimposing stars and teams of bygone eras on to those glamour names of international football. The reality will be excellent for the occasion, but the footballing spectacle, I suspect, will be underwhelming, scrappy and undignified in the extreme. I think play-off football really need an underdog or two to be entertaining tbh. If it's the same old same old, there's no "real" excitement or nerve in the matches as there's not as much at stake going out admirably to a quality opponent as there is if the opponent is meant to be a lot worse than you.

Bit of both. There is no middle ground.

£20 on Costa Rica dnb I should be shot.

I, for one, is starting three Costa Ricans. #winning

I'm so fucking annoyed beyond comprehension at the constant lack of football knowledge all over the board of "experts". James Rodriguez is the hottest sale object after the WC? Oh? You mean the same Rodriguez who plays for Monaco, one of the richest clubs in the world? The same Rodriguez that was bought for €45 fucking million? Is that the hot unearthed sale object you're talking about? Is it? Fuck your house, experts. I hate the world.

Ameritoon going down. Dem postage costs for TaylorJ

Fergie made him slim down a few years ago when it was starting to get out of control, came back from holiday fat as fuck apparently. Rooney has a body type that is naturally predisposed to put on weight (I think "stocky" is the word) so he needs to work hard at not putting it on. He'll always look fat without being fat due to that. He's clearly a very fit player and has just been unlucky with his shrek appeareance.

Only thing that could save these QFs would be the absolute shock of Costa Rica advancing. Then again I don't want them to because Unbelievable is canny.

The US also, way back when in 1950, sent a team that was more foreigners than actual Americans under the premise that they "promised" they wanted to become citizens one day. Been reading about it in a few books recently, the recruiters pretty much walked around asking people if they knew how to play football and shit. Then that team beat England 1-0.

It's absolutely ridiculous. I'm not going to deny the fact that there were plenty of decisions going Brazils way, but jesus fucking christ some on here completely forgetting plenty of occasions. No wonder why someone calm like Kanji got pissed at some of you lot. I'm just going to laugh as I'm going to be in Belo Horizonte watching Brazil v the most likeable German side I can remember. Svein Oddvar Moen was the ref. He absolutely loves favourites. Loves them. He's got years of priors. Shit ref.

Blocked shots and some other shit. Played not added yet.

Straight outta Ålgård Is a ginge that'll smother your mother And make your sister think he loves her Dangerous butcher raising hell And if he ever gets caught, he makes bail See he don't give a fuck, that's the problem He see a motherfucking admin, he don't dodge 'em He's smart, lays low, creeps a while And when he sees an admin pass, he smiles Looking for the one they call palnese But here's a flash, they'll never seize him Ruthless Never seen like a butcher in the dark Word to the motherfuckers Straight outta Ålgård

In a funny twist, it seems they apparently always wanted to sell him to HSV because they wanted to make sure Skjelbred get to stay in Berlin.

Do you think he'd start for Norway if he had opted for them instead? He'd have like fucking 60 caps by now. We've not had a good keeper since Erik Thorstvedt.

Adam Kwarasey, Ghana keeper, is pissed off about Ghana. "As I sat there, all I could think was that I had wasted my international career." Going on about corruption at their FA, players fed up and being benched by the FA chiefs and not the manager, who almost broke down in tears when explaining it wasn't his choice to bench someone.

Speaking of Donovan, why did the US not play him? Remember him as a decent player last world cup... http://media.giphy.com/media/UuJl0dTmrkJjy/giphy.gif

There's a shit load of good writers around, twitter's probably the best place to find their stuff. Obviously there's Grant Wahl, also Steve Goff, Brian Straus, Jeff Carlisle, Ives Galarcep, Brian Sciaretta and Matthew Tomaszewicz (The Shin Guardian) are my highest recommendations. Just go to their twitter's and follow the links to where they write mostly. Ives site soccerbyives.com is really good. Almost pizza worthy recommendations.

Tromsø won 7-0 Estonia Rosenborg up 4-0 Latvia Haugesund 1-1 against... Airbus UK...

I just don't think we have the personnel to not play a big guy. Let's start by assuming that Dempsey is the best attacking weapon in the team and the best chance for a goal, so not playing him just isn't an option. A few years ago, you could play Dempsey at LW and he'd make things happen by cutting in from the outside, as he did at Fulham. These days, he's almost purely a second striker and needs a target forward to play off of, because he won't do the defensive work necessary on the outside anymore. And when given that big guy to occupy the CBs and lay off little passes for him to run up on, he'll find the back of the net. It's why he was scoring for fun at Seattle (with Oba Martins) and for the U.S. (with Jozy). So without Altidore, do you try to shoe-horn another striker next to Dempsey (Wondo or Johannsson, neither of whom are good at hold-up play) or do you add another body in midfield and work on playing through the middle of the field? I understand where Klinsmann was coming from and I think he made the right call in an imperfect situation (Altidore has never been injury prone and always been capable of putting in 90 minutes, so I think that really caught everybody off guard and was why JK felt okay leaving Boyd/Johnson at home). If Altidore hadn't gone down, the U.S. would've been far more attacking than they were against Ghana, Germany and Belgium. But they had to rely on the counter-attack, because neither Dempsey alone or him with Wondo/ArJo wouldn't be sufficient at holding the ball and they'd get overrun through the middle. The rest of the post I agree with. Yeah, I agree in the sense of the situation the team got into, he did the right choice. My issue is that he should've left either Wondo or Aron at home. They're very similar players, and pretty much covers for Dempsey rather than Jozy. There's no like for like for Jozy, and instead of both Aron and Wondo someone else should've been there. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and I'm not at all saying anything bad about the performance (which was great) and such. But I like to torture myself thinking about the what ifs