Village Idiot

Messi wears the armband, but Mascherano has always been the captain.

It's uncharacteristically good for us.

Time to see which Pope God likes best, too. The German one will pray more and the latino will take a nap, so the Germans will win.

As sad it sounds 2002 was hard to enjoy too much because of the kick off times. Waking up early to watch England v Nigeria Was horrific. Watching Eng-Brazil in the hall at school before first lesson. Destroyed it all. My parents writing to the school that I had a dentist's appointment then coming to pick me up for it at lunchtime so I could watch England vs Tunisia in '98. Our RE teacher let us watch that game on the classroom TV instead of doing work. Good days. I was at uni, we'd skip class, sneak into some unused classroom and watch the game there, since all had TVs (the perks of studying audiovisual communication). Good times.

The one you hosted in 82 is comfortably the best World Cup I've seen in my lifetime, and I started as a six year old in 74. 90 is second best and 78 third. I was 4 at the time, so I really only have fragmentary memories of that one.

I wonder why... Nothing to do with us losing. We didn't get out of our group in 1998 either and I loved that tournament.

And '94 was crap too. I believe a lot of people romanticize it because we were kids. 1998 and 2002 were both better, imho. My fave is obviously 1990, though.

To be frank, besides yesterday's game I think this WC has been pretty crap. I wonder how many goals have been scored within the 90 minutes in the knockout rounds, if you take out yesterday's 8 goals. Too many teams playing scared.

van Gaal did a fantastic job with the team you guys had. Really impressed. Said it from the beginning though, the two best teams played on the same side of the bracket Aye, it's a pity France and Germany met on Q/F.

To be honest I think they were very solid.

So sad, Vlaar has been one of the best for Netherlands and now he might fuck it up.

This WC must be setting some kind of record for 0-0 scores after regulation.

And a chance materializes! I need to do this more often.

Okay, this is shit now.

FFS Robben, even when he's legit fouled he's so ridiculous about it

Demichelis

I don't think there's a danger of that happening, but I really don't want Netherlands to win this WC. They are awful to watch, just punting it to Robben and RVP.

I hope Argentina wins. Brazil vs Argentina as the 3rd place game would be such a massive waste

My friend from Vigo says that Rafinha (Thiago's younger bro) is going to be brilliant - I hope he's right - and he's declared for Brazil.

Let slip. Spain offered him money, no pressure and hoes for the rest of his life. We can't match that. Guy's a late bloomer, but you could have called him up last year to the Confe Cup, for example - he already had a great season playing behind Falcao. You got f***ing Jô sitting in your bench Jesus wept.

Tbf I think Alexis, will be great for them. Guy's full of workrate too. Sad to see him go, particularly now that he was beginning to show what he's capable of, but at least according to reports we got an uncharacteristically good fee from him.

Sorry flip. Finders keepers. Still amazed you let Costa slip by with the likes of Fred starting for Brazil.

Look at those names, man. Cuthbert Ottaway, Arnold Kirke-Smith, John Brockbank. Can almost smell the tweed. Those tactics doe Scotland clearly set to spoil the game with that 2-2-6

Friend of mine did this drawing. Game of Thrones spoiler alert!

Bayern M. Is any other country's team selected so heavily from one club? I can't think of one. Spain at their best was basically Barca and a few Madrid players. And that's a big reason why we were so successful, imho. Del Bosque has got a lot of criticism for keeping the same core throughout the current cycle, but doing so is what won us the cups, imho. In international footie, team cohesiveness >>>>>>>> everything.