2014 FIFA World Cup Brasil™ - Europe vs. America

[Slim]

http://lh4.ggpht.com/-qYz1c5CG68g/U6Hy2iE8WaI/AAAAAAAAD4g/fuiTLkBMrxg/h720/6546541.gif

 

 

Man, that's tough.

 

well shaved

 

FYP.

 

Look at the stare he gets off the lines man

[sugoinufc]

http://lh4.ggpht.com/-qYz1c5CG68g/U6Hy2iE8WaI/AAAAAAAAD4g/fuiTLkBMrxg/h720/6546541.gif

 

 

Man, that's tough.

 

well shaved

 

FYP.

 

[Unbelievable]

Hope this Netherlands v Chile potential mentalfest isn't reduced to a dead rubber.

 

Both teams will want to avoid playing Brazil in the next round I would have thought, so there should be something to play for whatever happens

 

Scratch that. Group B plays before group A for some bizarre reason. Looks like Brazil may get to pick their next opponents then...

[Tooj]

Not sure if anybody has listened to them but the BBC World Service have released a couple of decent interviews with some World Cup managers.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01yghzx/episodes/guide

[TBG]

Probably a giggs

 

http://326490.com/

[joeyt]

The Ian Wright story is awful

[Hanshithispantz]

Probably a giggs

 

http://326490.com/

Javier Perez of Ecuador wants to be ashamed.

[TBG]

Aye that one was done using Microsoft Paint.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

Absolute turboshite like that is what gives African football a bad name, and will continue to enforce stereotypes. Truly embarrassing performance.

 

African football will always be held back by weak domestic leagues and non-existent development programs. How many of these countries actually develop their own players? Far too much reliance on dual nationals and foreign-born players.

 

Almost entirely the result of structural inequalities and history, mind. And entirely unreasonable to expect these otherwise impoverished countries to pour resources into developing domestic football programs too.

 

Please don't patronise. Africa is held back by sheer incompetence at all levels, in both football, politics, and economics.  It isn't that difficult to put a football team together. We don't even work to refine or grow our players, yet they carve careers out for themselves all over Europe. The players are there by birthright. All that is needed is to provide the team with adequate care , technical advice, and payment. Even this is too difficult. Of course colonial mentality reigns supreme as well. Notice Cameroon had some German on a retirement tour stealing their money, because everything white is automatically better.

 

I wasn't trying to be patronizing, and I think we're making roughly the same arguments. I'm not trying to paint a picture of African dependency, "blame the colonizers for everything and ignore African agency," but I don't think it's incorrect to suggest that deficiencies in African domestic leagues and development programs have a lot to do with structural inequalities, the same disadvantages that plague African states as a whole. That's not the singular cause of the problem but I think it contributes.

 

I'm not saying African footballers aren't talented. They quite clearly are, or else they wouldn't be carving out careers for themselves in Europe. There's just little in the way of harnessing that talent into a coherent national playing structure. It's not hard to put together a team of highly-talented players, but it is difficult to get them to play as a collective unit. That's not an African-exclusive problem either. Look at any of the top international sides. Almost all of their players have passed through their countries' respective domestic development programs and had a national footballing ethos instilled in them from a very young age. It's why Spain won 3 major tournaments in a row, Germany is a perennial powerhouse, the Dutch have an endless supply of players, and the Brazilians are the best ever. Everyone else, African or otherwise, is playing catch-up.

You weren't patronising, I was seeing red mist last night because of the match and some events in my own life. Sorry, man. I don't even know why. I knew Cameroon would embarrass themselves and picked them to finish last in their group. Anyone who actually watches African football knows they are the worst of the five in this tournament by a distance. The remaining four still have good chances to put a mark on this tournament. Your point about leagues and development is well-taken, but we don't need to be competing with Spain and Germany here. Being the equal on the world stage on the the strong teams in CONCACAF and AFC along with the second tier of sides of Europe and South America is something that should be attainable for the African powers with relative ease. Yet they have failed.

I've said this before, but the continental distribution is not meant to be based purely on skill. If that was the case we'd give one slot to Mexico, one slot for Asia and Africa to fight over, and everything else to Europe and South America. 

 

While skill does play apart, the idea is to make the competition representative of all of the world's football cultures and to increase the quality of football in places like Asia and Africa by giving them more exposure on the big stage. This seems to be working pretty well for Asia at least.

 

I think the distribution is fine as it is.

There are vastly diminishing returns with the quality in Europe and South America. You seem to think we are getting ten more teams with Ibrahimovic on leading the line, but really you are just adding the likes of Iceland, Denmark, Slovenia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, who may be decent teams but would all struggle to get out of any group and are not markedly better than teams from other confederations.

 

 

[SEMTEX]

http://lineupbuilder.com/2014/custom/?sk=39d3

Threw together a Yugoslavia team, not really practical because I forced a way to put Pjanić, Modrić, and Rakitić in one team. The bench if it's a 23-man squad.

Samir Handanović

Pletikosa

Vedran Ćorluka

Dejan Lovren

Bojan Jokić

Darijo Srna

Mateo Kovačić

Lazar Marković

Miralem Sulejmani

Josip Iličić

Filip Đuričić

Stevan Jovetić

Edin Džeko

 

Jelavić, Kranjčar, and Vučinić were the only one's of note I couldn't really fit. Anyone I'm missing?

 

I built a similar team for if England was merged with the rest of the UK/NI.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Zy9TQHm.png

 

def worth it, just to get rid of welbeck

[Deuce]

As if Barry Ferguson wouldn't lock down central midfield in that team.

[Deuce]

Absolute turboshite like that is what gives African football a bad name, and will continue to enforce stereotypes. Truly embarrassing performance.

 

African football will always be held back by weak domestic leagues and non-existent development programs. How many of these countries actually develop their own players? Far too much reliance on dual nationals and foreign-born players.

 

Almost entirely the result of structural inequalities and history, mind. And entirely unreasonable to expect these otherwise impoverished countries to pour resources into developing domestic football programs too.

 

Please don't patronise. Africa is held back by sheer incompetence at all levels, in both football, politics, and economics.  It isn't that difficult to put a football team together. We don't even work to refine or grow our players, yet they carve careers out for themselves all over Europe. The players are there by birthright. All that is needed is to provide the team with adequate care , technical advice, and payment. Even this is too difficult. Of course colonial mentality reigns supreme as well. Notice Cameroon had some German on a retirement tour stealing their money, because everything white is automatically better.

 

I wasn't trying to be patronizing, and I think we're making roughly the same arguments. I'm not trying to paint a picture of African dependency, "blame the colonizers for everything and ignore African agency," but I don't think it's incorrect to suggest that deficiencies in African domestic leagues and development programs have a lot to do with structural inequalities, the same disadvantages that plague African states as a whole. That's not the singular cause of the problem but I think it contributes.

 

I'm not saying African footballers aren't talented. They quite clearly are, or else they wouldn't be carving out careers for themselves in Europe. There's just little in the way of harnessing that talent into a coherent national playing structure. It's not hard to put together a team of highly-talented players, but it is difficult to get them to play as a collective unit. That's not an African-exclusive problem either. Look at any of the top international sides. Almost all of their players have passed through their countries' respective domestic development programs and had a national footballing ethos instilled in them from a very young age. It's why Spain won 3 major tournaments in a row, Germany is a perennial powerhouse, the Dutch have an endless supply of players, and the Brazilians are the best ever. Everyone else, African or otherwise, is playing catch-up.

You weren't patronising, I was seeing red mist last night because of the match and some events in my own life. Sorry, man. I don't even know why. I knew Cameroon would embarrass themselves and picked them to finish last in their group. Anyone who actually watches African football knows they are the worst of the five in this tournament by a distance. The remaining four still have good chances to put a mark on this tournament. Your point about leagues and development is well-taken, but we don't need to be competing with Spain and Germany here. Being the equal on the world stage on the the strong teams in CONCACAF and AFC along with the second tier of sides of Europe and South America is something that should be attainable for the African powers with relative ease. Yet they have failed.

 

it's all good man

[ponsaelius]

http://lineupbuilder.com/2014/custom/?sk=39d3

Threw together a Yugoslavia team, not really practical because I forced a way to put Pjanić, Modrić, and Rakitić in one team. The bench if it's a 23-man squad.

Samir Handanović

Pletikosa

Vedran Ćorluka

Dejan Lovren

Bojan Jokić

Darijo Srna

Mateo Kovačić

Lazar Marković

Miralem Sulejmani

Josip Iličić

Filip Đuričić

Stevan Jovetić

Edin Džeko

 

Jelavić, Kranjčar, and Vučinić were the only one's of note I couldn't really fit. Anyone I'm missing?

 

I built a similar team for if England was merged with the rest of the UK/NI.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Zy9TQHm.png

 

def worth it, just to get rid of welbeck

 

Loling @ Henderson being there over Ramsey

[SEMTEX]

Quite obviously would've ruined the bit, wouldn't it. Stupid fucking Sewel.

 

 

 

Mind, he's too attacking for that role. Hendo for me like.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Mind, he's too attacking for that role. Hendo for me like.

 

Alright Pards.

 

 

[Rich]

Same team for Colombia, Ivory Coast have put Gradel in for Kalou.

[Dr Colossus]

Haven't been on here since the tournament started so it'll be a little out of date (and regarded irrelevant by some team's performances), but I wrote this preview of the World Cup and thought some of you might like to have a read of it.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2H8M27yPB6XTnJqTXJXRHRQMDA/edit?usp=sharing

[gazza ladra]

There are vastly diminishing returns with the quality in Europe and South America. You seem to think we are getting ten more teams with Ibrahimovic on leading the line, but really you are just adding the likes of Iceland, Denmark, Slovenia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, who may be decent teams but would all struggle to get out of any group and are not markedly better than teams from other confederations.

Whoa there! Lumping the Danes in with that group is a bit unfair--more than a bit unfair. They were very poor in the last qualifying campaign, but you're way off base to include the onetime European Champions and World Cup regulars in that group.

 

Still smarting from 98 are we?

[Flip]

Haven't been on here since the tournament started so it'll be a little out of date (and regarded irrelevant by some team's performances), but I wrote this preview of the World Cup and thought some of you might like to have a read of it.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2H8M27yPB6XTnJqTXJXRHRQMDA/edit?usp=sharing

 

Only read the Brazil part. Everything was nicely written Just that Brazil didn't play Panama infront of a Maracana crowd

[Rich]

Haven't been on here since the tournament started so it'll be a little out of date (and regarded irrelevant by some team's performances), but I wrote this preview of the World Cup and thought some of you might like to have a read of it.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2H8M27yPB6XTnJqTXJXRHRQMDA/edit?usp=sharing

 

Had a scan of a few teams and was impressed, really nicely written and I like the "classic" sort of formatting you've done it in. Very smart.

[TaylorJ_01]

Oh yes, Maximum Gradel!

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

There are vastly diminishing returns with the quality in Europe and South America. You seem to think we are getting ten more teams with Ibrahimovic on leading the line, but really you are just adding the likes of Iceland, Denmark, Slovenia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, who may be decent teams but would all struggle to get out of any group and are not markedly better than teams from other confederations.

Whoa there! Lumping the Danes in with that group is a bit unfair--more than a bit unfair. They were very poor in the last qualifying campaign, but you're way off base to include the onetime European Champions and World Cup regulars in that group.

 

Still smarting from 98 are we?

I just looked at the team that finished 2nd or 3rd in their qualifying groups for UEFA I don't have any quarrel with Denmark. Bringing up the disaster in 1998 is cold, too, especially since we haven't managed a win on this stage since.

[gazza ladra]

There are vastly diminishing returns with the quality in Europe and South America. You seem to think we are getting ten more teams with Ibrahimovic on leading the line, but really you are just adding the likes of Iceland, Denmark, Slovenia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, who may be decent teams but would all struggle to get out of any group and are not markedly better than teams from other confederations.

Whoa there! Lumping the Danes in with that group is a bit unfair--more than a bit unfair. They were very poor in the last qualifying campaign, but you're way off base to include the onetime European Champions and World Cup regulars in that group.

 

Still smarting from 98 are we?

I just looked at the team that finished 2nd or 3rd in their qualifying groups for UEFA I don't have any quarrel with Denmark. Bringing up the disaster in 1998 is cold, too, especially since we haven't managed a win on this stage since.

I have my Danish inlaws in town. And I get to watch the World Cup to the subtle tones of spoken Danish. I sympathize with your pain. I hope you can sympathize with mine.

[LRD]

Much emo.

[LRD]

Subbuteo moment there.