2014 FIFA World Cup Brasil™ - Germany win again

[huss9]

krul didn't cheat. if gamesmanship means a semi final then great. whats the point of being a good sport and a great all round chap if it means losing. celebrate good losers far too much in this country. that mindset needs to change.

[Deuce]

krul didn't cheat. if gamesmanship means a semi final then great. whats the point of being a good sport and a great all round chap if it means losing. celebrate good losers far too much in this country. that mindset needs to change.

 

I'm not sure if anyone suggested what he did was "cheating." Unsportsmanlike, perhaps. But there are quite a few more egregious instances of unsportsmanlike conduct that I'd take issue with before I got on Krul about being chatty.

[tmonkey]

Robben vs Messi

 

Best "big game" player of the past couple of years (imo anyway) vs arguably the best player ever who's slowly getting back to his pre-injury-problems best.

 

My money would normally be on Robben having another standout game with Messi being kept quiet/frustrated, but this Dutch side is too open (and composed of Premiership lower-mid table calibre defenders) so it'll probably be Messi running riot.

[Flip]

Hopefully I'll be able to live the dream until next Sunday. This 3th-4th playoff is such a waste of time.

....refereeing decisons and FIFAs 'dream wishes' not withstanding.

 

 

 

 

[Unbelievable]

Wildly excited about the semis now. There is no standout favourite for me now Neymar is out, so I expect two very nervy semi finals. We may not see sparkling football, but it sure as hell will be tense and unpredictable! Can't wait..

[geordiedean]

The final could be between any of the 4 of them so close to call I really want to see Messi lift that trophy though

[midds]

At this point I think it'll be a Germany Argentina final.

[Unbelievable]

Di Maria, if he's out, could be a big miss. Will be interesting to see how Argentina handle that situation. His energy seems very important to the way they play.

[Rich]

Expected to miss the rest of the tournament, if the South American press are right. They've got nobody else like him really, but could change shape to compensate.

[Kanji]

Should have brought Jonas, imo.

[Ketsbaia]

Will Aguero be back for Holland?

[Rich]

Expected to be on the bench again as it stands, but supposed to have a slim chance of a start. They might not fancy risking it with it being a hamstring, mind.

[Deuce]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Di Maria, if he's out, could be a big miss. Will be interesting to see how Argentina handle that situation. His energy seems very important to the way they play.

 

I don't think its energy which is the miss. They have plenty of guys like that. More they have no one else who can get out of tight spots, turn defense into attack etc etc.

[Newcastle Fan]

Last night actually happened, didn't it?

 

The only word to describe it is..Unbelievable.

[r0cafella]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

[Jayson]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

[r0cafella]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

Against Costa Rica.

 

Couldn't score a goal in 120 minutes lol.

[Guest n4e]

Expected to miss the rest of the tournament, if the South American press are right. They've got nobody else like him really, but could change shape to compensate.

 

Biglia, Gago and Mascherano midfield 3 

[Unbelievable]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

Against Costa Rica.

 

Couldn't score a goal in 120 minutes lol.

 

They sat very deep and only conceded twice vs Uruguay, Italy, England, Greece (120 minutes) and the Netherlands (120 minutes) tbf. You either give them credit or ridicule us as well as those other 4 teams for not being able to find a way through. I'd be inclined to do the former in this case.

[r0cafella]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

Against Costa Rica.

 

Couldn't score a goal in 120 minutes lol.

 

They sat very deep and only conceded twice vs Uruguay, Italy, England, Greece (120 minutes) and the Netherlands (120 minutes) tbf. You either give them credit or ridicule us as well as those other 4 teams for not being able to find a way through. I'd be inclined to do the former in this case.

I'll ridicule heralding a draw with Costa Rica and calling the man responsible for this a genius Is laughable.

 

Take the  result and performance in isolation and it wasn't a great game or performance from the Dutch English or Italians for that matter.

[Kaizero]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

Against Costa Rica.

 

Couldn't score a goal in 120 minutes lol.

 

They sat very deep and only conceded twice vs Uruguay, Italy, England, Greece (120 minutes) and the Netherlands (120 minutes) tbf. You either give them credit or ridicule us as well as those other 4 teams for not being able to find a way through. I'd be inclined to do the former in this case.

I'll ridicule heralding a draw with Costa Rica and calling the man responsible for this a genius Is laughable.

 

Take the  result and performance in isolation and it wasn't a great game or performance from the Dutch English or Italians for that matter.

 

This attitude is so annoying. The underdogs can never perform well, it's always the top dogs performing badly. Fuck off with that shit. Costa Rica have played well, strategized well and gotten results. Give the poor fuckers some credit, man.

[Pata]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

Against Costa Rica.

 

Couldn't score a goal in 120 minutes lol.

 

They sat very deep and only conceded twice vs Uruguay, Italy, England, Greece (120 minutes) and the Netherlands (120 minutes) tbf. You either give them credit or ridicule us as well as those other 4 teams for not being able to find a way through. I'd be inclined to do the former in this case.

I'll ridicule heralding a draw with Costa Rica and calling the man responsible for this a genius Is laughable.

 

Take the  result and performance in isolation and it wasn't a great game or performance from the Dutch English or Italians for that matter.

 

This attitude is so annoying. The underdogs can never perform well, it's always the top dogs performing badly. f*** off with that s***. Costa Rica have played well, strategized well and gotten results. Give the poor f***ers some credit, man.

 

Nobody is taking any credit away from Costa Rica. But I wouldn't call LVG a genius for guiding Holland to a shootout against Costa Rica after 120 minutes of 0-0.

[r0cafella]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

Against Costa Rica.

 

Couldn't score a goal in 120 minutes lol.

 

They sat very deep and only conceded twice vs Uruguay, Italy, England, Greece (120 minutes) and the Netherlands (120 minutes) tbf. You either give them credit or ridicule us as well as those other 4 teams for not being able to find a way through. I'd be inclined to do the former in this case.

I'll ridicule heralding a draw with Costa Rica and calling the man responsible for this a genius Is laughable.

 

Take the  result and performance in isolation and it wasn't a great game or performance from the Dutch English or Italians for that matter.

 

This attitude is so annoying. The underdogs can never perform well, it's always the top dogs performing badly. f*** off with that s***. Costa Rica have played well, strategized well and gotten results. Give the poor f***ers some credit, man.

We can both agree that the Dutch have better players right?

 

And I'm not taking anything away from Costa Rica here just stating that the Dutch performance was sub standard and we shouldn't be heralding van Gaal as a result of it

[Kaizero]

I'm still struggling to see the "genius" of LVG in the match yesterday.

That's because it doesn't exist.

 

Praised for a 0-0 draw to the weakest side in the knockout stages

 

They hit the woodwork, what 3 times? Tbf.

 

Its also pretty creative & bold to devise the penalty strategy that he did aswell. Let alone to put all of that on a guy who has no history of being good at saving penalties, very confident stuff & he got it right. Pretty impressive for me.

Against Costa Rica.

 

Couldn't score a goal in 120 minutes lol.

 

They sat very deep and only conceded twice vs Uruguay, Italy, England, Greece (120 minutes) and the Netherlands (120 minutes) tbf. You either give them credit or ridicule us as well as those other 4 teams for not being able to find a way through. I'd be inclined to do the former in this case.

I'll ridicule heralding a draw with Costa Rica and calling the man responsible for this a genius Is laughable.

 

Take the  result and performance in isolation and it wasn't a great game or performance from the Dutch English or Italians for that matter.

 

This attitude is so annoying. The underdogs can never perform well, it's always the top dogs performing badly. f*** off with that s***. Costa Rica have played well, strategized well and gotten results. Give the poor f***ers some credit, man.

We can both agree that the Dutch have better players right?

 

And I'm not taking anything away from Costa Rica here just stating that the Dutch performance was sub standard and we shouldn't be heralding van Gaal as a result of it

 

It's not always about the better players though, as evident in our own Newcastle when we do well against better opponents and the media go "Well, X Team had a bad day, that's why Newcastle won" (though tbf, that's pretty much the truth these days )

 

Agree about the Van Gaal bit, mind. But apparently it has been their plan to sub keepers all WC if it went to pens, not just for this match. So in that sense I think the move itself was a bit genius, but I agree we shouldn't praise Van Gaal for masterminding a 0-0 against Costa Rica. Just as we shouldn't denounce the part Costa Rica played in masterminding just that 0-0.