2014 FIFA World Cup Brasil™ - Germany win again

[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.

[Kanj]

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.

[Beren]

No one in the Media over here would be saying shit about Van Gaal if he hadn't been made manager of Man United.

 

Holland are in the Semi-Finals though and he deserves credit for that.

 

Not sure that's true. Never seen the keeper subbed for a shootout.

[Kaizero]

No one in the Media over here would be saying shit about Van Gaal if he hadn't been made manager of Man United.

 

Holland are in the Semi-Finals though and he deserves credit for that.

 

Not sure that's true. Never seen the keeper subbed for a shootout.

 

I've done it on FM a few times. I'm a genius.

[Ronaldo]

No one in the Media over here would be saying shit about Van Gaal if he hadn't been made manager of Man United.

 

Holland are in the Semi-Finals though and he deserves credit for that.

 

Not sure that's true. Never seen the keeper subbed for a shootout.

 

1996 playoff final. Kalac for Kevin Poole.

[Unbelievable]

No one in the Media over here would be saying s*** about Van Gaal if he hadn't been made manager of Man United.

 

Holland are in the Semi-Finals though and he deserves credit for that.

 

It's not just this goalkeeper sub that was inspired and proved decisive, there is also devising a tactic to tear World and European champions Spain a new one, changing formation and bringing on match winner Depay vs Australia, the Fer and Depay subs that turned the Chile game, the crucial Huntelaar sub vs Mexico. I don't think he's a genius of course, but there's no denying he has this squad performing at the very top of its ability, full of confidence and for some reason whatever weird scenarios he prepares before a game seems to happen in reality. Some of the players have also remarked on his uncanny knack of predicting events in a game and prepare the team for it on numerous occasions the past few weeks. Contrast that to plenty of managers who just rely on their players to conjure up some magic or only have one plan regardless of opposition and circumstances, and it's evident the man is on another level to most managers.

 

This coming from somebody who absolutely loathes Louis van Gaal by the way. He's a grumpy, paranoid, bipolar cunt who failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup with an extremely talented group of players. For that I thought I could never forgive him, but to be honest he's mightily close to doing exactly that right now.

[Kanj]

LVG has done a magnificent job man, sheer fact is they are playing in the semis of the World Cup and it's not off crap opposition or magic HBA/Cabaye style moments he's set this team up brilliantly well and then utilized the best of robben and RvP finishing.