Quarter-finals: URU 0-2 FRA; BRA 1-2 BEL; SWE 0-2 ENG; RUS 2-2 CRO(p)

[Deuce]

Brazil will beat them pretty comfortably IMO, playing De Bruyne as part of a double pivot with Witsel is dumb as all hell and Brazil's midfielders will run off the back off them all game long.

 

[Mike]

Brazil will beat them pretty comfortably IMO, playing De Bruyne as part of a double pivot with Witsel is dumb as all hell and Brazil's midfielders will run off the back off them all game long.

 

 

http://www.otbva.com/forum/core/images/smilies2/th_caddyshack1.png

[Si]

I'd blow him if he's game, like.

 

[Mole_Toonfan]

I mean I said in the post that I believed that because they were playing De Bruyne in front of a back 3

 

I never would have said that if I knew they were going to change it.

[Ketsbaia]

So no-one decent wants to win this World Cup.

[Disco]

Imagine a world where the US wins the World Cup.

 

Goodness me.

 

 

Searched for it for ages but there was a convo years ago about how the US and Australia would be starting to dominate ‘soccer’ by now.

 

Wait...

[Guest firetotheworks]

Just to say as well, I think, at least up until this point, I think this may be my favourite World Cup since watching from '94 and a tiny bit of '90. At least from a footballing point of view anyway, because the feel of the '98 World Cup (and outside of the World Cup Euro '96) take some beating purely because of my age and obsession with football at the time.

 

[Kaizero]

Just to say as well, I think, at least up until this point, I think this may be my favourite World Cup since watching from '94 and a tiny bit of '90. At least from a footballing point of view anyway, because the feel of the '98 World Cup takes some beating purely because of my age and obsession with football at the time.

 

I'm with you, though '98 is the first WC I vividly remember, so it will always probably be remain favorite. But this WC has been amazing. Pisses on the ones before it (02, 06, 10, 14) in terms of entertainment value and general mood surrounding it.

[Mole_Toonfan]

From a drama and tension point of view this is probably my favourite since 98 tbh.

 

Which was kind of unexpected considering how disillusioned I was with football coming into the tournament.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Although I thoroughly enjoyed '14, despite it slightly going off the boil after the group stages.

[Dave]

Imagine a world where the US wins the World Cup.

 

Goodness me.

 

 

Searched for it for ages but there was a convo years ago about how the US and Australia would be starting to dominate ‘soccer’ by now.

 

Wait...

 

Try this:

 

I predict that in 10-20 years, the USA will be a permanent fixture in the Quarter/Semi Finals as they will be churning out more quality players that end up in Europe playing for our top clubs.

 

8 years down...

[Pata]

Countinho

Hazzard

Firminho

 

*Coutinho

*Hazard

*Firmino

 

To answer your question, I think Brazil has been going through a "lack" of talent for like a decade now if you don't count Neymar. Looking at their squads in 2014 and 2010 in Wikipedia and their forwards in 2014 were Neymar, Hulk, Fred, Bernard and Jo. 2010 it was Robinho, Luis Fabiano, Nilmar and Grafite. That's just pure garbage compared to the 1994-2006 WC squads unless nostalgia messes with my memory.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Yeah Brazil have been criticised for a lack of flair in their teams for like 10 years.

 

They were considered favourites this time for completely different reasons, as in they have been very effective and know how to win and I personally think they were unlucky today tbh.

 

But it's been obvious all tournament that they are a team which struggle to create if Neymar doesn't do it.

[The College Dropout]

Countinho

Hazzard

Firminho

 

Coutinho

Hazard

Firmino

 

To answer your question, I think Brazil has been going through a "lack" of talent for like a decade now if you don't count Neymar. Looking at their squads in 2014 and 2010 in Wikipedia and their forwards in 2014 were Neymar, Hulk, Fred, Bernard and Jo. 2010 it was Robinho, Luis Fabiano, Nilmar and Grafite. That's just pure garbage compared to the 1994-2006 WC squads unless nostalgia messes with my memory.

 

They had a good squad this time. Pretty unlucky today. Casemiro suspended. Jammy OG. Alves injured. Missed some sitters. Should've had a penalty.

 

 

Maybe they lack another midfielder with Coutinho's quality,.

 

The football in the second half was as good as it gets sometimes. Marcelo and Douglas Costa were superb.  Some of the moves between Neymar, Coutinho  and Marcelo was excellent.

 

Belgium simply scored more goals when they were on top.

 

It's a fairly old squad though. That defence doesn't come back in 2022. Going forward there seems to be talent coming through. They could do with more CM's that can play.

 

In general, aye European teams are further ahead. Germany, France, Spain and Belgium keep pumping out tremendous talent currently.

[The College Dropout]

Yeah Brazil have been criticised for a lack of flair in their teams for like 10 years.

 

They were considered favourites this time for completely different reasons, as in they have been very effective and know how to win and I personally think they were unlucky today tbh.

 

But it's been obvious all tournament that they are a team which struggle to create if Neymar doesn't do it.

 

Fairly wasteful too. Stick Kane in there and they win tonight. Agreed, they were unlucky.

[Pata]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that I thought this squad was probably better than the 2014 and 2010 squads.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Just to say as well, I think, at least up until this point, I think this may be my favourite World Cup since watching from '94 and a tiny bit of '90. At least from a footballing point of view anyway, because the feel of the '98 World Cup (and outside of the World Cup Euro '96) take some beating purely because of my age and obsession with football at the time.

 

 

‘94 being my first tournament and eye opener to the beauty of the WC and such teams as Colombia, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Romania, USA () and players like Baggio, Stoichkov, Hagi, Romario and Lalas () et al will always be my fave and most fondest, but this one ha surpassed any since and the quality has been better than ‘94 as well. ‘98 was the last time I felt a real connection with England and now it’s back, albeit because it’s the WC. No doubt after this I’ll lose interest for friendlies and qualifiers.

[thomas]

Imagine a world where the US wins the World Cup.

 

Goodness me.

 

 

Searched for it for ages but there was a convo years ago about how the US and Australia would be starting to dominate ‘soccer’ by now.

 

Wait...

 

Try this:

 

I predict that in 10-20 years, the USA will be a permanent fixture in the Quarter/Semi Finals as they will be churning out more quality players that end up in Europe playing for our top clubs.

 

8 years down...

I think the texas got to him

[Mike]

Imagine a world where the US wins the World Cup.

 

Goodness me.

 

 

Searched for it for ages but there was a convo years ago about how the US and Australia would be starting to dominate ‘soccer’ by now.

 

Wait...

 

Try this:

 

I predict that in 10-20 years, the USA will be a permanent fixture in the Quarter/Semi Finals as they will be churning out more quality players that end up in Europe playing for our top clubs.

 

8 years down...

 

#wait.

[James]

Neymar has completely regressed and sold out for the money and started to take too many shortcuts rather than properly trying to develop.

 

As a result he has gone from being the worlds 3rd best player to outside of the top ten. Most Brazilians aren’t better than him but they would have been better off without him as he kills too many of their attacks

[Kaizero]

He was literally their best player today, and I hate the fucker with a passion.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Neymar’s biggest contribution to this WC is memes/social media mockery Serves the twat right, bye. Hazzard and De Bruyne on the other hand 

[Raconteur]

Just to say as well, I think, at least up until this point, I think this may be my favourite World Cup since watching from '94 and a tiny bit of '90. At least from a footballing point of view anyway, because the feel of the '98 World Cup (and outside of the World Cup Euro '96) take some beating purely because of my age and obsession with football at the time.

 

 

‘94 being my first tournament and eye opener to the beauty of the WC and such teams as Colombia, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Romania, USA () and players like Baggio, Stoichkov, Hagi, Romario and Lalas () et al will always be my fave and most fondest, but this one ha surpassed any since and the quality has been better than ‘94 as well. ‘98 was the last time I felt a real connection with England and now it’s back, albeit because it’s the WC. No doubt after this I’ll lose interest for friendlies and qualifiers.

 

My first real World Cup too, and one of my favourites for the reasons you mentioned. It's worth mentioning though that the Brazil team that won 94 had some (many) great players but played pretty turgid football. This tournament has sparkled more than any other that comes to mind.

[stlouismag]

He was literally their best player today, and I hate the fucker with a passion.

 

Aye, it was so refreshing to see him dive without the telenovela-histrionics. 

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Just to say as well, I think, at least up until this point, I think this may be my favourite World Cup since watching from '94 and a tiny bit of '90. At least from a footballing point of view anyway, because the feel of the '98 World Cup (and outside of the World Cup Euro '96) take some beating purely because of my age and obsession with football at the time.

 

 

‘94 being my first tournament and eye opener to the beauty of the WC and such teams as Colombia, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Romania, USA () and players like Baggio, Stoichkov, Hagi, Romario and Lalas () et al will always be my fave and most fondest, but this one ha surpassed any since and the quality has been better than ‘94 as well. ‘98 was the last time I felt a real connection with England and now it’s back, albeit because it’s the WC. No doubt after this I’ll lose interest for friendlies and qualifiers.

 

My first real World Cup too, and one of my favourites for the reasons you mentioned. It's worth mentioning though that the Brazil team that won 94 had some (many) great players but played pretty turgid football. This tournament has sparkled more than any other that comes to mind.

 

Solid team with no real flair other than Romario, but he was selfless and hard working for that team. great day emended though and well balanced.

 

I loved Stoichkov and Hagi and fell in love with Nigeria and Colombia in terms of their story/background.

 

I enjoyed that tournament because again it was my first proper World Cup and some of the games were on at like 1 in the morning.

 

KK was co commentator a lot and we signed Hottiger and Albert following it. Happy days where I’d subscribe to Shoot, Match, World Soccer etc. Never liked 4-4-2. I become totally obsessed with footy and got back into playing it again.

 

It helped we were riding high on a promotion and top 3 finish with Andy Cole and KK my personal heroes at the time.

 

We would of course go onto sign Tino who was regarded as a potential top scorer at 94 with Colombia potential winners.

 

It was my first realisation that America had a national side too and that someone like Lalas was their main man I’m sure we were linked with him man!

 

Overriding memory is KK saying newcastle fans would love Cafu and that he would be looking at Brazil players along with others of course closely with a view to strengthening us, live on telly while commentating.