FIFA World Cup 2014

Sidesplittingly funny. There's nothing better than some deep insightful, thought provoking humour. 

Edit for clarity. That was not aimed at the last post. 

I dont get the Rooney baiting, I can understand frustration at his ability not to perform to the level that he is capable. And I believe that he knows this will be his last World Cup and that's why he should be given this opportunity to really go for it in his more natural position, which is in the centre behind Sturridge and in front of Gerrard and Henderson/Lampard.

You can see that he was hungry for the goal and frustrated when he was off target, good signs in my opinion. He is no longer the young petulant talent, but the mature talent ready to prove a point, he can't do that on the left.

So:

                                                      Sturridge

                  Barkley                                                               Sterling 

                                                       Rooney

                                         Gerrard              Henderson/Lampard

Baines                                                                                                  Johnson

                                      Jagielka                       Cahill                        

                                                        Hart

Then Lallana, Welbeck and Willshere coming on as tactics apply.

Boy I should be manager.

Jason.

What do you think Mr Highlander?

Jason.

Oh La La! France are doing well.

At least you have one United player performing Mr Dolan, just in the wrong team. 

Jason

Jason,

Certainly not Lampard....not sure why he is there to be honest but he does bring experience I guess. 

Johnson is not the player he was but apart from Jones not sure what the options are. 

Not sure about what would essentially be a 4 2 3 1 and I would play Welbeck for Barkley who I think will have more impact from the bench for now. 

Jim

Anyone who would persevere with Johnson Henderson or Gerrard in the light of their respective performances yesterday is wothy of a Monty Python sketch imho. Collectively a disaster.

Although I did hear that Slippy was accidentally sprayed with the vanishing spray - which would explain it

I thought England (and Italy) were pretty much what I expected. England lacked control of midfield when defending but were bright and positive but bit naive going forward. Gerrard was a bit off his passing range but not as bad as people make out, his role is unflamboyant now.

I thought Sterling was a threat but was less effective parked on the wing second half. Johnson was plodding. I would not have picked Wellbeck but he did pretty well especially robbing posession a few times. Playing Rooney wide was not great-and exposed Baines.

Italy played with class, you just knew once ahead in the second half they'd park the bus and not concede.

Team for next time? I'd go with Sturridge up front, Lallana Wellbeck Sterling Gerrard and Henderson plus same back four from last time (Johnson has no alternative does he?). Rooney would not start for me-he is not the No 9 any more and we have other more dangerous as No 10. England are a good counter-attacking side now-may help if Uruguay are chasing a result but lacked the class to break down a team like Italy.

I enjoyed the game, we can pass the ball and keep posession and have some young talent now. We just don't quite have the grit and experience.

Bruce

Come on Chris, you really must drop your immature Liverpool prejudices, for the sake of dignity.

Jason.

Not sure about up front but Shaw and Lallana obviously understand each other, and I'd like to see them in.

Chris_M

Smalling?

..or maybe Milner?

Bruce

3-0 Germany and Portugal has had a man sent off.

Nothing beats having flashy balls.

70 mins in and nil - nil between Iran and Nigeria.  This is a very boring game, perhaps the first so far so I shouldn't complain.  

Just watched the first 30 mins of Iran v Nigeria,and thats about 29mins to long. Lots of very sloppy passing and time to switch the TV off. Dont think either team will be staying in Brazil for much longer.

Mista h

Yep. Just finished 0-0. Boring, error-prone game, though I guess Iran will be pleased to get a point. I expected much more of Nigeria given the pedigree of some of their players. 

Four years ago, Gyan's game-winning goal in overtime knocked the US out of the World Cup. In 2006, Ghana also sent the US home in group play. I would not call this revenge, but it sure did feel good to finally beat those guys!

If there's a faster team in the world cup, I haven't seen it.  They beat the US to every free ball, they controlled most of the game, and they had at least a dozen solid chances to score.  But hey, somehow they didn't!

Howard was solid in goal, and Dempsey got us off to the fast lead, but the man of the match was John Brooks. When Besler went out injured, Brooks came in and did a really great job of shoring up the defense. It was only fitting that he also got the winning header!

With Germany demolishing Portugal, and Pepe out, do I dare hope for another win on Sunday?  Odds are still against the US making it out of this group of death, but for at least the next five days, I can remain hopeful! 

Hook

PS - Shame about Altidore. Hope it was only a hamstring strain, and not a tear. In either case, I doubt he'll play again in this World Cup. Given how little Johansson contributed in his place, I would now expect Wondolowski to start against Portugal.

Yes, that little toe rag made a brilliant one-on-one move to score our first goal at about the 90 second mark.  From that moment on, the US team held on by a thread, and were clearly outplayed. Their plan was to defend and counter-attack, but unfortunately, they only managed 4 or 5 decent attempts at going forward the entire match.  

Beyond his initial moment of genius, Dempsey was well-marked...and ineffective. It didn't help that our other toe rag, Jozy Altidore, popped his hamstring. It wasn't a twinge -- he went down, stayed down, and had to be stretchered off. His replacement, Aaron Johansson, is a skinny young toe rag (an Icelandic American), who could not hold possession against the faster, stronger Ghanian defensemen. This left them free to focus on Dempsey.

We have one other toe rag to try against Portugal next Sunday -- Chris Wondolowski. He played well in the qualifiers, but the team will greatly miss Altidore (who had scored two goals versus Nigeria in our final friendly, and looked poised to have a great World Cup).

ATB.

Hook

PS - On a personal note, my 14-year old Grand Nephew is visiting this week, and it's been a blast watching the matches with him. He is simply mad for the game, and follows world football in addition to MLS. In our team's darkest moments last night, I could hear him chanting the American Outlaws cheer, over and over again, under his breath:  I believe that we will win. I believe that we will win. I believe...

Not so much the game itself, but I will remember this shared experience, his utter joy at seeing the late, game-winning header, for the rest of my days. Priceless!

The US team expected Nigeria to be good preparation for facing Ghana, and they weren't. The US was able to keep possession versus Nigeria, but Ghana was much stronger and much, much faster!

it would be interesting to see Ghana versus Ivory Coast, clearly the two best-looking African teams so far.  Cameroon looks a distant third, but better than Nigeria. No clue about Algeria, but it will be interesting to see if they can run with Belgium today.

ATB.

Hook

My thoughts so far FWIW: I have seen every game, either live or on catch-up. Apart from Iran-Nigeria (also the least entertaining game) we've had no draws, and a feast of goals, adding up to a hugely enjoyable WC so far.

Despite their victories, I'm not yet convinced by either Brazil or Argentina (although Messi's goal was fantastic), although I'm sure both will go far - although if the Dutch and Germans keep up their displays of imperious, ruthless fluidity it might not be so easy. The Italians look very strong as well.

Biggest surprise so far have been the Costa Ricans - as Uruguay found to their cost, they won't be pushovers, and I really fear for England's progressing much further.

Anyone else really looking forward to seeing what the Belgians can do this evening?

I like 'imperious ruthless fluidity'. Nice one!

I've seen only a few games in full but caught bits and pieces. I saw Spain v Holland but I'm not sure that is a true reflection of where either side actually are. Next games for each will tell maybe. I'd back Germany to go far in the tournament and Italy to maybe tough out a few rounds too. Brazil and Argentina will get better.

Yes, looking forward to Belgium. Would make a great change to the existing 'big' nations to see them do well.

I'm not a fan of football, just an occasional watcher. I can enjoy a game between any teams really. Dipping in to the WC on those grounds is quite fun. I can even enjoy watching a bright and positive England for a change.

Bruce

Yes, it's good to see Belgium back in the fold after a long hiatus. They looked very slick and controlled against a  very defensive Algeria and deserved the win.

I predicted a 2-0 to Belgium. Tonights Brazil game is another 2-0 to Brazil.

I would agree with Kevin, it's been a great WC thus far with loads of goals, interesting games, penalties that were not and a couple of surprise results. All played in good sportsmanship in general, although we are secretly want to see a good punch up...no just kidding.

Just some observations about attendances and ticket allocation.

The attendance for England's game against Italy was 39,800, one of the lowest thus far, which is surprising. The Cote deIvoire v Japan was 40,267, according to my sources there has only been two games with a lower attendance and they are Iran v Nigeria 39,081 and Ghana v United States 39,760, although the differences are so small as to be irrelevant. The United States have purchased the second highest numbers of tickets after Brazil at 125,000, that's a lot of tickets.

According to the source below, England supporters bought 51,000 tickets for the WC,  it's seems not many went to the first game. If you minus 10,000 for local ticket sales for the game, then approx only 15,000 England supporters were at the game, at best 20,000 if you assume that no local football supporters went.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/...1000-tickets-3170388

Anyway, the point about my rambling is, why such a low turnout for England's most high profile game of the Group stage?

Jason.

HT....Belgium v Algeria

I think Belgium are going to struggle to win this one. Its all one way traffic but Algeria have parked the Bus in front of their goal and on the first half showing are going to be very hard to break down.

Mista H