... and Robben with his usual monster dive. Thx god all this is over tomorrow. Will be back for the Europe Championship 2016, certainly not before for any other soccer game...
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The Hitch said:This shows me how overrated managers are in football. Its 100% about name recognition nothing else. No other explanation for why Brazil would hire Scolari for their most important world cup, just because he was the manager when one of the most talented football teams of all time which had a total of 7 world player of the year awards in it, won a world cup that was almost impossible to lose.
The Hitch said:This shows me how overrated managers are in football. Its 100% about name recognition nothing else.
FoxxyBrown1111 said:After everybody settled down in Germany (inclusive me ), here is my serious pick:
I don´t know who wins. Normally it´s "defensive wins championships" (ok, in Football offensive teams still have a slight upper hand; it´s circa 52/48 there). But especially in soccer and hockey it is true. And a whole lot depends on pure chance. A wrong bounce here or there, a (it mustn´t even be intentionally) big mistake by the refs, a red card... whatever it will be.
So given the successful defensive scheme of ARG, just a single magic moment of Messi could be enough. Add in the praise Neuer gets for his kamikaze style of goal keeping... I see some dark clouds looming. One day it will go wrong, just hope it won´t be tomorrow.
Still adding everything together:
1.) Risky GK play by GER
2.) Regression to the mean has to set in (hopefully not tomorrow) one day. GER scores more goals than to expect from a statistical standpoint. I know most chances came inside the 16m. Still, GER got all the right bounces in the BRA & POR games (and a moral down opponent after 25 mins)
3.) A lot will depend on the refs
4.) GER plays riskier overall. Speak with higher variance. Thus advantage ARG.
5.) GER has the overall better players, but not by too much...
So... 52 % chance ARG, 48 % GER. I´ll have my beers either way.
FoxxyBrown1111 said:He is already. No matter the outcome. Right up there with Gerd Müller. And a nice guy. The only player I rember going to the ref to take back a penalty kick. He told him he wasn´t fouled. Once scored a hand goal... again told that the ref. Goal taken back.
One of the few true sports heroes. Soccer God.
The complete opposite of divers/cheaters like Robben, whiners like CRonaldo, or combi of both (Maradona)...
FoxxyBrown1111 said:No Germany has a strange philosophy to its identity. Not too much emotions (& OFC no big hero statures) allowed since a guy from Austria destroyed our identity some 70 years ago. We still have to suffer until we are downsized to zero...
Thus it can´t get higher than it already is for Klose.
I don't see it that way. I think hero worship of celebrities is a bad thing.Sciocco said:Yea I am aware of how it is for Germany. A shame really.
Sciocco said:Yea I am aware of how it is for Germany. A shame really.
The Hitch said:I don't see it that way. I think hero worship of celebrities is a bad thing.
FoxxyBrown1111 said:If you talk of the Kardashians & Co, or whatever they are called, true. But a fair & talented guy like Klose should be hailed...
The Hitch said:Most great footballers if they go to the world cup never find themselves surrounded by such talent, but have to carry weak teams. You mock Ronaldo and Robben but both those players on the team that Germany has would score far more goals than Klose does.
If fans in the sports hungry US are any indication, that WC was I believe ultimately a set back for the sport on this side of the pond. After the relative success (though not meeting the hype) of the NASL, soccer was at a lull but got a huge boost in 1994 with the WC set in the US. It even set attendance records that stood up to this day (not sure if this 2014 WC will surpass it). Even after the US ugly win over Columbia, and our close loss to Brazil, the WC was still drawing huge crowds. It was also during this time there was huge hope of success of the newly forming MLS. Soccer was finally going to be back in the US, and rival other major sports. Maybe not MLB and NFL, but close to the NHL people were saying. This would finally help put it on the map here.FoxxyBrown1111 said:I think soccer was worst from early 90s to early 00s (with the all time low being the 0-0 1994 final of BRA vs ITA)... Just ugly...
Alpe d'Huez said:But by the time we got to the final, and how uneventful it was, it just seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the sport here. As much as people tried to keep talking about it, people in our sports crazy nation just were not interested in seeing matches like this.
Alpe d'Huez said:... even though there will be plenty of purists loudly insisting this is how soccer is played and should be, it's not going to go over well with the mass of US fans, and it's likely to be a bit of a set-back, or stall growth of the sport here.