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FIFA World Cup 2014

Page 106 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Jun 15, 2009
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... 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...
 
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. 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.

It shows how important managers are. And it shows Scolari has been totally tactically inapt this tournament. Brazil did not adjust at all to the opponent and just played how they want to play. Gave away so many spaces :rolleyes: Unbelievable.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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The Hitch said:
This shows me how overrated managers are in football. Its 100% about name recognition nothing else.

Exactly.

We had this in the Mourinho discussion, some months ago. And it was about club trainers, who have to work under constant pressure, and with the material the club can afford.
The result was that Mourinho completely lives off his Portugal years reputation. He had no better results in Italy, England and Spain than his predecessors and successors, despite big player budgets given to him, and millions thrown for nothing into his bank account.

A "big soccer country" national coach is like one who trains Real. The difference: He can chose from an even wider player pool and has max 3 pressure games per year (vs quality competition in qualifiers and championships; the rest is cannon fodder or friendly matches). All he can do is picking wrong players or applying tactics/systems that don´t fit with the player pool.
IOW: Easy millions. Big lottery winner...
 
Jun 15, 2009
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After everybody settled down in Germany (inclusive me :D), 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. :)
 
Jan 24, 2012
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FoxxyBrown1111 said:
After everybody settled down in Germany (inclusive me :D), 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. :)

Klose to score what ends up being the game winning goal and is solidified as a hero for germany for all eternity.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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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)...
 
Jan 24, 2012
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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)...

Though I don't doubt it, I imagine he'd be elevated to yet an even higher level should he essentially win the WC for Germany.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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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.
 
Jan 24, 2012
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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.

Yea I am aware of how it is for Germany. A shame really.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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Sciocco said:
Yea I am aware of how it is for Germany. A shame really.

Complete brainwash, north korean like. From childhood on we were trained to be guilty gangsters. OK, they couldn´t brainwash me (and I wasn´t even born, like 90% of the living today when that idiot from Austria took over), but the masses. All this led to decline in all phases of life in Germany. The lefties took over with all shit that comes with it from one side. The other shit came from the neo capitalists side. In the middle, the squeezed hard working taxpayer... the milked cow.
 
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...

Because he kicked a football? How is that different?

Klose isn't even that special anyway. He was never rated as one of the worlds best players.
The only reason he has so many goals is because the teams he was on. Most of his goals were meaningless against **** opposition. 5 goals in 2002 but every single one in the group stage against weak opposition. 3 against Saudi Arabia one against a good Ireland side, 1 against Cameroon.
In the knockout stages when it mattered he scored 0 goals in 4 games. In 2006 he scored 1 goal in the knockout stages but padded his stats with 4 in the group stages against **** oppostion.

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.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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It´s basically because he is fair-play, no nonsense, and still highly talented... The 1% of sportstars kids could really look up to.

Take the new Müller OTOH: A loudspeaker, arrogant beyond help. A diver and pretender at times too. This guy won´t make a long career like Klose. While Klose is God, Müller feels like one. That´s the difference...
 
Jun 15, 2009
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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.

Too many ifs and what. Rumenigge (a great player) had weak opposition too, Völler had, Fischer, Allofs, Hrubesch, Klinsmann, etc, etc... None of them came close to 16 in WC or 70+ in national team games.
Messi another great player needed 32 shots to score his first WC goal. Same weak opponents, same talented players around him...
Klose OTOH scored one every four shots (I guess you saw the stats I posted some weeks ago), consistently over a 12 year period.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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Omg, just seeing the WC final of 1990. Didn´t recall GER needed a RC and doubtful PK to win. The way this team is praised from time to time... Highly overrated. 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.

Edit: Make that 2 RCs. One around the end of regulation with circa 5 mins to go... If I was Fifa I would sit 22 refs at a table give them dices and the players watch when they role them.... Jesus soccer is worse than I ever thought...
 
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...
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.

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. No one wanted to admit that, but it really wasn't until 2002 when the US made the quarterfinals the that year the MLS cup drew a big crowd that things started to pick up. But that was still 12 years ago now.

I do have to say that MLS has done quite well. Not quite as big as everyone hoped back in 1994, but the league is smart, financially stable, on the right path. I'm just really hoping tomorrow's match is exciting and close. If we end up with another 0-0 match like 1994 (or the Argentina-Netherlands semifinal this year, or even the 2006 final), 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.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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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.

I think I got fully "brainwashed" ;) since the mid 80s á la US-style. As much I liked the 1st round games, thus really started to get interested again... the full bore games (outside of that instant 7-1 classic) of the knock out round killed everything. As I said earlier, I am happy it all ends tomorrow. Still too much ref influence; too much pure chance: a single event can decide a game, in the NFL you need on average 4 successful events/drives (thus it reduces pure chance, but increases skill as deciding factor); too much bore around midfield... I am already overfed after circa 25 games I watched. I fully understand the US public. Back to business. MLB now, NFL later...

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.

... and the US fans are right. What else can I say?
BTW, I once read most of the MLS success comes with the spanish speaking population. I guess you can´t convince hardcore football fans with those knock out round games, right?
 

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