FIFA World Cup 2014

[Libertine Seguros]

Four (!) Costa Rican players got yellow carded yesterday for fouls against him, I don't think you see that too often with one single player.

Only because the ref waited until the 40th foul of the game to book anyone in Brazil-Colombia. Otherwise you'd probably have seen that with Neymar and definitely with James Rodríguez too.

 

[pjckmen]

Germany will win the World Cup 2014.

 

[ILovecycling]

I just finished watching 2002 Final germany vs brazil,what a match!I've seen that but only in that year,and back then I was a kid so rememeber almost only emotions,not actual play.
Its amazing how german style of playing has changed.Of course whole style changed,the thing Libertine disscussed about (fouls etc),it wasnt that bad twelve years ago,only 1! dive in penalty area through whole match.I still feel sad for Oliver Kahn for the first goal,same as I feel sad for di maria n neymar now.Its like olympics,4 freakin years you prepare for this,and then sh:t happens.

I observed players in that final,and it seems Scolari is trying to copy those positions etc in this WC.IMO the biggest problem is that they just dont have real center forward at least 3/4 quality of Ronaldo.Then this style just doesnt work.
Im glad germans changed their style so much,they have BIG chance tomorrow.

 

[Flamin]

meh,di maria was,messi?No.

Messi, along with Di Maria, is the key player for Argentina. Despite being lazy as hell and losing a lot of possession, he still does genious things from time to time. Neymar on the other hand won't be such a big miss for Brazil imo. I have very rarely seen him do special things this wc, although to be fair on him, Brazil's style of playing doesn't really help a player like him to shine.

 

[sniper]

Messi, along with Di Maria, is the key player for Argentina. Despite being lazy as hell and losing a lot of possession, he still does genious things from time to time. Neymar on the other hand won't be such a big miss for Brazil imo. I have very rarely seen him do special things this wc, although to be fair on him, Brazil's style of playing doesn't really help a player like him to shine.

not sure if brazil have the quality to replace neymar.
brazil don't have that many up front to really impress germany. hulk doesn't seem to have very good form.
thiago silva, i think, will be a big miss as well.
germany to beat brazil easily, unless something unexpected happens like a red card or something.

as for argentina, is aguero fit?
if not, they still have messi and higuain up front. that's impressive. then they have lavezzi. not bad either.
still i think holland have chance. sneijder's form has been growing.
for the sake of defensive stability i hope vlaar can play.

 

[mr. tibbs]

My money's on Germany, now. France v Germany might have been the real deciding game.

 

[ILovecycling]

Messi, along with Di Maria, is the key player for Argentina. Despite being lazy as hell and losing a lot of possession, he still does genious things from time to time. Neymar on the other hand won't be such a big miss for Brazil imo. I have very rarely seen him do special things this wc, although to be fair on him, Brazil's style of playing doesn't really help a player like him to shine.

yep,he only scored 4 goals and set up 2 (maybe 3,not sure),I agree that the style is not ideal,otoh still better than barcelona one.And if you watch him closely in every game,he was in beginning or the end of 90% goal chances.In fact his style of playmaking is very similiar to Messi,altough Leo has got a lot better experience and overview in great passes.Thats what is special about him.
To sum up,Im not sure who will replace neymar,Willian is reported to play instead of him.but ehmm...

not sure if brazil have the quality to replace neymar.
brazil don't have that many up front to really impress germany. hulk doesn't seem to have very good form.
thiago silva, i think, will be a big miss as well.
germany to beat brazil easily, unless something unexpected happens like a red card or something.

as for argentina, is aguero fit?
if not, they still have messi and higuain up front. that's impressive. then they have lavezzi. not bad either.
still i think holland have chance. sneijder's form has been growing.
for the sake of defensive stability i hope vlaar can play.

Not only aguero is out,but di maria will be too.Very difficult to replace him on the wing.
And yeah,Germany is a favourite,Silva will be missed a lot.I thought Dante is sure replacement,but Felipao hasnt made any statement

 

[Merckx index]

Don't know if any of you have seen this, really detailed analysis of what makes Messi so good. Nice to see that this approach is gaining a foothold in soccer, which has to be a nightmare for analysis compared to a game like baseball, where so much of what happens is one on one and every event has a discrete beginning and ending.

By now I’ve studied nearly every aspect of Messi’s game, down to a touch-by-touch level: his shooting and scoring production; where he shoots from; how often he sets up his own shots; what kind of kicks he uses to make those shots; his ability to take on defenders; how accurate his passes are; the kind of passes he makes; how often he creates scoring chances; how often those chances lead to goals; even how his defensive playmaking compares to other high-volume shooters.

And that’s just the stuff that made it into this article. I arrived at a conclusion that I wasn’t really expecting or prepared for: Lionel Messi is impossible.

It’s not possible to shoot more efficiently from outside the penalty area than many players shoot inside it. It’s not possible to lead the world in weak-kick goals and long-range goals. It’s not possible to score on unassisted plays as well as the best players in the world score on assisted ones. It’s not possible to lead the world’s forwards both in taking on defenders and in dishing the ball to others. And it’s certainly not possible to do most of these things by insanely wide margins.

But Messi does all of this and more.

Coming in just behind Messi with 289 goals and assists since the 2010 World Cup is Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi’s rival from Real Madrid. When it comes to scoring, these two aren’t just on top of the pile, they’re hang-gliding somewhere way above it. Messi and Ronaldo have been compared to each other so often by sports media and fans alike that it almost feels trite to compare them again, but it can’t be helped. If we want to compare Messi to all players with a remotely similar volume of production, we’re left with Ronaldo.

The percentage of shots Messi makes from outside the penalty area is absolutely stunning. He scores almost as often per shot from outside the penalty area (12.1 percent) as most players do inside it (13.1 percent).

Somehow, Messi has done even better when taking it on his own than when somebody sets him up. Moreover, on unassisted shots he shoots nearly 10 percent and .044 GAA better than the next best player (Sergio Aguero for Manchester City) does, despite taking the fourth-most such shots of the 28 players in the group.

The only forward who takes on defenders nearly as aggressively as Messi is Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan striker for Liverpool who is perhaps too aggressive for his own good (ahem). Suarez is successful less than 35 percent of the time.

This may help explain how Messi gets so many better shots, and why his “unassisted” shots are so good. It also points to the main stylistic difference between Messi and Ronaldo: Ronaldo takes more mid-range shots but misses a lot of them; Messi tries to beat a lot more defenders, loses sometimes, and then makes up for it (and then some) by having better assisting and shooting opportunities as a result.

Not only is Messi the top game-by-game goal-scorer of the last four years, he’s the third-most productive distributor of assists, despite being the primary scorer on his own team! Only Mesut Ozil and Franck Ribery8 earned more assists than Messi, and Ozil did it on Real Madrid9 — setting up Cristiano Ronaldo...

Messi makes more passes than the other forwards, with a higher percentage of those passes trying to advance the ball toward the goal, and a higher percentage of those passes finding their targets (typical Messi!)...

Messi is among the most accurate passers for both metrics, and no one with as many attempts is more accurate.11 There are players who complete a higher percentage of these passes and/or are more “successful” with them, but they’re typically being more selective in their attempts. For example, Ronaldo’s “success” rate of 60 percent beats Messi’s 54 percent (with a slightly lower completion percentage), but Ronaldo has only 35 successful long ball passes to Messi’s 81...

And then there’s the bread and butter of aggressive passing: moving it toward the goal on the opponent’s side of the field. In attacking territory, no one attacks as often as Messi does, and no one has more success doing so.

 

[ILovecycling]

Very good article,thanks Merckx
The biggest problem is that the author is overlooking the most important feature.El Barcelona.Those who follow football know that these 'facts' are heavily influenced by this team.I could write there how every of this statements are influeced and how different it would have been if Messi played for Real,Bayern,psg,MU etc. but I will skip as I dont have a time D) and you can imagine the influence.
When barcelona is not good,messi is not good.Simple as that.If we will compare season 13/14 messi wouldnt have been so mighty special.Im not saying he is not special and talented,but the club is what makes him so special.Ideal playmaking,teammates,league etc.I will bet with anybody that if he will be transfered,he never will be as good as in barca.
He is one of the 2 best footballers (nobody can be compared with them,not yet!) but he is not a league above CR,not at all.

 

[Kibbeling]

Final match. Germany vs The Netherlands.

The entire Northern Hemisphere will stop.

I just saw that I got some reactions on this comment, of course I was joking somewhat, hence the

Because I'm a Dutchie I would really like to see a final against Germany, to take revenge for the '74 final (in the progress beating Argentina as a revenge for the '78 final).

But I can imagine the general public really want to see a final between BRA - ARG, because of the rivalry (which of course, globally is bigger then GER - NED) and because the tournament is held in South America.

p.s. If Holland would have been eliminated by this point, I still would watch every game and be rooting for the best playing team.

 

[Flamin]

yep,he only scored 4 goals and set up 2 (maybe 3,not sure),I agree that the style is not ideal,otoh still better than barcelona one.And if you watch him closely in every game,he was in beginning or the end of 90% goal chances.In fact his style of playmaking is very similiar to Messi,altough Leo has got a lot better experience and overview in great passes.Thats what is special about him.
To sum up,Im not sure who will replace neymar,Willian is reported to play instead of him.but ehmm...

And he also was one of the worst players on the pitch vs Colombia statistics don't mean everything. Anyway, I'm not trying to take anything away from him or something, since he's obviously an important player for Brazil. Just think he hasn't been on Messi's level.

I guess Oscar should get at least more freedom now. He was very good against Croatia, but seemed to be pushed more and more in a supportive role in the last games.

 

[del1962]

Don't know if any of you have seen this, really detailed analysis of what makes Messi so good. Nice to see that this approach is gaining a foothold in soccer, which has to be a nightmare for analysis compared to a game like baseball, where so much of what happens is one on one and every event has a discrete beginning and ending.

The only stats that are important in a game of footie are the goals scored

All this stats stuff take away from the beauty of the game, you can't quantify something like this in statistics

or this

 

[ILovecycling]

And he also was one of the worst players on the pitch vs Colombia statistics don't mean everything. Anyway, I'm not trying to take anything away from him or something, since he's obviously an important player for Brazil. Just think he hasn't been on Messi's level.

I guess Oscar should get at least more freedom now. He was very good against Croatia, but seemed to be pushed more and more in a supportive role in the last games.

whut??you should probably rewatch that match then,he assisted first goal and made another two goal chances lol
I agree with you on Oscar,he needs to step up his game,he played well only in first match.He can be decisive man against germany.

 

[Flamin]

whut??you should probably rewatch that match then,he assisted first goal and made another two goal chances lol
I agree with you on Oscar,he needs to step up his game,he played well only in first match.He can be decisive man against germany.

Nah, he was very bad. Did almost everything wrong. First goal was a lucky corner, and he had a good pass to Hulk indeed. But that's really it.

 

[sniper]

The only stats that are important in a game of footie are the goals scored

All this stats stuff take away from the beauty of the game, you can't quantify something like this in statistics

or this

great post, though i do like stats now and then.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

All this stats stuff take away from the beauty of the game, you can't quantify something like this in statistics

What do stats take away from soccer?

 

[del1962]

What do stats take away from soccer?

Maybe take away is the wrong word, just that they are not necessary

 

[l.Harm]

What do stats take away from soccer?

What did you think of Klose in the France game?

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

What did you think of Klose in the France game?

Wow! 0 shots... Thx god i was busy with beers and then some

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Maybe take away is the wrong word, just that they are not necessary

Depends. There are stats, and then there are stats...
Trivia stats are beautiful sometimes (like who shot the fastest goal), but useless. Explanatory stats OTOH are useful. Like those done on the Messi stats...

 

[ILovecycling]

Nah, he was very bad. Did almost everything wrong. First goal was a lucky corner, and he had a good pass to Hulk indeed. But that's really it.

yeah,probably as lucky as against chile.Ohh look,thats interesting,so much luck in two consecutive matches with corner kick centre and following header goal

I am not saying it wasnt his worst match,cuz it was

 

[Flamin]

yeah,probably as lucky as against chile.Ohh look,thats interesting,so much luck in two consecutive matches with corner kick centre and following header goal

I am not saying it wasnt his worst match,cuz it was

Where did I say scoring from corners is luck? With Brazil it's obviously not a case of luck since it happened multiple times. Just saying that having an assist to your name from a corner that was missed by various players and then tucked in, is 'lucky'.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

brasil,decime que se siente - argentina song for the world cup is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csEjC_az1CI

 

[Merckx index]

The only stats that are important in a game of footie are the goals scored

All this stats stuff take away from the beauty of the game, you can't quantify something like this in statistics

or this

Translation: I don't want science to spoil my appreciation of an artificially-constructed video that I can watch ten million times on the internet.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Translation: I don't want science to spoil my appreciation of an artificially-constructed video that I can watch ten million times on the internet.

heh,

I still remember the last one as if it was yesterday.