World Cup predictions anyone?

wisnon said:

It was a VERY good game, just not an exciting one. 2 very competent teams keeping things tight. It was the Brazil final that was a lousy contest, even if exciting.

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It was a good game if you like the games from the 90's. Neither team took any chances and stayed back for the most part. Robben didn't look like he could run until about 10 minutes into extra time. Van Persie was imitating a professional, he seemed to be offisides more than he was onside. Messi was running around with little conviction that it would go anywhere as the Dutch seemed to knock him around after running for 20 yards. Neither team seemed to have fresh first touches. Ball was bouncing around or passes weren't on target. I don't need goals I just need to think there is a possibility that either team might score one at some time. Didn't get that feeling until extra time last night.

I hate penalty kicks. If you are going to decide a game other than playing until someone wins, why don't they try something like 7 on 7 allowing one sub for every say 15 minute period. Could even make it fun by allowing subbed out players to come back in. That's no more artificial than PKs and at least we would have to watch players walk halfway down the field. If they are going to keep PKs why don't they let the players form both teams surround the box, sort of like a free throw in BB, that would make it a little more fun .

beaur said:

It was a good game if you like the games from the 90's. Neither team took any chances and stayed back for the most part. Robben didn't look like he could run until about 10 minutes into extra time. Van Persie was imitating a professional, he seemed to be offisides more than he was onside. Messi was running around with little conviction that it would go anywhere as the Dutch seemed to knock him around after running for 20 yards. Neither team seemed to have fresh first touches. Ball was bouncing around or passes weren't on target. I don't need goals I just need to think there is a possibility that either team might score one at some time. Didn't get that feeling until extra time last night.

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The Australians, Chileans, Mexicans and Costa Ricans all fell into the Dutch trap, chasing the ball like headless chicken, running out of steam after 60 minutes, and the losing in the last half hour. Argentina played a lot smarter, and deserved the win (by a narrow margin).

edorr said:

The Australians, Chileans, Mexicans and Costa Ricans all fell into the Dutch trap, chasing the ball like headless chicken, running out of steam after 60 minutes, and the losing in the last half hour. Argentina played a lot smarter, and deserved the win (by a narrow margin).

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Well all of the above had good chances to score and the Mexican scored first then lost on a silly (by the defender) penalty. The Costa Rican took them to penalties so they were hardly headless chickens.

All I was speaking to was the style of play. If they play like that against Germany they will pay for their passivity. Hoping to win a game on penalties is basically a crapshoot.

asiufy said:

One can only hope!
Germany deserves the title far more than Argentina, that's for sure.


alexandre

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What a final!
I was rooting for Germany more than I did for Brazil!
As I said earlier, they deserved it! 4 times World Champions. And my early prognostic for 2018 is Germany again, as most of their players are quite young!


alexandre

I agree, well for the most part. 2018 is a long way off.

But Messi as the tournaments best player? PLEASE!!!!!!!

Germany proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they are the champs.

Johnny Vinyl said:

But Messi as the tournaments best player? PLEASE!!!!!!!

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Indeed. Robben would be my pick.


alexandre

asiufy said:

What a final!
I was rooting for Germany more than I did for Brazil!
As I said earlier, they deserved it! 4 times World Champions. And my early prognostic for 2018 is Germany again, as most of their players are quite young!


alexandre

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No team deserves the WC they have to earn it and in the end, the Jeries barely squeaked by...if they deserve any recognition its for beating down Brazil 7-1.

This was a very close game that went scoreless til OT - even the casual observer would say it could have gone either way (btw, my money was on Argentina). They can hold their heads high and were Gemany's equal throughout the WC.

Johnny Vinyl said:

I agree, well for the most part. 2018 is a long way off.

But Messi as the tournaments best player? PLEASE!!!!!!!

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Yeah the countries competing will depend upon who Russian annexes next. Maybe Russia will re-annex Germany to add to their soccer program.

puroagave said:

No team deserves the WC they have to earn it and in the end, the Jeries barely squeaked by...if they deserve any recognition its for beating down Brazil 7-1.

This was a very close game that went scoreless til OT - even the casual observer would say it could have gone either way (btw, my money was on Argentina). They can hold their heads high and were Gemany's equal throughout the WC.

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Don't think so, they deserved it, because they clearly had the better campaign. That's not always how it works in football, specially in a short-duration tournament like the WC, but this time, the best really won.

You must've been watching a different sport than I did, to think Argentina had as good a campaign as Germany...

Even if you leave out the ludicrous 7x1 against Brazil, Germany still would have a better campaign.

It was a close game indeed, and Argentina has never played better with that formation. Their defense (and midfield) was exemplary, while their attack was poor, which is the exact opposite of what they normally do.

As brilliant as Messi is, Germany, as a team, was even more so.


alexandre

What a great month of football! Thank you Brazil for hosting what I think has been the best WC I've seen.

What the hell do I do now though?????

Congratulations to my ORANJE for going as far as they did when no one expected them to. We have some great young talent and I hope that Gus Hiddink (coach for EURO 2016) and Danny Blind (coach for WC 2018) develop that talent pool and create the next generation of classic Dutch footballers.