The unofficial World Cup Thread,

[Ser Clegane]

This tournament belongs to the Latin Americans.

According to tradition (i.e. 50 years of Europe and Latin America taking turns) it's Latin America's turn to win the World Cup anyway

[Husar]

It's set to be the lowest scored world cup in the current format. Less goals = boring tournament.

And how can it be concluded from that that the ball is at fault? The teams often play defensively, yet the ones who play offensively still score nice and beautiful goals, it's not the ball, it's the players/coaches.

On a related note, the rule concerning handballs to stop a goal has been in the spotlight recently. Technically the ref is constrained, and must give a straight red, but that seems unfair to me.

Didn't that one Australian get red for stopping the ball with his upper arm? That looked entirely accidental to me and to send someone off the place for an accident doesn't seem fair, the other team has to hit a place where no body parts are in the way, isn't that the point of scoring a goal? To find that one spot where nothing can obstruct the ball?
Of course that's different if the defenders play handball on purpose like certain serbs.

[Sarmatian]

Of course that's different if the defenders play handball on purpose like certain serbs.

That is because we didn't want you to moan how we didn't give you a chance to equalize. We're so good that we can win the WC without breaking a sweat so it was decided to give each opponent a free penalty, otherwise it's gonna be too easy

[naut]

How true is that now? I can't find the stats anywhere. It seems like we've had a string of 3-5 goal games.

This is a stat attack... This is a stat attack... This is a stat attack!

I’ve already been criticized for making this remark but I’m not alone: a lot of people can see that there is something wrong with the ball. This seamless ball dips too quickly, swerves too readily, and balloons to easily for players to control the ball, and thus to score goals, and the proof is in the scoring my friends. There have been 25 games so far in the group stages and only 46 goals. That’s a goal scoring rate of 1.84 goals per game, or well off the the previous low of 2.21 was in 1990. To put it another way, teams are scoring 16% fewer goals than ever before.

When the score rate is 16% lower than the lowest modern WC, (and most boring WC ever) there is something wrong. Whether it is the ball, the teams, the altitude, whatever it is, something is not right.


Predictions:

Portugal 0 - 0 North Korea
Chile 2 - 0 Swiss
Spain 5 - 0 Honduras

[Myrddraal]

But it should really be called arm-ball, because if it hits your elbow, that's a hand ball

[Ronin]

North Korea area actually outplaying Portugal at this point....what a joke of a national team.

[johnhughthom]

Sorry guys, long weekend.

Update:

Louis: +7 = 24
Little Grizzly: 2
Psycho: +5 = 14
Sarmatian: 3
Insane Apache: +2 = 19
Ser Clegane: +6 = 16
Romanic: +3 = 12
Joooray: +1 = 6
Rhyfelwyr: +2 = 7
LEN: +1 = 11
Moros: 2
Marshall Murat: +5 = 11
Craterus: 3
Crazed Rabbit: 2
Beefy: 3
Centurio Nixalsverdus: +6 = 11
Ronin: 1
||Lz3||: 6

[naut]

North Korea area actually outplaying Portugal at this point....what a joke of a national team.

Not anymore. Very good game so far. Seems I was right about a 5 - 0, just the wrong game.

Maradona is not gay...

Best commentary:

"For a moment Gallas looked like a gazelle which had just plopped out of its mother's womb and was struggling to get its legs right".

"The goalkeeper has been an absolute tart there"

[Louis VI the Fat]

Portugoooooal!



Those poor Koreans. I read that for every goal against one relative is send to the camps.

Portugal needed those goals. If Portugal loses to Brazil (not unthinkable), and Côte d'Ivoire beats North Korea, then goal difference will decide. Those seven goals are very much needed. A small Portugese victory would probably have been pyrrhic!

Sorry guys, long weekend.

No, thank you for putting in the effort to keep track of the scores. It is a large, unwieldy thread, and a lot of work to find all the predictions and keep track of them.

[edyzmedieval]

I feel bad for NK. I supported them for this!

[Secura]

Wow, and people thought these low scoring games were going to be a feature of the tournament and that the Western European teams were going to have a bad year?

7-0 is very impressive at the World Cup finals, no matter what team you are and who your opposition is; loved Cristiano's goal, pretty cheeky, typical of his impudence, but still a good one.

Kudos to Portugal. :3

[Husar]

Yeah, ask the portuguese players about the bad ball...

[Secura]

Don't get me wrong, from the games I have watched the ball does seem to be causing a few problems, but the teams that aren't doing so well (particularly France and England) cannot attribute their shortcomings thus far solely to an errant football... it's just an easy scapegoat because it can't argue back.

It's typical masculine reactions; heaven forbid that a team might be better than you, no, blame it on the football! T'is like when I beat a guy on a computer game and he'll blame his controller or something because he can't accept he was beaten by a woman. xD

[Jolt]

Wow, and people thought these low scoring games were going to be a feature of the tournament and that the Western European teams were going to have a bad year?

7-0 is very impressive at the World Cup finals, no matter what team you are and who your opposition is; loved Cristiano's goal, pretty cheeky, typical of his impudence, but still a good one.

Kudos to Portugal. :3

We love you too.

Portugal collectively supports England going all the way until they meet Portugal and lose again in the penalties.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Wow, I wish I gotten up early enough to watch that game now.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Don't get me wrong, from the games I have watched the ball does seem to be causing a few problems, but the teams that aren't doing so well (particularly France and England) cannot attribute their shortcomings thus far solely to an errant football... it's just an easy scapegoat because it can't argue back.

It's typical masculine reactions; heaven forbid that a team might be better than you, no, blame it on the football! T'is like when I beat a guy on a computer game and he'll blame his controller or something because he can't accept he was beaten by a woman. xD

Pft!

I don't hear either England or France blame the ball. Both teams had very high-profile disputes between the staff and the players this weekend. The French players openly revolting, the English accepting Capello's authority. It wasn't about the ball.



The ball is blamed for disrupting a passing game, and for erratic behaviour when shooting. As such, it would suit a football style of short passes and goal attempts once the defense has been split open like the Red Sea before Moses. You know, Latin football. As they play in South America, and to a large extent Portugal and Spain. The ball does not suit crosses well (how many crosses over 30/40 yards + headed in have we seen?), nor a medium distance passing game.


The ball is not objectively bad (if anything, possibly the best science can produce). No, the problem is introducing a new ball before a major tournament. Football evolves, has progressed a lot since the time of heavy leather balls several decades ago. Teams simply have not had the time yet to adapt to the new ball. A ball does make a difference to a playing style best adapted to it - just imagine for example a hypothetical heavy ball that's hard to kick over more than fifteen yards and it becomes immediately apparant.

One day, teams and tactics will have evolved to use this ball. They are already adapting, the games are much better than in the first week. It will take some time.

[gaelic cowboy]

I believe Louis is on to summit here on the passing element of the ball.

Heard somewhere once that Futsal is participated by more people in Brazil than football, dunno how true that is prob due to space restrictions I suppose. Point is the game favour's accurate short passing and the player has way bigger average amount of touches in the game.

Coincidence then that Brazil are number one in that sport too???? I think not

[Moros]

I don't think the current ball and similar balls will make it as it doesn't suit many of the big buck football leagues, such as the Premier league which is very cross heavy. And as the current balls are fit for short pass games as well, I do not think we'll see an evolution. I for one do not see why a short effective and nice pass game would be preferable over a nice run along the sideline followied by a nice cross that lands pefectly on a teamplayers head and gets beautifully headed in the goal. Both are great to see, both require skill, training and can be effective. Now if you control both, that's awesome football. Or do you think that teams like Portugal, Spain (Iniesta or Xavi are great at this) don't use beautifull and distant crosses.

England and France aren't blaiming the ball, nor should they. Both looked not to be in fine shape even before the tournament started. Actually i expected France (and Italy for that matter) to repeat their football of the last EC. Nor was I expecting the greatest football from England, though I must admit I expected more than this...However if almost every pro-footballer agrees and when I think about what I like most people I know have seen, there's something wrong the ball. Short pass footbal may be fun, but what is football without crosses, amazing distance goals, free kicks and corners,...? The ball clearly can't follow a stable track in the air and it's just way to bouncy. I personally find the ball much more irritating than the vuvuzelas, but both are no excuse for the losers of the WC to whine about. But they are bad for the beauty of the game.

[johnhughthom]

Update:

Louis: +7() = 31
Little Grizzly: 2
Psycho: +2 = 16
Sarmatian: 3
Insane Apache: +1 = 20
Ser Clegane: +2 = 18
Romanic: +5 = 17
Joooray: 6
Rhyfelwyr: +4 = 11
LEN: 11
Marshall Murat: +4 = 15
Moros: 2
Craterus: 3
Crazed Rabbit: 2
Beefy: 3
Centurio Nixalsverdus: +1 = 12
Ronin: 1
||Lz3||: 6

[Ser Clegane]

France - South Africa 1:1
Mexico - Uruguay 1:2
Greece - Argentina 1:3
Nigeria - South Korea 1:1

[LeftEyeNine]

Come on England!

Oh, come on now. You predict Germany will lose by one goal after the game had finished?

Sorry to be reviving this unintentionally. I wanted to look back so as to know where I had left and irritatingly, I have seen the comment above.

3 days ago, after 17 months of seamless working, I flew off to my hometown (where I currently am right now) for vacation and all that duration, as my 2 days of absence could imply, I happened to have irregular free time or access to/for internet.

Now what I'm proposing is that I like it predicting matches around here and commenting over them but I seriously have no motivation or whatsoever like Louis VI the Fat seems to pursue. Please deliver all my points to him for being such a great inspector with eyes like David Villa has for goals. I find it utterly tasteless to doubt over the timing of my predictions. Yes, I know football better than him or any other to be able to predict Serbia's narrow win over Germany, and yes, I fail at it so miserably than anybody else such that I could think Algeria matches would be joyful to watch.

I have made all of these predictions the night before the tournament was to begin but I don't know how rational or mature it would be to take photos of the pages I wrote down my guesses of results. I will, if you want, but I personally find such act quite "gah!"ly.

johnhughthom, please take my suggestion serious and deliver all my points so far to Louis or divide them among other lads equally. I will keep on making my predictions here but ask of you not to deem them available for rating from now on.

Anyway, sorry for the rattle. Here are my predictions for the matches 2 days back that Louis would love to doubt, and also, ones for tomorrow.

Slovakia 0-0 Paraguay
Italy 1-0 New Zealand
Brazil 0-0 Ivory Coast

Portugal 3-0 N. Korea
Chile 2-2 Switzerland
Spain 1-1 Honduras

Mexico 0-0 Uruguay
France 1-1 South Africa
Nigeria 2-1 S. Korea
Greece 0-2 Argentina

[Marshal Murat]

0 - 1
1 - 2
0 - 3
0 - 2

[Afonso I of Portugal]

At last SHOWTIME! Let's go Portugal!

[Louis VI the Fat]

*stuff*

Too much drama! Please, just play the game and post your vaticinia ex eventu...erm....predictions.

~~o~~o~~<<oOo>>~~o~~o~~

1 - 0
1 - 1
0 - 1
1 - 1

God forbid South Africa really loses.

[CENTER]~~o~~o~~<<oOo>>~~o~~o~~

The question is in which new and novel way France will further make itself the laughing stock of the world this time. Will the players even show up? Will they fight each other on the pitch? Fight with the staff? Will they publicly tell Domenech to 'va te faire *******, sale fils de ****'

As far as I'm concerned, they don't need to bother showing up.

Today marks the exact anniversary of one the greatest matches of one of the greatest world cups, France - Brazil in 1986. Two phenomenal sides, so much talent and beautiful football gathered on one single pitch. 1982 and 1986, in strangely parallel ways both Brazil and France mesmerised their fans with a mix of beauty and tragedy, both countries fielding some of their most beloved teams ever.
ESPN put it on their list of ten greatest World Cup matches of all time.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-c...739&ver=global

O tempora, o mores!! What has become of the Bleus, of France! To think this was once her face:

[InsaneApache]

France 2 - 0 South Africa
Mexico 0 - 1 Uruguay
Greece 0 - 4 Argentina
Nigeria 1 - 1 South Korea

[LeftEyeNine]

-says "no caps when we lose, s'il vous plait "monger. PJ and Fragony, no matter what they advocate, have far better profiles when it comes to reliability and stability. Heh.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Huzzah! I finally got 3 pts for a correct prediction! Now for tomorrow...

0 - 0
2 - 1
0 - 2
2 - 1

It's funny how Nigeria could progress with just one win and two defeats, whereas in Spain's group, it's quite likely that Spain/Chile/Swissland may each end up on 6 pts, leaving one of them behind.

[LeftEyeNine]

By the by, did any of you come across with a team that in both matches proved to be favorites for the cup ?

I mean, no matter how much they score, none of the participants have yet to play like definite competitors for the cup so far, if you ask me.

[Pannonian]

I believe Louis is on to summit here on the passing element of the ball.

Heard somewhere once that Futsal is participated by more people in Brazil than football, dunno how true that is prob due to space restrictions I suppose. Point is the game favour's accurate short passing and the player has way bigger average amount of touches in the game.

Coincidence then that Brazil are number one in that sport too???? I think not

What's futsal? Is it 5 a side?

[Afonso I of Portugal]

This is Futsal:

Sporting beat Benfica away and celebrate the title this season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqRBFs2XKdA

Benfica won the UEFA Futsal Cup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfUz...eature=related