The unofficial World Cup Thread,

[Secura]

I hadn't heard anything regarding bribing of this World Cup, though there was speculation that the Spanish FA was involved in bribery as they pushed to host the 2018 World Cup, though there hasn't been anything concrete to suggest it's true.

Where's your source from?

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Total football.

Spain all the way!!!

Regarding the final i will not say too much about the Neds as you all know what i think about them...1 red card in the first half and several yellow cards forgiven!

Congrats to Spain as they proved they have the best team in the world.

Regarding WC 2018/20 they are co-hosts with us and we don't need to bribe anyone!!!

[Beefy187]

That octopus.


Anyone up for calamari tomorrow night?

No! Don't do it!

[Rhyfelwyr]

Interesting, Spain was linked to bribery charges pre-world cup for them to win. Spain wins the World Cup.

Well Howard Webb is certainly one man they didn't bribe, judging by his reluctance to send any of the Dutch off.

[Pannonian]

More total football.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Congratulation are due I think. Great for Sara Carbonero (Nemo's mom as some say), cause she can't be blamed for a possible Spanish elimination now.

The Spanish game bored me all the time. It's frustrating to see that honoured with a World Cup. However I admit their fantastic technical abilities and their kind of collective intelligence, something the German team is aiming at too.

[Fragony]

Oh what were we thinking the squid had spoken, he got a sadistic touch 2 minutes...

But Spain deserved to win they played better and cleaner so here goes VIVA ESPANOL we had an easy start and whole lot of luck getting there, but no final's material yet.

[Ronin]

Spain played better and they deserved to win.
Still it is a pitty that the referee makes 2 gross mistakes back-to-back that lead to the spanish goal...like I said they deserved to win but not like that....that goal just ain´t kosher.

[Fragony]

Awwww screw that we were seriously outclassed by Spain. Small miracle we still won http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/ima...sworldcup.html

I love quality media heh

[Ferret]

I am very glad the Ducth didn't win that, they should have had at least three red cards. Disgusting to watch.

[Myrddraal]

Still it is a pitty that the referee makes 2 gross mistakes back-to-back that lead to the spanish goal...like I said they deserved to win but not like that....that goal just ain´t kosher.

I think that's extrapolating quite a bit from those errors. They only lead to the Spanish goal in that they were before the Spanish goal, it's not like he gave a penalty or anything. Considering the brawling, aggressive and cynical fouling that they had to deal with, I think the officials did a pretty good job.

I went into the match supporting Holland, but credit where it is due, the Spanish deserved to win.

[Cute Wolf]

yeah, I'm also a bit sad by the Dutch's failure, but anyway, Spain deserves to be the best this time, they had shown far better teamwork...

[Andres]

Congratulations to Spain

Dutchies played a very dirty game, so all in all, I'm glad Spain won (and we Belgians can make fun of the Dutchies again... Dutch hattrick: losing three finals in a row; "Driemaal is scheepsrecht." Jaja, ).

[Fragony]

Wasn't THAT bad, some dangerous play but no real aggression or wounding on purpose. Hard but not sneaky, it's the final they want to win.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Yeah I think the extent of the Dutch fouling has been exaggerated. OK van Bommel was going nuts as usual, but besides him the only really bad tackle was de Jong's studs straight into Alonso's chest.

The Spanish have faced more brutal opposition, remember some of those tackles when they played Chile?

[drone]

I think the rough play was part of the Dutch strategy, and it worked to an extent. The second half was a lot more open, and the Spaniards looked nervous and tentative at times on the ball. But Spain did play better overall, and deserved the win.

Two mistakes by Robben. He should have chipped it over the keeper on the one breakaway, Casillas was out far and went down early (Robben needs to watch film on Bergkamp ). And he should have gone down when Puyol wrapped him up on the other break. Ironic, I know, but it was a legit foul and it cost him a penalty to fight through it.

[Fragony]

Yeah I think the extent of the Dutch fouling has been exaggerated. OK van Bommel was going nuts as usual, but besides him the only really bad tackle was de Jong's studs straight into Alonso's chest.

The Spanish have faced more brutal opposition, remember some of those tackles when they played Chile?

Hand of god that screwed Ghana, that's poor sport. Going in with a stretched leg to catch the ball is just a risk though. And let's not even begin about the number of kicks on his hamstring Robben has gotten from Uruguaiorwtevrtheonewiththechick

[Husar]

I am very glad the Ducth didn't win that, they should have had at least three red cards. Disgusting to watch.

3? They should have also gotten a penalty but Spain was lucky that Robben didn't fall, failed foul of sorts.

I kinda expected van Pummel to pummel the Spanish a bit, usually it's not too bad it seems, de Jong and Haitinga were somewhat extreme/stupid though IMO, that either/both of them would get red sooner or later was kinda expected.
What I liked was that Sneijder helped out the defenders now and then and did it with less fouling than the defenders, looks like he's a bit of an allrounder.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

I examined closely every slomo repeat of that supposed penalty situation but failed to see the foul. In such a close situation, it was correct that the referee didn't call imho.

[Myrddraal]

I thought the foul (if foul it was) occurred outside the penalty box anyway?

[naut]

The one time Robben doesn't take a tumble is the one time he should have, Puyol would have got a red, and the Dutch could have won. Robben was trying to win the Cup for Robben, not his teammates, he didn't pass to RvP once! Between Iniesta-Xavi diving and vBommel-de Jong fouling that wasn't very kosher. In fact, until Cesc came on and gave the Spanish some spark it looked set for penalties. An underwhelming final for an underwhelming Cup.

[Louis VI the Fat]

The one time Robben doesn't take a tumble is the one time he should have, Puyol would have got a red, and the Dutch could have won. Robben was trying to win the Cup for Robben, not his teammates, he didn't pass to RvP once! Between Iniesta-Xavi diving and vBommel-de Jong fouling that wasn't very kosher. In fact, until Cesc came on and gave the Spanish some spark it looked set for penalties. An underwhelming final for an underwhelming Cup.

Ah, at last somebody who saw the same WC final that I did!


I must say though that if I were Robben, I wouldn't have passed to Van Persie either. What a dismal tournament by him. Although cause and effect are difficult to see here: did Sneijder and Robben ignore RvP because he was rubbish, or was he rubbish because he didn't get involved?
Del Bosque was muh better with his substitutions. He dared to let go of Torres against the Germans, and bringing on Cesc won him the final. The Dutch substitutions in the final were incomprehensible and ineffective. Why no Huntelaar?



Spain has been good this tournament, but not great. Four 1-0's in a row and a loss against Switserland. Pff....

A deserved if somewhat underwhelmingly performing champion, all in all a slightly disppointing final to a lacklustre tournament.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Update:

Louis: 78
Ser Clegane: 57
Marshall Murat: 55
Centurio Nixalsverdus: 47
Insane Apache: 47
Psycho: 40
Romanic: 32
Rhyfelwyr: 24
||Lz3||: 15
Beefy: 12

Yay!


Where's Secura?


Thank you for taking the time to keep track of the scores of us unruly bunch, Johnhughthom!

[Fragony]

The one time Robben doesn't take a tumble is the one time he should have, Puyol would have got a red, and the Dutch could have won. Robben was trying to win the Cup for Robben, not his teammates, he didn't pass to RvP once! Between Iniesta-Xavi diving and vBommel-de Jong fouling that wasn't very kosher. In fact, until Cesc came on and gave the Spanish some spark it looked set for penalties. An underwhelming final for an underwhelming Cup.

Robben is the end of the line, if he gets the ball he will try to score, he's like ghazi infantry, fire and forget. And agreed, mediocre world cup. Hoping for the pool of death next EC, we didn't play enough good teams to be ready for Spain. And no Brazil doesn't count, what a disapointment they were.

[Secura]

Where's Secura?

I only participated in the bracket prediction... guessing the actual scores of a match is woefully beyond me. :P

[Ferret]

3? They should have also gotten a penalty but Spain was lucky that Robben didn't fall, failed foul of sorts.

I kinda expected van Pummel to pummel the Spanish a bit, usually it's not too bad it seems, de Jong and Haitinga were somewhat extreme/stupid though IMO, that either/both of them would get red sooner or later was kinda expected.
What I liked was that Sneijder helped out the defenders now and then and did it with less fouling than the defenders, looks like he's a bit of an allrounder.

Van Bommel, Heitinga and de Jong. Actually Robben should have been too, he kicked the ball in the net after the whistle whilst he was on a yellow and Xavi got booked for kicking the ball away later so why wasn't Robben?

Puyol's challenge was outside the box anyway, it wouldn't have been a penalty and van Persie would have skied the resulting free kick.

Sneijder was good though I'll agree on that.

[Secura]

No referee wants to have to send a player off in the biggest game of their lives, do they? I think that goes someway to explaining Webb's leniency for challenges that might have been worthy of a red card, and he only sent Heitinga off when there was simply no other option left; how much of a warning did he need when the majority of his team were on the verge of the long walk as well?!

Webb was trying his hardest to allow the game to flow without constant stop-starting for dead ball situations, and I think he did a darn good job considering the overly-aggressive style the Dutch had adopted for the game and the tendency for the Spanish Barcelona players to hound and harass him for any decision that didn't go in the way they wished.

[Husar]

Van Bommel, Heitinga and de Jong. Actually Robben should have been too, he kicked the ball in the net after the whistle whilst he was on a yellow and Xavi got booked for kicking the ball away later so why wasn't Robben?

Van Bommel seems to foul a lot but I didn't think it was too bad usually, red is usually for situations where you intentionally keep hurting people, or that's how I understand it; didn't see that with van Bommel.
I'm not sure about Robben, being sent off the field in a finale for complaining and kicking the ball is a bit harsh, no? It's not like the Spanish never complained.

Puyol's challenge was outside the box anyway, it wouldn't have been a penalty and van Persie would have skied the resulting free kick.

You're right about it being outside the box but you also know that Sneijder would have scored.

[Ferret]

It doesn't matter if it's harsh it says clearly in the rules that kicking the ball away is a yellow card offence, Robben knew what he was doing and knew he had already been booked, if Xavi had done a bad tackle after he got the yellow for kicking the ball away you wouldn't say it was harsh but it would still be two yellow card offences. Players wont learn if they're not punished.

And I know Webb was reluctant to send anyone off early on but I think that by not punisihing those bad tackles early on he set the tone for the rest of the game as the Dutch thought they could get away with it. But yeah I thought he did alright apart from the red cards as it was a very difficult game for any ref, and I really can't see how the Dutch media are blaming him, he helped them if anything.

Oh and Sneijder wouldn't have scored either, he's better from further out where you don't need so much dip.

[Sarmatian]

You guys are analyzing too much - it's simple, the country that didn't recognize Kosovo won because of their pure heart and unblemished record :D. That's why Germans and Dutchies had no chance...

Viva Espana!