Air conditioning: 7
Germany: 0

I hope it helps France. Along the way to this game, les bleus have benefited from the sending off of Palacios in the first half of the Honduras game, Giroud damaging unpurposely the best Swiss defender's eye after less than 20 minutes in the 5-2 mauling, the injury of a good Nigerian opponent...
Reasonably, they should go through.

Too bad the Germans haven't revealed who the magnificent 7 were (if only they were Muller, Schurrle, Neuer, Lahm, Khedira, Hummels and Mertesacker...).

i read this earlier and laughed and i'm laughing again

thanks

bad news for france-- lahm back on defense! (adios pep-o-nomics)

and klose upfront!

sounds like no more tiki-tachen

this game is going to be like a final

hard for me to cheer for either side but may the best team win

ps- last minute changes to my fantasy squad, i think i might have fucked myself without any subs (except for GK) but here we go!

I'm really struggling deciding on my transfers this round. Especially today's games I find really hard to call.

Normally I'd have Germany down as slight favourites, but after Algeria I'm really not that sure and how ill are these 7 unnamed players exactly?

Brazil have failed to impress and Neymar could have troubles with his knee, but they still have home advantage. Colombia did impress of course, but they haven't faced a big team like Brazil so far.

Quarter finals kick off within minutes with the game between France and Germany. ARE YOU READY?!!

germany might be ahead, but france is attacking better...

When did LeeIsFree start coaching Germany?

I started watching the game at 60 minutes. Was all this average? I'm bloody glad I didn't take the afternoon off to watch it.

The first half was brilliant, yeah, the second half not so much.. but hey, at least the scoreless portion was in the second half instead of the first like most of these knock out games ;)

Plus its nice to see bitch a$$ France eliminated

it was very locked down, though valbuena was a holy terror on the attack until he apparently ran out of gas. benzema and pogba also terrorized but didnt' finish unfortunately.

schurrle brought speed but also his usual crooked, unfortunate food so no real excitement.

2nd half was more germany who tried to put the game on ice every chance they had and the gamble paid off.


captain hummels just made me A TON of points

i thought he'd have a lot of saves against france's attack and he didn't disappoint

i have neymar up next game i hope he doesn't break down. then again i also have james and ospina and cuadrado. go colombia for the surprise! (i usually love brazil but this year they have been so meh!)

note to english speakers: this james is pronounced ha-mess (or kha-mess)

Ton of points, eh?
You're so cruel.
I have 5 subs to bring in. Schurrle and my French midfield disappointed. Varane brought up points though. I won't even try to figure out how much you've scored...
Too bad James bags a treble in a few minutes... I'll be out of reach again. Well, you still have time to adjust.

The heat seemed too important for both teams.

It could happen again for tomorrow's game between Netherlands and Costa Rica.

Ozil looked like he was a bit better than against Algeria, Schurrle shot straight at Lloris in his two attempts, Boateng was quick.
Matuidi came back for the second half with sharpness, but it couldn't last 45 minutes. Giroud caused problems as a sub. He committed fouls (Schurrle did the same), he fell to the ground wanting a free kick (resulting in Schweinsteiger kicking the ball out so that physios would help the French striker, as a result, Giroud allowed the Germans to waste time).
Neuer... so impressive, even if he hasn't had as much work as Howard.

Does FIFA really want the Cup to take place in Qatar?

Now that I am no longer biased:
Go Colombia!
Go Netherlands (everytime I wish you'd win, it didn't happen: I'd have rooted for Holland in 1998 in the final against France had they beaten Brasil after getting rid of Argentina - that Bergkamp goal...; I rooted for them and felt quite disgusted last time for that final with Nigel De Jong not being red carded... I never thought you'd play more than three games this year; maybe it'll happen at last)!
Go Bel... well, yes, Belgium, well, a little go for them...

It has been bad, that is why they've had all these water breaks, which when I saw it the first time actually surprised me like, "What the fuck is happening here?"


Seems Costa Rica, a tropical rainforest of a country, would benefit. Hahaha, still can't believe Costa Rica thought they could beat USA back in that snow game in March! That being said, the weather is hot in Brazil but surely it could be worse






Apparently they are trying to have all these games indoors and airconditioned.. Bad weather aside Qatar is STILL an entirely stupid place to host a World Cup or ANY international tournament of ANY sport..

Would love it.


Even better

Not so much but they speak French there I so understand your quasi-support ;)

Let me raise my eyebrow in disdain on that last remark.

42, on last inspection! it was last-minute inspiration.

though frogmouth müller only scored me 4. and i can't sub him out! so that compensates plenty. their average is 23 which is still pretty nice.

my ONLY sub is navas, in case ospina fucks it today.

any small mistake and i'm going down like the hindenburg!

VAMOS COLOMBIA!!!

Moral of the story: That is why I don't do fantasy sports ;)

well that didn't take long

When did Journey's Neal Schon start playing for Brazil???

every other minute there's a foul and no cards yet. james is a target, but the colombians have been dishing it out too. wtf ref.

the moral of the story is that you're too afraid of losing? shit, man! sack up, play to win, and then whatever happens. if you don't like nerd activities fine, but fear of losing is going to keep you from having fun at most things.

I think fantasy sports ruin it for me, not because I'm scared of losing (after all, lose what exactly??), but honestly because sometimes it even ruins when your team is winning! I follow stats to understand the game, but I don't feel like wagering on stats, just the win column is whats important.

If your team is winning but the stats aren't there, a losing team with better stats can ruin it for you. Fuck that, its an American tradition that winning trumps stats.

Yooo this ref is annoying. And Columbia isn't looking too good right now.

Yes this is taking "let em play" to a surreal level.. Maybe the ref isn't a fan of Magical Realism ;)

Or maybe he really digs journey



You can tell the officiating is bad that whenever a whistle is blown the players get up to argue their case to the ref against the foul call meanwhile the ref was just cautioning them no foul..

This is going to bite someone in the ass ala Netherlands-Mexico when the ref inevitably draws down the hammer, and I smell it hurting Colombia

oh, i see. i'm not suffering from that. i have players from both sides on this one, ha ha ha.

the hindenburg thing was a metaphor for my high risk/high reward strategy.


they lost their shit after that first goal and then they lost it again but they've regained a bit towards the end of the last half i thought.

the ref i think by failing to control the players is letting the game get too choppy. 14 fouls by brazil and 12 by colombia. that's 1 every 2 minutes. 26 instances of stopping the game by fouls alone.

he's afraid of taking out yellow cards because people like thiago silva would miss the semifinal if they got a card.

VAMOS COLOMBIA! A PONERLE COJONES!!

What about the ref is a journey fan theory??

ha ha, the neymar lookalike.

---

ref is a useless cunt. needs to put some order. it's verging on lawlessness. it goes on like that there are going to be injuries.

Hey Brasil, Dont Stop Believin!

40 fouls in 62 minutes!

Yeah this has been one of the most physical games I've ever seen.. Brazil was starting to look like Honduras out there!

well, they fucked neymar badly it looks like. that was coming. terrible.

Colombian may, as you mentioned before, quite literally be playing for their lives.. #CollateralDamage...

Before that injury this was the best game of the tournament thus far.. I've had to piss since the Neal Schon goal but I won't dare leave the TV

fuck, heartbreaking result, and nice to see the brazilians consoling poor james who can't contain himself.

i knew it was a long shot but i really wanted colombia to go through.

terrible ref-- i don't blame him for colombia losing, i think it was a fair result in the end, but he really let the game get out of hand.

THAT WAS THE MOST REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF GOODSPORTSMANSHIP I'VE SEEN IN YEARS... When we show kids what sport is all about, and how to be a good sport in loss and how not to gloat in victory, THAT was what we should show them.. I sincerely feel honored to have been privileged to see it happen.. I hope people noticed.

Marquez, Herrera, and ALL of Mexico should take note of that event, both of how Colombia was noble in losing and how Brazil was humble in victory. James is crestfallen, David Luiz had the game of his life, and it was noble of James to even remotely LET the victors and cause of his pain approach him so intimately in that moment, and even more humble and human for those several Brazilian players and David Luiz to firstly focus on sincerely consoling James even when having just won a HUGE game.... I will always remember this up.. I ain't even necessarily rooting for Brasil but that moment is in my all-time sports top-5 memories..



THAT again is the epitome of Sportsmanship... Mexico, Uruguay, pay attention..

All goals today came from set pieces.
I'd like some open goal tomorrow.

Completely agree on the ref being mentioned so much doing so little. A foul feast.

Still, he got to book Thiago Silva (not the meanest on the pitch), who will miss the semi against Germany. Ah ah...

Edit: James has scored 6; will he remain the cup top scorer?

maybe--especially with neymar in the hospital

--

update:

FRACTURED VERTEBRA. MOTHERFUCKER.

the colombian (zuñiga) needs to be penalized by fifa but that shit ref must be thrown to the trash heap.

i'd like to see a scandal the size of suárez's teeth.

Missed both games yesterday.

Argentina Belgium felt a bit flat. Especially the second half. Belgium didn't seem to wake up till the final 10 minutes. For all the criticism aimed at Di Maria so far, they'll miss him if whatever he went off with ends up keeping him out.

argentina had to deal with an early di maria injury so they did what they had to do and cooled it and waited for counters. i think they did pretty well considering a week ago many people were saying they had no defense-- they still left some gaping holes that belgium didn't find (esp. in set pieces) but i thought they pressed well for the most part. lavezzi was great outflanking belgium but he had no gas at the end. same as higuain in his own space.

speaking of di maria-- there went my fantasy score along with his bum leg!

fernandez - 0 (sat out injured… aghhhh)
di maria - 2 (ouch)
messi - 4 only! (inexplicable, these scores)

only good scoring was mascherano with 10 (until something gets tweaked and he gets it reduced).

[edit: now i'm showing mascherano 9 messi 3. add this to yesterday's cuadrado 2 and mueller 4 and smell the nosedive]

only sub i have is navas for ospina (the rest are ghosts). wondering if he'll make a lot of saves and score high or if robben will crucify him and he'll score negative.

(ospina scored only 5)

last week both keepers had heroic performances but i am not sure they can have 2 in a row… there's a wear and tear or the law of averages wins in the end.