I went for Messi, but don't look at me, I made Bernard captain last night. As if just buying him wasn't stupid enough.

ha ha ha! poor bernard. when he crashed into neuer it was hilarious.

Not convinced they will but I really want Argentina to win this.

i wanted a south american finalist but i think it will be a replay of 1974

what country is queen facha rooting for?

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eta: this is more contested than i expected! here goes messi…

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eta: i picked robben as captain and he's neutralized. meanwhile, mascherano is being awesome and i passed him over!

i'm really pleased with argentina this first half.

Yeah, Mascherano's having a great game. Losing the ball a bit too much but seems to have neutralised Robben very well. Meanwhile Levezzi seems to have Martins Indi in his pocket. Argentina's only problem is they haven't made many clear cut chances. Holland haven't really clicked at all yet.

Loving the game so far.

wow, it's loosening up

here's to no overtime!

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damn. TENSE!

Did I mention I fucking HATE shootouts?? What a lame way to end a match. The only reason this 0-0 match wasn't entirely a bore was because the Final is at stake! The offsides killed the attack of BOTH sides, ridiculous, refs should have been looser with the flags on the offsides, it totally neutered the offense..

I really enjoyed it. Very cautious, especially from Holland but in the end Messi was as shut out as Robben. Mascherano had a monster game. Definitely man of the match. Neither team were brilliant but I think Argentina just about edged it overall.

Vlaar was great for Holland, Kuyt was extremely shy, never ventured forward (had he forgotten who he was?), Robben was neutralized but it didn't seem that hard, he was probably as exhausted as RVP.
Mascherano was the best Argentinian, with Demichelis (if you ignore his fouling and intimidation).

I hope Argentina doesn't win the final, boredom should not prevail.

Mascherano man of the match can't be denied especially after playing final 10 minutes with gauze hanging out of his mouth..

I think the Dutch played a bit better, their attacks were more threatening and they seemed to have better ball movement and control, as well as a few more exciting clearances on the defensive side BUT the Argentinians played better where it counted. It seemed both teams learned from Brazil's mistakes yesterday and controlled the spacing better so that effectively both teams attack was neutralized however that being said, I still feel like the offsides was killing it. Part of that is teams playing a bit to fast on their attacks to try and counter the defenses and open up space though to be sure many were just sloppy plays.. Still, the side refs really had a big impact on this match. Dutch used all their goal keeping magic in their last shootouts, it was inevitable that if they didn't score in the match they'd lose when it came to kicks, you could feel it growing as Holland sped up its aggression in the final 40 minutes..

i was just coming in to post this. he was IMMENSE. when nobody could contain robben he was there to stop his shot.

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while the dutch played slightly better towards the end they weren't good enough to score, and you can't win a match by "deserves".

netherlands-brazil should be interesting. the brazilians will seek to redeem themselves, not sure what the dutch will be after but damn they're going to be tired.

Vlaar was excellent. It was definitely the more defensive players that shone most for both teams. I was more disappointed with Holland though. Van Gaal seemed more set on stopping messi than really looking for a way to win the thing.

And I really hated the dutch goalkeepers' intimidation tactics in both shootouts. I hated it just as much when Hart tried it against Italy in the Euros.

Robben impressed me in this match because he was so hard to contain even after Argentina refused to concede any spacing. Dutch gave it their all but Argentina's defense stepped up big. However they should be very concerned going up against a German side who has proven time and time again since their first match in this Cup that (a) they came to to play to win and (b) they can defend as well as any team in this Cup but they also have the most potent scoring offense. That is a lot for the Argentinians to handle if they aren't scoring well themselves..


I think fatigue defined this match. While Holland had an unimaginable amount of energy left in the tank to increase their attacking in the final minutes of regulation and the first overtime 15 it was very clear around the 111' that they were just out of gas and that all the extra mileage from their previous overtime and shootout matches finally caught up with them. Respect to Argentina, they clearly scouted their opponent better than Brazil did and it showed.

What have we learned about this World Cup now that we are at the Final?

1) Fucking shit, Germany is THAT good. Since they annihilated Portugal and haven't allowed more than THREE goals in five matches meanwhile they've scored SEVENTEEN (repeat 17!!!) goals!! A 14 goal differential has to be a record!! I think they win on Sunday and win easily, and I don't say that based solely on the Brazil stinker, but rather their cumulative performance. They shut out great teams while scoring massive goals..

2) Spain really was THAT bad. They overly inflated Holland's numbers to wrongly persuade us that maybe the Dutch were that good, but back-to-back shootouts clearly suggest otherwise. I like the Oranges, and its been fun following them in this tournament. They humiliated Spain, they pissed the fuck off out of Mexico, I say they had a great run worth celebrating even if they just can't get over that hill to win it all! I really really really thought they could win after their wins against Spain, Chile, and Mexico BUT I think we've discovered that those teams were more flawed than we realize. The Semi-Finals of any tournament reveal just who a team is and what they are really made of, and we found out the Dutch were great, but just not that great!

(3) Fucking shit can we officially say USA had the third best showing in this entire Cup? Look at how Germany feasted on Brazil's mistakes meanwhile could barely score against USA. They eliminated Ghana who played well. They almost managed to hold out 3 of the best teams in the Cup to just one goal (aside from that damned miracle by Ronaldo being Ronaldo) and only allowed Germany to score one, and Tim Howard had an ALL-TIME match against Belgium. Behind the two Finalist I dare say USA was the third best team looking at their opponents strength.

(4) Brazil sucks, and they knew it, but they had a lot of homecooking with the officiating that totally and artificially inflated their performances. In hindsight we knew they were getting really lucky, but Germany utterly exposed them as frauds.

(5) Costa Rica IS that good, and how the fuck they lost to Honduras in the knock out stage of the Gold Cup last year is mind boggling. It should have been USA-Costa Rica for the Gold Cup Final last year, and we know realize how lucky Panama got..

It's all about opinions but there really was only one winner tonight between Robben and Mascherano. As Bertrand says, Robben hardly helped himself but Mascherano was just having one of those games where he seemed to be everywhere, stopping everything. I'm sure even Robben would admit Mascherano was a beast tonight.

Although he might feel lucky to have been allowed back on the pitch after appearing to be out cold for a while.

Agreed

Ah, stand corrected. Although I think it was Zabaleta with the gauze in his mouth. Another one who had an excellent game.

That is totally right! They both got hit in the head so I mixed them up together in my purple hazy memory!

Then we should give man of the match to him instead yo :cool:

I totally disagree. Brazil have been demoralised by a massive loss and since then Brazil gave turned against them pretty hard. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them didn't want to play come Saturday (not that it's their choice). How can Brazil even hope to redeem themselves after the Germany game? The players know it's a consolation match and would rather just bugger off on their holidays bury their head in the sand for a coupla weeks.

You are right, team sheets will be unpredictable.

In past editions, France (as it's the only team I get to watch regularly) played the game for third place twice in a row.
In 1982 Platini & co were so disgusted after their loss in the semi that only 4 of the regulars started (3 defenders and midfield hero Tigana) and lost to Poland; Poland had kept its incisive forwards and midfield threat.
In 1986 it was slightly the same, except that more guys decided they wanted to play that last game, and won it against Belgium.

The questions are: how many want to step up, how many starters are determined to stay away, and what do the coaches want (one is devastated, the other probably not so)?

As for fantasy football, it might be the best game for scoring with an underdog.
Alas, I don't think I'll be able to have access to the internet between tomorrow and the day that will follow the German victory, so I won't get to dump a 6-pointers for a deceptive 4-pointer or change my captain.

Yeah. I always think there's something unnecessarily sadistic about the third place match. It's no more than a spectacle of humiliation for everyone playing than an actual football match. At best both sides will play young or marginal players who didn't feature much before, but then it becomes meaningless to watch in terms of what we might learn. I just wish FIFA would finally show some humility and abandon the fixture forever.

i dont know about the brazilian team, but if that was me, having fucked up so enormously, i like to think i'd want to make it right instead of self-flagellating in darkness and shame.

maybe i wouldn't have the cojones to show my face in public so soon, but in that idealized version of myself at least i'd like to think i'd try and do better.

i don't know-- i remember david luiz knelt down and prayed with his fingers pointed to the clouds after the match as he often does and i remember wondering what he was saying and if he was accepting the reality he had been dealt. and yes, he cried too after, but i can't believe he's going to just go hide in a hole. others maybe. oscar after all managed to score a goal even if it wouldn't count.

anyway, i usually enjoy 3rd place matches ha ha ha. plus there's a bit of money in them (i mean as a prize).

Can't disagree with Van Gaal, talking on that very topic ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...d-be-axed.html

last time the third place play-off was superior to the final.

I totally agree but it still is a pretty shit consolation prize. Sure, you can say your team had to "win" to finish 3rd but after losing the Semis I don't think anybody really cares. Brazil is not excited about this. After losing the Final last time the Dutch have said the runner up is pointless. If anything, its kind of like FIFAs public shaming match ;)

For those who follow American sports, the Runner Up game is in essence the NFL Pro-Bowl, a game that NOBODY wants to play because its not the Championship game and which players only go to because they get a free vacation to Hawaii out of it, but even then several guys opt out because its a public shaming.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2014/07/...es/#more-10845

I really liked this one, it was a bit more revealing than the USA Belgium one..

maybe he's just pretending not to care so he can then beat brazil by surprise. he's always trying to mindfuck the opposition, ha ha ha. but yeah while he has a point about the suffering and disappointment, fuck it---i still like the matches.

and maybe brazil finally redeems itself and somehow puts together a coherent team (too little too late but eh, i'd still be curious)

[ETA: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/brazil-...7780--sow.html ]
^^as was saying! (maybe it's south american telepathy)


uruguay was great that year, cheating included. and forlán got the golden boot.

plus hey, robben still gets a chance at golden boot maybe




…

(i don't agree with him that it was a dull match though, maybe because i cared about the result so for me it was tense and thus emotional, in spite of no goals--and a great midfield battle--very careful and few mistakes)

I also didnt think it was boring, considering what was at stake it was ome of my fav matches. I just liked how it broke down the defense tactics and strategy more precisely than the last few articles but that is likely because of the fact it was a defense first match. They probably thought it was boring because even as a draw between holland and argentina shouldve easily been 2-2.. then again we've seen both these teams craft some superb defensive shutouts so it ahouldnt have been surprising

yeah, also previously he was dealing with multiple matches a day… sometimes up to 3… or was it 4 one day… so yeah.

in any clase... glad you took the red pill ha ha ha



and since you like stats, check out the fourfourtwo stat zone… actually all of fourfourtwo… … … shit, i just found out there suárez is going to barcelona!! liverpool is facked--h8kurdt should rejoice. big loss for the prem though.

I love stats.. man sometimes I don't even bother with recaps or analysis, I just dive into the stat sheet. I can figure out almost what went right or wrong in ANY game from basketball, American football, or futbol my checking the stats, though my forte at this is basketball which is a truly stats oriented game because of the scoring and 100 plus possessions per game.

the stats are actually good ones there, in that they're the ones that make sense for the game. beyond the numbers, i find the player dominance graphs particularly eye-opening-- would like to look under the hood of those but they don't explain how they come up with them. in them you can see clearly who ruled and who disappeared. e.g. look at mascherano vs. messi in the ARG dominance graph-- there's like 4 different tabs in the match section so you have to dig a little to find it. also-- their phone app is great, you can build your own stats with what data you want (that's what michael cox uses for his demonstrations).

I love shot charts, spacing diagrams, defensive schematics breakdowns, formation graphics, and other nerdy visuals even more! THAT is where you really see what happens in any given game, indeed, I thought the Netherlands-Argentina article had the best diagrams of any of the recent for or five.. But like you said, they only had one match to dissect so they had more time and focus on that one. After a basketball game, I usually instantly check out the shot charts to see what happened. After a futbol match I like to do the same, but its a bit less informative because there is so much more going on than just booting in a futbol match.. That is why I liked those diagrams from zonalmarking, they break down in more detail player movement, formation adjustments, and defense diagrams. THAT is what you need to fully understand what goes right and went wrong in any given futbol match..

In B-ball you can infer defensive schemes by looking at the shot chart. If the offense takes a lot of distance shots, you know the defense packed the paint (in soccer you call that parking the bus), if there are a lot of dunks and close range shots you know that the offense was "spacing the floor" by using distance shooting to open up under the basket..

However when looking at a shot chart for a futbol match you can't necessarily draw the same kinds of detailed inferences, so I really appreciate those zonalmarking diagrams all the more. THANKS for sharing :)

Aye it's gonna be an interesting season for Liverpool. I've no idea who they're gonna find to get that 32(?) goal gap that's now gone, and especially as the rumored move of Sanchez going there has fallen through. Well done to Arsenal for that signing!

And in the end it doesn't matter. Everton will still screw up the pissing derbies.

Good luck to Barcelona next season with their superstar Luiz-Silva dream pairing in defence. Ronaldo and Bale must be shitting themselves.

you mean PSG?

james + falcao

oops, yeah. brainfreeze there.

Seriously though. I can't remember a top player whose reputation has been so thoroughly discredited in a WC as Luiz. Even Suarez comes out of it looking better.

PSG paid 50m for him before the WC, what would he be worth now? Liverpool got 75m after Chielini-gate. Who knows what he'd have been worth before it. Wouldn't be surprised if that bite cost Anfield some serious money but Chelsea must be laughing all the way to the bank.

funny thing david luiz started well i thought but got real shitty into the knockout games. i know you have never believed in him as a central defender (we had this talk i think about a year ago i remember) but he really turned awful this past couple of games. maybe a bad case of nerves. maybe diarrhea. maybe a religious crisis (father why has thou forsaken me, or whatever). or maybe he always sucked and i didn't notice. in any case, he was horribly fucking dismal today. that goal he gave away was only worthy of geoff cameron (who is a 3rd rater).

anyway, i really wanna start following AS monaco. james + falcao = damn damn damn. colombia 2018.

like in all sports tournaments as teams advance they face increasingly potent competition. Cinderellas magical carriages turn to pumpkins. Shit, the better nations of the world field motherfucking futbol Dreamteams of combinations of the world's best talent.. shit, some of the best team's in the world didn't even advance!! Each round is fraught with even Dreamier teams making it a nightmares.. i know you hate comparisons but its why in most of its history the Superbowl have been onesided blowouts, one team is the best in the league and the other team is about to find out. Brazil received a significant reality check, one I think argentina discovers tomorrow.



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Its not that he always sucked so much as he was never really THAT guy..

Hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa! WORD. Ehat the fuck was even doing starting.against belgium???

haha ha

well suchfriends see david luiz has won the premier league and the champions league with chelsea. he was in the confederations cup team that broke spain's winning streak. he's not new to big tournaments or big anything. he has been very highly rated has won a bunch of individual trophies and just sold for a fuckload of money to a cash-rich team (PSG--funded by arab petrodollars).

my disagreement with demonrail is that i liked that he goes on the attack and scores (beckenbauer!) whereas he likes the more bulldog-chiellini types (i do too but i don't mind a libero type also). looks like mourinho doesn't like him either cuz they sold him in 2nd year of a 5-year contract. but mang was he ever highly rated going into this world cup.

however he was just shit in the end. even though he scored goals earlier!

anyway i shall resume my wine-drinking and fuck off for the night but i just wanted to clarify that.

re: geoff cameron: he's what we have! ha ha ha haaaa haaaa

hey if you have $20/mo. to spare (no contract, pay as you go) foxsoccer2go will be carrying champions league games on the web (fox soccer channel too but i don't have cable). worth checking out for the starzzzzzz, not sure of CL start date. (also will carry CONCACAF gold cup etc.)

okay id better go. happy weekend.