Football Fanats 2014 - The year of World Cup

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

The Dutch score whenever they really need it. Australia is no real threat, the Netherlands can afford playing a bit undisciplined defensively.

The match reminds me on that certain NED-HUN 5-3...

I thought exactly the same during the match.

[CTG]

BJ was brave enough to predict the obvious: tiki-taka is dead. All the others - including me - followed the stupid conservative way.

[BonzaiJoe]

Honestly I don't think Spain played tiki-taka in this game. In any case, one of the greatest national teams in football history has fallen. It had to happen at some point.

[Duplode]

BJ was brave enough to predict the obvious: tiki-taka is dead. All the others - including me - followed the stupid conservative way.

I was going for a Chilean victory but chickened out at the last moment, half-expecting that Spain would scrape a draw and keep a lifeline going into the third round. I also had doubts about Chile, but that was a rock solid performance. They have gone a long way from the flashy but unbalanced team they had four years ago.

[Chulk]

Something similar happened to me. Considering their previous group matches, I was going for a Chile victory but thought the Spanish would have a bit of pride and would improve enough to avoid a loss.
When 2nd half started and Del Bosque didn't realize his 3 available subs, I knew they already felt knocked out.
I would have done this:
Koke, Villa and Cesc in place of Xabi Alonso, Pedro and Busquets. Defend with only 3 men, leaving Alba on the midfield an attack as if my life depended on it (it kinda did)

[CTG]

Honestly I don't think Spain played tiki-taka in this game.

That's why I said it's dead. Spain couldn't even possess the ball for a long time and they had no B plan. If I were Del Bosque, I would leave out Casillas, Ramos, Pique and Costa from the starting eleven.

On the other hand, Chile seems to be well-organized. They can cause some difficulties for Netherlands.

[CTG]

Today: three draws (predicting 1-1 for all matches).

Colombia - Ivory Coast: more or less the same strength.

Uruguay - England: URU is slightly stronger, but the Europeans seem to have a better unity at the moment. Quite balanced duel.

Japan - Greece: boring.

[CTG]

Something similar happened to me. Considering their previous group matches, I was going for a Chile victory but thought the Spanish would have a bit of pride and would improve enough to avoid a loss.
When 2nd half started and Del Bosque didn't realize his 3 available subs, I knew they already felt knocked out.
I would have done this:
Koke, Villa and Cesc in place of Xabi Alonso, Pedro and Busquets. Defend with only 3 men, leaving Alba on the midfield an attack as if my life depended on it (it kinda did)

Spain had serious problems in almost all positions.
Forwards: I guess even the oldster Raul could be better than the phlegm Torres or the semi-injured Costa...
Midfield: Iniesta was demotivated, Xavi is already an outdated crap, others also weren't in good shape at all.
Backwards: Pique and Ramos were clearly elsewhere in head (maybe on holiday after such a long club season?), I don't remember any world-class solutions from these two. Spain missed the good old Puyol.
Goalkeeper: why Casillas? He's a rusty reserve player in his club. De Gea could have been a lot better solution, even if he had a bad season in ManUtd.

Spain was knocked out because Del Bosque was a coward - he didn't dare to touch the "holy cows". The whole situation reminded me on the swan song of the legendary Hungarian water polo team, winning three Olympic Games in a row, then the fourth one (in 2012) turned into a disaster.

[BonzaiJoe]

2002: France eliminated in group stage
2006: Brazil eliminated in quarter final
2010: Italy eliminated in group stage
2014: Spain eliminated in group stage

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

2002: France eliminated in group stage
2006: Brazil eliminated in quarter final
2010: Italy eliminated in group stage
2014: Spain eliminated in group stage

And a semi finalist of a WCH often fails to qualify for the next one... (England 1990->1994, Sweden 1994->1998, Netherlands 1998->2002, Turkey 2002->2006)

[Duplode]

Today: three draws (predicting 1-1 for all matches).

(Samurai Blue helmet on) Hopefully not, at least in the group C matches. Japan got into trouble with a very timid display against an Ivory Coast side which was in an uninspired night. And as it would be a waste if Colombia didn't make it out of the group, I can only hope that both Colombia and Japan win today by significant margins, so that they have a goal difference cushion if the group ends up in 6-6-6-0. That is not a very likely scenario, specially in Colombia v. Ivory Coast which should be a balanced match indeed.

As for Uruguay v. England, it is a very hard one to call. England seems to have a slightly better team, and on the evidence of the Italy game they won't be an embarassment this time. But Uruguay will fight to the end.

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

Oh damn... Ivory Coast win just reached 20.00% after my tip... If I had known this, I would have gave a draw...

[Chulk]

And a semi finalist of a WCH often fails to qualify for the next one... (England 1990->1994, Sweden 1994->1998, Netherlands 1998->2002, Turkey 2002->2006)

Try Germany...

[Chulk]

For today I gave a 3-1 tip for Colombia so I missed only a goal but it cost me 2 points.

Uruguay 1 - 1 England: A fight for survival. England has a better team but Uruguay knows how to survive. They do it every time to reach the World Cup, so they are used to it (of course this time we won't be able to help them by not beating them, as we do every last round during qualifiers but still...)

Easy Japan victory, Greece has nothing to threaten them with. 2-0

[BonzaiJoe]

Grrrrreat result by Colombia! 

It was a close shave, though. I don't think they have the chance to go any further than the quarter-finals. They were too insecure when they were ahead. They won't be able to maintain a lead against a stronger team. I'm pretty sure Ivory Coast will beat Greece and also proceed to the Last 16.

Cameroon has to be the worst team this year. Totally embarrassing match against Croatia. I'm looking forward to Croatia vs Mexico.