World Cup 2014

robgreen

robgreen

no face
Starts this week! Anyone else on here looking forward to it? South Africa was all round pretty awful with crap games, no stand out teams/players, those friggin vuvuzalas and Spain boring me to death with that endless tiki taka shit before eventually boring the opposition too into conceding a goal in about the 89th minute. But it's been one of the best seasons I can remember in the premier league (unless you're a united fan), so I'm currently all full of optimism.

No idea how England are going to do, but it's pretty cool that there's a lot of up and coming youngsters in the squad who are exciting to watch like Lallana, Shaw, Sterling and Barkley. Even if they don't get through the groups, I'd rather see that than a stodgy 4-4-2 with the supposed 'golden generation' scraping through and then getting knocked out tamely against the first decent opposition they meet.

Don't think the USA don't have a hope of making it to the knockouts this time around. Tough group anyway with Ghana, Germany and Portugal - but that squad's nowhere near as strong as four years ago either. No Donovan, and any strikeforce that has the shocking Altidore in is going to struggle for goals.

Think Aus will struggle too with Spain, Holland in the group and a pretty weak squad. Much as I love Tim Cahill, he's not going to singlehandedly pull that team through any more.

Belgium could be ace. It's been cool to see that team developing over the last few years and hopefully they're ready to make some progress. Shame Benteke's out, leaving them a bit light up top and Fellaini's had a dreadful season, but Hazzard, Kompany, Mignolet, Van Buyten, Lukaku, Januzaj, Defour and Mirallas is a damn good collection of players. They'll have a tough match next round if they do make it out of their group though.

I'm predicting an Argentina v Germany final. Brazil and Spain losing out in the semis.

I fear I may be a lone(ish) voice of enthusiasm on the board on this one... :eatpopcorn:
 
Armistice said:
I'm predicting Australia won't score a goal, and will exit quietly after the initial matches.
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Yup, the days of Viduka, Kewell and Cahill in his prime are long gone for youse unfortunately. Scoring will be tough in that group.

France, Italy and the Netherlands always threaten to implode spectacularly - so they could be fun for the flops too.
 
Had seen that they have installed the new goal technology.
Seven high speed cameras per goal. With a wrist watch receiver on each official.
 
Yeah, it's been used domestically this year without much in the way of controversy or incident. If the technology is up to scratch and it doesn't disturb the flow of the game, it's a no-brainer.

It's only intended to provide assistance in cases when it's uncertain whether the ball's fully crossed the line or not - not because there's any issue in keeping up with the pace of scoring ;)
 
Im not sure England will get out of their group, a lots riding on their first match against Italy. For once expectations arent high, thats a first...but f*ck them anyway ;)

Winners will be either Brazil or Argentina...Euro teams just dont adapt to playing in South America. Belgium may be the surprise package, but they have little experience of big tournaments. Spain may go all the way too.

I'll be rooting for my adopted country for the first time...klinsmans made a solid team thats been getting good results. im thinking the quarters may not be out of the question.
 
Personally, I'm waiting for the premiership season to start as I have finally talked err indoors into letting me and my eldest boy have a season ticket again at west ham. It lapsed when they were born about 12 years ago.

The world cup is just all the poncy overpaid players spending nearly three weeks deciding who's going to take the penalties in the final. Not a real sports competition.. Let alone a football one.
 
kcearl said:
Im not sure England will get out of their group, a lots riding on their first match against Italy. For once expectations arent high, thats a first...but f*ck them anyway ;)

Winners will be either Brazil or Argentina...Euro teams just dont adapt to playing in South America. Belgium may be the surprise package, but they have little experience of big tournaments. Spain may go all the way too.

I'll be rooting for my adopted country for the first time...klinsmans made a solid team thats been getting good results. im thinking the quarters may not be out of the question.
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Yeah, England's group is tough but not impossible. As you say Italy will give a good indication, because they'll need to be on form and acclimatised to get a result against Uruguay too. It tends to dampen the moron element a bit when expectations are lower, which is good. If we do make it out of the group, we'll probably face the Ivory Coast next and then get trounced by Brazil in the quarters...

Quarters for the USA is one hell of a bold statement - I can't see them getting much out of Germany, Portugal or Ghana at all. If they do somehow achieve that they'd probably face Russia (who I don't know much about this time around), but would probably be an easier game than the three that preceded it. If they've made it that far, they'll undeniably have deserved it...

Belgium may have little experience of big tournaments, but their players are winners with their domestic clubs, so that should prepare them a bit better and I'll still enjoy them even if they don't get too far. Brazil aren't as exciting as recent years and haven't played very much competitive football with automatic qualification - so who knows? They have a decent midfield and solid defence (though Alves and Luiz could be entertaining if both selected)...but a keeper that hasn't played all year and an odd strikeforce. Jo's shockingly bad.
 
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