World Cup 2014 - Who are you picking?

[Jimmyy]

Who'll be taking in some of the action? Who are you rooting for (pick 1-4)?

I'm traveling to whichever country wins, so my picks are more along the lines of where I want to go haha. (They still have to have a chance to win... sorry Australia/USA).

My teams;

Germany
Belgium
England
France

Germany is my only hope.

A couple more days!!!!

Lucky you've already been to England then!

Belgium are real dark-horses mind

 

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[H. Palmer]

I'm Dutch but the current Dutch team doesn't appeal to me at all, no personalities and they all look like criminals. Coach Louis van Gaal is an irritating xxxxoxe.

Forget any team with a young group, because young guys don't win tournaments, they never do. That rules out France.

Belgium and Chile could be nice surprises but due to lack of experience they won't get through to the semi finals. Countries like Scotland and Croatia can be ruled out from the getgo. Not enough critical mass.

England is somehow never on the cutting edge and the Portuguese team is incomplete.

Most likely to win are Spain, Germany and Brazil. Football legend Johan Cruyff recently said a European team has never won in South America.

That makes Brazil the favorite.

But if they blow it, I would root for Germany. Great players and highly attractive game. Brazil - Germany would be a dream final.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Countries like Scotland can be ruled out from the getgo.

For sure. Especially since they haven't qualified to be in the tournament

Other than that, good analysis!

 

[Daniel A]

Lol Daniel I guess you are not close to your Scottish family at all. We don't route for the English they hate us and safe to say the feeling is mutual when football is concerned.

Haha, well you are right about that. That would be my dad's side of the family where I am at the end of at least two generations of what I guess I'll call distance (probably two meanings to that). My mom's side is a different story though, very close.

I had to find a video on the topic of England vs Scotland.

The comments were entertaining Black eye for the fights I'm sure happen over there. Last game in a local league I played with had a fight, which made the game a very short one.

Anyways, two more days over here and one more for people on the other side of the world!

 

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[qvantage]

My favroite song is Brazil!!! La La La... so i would like to choose Brazill!!!!!!!!

 

[craig1928]

Going to support Belgium myself due to Dembele/Vertonghen/Chadli.

 

[Thoelk]

I was in Brussels a couple months ago. Cool place.

I"m sort of biased towards the french portion of the country though. (I like to practice speaking), although the Dutch portion is generally nicer.

Doesn't surprise me at all! I love our French part as well, it's great to relax in Wallonia!
I love the diversity in our small country, business-wise as well as from a personal persective!

edit: you should have included a poll, it would be 'cool' to have the votes visualized!

 

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[DeletedUser394]

It seems like the support is pretty evenly split between Brazil (not surprising) and Belgium (surprising), with the other team having a few votes each.

I would root for Brazil too, but I really don't want to go there right now (I'd need to apply for a visa). Heck, Argentina is visa free for me, so I'd pull for them if they were vs Brazil in the final.

 

[D11FYY]

Lol Argentina v Brazil in a final would be like war.
Would only be the ref and the two goal keepers left on the pitch come 90 minutes.
Im going to the Brazilian Bar Boteco in Glasgow for a few of the games the atmosphere in there is brilliant plus the bar maids .. Need i say more
Anyone else going to any cultural bars for it?

 

[cristian tello]

my 4 teams would be Brazil,Germany,Spain and Belgium
Argentina's defense doesn't look really solid.i don't think they would make it even to the semis

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Anyone here rather knowledgeable with regards to football? I need to rank the confederations + 2 sub confederations. It would go from most skilled to least skilled.

My rankings;

UEFA (Europe)
CONMEBOL (South America)
CAF (Africa)
CONCACAF (North America)
AFC (Asia)
UNCAF (Central America)
CFU (Caribbean)
OFC (Oceania)

Internet $$$ for anyone that also ranks the above.

 

[D11FYY]

I would say you've pretty much got it spot on. Although I would rate AFC higher than UNCAF. The Quality of the football in Japan is better than Hondouras for example.

 

[cristian tello]

UEFA (Europe)
CONMEBOL (South America)
CAF (Africa)
AFC (Asia)
CONCACAF (North America)
UNCAF (Central America)
OFC (Oceania)
CFU (Caribbean)

Asia become better when austrailia joined afc and can't see Caribbean being better than Oceania specially after the way Tahiti got thrashed in the confederations cup (10-0 :O )

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Tahiti is part of Oceania though. CFU is a sub federation so they are hard to compare, but they've got Jamaica, Haiti, etc. I think Jamaica can take all of those weird little islands in the Pacific.

AFC better than CONCACAF? USA and Mexico vs Japan and Australia.. I like USA/Mexico in those instances. (USA currently ranked 13th in the world, Mexico 20th vs Japan 46th and Australia 62nd)

 

[H. Palmer]

my 4 teams would be Brazil,Germany,Spain and Belgium
Argentina's defense doesn't look really solid.i don't think they would make it even to the semis

To my knowledge Argentina has never won a World Cup without cheating.

1986 Maradona's Hand of God and don't get me started on 1978.

 

[H. Palmer]

Not again!

I stopped watching the opening match Brazil - Croatia after the unwarranted penalty for Brazil. My god, not again. Not again a championship ruined by referee bias. Not again the Biggies that are walking with their fingers in their nose into the semi finals because of huge commercial interests that are behind countries like Brazil.

Just remember Argentina 1978, Argentina 1986 (Hand of God), South Korea 2002. England 1966. And how many times have countries like Australia and Croatia seen their match go to an established country because of biased arbitrage?

I don't like Hockey, but at least it's a fair game. Football? By no means. I'm through with football.

 

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[bj79995]

The refs seem to be leaning Brazil's way

 

[Magik]

Not again!

I stopped watching the opening match Brazil - Croatia after the unwarranted penalty for Brazil. My god, not again. Not again a championship ruined by referee bias. Not again the Biggies that are walking with their fingers in their nose into the semi finals because of huge commercial interests that are behind countries like Brazil.

Just remember Argentina 1978, Argentina 1986 (Hand of God), South Korea 2002. England 1966. And how many times have countries like Australia and Croatia seen their match go to an established country because of biased arbitrage?

I don't like Hockey, but at least it's a fair game. Football? By no means. I'm through with football.

I read somewhere that the majority of matches worldwide are fixed, either by players or refs. I certainly hope that doesn't apply to the cup.

 

[H. Palmer]

The older I get, the more I can see that it does apply to the World Cup as well.

I've seen too many matches where a smaller country had the upper hand and then all of sudden one of their players gets a red card or a penalty is awarded to the Biggie opponent and then the dynamics of the match totally change and the Biggie still wins.

It's difficult to prove and it's difficult to determine whether it's bribery or intimidation or just the result of effective PR by the big countries, but I've seen it too many times.

This means that no matter what their form, countries like Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Italy and sometimes even Portugal get through the final stages because of the commercial interests that are involved. (Portugal has three newspapers dedicated to football alone). It really puts down football which is a chaotic game anyway compared to many other sports.

 

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[Deleted21961]

Poland!

Oh, wait...

 

[DeletedUser394]

If one doesn't like, one doesn't watch.

Brazil dominated most of the match, with or without the questionable calls by the ref. I didn't like a lot of the calls, and I didn't like a lot of the dives. Fault comes with the players as well.

I'm happy that Brazil's defence looked suspect. Hopefully someone can knock em out after the group stage.

Smaller countries don't win, because larger countries are typically better. Does Ghana, Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, Cameroon, etc have any chance of winning the cup? Not a chance. Croatia? No sir.

There are only a handful of real contenders.

 

[Jimmyy]

Brazil were very tame. Shocker of a penalty, a soft disallowed Croat goal, blatant freekick not given before the 3rd. Lol I'd even fancy Englands chances against them

 

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[cristian tello]

What a match. 5-1 . Spain's defense was all over the place .
Had anybody picked Netherlands before this ?

 

[Gsuz]

Crazy match. I put 50 euros @1 goal on each side before halftime. BARELY MADE IT. Made a nice 300 on that and then gambled my way to 500 all while watching. So addicting

 

[FionaS]

What a match. 5-1 . Spain's defense was all over the place .
Had anybody picked Netherlands before this ?

I'm Dutch, so I think my family'd kill me if I rooted for anyone else.

Didn't watch the game, but was keeping up on the score. I knew they won when my Facebook feed turned orange!

 

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[ProweJosh]

Spain's defense was poor but still, Netherland played amazing, RVP is a fantastic player and a wonderful goal by him.

 

[H. Palmer]

What a match. 5-1 . Spain's defense was all over the place .
Had anybody picked Netherlands before this ?

My skepticism about the Dutch is far deeper.

How many times have we seen this? The world watches in awe when the Dutch pummel a former world champion or European champion with incredible numbers.

From 1974 onward this scenario has been played out so often.

It goes on for a few matches.

Then one of the following outcomes happens:

. Netherlands loses because they were so arrogant they refused practicing taking penalty kicks. Remember 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002.

. Dutch coach loses his wits and makes incomprehensible tactical shift. 2004 against Portugal.

. Netherlands loses because the referee kills the game. Remember 2006 against Portugal.

. Netherlands plays against team that is stuffed with stimulant drugs, the players' tongues still blue from the substance. Remember 2008 against Russia.

. Netherlands loses it in sight of victory and starts kicking opponents' ribs out of whack. Remember 2010 against Spain.


Dutch football can be brilliant, but they are never consistent. Only exception was 1988 when they lost their first match. Coach Michels was a veteran of the lost final in 1974.

 

[D11FYY]

That was an amazing performance by Holland. Van Persies diving header is a goal I wouldn't get fed up of watching. Robben also played magnificent because everything was going in his favor.. His greed often annoys me.

Croatia game was a farce. I had money on Croatia to win and a correct 2-1 score. After that penalty decision it turned into a farce. Olic barely touched the keeper and yet a foul was given.
The Mexico game also today 2 disallowed goals because of a linesman's incompetence surely something must be done about this. Watching the game I noticed 3 ref type figures at the dug out surely one could be watching a monitor and give a opinion in regards to this. Sort it out Fifa!

 

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[DeletedUser394]

I was screaming the whole time. I wouldn't mind visiting Amsterdam!

What a match!

Now Vamos Chile!

 

[Magik]

Isn't Spain supposed to be the best defensive team in the tournament? They got their collective asses handed to them, and it was almost 6-1. Spain's worst loss since 1950.