THE OFFICIAL FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 IN BRAZIL THREAD!

[K1power]

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 IN BRAZIL THREAD!

The tournament starts in exactly a week from now, kicking off with Brazil VS Croatia.

Via below link you can view the full match schedule including timezone converter.

www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/

This thread is for all your previews, reviews, predictions, avatar bets and everything else World Cup.

[h]

aaaaaaand the USA has been eliminated!!!

[K1power]

When I first took a look at the groups about a week ago I thought Germany landed in a tough group. Now that I'm reading up on previews to get hyped for the tournament I'm seeing that more and more articles are labelling Group G as the Group Of Death. There is always one or two in every World Cup, but this time there are actually three groups receiving that title;

World Cup 2014 Groups of Death: From Deadly to Deadliest
In what’s being billed as the toughest and deepest World Cup ever, 12 nations in particular could lay claim to their group being the despised “Group of Death.” Whether you want to substitute another awful word for death or not, there’s no debating industrious bouts of group play in the following paths.

GROUP OF DEATH: Group B (Netherlands, Chile, Spain, Australia)
Combined FIFA ranking: 84

Chile’s the wild card here. They’re a nation that’s rarely kept off the scoresheet and add a certain scare factor for even clubs as talented as Spain and the Netherlands. The Dutch went 9-1 in qualifying while Spain’s only qualification hiccups were draws versus Finland and France. Australia has to be feeling a great deal of hard luck. The Socceroos recently suffered twin 6-0 defeats versus Brazil and France and their “signature wins” of 2013 are Jordan and Costa Rica.

Those who love to claim rigged groups have a lot to chortle about when it comes to a rematch of the 2010 World Cup final. So who’s the favorite between Netherlands and Spain to win the group? Well, Spain went on to win the 2012 Euro while the Dutch lost all three matches in group play and did not advance.

GROUP OF DEADLY DEATH: Group D (Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy)
Combined FIFA ranking: 57

We covered the long, storied rivalry between Italy and England in a different post, but that’s just the appetizer. Group D will find Luis Suarez going against the nation who hosts his domestic team. La Celeste boast World Cup titles from long ago (1930, 1950) and South American teams certainly have an advantage on European competition. They may have just squeaked into the World Cup, but Uruguay came within penalty kicks of a Confederations Cup win over the Italians last summer. England and Uruguay have twice played in the World Cup, each winning while Uruguay holds a 4-2 goals advantage. That was long ago, however.

Costa Rica is UNCAF’s strongest nation and boasts victories over both the United States and Mexico in qualifying, the latter coming when El Tri needed it most. A January friendly against Chile will be a good pre-test for Costa Rican fortunes.

GROUP OF DEADLIEST DEATHLY DEATH: Group G (United States, Germany, Portugal, Ghana)
Combined FIFA ranking: 45

Wow. Just plain wow. If you’re an American fan, you’re looking at the “worst” team in your group as a team that’s defeated you in consecutive World Cups (though admittedly the States are much stronger ahead of 2014). Portugal may not be the feared monster of other World Cups, but they have perhaps the world’s top attacking weapon, Cristiano Ronaldo to attack the Americans most glaring uncertainly — defending.

The silver-lining in this dark, dark cloud for all three teams is what awaits those who emerge from the group (see here). And to up the ante on courting controversy, FIFA surely would’ve planned a Jurgen Klinsmann versus his home nation (photo above) if they were drawing up the perfect World Cup group.

The group’s Opening Day projects to be its most important, as Portugal and Germany get the highest profile match out of the way while Ghana and the U.S. work for three points they’ll absolutely need if they want to advance. One thing’s for sure: All four of these teams made it out of their groups in 2010, but only two can advance to the knockout round in 2014.

Source

While I find myself agreeing with Group G being the 'true group of death', that doesn't there are any certainties; While there will always be favorites in sports I find Football far less predictable than fighting. The fact that it's a team sport makes it more prone to upsets IMO.

Long story short I wouldn't rule the United States out. They are currently ranked #13 by FIFA (who have a more reliable system than GLORY to name a horrible example, lol) and are well ahead of Ghana which are ranked #37, but who still are really dangerous as well.

[h]

ive ruled them out so that anything else happening will be an awesome surprise. if it doesnt, its what i expected. lol.

[miscmisc]

I personally don't quite expect European teams other than the likes of Spain and Germany to do well under the harsh temperature/humidity conditions of Brazil.  I suspect most of them will severely underperform.  There's a massive hype around teams like Belgium, but I doubt they will do well.

I think England vs. Italy will be such an enormous bore that will end in 0-0, especially since Hodgson is probably too conservative to field reckless (in a positive way) youngsters like Sterling etc.  I like this English team, but don't think they will go far this time.

I'm hoping for Brazil vs. Argentina final, and no, I'm not an asshole enough to hope for an Argentine win on the Brazilian soil...  Brazil 3 - 2 Argentina or something like that would be nice.

As for my country, I'm mildly (like, 65%) confident that they will advance to the tournament stage, even though they are a heavily attack-oriented team (which is usually not a good thing in major events).  That rubbish defense won't take them any farther, though.

[Jofeljoh!]

I'm both excited and scared for this World Cup.

Just as 90% of the Dutch, I don't expect us to last very long. And I don't know if we'd enjoy that either.

That being said, can't wait to begin! Expectations are low and it can't get any worse than Euro 2012.

Hup Holland! 

[K1power]

Good luck to Holland and Belgium!

Since I'm supporting Germany I'm hoping the rivalry will remain friendly this time around

I also have some love for the Asian teams and it would be great if both Japan and South Korea could at least get past the group fase.

Can't wait for the tournament kick-off in a couple of hours: Brazil VS Croatia

miscmisc; I like to believe the European coaches have prepared their teams for the harsh temperatures at least moderately with stuff like high altitude training. I mean, there should be a minimum level of awareness. On the other hand there's no limit to ignorance so I wouldn't be completely shocked if what you said will come true.

[K1power]

Brazil beats Croatia 3-1 in the opening game. An exciting opener with lots of action and drama. I started the match neutral, but found myself rooting for Croatia as the game went on.

Unfortunately Brazil received some hometown bonuses from the ref, namely the unfair penalty kick that really allowed Brazil to turn the game into their favor.

Tomorrow we have Mexico VS Cameroon, Spain VS Holland and Chile VS Australia which are all interesting matches.

[h]

MEXICO! MEXICO! MEXICO!!!!!!

[K1power]

Mexico beats Cameroon 1-0 in what should have been 3-0. More epic reffing fails in match #2 of this World Cup. It was a fun game though.

But the absolute SHOCKER of today is that Spain just got just got ANNIHILATED by The Netherlands: 1-5 !!!
My hat's off to Holland (and thus Jofel) as they just did what I hoped Germany would one day be able to do. Does this mark the end of Spain's reign?

I'm off to watch today's last game; Chile VS Australia.

[h]

Spain got ass raped.

[aubtin]

Fuck me Holland were fantastic! When they play their football there's always something special about the Dutch style and it was so great to see that after the way they played in the final four years ago. So glad I got up at 4am to watch it live.

So many great performances but Blind in particular had a great game. Man, that pass to Van Persie that opened Spain up for the first goal...

Jun 9, 2014 12:58:15 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

I think England vs. Italy will be such an enormous bore that will end in 0-0, especially since Hodgson is probably too conservative to field reckless (in a positive way) youngsters like Sterling etc.  I like this English team, but don't think they will go far this time.

To be fair I think Hodgson will be pretty positive with his selection. He seems to be in an unfamiliar position for an England manager whereby there's this general feeling we've nothing to lose, so that'll hopefully lead to some positive football. Saying that, assuming Welbeck's fit I'd imagine he'll start over Sterling against Italy to tighten up midfield.

[Jofeljoh!]

or the real thing




Wow, that was awesome. Still can hardly believe it we pulled this off.

[miscmisc]

Wow.  Superb, superb performance from the Dutch.  That van Gaal 5-back defense was fucking brutal for the Spaniards.  I hate that asshole van Gaal, but he did build a strong defensive unit out of those not-quite-world-class defenders at his disposal.   Numerical superiority for the Dutch virtually anywhere in the Dutch half no matter what Iniesta and Xavi did.

That being said, Spain did dominate, despite all the difficulties the wide 5-man defense posed on them, in the first half.  That David Silva mistake (though it's probably not quite fair to call it a misshot) really cost them.

The best goal for me personally thus far is actually not that flying Dutchman van Persie ridiculousness, but Cahill's header against Chile.  What a great one.  Yes, the Chilean defenders are short and all, but he's awesome.  With Australia being in the AFC, obviously I get to see Australia a lot.  The Australian squad this time around is absurdly weaker than the ones from 4-8 years ago, at least on paper, but Cahill is still Cahill.  Superb heading monster despite being not very tall.

Off to watch Greece vs. Colombia.

[miscmisc]

OK, that was a boring game, Greece vs. Colombia. But it was more like a first group league match in a World Cup than the ones we'd had. It's been far too entertaining so far. Even this boring game had three goals in it.

Fingers crossed for Italy vs. England to be entertainingly, sublimely boring in the true World Cup spirit!