THE OFFICIAL FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 IN BRAZIL THREAD!

[h]

not tough for me. War Germany!!!!

[miscmisc]

BTW, it was a very good game.  Very tactical, but not boring.  A bit over-cautious, maybe, but totally understandable after that freak game yesterday.  I'm sure it spooked both teams.

[miscmisc]

Congrats to the Oranje.  Fully deserved win.  It's always nice to end a tournament with a win, and the young Dutch defenders, whom no one rated highly before the World Cup, should have new confidence in themselves now.

And the Selecao... 10 goals conceded in two games... and the fashion in which they lost these games...  Their inability to deal with Robben, even when he's not in a fast counter-attack, was very alarming.  The average Bundesliga defender would've done a better job.  The consensus among Bundesliga defenders is that Robben, who relies heavily on his left foot, is easier to deal with than Ribery, who has no such one-dimensionality.  But the Brazilians were fooled by the same trick over and over again.

What a way to end the World Cup on their home soil.

[h]

WARRRR GERMANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[h]

WOOHOO Germany!!

[K1power]

A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

[miscmisc]

Germany succeeded in having their players in their peak physical condition during the World Cup time.  I think in every single one of their games, they were the fitter side.  The German fans should applaud the team staff.  They could've lost the game against, say, Ghana if they had been less fit.  Given how absolutely exhausted Hummels and Boateng looked past the half point in the second half of the final, it's obvious that the players, perhaps except for Schurrle, had just used up all the gas available in their tank.  But there will be no more game to play, and that's the point.  And the fresh legs of Goetze scored the championship goal, even though he had never looked well-integrated in the team until that point.  Perfect tournament as far as the team staff are concerned, I suppose.  Congrats!

Argentina sorely missed Di Maria.  He would've been perfect for that kind of a game.  A goal was simply not coming without him.  They fought well, though.  They even looked fitter than the Germans at times.

BTW, I don't want them to allow the players' girlfriends enter the pitch after the whistle like that.  That place should be a sanctuary for the players, staff and officials only.  It's a serious place where the tears of literally millions of people are buried, figuratively speaking.  The players' personal lives should be left out of it.  Those girls aren't invited by the football god.  No, that's not sexism.  I don't want them to allow the players' boyfriends to do the same in women's football either.

[miscmisc]

One thing that I wouldn't want to be is a sportswriter.  Exhibit A:

Germany’s World Cup triumph a victory for intelligent design
www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jul/14/germany-argentina-world-cup-final-2014-barney-ronay

This kind of a childish overreaction to a result or two is what is required of that profession.  Even the Germans should feel proud and slightly uncomfortable at the same time reading it, unless they are the self-congratulatory asshole type, of the Deutsche Bank CEO/Wolfgang Schaeuble variation.

I mean, the author is only a few millimeters away from declaring the Germans as the Master Race (which, I should note, is the complete, deliberate mistranslation of the German word "Herrenvolk" by the British, but I digress).  The title is already creepy enough: "intelligent design"?  And:

Not only does Europe now have its first champions on South American soil; it also has the most European of all European champions: a sporting triumph of controlled, superbly engineered uber-Europeanism applauded at the end by both Angela Merkel and Michel Platini inside the portable corporate mega-drome that was once the distinctively Brazilian Maracanã.

WTF is "uber-Europeanism"?  Germany's relentless triangle attack/defense on the flanks are "European", but Argentina's systematic diagonal runs aren't?  In what way?  There is nothing "European" or "South American" about them.

He proceeds to describe the "system" in Germany, but am I too much of a liberal hippie if I say I detect the implied notion that in South America and elsewhere footballers only come out of the dirty streets, and only in Europe do we have the football infrastructure effectively run to spot and nurture talents properly?  Those Latins simply wait for the kids to spontaneously come out of the slums?

What about the sophisticated talent-scouting system in place for decades in countries like Argentina, Uruguay and so on?  That's the prime reason for why such a tiny country as Uruguay has produced so many footballing talents.  In fact, I would even go so far as to say that Germany was behind them on that for many, many years, as Brazil, among the Latin nations, was and still is.

Sure, it's easier and cheaper for compact countries like Uruguay.  Germany is much bigger and richer as a country, and has had to spend far more money on establishing a similar "system".  Maybe that's the "Europeanism", and Germany is "uber" on that?  I doubt that's what he meant, though.

There was so much hype over the "Belgian system" as well, and much of it was blown out of proportion.  The Belgian FA did not do anything drastic.  They did introduce a few changes some years ago, but it's not like they overhauled the entire system or anything remotely like that.  It just so happens that a load of good players came out of one generation, particularly from the second-generation immigrants.  I would attribute that mostly to, you know, coincidence.

The fact of the matter is that Germany can play like that because they've got players like Thomas Muller, Phillip Lahm and Manuel Neuer.  They weren't "produced" specifically to create the "German style" or "uber-European style" or any such thing.  They are just good fuckin' players that any country wishes they had.  And don't forget: the German national team has the clear advantage of most of the key players playing for the same club.  That's certainly an important key to the chemistry that they show on the pitch.  But I doubt that's what he meant by "uber-Europeanism" to be admired, either.

Germany is Germany, with its own circumstances and history.  I don't know where "Europe", let alone "uber-Europe", comes into it.

So, yes, I would hate to be a sportswriter if this is the absurd length to which you have to go to write an article.

[miscmisc]

Oh shit, I'm sorry. I was going to post it in Random Rant Thread...

[Jofeljoh!]

Congratz Germany. Well deserved winner. Although Argentina still had some big chances, which left me wondering what if... What only if the Netherlands would have made it to the final... would they've been able to utilize those chances, the space left. Would Robben have profited from it?

Oh well, third place isn't that bad, but we were so close. Up to Euro 2016!

[miscmisc]

This World Cup was a fast break galore.  The counter-attacking sides kept scoring, and they made it look so easy.  I wouldn't read too much into it or try to reach some grandiose conclusion about Teh New Era of Football! or such.  I'm just describing this particular World Cup.  Nothing more, nothing less.

It's also ironic that the final hero for Germany was Goetze, as most of the players similar to him, including himself, struggled or were largely silent in this World Cup.  Iniesta was ineffective, to say the least, for Spain.  Sneijder had to resign himself to a very limited role unlike in the last World Cup.  Kagawa, Goetze's twin-like attacking partner back in their Borussia Dortmund days, was disastrous for Japan.  Cassano couldn't find his place in this Italian squad.  Klinsmann didn't find a reason to even call up Landon Donovan, and Nasri was left out of the French squad too.

Messi is in his own league, with the whole team designed to serve him so that he doesn't have to do any defense to speak of, so I would count him out of the equation, though.  And Neymar is... well, he's complicated.  He's probably a separate topic altogether.

That's perhaps why so much spotlight was on James Rodriguez of Colombia, as he was the last man standing among the players of that type.  But then, Colombia is a classical fast-breaking side.  His team constantly created space for him to sneak into or send killer passes into.

That, and the fact that he was the victim of cynical fouling by the Brazilians.

Similarly, Germany is being treated as a very unique champion precisely because it managed to win it all with a style at odds with the perceived general trend.

The second most shocking thing (the first being 7-1, of course) was Spain's early exit, and it's noteworthy that U-23 Spain failed to advance to the knockout stage in London Olympics in a similar fashion, even if no one remembers it anymore as it was "just Olympics".  They tried to imitate the senior team with a different set of players, such as Mata, De Gea and Javi Martinez, and utterly failed.  They were effectively shut out by the bus-parking defense of Honduras, and only the heroic saves of De Gea against the relentless counter-attacks from the opponents kept the scoreline from getting much worse than 0-1 against Japan.  Many thought that it was just a freak accident, but in hindsight, maybe not.

This failure doesn't diminish Spain's achievements over the past several years, and I'm sure they will come back strong.

All in all, this was an entertaining World Cup.  Well done, players!

[Jofeljoh!]

Yes, it was the most entertaining World Cup I've seen so far. I've seen almost every match and there were almost no really boring ones. Well done indeed.

[bol]

Very entertaining World Cup indeed. Don't have much to say what has not been said, just a small addition to a post I agree with, before one day somebody may try to smartass you over the minor possible misunderstanding of the quote misc (since it seems like a comparison you may need to repeat these days):
"Even the Germans should feel proud and slightly uncomfortable at the same time reading it, unless they are the self-congratulatory asshole type, of the Deutsche Bank CEO/Wolfgang Schaeuble variation."
The Deutsche Bank CEO Anshu Jain is not a German (though the in the public lesser present second CEO Fitschen is), also the former CEO Ackermann (who I think you probably had in mind here) is from Switzerland. It obviously makes not difference about their accurately described character of course.