Ivory Coast fails in all departments. It's a big chance they will be the laughing stock of this group.
dunno if you're sarcastic but I have serious doubts about this... guess we'll see. http://int.soccerway.com/matches/2014/03/05/world/friendlies/belgium/cote-divoire/1617993/ their last friendly
Japan beat belgium. Ivorians didnt. Second goal was terrible @ 7:20 is ivory coasts goal keeper good or his he prone to many mistakes? 3rd goal (ivory coasts 1st) was lucky. Belgium should have won game 3-2 given benteke's miss. that game makes me think Japan > Ivory Coast
Oh my god, now it's A beats B and C draws with B so A is better? Please. They are no walkover, that was the point. true, Japan also should have won against Paraguay given Matsui's crossbar
when japan played belgium, they had no benteke type miss. what i was trying to say is. belgium really should have won that match an any other day they would. ivory coast was extremely lucky. and the fact that belgium beat ivory (they would any other day) and japan beat belgium, SUGGESTS IMO that japan > ivory coast. but that would be m,ore conclusive if ivory coast played more teams japan did. the most conclusiveness would obviouslly be when japan play ivory coast at WC2014. till then, thats what we have. and i dont think its wrong to make suggestions based on it
Yeah but I do not agree with this sentiment, because every match is a story in itself. That day Benteke may have had a miss, but in the World Cup maybe Japan could have it against Ivory Coast, and the result could be "unfair" but still stay as that. Nothing wrong with making a suggestion, but my post was responding to the possibility that they'll be the "laughing stock" of the group... I'm not sure about that. I think that Colombia could exploit their defense hard though.
Anyway. is ivory coasts goal keeper good or his he prone to many mistakes? anyone know? i havent watched any matches that he has been at goal other than ivory vs belgium
Okubo will score against Ivory Coast while Tulio will laugh by the stands to Drogba causing him miss a penalty (caused by Yoshida in berserk mode).
actually he has a point instead. He's saying that friendlies can't fully reveal, they can just give hints about the form of a squad.... sometimes. Just see how Japan transforms when he plays the big dogs and the small fries (apart damn Brazil)
Heeey, For us I reckon the type of our opponents and psychological factors, which come with how all the other games go, are bigger than that of the good ole' who's better in what position etc (or any other generic stats people tend to go on). My take would be something like: vs Ivory Coast 3-2 [win] vs Greece 1-2 [loss] vs Columbia 2-2 [draw] I do believe also that draw, draw, loss, type outcome is just as plausible. I think this group has a relatively high chance of going down to goal difference etc. Having said it's all uncertain, the one that I'm particularly unsure of is the game against Greece. In which game they will choose to come out to play, whether they can cope with the climate etc.
Why do you think Japan will beat Ivory cost but not Greece which is a worse team on paper? I would like to know your thinking, because its seems unusual to me
It's all about Japan, not paper ranking. Japan has a good offence and a shitty defence then Ivory Coast is an easier opponent with its weak defence phase while Greece concede goal not very often and they have a good tradition to defend (and they giantkill at least one in any competition where they appeared like Russia at Euro2012). We all know that Japan need to score a lot to survive this WC then Greece will probably be our tougher opponents till the round16.
While Greece have a solid defense, they typically aren't as good against more technical teams like Japan. I still think Greece is our best shot at 3 points. Not guaranteed, obviously, but still our best chance. Ivory Coast, honestly, its impossible to predict what will happen in that match, but if Japan were to lose, it would likely make advancing to the knockout round impossible. So in a way, going for 2 draws and a win is more realistic then going all out for the win each time. Well the god Kamo himself said something like that on TV today, except that for him the "win" as against Ivory Coast, and draws against Greece & Colombia. So I guess he agrees with you there, although I still get the feeling people are underrating Ivory Coast.
Dont forget how South Korea outplayed Greece in 2010. The result was only 2-0 but could with little more luck 4/5-0. Nothing against Greece but normaly they are 3 safety points.
Yes every Team is different since these days, since 2010 and since 2012. So everything is only theoretical but Greece playingstyle and team even if they change there players is every year the same so you can predict something. I say Greece is in 9 of 10 games a safety 3 points opponent if it`s counts. But let`s see
Yeh I don't rate Greece really. They had an easy qualifying group while better teams failed to make it due to much tougher groups. But hey we lost against Belarus and 2nd string Serbia so anything could happen.