Matchday Thread | GROUP C

Mondragon has been a staple in the national team for years. he was honored for his service and dedication, and just like japan, was selected mostly to offer that veteran leadership and knowledge. the whole country is happy for him.

i had japan make it to the next round with colombia. hopefully next world cup japan does better. thanx and good luck!

 

My comfort. Thanks..

 

Part of me is sick for the Ivory Coast. On the other hand, Greece did play attractively today and hit three posts- so the result was not entirely unjust.

 

I just hope they don't beat Costa Rica. Then there would really be no justice in this world...

 

Can you explain to me the meaning of "justice" ? Defending football is against the law?Hail Mourinho?You guys know we Greeks still give no F-word for your criticism.We have one of the best defensces in the world.We played attacking football once vs colombia and u can see the result.Face it.We are a solid defensive team.

 

Wow, the Japanese are the kings of sportsmanship. This Japanese poster shows it once more. I really like the approach these people have; they fight hard, they play cleanly, their fans clean up after themselves when they are leaving the stadium, and congratulate the winners. Other players and fans have a lot to learn from the Japanese in the matter of being classy and fair.

 

What's wrong in being helped by the home crowd? Oh boy, the hatred for Brazil knows no limit... Yeah, bring down these pesky Brazilians, they dare to root for their own team when it is playing in their own country! Can't have that!

 

You don't have to make multiple posts in a row. One longer one would suffice......

 

Ivory coast punished for not playing to win. it was really a tactical blunder, they deserved to get eliminated just as much as Greece deserved to win.
Same thing happened in the Italian match, it's just nature of the game. It's at such competitive level there's simply no room for chivalry. Teams bunker when they need to, and if you needed result from that particular match, then you got your work cut out.

If Honduras or Iran sneaks into r16 then good for them. Winning on the strategical level isn't easier than winning on tactical level or something. I expect everybody facing Argentina to bunker, that why we needed Messi, to produce miracles. If one of these countries ended up attacking us hardcore, their coach is fking stupid, even though we would get to watch an entertaining game, wouldn't that be a treat...

 

Pekerman strategy against greece was giving them the ball.......

 

Sorry, I'm new here. I was under the impression that you can only quote one post on replying to it. I've just noticed that you can quote multiple posts in one response; I'll try to be mindful of it. On the other hand, people tend to balk at long posts so sometimes keeping it compartmentalized helps.

 

I have not posted here in a long time so please forgive me in advance for jumping in out of nowhere . I usually just read all the insightful comments that are posted here and appreciate the general knowledge of the posters .
However, having said that, I'm a little puzzled by some of the comments at times and wonder if we are all looking at the same thing. In this particular instance and group , it seems many of you wanted CIV to go through. I can understand that,with the likes of yaya toure and drogba and others on that side. But what did they really do in 3 games ?
As has been mentioned,they did not have the sense of urgency that was required.
Much like Italy tried to do and was punished by Uruguay. Now , I'm seeing/reading some level of disbelief or dislike for Uruguay and Greece, for doing what they had to do , in order to advance : WIN.
I don't see how anyone can watch yesterday's game and not come away thinking that the less fancied side,took the fight to CIV. At one point late in the game the shots were 10 -8 in favor of Greece, with a higher percentage of those shots being on target.
They actually hit the post 4 times, although 3 were actually dangerous and in reality two could have easily gone in. There were two instances , where the last defender for CiV stopped an attack with a foul both times and only got a yellow card.
Greece came to win and they did, just like they did in the final game with Russia in the euro 2012 group stage.
I guess most people only saw highlights of their first two games as well.
They had chances with Colombia that a proven seasoned striker , would have put away.
Still would have lost , but they could have easily had 1-2 in that game.
In the Japan game they played with 10 men and even then created some chances and could have poached a goal then too. However, their only legitimate scorer had to come off with an injury , prior to the red card being issued and he did not play in games 1-3.
This same player was a hot attraction for big clubs after scoring 3 goals of the four , they scored to beat Romania 3-1 and 1-1 in the knockout.
Anyway, long story short, I'm glad they got through , with the likes of Italy, England , Spain and Croatia all going down. Would I have preferred for one of those sides to through, maybe....I would have liked to have seen Sweden and Zlatan at the cup as well.

Have we stopped rooting for the under dog ? I guess those that are surprised by this may also have been shocked by Costa Rica and the USA. I personally was not , as I watched them all in qualifying and their friendlies leading up to this.

 

Samaras is a dirty cheating diver. I originally thought there was contact be wise I saw the replay from one angle from behind where it looked Luke there was contact, I just now saw the side angle which clearly shows there was no contact whatsoever. It was the one replay they originally showed and the commentator said there was no contact.

Greece cheated their way to the second round period. Disgraceful.

 

in this tournaments teams have to be prepared to suffered this referee mistakes...........not only to cry if it happens, mexico had 2 goals disaloowed that were legal, but they won the match after score

Ivory Coast with gervinho, drogba and yaya had to win greece since the beginning the match to greece.......but no the draw and lamouchi take them out.......mentality was more guilty than the referee about the elimination

 

Ivory Coast could have taken the game by the scruff of the neck when they had the better chances in the first half. They should have put it to bed with one of several breakaways. They can only blame themselves. And the coach who made idiotic changes after the 1:1.

 

Heh, I always knew Lamouchi was a bottler.

 

You do not as a referee call a PK in the last second of a match that will alter things if you are not 100% positive. I believe the ref who was biased throughout the entire match gave Greece the benefit of the doubt rather than seeing it with his own eyes. You cannot compare a disallowed goal 10 minutes into a match with a last second penalty. Come on man, you just being biased. To add to insult he did not add any extra time for over a minute of Greek celebrations. The ref was terrible.

 

I agree with this, but the Greeks cheated and the ref was conned. Doesn't change that fact.

 

Ivory coast had 90 minutes before to won that match.......

by the way i have to watch the action

 

Wait a minute didn't they beat your country , Romania , 3-1 and then 1-1 , in a playoff to get to the WC ????

 

https://vine.co/v/Mtnxa6HXg7p this angle?

 

so much hatred for Greece.. dont know why.. and the penalty was a penalty end of story. Samaras had an advantageous position to shot and score a goal and one of the oponent stopped him with contact.

 

Ok looks more legit there, I think the one I saw started late, my bad.

 

So I guess they are not cheaters then , and not disgraceful , as you stated earlier ?
The fact is that second tier teams from Europe have largely been victimized by the refereeing , see Croatia - brazil and bih vs Nigeria and even Greece with the harsh red carc in game 2 vs Japan. I'm glad one call went their way.

 

Um I was just pointing out why they would have home field advantage, not criticizing their fans for being supportive.