I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. I do agree they were the best team overall. I just thought they looked surprisingly sloppy yesterday, despite dominating all the statistics, including a lot of possession in their offensive third. Largely agree here. I do think the Germany was lucky to not get strait red when I-forget-who went studs up very high on an Argentine's leg. But I wasn't sure that Argentina shouldn't have been shown red for the shoulder to head challenge that knocked Kramer out, and there definitely were a couple missed second yellows (the fist to Schweinsteiger being one) and bearhugs in the box on set pieces (which seemed quite prevalent in this tourney).
Yes it was Wheel and some poor sap always got stuck with that damned ceramic dog statue. I agree with your main point. The fact that Timmy Howard wasn't even in the list for the GK award was ridiculous. The guy broke a freaking record and he doesn't make the list? I'm not saying he should have won it, Enyeama probably deserved it.
I don't know what you're talking about. I mean to me, it makes complete sense that Higuain was able to argue (correctly) against a call that went against him before collapsing to the ground in pain
You actually see fouls on offensive players all the time and I think there was at least one in the final, on Schurrle, when it was really Schurrle getting his shirt pulled.
Yes, the Germans made a couple of mistakes that the Argentines didn't expect and weren't really in position to capitalize on. Lahm was great, the rest of the German backline inconsistent. Bayern has the core of the German national team that won the cup plus Aniba, Mandzukic, Robben, and Ribery. How did they not win the CL this year? Or maybe it's Casillas not stinking up the joint in the CL final?
Got cocky after winning the German league early this season and took their foot off the gas. Found out that sometimes when you do that, you can't just step on it and have everything work right. Also note that Kicker rated Boateng as the player of the match.
Not sure if cocky is the right word but I agree with the assessment. It must be hard playing for months when the league is wrapped up and you don't want an injury to end your CL or WC hopes. I do think Pep is the wrong coach for Bayern. The roster he has does not say tiki taka or whatever they are calling possession for possession's sake these days.
And if this was a game that was streamed online that 9.7 doesn't include Unvision and WatchESPN streaming online, so I would say it's safe to say this was more probably equal if not above both of those matches in total. I know the two sites had the rights to all that was on ESPN, but I don't know if the final was exclusive to ABC (even though it owns ESPN).
Maybe, just maybe, it was the players for Barca that won, and not Pep and his coaching? Take a different set of players and try to get them to conform to a system instead of coaching to their strengths will only get you so far.
That sounds vaguely familiar to a certain situation in Ohio EDIT: didn't Gregg spend some time with Barca studying how they train or something?
I think some of that was ARG putting on better pressure than Brazil did. They seemed a little harried, even when they were not under real pressure.
Germany looked a lot better in the knockout rounds when Lahm moved back to defender. Their defense was a bit shaky in the group stage.
More AO fun. I signed up for them last year hoping to get USA-Mexico tickets (I didn't). I did NOT sign up for recurring memberships, but I just got a paypal notice that they tried to auto renew my membership and my credit card on file was expired.
Just saw this on ESPN: http://www.espnfc.us/fifa-world-cup...occer-game-in-us-historymore-than-26m-viewers Tons of viewers for the final, and some social media crap.
Okay, does anyone know how I can go in and cancel automatic renewal? I did see that there is some fine print that says they will automatically renew your membership unless you opt out, but I don't remember seeing that fine pring at the time I signed up, let alone the option to decline it, otherwise I certainly would have opted out.
My stab at how the teams finished - The bottom 16 teams are ranked on their table points, GD etc. The top 16 is based on who they lost to and how far they went. SO for example, anyone that lost to Germany would be highest ranked in that round...pot shots in logic expected. 1 Germany 2 Argentina 3 Netherlands 4 Brazil 5 France 6 Belgium 7 Costa Rica 8 Colombia 9 Algeria 10 Switzerland 11 Mexico 12 Chile 13 Nigeria 14 United States 15 Greece 16 Uruguay 17 Ecuador 18 Portugal 19 Croatia 20 Bosnia-Herzegovina 21 Ivory Coast 22 Italy 23 Spain 24 Russia 25 Ghana 26 England 27 South Korea 28 Iran 29 Japan 30 Australia 31 Honduras 32 Cameroon
Sir you have placed Mexico above the United States. Mexico has jumped 9 spots. Please turn in all your "Dos A Cero" and "Home" shirts and "Land of the Free" scarf.
Yeah, sickening. Based on my err "logic"? Mexico lost to Netherlands who finished 4th and USA lost to Belgium who got knocked out in the Quarters. This is only ranking in the tournament and not like a fifia ranking thing. Although I think FIFA do have smething similar, could not find it. You are correct though. I should update the logic to automatically relegate Mexico to last place.
But you could argue that in group, US lost to Germany (#1) and Mexico lost to Brazil (#4) And Mexico lost to Netherlands in regulation time. US only regulation loss was to #1 Germany
Crap, you're right. My bad. Still USA's only regulation loss was to #1 Germany and Mexico's only regulation loss was to #3 Holland. Though USA had 2 ties to Mexico's 1. *Edit, but if they would have had Extra Time in group stage I'm sure that Mexico would have lost