Carrick and Defoe aren't making it because they aren't good enough. Haven't done enough in the last 12 months. Unfortunately for Ashley Cole, Leighton Baines is looking better and so wouldn't have started anyway. I thought this thread was about the likes of Ibra, Bale, Lewandovski, Falcao etc. Only the Spanish midfield could you argue a top player couldn't make it into. Maybe the Argentine attack as well.
Luis Suarez will undergo Meniscus surgery Friday and could miss the WC. Just broke about 30 mins ago: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/...iscus-surgery-world-cup-status-up-in-the-air/
Juan Carlos Medina of Mexico is going to miss the world cup. http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/sto...led-out-of-world-cup-with-ankle-injury-052014
Uruguay is still saying that he has a good chance of playing, but I keep thinking that this is wishful thinking. Knee surgery three weeks before the Cup, and he will still recover in time? That would be miraculous.
Latest news from Spain show that Diego Costa suffered micro-ruptures in his thigh muscle and needs at least 2 weeks of complete rest. Del Bosque then said that players who aren't 100% physically by June 2 will drop out of his roster, which seems to imply that Diego Costa is definitely out. The article is in Portuguese but the above is the summary of what it contains. http://esportes.terra.com.br/futebo...c442d71f66136410VgnCLD2000000dc6eb0aRCRD.html I say, good riddance. I really dislike Diego Costa. I know it's not nice to gloat about someone's injury, but hey, it's not a devastating injury that would hinder his bread-winning capacity forever, and I can't help but gloat at the fact that this traitor won't play in the WC that is hosted by the country that he despised.
Its not like they've totally dominated Costa Rica when they met them either. It was only a 2-1 aggregate in the qualification playoff 4 years ago.
A one goal lead is all you need to win. Spain won each and every KO game, with exactly the same lead. Btw, it was the same lead that eliminated the USA, at the KO's in that WC, by the team who couldn't achieve that lead in the next phase.
Of course Uruguay are favorites, but its not like Uruguay is powerful enough to easily beat Costa Rica.
Oh yes, they will beat easily Costa Rica (the same way as they beat them in that play-off). But for Uruguay, all they will really care for, is to get the one goal lead over the opponents (don't expect big scores in it). Their philosophy of the game isn't as ambitious as it may be to most fans in the world. For them, a 1 to 0 final score is about the same thing as a 10 to 0 score, as at the end, it is what it counts to get them where they want. It is not that they don't like big scores, because they like them the same as every fan in the world does. It is simply, that they prefer to achieve what takes them closer to their goal, over big scores or beautiful show-offs. For you or for me, the same as for most fans in the world, what we want is to see our teams achieve a succesful tournament and if possible to reach the highest instance possible, while for Uruguay, it is and don't forget it, to win the tournament as it has always been their objective in football. One match, for them, is just a small part of what they are really after. They actually don't care if they end 1st or 2nd in their group, as both will pass to the next phase, and they don't really care whom they might face there, as they will face them the same as if they are confronted against a top team or a weak team. They'll play that game, to pass to the next phase.
"They actually don't care if they end 1st or 2nd in their group, as both will pass to the next phase," Oh come on. Of course they care. If they had finished 2nd in their group in 2010, they would have played Argentina instead of South Korea in the 2nd round. They didn't want that.
They are not afraid of Argentina. If there was a Conmebol team with the biggest desire of beating them in 2010, that team was Uruguay (it was Argentina whom put Uruguay against Costa Rica, in the last match day of Conmebol qualifiers). They know each other pretty well , and finally got their revenge at the Copa America played in Argentina the next year, where they eliminated them at quarters at their own home, where it hurts the most. Same goes with Brazil, whom doesn't wants to face Uruguay by no way in its path to the WC championship that starts in the next weeks, because they know pretty well too, of what Uruguay is capable of doing to them, when you less expect it (the Maracanazo of 1950, really taught them the lesson there).
That makes no sense. By winning Group A in 2010, they got South Korea, then either England/USA or Ghana. If they had finished second in Group A, they would have gotten Argentina, then Germany. Of course they wanted to win the group and have an easier road to the semi-finals. They're not idiots.