Matchday Thread | GROUP G

No idea how Ronaldo can miss so much..

1- point blank header inside the 6
2-shot from well inside the box hammered right at the keeper
3- easy flick in from a cross that he somehow puts over from 2 yards
4- breakaway where he shoots it close to the keeper
5- also hit the bar


Yes I know he is unfit, but they were so easy....

 

So honestly... How difficult will the US Belgium game be... Do we have a chance?

 

Belgium has a LOT more than they have shown. It will not be easy.

Despite that they are still getting results, which is what matters

 

Just like the USA did.

 

I think BH gelled. Just got...........shafted.

 

If you don't remember it! We remember and not even close to same teams.

 

So you're telling me there's a chance? They're ranked 11th by fifa, above several eliminated teams.

 

He had some kind of minor operation to fix a nerve in his foot in April or May. Not sure if that is causing some problems.

 

Yes, they do say history repeats itself....

 

"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win."

 

If I've noticed? Of course I did. I attended a viewing party with 2,000 people for the USA-Portugal game last Sunday.

I started a thread about the interest for soccer in the US, in our USA section of the board. Read it up. The numbers are now impressive. We have 31.8 million Americans who declare themselves big soccer fans, and another 57.2 million people who declare themselves casual soccer fans. Now 47% of Americans find soccer very exciting or or at least interesting. We have 19 MLS franchises, many with soccer-specific stadiums, usually very beautiful and sitting between 20,000 and 27,000 people. Our average game attendance is now higher than that of the NBA and the NHL.

While 4 years ago people wouldn't even acknowledge at work that the World Cup was going on, today my boss took a 3-hour break with me, and came with me to watch the game at my home, since I'm equipped for split screen and we wanted to see simultaneously USA-Germany and Portugal-Ghana. At half time he called his elderly father to check on him, and the old man was also watching the game. His comment: "I've always been a baseball man and I wasn't aware of soccer, but oh boy, this thing is exciting! Why in the hell people used to say it was boring?"

Several people at work did the same (took breaks to go to local sports bars) and there were TVs at work showing the game. We were trying to arrange for coverage and co-workers were saying "I can't cover for you because I also want to watch the game!"

People are making comments about the Cup every day at work. Well, I watched the game with my boss at home then we headed back to work. When I was leaving work at the end of the day I bumped into a co-worker at the parking lot and she immediately yelled at me "don't say anything, I set the DVR to record the game and I don't want to know the score." Just like in that ad...

None of this would have happened as recently as 4 years ago, at work.

All major newspapers and web sites have front page soccer news. Viewership of the World Cup on TV has been higher than that of every single game (including the final and decisive one) of the recent NBA finals. Viewership is higher than in 2010. After Brazil, the country with the higher number of purchased tickets in this 2014 World Cup is America.

In my town, baseball fields are being dismantled and soccer fields are being built instead.

Soccer has definitely arrived in the United States, and the picture you posted is another irrefutable proof.

Soccer haters are more and more frustrated and even more vitriolic in their criticism. Mainstream sports TV shows still feature old timers who feel very threatened by soccer's growth and put it down at every opportunity. However it doesn't fly any longer, because a growing number of adult Americans have played soccer as youth, and understand and like the game.

You know the old saying that "soccer is for pussies"? Well, how will guys continue to say so, when they played soccer themselves as children and teenagers? Now, 87% of people who played soccer as youth keep the interest for the sport once they become adults.

(All the numbers above come from a major survey with thousands of Americans, done by the Washington Post).

It's irreversible and it will only continue to grow.

 

Yep, except when the Brazilians and Italians do (both have more World Cup wins than Germany).

 

Germany has more overall wins and top four finishes than Italy. They only have one more cup...for now.

 

Yeah... I know. Was just reminded of that funny quote from Gary Lineker. Still makes me chuckle sometimes.

 

That's the important part. Who cares about top four finishes? Gloating about those is for losers. Winners only gloat when they win. That's actually the hallmark difference between winners and losers. The former are never content with anything other than the ultimate victory.

If I were you, I wouldn't count your chicks before they hatch. That's how people end up eating crow instead of chicken. You've looked good for the last several Cups but didn't win. Last time you won, it was a looong time ago in 1990.

 

Meh point was Germany has more wins than Italy.

 

No, they don't. Count again. Forget top four and other irrelevant finishes like those (ask the players; they were probably very frustrated for having lost those semifinals and finals - look at Kahn's despair when Ronaldo scored on him, for example; iconic photos exist all over the Internet). What counts is the Cup. Italy = 4. Germany = 3. Don't say Germany has more wins than Italy, because they just don't. 4>3. In the World Cup, a win is the trophy. The other stuff is just irrelevant game stats. Seriously, I'm a bit disappointed. I thought the Germans were fierce and proud and enough of winners to refrain from gloating about finishing second, third, or fourth. Gloating about anything less than winning the trophy is for the small and weak teams who get pretty happy about it when they excel, for a change (I imagine that countries like Croatia and Turkey got very excited with their third place finishes). Real winners only care about the trophy.

 

Gary Lineker said that and it's not far from the truth.

 

It is far from the truth, since the winning-est team in the history of football is Brazil. Gary Lineker should have made the funny line including Brazil, not Germany. Sorry, I don't want to appear arrogant, but facts are facts. Brazil does have more victories than Germany, in most stats, and especially in the stats that matter most: 5 world cups.

 

You don't seem to get the irony in Lineker's statement or why he made it

 

Jesus, more of this, sense of humour isn't your strong suit, isn't it?
Lineker said that at a time when Germany had a habit of knocking England out of World Cups and Euros a lot, often close or on penalties. After the English win in 1966 Germany went on a streak of knocking England out in WC 1970, Euro 1972, WC 1982, WC 1990 and Euro 1996 which caused the English to apply their great sense of humour and led to Lineker's quote. It's a joke and not intended as a factual statement

 

TOP 5 All-Time World Cup Teams (win-draw-loss):

#1 Brazil 69-16-15
#2 Germany 62-20-20
#3 Italy 45-21-17
#4 Argentina 40-13-20
#5 Spain 29-12-18

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_table_of_the_FIFA_World_Cup

 

Of course I get that; it's just that I'm being a pain in the ass as usual, haha!