Argentina and Brazil over Uruguay, you are kidding right? The players of those two teams played as if they couldn't wait to go on vacation. Uruguayans played as if their lives were at stake.
Which game did the Brazilians and Argentinians play as if they couldn't wait on vacation. A lot of team played as if their lives are at stake. Certainly, Brazil played liked their lives are at stake against Holland after going behind 2-1. Argentina was playing liked this when they were only 1 down agains Germany. Brazil might look liked they are on vocation in other times because they were in control throughout the tournament. They looked relaxed. If you think that way, you must rank South Africa and North Korea as your top team, right?
1. germany 2. hooland 3. uruguay 4. spain 5. brazil 6. argetina 7. ghana 8. paraquay 9. usa 10. portugal
And that's exactly why they were kicked out early in the competition. Their illegal goals with the complicity of the referee didn't help them much now, did it?
Thats a generous review of Argentina's world cup. They did what they always do.. Look "spectacular" against 3rd/4th string teams . Benefit from crap officiating in the 2nd round and then get blown out in the QF . The first team who could expose their poor fullbacks ended it all. Maradona is a poor coach who isnt interested in small tactical details. Hence them having a nightmare in the qualifying rounds.
1. Spain 2. Netherlands (I can't separate the two, but Holland did make the final) 2. Brazil 3. Germany 4. Argentina 5. Chile 6. Ghana 7. USA (with the right calls we could have had more energy and gotten past Ghana and maybe even Uru...oh what could have been...) 8. Mexico 9. Japan 10. Paraguay 11. Uruguay (i tried to like them until the suarez fiasco, but wasn't impressed, but Forlan is just awesome!) 12. Slovakia 13. Ivory Coast 14. England 15. Portugal 16. South Korea 17. Serbia 18. South Africa 19. Cameroon 20. Denmark 21. Australia 22. Slovenia 23. Nigeria 24. New Zealand 25. Greece 26. Italy 27. Algeria 28. Honduras 29. France 30. North Korea (managed to take it to Brazil without playing scared) 31. Switzerland (meh, ultra defensive, scared tactics)
LOL you can't possibly put the only team to beat the Champions dead last. There's a difference between playing scared and playing to your strengths (counter attacking vs head on play -- evidenced by the Honduras match). Don't understand what the huge issue is amongst the BS user base against defense-first football. :/
1. Spain 2. Germany 3. Holland 4. Brazil 5. Uruguay 6. Paraguay 7. Ghana 8. Argentina 9. Chile 10. Portugal 11. Japan 12. Korea Rep 13. England 14. Mexico 15. USA 16. Australia 17. Switzerland 18. Slovakia 19. Denmark 20 Serbia 21. Nigeria 22. Ivory Coast 23. New Zealand 24. South Africa 25. Cameroon 26. Honduras 27. Slovenia 28. France 29. Italy 30. Greece 31. Algeria 32. North Korea
I think this is the right list according to performance.... 1 Spain (Not as impressing as in the EURO throughout the tournament, but proved themselves vs Germany) 2 Germany (Arguably, they lost their composure a bit vs Spain, but I really think the loss had more to do with Spain just being better) 3 Netherlands (Not that convincing, actually, but solid in defense and had more to show in attack than eg Uruguay) 4 Brazil (Always did just enough, you always thought they could do more, but in the end, they proved they couldn't) 5 Uruguay (great Forlan, impressive performance in defense) 6 Argentina 7 Ghana (yes, their finishing was horrible, but otherwise, one of the most well rounded teams of this tournament) 8 Chile (might be a bit overrated, they choked vs Brazil, but in gs, impressive pressing all over the pitch. And not "no defense") 9 Mexico 10 Paraguay 11 USA 12 South Korea 13 England 14 Portugal 15 Switzerland 16 Japan 17 Ivory Coast 18 Australia 19 Serbia 20 Slovakia 21 Denmark 22 South Africa 23 Slovenia 24 New Zealand 25 Greece 26 Italy 27 Cameroon (showed some quality vs Denmark, one of the most entertaining gs matches) 28 Nigeria 29 Honduras 30 Algeria 31 North Korea 32 France
I tend to agree. Not only that but Holland was the only team to win their first 6 games while Germany lost twice out of 6 at the time that this thread was opened. How is 18 points worse than 12 points? Especially considering Germany lost so convincingly against Spain, despite the flattering scoreline. So its not even a question: 1) Spain, 2) Holland, <gap> 3) Germany, 4) Uruguay. After that its a bit debatable, but I would put Paraguay 5th considering they came the closest to eliminating the eventual champs, Spain, in the KO rounds.
With the German path, the Netherlands may not reached the Quarters.. They domianted them with 1 player less and should at least draw them. All in all the match was decided by the terrible ref. Nothing really you can bash the German team about.
Oh please. Slovakia was playing better than England at the time Holland beat them. Prior to the start of the KO rounds, Brazil was most people's favorites and Holland beat them too. Their last 2 opponents (URU, ESP) were the same as Germany's. If you're gonna talk about the ref, what about Lampard's goal? lol
I didn't say that he did. I just get the feeling most people rank Germany #1 or #2 in this thread because of some of the margins of victories they had, when clearly one blowout would never have happened if not for one of the worst calls of the tournament going in Germany's favor.
the best scorer for germany thomas müller picked up a garbage yellow card against argentina and didnt play against spain...we dont know the outcome team germany with müller in the team against spain ...pure speculation...but nobody can deny müller has contributed for 9 of germanys 16 goals and was definitiv one of keyplayer in the offensive.. why you dont mention this fact??
We could go through these hypothetical scenarios all day. "If Germany had Holland's draw, they maybe don't even reach the semis."
^^^^ Thats true. No point hypothesizing. But what is happening is that you are penalizing Germany for what was a refereeing error. Why should Germany's overall ranking here (perceived albeit) take a hit for a mistake that the referee made? The fact that the referee made that error does not change their performance and attitude in face of stronger ( at least on paper) opposition. IMO, they are in the top 3 teams in the tournament and they finished 3rd, which is just about fair.
I'm not penalizing them. I'm just not rewarding them because they were an unfancied, young side. We're not ranking the most overachieving/surprising sides here. Looking at it objectively, there's no-way they can be rated top 2.
you suggest a blowout win for germany isnt possible with a 2:2 draw against england......this is a hypotetic scenario too....we dont know...however the referee did one big error in this game and germany with a 2:1 lead scored 2 more goals....this is a fact too...germany didnt win 2:1 ...
I guess that's true, depending how you define "blowout". Germany could've won 7-2 if that goal by Lampard was given. Not likely, but possible.
Maybe top 10 is a bit of a stretch for S. Korea but then again I dont really believe it matters past the top 5 (perhaps even up to top 8 at most) because the dropoff in quality from that point on is really almost exponential. Spain German Dutch Netherlands Argentina Italy...these are teams that are just too good and when you watch them play against teams past the 10-spot, the disparity is huge. Id put us in the Top 15. I think we are def better than Japan and our record against them overall points to that. Wouldve have loved to have seen a match involving us vs Mexico or USA as I think the teams are just about even (Mexico being a bit better than both).
Nah, just getting tiresome. This is the second world cup in a row where Germans feel they were the best team of the tournament even though they were beaten fair and square in the semis.
Look at the body of work. Germany, Spain and Holland (the consensus elite 3, even though I have Spain in #7 I believe) all played 7 matches. Holland and Spain were 6-0-1, Germany was 5-0-2. -- Germany until the semi had no problem dispatching anyone unless down a man, and even then dominated Serbia. This was a run that included THREE 4 goal performances (not too shabby when you consider two of them were against Argentina and England), and a 3 goal effort against one of the better defensive teams in the tournament in Uruguay, albeit in the more open 3rd place game. The only time they ever looked weak was when they were missing Muller in the Semi and decided to not play their own game, over-respecting a very beatable Spanish side. Put that on the coaching staff and relatively large amount of youthfulness in the team. -- Spain was a mental mess, couldn't gain a significant advantage on anyone that played any defense (aka anyone but Chile) and barely scraped through the majority of their games, including a bad loss where they looked like a mental joke of a club, couldn't hit the target to save their lives, and looked like they had no idea what to do in the final third. They wouldn't even continue to use a sub who was brilliant for them (Jesus Navas) every time he stepped on the pitch. He'd get in the game for 10 minutes and then Xavi/Iniesta/Ramos/Alonso would completely ignore him the rest of the time despite his totally changing the angle of attack and giving most of the sides he faced fits (especially Switzerland and Holland). If Spain had played through Navas for more than the first 5-10 minutes he got on the pitch vs the Swiss, they'd have had an equalizer, I firmly believe that. -- Holland was very workmanlike the entire tournament, but they had their moments of difficulty. They could easily have drawn/lost against Denmark if not handed a lead at the start of the 2nd half. They played very nonchalantly against Cameroon. They went down against Brazil. There were a number of moments of weakness for the side, but frankly less so than Spain. If anyone has a claim to the best performance in the tournament frankly, it's the Dutch moreso than the Spanish -- they were willing to play a style that could win them the tournament instead of playing openly and with some rather reckless abandon they displayed in tournaments prior (ie Euro 08), and were very workmanlike in dispatching the majority of their opponents.