Nice to see that a few people can see through the thick smoke... David Luiz being touted as "a great defender"? Come on people, watch some real football once in a while, please...
Think the title of the thread might fall short. This is quickly becoming the best wc i've seen in 40 years.
IMO TS is turnning into the best Brazilian defender we ever had. DL is a good defender that can made good runs, DL is still 27 yo, so he can still develop a bit
to what point are we overhypeing it because it is STILL running? I am afraid that AFTER the World Cup, the World Cup fever ends and the adrenaline lowers and we will think about it and go "nah, not so good after all". does anyone here remembers reaction to quality of the World Cups in 2006 and 2010? I don´t remember really, but it would be nice to compare.
In 2010 everyone was talking about how much the ball sucked, the vuvuzelas sucked and that the games were mediocre after the first run through the groups. 2006 was less negative, as I recall. Everyone was talking about how awesome the fan fests were and what a great host Germany was for a World Cup. Don't remember any specific general reaction to the games themselves.
I like world Cups where they love and play the game, makes the atmosphere great. I recall world Cup 90, although it was in Italy, the games were bit boring, hardly any goals..... 1994-2002 I recall it wasn't bad, but not that fun. 2014 is much better then 2010, on game quality, overall stadium atmosphere, I think there more outside tourist world wide in Brazil then in South Africa, stadiums seem very full of country supported from South America and Europe!
Here's Wikipedia's comparison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_records#Total_and_average_goals The above chart is not updated for the recent Japan - Greece match, which ended 0-0. That will lower the goal ratio a bit. Even so, if the tournament keeps close to this rate it'll be the World Cup with the highest goal ratio since at least 1970, and maybe since 1958. It will almost certainly be the World Cup with the most goals scored in history (since the World Cup only expanded to 32 teams in 1998).
Aside from the number of goals, the excitement of the games has been way higher than any I can remember. Lot of back and forth action, lots of drama, great goals, the fans have been amazing. It really is an amazing one so far.
I'm still intrigued ... Every day produces a hero ... or a major talking point day 1 - Nishimura day 2 - Robin Van Persie day 3 - Costa Rica upset day 4 - Lionel Messi day 5 - John Brooks day 6 - Memo Ochoa day 7 - end of a Spanish era day 8 - Luis Suarez
That, I think, is the key. To me, goals don't make great games, chances make great games. Because with lots of chances, you get either lots of goals, or lots of great last ditch defending, and I love both of 'em. The number of reasonably good chances has been really high. I would argue that the finishing in this cup is kinda bad; if the finishing was merely average, I think we'd be seeing an average of 3.5 GPG. But possibly the most fun thing about this Cup is that in a number of matches, one team outplays the other for 15 or 25 or 35 minutes...and then the earth rotates, and the OTHER team controls play for 15 or 25 or 35 minutes. The games have been really unpredictable. Now that I think about it, if I had to describe why this Cup has been great in one word, that word would be "unpredictable." The Uruguay-England game is a perfect example of what has been fairly typical...for a long time, it looked for all the world like Uruguay was going to win 1-0 because England just weren't scoring. Then when England scored, right up until Uruguay scored, you would have bet your mortgage that the match would either end 1-1 or with an England win. I had the exact same thought about 2 days ago. Every day has produced one terrific story that we get to chew on for 24 hours, and then another big story takes its place before it becomes stale. Soccer is a very operatic sport anyway...the fall of Spain, the Suarez story, Mexico's rise form a truly abysmal qualifying campaign, all those stories are pretty epic. And Day 9 hasn't been played yet.
I agree , then todays games there are some interesting questions : How will Costa Rica handle Italy 's Quality? . Can Campbell maintain his great form ?. What will Balotelli be up to ? France vs Switzerland This may determine the group winner and who avoids Argentina . Massive game Honduras vs. Ecuador Elimination game This is indeed an amazing tournament so far .
Hard to compare. No vuvuzelas is great. Had to keep repeating that to my bar customers. No, it won't be like last time, noise. Every 4 years I watch more and more, not just my team. Catching 1-2 every day this time and loving every minute of it. Getting excited about games, can't wait till 3 today!
worth a video to watch again and again and again and again men, this goal was FANTASTIC. Even better than the one against Bosnia. Hopes Messi continues with his new trend of scoring brillant goals every match of the WC.