World Cup 2014 - Group G: Preview & Analysis

http://www.record.xl.pt/Futebol/Internacional/mundial2014/gana/interior.aspx?content_id=891065
Ghana refusing to play Portugal unless they get paid,
Wow then at the national anthem they have their hand on their shirt !!! yer right !!!

 

I thought Khedira had a great game vs. Portugal and a poor one vs. Ghana. I would certainly rest Khedira for the US match, He just came back from a serious injury after all.

Still, if he's in form like against Portugal, he's a valuable asset.

 

I don't think we've ever lost there.

But I find it comical that Europeans laugh at CONCACAF and its qualifying, especially when 3 UEFA teams have qualified for elimination rounds vs. 2 so far from C'CAF, and 2 of those teams are in extremely weak groups (Greece, Belgium).

Here's the truth: for all of its defects (lack of depth, extremely poor federations), C'CAF has hands down the best qualification system and culture.

We let the minnows fight it out in early, early rounds for the right to play a team far superior to them home and away. Then the winners of those guys get placed into 4 groups of 3, and then group winners plus the top 2 2nd place finishers advance to the Hexagonal.

We play in all sorts of insane conditions: heat, humidity, third world hotels, entire nations screaming against you and ****ing with your logistics left and right, throwing things at you on the field and in the tunnel.

In other words, what we're seeing in Brazil. That's part of the reason why we're succeeding.

"Wull, wull, there are some nasty places to play in Europe." And I'm sure there are. My cousins in Spain say that places like Serbia are tough. Fine. Aaaaand ... how often do you play there? How often to play Italy at San Siro? England in Wembley?

Maybe once a generation.

We play brutal venues in 95% of our away games. The only time we don't is when we play Canada in Canada.

Y'all have melted under conditions that are the norm for us in qualification.


Y'all could take lessons from C'CAF on how to organize qualification. I wish that UEFA would do away with their qualification system and make the minnows fight amongst themselves for a spot or 2 in a round amongst 4th tier teams, etc. etc. etc.

 

The European minnows don't want to play an earlier round among themselves. The TV money from matches against the big nations are their way to finance their football programmes. It would be nice for Germany not to have to travel to Kazakhstan (that's nearly China!) for Euro 2012 qualification and again for WC 2014 qualification. But the Kazakhs and other small federations would understandably never agree to lose the glamour games against the top teams.

Btw., I don't think it's a good thing that there are games played in Brazil where the winner isn't decided by the quality of their football but instead by the team's ability to handle 32°C and 85% humidity. Just because Costa Rica's players are accustomed to these conditions since childhood doesn't make them a better football team than Italy. Before this WC they have won a total of 3 WC games in their entire history. Now they are group winners over Italy, England and Uruguay. I'll believe that they are good team once they reapeat these results 2018 in Russia.

 

I am glad Germany won. But it looked a bit like some slow tiki taka . I dont like it. Hopefully it will change but I doubt it. These tournaments from now on are more about defense and security. Understandable but not that great to watch. Now it's Germany vs. Algeria well ok...

 

Yeah, let's only play football in conditions that favor Europeans. The results from games played in those conditions are the only true indicator of football quality.

You say Costa Rica have only won 3 games in their WC history. Well, maybe if most of those prior WCs had not been played in European conditions, maybe they would have won more.

To mirror your bias, I will believe Europe produces good football only when they can consistently win in South America. South Africa does not count because it is a very European climate. If Africa can get its act together, maybe one day a WC can be played in the "real" Africa. We will see how the great and mighty Europeans fare then.

 

I blame some of that on the pitch and the conditions due to the heavy rains.

All the goals we have seen so far say otherwise. If I am not mistaken, this is a very high scoring WC so far.