Am I the only football fan here? Who else is following this World Cup? Can Brazil be beaten at home? Today (12/6/2014) in the opener they played great, but they also had some help from a referee who twice unjustly ruled in their favor. Nothing irritates me more than when a team loses a match because of a bad referee.
Quote from: humbert on June 13, 2014, 05:02 AM
Am I the only football fan here? Who else is following this World Cup? Can Brazil be beaten at home? Today (12/6/2014) in the opener they played great, but they also had some help from a referee who twice unjustly ruled in their favor. Nothing irritates me more than when a team loses a match because of a bad referee.
me too, but not so heavy. please provide world cups schedule, more convenient.
World Inauguration 2014, Brazil vs Croatia Broadcast Online.
I hadn't seen this topic. This post is probably better here.
The Football world cup is going to begin soon. At work, I've already made a bet for the qualifications.
I will support France of course, but since their victory in 98 against Brazil, they have been disappointing in spite of a final in 2006. Ive been disappointed not to see Egypt amongst the countries in the qualifications.
If you want to support Iran, you might be interested in this legging, showing the Iranian flag, although I would be only interested in the woman.
(http://keyhani.blog.lemonde.fr/files/2014/06/1.jpg)
Perhaps you know the mascot of the world cup, named Fuelco . It's in fact an armadillo. The officials wanted to draw the attention on this Brazilian specie, which is in fact threatened. Here are some pictures.
(http://ecologie.blog.lemonde.fr/files/2014/06/000_DV1680110-1024x681.jpg)
(http://ep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-134322588545647/armadillo-meat-1.gif)
"Fuelco" means 'football and ecology" - which I assume is a reference to endangered species.
I guess if the woman in the picture is caught in Tehran, she'll probably be stoned to death or something.
Have you guys been watching the matches? It's unbelievable how Spain got totally killed by Holland, in fact Spain's only goal was a gift from the referree. Here on TV they showed the play from about 4 angles and the Dutch guy ever even touched the Spanish player (a penalty kick was awarded). Costa Rica also blasted Uruguay, and the England-Italy game was a cliffhanger to the very end.
Don't tell me I'm the only one watching the games.
For the legging probably, although for me the girl doesn't look depraved, only pretty, but you know, even in Iran, some women are fed up of being guided by the mullahs. At least that's what I read here: http://observers.france24.com/fr/content/20130905-armee-leggings-attaque-teheran-derange-police-religieuse-iran-collants-femmes?page=35
Most Iranian women have been fed up with the Mullahs since the day the Shah was overthrown. The problem was if they spoke about it they'd risk being stoned to death or sentence to 100 lashes. That's why the only ones you see on TV are the ones wearing those black rags.
Heyyyyyyyyyyyy :) Long time guys!
I'm really sorry I do not spend much time on the forums.. I'm extremely busy!!
Going back to the topic: I'm with Brazil since I was a kid :) But the Mexicans gave them a hard run yesterday.. I watched the highlights only, but I could see it was a brilliant display from the Mexicans..
Hard luck in the next game..
OFF ;)
I totally agree! Despite the scoreboard reading 0-0 at the end, it was clearly a victory for Mexico and a defeat for Brazil. Ochoa (the goaltender) is a national hero in his country.
It's unbelievable how badly Spain played. Their only goal was a gift from the referree on a blown penalty kick call. After being thrashed by Chile today, they're already on the plane back to Madrid.
More errors with the referrees continue. At least 3 today costing teams goals or penalty kicks. FIFA doesn't seem to want to solve the problem by allowing refs to review the calls.
Did anybody watch today's games (23/6/2014)? Again the referee deprived Mexico of 3 justified penalty kicks, but they won the game anyway.
Holland is an awesome team. One problem - the Orange Machine has played in some 4 world cup finals, and lost them all. Could that happen again this time around?
Certainly the American team is much improved, but they're still not on the same level as Brazil, Germany or the Netherlands. I honestly don't think they'll get past Belgium in their first 2nd round game. They are, however, well on their way to becoming another powerhouse. Incidentally, in New York, Chicago and other US cities, large groups of people were gathered around big TV's to cheer the team on - a first for this country.
Both Ghana and Croatia are excellent teams, but sadly they ended up in difficult groups. Argentina is also a very good team, but they ended up in probably the easiest group.
Honduras imploded long before they got on the plane to Brazil. Their gameplay in the friendly matches that preceeded the World Cup was horrendous.
In the end, I don't think Brazil can be beaten at home.
Did you check out today's games (2014/6/28)? It's really sad the way Chile lost after playing to the very best of their ability. I really feel bad for a team whose hopes are dashed by losing a penalty kick shootout. I wish FIFA had a better way to settle matches that can't end in a draw. Imagine in Brazil had lost that shootout - mass suicide!
Not only did Colombia play great, but Uruguay imploded in the 2nd half. Fouls, fights and yellow cards - that's no way to lose.
As for your comments regarding the Croatian team, I can only say they played great despite the problems you were telling me about. I'd go as far as to say they lost their first game against Brazil with plenty of help from the referree.
Regarding Algeria, I agree completely! The same can be said of the other teams who didn't win in the 2nd round, in particular the ones who lost in the penalty kick shootout. You're correct that asking the players to continue playing after 120 minutes is impossible, and even worse in the humid, tropical conditions found in most Brazilian cities. I suppose the only alternative to penalty kicks would be something a rogue league here in the USA did 30 years ago - the kicker starts some 10 meters away from the goalkeeper and has 5 seconds to kick for a goal. In the mean time both the kicker and goalkeeper can move around. It was sort of like a penalty shot in hockey.
You're correct regarding the referees. I don't know why you disagree with the idea of having the refs review close calls on TV, especially since, as you said, the likelihood of costly mistakes is forever prevalent. I believe FIFA has already approved "goal line technology" to make sure 100% of the ball crossed the white line. It's time to extend this to close calls too.
fuj -> briefly changing the topic - Croatian and Serbian are 2 distinct languages, right? Are they close enough to almost not need a translator? Do you speak both? And finally - were you around when Yugoslavia existed? What did they speak in Yugoslavia?
Clearly in order to put in any kind of review policy, FIFA would have to put restrictions. In the NFL you have 2 or 3 reviews per half and, if the review doesn't go your way, you're charged with a time out. I suppose anything is better than to continue allowing those horrendous calls that probably cost Croatia the first game, not to even mention other teams who benefitted despite the fact that they were not the home team. For example, in the Mexico-Uruguay game, a Uruguayan player stopped a goal using both hands in the penalty area - as clear as possible on the replay, and the referee swallowed the whistle.
Regarding my other questions, I asked because back in the days of Marshal Tito, the altas listed the language of Yugoslavia as "Serbo-Croat", and yet now the languages are listed separately. Naturally you explained everything for me. I also know there's an awful lot of bad blood over there. This is understandable because the war was full of atrocities. It was never my intention to ask anything about it.
I'm not watching the world cup but I'm following the results. I know Maher is supporting Brazil but I don't think they are going to win. Costa Rica would be a surprise if they won. As for humbert, I guess he might be disappointed the US lost against Belgium. Until now, France has been impressive, they could win if they continue like that.
We have not heard the forecasts of Ahmad though. I assume he has a favorite too.
The USA-Belgium match was horrendous. Half the time the Belgian goalkeeper was falling asleep on his end of the pitch, whereas the American goalie was stopping one shot after another. Team USA finally did something in 2nd half of the 30 minute over time period. Too little, too late. Mexico-Brazil was heart stopping.
Brazil totally dominated in today's game against Colombia. And of course, Germany is Germany. :) I don't think Brazil can be beaten at home.
Thanks for your recommendation on Å¡ljivovica. Tell me something about it. Is this a drink or a bottle? What's in it other than alcohol?
Can you believe what happened today? (8/7/2014) - Germany 7 - Brazil 1 -- I watched the match in total disbelief. I thought that the only way to beat Brazil at home was to end up in a penalty kick shootout and get lucky.
What do you think?
I didn't see the match and I was shocked this morning.
This is very heavy !!
Do you think Germany can tear Argentina apart in the final game the way they did with Brazil? After all, Argentina lucked out - 2 Dutchmen missed their penalty kicks.
Did you guys see the replay on the goal Argentina scored and was disallowed because of offside? It was very, very close.
Yes, let's wait to see what happens on Sunday. They also have a 3rd place game on Saturday. I think that's silly. Who cares what team has 3rd place when even the 2nd place team is quickly forgotten.
Briefly changing the topic: as you requested I killed that spammy topic. Guess what? After that I found another spam, pointing to the very same suspicious download site. That one's dead too.
Yes, but in the Olympics there's a bronze medal for 3rd place and, as you correctly state, just about any medal is good for a country that just started. Even for the USA a bronze is better than nothing.
Is there any kind of trophy or award for 3rd place in the World Cup? Or is it just one more way FIFA makes money?
Quote from: Fuj on July 12, 2014, 04:00 AM
Yes, there are bronze medals for 3rd place; that's what Croatia won on 1998 Cup in France.
I had no idea. Thanks for telling me. I assumed you were referring to the Olympics.
Does the World Cup also use the Gold, Silver & Bronze setup as in the Olympics?
Quote from: Fuj on July 12, 2014, 04:07 AM
Yep, there are gold, silver and bronze medals. Only one trophy, though.
I remembered you today (12/7/2014) ;). I waited around to see the Dutch team receive their bronze medals. I'm sure this was done in the last world cup, but don't know why I didn't remember.
Brazil again got killed! It hard to believe they have the distinction of being the team that gave up the most goals in this world cup. Something is seriously wrong with that team. Even with 2 superstars out of action, any championship team would have a good enough bench to continue playing well - not as good as with their stars, but certainly not bad enough to be annihilated.