What's new

Great World Cup or just quite good?

Status
Not open for further replies.
We been saying it for years, their are no easy games in the WC, here we are in 2014 and it's now more or less an even field, teams are not allowed to be great because everyone is working their socks off to stop them.

 
Loving the World Cup despite the US now being out. I think pretty much every game as been rather griping. The fact that there has been no clear favorite as actually made the games that much more exciting. Every time a team looks to be a cut above, they are brought back down to earth in their next game. Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Argentina....they are all still there but no one as looked like pulling away. Personally I have been fascinated by the whole thing. Now that my country is out I can probably enjoy it even more.

 
SeanWB said:
Loving the World Cup despite the US now being out. I think pretty much every game as been rather griping. The fact that there has been no clear favorite as actually made the games that much more exciting. Every time a team looks to be a cut above, they are brought back down to earth in their next game. Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Argentina....they are all still there but no one as looked like pulling away. Personally I have been fascinated by the whole thing. Now that my country is out I can probably enjoy it even more.
Click to expand...
Hey now, USA got further than anyone thought (a lot of people thought they wouldn't make it out of the group). 

While I believe that part of the fun is supporting your country, I'll be happy to say that I hope the Red Devils send Argentina to hell, where they belong.

 
Best one I've seen in my lifetime, no doubt.

Incredible atmospheres being one of the highlights. Shame England crashed out, but I watch the World Cup for other teams as much as England.

 
I think it has been a great World Cup and the passion of so many of the 'lesser' sides has been great.

Now most of these out, we will get a better idea about who are the teams capable of winning it.

Highlights of the tournament so far:

-Netherlands and Chile blowing away Spain

-The Costa Rica Story

-Samaras' penalty against Ivory Coast

-Ghana v Germany- one of the best games of football I've seen in a while. Germany's great football against Ghana's street style.

-Brazil crying after winning a last 16 game. Unprecedented relief.

-James Rodriguez' goal and Colombia's controlled attacking style in general.

-Algeria taking the game to Germany in the first 30 minutes. They played like a team possessed.

-USA v Belgium. Was on the edge of my seat.

Been a great tournament so far. Much better than South Africa 2010 which wasn't hard.

The Final will have a lot of bearing on our perspective of the tournament. In the last 6 tournaments, only once has had two teams scoring.

 
Agree with all of the above, this has been a great tournament so far. Best since 82 for myself , though I still look to 1970 as the holy grail. I like the way the referees have leniently upheld the law, it has consequently stopped a lot of the diving and time wasting faking very minor head injuries. Yes there have been a few times when maybe they should have blown and retraining players who are 'taught' to cheat will take some time but it puts the game back on the right track. I hope it continues into the new season along with the excellant spray for free kicks, simple changes that make the game more enjoyable for us all to view. Now what can we do about the rubbish pundits and summarisers?

 
I'm hoping the quarter finals, where but for the holland v Costa Rica are contests between very well matched sides, will provide more end to end stuff...most of the last 16 games saw a lot of one team dominating another and the (relative) minnows bravely hanging on...even the usa last night only really went for it at 2-0 down - the last 15 mins actually masked a very one sided game overall where Belgium could have won by a hatful...

in other words, there has been a lot of one team's attack against the other's defence, with the latter hoping to spring the odd counter...I'd like to see both teams going at it

 
I don't know though if you look at the last 16 games. Chile attacked early but tired and then waited for the end of the halves to pull a 5 minute spell.

Algeria attacked aswell but just tired but at the start of both halves.

Even Greece attacked and in terms of attacking play were better than Costa Rica.

Mexico took the game to Netherlands, just sat on their lead which was natural.

USA and Nigeria played like they have throughout the tournament, defence first.

Switzerland Argentina was drab but mainly because of Argentina's style. They make it all run through Messi which means defences sit deep and get two midfielders to chase him like dogs at war.

It is refreshing to see teams take it to a bigger boy but in a sensible manner. Like teams pick their moments and don't just go blood and thunder like England did.

We (Chelsea) get a lot of stick for parking the bus, but for every time we do it, it happens half a dozen times to us. Hopefully teams in the prem will be more willing to take the game to us. Sunderland did it in parts against us this season and got the win they deserved.

 
So far it's nowhere near Germany 2006 for me, i thought that was an amazing World Cup.

The thing i am getting annoyed at in this world cup is that the football isn't all that great. We have had good matches, but the actual football being played isn't all that great. There are far too many wild shots, poor touches and passing for me.

 
I've loved it so far, vast majority of the games have been chock full of drama and tons of goals. Loads of late minute winners, extra time, PK's. Great to watch on big screens while screaming. Really enjoying it.

 
Very enjoyable, and it is the one world cup in recent memory where I've been close to the same time zone as the event itself which has afforded me the chance to watch more of the games.

I don't remember much of South Africa other than those bleeding vuvuzela's!  Germany 2006 i remember being a good one too, but this has been fantastic with some really great surprises.  It also has a bit of a feel of South America v Europe developing, and that's adding to the excitement.

I think it could be a Brazil v Argentina final, which would be amazing on all fronts.

Scott

 
It's been great so far, however it would have been nice to see some teams from outside of Europe/South America make some progress in the knockout stages.

Like many others on here I hardly even noticed that England aren't in it anymore.

 
Anyone watched that Yacine Brahimi play for his club? Is he really that good?

I watched every Algeria game and in every game he was immense. Especially against Germany, they couldn't get the ball off him, has really great reactions and very quick feet and his end product was impressive.

Doubt he's as good as that for his club though, otherwise someone would have had him by now, still though be interesting to look out for him, 24 isn't exactly old.

 
bluedave said:
It's been great so far, however it would have been nice to see some teams from outside of Europe/South America make some progress in the knockout stages.

Like many others on here I hardly even noticed that England aren't in it anymore.
Click to expand...
Whats an England?

Is it powerful like footballing nations such as Costa Rica and Algeria?

 
Slawth said:
Anyone watched that Yacine Brahimi play for his club? Is he really that good?

I watched every Algeria game and in every game he was immense. Especially against Germany, they couldn't get the ball off him, has really great reactions and very quick feet and his end product was impressive.

Doubt he's as good as that for his club though, otherwise someone would have had him by now, still though be interesting to look out for him, 24 isn't exactly old.
Click to expand...
Apparently Tottenham and Everton are interested in him. Looks a player for sure. I was also very impressed with the Croatian boy Perisic.

 
I thought the second game was a good game in terms of excitement.

The France-Germany game was truly awful.

Pretty much every game at the tournament has been close, and personally I'd rather watch close games than one team dominate 3-0 keep the ball, slow the tempo etc.

In terms of quality this World Cup has been poor, but a lot has to do with the relentless pressing of teams.

I think the tournament would have been better with the knockout games being played at 9pm and 12 am BST (so 5 and 8 in Brazil). The later games have on the whole had much better tempo, especially in the knockout round. It's a shame that a lot of the planning was done with European TV viewers in mind as it has restricted the tournament's potential.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top