World Cup 2014 Thread

Can't see any of the African teams doing well, maybe Ghana again but doubt it

 

Thoughts on tonight's match?

 

They beat us 1-0 thanks to a defensive mistake.
Good result considering a lot of our senior players pulled out suspiciously in the build up.
Encouraging result for us.

Obviously I was referring to the England game, wasn't going to be as 'aggressive' in my views as last time, but surely know you realise you aren't anywhere near good enough to challenge for the WC?

In saying that, Chile are very underrated, Vidal and Sanchez are better than any home nation players (except Bale, and on current form, Ramsey). Reckon they should get to the quarters as long as their group isn't too tricky.
Think you should get through to the quarters too, would be very surprised to see you fall at the group stages.

For the record, I think you will beat/draw with Germany too

 

Could certainly tell who were the more settled side were!

We really did look like a group of players not really used to performing together and quite frankly no-one really took their chances.

As usual technically outplayed/passed.

Noticed there was booing at the end - a bit harsh maybe but then people do pay quite a bit to go.

 

The result was not to be unexpected. Chile are better than any of the sides England have faced in qualification in technical ability and CONMEBOL as a whole certainly had five very strong teams right now which recent performances have shown can tame the best Europe has to offer. And at the last world cup had Torres not done his impression of standing on a land mine Chile may well have progressed then.

Sampaoli has been an excellent club coach before assuming the reins with Chile. They are disciplined, hard working and capable of passing well. They did play below par last night (needlessly gifting the ball away several times) and their attack is weaker than their CONMEBOL rivals. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay would certainly have offered even more problems. Defensively their strength is organization from the front as opposed to sheer physicality (they remain vulnerable to good dead ball delivery and cam be left for dead by any speed merchants) and they are all comfortable on the ball.

This has to be contrasted with Forster and the rest of the defence. They look uneasy on the ball and cannot build anything from back to front. The midfield lies close to them as a result and Rooney who is our only genuinely world class player is isolated. This ability to play from the back and work out of a press is a key element in modern football.

The Chilean supporters were superb as well. They brought a little touch of what we might see at next the World Cup which I hope will banish the awfulness of the last one and perhaps be the best one since 1986.

 

Ukraine 2-0 France. Koscielny had a shocker and Ukraine should have grabbed a third to put Les Bleus away. Still all for grabs though with France playing in Paris but one might see an implosion fingers crossed.

 

Greece have some semblance of an advantage after beating Romania 3-1 in their match in Athens:

[video=youtube;oKbkKkng7PA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKbkKkng7PA[/video]

Iceland held Croatia 0-0 in Reykjavik despite losing Olafur Skulason in the second half to a straight red card. They too are well disciplined if overly pragmatic which is a reflection of their coach Lars Lagerback's approach to football.

 

In the intercontinental playoffs no surprises. Uruguay thumped Jordan 5-0 earlier this week. The last goal is particularly amusing as the keeper decides to hide behind his wall rather than cover the empty space on the line....Suarez yet again tried to cheat his way to another penalty too.

 

In the other playoff match first leg Los Tri thumped New Zealand 5-1 under the direction of their new coach the successful club coach of Club America Miguel Herrera. I think in time they shouod merge CONACAF with CONMEBOL as the qualifiers always seem allow the USA and Mexico a rather easy passage to the finals. Almost a rubber stamp.

Today sees the start of the CAF playoff return legs to decide the five African finalists. Ivory Coast lead Senegal 3-1, Nigeria hold a narrow 2-1 advantage over Ethiopia and Burkina Faso likewise hold a 3-2 lead over Belkalems Algeria. Tunisia are tied with Cameroon 0-0 while Ghana after a thumping and surprising 6-1 home win over Egypt are virtually home and hosed.

It would be nice to see Iceland, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia make it to their first ever World Cup finals. Iceland in particular with a population of just 300000 would be an amazing achievement surpassing that of Trinidad & Tobago in 2006.

 

It would have been UEA, but in a way it does mean the quality of next years tournament should be extremely high. Mexico under Herrera look a different proposition than they were under Jose de la Torre and the CONMEBOL sides headed by Argentina and Brazil will be there in force. All six will prove to be extremely tough opponents and if Messi is fit then Argentina along with Brazil and home advantage will have a great chance to progress to the final.

No side so far as I can at the moment can lay claim to a great defensive unit. Some have great keepers or a couple of excellent defenders but never as a unit. Even Germany who have been traditionally strong in producing defenders are in a bit of turmoil. Neuer is flapping and only Lahm remains consistent. The others like Mertesacker, Hummels, Howedes, Boateng and company are all prone to howlers and Schmelzer is pretty vulnerable on both sides.

 

Nigeria now through at the expense of Ethiopia.
2-0 today, so 3-2 on aggregate

 

Indeed so Norn and as expected Ivory Coast managed a relatively comfortable 1-1 draw in Senegal to progress through to the finals 4-2 on aggregate. The other three ties will be completed today and tomorrow although Ghana can probably sleepwalk in their game and still qualify.

Senegal 1-1 Ivory Coast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkLlgZliCSc

Once again the quality at next years World Cup will be something else certainly in comparison to 2010 when there were most definitely some rather below par sides. Japan in drawing with Holland albeit in a friendly showed some marvellous passing football which keeps on demonstrating how they are developing as an attacking threat.

 

The WC will always be won by a big footballing nation, but that doesn't mean the smaller ones shouldn't be able to qualify.

In 2002, football fans all over the world fell in love with Senegal, a great underdog story where they beat the holders in the first match and narrowly missed out on the semi-finals. Same with Ghana in 2010.

The world cup wouldn't be the same without the smaller nations competing..

And the qualifying idea is poor, small nations like ourselves love playing against the bigger teams. Making teams like ourselves go through pre-qualifying before we beat you (just returning the sly dig ) will never work, theres already far too many international matches as it is..

 

Nope, the majority of english people on my friends list on facebook (until the match against Chile anyway) all thought you were serious contenders this year.

These people are the same people who want Zola out though..

 

I think the smaller teams like Lichtenstein, Andorra and for example Gibraltar play a pre qualification group before they enter UEFA qualification proper rather than seeing the Cook Islands turn up at Wembley. I would dread to see the scoreline given that NZ give them a right old humping.

CONMEBOL and CONACAF is a reasonable merger. However if they merged Oceania with the AFC New Zealand realistically would not make the final round as it currently stands. The way it does at the moment there is a still a rather big carrot for them should they get their development program producing. And they are going in the right direction.

It has been mooted that UEFA should lose more places to CAF. This will not happen when Platini is elected as his idea is to expand the number of finalists. CAF also needs to do better in the finals themselves. As it is UEFA and CONMEBOL are still dominant.

And CONMEBOL deserves all it's qualifiers. Qualification is an extremely tough process given Venuzuela's continued improvement, the climate and altitude extremes of the venues and the very fact that several of the CONMEBOL teams are in the top ten in the FIFA rankings. They have as a whole also provided the European elite with a great challenge in recent months even the likes of Ecuador who scored two against Germany recently and missed several good chances in a 4-2 defeat. The percentage of qualifiers from the group is normally 50% but with Brazil being hosts this makes it six this time around. All are excellent footballing sides and all could well make the quarterfinals.

Cameroon are another of the finalists which means West Africa has trounced North Africa. This was a relatively comfortable 4-1 win for the Lions.

 

The logic sounds good, but in reality it would be a 3-0 loss to San Marino followed by a 1-0 victory of Spain or something stupid like that for us!