World Cup 2014

Are Europeans to blame for banning samba bands?

just read the shearer article on bbc. the title is 'play rooney in centre or not at all' but it is really more about the latter. i say bravo for backdooring the dropping of rooney into the conversation.

I didnt know samba bands were banned. Thats incredibly lame.

RMDE playing Rooney on the left side of a 4-3-3 is not playing him on the left side of midfield, playing Rooney in the centre basically means reverting to a shitty 4-4-2 while pretending he's a competent #10.

Is it me or did Phil Neville sound EXACTLY like the whinging long-haired Stockport stoner kid on The Island with Bear Grylls?

Here in the US we have Efan Ekoku, who is also mad boring and super obvious

ekoku is awful beyond belief

he always seems annoyed & bored

Why is Dzeko invariably referred to by commentators as Edin Dzeko and not Dzeko?
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Monday, 16 June 2014 12:20 (1 hour ago) Permalink

not confident enough at their pronunciation of "Dzeko".

it does my head in as well.

i can't explain why "christian eriksen" is the same though maybe it's just fun to say?

Back in the day they always used to do this for "shaun teale".

Joe Hart gave some poor Brazilian kid a trauma for life on Saturday...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bZwr2FeC_Q

holy shit man chill

hes not a nice man

Or even a nice fellow

Is England one of the WC teams with a no-sex rule?

Although I don't want to minimize the electric effect that the balmy brazilian air might be having on excitable players, it's clear that compared to the first games of the 2010 WC teams are setting up more aggressively. There was a lot more 4-4-2 in 2010, w/ full-backs often being pushed back or tucked in. The only teams playing 4-4-2 this time have been Uruguay (who were hopeless running into the Costa Rican back five) & Ecuador, who were v pacy, strong on the wings & a bit unlucky to lose. There were also some narrow teams (Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands & that wacky 4-2-2-2 USA formation) & generally deeper defending.

I think the biggest change is in full-backs & wide play. In 2010 only a few teams were playing with a back 3/5 (three defenders & wingbacks), but this WC it's much more common (I count seven so far, w/ only Mexico & Chile in both tournaments). More teams have risked playing a high line, & other teams have played with one or both full-backs very advanced. In general I think the ubiquity of defensive midfielders falling back to aid the centre-backs has helped precipitate the rise of full-backs playing in a much freer role, almost as wingbacks. Mb you'd argue this creates a (virtuous/vicious?) circle, as playing this way creates more dangerous wide space near your goal, encouraging the other team to play w/ advanced full-backs. Some teams have concentrated down one wing, which I don't remember happening much in the 2010 early stages, and there's been some v fine lateral drift on display in front of defences (Giovanni, Candreva).

There's also been quite some fairly shit goalkeeping (only Greeny-lad last time) & I suspect a relatively high number of goals from set-pieces, which supports the "defences-have-become-more-shit-in-general" theory. Earlier goals (also evidence for that theory) also lead to teams playing less defensively ofc. There were some pretty indifferent displays from strikers last time round too, but anyway, it is a v striking stat & I am v much enjoying the shift

Hart is fucking insane

There are a number of players who are always referred to by their full name, some are explainable, like 'Joe Cole' is a lack of vowels. I also have friends who are always referred to by their full name, it's weird.

Some names just sound better when you say both names

why does hart kick the boards? he full on kicks the shit out of them. what's that gonna do?

I didn't mean vowels I meant syllables. Xxp

, it is a v striking stat

very good

one word surnames invite fullname i think (esp with one syllable first name)
joe cole
joe hart
ashley young
taribo west
ken chu

one syllable surnames, i mean

excellent post ogmor

I'd add Valbuena to Dos Santos and Candreva as players who have drifted laterally to good effect (admittedly vs the worst team of the tournament so far)

that post should have read - "In 2010 there were also some narrow teams..." - in case it's not clear, and "quite some fairly shit goalkeeping" doesn't make much sense either but idk, I can barely form thoughts, no shame

on subject of names. was looking for the name of the brazilian who they were calling one name in the commentary but who had an entirely different name on the back of his shirt, something english and old fashioned iirc

but the i found this:
http://www1.skysports.com/football/player/8198/hulk

xxp france seem quite fluid in general, but I haven't seen them play for a while so I'm not sure how much of that was the honduras effect. interested to see how mikel does against iran today or what the nigerian midfield does in general

xp you might be thinking of wilfried bony for cote d'ivoire who had b. wilfried. altho that does happen fairly often so just as likely someone else i don't recall.

bernard and fred both have those names on their shirt iirc

Germany v Portugal

Germany starting XI: Neuer, Boateng, Hummels, Mertesacker, Howedes, Lahm (c), Khedira, Ozil, Muller, Kroos, Gotze.

Portugal starting XI: Patricio, Alves, Pepe, Veloso, Coentrao, Ronaldo (c), Moutinho, Almeida, Meireles, Nani, Pereira.

Germany 4 CB's and a false 9. Oh brother.

gonna be dancing round a non existent beanpole seeking bounty

I Schweinsteiger unfit or was Lahm always gonna play MF regardless I wonder? Might be an idea when up against the best left sided forward in the world to play the best right back in the world in position to combat him.

No Postiga? Not sure I've ever seen Portugal without Postiga and that including news footage from '66.

You are suffering from Postalgia, that's what they call it

OK guys, I am watching Adrian Chiles thanks to VPN and this shit is still way better than ESPN. Adrian Chiles! Seriously, you don't realize how good you have it. There's actually a few nuggets of half-intelligent football talk here, every 5 mins or so.

"on subject of names. was looking for the name of the brazilian who they were calling one name in the commentary but who had an entirely different name on the back of his shirt, something english and old fashioned iirc"

columbian player james rodriguez?

No Carvahlo is a bummer

Germany aren't particularly scary

Wow is Joe Hart roid raging there?

need to get Head and Shoulders submitted to the lab stat

I really thought Reus was gonna be brilliant this tournament. Thought it was perfect for him :(

can't get used to pepe with hair, he looks better bald

viera says that pirlo is the only italian player who would make the england team!!!

> columbian player james rodriguez?

i think it was, yes. they were calling him rodriguez when he had plain old 'james' on the back.

Ronaldo's hair kind of perfect tbh

Viera really needs that BBC paycheck eh?

cannavaro looked singularly unconvinced

germany wanna tiki taka but none of their defenders can pass so good luck