World Cup 2014

Just woke up. Shirokov and, presumably, Dzagoev are injured which will limit Russia's already fairly limited creativity. Samedov had a good season on the wing for Loko. Glyushakov, Fayzulin and Shatov are all solid and competent without being outstanding. Might be down to Kokorin to create something himself. This is a poor Korean side and Russia should win but it's likely to be narrow.

really, really love that Brazil was involved in a 0-0 in a home World Cup

Son entirely in character so far.

yeah, he is v amiable though. everyone is stressing that this is not a classic korea side but I like them going forwards, lee chung-yong has a nice way of stroking it about

enjoyed that defensive bicycle kick

AP is reporting an explosion at a World Cup fan fest in Nigeria

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27896257

that's really sad. wonder if anyone at the WC will comment on boko haram deeming football un-islamic

Pffff

oh akinfeev

Unbelievable.

wft Igor. Such a good keeper but has looked awful today.

Korea sure knows to hit where it hurts. Akinfeev let go of the ball how many times tonight? Bizarre.

Shades of Pakie Bonner in 94

Shades of Bruce Grobelaar in whatever year that was imo.

Poor old capello not much luck with goalies in opening world cup games

Wow

dzagoev has been great

Eps now showing replays of Rob Green v USA lol

Espn that is

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqYJotOCEAASlsE.jpg

Seeing a lot of this. Also his head on the statue of Christ at Rio, on Gandalf at the bridge with the Balrog, and on a pack of condoms.

i got talking to a usmnt fan tonight about him. he is the talk of the hipster anglophile bars of brooklyn it's true.

Mexico kept their shape astonishingly well last night, nearly every time Brazil went forward you'd see this line of five just *assemble*.

Brazil's main problem seems to be lack of creativity in midfield, which leads to their more dangerous attacking players either having to drop deeper than they should or being isolated upfront. I blame Paulinho.

I watched the game under the railway arches at Waterloo with a load of Brazilian and Mexican people who were going crazy, the place would have exploded if anyone had actually scored. Pretty exciting for a 0-0 though.

Belgium unsurprisingly looked like a shitty Premiership team for most of their game.

Unheralded bit of that Dunphy clip is Didi HAMANN disinterestedly sitting there playing with his phone on live TV.

No idea where that random capitalisation came from.

intelligent autocorrect imo

don't wanna have to choose btwn mexico and Croatia

if opener ref wasn't a crook I mightn't have had to.

tbh Ochoa has routinely pulled off performances like this all year in Ligue 1 with Ajaccio - can't fathom why he still hasn't been snapped up (although he was supposed to come to PSG a couple of years ago but deal fell through at last minute due to some doping allegations)

well tbh he has had a few jaw dropping performances with incredible saves but sometimes you get the feeling he could have made an easy save but went for the flashier & riskier one. which occasionnally puts his team in a bad spot. very good reflexes on his line, not as good in the air i think. then again he was playing at ajaccio, terrible defense in front of him. i have no doubts some ok-to-good team will get him in the summer.

yeah you're right - seems he's incredible on his line (which makes him very TV-highlights friendly) but maybe not that impressive when it comes to directing play (which he would have to do more if playing in a better team). Monaco should get him.

i interrupt this discussion of the 2014 world cup to bring you this profoundly depressing dispatch concerning the 1974 games

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/history/newsid_1993000/1993333.stm

don't wanna have to choose btwn mexico and Croatia
if opener ref wasn't a crook I mightn't have had to.
― dn/ac (darraghmac), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 08:27 (1 hour ago) Permalink

or if Croatia had Mexico's goalie, they would be winning the world cup

good alternate angle https://vine.co/v/MIPHpOui9z9

lagoon loves the world cup

legume and world cup sittin in a tree iirc

i always loved the world cup

yeah

this is photo of me with all my trophies and girlfriends

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqasQxaCEAEClU4.jpg

That doesn't look like Vermont

That's the weird part of Vermont

i see ben & jerry's

so it checks out

everyone in that photo is on the winter olympic team

rightmost gf is trey anastasio's niece

leftmost gf works at waffle cabin

middle two sell Aqua Vitea Kombucha

pesky vermonts

yeesh

Jonathan Pearce @jpearcefootball

Sorry not been able to tweet for few days. Technical problems with phone. Ha ha tweets following honduras game made me laugh.

You didn't see everything that happened back at home on Tv.

Was I confused by GLT goal? Yes. So were world feed commentator, both managers and fifa by their own admission due to stadium fault

Yes I was confused as were the world feed commentator, french commentators, both managers and ref. 1/ benzema shoots. Hits post.

2 ball rolls back in play. Gk pushes it back into goal. I call goal

3 assistant ref runs towards half way. So does ref. Goal given. GLT graphic in stadium shows goal. You didn't see that TV shot

4. Then no goal graphic comes up. Crowd goes mad. Honduras surround ref who comes to delegate to ask for clarification. You didn't see that

5 then GLT graphic says goal even though grpahic bears no resemblance to actual ball position close to line.

Comments start: "fifa right to show NO GOAL referring to Benzema original shot" . Incorrect. They only "need" to show ultimate keeper error

Robbie Savage said that. He has phoned to apologise. Fifa have ordered change in application of GLT. They have admitted problem

Hope that clears things up a bit. Won't change views of those with preconceptions. Nothing will. That doesn't bother me. But one thing does

How come the eventual GLT goal graphic showed ball clearly over the line when replays showed it was not to. "Something was wrong" - P.Nevin

Pat's not the only one worried. If it had been a major side suffering would there have been more fuss?

Jesus christ

I hope this keeps going for the duration of the tournament.