World Cup 2014

Lol Dan M

whoops that was a weird many xps in reference to a question posed much further upthread (switched between Zing and laptop)

welp! that was unexpected and kind of great

http://www.zonalmarking.net/ the best tactics blog I know of

thx dan!

I still like the squadra azzura in principke, but this was very mediocre.

would second that rec from dan. ZM has a daily roundup of each day of WC so far as well as a pre tournament breakdown of each nation competing

why did italy look so terrible? there were multiple times in the second half where they had a guy with the ball on the wing and instead of crossing or... doing something else he just dribbled right into a costa rican defender

they're prob gonna lose to uruguay imo

What is it with Italy, Spain, England, the strongest competitions in Europe? Too many foreign star players?

too much sucking

CR does play that 5 man backline a la Mexico and a bunch of other Central American teams xxp

I don't think Ruiz will continue to play for us next season

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bql5LULCAAAiidN.jpg

think Spain and Italy had roughly the same number of foreign star players when they won the last 2 World Cups and the last 2 Euro Championships between them

lotta charts itt

The continent the tournament is played in has some bearing I think. Italy looked knackered today.

http://a.pomf.se/ottxtk.gif

don't think Spain have been fully fit either but climate doesn't account for tactical deficiencies. it feels more like they've brought the wrong ideas to the tournament tbh.

Subs that Italy brought on did nothing

How many deathmatches are we on for in the third round of games, and who'll have the advantage in them? Italy-Uruguay is an unexpected bonus, kind of wish Uruguay had the edge though.

Mexico-Croatia

Croatia need to win.

shd be a bonus play-off round where 3rd place teams in good groups get a chance against 2nd place teams from shit groups

No

Greece-Ivory Coast technically.

xxp

Alan Green banging the drum for John Terry rn. Why do I subject myself to this?

Dunphy was on about John Terry as well last night

Now Pat Nevin's on about it as well.

HE WAS AT THE LAST FUCKING TOURNAMENT WHEN ENGLAND WERE DRUBBED 4-1

Last WC not tournament I guess tbf

the risk w/ the world cup, as mentioned w/ the fear of revisionism on this spain side, is that ppl read way too much in to one or two games. any perception of a team you have that can be shattered by an unremarkable scoreless draw is probably not worth investing too much into in the first place.

Pat Nevin - England went 4-2-3-1 to be like Spain but that's all gone now with Spain's performance.

England have NEVER been like Spain you moron.

"England went 4-2-3-1 to be like Spain but that's all gone now with Spain's performance."

This is a remarkably dumb sentence

4-2-3-1 was 2010 wc, 2014 is all about 3-5-2

No Pogba?

Omar Hitzfeld decides to start the two players who scored as subs in Switzerland's first game, the wily old coot.
hopefully Rodriguez starts on dead ball duty also.

*Ottmar*

God yes, Shaqiri was brutal the other day.

France up to their usual shenanigans again? Fighting, arguing, disciplinary benching Pogba?

Source?

is that a guess? seems tactical, they're playing two strikers
xp

It was a question. Hard to fathom that Pogba is not playing when as far as I know he's not injured.

o Sissoko is starting too. that does seem weird.

Dutch commentator saying Pogba's misconduct in the first game (the yellow that could have been a red card) lead to a brawl between him and Sirigu. No idea how accurate this is, just saying.

Djourou looked like an international class CB in the first game. Can't happen twice in a row.

Damnit, not Sirigu, I mean the French keeper obv

Is Karim gonna be winging it?

Yep, left side

Englands World Cup in Six Seconds

cant picture Lloris in a brawl tbh

Oh man :-(