cuda

Football (Soccer)

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I know, talk about a heart-in-mouth moment.

Brazil have got to do a hell of a lot going forward from here, Scolari needs to get over his man crush on Fred, for a start. He's playing like the Brazilian equivalent of what Emile Heskey was for England. Almost completely pointless. Starting with Jo seems to be the better option. And they need to defend better, and to stop making stupid mistakes. David Luiz in particular needs to stop playing like an attacker at the back.

But a big positive is Julio Cesar. Only eight club games all season, and he's getting better as the tournament progresses. His second save in the shootout, pure quality

EDIT

James Rodriguez is just raping in this WC, best player so far in the tournament.

You might be on to something there. Holy shit...THAT goal against Uruguay. If something else beats it to goal of the tournament, it's going to have to be pretty damn special.

.

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Nice one, well done.

Arjen Robben though, someone needs to have a word. He really did make the most of the penalty that was given. I'll stop short of calling him a cheat, as there was contact made, and enough for the referee to give it. But there are more honest players in the game who would have tried to stay on their feet.

Tough on Mexico, but you felt from watching the action unfold that one goal was never going to be enough for them.

Also, I wonder how close van Gaal was to substituting Sneijder. He'd pretty much done fuck all in the game until his equaliser.

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You could see Holland was stressing the fuck out with that heat. And that pitch was absurd, it's like the painted the dirt as green.

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Yes, Greece leaving it late again. I fear for Costa Rica, both physically and emotionally in extra time. They look absolutely spent, Greece should probably finish this before it goes to penalties.

Hmmm, edit time...

Greece-Costa Rica. Be honest, who had that one before the tournament started? Anyone? No, didn't think so. Tough one to call, of all of the 2nd-round matchups, this one has 'penalties' written all over it. But based upon what I have seen, I believe that Costa Rica will be favourites here, as long as they don't get too nervous. Greece's best strength appears to be their defence, if they get ahead, the Costa Ricans will find them tough to break down. But I'm still going to predict Costa Rica for the win.

Haha, read 'em and weep.

But bloody hell, Costa Rica looked as good as done. But even so, their ten men perked up as much as their energy reserves would allow towards the end of the second period of extra time. And what a master class in penalty taking. Of course you feel sorry for the Greek lad who missed his spot kick, but what a save.

Chances are the Dutch will tear them apart in the quarter-finals, but then again, this was the same team that was supposed to finish bottom of the group...

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So then, back to Robben. Taken from the BBC Sport website. (I could have used the Daily Mail quotes, but as everyone in the UK knows, that paper is a complete sack of shit.)

"World Cup 2014: Arjen Robben apologises for dive against Mexico

Arjen Robben apologised for diving as the Netherlands beat Mexico 2-1 in the last-16 of the World Cup but said it was not for the decisive penalty.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar converted the match-winning spot kick in stoppage time after Robben had been fouled.

Mexico coach Miguel Herrera accused Robben of diving three times in the game, but the forward told Dutch television: "I have to apologise. In the first half I took a dive.

"The one at the end was a penalty.""

Earlier, I stopped short of calling him a cheat. I fully take it back. The view upon whether the decisive penalty actually was a penalty can be debated for ages, but he's nontheless revealed himself to be a cheating scumbag who also will do whatever it takes to con the ref. The Netherlands on the whole have been a good team at this tournament, but their actions have been tarnished by Robben's indiscretions. Perhaps FIFA should charge him for bringing the game into disrepute.

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Since the closest Bahrain (my country) has ever come to the WC is sending a referee, Germany is usually my go to country every 4 years.

Though I usually cheer for participating Arab countries until they're inevitably eliminated during the group stage.

But man Algeria almost had it. Oh well Deutschland FTW!!!!

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Well...Welly well well. I'm throwing my(substantial) weight behind Costa Rica. That's where my bets will be going.

Good call :thumbup: won me some change. Now I've got torn loyalties I want a European team to win imo the Netherlands are looking promising...I kinda want Costa Rica to make it to the semis. Hmmmm.

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Show of attitude by the Algerian team, fought right till the end, even with the 2-0 on the board... a lot of countries could learn a lesson from it.

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Since the closest Bahrain (my country) has ever come to the WC is sending a referee, Germany is usually my go to country every 4 years.

Though I usually cheer for participating Arab countries until they're inevitably eliminated during the group stage.

But man Algeria almost had it. Oh well Deutschland FTW!!!!

Bahrain probably should have beaten NZ to qualify for the last World Cup... I went to the NZ leg of their play-off... one of the best nights of my life!!

They may have even got through the group stage if they had made it because NZ were unbeaten in the World Cup in 2010 and I thought Bahrain were the better football team

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I remember that soul crushing game. Sorry but it really was disappointing for us.

Maybe it's not so bad, I'd hate to see our national team qualify then lose 8-0 like Saudi Arabia and Germany back in '02.

Oh and if Algeria beat Germany they would've played France! That would be a game worth watching, colonial bitterness and all.

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Argentina-Switzerland. Damn, this is shite.

Beginning to think that Argentina really ARE a one-man team now. Switzerland have almost completely neutralised him, and none of the others are really stepping up. As for the Swiss, if only they'd scored what was an easy chance towards the end of the first half, might have seen a more open game then.

Only thing making this exciting on the BBC is co-commentator Mark Lawrenson. He's in his element with the dry humour today.

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Argentina has been shit the whole tournament because of their manager, this is just poor football, relying on individual qualities and having no connection between defense and offense, I mean, how one guy can make both Higuain and Aguero look so boring for a whole tournament is beyond me.

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And the ordeal is over. Tell you what, neither Belgium nor the USA will fear playing the Argies on this form.

Indeed. Argentina are a one man team - mark Messi out of the game, job done.

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