FIFA 2014 World Cup - Official Discussion Thread

[minionofmidas]

Question for those of you who follow football more regularly than I do.  When it's raining as it is in the Germany-US game, does that generally help the defense or the offense?

Neither. It helps a more athletic, less technical style of play, though.

I told you so. 0-0

No, you can tell the Germans and Americans are trying to score.

They were trying to but you could also see that both teams knew a draw would suit them fine. Germany certainly weren't playing at 100%.
Pretty dull match, as a result.

I'm told a lot of them don't have bank accounts in Ghana, which meant they couldn't wire it to them, or something like that.

Or only by paying a lot of it to bankers instead of players.

One should never count out their opponents, but we couldn't have gotten a more pleasent Round of 16 match!

Especially an opponent against whom you have deservedly lost every previous time you've played him despite being huge favorites each time*, just as you're this time, and who still have a score to settle with you over Gijon?
I smell an undeserved, ugly, narrow, partly referee-created German win coming up.

*they have only played each other twice.

[dead0man]

Yeah, the jokes about "we lost but advanced?" are stupid.

Is that seriously a common statement in the States? What's more amusing is they'd be bitching even more if they had been eliminated on goal difference .

I've yet to hear it in a serious way, only on Letterman and the like.  But the jokes only work as "jokes" on people totally ignorant on how the WC works or didn't watch the game....for example, Conan's joke went something like this....

"So I was watching the US play Germany today and we lost...but we advance because of tie breaking rules (he flowered up the wording on that part, but even making it as complicated sounding as possible only took 8 seconds)......and the rest of the world wonders why we can't get into soccer"

I'm sitting there thinking, it's much less complicated than NFL playoff rules....or college basketball seeding.....or pretty much ANY other team sport playoff seeding process.

[Franzl]

Most US sports have sets of rules that are ridiculously complicated that make the rest of the world wonder if you have to be a lawyer to understand how it works.

Also a slight exaggeration, of course...

[dead0man]

Of course.

...there was another part of it that bothered me too.  He insinuated he watched the match and then was shocked to learn we advanced even with the loss......which would have been impossible since the announcing team mentioned it about a 12,000 times.

[Franzl]

Of course.

...there was another part of it that bothered me too.  He insinuated he watched the match and then was shocked to learn we advanced even with the loss......which would have been impossible since the announcing team mentioned it about a 12,000 times.

Yeah his claim is certainly BS. But luckily, he won't have to cope with such complicated rules from now on.

[Middle-aged Europe]

A Spiegel Online article speculates that the Ramadan - which starts today - could give Germany an advantage in the upcoming match against Algeria.

On the day of the game, Algerian players will only be allowed to eat and drink about half a hour after the match has already started. That is if the Algerians follow the rules of the Ramadan to the letter. German Muslim players Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira don't give a f**k and do not intend to fast during the world cup.

[dead0man]

Wouldn't your god WANT you to be at your best for such an occasion?  For PR if nothing else?

[Franzl]

Wouldn't your god WANT you to be at your best for such an occasion?  For PR if nothing else?

Can't imagine they won't find an exception... Or is that really impossible?

[dead0man]

Googling tells me it's not that big of a deal (for the most part) for most of them.  It came up at the London Olympics.....Huffington post link

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[minionofmidas]

Exceptions for those doing the hardest labour - as well as for hugely pregnant women - are as old as Ramadan. Of course, many athletes do fast anyways (their right to do so has been the subject of labor litigation in Germany, btw.)

[Keystone Phil]

A Spiegel Online article speculates that the Ramadan - which starts today - could give Germany an advantage in the upcoming match against Algeria.

On the day of the game, Algerian players will only be allowed to eat and drink about half a hour after the match has already started. That is if the Algerians follow the rules of the Ramadan to the letter. German Muslim players Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira don't give a f**k and do not intend to fast during the world cup.

Wow. So Germany might win 7-0 as opposed to 4-0?

[windjammer]

I would like to avoid any Algeria-France match.

It could backfire...

[Franzl]

A Spiegel Online article speculates that the Ramadan - which starts today - could give Germany an advantage in the upcoming match against Algeria.

On the day of the game, Algerian players will only be allowed to eat and drink about half a hour after the match has already started. That is if the Algerians follow the rules of the Ramadan to the letter. German Muslim players Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira don't give a f**k and do not intend to fast during the world cup.

Wow. So Germany might win 7-0 as opposed to 4-0?

I dunno...we seem to be playing pretty lazily at the moment... The US is much better than Algeria, of course, but we still settled for the boring 1-0.

[Keystone Phil]

This "man" is THE WORST - http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/28/luis-suarez-bite-balance-hit-face-chiellini

[Franzl]

This "man" is THE WORST - http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/28/luis-suarez-bite-balance-hit-face-chiellini

Hope Uruguay gets destroyed tonight...

[minionofmidas]

At least Tabarez has admitted that Suarez needed to get a ban, he's just outraged at the length (and since it effectively works out as 21 matches, 9 for Uruguay and 12 for Liverpool, he kinda has a point there).

I wonder if they didn't give Suarez some matches / months extra for wasting their time with that "defence", actually.

[Tender Branson]

Exceptions for those doing the hardest labour - as well as for hugely pregnant women - are as old as Ramadan. Of course, many athletes do fast anyways (their right to do so has been the subject of labor litigation in Germany, btw.)

Does playing a WC match not count as "hard labour" ?

[minionofmidas]

That is exactly what mainstream clerical opinion is arguing.

To clarify the discussion here: The decision not to fast in this situation is a personal one. Fasting anyways is certainly going to be viewed as more virtuous by the general public. Evidently, that creates pressure (the bit about the no drinking during the game being relevant here as happening in the public eye.) So I suppose most members of the team will fast, especially if they've done so during competitive play in previous years as well.

We have one statement from an Algerian player. Bentaleb has said he'll decide on the day of the match and that it'll depend on his physical condition.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Fantastic game so far! Regardless of who wins (hope it's Chile) it's nice to see the two teams so energized and creative. Very entertaining to watch.

[Keystone Phil]

Brazil getting frustrated.

[Edu]

Vamos Chile!

[Edu]

Wow, this match is intense.

[Edu]

Brazil fans must be pretty nervous right now

Neymar looked like a shadow in the second half.

[Edu]

The chileans are getting tired, I assume Brazil imminently scoring

Thank god for the chilean goalkeeper though

[Edu]

Oh my god...