FIFA 2014 World Cup - Official Discussion Thread

[Keystone Phil]

I tweet about the horrible Spain alternate kits and they score a minute later.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

BTW I totally agree that these Spanish uniforms are awful.

[Peeperkorn]

Uruguay without Cavani and with Zombie-Forlan instead was quite a disaster yesterday. Austria was a surprise with some moments of jogo bonito and good pressing; they should have won the game.

I'm not worried, anyway. Uruguay is a disaster in these kind of games but later thay can surprise everyone in the reak¡l tournament.

Ojalá.

PS: Was my TV wrong or there was an African-Austrian?

[Lief 🗽]

yeah, David Alaba. He's one of the best leftbacks in the world.

[Cranberry]

African-Austrian ^^

He's an Austrian, also born here; but his father is from Nigeria, and his mother from the Philippines. He's the star of Austria's football team

[Tender Branson]

UEFA's new "Nations League" explained:

What is the basic format?

In the UEFA Nations League, the 54 member associations will be divided into four groups based on coefficient rankings. These groups will then be further divided into playing pools of either three or four teams. The teams in each pool play each other home and away between September and December of the season in question, with the group winners either qualifying for the final four competitions or gaining promotion. The bottom sides face relegation from their division.

In addition, the UEFA Nations League will provide teams with another chance to qualify for the UEFA EURO final tournament. Four teams within each group, who have not already qualified for the finals, will qualify for play-offs in March 2020 with one team from each group joining the 20 teams who had qualified via the European Qualifiers.

What are the next steps?

Following the acceptance of the resolution on national team football at the XXXVIII Ordinary UEFA Congress in Astana on 27 March 2014, UEFA and its member associations will continue to work together to elaborate and implement the UEFA Nations League. It is envisaged that the first UEFA Nations League matches would take place in September 2018.

(... continues)

http://www.uefa.com/community/news/newsid=2079553.html

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

[Keystone Phil]

In other news, one of the biggest pieces of garbage will be returning to his garbage team after the World Cup: Guus Hiddink will be the next coach of The Netherlands.

[Lief 🗽]

Phil and I disagree on a lot, but he's right that the Netherlands is a garbage team and we all enjoy watching them fail.

[Keystone Phil]

The 30 man provisional squads have been announced. Teams have to be narrowed down to 23 by some time in early June.

After a scare, Rossi made the cut for Italy. Now the drama will center around which forward won't make Prandelli's final selection. It's going to be a dramatic few weeks.

Other big news: Tevez didn't make the Argentina list and Nasri was left out of France's.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I expected Arbeloa on the squad, but otherwise no major surprises. I'm pleased (but of course utterly unsurprised) to see Costa in as well; Brazilian spectators' reactions will be fun to see. The tough part of course will be whittling this down to 23.

[King]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/16/sepp-blatter-qatar-2022-world-cup-mistake

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/16/sepp-blatter-qatar-2022-world-cup-mistake

Regardless, barring Qatar voluntarily giving up hosting rights, the damage is done and there won't be a reversal. Hopefully USA can get 2026.

[Lief 🗽]

Sepp Blatter has always been against Qatar getting the World Cup. He just says stuff like this to piss off Michel Platini (the head of UEFA and probably the next FIFA president) and his allies on the FIFA executive committee (which decided on Qatar).

[Keystone Phil]

Blatter did "clarify" his remarks though.

[Keystone Phil]

Landon Donovan doesn't make the final cut for the U.S. team. And every idiotic Soccer bro's head explodes...

[BaldEagle1991]

You know I was at first upset about Donovan getting kicked out, then I realize after looking at the roster, there could be potential....sort of.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

You know I was at first upset about Donovan getting kicked out, then I realize after looking at the roster, there could be potential....sort of.

The USA will fall in groups regardless of whether Donovan had been picked or not.. You're watching too much ESPN.

[Platypus]

It's all about building for the future, as with us dropping captain Lucas Neill from our squad. He's not going to 2018 and we're getting massacred anyway, so no 2014 for him.

[Keystone Phil]

Welcome back to Lewis: here to see Germany fail. Again.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Welcome back to Lewis: here to see Germany fail. Again.

It would be hilarious to see Germany get third place a third consecutive time.

[Keystone Phil]

Welcome back to Lewis: here to see Germany fail. Again.

It would be hilarious to see Germany get third place a third consecutive time.

They will not. Brazil will take it.

[Lief 🗽]

IIRC Lewis is not really a big national team supporter anyway.

Also it's becoming pretty clear that Germany will struggle to qualify from the group. All the players are either injured, out of shape, or in mediocre form. And Löw is clueless as ever.

[Franzl]

IIRC Lewis is not really a big national team supporter anyway.

Also it's becoming pretty clear that Germany will struggle to qualify from the group. All the players are either injured, out of shape, or in mediocre form. And Löw is clueless as ever.

I'd tend to agree, but the German national team has an odd habit of far outperforming expectations with mediocre teams.

I'm expecting our defeat in the Round of 16 at the latest...but I wouldn't be shocked if they made the final somehow.

[windjammer]

A World Cup this year? The last was recent, wasn't it?