Unofficial World Cup Thread de 2014

[pbmax]

Yeah he did. I think they were all blown. Playing catchup for more than 50 minutes probably was too much in that weather.

Well, fútbol got want it wanted, I have international levels of frustration right now.

[woodbuck27]

that bradley goal should have been a gimmie, he fucked that up bigtime. you gotta bury that shit

Michael Bradley will wake up tonight thinking about not getting that one through. He won't get back to sleep easily.

It should have been 3-1 USA (on what appeared as a sure Bradley goal); all Portugal balloons busted.

On the whole the game was great to watch.

It was almost like in extra time I felt that Portugal would somehow tie it up. The Ronaldo cross for the Varela header looked like it was in slow motion. A terrific cross.

Shit ! That extra time just went on and on and ..... on.

The good news the USA point should prove big and they will go through with 4 points.

WTH...... The USA team needs to think ... defeat Germany.

[mission]

Bradley cost us the game with the missed goal and giving up the ball with NO ONE AROUND HIM with 30 seconds left. He's a disgrace right now.

[Brandon494]

Bradley cost us the game with the missed goal and giving up the ball with NO ONE AROUND HIM with 30 seconds left. He's a disgrace right now.

Unreal, all he had to do with keep the ball out of bounds and let the defense set back up. I'm not even a soccer fan but I'm still upset from this tie.

We have still yet to win a game after allowing a team to score first...

[Joemailman]

but, lets look at it.

we got 4 points

ghana has 1, portugal has 1. we own the tie breaker against ghana, and the second tie breaker by 5 goals over portugal

Isn't goal differential the tie-breaker? If Ghana wins and the U.S. loses, wouldn't Ghana have the tiebreaker?

[red]

Isn't goal differential the tie-breaker? If Ghana wins and the U.S. loses, wouldn't Ghana have the tiebreaker?

http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/...ermany-group-g

yup, you're right, thats stupid. head to head should be the first tiebreaker, not the 3rd or 4th

[Joemailman]

U.S. will be playing Germany at the same time Portugal will be playing Ghana. At least Portugal will have something to play for. They'll go in knowing they have to win, and hope Germany clobbers the U.S.

My sense watching this World Cup is that maybe the talent level is more even than people thought. I didn't get the sense today that the U.S. was going against a vastly more talented team, and we've seen Ghana tie Germany. I wouldn't be shocked if the U.S. beat Germany, but before this started, I don't think many people thought that could happen.

[pbmax]

If Ghana win, they'd progress if they won by a couple of goals or more, or won by a single goal and the U.S. lost by more than one goal. If the United States and Ghana ended up level on goal differential, it would come down to who scored the most goals overall. If they were deadlocked still, the United States would progress as they've already beaten Ghana in the group stages.

US losing by one and Ghana winning by one takes you to second tie breaker which is overall number of goals. US has a one goal advantage now, but in this Ghana-win/US-lose scenario, that would at best be a tie.

I think head to head is then the third tiebreaker.

[Joemailman]

US losing by one and Ghana winning by one takes you to second tie breaker which is overall number of goals. US has a one goal advantage now, but in this Ghana-win/US-lose scenario, that would at best be a tie.

I think head to head is then the third tiebreaker.

Not if the U.S. plays in a higher scoring game, or am I missing something? If Ghana wins 1-0 and the U.S. loses 2-1, doesn't the U.S. win the tie on goals scored?

[red]

U.S. will be playing Germany at the same time Portugal will be playing Ghana. At least Portugal will have something to play for. They'll go in knowing they have to win, and hope Germany clobbers the U.S.

My sense watching this World Cup is that maybe the talent level is more even than people thought. I didn't get the sense today that the U.S. was going against a vastly more talented team, and we've seen Ghana tie Germany. I wouldn't be shocked if the U.S. beat Germany, but before this started, I don't think many people thought that could happen.

the attack we saw gives me hope against germany, our team looked much better today then they did on monday

i no longer feel that the game against germany is a sure fire loss

[Joemailman]

Don't they follow Futbol at Samsung?

https://twitter.com/SamsungMobileME/...525888/photo/1

[Brandon494]

Don't they follow Futbol at Samsung?

https://twitter.com/SamsungMobileME/...525888/photo/1

The ad will get more attention know though, actually a genius marketing strategy if that is what they were trying to do.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Bradley cost us the game with the missed goal and giving up the ball with NO ONE AROUND HIM with 30 seconds left. He's a disgrace right now.

Bradley had a very good game overall. He was an absolute beast for the first 60 minutes. The turnover hurt, but if Cameron covers the guy at the back end nobody notices. Beasley had a chance to wear off more clock a minute before that and gave the ball away too. The missed goal was mostly bad luck. Normally, that's a gimme, but the guy got his knee on the ball.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Not if the U.S. plays in a higher scoring game, or am I missing something? If Ghana wins 1-0 and the U.S. loses 2-1, doesn't the U.S. win the tie on goals scored?

Correct. I have a bad feeling that Portugal is going to lay an egg. You could see that the USA was a much fitter team. Ghana is another fit team with an extra days rest. Portugal has to believe that they don't have a great chance--even if they win. They'd have to make up 5 goals on us.

Scenarios

USA wins. USA wins the group
USA draws. USA finishes second.
USA loses and Ghana-Portugal draw. USA finishes second.
USA loses and Portugal wins. USA will very likely advance. We could lose by 2 and Portugal could win by 2, and we'd still advance.
USA loses and Ghana wins. There's a good chance that the USA does not advance. I think it's likely that we either lose by 2+ goals or if Ghana wins, they'll win by 2+ goals. If Portugal is down one in the second half with little chance to advance, I think they'll collapse.

We'll likely need to at least stay close to Germany and hope that Portugal is even or up a goal in the second half.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I love the comments in English newspapers. A bunch of Americans cursing Bradley with Brits saying that they don't know football very well. That he had a good game. I'm not saying he shouldn't have done better, but the guy played a good game up to that point. Now, the Ghana game was a different story. Probably the worst game I've seen him play for the USMNT. Here's what the Guardian had to say:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2665349/USA-2-2-Portugal-match-report-Cristiano-Ronaldo-sets-injury-time-equaliser-Eder-Paulo-Bentos-World-Cup-hopes-alive.html

But after USA midfielder Michael Bradley — who had played brilliantly — lost possession in the centre circle in the 95th minute, Ronaldo broke down the right to deliver a sensational cross that allowed substitute Silvestre Varela to head powerfully past Tim Howard at the far post.

To blame the loss on Bradley is a bit much. Beasley had the chance to wear off clock, but didn't. Beasley had a chance to close down on Ronaldo (tough task, I know, but the USA had done a good job most of the night on him), but didn't. Cameron (the real goat of the game) had a chance to mark Varela, but didn't.

Here's what Bradley had to say about it.

"I put my heart and soul into every game every time I step on the field," he said. "It's a cruel game sometimes, you know? So again, I'm proud of that and proud of what I'm about every time I play and there's certainly no regrets in my book. The ball popped up and I was able to make a few quick steps and get there. It was tight," Bradley explained. "Unfortunately, [I] wasn't able to make a good enough play and keep it for us or get a foul and obviously at that point then the ball turns over and it's up to us to deal with the situation. Certainly the way it ends you rack your mind thinking can you do this better? Can you do that better?"

Classic quote:

America needs a scape goat at this time. Thus, they have found poor Mr. Bradley.