The Official Football Thread

[germanturkey]

neutral's team of choice this year should be Belgium.

[ACertainStark]

My 3 are South Korea, Germany and England.

Hoping for Germany to break the SF curse. Though my bets are on Brazil to win it.

[SuitUp]

My country's team (México) did qualify, but they're such an inept bunch of incompetent asshats that I'll be rooting for Colombia (Bacca, Teófilo Gutierrez, Jackson Martinez, Balanta, Guarín, hopefully Falcao) and Belgium (Courtois, Lukaku, Hazard, Kompany) instead.

[itisjustme]

I just hope it won't be Brazil (individualistic forwards and wth is that midfield) Holland (Robben annoys me) or Germany (their arrogance after getting one single CL is insufferable). I'm on the fence with Argentina because their defense and midfield is average and while I used to love Messi he's turned into a little twerp.

I love love love Iniesta but Spain's football's become real boring, Belgium's got a bunch of sympathetic young talents but I'm baffled why they're the book's 5th favorites, they're overhyped like everything that comes out of the Premier League and I don't think they have the maturity or even the talent to be world beaters.

Realistically the only potential winner left is Italy, I like what Prandelli is doing and honestly if you can win with Balo as your striker you've got to be a genius.

[Blaat]

I'm surprised no one said Japan yet.

[KiraYamatoFan]

Originally Posted by Blaat

I'm surprised no one said Japan yet.

I did in the previous page. I hope to see them go far enough.

[LoveYouSaber]

I am rooting for Spain as well as Germany as being an Arsenal fan I want to see Fabregas, Cazorla, Ozil etc get success.

For underdogs, it'll be Japan for me as well, being an Asian country and more importantly because I like their anime...

[Blaat]

And Japan's national football team's official mascot is Pikachu. What's not to like about that?

Originally Posted by KiraYamatoFan

I did in the previous page. I hope to see them go far enough.

Whoops missed it sorry.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

neutral's team of choice this year should be Belgium.

As a person whose team is in the same group as them, I am so scared of them.

Originally Posted by SuitUp

My country's team (México) did qualify, but they're such an inept bunch of incompetent asshats that I'll be rooting for Colombia (Bacca, Teófilo Gutierrez, Jackson Martinez, Balanta, Guarín, hopefully Falcao) and Belgium (Courtois, Lukaku, Hazard, Kompany) instead.

Same with my team (Korea). So far we look like shit.

Originally Posted by Blaat

I'm surprised no one said Japan yet.

You know, I am probably the only one here that will root against Japan here, Japan being our biggest rival.

[SuitUp]

Originally Posted by itisjustme

I just hope it won't be Brazil (individualistic forwards and wth is that midfield) Holland (Robben annoys me) or Germany (their arrogance after getting one single CL is insufferable). I'm on the fence with Argentina because their defense and midfield is average and while I used to love Messi he's turned into a little twerp.

1. Allow to quote Gary Lineker: "Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win."
2. While I agree that their defense it's not what it used to be, they're not by any means bad, it's just that because of it's predecesors, they look tame in comparison (I mean, how do you meseaure up to Verón, Simeone, Zanetti, Ayala, Chamot), then there's the midfield issue, Gago, Di Maria, Rodriguez... that's not what I would call average, and Messi in it's worst day it's still better than 95% of the rest of football players

[itisjustme]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

2. While I agree that their defense it's not what it used to be, they're not by any means bad, it's just that because of it's predecesors, they look tame in comparison (I mean, how do you meseaure up to Verón, Simeone, Zanetti, Ayala, Chamot), then there's the midfield issue, Gago, Di Maria, Rodriguez... that's not what I would call average, and Messi in it's worst day it's still better than 95% of the rest of football players

Maxi is serviceable, Gago's kinda faded no? Di Maria's this season's surprise but doesn't he play winger with Argentina? I'm not sure, there's always kinda consistency/decision making questions with him anyway. It's not an ugly midfield but IMO it doesn't compare to the Iniesta/Busquets/Silva/Alonso or De Rossi/Pirlo/Motta/Montolivo/Verratti/Marchisio or Schweinsteiger/Kroos/Gotze/Muller.

With Messi yeah he's the best I just meant with the reports of how he pushed Ibra on the bench because he didn't get along with him and he wanted to be the main show, then pushed Pep out by telling him he cost them the CL, pushed Villa on the bench because he wasn't passing him the ball enough so now Alexis is too scared to play for himself, pushed for Martino just because his dad was Martino's fan, etc. Just acting like a little tyrant.

[SuitUp]

On another topic, there has been four injuries today that have resulted in players missing the WC, here's the list:
Luis Montes (MEX)
Rafael Marquéz (MEX)
Riccardo Montolivo (ITA)
Segundo Castillo (ECU)
..... What a bad day to play football :c

[justavisitor]

I would support portugal, because I kind of like C. Ronaldo...sure he has some flaws, but his work ethics is superb. And he stills gives 100% effort despite the fact that he is injured and the world cup is around the corner wins my vote.

my second choice would be Argentina, but purely on the following scenario:

In the final, Messi scores the winning goal in the last minute against brazil due to "hand of god" version 2.0 XD

Oh my, it maybe fun for the oversea audience, but I wouldn't want to be in that stadium if it really happens

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

Riccardo Montolivo (ITA)

A blessing in disguise.

I have nothing against the guy as a person, but I never liked him as a player so if he misses this World Cup it's definetely good news for me. It means that we're definetely going to use Verratti a lot more.

[itisjustme]

Is it bad I care more about transfers and my club winning CL next year than the WC atm?

Talent concentration in the richest clubs kinda spoiled it for me the best teams in the CL are better than national teams nowadays and play more coherent (obviously).

[LoveYouSaber]

Originally Posted by itisjustme

Talent concentration in the richest clubs kinda spoiled it for me the best teams in the CL are better than national teams nowadays and play more coherent (obviously).

Except probably for the Spanish team which was/is Barcelona and Madrid combined. I think that's the most coherent national team.

But yeah, in general I would agree club teams are better than national teams. Though it would be fun to hold a match featuring a world cup winner team against a CL-winner team.

[Azuma Denton]

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

To people whose country failed to make to the WC, who are you going to support?

Samurai Blue !!!
Because they got Pikachu and AKB48 power in the suit...

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by itisjustme

Is it bad I care more about transfers and my club winning CL next year than the WC atm?

Talent concentration in the richest clubs kinda spoiled it for me the best teams in the CL are better than national teams nowadays and play more coherent (obviously).

They are better but I have no affection for those clubs unlike my national team.

But to each their own.

Originally Posted by Azuma Denton

Samurai Blue !!!
Because they got Pikachu and AKB48 power in the suit...

Wait what? I heard about Pikachu, but AKB48?

[SuitUp]

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

They are better but I have no affection for those clubs unlike my national team.

But to each their own.

On the other side of the coin, I do not feel any kind of affection for my national team (not only football, but any national team for that matter, even after being part of one), but I do feel affection for Real Madrid, ever since I started to learn what football was, their team was Cesar, Michel, Hierro, Helguera, Roberto Carlos, Indio Solari, Makelele, Zizou, Don Raul, Morientes, Figo... It was really something else watching those Galacticos play, ooh, the memories

[Bri]

Originally Posted by itisjustme

Is it bad I care more about transfers and my club winning CL next year than the WC atm?

Talent concentration in the richest clubs kinda spoiled it for me the best teams in the CL are better than national teams nowadays and play more coherent (obviously).

The WC can't really match the top end of the CL teams anymore on tactics and squads but it has it's own merrits.

Less cohesion allows individual performances to have a greater impact on the results. A lot of matches in a short period of time and the single match knockout stages create an enormous built up of tension. It's a different discipline of football and tests top players out of their comfort zone. Not many players have been able to perform in both tournaments.

In addition national teams have to deal with limited resources, which has it's own charm compared to the dominance of rich clubs in the CL.