FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil

[SuitUp]

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

I don't know, their defense seem to be bigger from my perspective. Ivory Coast had lot of good chances and could have scored more than 2 today.

That one possession that lead to corner, I couldn't understand how Japan was giving Drogba so much space to shoot.

Their defense would have not crumbled like a badly build bridge had they scored the, at least 4 chances that they could not convert due to the lack of talent in the atacking, Honda was the only one trying to go foward and with him serving and crossing, you're left with virtually no one who can or even know how to shoot.

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

The Forwards tend to feed off of their defense's play...

Their defense's offesive play was good, the laterals created plenty(4 o 5 that I noticed) good chances, and correctly came back to aid the defensive game.

Originally Posted by KiraYamatoFan

Are we watching the same game? The Ds and the GK are the weak spot for Japan, mainly because of poor man-marking and lack of communication at the back. The striker issue is something else, but it is not the main issue in winning World Cup matches here.

The GK saved many shots from IvC, the defense was playing rather well on the first half, and created danger when they incorporated on the attack, should Japan had a decent foward, they would have gone to HT with a lead of at least 2 goals, and the defense would have probably not crumbled like it did.
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Just to be clear, I'm not saying their defense it's magnificient, their defense it's indeed weak, it's not just the main problem, like the lack of a leader and a decent foward...


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Originally Posted by Galaxian

It's going to bring 90 minutes of me listening to the Univision commentators go on and on about how Messi is the best player in the world... Ugh...

Why would you put yourself through the pain that it's listening to Bermudez "commenting" a match? Is there no other tv signal where you live?

[Galaxian]

Originally Posted by SuitUp

Why would you put yourself through the pain that it's listening to Bermudez "commenting" a match? Is there no other tv signal where you live?

I can't listen to football commentators in English... I just can't. And the ESPN commentators are just as bad if not worse since they get more practice to praise him.

[Houreki]

Nice try for Japan, I was expecting them to win.
But, at least Costa Rica won.

[Azuma Denton]

Auch, Japan had it coming.
With 1 goal difference and Drogba coming, you know Ivory Coast on course on scoring. But 2 goals in 1 minute? I didnt expect that.
Well, they need to sort it out next time. Kagawa was invisible for full game. He should have been taken out much earlier.


And England being England...
England physio Lewin suffers freak injury

[Guardian Enzo]

Terrible goalkeeping on that second goal. I.C. was the better side, but it wouldn't have been unjust for Japan to get a point.

[Blaat]

Gutted for Japan. It will be very hard now to get out of the group.

Originally Posted by SuitUp

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I dislike when teams park the goddamn bus, it's the ugliest style of play, and while it's a valid tactic, it's a bloody awful thing to watch on tv, that's why I dislike Mourinho, that's why I disliked the italians win today.

Italy had 56% ball possession against England how can you even call that 'parking the bus'.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Blaat

Gutted for Japan. It will be very hard now to get out of the group.Italy had 56% ball possession against England how can you even call that 'parking the bus'.

High possession does not means whether said team parking a bus or not through. As Italian did take their time to pass around back 4, while England had no energy left to pressure up Italian defense


Rather than parking-the-bus, i will say Italy did defend with number in the box, preventing all cross and long ball their way. Instead of Wilshere, Roy should have took Rooney out and replace with Lambert, tall, on form and have quite massive presence in the box

[Galaxian]

Italy attacked through the first half and the beginning of the second half, so it isn't like they threw everyone at the back for the entire game, mos it it they spent attacking.

[Shinndou]

Prandelli isn't the kind of coach that will tell his team to park the bus anyway, I don't think he's even capable of that. During his coaching years at Fiorentina and now with Italy he's never adopted the typical catenaccio/ultra-defensive approach.

My take is that, given the extreme weather conditions he probably told the team to try secure the lead and possibly waste as less energy as possible by keeping possession, given that this was the first game in the group stage. In the post-match conference he clearly stated that it was ridiculous that the FIFA medical official didn't concede the teams any timeouts because it was crystal clear that both were suffering from the high humidity and heat in Manaus.

Also as Blaat said, we had possession of the ball for most of the game and we succesfully completed 90% of our passes, that's hardly a sign of a team parking the bus. We simply kept the ball and made the english run for it while trying to preserve our stamina as much as possible. Sure it might not be that entertaining from a neutral standpoint but you have to remember that these teams will play two more games and you cannot spend all your energies immediately on the first match.

[edit] apparently our pass accuracy was 93.2% (and England's pass accuracy was no joke either, 91%!), the highest in a World Cup since 1966.

Also a lot of people are praising Pirlo but I think De Rossi was our best midfielder yesterday: stats

[risingstar3110]

Let's just say toward the end aside , where players basically already worn themselves out, it was one of the best game of the tournament.

England did improve from their old usual, cross and heading style. While Italian game plan no longer this

[Shinndou]

That hasn't been our plan since a long time, if you have watched both Euro 2012 and last year's Confederation Cup, Prandelli has completely changed the way the national team plays. We're more like a shape-shifting team that changes system depending on the opponents and on the match schedule.

Yesterday's system was a complete novelty as well. It was the first time he played with three playmakers (Pirlo, De Rossi, Verratti) and literally no one here saw that coming. Prandelli really likes to take huge risks and I have to say that I don't fully agree with some of his choices but in the end the result justified them.

[Pellissier]

All this "iron defence" is mostly a legend as of now. I concede you the iron defence when we had Nesta-Cannavaro-Materazzi in 2006, where in fact we conceded 2 goals in 7 matches. But not in this world cup.

Realize that with De Sciglio injured, Prandelli had to put Chiellini as left defender, where he played years ago, but he's not adapt now because he's big and slow and not adequate to stop fast people like Sturridge/Sterling/Rooney etc.

Plus we had an argentinian as central defender and not even a very good one, Paletta. Prandelli was forced to call him because basically there aren't italian central defenders in the italian league. Juve has them, but all the other teams of the first half of the ranking pretty much don't, they're plenty of foreigners. There was Ranocchia, but the ct decided Paletta was better.
I hope we won't see Chiellini as left defender again, there are alternatives but he must play in the centre with Barzagli.

As for the match, when the score was on a tie we always actively tried to do something, and once we went 2-1 the decision was to make the english team run while getting exhausted. England had some chances but we still hit a post, a bar along with a line head save by Jagielka. You can't really ask much more from this team and this coach, and that isn't parking the bus either.

[Sheba]

If anything, the whole Parking The Bus jokes should be directed to Greece who became infamous for this since Euro 2004.

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by Pellissier

All this "iron defence" is mostly a legend as of now. I concede you the iron defence when we had Nesta-Cannavaro-Materazzi in 2006, where in fact we conceded 2 goals in 7 matches. But not in this world cup.

When I hear iron defense nowadays I think of the Spaniards (well, at least until last Friday). 3 goals conceded during Euro 2008, none during the knockout phase. 2 Goals conceded during World Cup 2010, none during the knockout phase they won with four consecutive 1:0 victories. 1 goal conceded during Euro 2012, again none during the knockout stage. That's why I call the tiki-taka the offensive (or better possession-oriented) variant of the catenaccio.

[risingstar3110]

You guys took the parking the bus phase too serious.

The definition i found simply just means to set up a solid defence to defend a lead/ draw

[Galaxian]

Switzerland 0 - 1 Ecuador at 22'

Perfect header by Valencia.

Update: From the same corner of the pitch, Switzerland ties at 47'

Update: In the last play of the game, Switzerland takes the win with 2 -1.

[risingstar3110]

Switzerland deserve it through, as one of their goal was wrongly ruled offside

[ChampDream]

Switzerland manage to win in the last minute, Ecuador did a very bad job in the end.

[KiraYamatoFan]

I wasn't sure at first, so I double-checked and I wasn't wrong at all. Someone in the stadium at Alegre completely forgot to play the national anthems before the France/Honduras match. Honestly, what the hell is that?

[Sakuratsuki]

What's up with the Brazilian crowd do they have a grudge against France or something They keep whistling when France gets the ball. They calmed down a little now.