Brazil 2014

[Silver Forest]

Superb victory for the Nederland yesterday.
Van Persie and Robben were giants yesterday.



After reaching the final in South Africa 2010 I wonder what this great team will achieve?
Congratulations Ed, Mon and all the good Dutch people 'round here

On the other side it was an impressive defeat from Spain. The world champion is in trouble.

Today a great game England vs Italy. Rooney vs Balotelli; Gerard vs Pirlo. Exciting. And let's not forget Uruguay. There's great players in that team and there's the ironies from the history. After 1950 mythic victory let's see what will happen this time.

I love the world cups!

[Silver Forest]

A Portuguese tragedy... Disaster. Lost game, lost players, lost education. Shameful game. We are in deep trouble but we still breathe.

Great win from Germany. Great team. A good candidate for the world cup.

Bad referee




Best teams so far: Germany and Netherlands. Be careful with Brazil and Argentina tough. Curious about Spain's reaction to disaster.

EUA is playing right now and winning agains Ghana 1-0.

[jamestkirk]

USA's best player injured...maybe

Great American fans flew down but probably not enough to force a USA win...!

[silentseason]

What happened to Spain? Their collapse was a complete surprise.

[Buda]

Quite strange but I guess mainly because they were pretty much exhausted by the time they reached the event of World Cup. They presented an unmotivated play throughout.

On the other hand, last night's Crotia - Camerun was great and exciting. This is the way to play a game when your team got 4 goals but shot none. They fought vigorously with one man off and had such chances for goal I almost believed they were cursed.

[Silver Forest]

Sad goodbye to the great spanish team.
They were just out of the games. Couldn't play, couldn't fight, couldn't run. A shadow from the glrious past.
They have great young people so I guess they will return strong in the next world cup.

I just finish to watch Uruguay v England. Great game. Great win from suarez and his colleagues.

I guess with the exception of Germany, Netherlands and Italy, the great European teams are in trouble or out of the tournment. Those three performed real well.

Curious about the second game from the ones that did not performed well, of course with Portugal on the top of my interest.

Brazil, Chile and Uruguay (today) revealed their strong applications to this world cup. But Argentina might reveal some surprises.

The USA were athletic and competitive. Strong and generous team. I hope they will not be lucky against my country. Let's see.

Let the games continue

[Silver Forest]

England is out!

Suarez is impressive! Uruguay still inside the history.



Congratulations to Costa Rica. Great surprise!

Congratulations to France. Wonderful win against Switzerland.

[Buda]

bump!

[Silver Forest]

Good prformance from the US and poor from Portugal. We're almost out. As expected it's a upcoming disaster for the European teams. Talking about Portugal it's unbelievable that we arrived to Brazil just a few days before the start of the competition. All-you-should-not-do-it...

The US had bad luck since they were not qualified on the last minute. Very competitive team although for me it's clear the best teams are Germany and Ghana. No doubt about it.

Belgium has a great national team. One of the very few European teams with some good performance although the group is probably the most weak one.

Today it's Brazil day. Good chances for Brazil and Mexico but Croacia might do it also.

With the exception of Argentina the American and Sout American teams are performing well. It's their world cup. The proof tha you have to prepare yourself carefully. It's a completely different competition in those tropical conditions.

Let the games continue!

[Buda]

Exactly, I'm not a big footbal fan myself but when one has the chance to witness real footbal with real passes and a game at such pace just like it was previously with the Ghana team, it just gives you chills. Hope Ghana can really push themselves beyond their limits and became the real surprise of this world cup event.

[Silver Forest]

First place. The first selection to win a group!

Congratulations to the Netherlands!



Who's next? Brazil, Mexico or Croacia?

[Silver Forest]

Great surprises. Italy, Portugal, Spain, England are out.

Today Brazil had lucky. In my opinion Chile had more soul and bad luck.

Colombia was impressive. Without Falcão, they have James. The two in the same team would have been amazing.

tomorrow great games

Netherland vs Mexico.
A great orange win or una gran fiesta mexicana? The Dutch need to be careful since the mexicans have great skill and great strong of will.
I believe the Netherlands are serious candidates to a final win. Maybe after all those finals we will have an orange win.

Greece vs Costa Rica
the great american surprise or the greek masters of defensive game?
never understimate the greeks...

[donquixote]

Couldn't believe that result. The Mexicans must feel crushed.

I was half listening on the radio and went outside for a while at 87 mintues

You'd have to fancy Netherlands against either Costa Rica or Greece.

[Silver Forest]

Yeah, hard defeat for Mexico. I enjoyed vividly their skill and will. The Netherlands are the current vice-champions and this means great players, great team. And I was not ashamed of the Portuguese referee because he is well known in Portugal. I dislike that arrogant idiot. He is well known as "skillful" and biased. It is a discrace that we share the nationality. His decisions hurt both teams.

Congratulations to France and Costa Rica!

Tonight Germany vs Algeria. I have friends in both sides. Let the best win and please no bias introduced by referees.

So we already have Brasil vs Colombia (great, great team) and France vs Costa Rica. Hard to predict.

Great competition!

[jamestkirk]

USA is a bit of a dark horse but are they disregarded by the World? The USA television is crazy about the "run" so far...ending soon?

Some grit and more than a bit of luck. What is the take about USA in the rest of the world...?

A joke, a fluke, or any chance really at all from this point onward? Or is the USA even in the conversation in Euro and S. American sports talk? Oddly to my mind or is it a part of the beauty of soccer, a match is too easily determined by a bad call or a crazy impossible kick for the winning goal?

[donquixote]

Although the World Cup is an enormous event followed by millions, a gambling man would bet on the host nation. The WC has been dominated by L'American and European teams and if the host nation doesn't win, mostly a team from the host continent does.

Anything can happen at the knock-out stages but looking at the remaining sides with consistent success, Germany and Brazil are obvious choices. I think Argentina have the best squad but I'd love Holland to win after they've been so close so many times and have had some of the best football players ever.

In an effort at fairness, referees are chosen from national associations. The best referee in a less competitive national association may not have as much top level experience as the 20th most highly rated referee from Spain, England, Italy or Germany. The game is basically played at club level and internationals are secondary in career terms, at least for English players.

IMO a game played with the feet can't avoid being a contact sport, but for financial reasons players are now over-protected and that slightly diminishes the spectacle for me. I guess though that the vagaries of the decision-making and the differing styles of play are part of WC charm.

USA have always been a great sporting nation but perhaps don't yet have a competitive enough soccer league to grow their own players nor many palyers at top clubs. They haven't beaten a top team this time yet but then again, neither have Belgium. Lets hope skill decides the result and not referees or gamesmanship. Good luck tonight.

[Silver Forest]

Tomorrow two exciting games. Saturday two other. It's been a great competition. Incredible games, excellent performances and uncertainty of the final result.

Brazil vs Colombia.
I would pick Brazil for the experience, tradition and because it's the home team. But Colombia in this competition has been more convincing. Brazil lives under the influence of one great player. the team is far from teams from the past. Colombia has probably the most exciting player of this tournment so far. Rodriguez is an impressive player. So Neymar versus James Rodriguez? Awsome!

Germany vs France
I have friends in both sides. Germany is a rock. Talent, physical force, dynamics. I would pick Germany since it has this extremely competitive attitude and very effective adaptation to different opponents and different phases in the game. France has been probably benefited since it hasd less competitive opponents till now. Exciting football but I'm curious how they will perform agains a very strong Germany. The key players, maybe Moller and Gotze from Germany and Benzema and Pogba from France.

Argentina vs Belgium
Belgium national team has a promising future. They are already competitive but there are signs of immature tactical behaviour. I particularly like Hazard and Witsel. Argentina has deep individual talent (Di Maria and the amazing Messi) but no team. I know well several pleyers from Argentina and I'm amazed about the poor choices of the Argentinian coach.

Netherlands vs Costa Rica
I would definitively pick the Netherlands. I always admired their play. I have vague remembering of the 1978 world cup and that epic final against Argentina. Then a few decades after I watched the glorious times of Gullit and Van Basten. Now there's a great generation too: Van Persie, Snejder and Robben. Impressive talent and scoring skills. They are still vice-champions (a dramatic final against Spain in South Africa 4 years ago). Costa Rica has Campbell and Ruiz. Great players but overall an inferior team. Probably it will be their last game.

So an exercice of failure? Probably. But here is my guess of the semi-finals:

Brazil vs Germany
Argentina vs Netherlands

In my perspective the strongest outsider is Colombia. Let's see.

Good luck to everyone!

[Silver Forest]

So, no surprises. We will have today the games I predicted. It was easy.
Now it's harder. What would I wish? An european or a south american final? Well, maybe a mix.

Sorry people from Netherlands and Germany. My wish will be Brazil vs Argentina. It would be explosive since they are neighbours and they don't like each other. The discuss about everything and football is the worst subject to discuss amont them. I know this for sure.

Netherlands vs Argentina? Messi vs Robben...
it will depend on the momment. Argentina lost Di Maria, a player I saw here in Benfica for 3 years. A great player. But Messi is amazing. Van Gaal will have to do something about that miracle-maker-player. Netherlands seemed to me weaker than what I thought playing against Costa Rica. But things may change if they score a goal first. Good luck to both teams!

Brazil vs Germany? No Neymar. What a pity. Great player. Germany is a rock. If I would say which of the four teams is stronger I would say Germany. Solid team, talent, strong and athletic. A hard task for the Brazilian. Scolari is a master in the tactical game but so is Low. Good luck to both teams!

[morrisonhendrix]

I think it'll be Germany v. Netherlands in the final. Argentina has nothing besides Messi. Brazil cannot beat Germany, especially without Neymar.

[donquixote]

OMG 5 - 0 after half an hour!

You'd have to fancy Germany against Netherlands or Argentina with this sort of performance.

[Silver Forest]

CONGRATULATIONS TO GERMANY AND ARGENTINA!



Two very different but two amazing games.

Brazil vs Germany
The incredible defeat of a nation. I felt pity for the Brazilean people. Hard time for such investment and such excitement.
Oh the irony... Maybe some people are not aware of the 1950 trauma in which Brazil lost the final against Uruguay. That defeat last in the memory till yesterday. It originated the complete retirement of a group of players, kind of banned from the national team. The defeat was the maximum outrage for Brazil since they were convinced of their superiority and there was this nationalistic mood filling egos. It was a disaster. Till yesterday. No one could predict but the fact is that this 1-7 defeat surpasses everything. I hope they will return stronger in the next tournement.

And Germany? Brilliant! For me the best team in this world cup. Probably the next world champion. Perfect colective game, perfect game planning, perfect individual contributions of great players. Superb team.

Congratulations to Klose, the top scorer ever in world cups!

Argentina vs Netherlands
Lots of tatics. A great game only by this measure. I believe Netherlands lost the game because it didn't plan their play to give creativity freedom for their best players. Van Persie is out of shape but Robben and Snejder could have mede better. Robben was good not excellent (his standard...) but I was disapointed with Snejder. This time Van Gaal probably was not right. But of course if Netherlands had won in the penalties this was probably forgotten. I think without Di Maria Argentina was weaker and the Netherlands could have explored better this situation.

Argentina has great players but some weakenesses. I love the play of Garay, Perez, Di Maria and Messi. Di Maria was out of this game and Messi was not in his best. I think also the Argentinian coach is not as astute and so well theoretically prepared as Joachim Low, the german coach.

I'm fully convinced Germany will be world champion.

The only but in this belief? A small player called Messi.

There are small chances for Argentina but this will depend on the conjugation of a solid colective game and the brilliance of Messi. And... Di Maria because is still not known if he will be available to play the final.

Let's see. Saturday the game no one wants to play for 3rd and 4th place. Sunday the BIG final.

The possible protagonists?

[Silver Forest]

Congratulations to the Netherlands!



Today was the game that no one wants to play...

In 2006 it was Portugal against Germany and I know for sure it is true. A sad game.

But especially the Netherlands played very well and conquer a well deserved 3rd place. I wonder if tomorrow's final will not be as competitive as if Netherlands was there... Let's see.

A warm word to Brazil for organizing the world cup. There was a sad conjugation of circumstances. Sad way to finish the tournment. This is the time to think about and start to change things. Once the best football in the world. Now it's a differente reality. There's still tons of great players. What is needed now is a different organization, different structure and in some extent different persons. Good luck to Brazil. We need their good football back!


And tomorrow the big day! Germany or Argentina? I believe Germany is going to win. LEt's see if Messi is right saying it will be the game of their lives!

May the best win!

[Silver Forest]

Congratulations to GERMANY!


Germany 1 - 0 (extra-time) Argentina

Gotze 113';





Congratulations to Argentina for a great game. They had their chances but the fact is that fotune was for Germany. I'm pretty sure that a fatal lost was Di Maria's injury. More than Messi, Di Maria was on fire an was a perfect gun to fight German consistence.

Overall, a well-deserved title. 4-0 against Portugal, 7-1 against Brazil. Impressive and consistent football.

In four years we will have RUSSIA. Let the world be a better place at that time. Let the world of men of good will and good heart prevail!

[blindtiger]

so close!!

[Silver Forest]

so close!!

Germany was strong but also fortunate.
I'm sure the Leo Messi from two years agor would have made the difference.
It's a pity if this great player will finish his carreer without being world champion.

I love Argentinian football. My beloved club (S.L. Benfica) had and still has great Argentinian players: Aimar, Saviola, Pérez, Salvio, Gaitan, Garay. I learn to admire and love the personality and skills of the Argentinian players.

Best of the lucks in 2018!

[jamestkirk]

so close!!

Germany was strong but also fortunate.
I'm sure the Leo Messi from two years agor would have made the difference.
It's a pity if this great player will finish his carreer without being world champion.

I love Argentinian football. My beloved club (S.L. Benfica) had and still has great Argentinian players: Aimar, Saviola, Pérez, Salvio, Gaitan, Garay. I learn to admire and love the personality and skills of the Argentinian players.

Best of the lucks in 2018!

Good luck to your favorite club, SF!

Just a question...do any of your Soccer loving countries care or follow American football at all??

It's ramping-up here with pre-season games...though pre-season is a joke. Who wants to injure their star players? So they only play a short while at the beginning of a game and the second and third teams get to see most all the action.