World Cup Thread.

[Mike the Brit]

Yeah, I get it. Some people don't like soccer.

If you watched Ghana-Germany or USA-Portugal and didn't think those were exciting, well-played games, then go in peace ... soccer's not for you.

And if you want to discuss what needs to be done to make sure that that's the way soccer is alway played, then let's talk. It's a really difficult issue and not helped by the crooks in charge of FIFA.

But if you think that watching Italy-Uruguay is an argument why soccer is essentially a lousy game, child please!

 

[Ivan]

The Italian team was diving around, Uruguanians were biting people, and they wonder why soccer isn't popular here.

Then don't watch it. It amazes me that so many American sports fans are so insecure that they have to go out of their way to take shots at it. This thread is supposed to be a discussion of the ongoing World Cup and not a place for overly insecure Americans to take their tiny little dumps. Don't like soccer then don't watch it, your input in this thread really isn't needed.

I don't like the Red Sox but I am not going to spend my time in the Red Sox forum dumping on them because it would be stupid and petty, which is what those using this thread to crap on soccer are.

I have seen stupidity and truly outrageous things happen in every team sport and acting like it is unique to soccer is idiotic.

 

[Ivan]

The diving is absolutely ridiculous in this sport and makes the soccer player doing it look like a gigantic ****y.

I agree, and I have been saying for years that all matches should be reviewed after the result and suspensions handed out for dives, with length increasing with each time they occur, however this stuff goes on in most sports and while more common in soccer are also a big problem in basketball and hockey.

 

[Ivan]

Suarez should be banned for the remainder of the tournament and not allowed back into international play for the next three years, and then only conditionally if he stays clean the entire time. He's a disgrace and really put a black mark on Uruguays win today.

On the bright side James Rodriquez is something special, Columbia is really dangerous.

 

[Mike the Brit]

I agree, and I have been saying for years that all matches should be reviewed after the result and suspensions handed out for dives, with length increasing with each time they occur, however this stuff goes on in most sports and while more common in soccer are also a big problem in basketball and hockey.

I'd also like to see a video referee for all goals, penalties and sendings off. For a sport that's only just introduced goal-line technology to see whether the ball really crossed the line, that's VERY unlikely to happen.

 

[Wheelman]

I agree, and I have been saying for years that all matches should be reviewed after the result and suspensions handed out for dives, with length increasing with each time they occur, however this stuff goes on in most sports and while more common in soccer are also a big problem in basketball and hockey.

The thing is, some of it is blatantly obvious. And they do nothing. A good example? The dutch player in the first game pretending he got elbowed in the eye instead the side of his cheek. Clearly his cheek wasn't hurting. That should have been a permanent ban right there. I believe that dutch player got his karma though, as in the next game he got taken off in a stretcher.

 

[Ivan]

The dog or the laptop?

The laptop, then the crazy bastard pulled my phone off the desk while it was charging last night and screwed it up.

It's a good thing I love my dogs.

 

[Ivan]

I really believe post match reviews with mandatory suspensions would radically reduce the problem, however FIFA is an ethically bankrupt organization and I never expect anything good to come from them.

 

[shmessy]

One of the reasons I really want the U.S. to succeed. They play it fair-and-square. As do the Germans, the Ghanaians, the Koreans and many other teams. But there are those that don't -- and their associations tend to be hand-in-glove with the monstrous Sepp Blatter. There are great things in football and at this World Cup, but you'd be lying to say that there weren't terrible things too -- and they do go very deep.

Q-A-T-A-R in the summertime?

 

[Mike the Brit]

Q-A-T-A-R in the summertime?

Yes. And a FIFA President who claims it's "racist" to expose it and the corruption behind it. SMH.

 

[OhExaulted1]

I'm all in on the Anarctican team. Global warming is going to create a dynasty. You heard it here first.

 

[OhExaulted1]

Q-A-T-A-R in the summertime?

No one checks there oil in the summertime in Qatar. I don't think it's a coincidence.

 

[Ivan]

Q-A-T-A-R in the summertime?

A great example of the corruption and collusion that exists in FIFA. There is no doubt at all in my mind that decision was fully bought and paid for through bribery, there is no other logical explanation for it. Short of choosing Syria it is as bad a decision as they get. I am sure Sepp will find a way to qualify a side from Al Queada's Middle East franchise just for the fun and ratings it will bring.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Oh great!

Uruguay adopting the "Sepp Blatter strategy" -- when you're outrageously in the wrong channel hostility onto the Brits:

"A heated exchange with Tabarez in his news conference ended with him claiming this was nothing more than a conspiracy against Suarez led by the British media. One Uruguayan journalist actually stood up and applauded Tabarez's answer."
​

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28010944

The worst of it is that it will probably work.

​

 

[ausbacker]

Suarez should be banned for the remainder of the tournament and not allowed back into international play for the next three years, and then only conditionally if he stays clean the entire time. He's a disgrace and really put a black mark on Uruguays win today.

On the bright side James Rodriquez is something special, Columbia is really dangerous.

You're kidding right? The memes have been outrageous today. Why deny the world that simple joy?

 

[BritPat]

Properly gutted about Luis. Backed him and backed him and backed him, but can't do it any more. The club should sell.

 

[Nikolai]

I missed the Italy-Uruguay match, but I have to admit when I first heard that Suarez might have bitten an Italian player (was it Chienelli?), I half wondered if the Italian dove and faked the bite, knowing it was Suarez. Looks legit, though.

I echo what Mike the Brit said above. Watching Group G has been a treat. Germany, Ghana, and the U.S. play the sport the right way and I can't wait for the Germany-U.S. match.

As for Qatar; it's a clear case of bribery. The World Cup WILL happen there despite the wishes of some who would love to see it relocated. It will probably go without a hitch...except for all of the deaths in the leadup during construction...

 

[Major **********]

I missed the Italy-Uruguay match, but I have to admit when I first heard that Suarez might have bitten an Italian player (was it Chienelli?), I half wondered if the Italian dove and faked the bite, knowing it was Suarez. Looks legit, though.

I echo what Mike the Brit said above. Watching Group G has been a treat. Germany, Ghana, and the U.S. play the sport the right way and I can't wait for the Germany-U.S. match.

As for Qatar; it's a clear case of bribery. The World Cup WILL happen there despite the wishes of some who would love to see it relocated. It will probably go without a hitch...except for all of the deaths in the leadup during construction...

It won't go without a hitch since it will have to be held in December/January which would put it right in the middle of most leagues seasons. If the European FAs go along with it then they are just as culpable as the ones who took bribes. They should nut up and boycott the tournament unless it is awarded to a different more suitable location and time.

 

[Nikolai]

It won't go without a hitch since it will have to be held in December/January which would put it right in the middle of most leagues seasons. If the European FAs go along with it then they are just as culpable as the ones who took bribes. They should nut up and boycott the tournament unless it is awarded to a different more suitable location and time.

I know what you're saying, but it's merely wishful thinking; the same sort that everyone had in the leadup to the Beijing or the Sochi Olympics. Everyone wanted them to fail spectacularly or comically for some reason, and found every nit they could as a hopeful harbinger of doom. It didn't pan out in either case.

I'm no fan of the Qatar WC, but the realistic outcome is that the tournament will go forward as planned in the summer and there will be complaining about various things, but it will generally go well.

Doha, Qatar today is 110F and it feels like 104 with 7% humidity (http://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:00000.1.41170)
Manaus, Brazil is only 81F and feels like 86F with 84% humidity (http://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:00000.1.82331)

Weather wise it looks like a pick your poison scenario; high temps and dry, or warm temps and stifling humidity. Having been to the Middle East a few times, the heat there is definitely noticeable, but I find the summer heat on the East Coast of the US a bit more uncomfortable.

The bigger issue is the bribery and the appallingly bad safety conditions during construction.

 

[Kontradiction]

I missed the Italy-Uruguay match, but I have to admit when I first heard that Suarez might have bitten an Italian player (was it Chienelli?), I half wondered if the Italian dove and faked the bite, knowing it was Suarez. Looks legit, though.

I echo what Mike the Brit said above. Watching Group G has been a treat. Germany, Ghana, and the U.S. play the sport the right way and I can't wait for the Germany-U.S. match.

As for Qatar; it's a clear case of bribery. The World Cup WILL happen there despite the wishes of some who would love to see it relocated. It will probably go without a hitch...except for all of the deaths in the leadup during construction...

Suarez leaned into him and bit him. The bite was real, the dive was terrible and made both of them look like wimpy little nancyboys (and that's the kind way of putting it). If someone on that field wants Suarez to stop biting (I guess he's a punk from what I'm reading on here), why can't they get a bench warmer to either punch him in the face and break his jaw or take an actual man-sized dive at his knee and tear his ACL/break his leg? Would that guy automatically be banned from FIFA or is something like that considered horrible sportsmanship?