2014 FIFA World Cup: pre-tournament discussion

Actually it would be cool if those going kinda did updates on here about their trip etc. What they thought of the place, what they experienced. We get to live through you.

just been mugged, am back at Manaus fleapit without $$. please send to account no: 020 23456*** 025 asap. Ta. Much appreciated.

Would love to hear what you think of the places you visit, pleased you're going to Salvador, I loved Salvador when I was there (very briefly).

Going to be at Argentina vs Bosnia, Spain vs Chile, Belgium vs Russia, Equador vs France and RO 16 match all in Rio (hopefully England failing on penalties).

Also have tickets to Portugal vs Ghana, unsure if going to that at this stage.

Will post pics of copacabana "scenery"

Hopefully there's plenty of wifi over there, I'll post as often as I can but might look into a blog type set up (never been into blog territory before) just to make it easier to link here/twitter/fb etc.

HUP HOLLAND HUP !!!:
 

Man, am I envious! I support Holland too (my dad's Dutch).

Will be very interested in following your adventures on this forum.

Hope all the top players are fit because Holland don't have much depth (usually the case but even more so this time I think).

They had a relatively easy qualifying group (Romania, Hungary and Turkey weren't strong) so being undefeated didn't mean much.

I have my concerns about the defence - I don't recognize many of the names - none are widely known outside the Netherlands.

Vlaar is the only experienced first choice defender (aged 29) - the other three are 22 (two players) and 24.

The midfield looks pretty old and injury-prone: Sneijder (age 29), Van der Vaart (age 31), Robben ( 30) ,de Jong (29)

And the strikers are positively geriatric: Kuyt (33), Huntelaar (30), van Persie (30)

The side hasn't been playing well - haven't won any of their last four games (three draws and a loss) and two of those were at home, one neutral venue, only one away.

Disappointing they only managed a draw last weekend at home to Ecuador.

Hope they improve vs. Ghana and Wales (June 1 NZT and June 5 NZT).

HUP HOLLAND HUP

Go Holland Go          

• (YOU TUBE)                                                                                                                                

Trans.:    

"Go Holland go

Don't make the lion look foolish.

Go Holland go

Release the animal (lit: "don't put slippers on his claws")

Go Holland go

Stay undaunted

Because the lion wearing football boots

Can take on the whole world"

^^^Strootman?

whose everyones pick to win?  Im thinking Spain, maybe Germany...

England to lose on PKs to someone. for the 'first' time ever...

and Australia to get hammered. (outragous pick i know)

Maybe a Brazil v Argentina Final

Spain to lose in the semis (were easily brushed aside by Brazil in the Confeds Cup Final last year)

Germany to lose in the semis (European sides never previously very successful on  South American soil)

Will do well: Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Japan

England, France, Netherlands, Portugal and Italy will disappoint I feel.

The other Asian teams and the CONCACAF and African teams won't do so well I think.

Pretty handy world cup predictor here.

http://games.espn.go.com/world-cup-bracket-predictor/2014/en/bracket

In Manaus : Toucan play -

Topleft, apparently there is a fair bit of wifi over there.

My brother: "oh yeah, there is plenty of wifi over there, you're not going to..."

Me: "New Zealand..?"

Especially after Rooney gets sent home early following an unsavoury incident with a pair of Amazonian pole dancers (mother & daughter).

Friendly internationals from this year in full online for free incl. last week's Germany v Poland:

http://livefootballvideo.com/competitions/friendlies

One video for each half.

Another good site with international friendlies:

http://www.matchhighlight.com/category/full-matches-review/international-full-matches-review/

Full World Cup qualifiers from last year:

1. Europe: http://livefootballvideo.com/competitions/wc-qualification-europe

2. South America: http://livefootballvideo.com/competitions/wc-qualification-south-america

3. Asia: http://livefootballvideo.com/competitions/wc-qualification-asia

4. Africa: http://livefootballvideo.com/competitions/wc-qualification-africa

5. CONCACAF: http://livefootballvideo.com/competitions/wc-qualification-concacaf

Scroll down below the full matches for lots of highlights videos listed in each Confed. above.

All competitions available listed including internationals:

http://livefootballvideo.com/competitions#.U4BIRfmSySo

Just trying to add some balance. I'm fairly sympathetic to the Brazilian protestors, there are quite a few better things that a country like Brazil could be spending money on than a World Cup. Though to be fair, few countries don't...

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/world-cup-still-hasnt-started-2014052987044

I saw this in my local Tesco in Watford today:

They really must rate our chances of doing well in Brazil!

Thanks for reminding me of that website I'd forgotten to look at for ages - brilliant satire and humour !!!

 But you can only access seven free articles a month before you have to pay (this can be circumvented if you a have a very quick hand on your mouse and press the "go back" button after the message about reaching your limit and highlight and copy the article - then paste it somewhere). I would never do this and did not copy and paste the below articleS that way (errr...sometimes I do things in my sleep...)

All their World Cup humour can be found here (index):

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport

ZOOS UNVEIL WORLD CUP PREDICTING ANIMALS 

...But Mary Fisher, of Edinburgh Zoo, insisted: “Zebras know f*ck all about football. You want astounding predictions from a black-and-white mammal, check out the prescient picks from Tian Tian the giant panda, sponsored by Bet365.”

A spokesman for Berlin Zoological Garden said: “Tian Tian couldn’t even guess the winner of the Scottish Premier League out of Celtic or Celtic.

“She should stick to bamboo and fertility problems and leave the punditry to Gottlieb the giant anaconda, who tells us who the winner is by eating capybara painted with national flags.”

...Paul the Octopus, after successfully picking Spain as the winners in 2010, enjoyed sudden fame and embarked on a world tour before dying in the arms of a Las Vegas stripper.

2026 MONGO WORLD CUP TRIGGERS CONTROVERSY

02-06-14

FIFA has promised an investigation into the successful 2026 World Cup bid by the planet Mongo.

‘Come for the football, stay for the pleasure caves’

Work on the stadia has been plagued with rumours that unions have been suppressed, worker wages withheld and the entire world is enslaved by the threat of an enormous death ray.

Here are my predictions for progress from the group stage, quarter-finalists, semis and the Final:

Round of 16 (Top two teams in each group): 

Brazil, Croatia, Spain, Netherlands, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Italy, Uruguay, France, Switzerland, Argentina, Nigeria, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Russia, 

Likely to make the quarter-finals will be: Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, France (or Uruguay).

Semis: Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany

Final: Brazil v Argentina

I post this here so I can check back later in the tournament and either mock myself or appear very smug.

why do they waste their time with openning ceremonies. Yawn, give us the football!

I see in Stuff they are running a poll about the World Cup. Obviously all the Thugby Morons and Petone Nimby's have seen it too.

Fixed my shite spelling.

A pole?Been to busy watching football to look at Stuff.

Other than Spain and Uruguay I don't see any pick there that is unlikely to not come off.

The Swiss could miss out too.

Well it is all over now. Was certainly one of the better tournaments. One of the cleaner ones and one of the more positive ones. Some great goals and some great saves. Some not so shining lights lit brightly and some big names flattered to deceive. 

The match officials were ok overall. I thought the referee and linesmen in the final did a great job on not letting the game get out of control and filled with cynical fouls and acting. There were a few butnot as bad as in the past.

Sky Sports Five was great and I didn't have to suffer the TV 1 doseage. Although to be fair, I did give them 5 minutes and that was more than enough. Then there was the Keith Quinn of football comentators. Oh dear.

This site was bloody good. The input from my fellow users was both imformative yet there was also a stack of excellent humour in here. I rate this time round even better than 2010.

Managed to watch almost every game apart from when the last group games were played at the same time I chose one main one and kind of half watched bits of the other. Only game I missed entirely was Belgium-USA as I was en route to a work conference at the time and after avoiding the result all day my hotel room didn't have Sky Sport 4 or 5 so I couldn't see the evening replay. Also missed about the last 25 minutes of normal time of Argentina-Switzerland while travelling to the airport that same day but was then able to watch extra time before the flight. Was glad it didn't go to penalties as I had to run to board the plane as soon as extra time ended!

Going to have to make up some time at work now though thanks to all the extra time and penalties!

Best World Cup i have seen. So many great games and moments throughout.

Top 5 games that i saw (in no particular order)

- Spain v Netherlands

- Australia v Netherlands

- Brazil v Chile

- Germany v Ghana

- France v Switzerland

Missed some classics like Belgium-USA, Germany-Algeria and USA-Portugal because of work.

Only things missing: No proper comeback e.g. 0-2 to 2-2, lots of underdogs threatening but not quite winning e.g. Algeria and USA in the R16, favourites won virtually every knockout match.

Great tournament though.