I missed some of the vuvuzelas, but only from the games where South Africa actually played because in those games folks actually used the vuvuzelas in the "correct way" whereas in all the other games, a lot of people just thought they were noise makers and blew on em like crazy for no particular reason. In South Africa the vuvuzelas are like a drumbeat, it is organized, almost choreographed and timed as it builds into a crescendo. However, when all the well-intentioned non-South African visitors blew on it, they were just making an annoying racket. I confess to watching several matches on mute in 2010..

this is not about euro anything. i was disputing your notion that mexico's plan was to gum up the works and go for the 0-0. that's not what they tried for-- yes that's what they got in the end, thanks to some good saves, but it was impossible to control for that. mexico obviously tried to win and go on the attack whenever the option was available.

mexico defended well, and yes they were a bit more destructive, especially early on, but they slowly built, and went on the attack, and created chances, and tried to score, and forced brazil to defend, and dominated some portions of the game-- that's not any kind of negative football, nor playing for a tie, nor trying for a 0, and no shot missed the goal on purpose--those misses were just a lack of quality, just like brazil's attack was sloppy but *not because they wanted 0-0*. even though obviously the tie feels like a win, and mexico benefits more from the result, no team on that pitch was focused solely on defense today. mexico was forced to defend, but if you notice, it was actually brazil that did better when it didn't have the ball-- they were comfortable without possession and their counterattacks were better.

and no, it's not like basketball. insert winky-winky.

I can't rep you but thats fucking amazing

yes-- if you take "crazy" as the operative word there.

while i enjoyed the open nature of the game, which is always entertaining, brazil's attacks were really sloppy and uncoordinated and unrefined for a team that aspires to win the world cup.

ochoa's saves were great, but without taking any merit from his great work, those balls were all saveable and lacked surprise. jo and willian brought nothing but predictability, i think they were useless substitutions. and neymar at times too much the ball hog, which is either selfishness or a lack of coordination with the rest of the team. i'd bet on #2-- after thiago silva's header, nobody came in to finish or help out, brazilians were just standing there.


i fear the same :/
(not that you'd fear that, but i do)

Yes but there attacks were to rushed and only produced bad shots, they had only 3 shots on goal out of 13... Meanwhile they were playing formations with most of their bodies on their own side of the pitch to thwart Brazil's otherwise more accurate attacks. Brazil took 14 shots, with 8 on goal. Mexico to 13 shots with 3 on goal. If the numbers don't speak for themselves its beyond argument so I see your point, I just agree to disagree. And yes, it is about Euro everything, we're talking about totally different styles of play. Mexico played its game, Brazil played its game, Mexico pulled off something more like an upset even if it was a draw.


Those shots lacked quality because they were rushed, often one on one situations, meanwhile Brazil was always offering a more balanced attack,passing the ball around on Mexico's side trying to open up Mexico's defense. Mexico didn't do anything like that, they attacked, but they weren't smart about it, it didn't even look like they were honestly focused on that, considering most of the guys on the pitch spent most of the time camping out on the other side, meanwhile you saw Brazil running up and down on every possession.


I never implied Brazil as playing for a draw, but the clear effort towards a more balanced approach on offense they were playing to score, and it showed by how many saves Mexico had to get just to get this draw, meanwhile the goalkeeper for Brazil was looking like he had it on easy street..


I disagree, didn't you see Mexico stuck on a 4-2-2-2 formation with those 4 guys almost permanently camping out, or as you say, parking the bus, in front of the their goal daring Brazil to shoot?


Brazil was better at every level of the game, but that is expected. Brazil is playing with legitimate intentions to win it all (though their performance as demonrail mentioned leaves us thinking they aren't legitimately contending), Mexico is playing to stay alive as long as possible. Personally, when they took out Dos Santos and Peralta I felt they were throwing the white towel in in regards to their attack. If they didn't play for a draw in the first 80 minutes, it became clear that as you said, Brazil was controlling the game and so in the final minutes they clearly settled for it.


No its not, in basketball playing like that offensively would have cost Mexico the game by a significant margin, probably a 20 point deficit easily so I'm sure Mexico is glad as fuck they don't play basketball unlike Spain or Argentina who play pretty well and both futbol AND basketball ;)

Thank you. I've noticed it too. He overplays like mad, as though obsessed with trying to beat defences singlehandedly. I'd think of it as selfish or the pressure of being Brazil's main man, but then I see Fred and realise Neymar probably doesn't have much choice but to go it alone. Either way, for all his flair, I can imagine him being quite straightforward to defend against - in this team anyway. But then none of the top billed 'big three' (Neymar, Messi and Ronaldo) have been that impressive yet.

All the more why I am legitimately concerned but remotely scared of Ronaldo on Sunday. When stars take their own players out of the game by trying to do too much with the ball on their own it almost negates their own superstar level of talent.

Fred and Jô are awful. This has to be the worst Brazilian squad since I can remember.
Marcelo had a one on one with Ochoa and could’ve sealed the game but decided to hit the deck.
Thiago Silva dodged a red card, the second Brazil should have had in the tournament.

Mexico - Croatia for the runner-up will be interesting.

Yes, Brazil has been blatantly benefiting from "home-cooking" by the officials. In fact, as much as I like the "let em play" approach I think the refs had been terrible at controlling the dirtier plays. A few yellows and penalty kicks here and there change the whole complexion of the match, but when refs let dudes get away with too much shit, it just keeps escalating and escalating, case in point: Uruguay's last match or even Ghana yesterday. Dudes just keep blurring the line between physical and dirty play, and that is where a few well timed whistles are supposed to balance it out.

FANTASY LEAGUE COPYPASTA

LAST ROUND
Points 85
Rank 189697 --> 189334 <-- this moved up overnight

---

YOUR PITCH

Rais MBOLHI
8 Pts <-- best bang for the buck!

Rafik HALLICHE
4 Pts

Giorgio CHIELLINI
7 Pts


Sergio RAMOS
9 Pts


Eden HAZARD
7 Pts


OSCAR
26 Pts <--- CAPITÁN

Angel DI MARIA
5 Pts


Kevin DE BRUYNE
7 Pts


FRED
4 Pts


Gonzalo HIGUAIN
6 Pts


Romelu LUKAKU
2 Pts <---- MEGADISAPPOINT!

---

YOUR BENCH

Goalkeepers

Rahman AHMADI
0 Pts

Gianluigi BUFFON
0 Pts

Defenders

Ignazio ABATE
0 Pts

Juan MONTES
0 Pts

Santiago ARIAS
4 Pts

Eder BALANTA
0 Pts

Midfielders

Nabil BENTALEB
7 Pts <---FLEW UNDER THE RADAR, BEAT DIMARIA

Hashem BEIKZADEH
0 Pts

Bakhtiar RAHMANI
0 Pts

Edder DELGADO
0 Pts

Forwards

Sergio AGUERO
3 Pts <--- took him out for Lukaku. ooops!

Rony MARTINEZ
0 Pts

I think Korea AND Russia are mutually happy with their draw, all things considering.

Jocks hi.

My one thought on the Mexico game...I suspect Ochoa ain't gonna be a free agent come the end of summer.

Oh and I agree with Brazil really not being that impressive. Fred is just, well, he's just shit and there's no other way to describe it.

Agreed on Germany, but let's not get carried away by the Dutch result on Friday. Expectations were really low beforehand and when I said I would celebrate a goalless draw with Spain last week I sure wasn't joking. Despite that one freak scoreline Brazil would still be the big favourites, should the teams meet.

Thiago Silva alone costs about the same as the entire Dutch backline. Cillessen, Janmaat, De Vrij, Martins Indi and Blind all play in the Dutch league where they are used to defending against the likes of Aron Johannsson, not Neymar et al. Most of them have barely played any European games and none of them has appeared at a big tournament before.

So far we've seen Brazil being able to collect the points without playing well, knowing they can do better. We've yet to see the Dutch on an average day or, god forbid, a bad one. The team is heavily relying on Robben and Van Persie up front and the Dutch central defense looks vulnerable when put under pressure. Hence the 5-3-2 switch by Van Gaal after Strootman's injury, but the Dutch have only played 3 games in that system so far and the first one was less than a month ago. Martins Indi, De Vrij and Janmaat have played it at Feyenoord though... their manager Ronald Koeman has used the same system a few times since January.

But first it's Australia, one game at a time.
I'm really curious to see Del bosque's plans for the Chile game as well.

Agreed, it's really annoying to see referees falling for that. So far it's two red cards not given to Neymar and Thiago Silva and one bullshit penalty while the score was level with Croatia. Another reason why I wouldn't want to see Holland play the home team and "should be champions".

Being born Brazilian has even benefited Diego Costa as well (red card + penalty). Croatia should really start Eduardo tonight. :rolleyes:

I found the Russia/Korea match to be very exciting!

That'll be fascinating. Chile seem very similar to Spain in the way they set up. Could provide a rare instance of two sides trying to tiki taka their way past one other.

Here's what I would do:

- - - - - - - - - - - - Iker - - - - - - - - - - -
Juanfran - - Piqué - Ramos - - Jordi Alba
- - - - Javi Martínez - Xabi Alonso - - - -
Koke - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Iniesta
- - - - - - Pedro - Diego Costa - - - - - - -

what I think Del Bosque will do:

- - - - - - - - - - - - Iker - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Azpilicueta - Javi Martínez - Ramos - J. Alba
- - - - - - Busquets - - - - - Xabi Alonso - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Koke - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - Pedro - - - - Iniesta - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - Diego Costa - - - - - - - - -

Scores for MD2
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?pli=1#gid=0