4 hours til Brazil v. Croatia!

dont know what functionality you want (i assume live scores, etc). i'd suspect espn may have something (since they are it here).

all i have/need really is a calendar sync which you can grab here

webcal://www1.skysports.com/calendars/football/fixtures/competitions/worldcup

reason that's in my calendar is cuz-- they are appointments, ha ha ha.


wooohooo!!! my team has been waiting since yesterday (finally, what a headache).


i don't know how you could do that. i only have 1 real substitute, but he's a good one. the rest are a bunch of fillers from the land of the islamic revoution. no fucking way i'm gonna actually play them.

I'm in, last minute!

So I decided I was going to join this a few days ago, then got pretty much stuck picking a decent squad. I think I've made over 40 transfers already whilst googling the recent starting formations of Iran and Honduras during the quiet times at work... should've just looked at ZonalMarking right away.

I'll be supporting Argentina and Belgium once Holland are out and hope Brazil get eliminated asap so the celebrations won't get in the way of the demonstrations... wishful thinking probably, but bring it on!

If the USA make it out of group stage I will celebrate

I'll be drinking if the Dutch keep Spain on a goalless draw tomorrow.


edit: actually... if they don't, I'll be drinking too!

Univision live coverage

http://deportesenvivo.univision.com/...omepageStage:1

Of course Croatia scores the first goal of the Cup against my SYG fantasy goalkeeper.......

I played fifa just before kick off and croatia won 2-0
Just saying

i just dodged 2 bullets!

1) i had julio cesar as my keeper for a while. he was cheap and i was going to trust his defenders.

2) i wanted to get marcelo as my left back but couldn't afford him

my captain, on the other hand, seems to be playing great.

when can we see each others teams?

Neymar gets the points but I thought Oscar was Brazil's best player. Croatia probably deserved a draw though.

Yeah Oscar was really good. And Croatia looked really good too
should Neymar have gone off for elbowing Modric? Was it a pen? Should Croatia's disallowed goal have stood?
Good game though

(Yes, never, yes)

Not only do I ONLY watch this because I have to since I don't have cable, I only watch this because it is the ONLY announcers worth watching! I watched the ESPN guys last WC on the weekends and they were so bloody BORING, so I flipped it back to Univision dudes were PUMPED at EVERY SINGLE PLAY PERIOD. THAT is futbol my friends, we ALL should exclusively be watching Univision for the real passion of futbol, not those dry twits on ESPN.. Save yourself from the boredom, watch Univision coverage even if you don't speak Spanish, trust me, its worth it (Noted Bias: I more or less understand Spanish so I may be getting more out of it)

^^ they are pumped but they also talk a lot of bullshit-- it gets annoying.

i actually understand what they are saying, *all of it*, and there's a lot of hollering but little brains. i tried it for a while and switched back to espn.

the univision commentators can actually be pretty good, they make a good tactical analysis (depending who it is), but you have to wait for the joker announcers to STFU. i don't know how many times last year i wanted to slice the fucking throat of the announcer that kept saying "el cordero lahm" *every fucking time* lahm touched the ball. he did that 2 world cups in a row. *can't wait for the 3rd one.*

Referee is wanker.

Thought Neymar could've gone off but it would've been a bit harsh. No way a pen though. The disallowed goal was one of those where, cos Brazil's defenders effectively stopped playing once they heard the whistle it was more like a disallowed really good chance. 1-1 would've been fair on both teams.

I agree with that but those English dudes on ESPN let their brains get to their head and it ruins the game. They are essentially stuck in one gear, pessimism.



The best part is when the more serious dude silences the zanier dude with some comments in spot on albeit heavily accented Ingles. The highlight from the US friendly last weekend, "There is no crying in soccer my friend." ;)

Should be from the end of this 1st round on the 17th. I seem to remember that's how it worked for the Euros one too. Until the final game of the round people's scores will be all over the place as they swap players in and out each day.

All the more why I don't like fantasy sports. It ruins good shit, it can even ruin wins if the stats aren't right! That was a bad play by Brazil to be sure, but clearly they bounced back from it, as I hope your fantasy shit does too ;)

okay, if we can't yet see each other's teams, i'll post mine. it's a 3-4-3

gk: gigi buffon
d: ramos, chiellini, abate
mf: oscar ©, di maria, hazard, de bruyne
f: fred, higuaín, agüero
sub: lukaku, prolly in for fred (unless an argentinian does worse).

the rest are a bunch of nothings that i won't put up.


how many did he score? i got 26 from oscar (as captain, so 13 regular?)

a pity mandzukic was injured because he could have caught some of those crosses. their keeper sucked a bit though.

ps- with 6 more guys they could have done better!




who has players to swap all over? mang i only have 1 sub who will hopefully do better than 4-point fred. all i can do is sit tight for the next 2 weeks because my shot has left the gun for the most part.


they are easier to tune out though! double bonus.

Oscar looks like he could be a great buy. Fred though, I was close to picking him myself. So glad I didn't. Barely there tonight. Is he even a striker? He seems more like a decoy aimed at making space for Neymar.

If things go as planned my starting 11 is

GK: Romero (Arg)
DF: Rojas (Chile); Evra (Fr); Rojo (Arg); Alderweireld (Blg)
MF: Di Maria (Arg); De Bruyne (Blg); Valbuena (Fr); Fabian (Mx)
FW: (c)Neymar (Br); Benzema (Fr)

Subs I can realistically use are DF: Blind (Nl) and Samba (Ivory Coast); MF: Marchisio (It).

yo, how many points did neymar net you?

fred scored lots during the euros which is why i picked him. but he is operating exactly as cox predicted which is as you describe. HOWEVER, there are more things coming so i'm hoping he'll have chances. but i think i have enough forwards to cover his underperforming ass.

I made Neymar captain so he got me 28 points.

Hope for your sake Aguero's fit. Brilliant player but he seems to be carrying an injury.

didn't know about his injury! aghhhh.

anyway-- for everyone's enjoyment--bruce lee

I happened to catch that live and while he did legitimately get chopped in the throat why he grabbed his eyes I'll never know, maybe he was envisioning all the forthcoming memes humiliating him across BILLIONS of interwebs comments

Right here's mine

GK:Cesar(Br) Fucking knew I shouldn't have done this one
DF: Ekotto(Cameroon), Demichelis(Arg), Vermaelen (Belgium), Rodriguez (Swe)
MF: Mikel (Nigaria(don't ask), Vidal (Chile), Dembele (Belgium), Sissoko (France)
STK): Bony (IVC), Dzeko (B&H)

currently:

GK: Itandje (Cam)
DF: Rodriguez (Swi), Rojo (Arg), Ramos (Spa)
MF: Valbuena (Fra), Iniesta (Spa), Di Maria (Arg), Delgado (Hon)
FW: Messi (Arg), Neymar (Bra, Captain), Benzema (Fra)


likely subs:

GK: Cillessen (NL), Karnezis (Gre)
DF: Durm (Ger), Vermaelen (Bel)
MF: De Bruyne (Bel)
FW: Park Chuyoung (Kor)

+ half a dozen Iranians and Algerians... all filler, no killer.


I'm pleased with the Brazilian cunt scoring me 28 points, so I won't have to gamble on Messi without having watched him play. Really not sure about his current form, but that goes for a lot of players this tournament: Ronaldo, Suarez, Ozil, Neuer, Vidal, Costa, Fabregas, Van Persie, Aguero... all struggling with form, fitness, injuries or recovering from surgery.

The ITA/ENG/URU group just seemed too hard to call (they all look a bit unpredictable at the moment) so I completely avoided that and I didn't dare to pick any specific German or Spanish forwards either... you just can't predict which one is going to score for them. I'll be curious to see whether Durm will indeed start for Germany, could be a real bargain at only 4.5

I don't think Casillas and Courtois were worth the excessive price tag. Both of them made blatant errors during the Champions League final so I'm not gambling on them keeping clean sheets... opted for cheap alternatives instead.

I think France could do surprisingly well; if not then at least the group stage shouldn't be a problem for them. I'm hoping the same for Argentina but I haven't seen them since the last World Cup so I don't know, reallly.

Deserved win for Mexico. If Cameroon are playing that defensively against them, what will they do against Brazil or Croatia?

^^ yes deserved, in spite of the ref disallowing that corner kick goal, but helped by cameroon's sorry tactical approach---they were really slow on the break and didn't take advantage of mexico's defensive vulnerabilities. i don't know that any other team in that group will do that-- certainly not croatia.

good to see mexico much better under the current coach though. last year with chepo de la torre was an unmitigated disaster.

---

and that first netherlands/spain half time is the best so far. though that penalty was pure BS.

What a goal by RVP!

These games are too early, I'm drinking coffee.. I think going 1-1 in the first half makes the Oranges pretty happy about their play

i have ramos in my fantasy team but i don't mind shedding the points to such awesomeness.

here we go again!

From a perspective as Mexico's long time rival I must say, it does seem good to see them playing better, I mean, last year was so bad for them even WE felt bad! Its one thing to have a rivalry, its another to watch your rival collapse beyond being even remotely competitive! I want to beat them, not watch them get beat up! Hence why last night was also so bad for Miami Heat, I mean, I'm not a hater and all respect to the Spurs but really, watching Heat get annihilated 3 out of 4 games has been to say the least humbling.

In Orthodox Christianity, the focus is on embracing reality and getting away from the realm of fear and fantasy which dominates the human mind. We often let our projections of the future (as fears or fantasies) dominate our perspective, and really, that is naive. The future is totally out of our control, we can prepare for it, but we can't fear what hasn't happened and we can't celebrate what hasn't happened either! Ironically sports is almost entirely predicated on this human reality, that we prefer speculation about the future rather than embracing the present moment. I honestly believed Miami Heat could have beat the Spurs, and I am humbled to realize it was a fantasy, no matter how grounded in real life statistics. As to Mexico, I will admit to overly celebrating their demise, but also quickly missing the rivalry so now wishing them well. As to Spurs, thank you for the reality check, its important to be realistic, even if the situation sucks, how else can you honestly improve on it with out honesty?

The second half is even better ;)

Also let it be known from here out that I've been prophesying the end of Spain for the past 6 months and Netherlands helped to show that. Much like Miami Heat, Spain has too much mileage. Being the best isn't just about being the best team, but being able to (a) preserve some energy in the tank and (b) gracefully conceding when the torch is passed to a team with a bit more energy and more importantly hunger to win it all..

they lost the confederations cup to brazil last year


this is what we wait 4 years every time.

AMAZING.

Fuck, the Dutch nailed it HARD.

All props.

EXACTLY. That is precisely when I began prophesying their future demise from contention.


Yes, it WAS. That was a clinic, period. Hollanda came out swinging as hard as they went down in 2010, all the other contenders should be taking note.

Amazing game. Spain couldn't deal with Robben at all and Blind was a revelation. They seemed to completely collapse in the last 20 minutes. Holland could've easily won by a couple more.

That is the insane part, they were inching towards BASEBALL numbers, not futbol!

Wow! pokkeherrie will have to stay drunk for a whole week with that performance!
How I loved that game and the joy of each scorer (each Dutch scorer, Alonso's first goal looked like nothing important - and was it a penalty?).
It reminded me their 4-1 thrashing of France during Euro 2008 (that Robben goal then).

That header...
Those errors...

Ramos was at his worst...

Speaking of which, Ramos is in my fantasy team, as is Marcelo (on the bench)

GK: Cillessen (9 pts)
D: Srna (4), Ramos (7 - with that awful display?), Manolas
M: Oscar as captain (26), Pena (who will be subbed by someone playing soon), Di Maria and Arroyo
F: Vargas, Osako, Benzema

Those who could play
GK: Courtois, Haghighi
D: Marcelo, Halliche, Bouguerra and Sadeghi
M: Bentaleb, Bedoya, Lulic, De Bruyne
F: Emenike, Heydari

Agreed on Blind, his first assist was wonderful...