Not on that showing but we all know the one about great teams being those that can win when they're playing badly. Not sure how much I believe that but they're through now. Their tournament effectively starts again next week and frankly they can only get better and we know Messi can win a game on his own.

well sure messi is great but my point is the manager sucks

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=...e-2379693.html

Romero was the best Argentinian; that's quite a surprise.
Underserved win.
The TV pundit on my Qatar-owned French channel is a former player from Argentina who never played for the national team (played for Monaco and PSG). He was mad at Gago, sick of his slowing the game down, and wasn't too convinced of the way the pair Rojo-Di Maria played.
Argentina-Switzerland in the 8th?

ps- sabella is supposedly a good manager but seeing as how articulating the team is his job, i think he's failing horribly here. as a team, argentina is playing terrible so far. they look lost. messi can't save it all. chile and colombia are doing better with less stars. if only colombia had a good finisher, they could go very far.

Agreed, that is about how I felt about it, including the cheering for Iran in the 2nd half


Reza was a delight, wish at least one of his went in. As to Argentina, considering how thoroughly Netherlands dissected Spain and how lights out France was shooting, Argentina should really reevaluate their strategies here, because frankly getting a lucky Messi goal in injury time away from drawing against Iran isn't very inspiring..

CONCACAF teams have already passed the eye and smell test, here is some Data from FiveThirtyEight.com to support how they really have been the best teams in the Cup so far! All the other leagues have performed bellow statistical based projections, meanwhile CONCACAF is doing about twice as good as expected

finally a decent game! ghana good on the attack.

is germany trying to carry the tikitaka torch, or am i dreaming?

one thing i think germany might be missing is a 2nd holding midfielder. better organized on the attack than defending. i love how everyone swaps places all over though. loew throw an extra attacker in please. muller too lonely.

--

ps- only one boateng left! ha ha ha. seeing them go against each other was awesome.

Our first streaker!!

exciting 2nd half!

this was me during the last 15 minutes, gin rickey in hand:

"DON'T GIVE THE BALL TO OZIIIIIIIIILLLLL!!!!!! DON'T GIVE THE BALL TO OZIIIIIIIILLLLLLL!!!!!!!!"

great changes bringing in pigclimber + klose. khedira was dismal!

this group is going to be awesome.

this result i think is bad for the USA because germany is kinda gonna have to kill us.

lahm pussed out in front of the goal. so did ozil. it IS starting to look like tikitaka, ha ha ha.

Hey, don;t be dissing Ozil, he set them up for a great chance.

He kept losing balls and enabling Ghana though

My favorite games thus far (in no particular order)..

Costa Rica - Uruguay
Spain-Netherlands
Ivory Coast - Japan
USA - Ghana
Brazil - Mexico
Ghana - Germany

Through no fault of the game i managed to fal asleep 10 minutes into Germany-Ghana




Mine are probably

Australia-Netherlands
Both Spain games
England-Italy
USA-Ghana
Iran-Argentina
Australia-Chile

Guilty pleasure: anything involving Honduras.

I also REALLY liked the Australia-Chile and Australia-Netherlands, I think the Chile one was a little bit better..

those were good minutes!



netherlands-spain is my absolute favorite so far. "epochal" is the first word that comes to mind. there's a before and there's an after that game in the history of football. i screamed and howled and couldn't believe my eyes. van persie flying. robben running around like a rooster. the invincible armada crushed. magic!

england-italy. two distinct schools in battle, and the contest was even. italy was beautiful and england had danger, and it was just terribly entertaining.

germany-portugal. damn! germany opened up with big cannons. not sure where they are going after today but that was a big entrance.

england-uruguay. uruguay came back from the dead. and suárez was orpheus. unfortunately england wasn't as fun as it had been vs. italy.

germany-ghana. because germany didn't fuck up so much as ghana leveled up, which was the opposite of argentina earlier that day. well deserved result. and klose's somersault and his tie for top scorer. more history here. there are no more small teams. ghana the best african team i've seen this world cup. what will they do next?

chile-spain. we knew by then that spain could be beat, but chile did it with so much exuberance. the ugly part was spain's complete demoralization and san iker chewing his mouth like a very old man without teeth. i felt sad for them and del bosque like a defeated abuelito. sad!

colombia-ivory coast. lively!

brazil-mexico. loved that mexico took it to the brazilians. balls!

us-ghana. i liked that we won but it was ugly and it was a nail biter.

france swtzerland. the goals! but i didn't enjoy the part of switzerland getting massacred.

i did not enjoy seeing italy or uruguay fail before costa rica. but then i realized it wasn't a fluke and learned to enjoy it (for next time). same thing probably with netherlands-australia, while the netherlands won it was by a disappointing margin.

i haven't really enjoyed seeing brazil or argentina-- big disappointments so far. yes i liked brazil-mexico as an even contest but not as a candidate for world champion battling another team. get your shit together, fuckers! i didn't enjoy chile-australia for similar reasons but chile got it together now.

3 decent games today, Ghana vs Germany one of the best of the tournament so far. I think the European Teams bar the French & The Dutch have generally looked knackered in this 2nd round of fixtures. See England, Italy, Spain, Bosnia, Germany. Today Germany couldn't attack with the intensity they did in the first game, don't think they will win it.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to pad_023 again.

I don't know why, but the name Galveston always brings to mind Gavin Rossdale to me..

Huge game for US and Portugal tomorrow, its win or go home for Portugal so you know they are going to bring it hard, and it US wins, we advance. Probably one of the biggest games of the Group stage considering what is on the line for both teams, because if US loses suddenly Group G is literally wide open with Germany losing today..

what is this belgium?

i was sleepy this morning and forgot to add lukaku to my team but now im thinking it's no big tragedy. I HOPE I'M WRONG ANYWAY AND HE SCORES MANY! belgium has the players to be a strong contender but its airplane won't get off the ground. why why why? but why???

They were probably ready too soon.
Last year they were on top. The competition might have come too late.
This, or coach Wilmots is no great coach at all.
The players simply don't play.

Algeria's scoring nicely now. I'd like them to go through.

i forgot to put in halliche for abate and lost 8 points. ha ha ha ha ha ha.

a commentator here said that belgium seemed to play better when, in desperation, they broke the tactical plan & formation and played more freely.

the last 10 or so minutes were pretty great. and van buyten had a good day, no?

The rumours about Ronaldo dropping out were obviously crap

USA: Howard, Johnson, Cameron, Besler, Beasley, Bedoya, Beckerman, Jones, Bradley, Zusi, Dempsey.

Portugal: Beto, Joao Pereira, Bruno Alves, Ricardo Costa, Andre Almeida, Joao Moutinho, Veloso, Meireles, Nani, Postiga, Ronaldo.

vamonos, estados unidos
!

José, can you see???

Live by Time Howard, Die by Tim Howard, personally, I've always felt like Tim is overrated, he is such a fucking gambler, and while I know every goal scored against you is more or less on your keeper, it always seems like Tim gives up the kind of ones that could have been prevented..

/klinsmann will have to get you to push forward and support dempsey/ He's having you play like you're a goal up.

Wow! Go USA!

What a game!

Oh my God. In the dying seconds. Gutted.

Live by Tim Howard, Die by Tim Howard. Guy had some miraculous saves in this match, but Ronaldo is Rondaldo for a reason.

Great match!! USA can still be proud, even if they feel like they left something on the table. We're still alive, and we've played well against this Group of Death. Had USA won, not even just because of my being a total homer, but because it would have eliminated Portugal this would have been the best game of the Group stage. Still an epic game, and I am sure Portugal is feeling real nice about it.

Portugal is Portugal for a reason, USA can be very fucking pleased with our play, we held up for a loooooooooong time in this match, and drawing was as good as winning considering we knew Portugal would play for it all since they were facing elimination. Now its on Ghana and Portugal to beat each other to a draw or better, if Portugal wins but we draw or lose well (e.g. maintain a better goal differential) we are alive.

Portugal has to beat Ghana by THREE goals to get the tie breaker unless US totally shits the bed against Germany, but I definitely don't see us beating Germany but shit, a draw is possible. Even a loss if Portugal wins but by 2 or less goals takes us to the Round of 16. Ghana also has to win by two goals to get the tie breaker.. Group of Death is surprisingly looking like an advantage right now since those dudes have to play hard against each other to advance..

i almost puked my beer in that last minute


that's not how the math works

anyone can make it through right now

ps- i feel terrible for poor geoff whatsisname

pps- cameron. oyyy! poor guy.

USA 4 points, +1 goal differential
Ghana 1 point, -1 goal differential
Portugal 1 point, -4 goal differential.

I like those odds even if USA lose against Germany, and honestly, I don't see Portugal losing to Ghana in an elimination game, but even if they beat Ghana, they have to win BIG..

USA has +1 **BEFORE** playing germany

we don't know where we'll be at the end of thursday

as klinsi said, germany has an extra day to rest and USA just played in manaus, they don't have to travel, etc.

maybe ghana gives portugal a thrashing

That is true, but what if Portugal beats Ghana, do you see Portugal beating Ghana by 5?? Or if Ghana beats Portugal, do you see them beating Portugal by 2 AND US losing by more than 1??

I think USA can lose by as much as 2, Portugal can win by as much as 3, it will be good games for Germany AND Portugal and yet USA will be the lucky receiver. Like I said to begin with about Spain, it always comes down to capitalizing on some good luck. Look at how Portugal had that post AND Ronaldo missed that wide open kick right in front of the goal. It was like fucking Angels in the Outfield in that motherfucker....




USA got lucky and yet earned it by capitalizing on their good fortune, and truly Portugal proved to be the better team and being THAT good because even with a lot of bad luck (the refs were letting USA play and Portugal missed to great opportunities to score) they used their talent to capitalize and stay alive.

In other words, this whole damned group is coming down to who can use their talent to capitalize on some good luck. Portugal would need Germany to BRUTALIZE the USA similar to how they beat down Portugal. Ghana would need that too.. Meanwhile USA needs Ghana to beat Portugal, yet still be a close game. Meanwhile USA has to at the least not get creamed by Germany..

Yes, though technically ALL these teams are alive, in fact, we're facing that scary opportunity for 3-way ties..

ghana is only 2 goals behind us. if this world cup has shown us anything is that there are no small teams in global football (well, okay, there's still honduras, but such teams are becoming rarer).

i don't want to paint doomsday scenarios which anyone can figure out in their head, but everyone has to play their best for the last date.

Jogi and Jurgen both know it's in neither teams' interests to risk going for the win. A draw would keep Germany top and you 2nd which both sides would've taken at the start. If either team goes all out there'll be Italy fans shaking their heads at their tellys at the sheer naivety of it all.

Agreed completely, but you GOT to at LEAST like our odds.. That is the beauty of futbol, a draw can be as good as a win, and indeed, why I always like the Group stages best of all because every play and possession counts that much more since it can as in this group literally come down just to differentials..

By the way, also got to love the more balanced game tonight, USA was down most of the match yet the possession was more or less 50-50 as were the attacks plus we played slightly better defense than Portugal..

If Portugal gets eliminated then this game sneaks into my top 3, either way its somewhere in the top-7..

well they both speak the same language so i do have a real hope for a highly illegal but reasonable agreement from both *cough* parties *cough*.

that was my expectation from day 1, remember? ha ha ha ha.


let's see what cheeto sez about the USA passes now.