Cameroon were doomed before the Tournament even started, what with playing in a strong group when not fielding one of their strongest teams.. In actuality ALL the African teams have been struggling, it seems the luster of playing IN Africa in 2010 carried the African teams a lot father then maybe they should have.

That being said, I hope Ivory Coast advances, respect to Ghana but I think Ivory Coast is a team with more potential, raw talent wise.

Not against Uruguay he wasn't, or Italy

108 goals so far, there might be more goals scored in just the group stage than the whole of South Africa. Today was great, loved Mexico their clash with Holland should be interesting. Really like their coach he seems absolutely nuts.

Prediction for tomorrow

Uruguay 2-1 Italy
England 2-2 Costa Rica
Ivory Coast 2-0 Greece
Colombia 3-1 Japan

points today:
ramos 9
oscar 7
fred 10

i had ramos as captain but switched for oscar. doh!

now i switched again for chiellini for captain tomorrow. or should i do buffon?

(i don't think he'll have a clean sheet but he's bound to have a lot of saves)

I'll give you that. I admit that Ashley Col would never have that the cross for Italy's second goal get to that point. HOWEVER, was Baines' pressing further up because of Hodgson telling him to do so.
Baines always pressed pretty high up at Everton, but not to the point where they conceded silly goals.

Anyhoo it'll be interesting to see how Luke Shaw does in his place tonight.

oh, balotelli, you dumb dumbshit!

this is the more boring 45 minutes of futbol I've watched.. IN YEARS!!

The ref is NOT letting Italy play meanwhile Uruguay simply doesn't want to score even while the refs are doing everything the can to gift wrap this one for them! Oh yeah, its an epic flop battle like I've never seen..

Maybe it won't take a superstar player to break football in the USA, but a manager as GIF-friendly as Herrera





A coach suchfriends can finally relate to

I was going to support England tonight because I liked their performances against Italy and Uruguay and felt they could've gotten more, but I just had a look at how the knock-out schedule is shaping up and decided that Costa Rica needs to win that group:

likely 1/8 finals:

1. Brazil vs Chile
2. Colombia vs Italy/Uruguay
3. France vs Nigeria
4. Germany vs Algeria

5. Netherlands vs Mexico
6. Costa Rica vs Cote d'Ivoire
7. Argentina vs Switzerland/Ecuador
8. Belgium vs USA


The teams from games 1-4 can't meet the teams from games 5-8 until the final. Of course, there are no small teams anymore, etc blabla yadda yadda, but which side of that knock-out schedule would you rather be in?

Or to put it differently: if Argentina don't go all the way in that schedule then one of the finalists will be a massive surprise.

(vamos Costa Rica!)

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to demonrail666 again.

At least the USA coaching has some choreography ;)

The Good..

An Argentina-Netherlands semi final seems nailed on but, while Netherlands have been a bit up and down, they've still looked better than Argentina so far.

Hahahaha. I didn't see that. QED

The Bad

Touchdoooooown!!!!"

"fuuuumble"

And The Ugly

Sorry, would've used basketball terms but I don't know any

red card for marchisio? holy mother of triple fucks!!!


oh he got caught rubbing the studs. good ref. wtf italy.

right in front of the ref lol.

Hahaha...

the first one would have been "and-1" and the latter would have been "came up with a big steal.."

As to that red card, meh.. Uruguay has been gift wrapped this match like it was boxing day, and yet, clearly they just don't want it. I think Italy will pull it off..

^ you're misreading the game. is not about "not wanting" anything. they've both been careful.

I've been watching this game since 9AM.. I've seen Uruguay flop around like crazy and the ref blowing whistles more than I've seen in a single match in years.. Meanwhile the score is still 0-0...

Every time Italy tries to get something going suddenly there is a phantom whistle... Its getting old fast. I've seen this ref a few times now, he is always this bullshit with his whistle, but today its bordering on a comedy of the absurd...

Uruguay meanwhile, has largely been the beneficiary of these whistles.. what is the score again? Right. Cero a Cero ;)

watch something else then

What, like the Costa Rica-England match is going better?

Let me ask you honestly, as a fan of Italy are you honestly in anyway even remotely impressed with this game?

Did I just see Luis Suarez try to bite someone, for a third time??

i love both teams. not "impressed". it's a very tough grind. both teams play rough and dirty.

2 yellows, 1 red, chiellini vs. suarez, etc.

think 2 tectonic plates pushing for the earthquake

oh, there's the goal uruguay "didn't want"

maybe he'll take it back!

You taking too much offense to my saying "they didn't want it" its not as big a deal as you're making it.

Moral of the game, both teams had plenty of chances to score and really seemed to be playing hot potato with it.. Meanwhile Uruguay finally got one, in the highest scoring Group stage in World Cup history......... .... .....


should I give them a cookie?

you're misreading the game. i'll explain after it's over.

Just an awful game, up there with Iran/Nigeria.

Oh Suarez...oh Suarez...

EDIT:I was talking about the England on the first line.

HOWEVER! From what it sounds like the Italy game was just as bad.

You can break down this game, dissect all the formations and tactical adjustments, but it will all come down to the same thing....

There was an endless parade of flops, gaffes, and half-assed plays. There were way too many whistles which seemed to almost completely thwart Italy's offensive chemistry. By the final 1/3 of the match, it became clear that both teams understood the ref was whistle crazy and increased the flopping. I bet if we go back and count, like 15% of the 97 minutes of this match involved people standing around looking at a dude flopping on the ground.

Anyway, I know you like Italy, sorry for your loss, boring or not.

I dunno. A shit game is a shit game. No matter how you look at it.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to h8kurdt again.

so they got footage of that dude biting? anyone have a gif to share?

i enjoyed the drama (and some comedy)


ha ha-- i'm happy a south american is going through! i didn't want either team to lose but i'm very happy for uruguay. except they probably just lost suarez.

so so here's how i saw that game

italy qualifies with a tie. uruguay needs to win.

both teams have a strong defense. both teams are very strong on the counter. both teams have game-changing strikers (balotelli, suarez). both teams are sneaky and play dirty.

uruguay has an incentive to win but can't throw themselves up front with everything because one good italian counter can erase their chances.

italy needs to watch their goal but they need to slow uruguay more than anything.

therefore, both teams attack cautiously during the first half. they want to score but neither can overcommit. camoranesi call the game "tibio" (warm, or lukewarm-- i.e. not hot). however, tactically, this made sense for reasons explained above.

at the same time, there's a lot of dramatics trying to game the ref. chiellini throws himself on the ground grabbing his face when he wasn't hit in the face. he does that several times. two or three, can't recall.

then balotelli starts acting erractic and practicing kung-fu. gets carded. that was the beginning of italy's destruction.



at the halftime, balotelli is no more. this is a terrible loss for italy because they lose their unpredictable danger upfront.


parolo comes in, verrati goes on the attack. both teams start pushing a little more, but not too much. fouls continue, cards, etc.

then marchisio gets thrown out on a vicious foul. maybe not so deadly but lots of ill intent and right in front of the ref's eyes. univision calls it a good call, espn calls it over the top. lol!

so tabárez sees the opening-- takes pereira and puts in an attacker.

[eta: this didn't work as planned. instead it allowed italy to go on the counter.]

then immobile goes out and cassano comes in and i know italy is fucked. immobile is tired, but cassano is a useless degenerate. italy has no options up front.

now comes suarez with a dangerous shot on the ground and buffon makes a tremendous save

then chiellini and suarez start fighting and looked like both should ahve thrown out. on later review (on univison at least) we find out about the biting.

uruguay scores.

italy goes on the attack but leaves themselves open to counters.

suarez now looks tired.

in the end, buffon in the area trying for a goal.

and now after uruguay finally triumphs, all we're talking about is suarez biting people.

the agony and the ecstasy and then the agony again.

i enjoyed the game-- not for what was evident on the movement of the ball, but for the enormous tension & trench warfare.

and i was ready to be happy for uruguay but now what happens to suarez?

I thought he didn't bite today, but it sure looked like he was about to when he inched in to whisper sweet nothings to an Italian defenders' ear ;)


EDIT: Apparently he did try to bite the dude today.. Classless motherfucker..

http://thebiglead.com/2014/06/24/lui...italy-uruguay/
Here is him going full cannibal defense

^^ESPN had closeups of the tooth action. he bit alright. stabbed with the incisives.

search on vine, i'm sure shit will appear.

I think he needs to be banned or at least suspended for more than one international game ONLY because this biting people is a trend for him, and it was one thing to do it in league futbol, its a totally different fucking animal to be cheating on such a big stage, in such an important clinching match at the fucking WORLD motherfucking CUP.

If you ask me, Suarez is the most classless fucker in futbol. The guy clearly has some of the best talent IN THE WORLD, indisputably, but he keeps blatantly cheating in big games time and time again. It amazes me that the entire world seems to hate Lebron James, yet give this cheating fucker a pass? Meh

The ball don't lie, just like it didn't lie last time Uruguay cheated against Ghana in the World Cup, and it won't lie again this year, Uruguay kiss your chances goodbye..

Si signor!!