"Official" 2014 World Cup thread and poll, now with 100% more vuvuzelas

[Fire&Blood]

FIFA heads are too old school and ignorant. Ref's should walk around with tablets for instant replay and they could use a sensor array to kill the offiside issue once for all.

Croatia was robbed but they can recover. I'm concerned how Bosnia will fare, hope we don't get crushed.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Please, Brazil totally deserved the win... Just look at ball possession stats and shots on goal, Croatia had almost no opportunities throughout the entire game
So much so in fact their goal had to be scored by a Brazilian defender, lol

Yes, the penalty kick was bullshit and shouldnt have happened, but the 3rd goal by Oscar settled any "unfair" feelings you might have had about the win

 

[Fire&Blood]

Please, Brazil totally deserved the win... Just look at ball possession stats and shots on goal, Croatia had almost no opportunities throughout the entire game
So much so in fact their goal had to be scored by a Brazilian defender, lol

Yes, the penalty kick was bullshit and shouldnt have happened, but the 3rd goal by Oscar settled any "unfair" feelings you might have had about the win

30 secs before that goal they were barely escaping siege by Croatia, hanging by a thread, Croatia was really pushing hard for the equalizer.

Those stats are easily skewed by game pace and the teams tend to inflate them when the scoreboard is favorable. Italy for example are the masters of milking the clock. Thought it would be fair for Croatia to walk away with a point.

As for taking bets, here is something to think about: In 1992, Yugoslavia was disqualified from the Euro Cup because of the war. That allowed Denmark, which failed to qualify to enter the Cup. Yugoslavia was disqualified late, Denmark had a week to report to the Cup. Guess who won the cup...

 

[Vdubchaos]

Please, Brazil totally deserved the win... Just look at ball possession stats and shots on goal, Croatia had almost no opportunities throughout the entire game
So much so in fact their goal had to be scored by a Brazilian defender, lol

Yes, the penalty kick was bullshit and shouldnt have happened, but the 3rd goal by Oscar settled any "unfair" feelings you might have had about the win

They didn't deserve to win at all.

The worst penalty call in world cup history. Neymar should've gotten a yellow (2nd) and RED!!! I would suspend him for that act as well (3 games). That is just unacceptable.

That would've changed the rest of the game and Croatia looked WAY better offensively entire game.

Also, trip was a penalty for Croatia as well AND there was no foul on Cezar (should've been a goal).

Oscar goal was a newb toe kick and goalie mistake.

Croatia were the better team.

Brazil will not win this world cup. They looked very poor.

4th ref should be looking at replays and overwriting pathetic calls. That ref should also be fired for life and never ref another game again.

 

[Jodell88]

^^
LMAO!!!!

As far as egregious calls go for world cups, this match was a non-event.

 

[squarecut1]

Please, Brazil totally deserved the win... Just look at ball possession stats and shots on goal, Croatia had almost no opportunities throughout the entire game

There is no such thing as "deserving" to win, that too based on ball posession

 

[KMFJD]

Croatia got screwed by 2 bad calls for sure but Brazil was way better

http://gfycat.com/ArtisticSecretBalloonfish

flopity flop

 

[squarecut1]

The only thing that makes a team "deserving" to win is to score more goals than the other team in a fair manner. Not ball possession, not being a better team and so on

The beauty of a fine sport lies in the fact that the better team may lose. Some sports provide that opportunity more than other sports

 

[lozina]

Wow Brazil looked terrible.

It's a good thing they slipped that referee a huge bribe during half time.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Wow Brazil looked terrible.

It's a good thing they slipped that referee a huge bribe during half time.

Something cause the calls were ridicules. Croatia got robbed.

 

[CrimsonWolf]

Brazil probably would've still won but man Croatia got shafted.

An epic NBA-worthy flop and bad refereeing... it's a perfect start for the World Cup! :awe:

 

[Jodell88]

At the end of the day Brazil scored 4 goals and Croatia scored none.

 

[yuchai]

Brazil will not win this world cup. They looked very poor.

Did you predict the same for Spain after their first game in 2010? One game doesn't mean that much. In fact, I'd say that lucking out on a poor game is one of the usual traits of eventual winners.

 

[postmortemIA]

Did you predict the same for Spain after their first game in 2010? One game doesn't mean that much. In fact, I'd say that lucking out on a poor game is one of the usual traits of eventual winners.

yep poor game early = plenty of time to adjust and to forget about it. It is much better to have it now than 2 wks later.

Croatia was close, they did deserve a draw, but they would not get draw 9 of 10 times against Brazil

 

[squarecut1]

That penalty was so bogus

 

[squarecut1]

Spain vs Netherlands - what a terrific match this would be!

 

[Vdubchaos]

Spain vs Netherlands - what a terrific match this would be!

Hopefully not as horrible as the last final.....that was just bad.

I hope Holland wins, but only if they play good football, not the fouling crap they pulled last time.

It's expected that Spain will play a boring game....

 

[tynopik]

is there some reason they can't have replay review of penalties?

 

[squarecut1]

is there some reason they can't have replay review of penalties?

It will slow down the game. Only after all this time and after much reluctance, they have put in goal line technology in this world cup.

A little bit of technology is fine, but you don't want to put in too much. It takes away from the flow and beauty of the game. Look at American football. It is basically commercials interspersed by a little bit of game. But then everything here is so commercialized.

 

[Red Storm]

That was definitely a terrible call by the ref. But even with the help, Brazil did not look very good in that game. I think the Cup winner will be one of the European teams.

 

[tmc]

soccer (all sports for that matter) is full of terrible calls (the first time i was old enough to realize was in the 1990 world cup final).

nobody will change it and nobody cares. only when people stop watching until it changes (i.e., hurts on the moolah!!!) then there will be a change.

 

[squarecut1]

soccer (all sports for that matter) is full of terrible calls (the first time i was old enough to realize was in the 1990 world cup final).

nobody will change it and nobody cares. only when people stop watching until it changes (i.e., hurts on the moolah!!!) then there will be a change.

Ha....as long as there is life on earth, soccer (or more properly called as football) will be the most popular sport on earth, by some distance.

It is not my favorite sport though, only second favorite.

 

[GasX]

I'm always amazed at some of the odds for this kind of stuff. I mean, Iran is 2000-1. You'd have to be nuts to bet that... it should be more like 50,000 to 1 or something to make it really worth your while, because the reality is that unless every other squads plane goes missing flight 370 style, they won't be winning anything.

Odds making is a business. Few people are stupid enough to bet on Iran. 2000-1 is enough to stimulate some interest in betting for the hell of it. It's just free money for the bookies.

 

[tynopik]

It will slow down the game.

how many penalties are called per game?

A little bit of technology is fine, but you don't want to put in too much. It takes away from the flow and beauty of the game.

Was the Brazilian flop part of the flow and beauty of the game?

Maybe if people knew flops wouldn't work, they would stop flopping and there would be fewer penalties called and it would improve the 'flow and beauty' of the game, eh?

 

[squarecut1]

how many penalties are called per game?

A penalty not given is also a disputed decision. Once you put review system in, the referee would be forced to review something every few minutes, in order to be 100 percent sure. It will open a whole can of worms and kill the flow of the game.