Brazil 2014

[johnny]

[johnny]

Tbh..i don't think anyone here expected this to happen, the overall sentiment was either we wouldn't even make it through the groupstage, or we would go through as second and then get eliminated by Brazil in the first knockout matchup. Now we find ourselves in the situation where a win over Australia will most likely render the matchup against the strong Chilians unimportant, but we can also avoid a clash with the Brazilians in next round, and before you know we can once again go a long way in a worldcup tournament, and i drink to that.

[Greything]

England fans drink win or lose.

Experience tells us it's better that way.

[johnny]

Kudos to Australia for that performance, a team with heart, you deserved more.

[ZFR]

Yes. For some reason I don't like the Australian team much, but they deserve high praise. That first goal was amazing.

Bye bye Spain. I don't dislike the Spanish team per se, but a lot of their new batch of young fans (and Barcelona's and RM's) are arrogant little kids. No offence meant to their normal supporters.

And I'll take this thread as an opportunity for my usual rant regarding the world cup and the necessity of changing qualification rules.
What we have here is not the best 32 teams in the world, but the best n teams from each confederation. In effect it's a Confederations Cup, only instead of 1 team from each confederation, we have a different fixed amount.

And it leads to a lot of resentment. The Asians and Africans feel they don't have enough berths. On one hand you can't blame them (e.g. today's Netherlands vs Australia match), on the other you can't but feel that giving them more can lead to lowering of football level in the world cup.

Solution? Intercontinental playoffs. Put all teams from all federations into mixed qualification groups with seeds/pots based on FIFA rankings. Asians feel they deserve more than 4 spots? Well this way they can get all 31 if they qualify against European and South American teams. And if they can't, then why do they feel they deserve more? Let them get only 0...
Surely this will increase the level of participating teams and be very fair to all concerned. And today transport is no longer the issue it once was.

(Note, I wouldn't mind a first round of local qualifications for lowest ranked teams. There is no point Andorra playing against Bhutan, or Djibouti vs Antigua and Barbuda).

[johnny]

I applaud that post above me

[ElfBane]

John Oliver FIFA rant... you'll love it, but it's long.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/06/john...-last-week-hbo .

[ZFR]

The Belgium-USA and Algeria-Germany eighth-finals showed what an excellent decision it was to remove the golden goal rule and revert to the way it was... No way you could see extra times like these with sudden death enabled.

Too bad Netherlands and Costa Rica are playing each other. From the teams remaining in the tournament, these 2 are the ones I'd most like to win. Other than them, I also like Colombia, though part of me wants a European team to get the cup from South American soil...

[johnny]

Originally Posted by ZFR The Belgium-USA and Algeria-Germany eighth-finals showed what an excellent decision it was to remove the golden goal rule and revert to the way it was... No way you could see extra times like these with sudden death enabled. Too bad Netherlands and Costa Rica are playing each other. From the teams remaining in the tournament, these 2 are the ones I'd most like to win. Other than them, I also like Colombia, though part of me wants a European team to get the cup from South American soil...

That would be a first in the entire history of worldcup football.

[ZFR]

Wow.