quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Well you're more acquainted with the players and the team than me so I have to defer to your opinion, but my impression of Low has always been that he's pretty tactically astute, and is good at analysing the opposition and creating a specific tactical solution to exploit their weaknesses, which is a very important attribute to have in tournament football. I also think the national side's marked improvement since he took over has been partially down to his implementation of a "game of sprints" with extremely rapid passing and high work rate. And I don't think he's done too much wrong in previous tournaments - in 2008 and 2010 you simply lost to the better side. The loss to Italy in 2012 was a shock, but Italy have always been Germany's nemesis. From what I've read, his selection of players for the national side has been informed by players he knows to perform well for him, rather than players in form for their club. In 2010 Klose was totally out of form all season, but he was selected for Germany, played every match and did really well. I can understand how this is seen as being stubborn, especially with the talent pool of German players, but it seems to work pretty well. And Germany won 9 and drew 1 of their qualifying games (the 1 being a crazy 4-4 draw with Sweden) so which "disastrous" results are you talking about? He experiments a lot in friendlies, it's true, and he shouldn't really be trying to copy Guardiola, but I would be surprised if he makes any outrageous tactical decisions in Brazil.

The loss to Italy and a recent 1-1 in a not-so-friendly friendly gave me and many people in Germany the impression that Löw is and was unable to find solutions against teams of a high technical and strategic level. A notable event was how easily Jupp Heynckes' Bayern team defeated Juventus in the CL last season. Now the comparison Bayern->Germany; Juve->Italy might not be all that accurate but it might explain why some think Löw is not good enough for the highest level. Same story with Bayern - Barca: Heynckes found a way to deal with their style, and while I agree that Spain was the better team in 2010 the impression remains that Löw never had any clue how to play against them and probably won't have any if we meet them in 2014.

Now since you mention the Sweden game it should be noted that our second game against them ended 5-3. "It was a crazy game" doesn't excuse anything, so how on earth is it possible that we concede 7 goals against Sweden? Löw even has the advantage that he recruit most players from Bayern and Dortmund, unlike other nations who put up 11 players from 11 different clubs. And yet he failed to develop a working defensive concept, even against second grade opposition.

Then there are his many unsuccessful experiments to copy trends. When it was the rage to play without a real striker, like Barca, Löw would randomly put midfielders like Götze, Schürrle, Reus or Podolski up front. And of course it never worked for him. I could complain endless about his selections, a common impression that even the media has picked up is that he just dislikes players like Gomez, Schmelzer and Hummels and prefers inferior alternatives over them.

In the end I would agree that he has a certain level of tactical competence but is nowhere near the top managers. My worry is that Löw can easily lose matches by meeting a tactically superior side, trying pointless experiments at the wrong time, picking the wrong players just because they did well 2 years ago and by conceding too many goals in general. Most of the time the sheer skill of our midfielders and offense will prevail, but when it won't Löw is not the man to find the solution.

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Having Gomez start up front, I believe, would prove to be a very wise decision for the Germans. You have to wonder sometimes how much say the manager actually has, compared to the political pressure that most likely exists that determines someone else gets selected for a team over a player the manager would have chosen otherwise.

I have a feeling that this is what is happening with Scolari's decision to select Cesar in net when, A) He hasn't played in a few months and Scolari said he's only selecting active players and B) In my opinion, there are much better options out there then Cesar at the moment anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Frenkieee edit: my main concern with France was the fact that the FIFA decided to make some last minute change to the rules so that France wasn't placed in the last bucket.

Well that's totally in line with us being not head of the group. 28 points in Europe qualifying, highest score, same as Germany.
Who wants to check: http://www.fcupdate.nl/wk-2014/kwal...e/europa/stand/

FIFA is a joke and Blatter proved it again with the shortest minute of silence in history. 11 seconds...



Belgium is already walking next to it's shoes. Not that I don't hope they will be successful, but we, Holland, know playing well before the tournament and being able to play that good at the tournament is something completely different.
Despite that, we probably are going to do as if we are gonna win, but that's just good for the mood and even better for the fun

For us it's going to be some difficult matches, even against Australia, who for sure have a stronger will to win.

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What a great head of hair. It's gotta be a wig.

quote:

Originally posted by OrangestO What a great head of hair. It's gotta be a wig.

Nope, it's real

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quote:

Originally posted by Trance-MB Belgium is already walking next to it's shoes.

Please elaborate on this

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Man for man they don't have nearly the strongest team...

Nigga please.

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Brazil's opponents

Mexico is always a threat to Brazil, no matter what. However, i've watched CONCAF qualifies and i must say, they've been playing horribly bad. Like, really really bad. Probably, in my opinion, one of the worst teams right now. USA did all the job to qualify Mexico. Unbelievable.

Croatia is decent, tactically organized but lacks of creativity and individuality. They will try everything to make a 0-0 against us. Still, we have to keep our eyes open, modern Eastern Europe football can be dangerous. After all, it's Yugoslavia's school we're are talking about.

Cameroon: Not sure what old Eto'o and Song can do. Maybe they will fight for the second place against Croatia.

B, C, D and G are tricky groups

Group B

Trance-MB, you seem too confident, my friend. Treat Chile with seriousness. They are used to play here in Brazil and finally, since 98, they have a good team. Yes, they are a few steps behind of Spain and Netherlands, but won't be easy to defeat them. Also, Spain x Netherlands is the first game. Chile will probably win their first game, so a lot of pressure for both european teams in this group, specially for Spain, since the second game is Spain x Chile.

Group C

After Brazil and Argentina, Colombia is, in my opinion, the 3rd best South American team. On paper, they have a great potential, but we know how Colombia historically performances on WCs. They do shit.

Côte d'Ivoire and Japan are slightly ahead of Greece, however, Asian and African teams have a lot of difficulties when they face pretty good defenses and well organized opponents. So yeah, if Colombia do their job, i have no idea who will fill the 2nd place.

Group D

So, Italy will end in 2nd Yes, all that i know in this group is this: Italy will qualify behind Uruguay or England. Don't ask me why, but that's how Italy rows on World Cups Also, i'm already rubbing my hands with glee for Uruguay x England.

And nice job FIFA, 3 world champions in the same group. So much talking about trying to avoid 'death groups', now you have it. Enjoy.

Group G

Yes, this is a tricky group. Mainly because Portugal is too much overrated. Seriously, Portugal is a mediocre team with 1 exceptional player, and Nani (when he wants to play well). You may think i'm crazy, but i see this group pretty much like Group B. Germany x Portugal is the first game, so again, pressure. The difference here is that USA AND Ghana are decent teams, specially USA.

Still, i can see Germany ending in the first place easily, but Portugal will certainly faces difficult against USA and perhaps against Ghana.

Groups E, F and H

Group E

Switzerland 9
France 6
Ecuador 3
Honduras 0

Group F

When Nigeria was drawn i thought: "Yes, the death group will be Argentina's!". Well, i was wrong. Iran and Bosnia came afterwards, making Argentina laughing their asses loud, really loud.

I think Argentina has potential to be World Champions, so they will obliterate Iran and Nigeria (they have crap defenses) and maybe 2-0 against Bosnia. 2nd place a battle between Nigeria and Bosnia.

Group H

Go Belgium! I will buy a fucking Belgium uniform because they are my favorite team. Mark my words, Belgium can be what Uruguay was in 2010: underdogs that shocked the world.

Russia will easily take the 2nd place. I saw them against Brazil and a few other games. Solid team. It won't be so easy to defeat South Korea, but still.

Algeria won't score a single goal.

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quote:

Originally posted by FCB_Fanatic Please elaborate on this

Way too optimistic after getting the ticket. Could be it was in the heat of the moment after finally qualifying for a big tournament again.
None the less I hope they do very well, not only because of my roots.

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quote:

Originally posted by rdevito Trance-MB, you seem too confident, my friend. Treat Chile with seriousness. They are used to play here in Brazil and finally, since 98, they have a good team. Yes, they are a few steps behind of Spain and Netherlands, but won't be easy to defeat them. Also, Spain x Netherlands is the first game.

You missed my second post. I can't see anything to be confident about. Also I wouldn't put us at the same level as Spain as in the picture above.

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quote:

Originally posted by Trance-MB Way too optimistic after getting the ticket. Could be it was in the heat of the moment after finally qualifying for a big tournament again. None the less I hope they do very well, not only because of my roots.

especially the press is way too optimistic, also due to positive comments from abroad saying "Belgium is one of the outsiders for the World Cup".

I don't think so. According to me we don't stand a chance and our results prove this. We did very well in our qualifying group, but afterwards it seems our group wasn't that strong as we thought. Especially Croatia underperformed towards the end. If you then look at our friendlies from the last year, we never won against strong teams:
Romania - Belgium: 2-1
Belgium - Slovakia: 2-1
USA - Belgium: 2-4
Belgium - France: 0-0
Belgium - Colombia: 0-2
Belgium - Japan: 2-3

Earlier we have also drawn in Greece and France and lost in England. The only exceptional performance I remember is the 4-2 win against the Netherlands. But honestly, this was only when Van Gaal just took over. The Netherlands wouldn't be beaten this easily anymore (although I still think they lack a good defense). Further, Belgium never played really good and when they did it was against weak opponents. I think this is due to our trainer; he lacks the (tactical) experience to build a system and a good team.

The World Cup will end for Belgium in the second round against Portugal/Germany.