[Mentalist]

Jesus f ing christ, that game was tense. I yelled in frustration every time Ayew took a shot instead of passing the goddamn ball. This was, unquestionably, the BEST game so far this tournament. As a Germany fan with a soft spot for Ghana, it was just an insane display of ridiculous levels of football awesomeness.

Oh, God, now I'm hoping, (against my better judgement) that Portugal wins, just so that with a round 3 double win both Germany and Ghana can make it through (no offence, HD)

For the third game: Go, Bosnia!

[Tiste Simeon]

Gutted I missed the Germany game sounds like a belter!

[Khellendros]

Germany-Ghana was fantastic (the second half anyway). Great to see Old Man Klose scoring another - master of the tap in


But, sad day. Bosnia out. And robbed of a goal and the lead by a shockingly appalling offside decision

[Tsundoku]

Just watched a replay of Iran-Argentina. Argentina can count themselves damn lucky, and Iran damn UNlucky.

[Mentalist]

Khellendros, on 21 June 2014 - 11:57 PM, said:

Germany-Ghana was fantastic (the second half anyway). Great to see Old Man Klose scoring another - master of the tap in


But, sad day. Bosnia out. And robbed of a goal and the lead by a shockingly appalling offside decision

That was absolutely terrible reffing. The offside was a horrible call, and the goal itself was off an uncalled foul (a replay showed that the Nigerian player didn't just wave Spahic's hands off, but also clipped his boot, giving himself an opportunity to break clean).

Though in all fairness, Bosnia DID lack accuracy in passing. Their communication was simply appalling, I've lost count of the amount of times a white shirt would pass a ball, the camera would pan to the intended receiver, who'd ignore it, than suddenly snap to attention and chase the pass. And as much as it's great to blame the refs, from a player's POV, my opinion is this: no amount of bad reffing against your side matters, if you persistently score goals. If there's a terrible defensive call against you, it still won't matter, if your team scores a lot of goals. So the way I figure it, occasionally bad reffing is part of the challenge to overcome. It's unfortunate, but it's just another thing to deal with. It won't matter if you are convincingly a better team. And as much as I'd love to show Slavic solidarity, I can't say that Bosnia was remarkably better than Nigeria in this game.

[Mentalist]

Sombra, on 22 June 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Just watched a replay of Iran-Argentina. Argentina can count themselves damn lucky, and Iran damn UNlucky.

Argentina is always absolutely horrendous at WC. They really do need to begin every day by thanking God for Messi. Honestly, the man is worth as much in football as the rest of the team in pure skill. That ball was astounding. Though I must admit, my heart sank when the extra 4 mins were announced, my only thought was "just let them have it! they've earned this draw!", but alas, Messi is an entire independent variable of any Argentina game.

[D'iversify]

Khellendros, on 21 June 2014 - 11:57 PM, said:

Germany-Ghana was fantastic (the second half anyway). Great to see Old Man Klose scoring another - master of the tap in


But, sad day. Bosnia out. And robbed of a goal and the lead by a shockingly appalling offside decision

Yeah, Bosnia deserved much more. Plus a draw or win for them would have kept the group wide open. Not the first poor linesman decision regarding offsides this tournament either.

[Khellendros]

Mentalist, on 22 June 2014 - 05:35 AM, said:

Khellendros, on 21 June 2014 - 11:57 PM, said:

Germany-Ghana was fantastic (the second half anyway). Great to see Old Man Klose scoring another - master of the tap in


But, sad day. Bosnia out. And robbed of a goal and the lead by a shockingly appalling offside decision

That was absolutely terrible reffing. The offside was a horrible call, and the goal itself was off an uncalled foul (a replay showed that the Nigerian player didn't just wave Spahic's hands off, but also clipped his boot, giving himself an opportunity to break clean).

Though in all fairness, Bosnia DID lack accuracy in passing. Their communication was simply appalling, I've lost count of the amount of times a white shirt would pass a ball, the camera would pan to the intended receiver, who'd ignore it, than suddenly snap to attention and chase the pass. And as much as it's great to blame the refs, from a player's POV, my opinion is this: no amount of bad reffing against your side matters, if you persistently score goals. If there's a terrible defensive call against you, it still won't matter, if your team scores a lot of goals. So the way I figure it, occasionally bad reffing is part of the challenge to overcome. It's unfortunate, but it's just another thing to deal with. It won't matter if you are convincingly a better team. And as much as I'd love to show Slavic solidarity, I can't say that Bosnia was remarkably better than Nigeria in this game.

Yeah, it was uncustomary wastefulness with the possession and chances. Throughout the qualifiers Bosnia's motto was basically score and score again, as exemplified by the stonking goal difference they ended up with (because if nothing else they know the defence is dreadful aside from Begovic in goal - like in this match, Emenike absolutely terrorised them, just lucky he didn't have a cooler head). But I can only think that the pressure of playing in the WC got to them.

Great save by Enyeama from Dzeko right at the end too - that was really painful.

[Khellendros]

So the Premier League All-Stars are through to the knockout rounds. That was a really dull match until the last five minutes, but I'm glad they won and Russia lost.

[Mentalist]

WOOHOO, RUSSIA LOST! GO BELGIUM!

ahem. In all honesty, Russians played a very solid game. The best way I can describe how this game panned out is by quoting Futurama's Elzar: "Let's kick it up a notch!" At the 18-15 min mark, Russians started pressing, getting a good 4-5 minutes of consecutive plays in and around the Belgian box. After which point, Belgium kicked it up another notch, sending their subs in to make utter fools of the wall of Russian defenders. That free kick to the post was sublime, and in those last 7 minutes, a Belgian pushed his way into the box between several white shirts on at least 3-4 occasions.

Overall, I was dissapointed with Belgium in the second half. They dropped pace and stopped feeding the balls to the right, which worked wonders in the first half, because the Russian left D was garbage. But once they started playing again, they showed classy game. Just wish they did that earlier instead of making me cringe for 35 minutes.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 22 June 2014 - 06:02 PM

[Khellendros]

Mentalist, on 22 June 2014 - 06:01 PM, said:

WOOHOO, RUSSIA LOST! GO BELGIUM!

ahem. In all honesty, Russians played a very solid game. The best way I can describe how this game panned out is by quoting Futurama's Elzar: "Let's kick it up a notch!" At the 18-15 min mark, Russians started pressing, getting a good 4-5 minutes of consecutive plays in and around the Belgian box. After which point, Belgium kicked it up another notch, sending their subs in to make utter fools of the wall of Russian defenders. That free kick to the post was sublime, and in those last 7 minutes, a Belgian pushed his way into the box between several white shirts on at least 3-4 occasions.

Overall, I was dissapointed with Belgium in the second half. They dropped pace and stopped feeding the balls to the right, which worked wonders in the first half, because the Russian left D was garbage. But once they started playing again, they showed classy game. Just wish they did that earlier instead of making me cringe for 35 minutes.

Mirallas hitting the post seemed to finally spur them on. Hazard finally deciding to get out of bed and join the match then turned the tide wholly in Belgium's favour.

Perhaps 'turned the tide' is the wrong expression here. More like, began the tide, as it was a totally dull affair till then. Capello's Russia showed very little ambition.

[polishgenius]

That was a crap game until Hazard remembered he was playing. Then he set about beating Russia by himself.

[Mentalist]

polishgenius, on 22 June 2014 - 06:08 PM, said:

That was a crap game until Hazard remembered he was playing. Then he set about beating Russia by himself.

I won't entirely agree with that. The first half was decent, with Russia playing strictly to counters and Belgium probing on the right with Martens schooling Russian left side again and again, but not finding anyone in the middle. Not highest quality football, but entirely bearable.

The majority of the second half was atrocious, however, I fully agree. Belgium got lazy, and stopped feeding Martens the ball, focusing on Lukaku instead, who did next to nothing to get the passes intended to him, waiting for that perfect pass when the Russian defender marking him would not move to intercept. They also absolutely stopped pressing Russia to get rebounds, allowing Russian defence a lot more posession than they should've.

Once Russians had their 5 minutes of glory around Courtois' net and had those 2 corners in a row and a free kick, Belgians DID seem to wake up. And from that point on, yes, Hazard on the left and Mirellas on the right both decided whenever they got the ball to win the game themselves.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 22 June 2014 - 07:01 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Khellendros, on 22 June 2014 - 05:56 PM, said:

So the Premier League All-Stars are through to the knockout rounds. That was a really dull match until the last five minutes, but I'm glad they won and Russia lost.

Flipping decided nothing was happening, went to the toilet & missed the goal!

Edit also Algeria are winning 3-0? Could they get through?

This post has been edited by Tisteon Simeonus: 22 June 2014 - 07:41 PM

[polishgenius]

If they play like this against Russia, they'll batter them too.

[Binder of Demons]

The Algeria-South Korea game has been fascinating so far. The Algerians look on a different level in terms of speed and power. I would usually expect the South Koreans to be quick, aggressive and technically sound, but they've been beaten to nearly every ball, and look devoid of ideas.

They are really lucky to be only 3-0 down.

[Khellendros]

Man, I thought Algeria-South Korea would be a snoozefest and missed the first half!

Still, the second half was great too. I really hope Algeria qualify now (if nothing else, their manager is Bosnian, so that would be one through to the knockouts at least) - some of that one-touch play was really silky.

[Mentalist]

Missed the game, was out buying books... hopefully this will be the game to CBC will repeat in the evening (though with Portugal playing, won't hold my breath)

This is great news: if Algeria plays well means it's likely they'll spank Russia, and all will be well in the world.

[Binder of Demons]

At half time I was thinking that Russia are in for a thumping as well. But considering how much trouble South Korea caused them in the 2nd half, it's probably a toss up of a game. Awesome that Russia are the ones that have to go for it too, and will be forced to attack (good luck with that tactic Capello you negative yoke).

Am really looking forward to the USA - PORTUGAL game later. Fingers crossed the USA will win and qualify. Not a fan of the Portuguese team and it would be amusing if the Germans had to win the last game to top the group.

[Khellendros]

What a save by Tim Howard!