Confederations Cup (1 Viewer)

[Cormcolash]

Let's all laugh at Eto'o

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[washingcattle]

I was listening to the guardian podcast when I went for a cycle this morning. They were talking about a final of an ACN in the early 90's (92 I think) where it finished 12-11

The shoot out between The Ivory Coast and Zambia was 8-7 That was pretty ridiculous.

Italy need a striker, yes. Mind you, Balotelli might have had a few. Italy also have a Pirlo conundrum. His fist time passing was amazing, but he's not much use at shielding the back 3/4 or running into the box or anything that requires a lot of movement. They'd be fucked without him, while being a better balanced team. It's a conundrum, and no mistake.

Marco Verratti plays that role for PSG and the under 21s he looks a damn fine player and is far more mobile and tough in the tackle.

 

[washingcattle]

What the fuck is going on here ?

It's a bit like The Dundies scenes in The American Office.

Did Torres get the clubman award ?

Fucking bizarre.

On the subject of the football and in keeping with the boxing analogy from the last time I was on here. Spain looked like one of those fighters who goes for one fight too far like Frank Bruno or George Foreman in the nineties. Ineasta and Xavi looked that bit closer to finally having a breakdown.

Fair play to Brazil though they looked like Bayern at times.

 

[Hector Grey]

Arbeloa: Disgrace.

 

[Hector Grey]

The shoot out between The Ivory Coast and Zambia was 8-7 That was pretty ridiculous.



Marco Verratti plays that role for PSG and the under 21s he looks a damn fine player and is far more mobile and tough in the tackle.

He looks good, alright. Bit of a hot head though.
Great to see Spain hammered. Could be a real interesting world cup now.

 

[Unicron]

He looks good, alright. Bit of a hot head though.
Great to see Spain hammered. Could be a real interesting world cup now.

I stuck a tenner on them this morning to win it, I don't think they'll go to a longer price then they are now and they can't be ruled out. A year on, some of the u-21's to freshen up the squad, bigger gap between matches (they looked very leggy after the semi I thought) still the most talented 23 man squad in the thing. But for Luiz's mad clearance off the line from Pedro it could have been 1-1, small margins and all that. The big lesson from them in this tournament is that Navas should be very good to watch for City next season.

Brazil though, they were good, probably answered a few questions people had about them going in in the past couple of weeks. Home crowd as well, have to be serious contenders.

 

[Hector Grey]

I stuck a tenner on them this morning to win it, I don't think they'll go to a longer price then they are now and they can't be ruled out. A year on, some of the u-21's to freshen up the squad, bigger gap between matches (they looked very leggy after the semi I thought) still the most talented 23 man squad in the thing. But for Luiz's mad clearance off the line from Pedro it could have been 1-1, small margins and all that. The big lesson from them in this tournament is that Navas should be very good to watch for City next season.

Brazil though, they were good, probably answered a few questions people had about them going in in the past couple of weeks. Home crowd as well, have to be serious contenders.

Luiz's clearance aside, they offered nothing. In fact, had Oscar not dragged his shot wide, they may have been further behind before that point. There's loads of talent in the u-21 team. But do you think Del Bosque is going to blood 5-6 new faces for the world cup? There's so many good players, he could, easily. Will he give Shabby and Iniesta a few games off? Will Navas overcome his chronic homesickness for an entire season? Will Torres finally be dumped? SO MANY QUESTIONS! OMG!

I'm not writing them off, but after Italy and Brazil effectively out played them for big parts of the game, other (daycent, not Ireland) teams may be thinking that beating them is now entirely possible.

 

[Unicron]

I think Navas sorted the homesickness out a couple of years ago. And I'm not saying they should call up a load of u-21's but Isco looks ready, Thiago if he gets a move to United through will get game time. I can't remember the lad's name, but the centre forward from Real, if Carlo gives him some game time he might have a shot. Azpilicueta is already in the squad, in 12 months I think he'll have moved ahead of Arbeloa in the pecking order.

I was pretty confident they'd win it in 2010 and I backed them accordingly. This time I'm less so, but I certainly think they're well capable of winning it, and I think 11/2 is a good price for them, shorter and I wouldn't have taken it.

 

[Hector Grey]

I think Navas sorted the homesickness out a couple of years ago. And I'm not saying they should call up a load of u-21's but Isco looks ready, Thiago if he gets a move to United through will get game time. I can't remember the lad's name, but the centre forward from Real, if Carlo gives him some game time he might have a shot. Azpilicueta is already in the squad, in 12 months I think he'll have moved ahead of Arbeloa in the pecking order.

I was pretty confident they'd win it in 2010 and I backed them accordingly. This time I'm less so, but I certainly think they're well capable of winning it, and I think 11/2 is a good price for them, shorter and I wouldn't have taken it.

They're deffo well capable of winning it. I'd say Italy will be hoping to meet them again, and i reckon Germany would expect to have their numbers. They'll destroy lesser teams, but one thing we haven't really ever seen from this spain, is the ability to come back from a battering. I wonder if Italy had put2 of their 4,581 chances in the first half away, would the Spaniards have been able to fight back, force a draw or even win. They don't really let the opposition score, so this is a new and interesting twist. Argentina wouldcertainly fancy a go as well. It's shaping up nicely. I doubt Spain will be cursing to the final with a load of 1-0s. Having said that, they have the experience and would be less likely to blow their lids like you expect some teams might.

I think the cracks were beginning to show when they only managed to score two against us.

 

[washingcattle]

The only way Spain will win the world cup is if Ineasta and Xavi get about 2 or 3 months off on the run up to it. Some simple injury like a broken arm nothing too serious. They looked fucking shattered. Isco, Fabregas, Mata (even though he was dire last night) they can all come in to that midfield and be great but not invincible. When they were tearing teams apart with tiki taka in 2008 (I don't rate Spain since then) The pace they were doing it at was incredible, since then they've slowed and it's not surprising given the fact the major players have played far too many matches since then. Barcelona and Spain don't rotate their squads and Ineasta and Xavi aren't supermen and their replacements don't look comfortable enough yet.

They need to have more trust in Soldado while Villa and Torres sort themselves out. And they really need to sort out the defence. At this stage Pique is playing on reputation rather than form and while Ramos is improving he's still too fucking mental to trust in big games, he could easily have been sent off last night yet again. I never liked Puyol as a player but as a leader he was on a different planet from those two. Teams have copped on to Spain and now they'll actually have to defend properly for the first time.

I agree with everyone here by the way, the world cup is shaping up nicely. Going to try to see more of Belgium and Columbia when it starts up again. I love checking out the dark horses.


I'd love if France managed to win the group with Spain in it and we got them in the playoffs. That would be good craic.

 

[Cormcolash]

I'm not sure if they could handle that

 

[washingcattle]

I'm not sure if they could handle that

Zactly.

C'mon the lads.

 

[washingcattle]

I guess that's the standard, if you want to win the world cup you have to be better than those two. They're under 21s got to the Euros final too. Germany are up there, then Argentina then a few dark-horses Belgium, Columbia, Holland, (Ajax's nearly all dutch side look really tidy and very young)

I've watched every game and I still don't know if Brazil are any use to be honest. Find out on Sunday at the moment I'd put them on a par with the likes of Poland, Russia, Portugal, Chile, then behind all of them Uruguay, Mexico and below them France, Croatia, England.

We'll find out ho good Brazil are on Sunday

Well the new FIFA world rankings were pretty close to what I said in that post right there. Which means that I officially know nothing about football.

This disappoints me.

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html

To be fair, apart from England still being in the top 20 for once it's actually a reasonably accurate barometer this time. Although it does look like Chile will be in the world cup and Uruguay are still not guaranteed a playoff spot.

We're 44th by the way. In between South Korea and Slovenia.

 

[Unicron]

What's the story with Columbia right now? I hear a lot of people talking about them as prospective dark horses for next year but from what I know of their squad I'm not convinced. Saw a bit of Porto last year and am very impressed with Jackson Martinez and James Rodriguez and obviously Falcao is a huge star but I don't know a lot about them beyond that. Zuniga at Napoli looked alright the season before last.

 

[washingcattle]

What's the story with Columbia right now? I hear a lot of people talking about them as prospective dark horses for next year but from what I know of their squad I'm not convinced. Saw a bit of Porto last year and am very impressed with Jackson Martinez and James Rodriguez and obviously Falcao is a huge star but I don't know a lot about them beyond that. Zuniga at Napoli looked alright the season before last.

When I watched them recently they reminded me of a more attack minded Uruguay from 2010-11. Really tough in midfield and good on the ball they got it forward to Falcao really well and had bags of pace in the side. They pretty much controlled the match mind you they were playing against a poor Peru side.

They were unlucky against Argentina home and away and they destroyed Uruguay.

 

[Hector Grey]

Freddy Guarin and Luis Muriel as well, innit? That's my lot.