Football 2014 FIFA World Cup

[Hardy]

Brazil dominated the game, as I predicted past week. They were a hard opponent, but they I doubt in any moment that we would win.

Not even when the crowd got completely silent after Marcelo's display of talent?

Oscar could've still scored and they won 2-1... You never know what would happen if the penalty wasn't given.

What are you talking about, that wouldn't have happenned if Croatia didn't have 8 players attacking because they were down.

Neymar should had received a red card in the first half, then in the second half the ref creates a penalty that changes the match.

Croatias defense was rock solid. Everything is possible in Football. But Brazil was bad tonight.

The defenders were, but the defense overall was kinda average. They ended up having to park the bus.

 

[xi0]

Croatias defense was rock solid. Everything is possible in Football. But Brazil was bad tonight.
Of course Oscar was outstandng but still... The referee was clearly pro Brazil...

It doesn't really matter who you root for, this is the fairest assessment possible IMO

Well, points are points, I guess

 

[Nuno]

You disgust me.

Don't worry, Mexico is terrible. You're gonna easily beat them and everyone is gonna forget what happenned today.

Don't worry Hardy, Mesiah will save your team

 

[xi0]

I picked Argentina to win because it'd clearly be the most interesting result!

 

[Leoat12]

Doesn't matter what you consider "dominated". Croatia might not have performed well enough to win, but it isn't like Brazil did either.

They were cloistered in the defense and just did counter attack. What do you expect? We dominated and tried to find space. lol
That of "the adversary didn't play well, but you didn't as well" is old.

Win and take us out if you can. Whimpering will not help.

 

[jorped]

Watched some parts of the game.
I think overall Brazil was superior, but to me it seems that a draw would prolly be the fairest result.

-I have seen some people saying that Neymar deserved a red card because of what he did back in the first half, and imo i don't agree with it. It was on purpose, but i don't think it's enough to actually give him a red card. I think the referee did well giving him only an yellow card.

-Talking about the penalty, honestly it was obviously theater from Fred. Yellow card for him and fault in favor of Croatia.

- I would also like to make a point and honestly say that the Croatia's goalkeeper had a poor performance. Every goal he could had easily denied it (well since he got the right side on the penalty i think he should had been able to defend it lol), but the last one it's honestly the one that stands out the most for me. His reaction was really slow, otherwise i think it would had been a secure defense.

- This was Brazil first game and the pressure was really high ... if i was Brazilian i would be kinda sad that this victory would be tainted with some coherent arguments about the bad decisions from the referee. I still think Brazilian was slightly superior overall based on what i saw but still ...

- Maybe this will teach some of the brazilian's fans to be more respective and not as cocky! *cough Leo cough*

Anyway apart from all the mistakes it seemed to be an interesting game. So at least so far, we can't really say the games haven't had any excitement :P

 

[xi0]

They were cloistered in the defense and just did counter attack. What do you expect? We dominated and tried to find space. lol
That of "the adversary didn't play well, but you didn't as well" is old.

Win and take us out if you can. Whimpering will not help.

I have no dog in this fight, so be as defensive as you want. Just stating my view.

 

[jorped]

Btw,if instead of Brazil it was Spain on this situation i would prolly be extremely annoyed

 

[Josef]

You know that reaction that Niko Kovac had once they "awarded" the freaking penalty to Brazil? Yeah that sums up this match for me. You deserve a place in the next round Croat brothers! So don't give up Maz! Brateee!!

First half Brazil was pushing hard to impress the fans ... they were overwhealmed as most of the fans were just watching the game after Croatia got in that first one. Sadly tho a bit of referee into play, not saying that Neymar was not good, he was fantastic, but man Ivica Olic is still going strong, despite his age, overall Croatia have a wonderful team and they needed a draw, in all honesty with some great defensive play by David Luiz and by Julio Cesar ... Brazil got an upper hand with that penalty, and it was clear the referee was awarding more fouls to the Brazilian squad.

All in all a shame if a host nation loses the first match, and a host nation like Brazil, yeah.

Second half was different it was neutral at first and without the penalty in would have been a death match to the end for that second goal. Overall Croatia displayed a team that with a bit of luck might get them to the quarter finals.

For me this game was really good in terms of individual players, as they indeed showed that they can carry the game, Neymar, Pletikosa, the Brazilian defense for the most part, loved those long passes by Tiago Silva.

Brazil won, but they did not outplay Croatia, not even with a furious start and a furious attack after the own goal by Marcelo.

 

[Hardy]

-I have seen some people saying that Neymar deserved a red card because of what he did back in the first half, and imo i don't agree with it. It was on purpose, but i don't think it's enough to actually give him a red card. I think the referee did well giving him only an yellow card.

Except that hitting the opponent directly like that is a red card by the rules

- I would also like to make a point and honestly say that the Croatia's goalkeeper had a poor performance. Every goal he could had easily denied it (well since he got the right side on the penalty i think he should had been able to defend it lol), but the last one it's honestly the one that stands out the most for me. His reaction was really slow, otherwise i think it would had been a secure defense.

The first goal's ball was a hard one, he couldn't see the ball and it went extremely to the corner, it reminds me of the goal Messi scored against Brazil when we won 4-3 I believe.

The penalty was a freaking penalty. Yes, he guessed and yes, he touched the ball with both hands, but look at his hands. There's a huge gap between them. It's really easy to talk once you know how everything went.

The third goal was by far the easiest of the 3, as there was no other side the ball could be hit and it certainly was slow, but who cares it's the 3-1

 

[goldb]

First of all, keep the spam and crap to a minimum please.

This was the result I predicted, and I knew Brazil would be overwhelmed and go hard as they tried to impress their fans but Croatia didn't not wimp out from the start and got that goal. They had men behind the ball and didn't make it easy for the home team to get clear shots. Some stupidity from the ref allowed them to get momentum going for the later half.

Bad luck Croatia, they need to be more clinical in front of goal and work on their defence a bit more and they'll be a solid team. Hopefully they won't lose focus too much and do their duty to progress to the next round.

 

[kakashi919]

Predicted Brazil to win 3-1, but that really wasn't a penalty and the challenge on Julio Ceaser was legit as well. It was an awful performance from the ref really. Oscar was man of the match for me he played one hell of a game. I think Croatia would have been more clinical had they have Manduzic on the team..too bad he was suspended. Was still an entertaining game.

 

[Leoat12]

My final review of the match is that I'm satisfied with the perfomance of my team, I already expected a hard game if Crotia played entirely in defense like they did. We have problems to deal with defensive teams because we don't manage to do what we want. Croatia chose the best way to play against Brazil and they scared us a bit in the beginning, even more after the unfortunate counter goal. However, we knew how to deal with it and achieved the expected result: a victory.

Mexico will be as troublesome as Croatia was, Mexico is always trouble, but I expect a more offensive team from Mexico and we would be able to play more freely and smoothly although we cannot give space as well.

 

[Hardy]

Croatia is clearly not a defensive team, just look at the players they have. They got just pushed into it, I give props to Brazil for that (they lost the control of the ball completely), but had you guys actually played better you should had scored easily. In the second half the play was a lot more even, and the ones that ended up scoring thanks to defending and counter attacking were you ._.

 

[kakashi919]

They played counter attacking football, utilising the wings everytime Brazil lost control of the ball. It was a good tactic, but Olic ran out of steam on the left side where they mainly attacked.

 

[Leoat12]

Croatia is clearly not a defensive team, just look at the players they have. They got just pushed into it, I give props to Brazil for that (they lost the control of the ball completely), but had you guys actually played better you should had scored easily. In the second half the play was a lot more even, and the ones that ended up scoring thanks to defending and counter attacking were you ._.

Of course they got pushed into it, we took control of the ball in the entire game and they knew who they were play against, if they gave any space, they would have problems. How we could play better? Forcing the attack and giving space for counter attack? Please, they did well touching the ball and trying to find space. I'm more than satisfied given the kind of the game it was.
In the end they went to the offensive mode and gave more space for us, that's why we made the goal. We suffered a bit of pressure in the end, but it was nothing compared to what they suffered the entire game.

 

[Hardy]

I'm just gonna say that, in Bayern Real Madrid, Bayern had the ball 70 % of the time, yet Madrid won 4-0. Guess who played better? Do you think the fans were happy because they had the ball more?

 

[Leoat12]

I don't know who played better because I was not there to know, but this time we played better IMO.
To finish the discussion about this match

Spoiler

Tomorrow I predict Mexico winning. Mexico and Croatia will fight for second place.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Well how many times have you seen someone have a slightly rocky start only to improve over the tournament though? Imagine the nerves they had in the opening game. brazil has by far the most pressure on them. Next match is going to be way easier in terms of nerves, and they have settled in a bit.

Spain lost the first game of the 2010 WC to Switzerland.

First of all, keep the spam and crap to a minimum please.

This was the result I predicted, and I knew Brazil would be overwhelmed and go hard as they tried to impress their fans but Croatia didn't not wimp out from the start and got that goal. They had men behind the ball and didn't make it easy for the home team to get clear shots. Some stupidity from the ref allowed them to get momentum going for the later half.

Bad luck Croatia, they need to be more clinical in front of goal and work on their defence a bit more and they'll be a solid team. Hopefully they won't lose focus too much and do their duty to progress to the next round.

In Croatia's defense, they didn't have Mandzukic today because of some silly rule about a red card in a qualifier causing him to miss the first match of the actual WC. How silly is that?

_________________________________________________

Fred certainly proved his worth to the Selecao today, even if that was his only contribution, and one of only a handful of touches, the entire match.

Croatia got robbed. Perisic's goal was fair as well. Olic is allowed to challenge for a ball in the air. Cesar dropped the ball and then Olic contacted him while trying to play it. Fair ball all day. In fact, whether Cesar had fallen or not, nothing would've stopped Perisic from finishing that.

Ramires somehow got away with a ridiculous foul at the end to allow Oscar in.

Modric looks really different without the long hair.

Oh, right...In the second half, that was the best performance I've ever seen out of Oscar. It made it clear that he phoned it in for a lot of this season so as to be rested for the WC. Not a fan of that move.

I don't even want to talk about Pletikosa.

 

[xi0]

My final review of the match is that I'm satisfied with the perfomance of my team, I already expected a hard game if Crotia played entirely in defense like they did. We have problems to deal with defensive teams because we don't manage to do what we want. Croatia chose the best way to play against Brazil and they scared us a bit in the beginning, even more after the unfortunate counter goal. However, we knew how to deal with it and achieved the expected result: a victory.

Mexico will be as troublesome as Croatia was, Mexico is always trouble, but I expect a more offensive team from Mexico and we would be able to play more freely and smoothly although we cannot give space as well.

I don't know why you would feel satisfied with the performance when the team wasn't good enough to win on their own without poor officiating.

And Croatia didn't park the bus at all. They actually created a lot of good chances and impressed me in that sense. They just couldn't convert.