Football 2014 FIFA World Cup

[Leoat12]

Do you know that anyone in Belgium sign with both hands for a quarter final ?
I don't think you realize from where we are coming. Belgian football was dead 4-5 years ago. This would be already a huge success.
Plus, if we qualify for the round of 8, we will likely face Argentina which wasn't that impressive either.


vs Brasil in 2002: Goal cancelled and we still don't know why
vs Germany in 1994: Penalty denied and we still don't know why
vs England in 1990: We dominate the whole game and England is doing an hold-up
1986: semi-finals

Okay, stay with you quarter of finals then. :P
You have point about Argentina though. XD

All eliminations were because unfortunate events, so sad.
This time, referee will not have to help by what things are going though.

 

[FrostyMouse]

It's worst than that, there were free tickets in washing powder. We are coming from that far.

Oh, that is horrible. Well, congratulations. Whatever outcome Belgium has at the WC is wonderful then.

 

[Koen]

How do you can say that if Belgium always got eliminated in the round of 16?

I refer to Zellogan's post and

Even though we lost in those second rounds, we were always better and let's say the others did a Belgium back then :-)

@Frostymouse: there was once a game - in the far east - where only one fan was present. Lol

 

[zelllogan]

Russia is going to do nightmares about Belgium:

2014: defeat against Belgium
Last appearance before that was in 2002: eliminated by ... Belgium
The big URSS team & one of the favourites in 1986: eliminated by ... Belgium

 

[FrostyMouse]

@Frostymouse: there was once a game - in the far east - where only one fan was present. Lol

Well, that probably requires fans to travel to Asia, as I can't imagine too many Belgians live there (Belgium also has a pretty small population, and thus fewer expats), and that's not too common for a friendly. It's not like you're a country with 60M+ people and plenty of expats everywhere. Admittedly, there are plenty of countries where fans will travel anywhere in the world to watch them play friendlies.

Still, quite sad. Is there a news clipping somewhere about it?

 

[zelllogan]

Well, that probably requires fans to travel to Asia, as I can't imagine too many Belgians live there (Belgium also has a pretty small population, and thus fewer expats), and that's not too common for a friendly. It's not like you're a country with 60M+ people and plenty of expats everywhere. Admittedly, there are plenty of countries where fans will travel anywhere in the world to watch them play friendlies.

Still, quite sad. Is there a news clipping somewhere about it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium_national_football_team#Supporters_and_popularity

I quote:

Despite the efforts, between 2004 and 2010 several journalists and even player Steven Defour described the Belgian footballing nation as being "(deadly) sick".[53][54][55] This severely strained the popularity of the national squad. Some fans kept supporting their team in good and bad days, and the most faithful and notorious one is probably Ludo Rollenberg. This man assisted the matches of the Red Devils in the entire world since 1990, only having missed Belgium at the Japanese Kirin Cup in 1999 and two other matches by 2006.[56] In 2009, he even made the displacement to Armenia as only supporter.

The supporter in question: http://www.standaard.be/cnt/vh2escq2

 

[Leoat12]

I refer to Zellogan's post and

Even though we lost in those second rounds, we were always better and let's say the others did a Belgium back then :-)

@Frostymouse: there was once a game - in the far east - where only one fan was present. Lol

I have my doubts that Belgium was better than Brazil in 2002, I remember it was a hard match for both sides, but our team had more quality, clearly. We already discussed the "goal" of Belgium here.

---------- Post added at 04:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:58 PM ----------

Someone has to tell South Korea that they have a match because they didn't arrive yet. Algeria is playing well, of course, but South Korea is playing very very bad.

 

[Bugzee]

After wasting my time in watching Belgium and Russia learn how to play football...I'm glad I gave this Algerian game a try. Took me some effort and motivation but the outcome has been nothing but amazing to watch! I guess for purists this game would be more like school playground-style end to end play stuff but it's certainly cheered me up from that awful Belgium game. =D

 

[scav]

did not expect that, was expecting another boring game

 

[Leoat12]

South Korea woke up in the 2nd half, but it was too late already .
Good match, better than I expected.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Congrats on winning your group, Belgium.

 

[Hardy]

Congrats on winning your group, Belgium.

If Korea beats them and Algeria wins then they'll be second

But yeah, nothing surprising really. I hope Algeria makes it to 2nd round, just like Ghana they are one of the few African teams that actually play nice football instead of something just physical.

 

[MiyamotoMusashi]

Again 2 penalties that were not seen, who was the guy who said that the refs are good?

 

[Hardy]

Again 2 penalties that were not seen, who was the guy who said that the refs are good?

Here I am. Punish me :/

 

[FrostyMouse]

If Korea beats them and Algeria wins then they'll be second

But yeah, nothing surprising really. I hope Algeria makes it to 2nd round, just like Ghana they are one of the few African teams that actually play nice football instead of something just physical.

Even if they lose to South Korea, won't they be first because they'll have beaten Algeria head to head, or does GD come in play before head to head in the World Cup? It's hard to remember sometimes with the different rules for different competitions. For example, in 12/13, the CL (I know it's UEFA, not FIFA) moved to using head to head over GD.

 

[Hardy]

Even if they lose to South Korea, won't they be first because they'll have beaten Algeria head to head, or does GD come in play before head to head in the World Cup? It's hard to remember sometimes with the different rules for different competitions. For example, in 12/13, the CL (I know it's UEFA, not FIFA) moved to using head to head over GD.

What really, the CL uses head to head? Just now I noticed that.

No, I think it depends on goal difference.

 

[zelllogan]

Even if they lose to South Korea, won't they be first because they'll have beaten Algeria head to head, or does GD come in play before head to head in the World Cup? It's hard to remember sometimes with the different rules for different competitions. For example, in 12/13, the CL (I know it's UEFA, not FIFA) moved to using head to head over GD.

In world cup, head to head doesn t count. So we can still finish second. It s unlikely but we did manage this kind of things before. Situation is exactly the same as in 1994 for us. Back then, we won our first two games against maroc and holland and we only had to draw against a weak arabic team. We managed to lose and due to that loss, we had to play ... germany. Exact same situation now.

 

[Gats]

Wow so many pages already, I feel out of place now when answering about "old news". xD

Right?

How's the support in France right now? I mean, the French media and people did, by and large, give up on France after losing the first leg of the playoff to Ukraine. The traveling fans seem to definitely love it.

I've supported France since 1997 and it's great to see the resurgence this WC. Anyway, Ribery never really did anything for the national team, apart from this WC's qualifying campaign, so I didn't think that missing him would be much of a blow.

Well from what I remember, the French team reputation went extremely down especially after 2010 with that horrible strike (like less than 20% of positive view in France) then it recently, just before this WC or at the start of it, went up to around 60% of positive view (and 88% for those who are interested by such sport). From what I know a lot of things changed since the failure against Ukraine. People didn't like the individual behaviour and it seems Deschamps did enough housework to correct all of that.

And yes spoiled brats or rotten fruits like Ribery (well at least he wets his Jersey) and Nasri being out of the game looked beneficial. I heard that Nasri has been put aside because he didn't stand the fact he could be a replacement and used to make it known, which was hindering the team's mood significantly.

---------- Post added at 11:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 PM ----------

No I said French people in 1998 were obnoxious pricks. Just after the victory, the already known superiority complex towards Belgium was even bigger than usual. I don't have a problem with french people but in some situations, they can be unbearable and 1998 was one of them

I guess I wasn't interested enough in football to state that. Did you get that feeling from newspapers ?
Because usually we kinda are the champions of self flagellating overall.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Wow so many pages already, I feel out of place now when answering about "old news". xD

Well from what I remember, the French team reputation went extremely down especially after 2010 with that horrible strike (like less than 20% of positive view in France) then it recently, just before this WC or at the start of it, went up to around 60% of positive view (and 88% for those who are interested by such sport). From what I know a lot of things changed since the failure against Ukraine. People didn't like the individual behaviour and it seems Deschamps did enough housework to correct all of that.

And yes spoiled brats or rotten fruits like Ribery (well at least he wets his Jersey) and Nasri being out of the game looked beneficial. I heard that Nasri has been put aside because he didn't stand the fact he could be a replacement and used to make it known, which was hindering the team's mood significantly.

You have to keep with the times, Gats.

Well, Deschamps is probably more popular than Domenech ever was, which probably helps.

Yeah, that's what's been reported in terms of Nasri. We were told by the commentators that he was causing problems if he wasn't starting, and as Deschamps preferred Valbuena to Nasri in the first place, Nasri would only be causing an issue by being at the WC. France does seem to have a better air around the team without Nasri and Ribery, that's for sure.

 

[zelllogan]

Domenech is the best stand up comedian in football history. The way he asked his girlfriend: will you marry me after a defeat. Absolutely priceless