Media is really hyping up this Neymar kid. Even PTI had a segment on him.
I love how Spain’s bench is Javi M, Villa, Torres, Cazorla, Azpilicueta. Whatta team. STill, ARbeloa needs to go.
No love for arby?
Solid defensively,decent going front.overall good player and unless they move ramos there he’s prob the best option.
Iran in a great team. they’re exporting talent to europe again. i like the caf reigon and it’s a tough place to get through but overall they’re in decline.
ivory coast never won shit with their golden gen,egypt never translated it onto the big stage,ghana look weaker than they did a few years ago. the asian’s are coming man…
Don’t forget Juan Mata. Torres is sh** now IMO.
wonder if today’s games will go ahead.
2 million on the streets apparently
No games today. I think they’re tomorrow and Sunday. Protests are crazy. I guess the confed cup is good for something. Brazil has to take some big steps to prevent this from taking place next year.
Arby is good but has no offensive power, wingbacks these days are really to provide width, and Spain has talented RBs in Azpi and Dani Carvajal…Arby’s nto a bad option…but I don’t think he’s the best.
You really think Iran is good again? I don’t know any of their younger guys, but I think most of them play in iran league. Japan is hella good though. Stacked with talent, a great pair of wingbacks, creativity in midfield - Honda and Kagawa, etc etc. Personally, I was disappointed with the Uzbeks - rising power of Asian football, they make the final round every year, but lose to Aus/Jpn/Kor, at some point they will make the breakthrough.
Unfortunately, I don’t see West African teams like Nigeria, Senegal, IC, or Cam doing well in the world cup. These nations primarily export role players to Europe and their teams are stacked with them, with no creative players left.
azpi will get torn apart by the really good wingers.arby won’t. carvajal is a good shout though…should start trying him out.
yeah the iranians and the uzbeks are on the rise…still nowhere near the japanese who have overtaken a few central european nations.
no african team will do well in 2014 bar ghana and maybe egypt
There are a ton of “inside forwards” these days- guys who are below 5’10, very quick, technically skilled, and can score but they’re neither wingers, nor strikers- Mata, Silva, Canales, Hazard, Iniesta, Pedro, Ozil, Gotze, Robinho, Reus, Messi, Tevez, Lavezzi, Landon Donovan, Ribery, and among the younger generation - Jese, Iker Muniain. I’m not saying these guys are all equally good, but they’re similar styles of player.
Neymar belongs in this category, but do you guys really think that he’s a clear level above the names I mentioned? I don’t think so, I don’t think he’ll be better than Messi, but maybe he’ll be as good as Juan Mata, which is of course great, but people don’t sing ballads about him…
at present neymar is at worst as good as reus.
he is as good as reus even when he has a lot of unnecessary flash to his game. also neymar has something none of those players bar maybe hazard have. he changes direction without slowing down. that is phenomenal.
his ceiling is scary,also his scoring record for brazil dwarfs all names mentioned. the kids going to be something special
Yeah. I might have to stand corrected on Neymar. Tons of hype but some of it is justified. He’s played quite well in this tournament. If he’ll stop effing diving, then he’ll be really good in my books.
My super eagles unfortunately bowed up but i’m pretty proud of the way we played. They took it to Spain early but the discipline of Spain and our lackthereof in the final third cost us. With our injuries and youth, I think the future is somewhat bright.
Hope to see some entertaining games the rest of the way.
There are way too many international tourneys in soccer. At what point do you say enough?
actually there are very few international tournies. there are far too many meaningless friendlies though.
World cup, continental cups, olympics, the one mentioned in this thread . Seems like an overkill.
They happen every 4 years on an average and they don’t coincide.
Bump this.
VDB needs to play two holding midfielders otherwise sergio busquets, ramos, and Mr Shakira are going to get swamped on the counter.
going to be a blowout bro.
in my mind the europeanization of brazilian football is complete.cynical dives,tactical importance and all that jazz.fk that shit.
joga bonito is dead. ill be rooting for the samba boys but there’s only going to be one winner.i got a fortune on it too…
well…there goes my money.
Neymar is simply class.
WHY THE FUCK IS SERGIO RAMOS TAKING PENALTIES?
egomaniac.
the atmosphere is unreal