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Posted: |
Jul 13, 2014 - 2:39 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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I've been rather disappointed with Brazil in the whole tournament, even when they won. The defense has been all over the place, and forward (especially without Neymar) it's been about as dangerous as a fluffy kitten. Not counting the glorious Hulk, of course!  This is very unusual, knowing what the team is known for throughout history. So in that respect, I would say 4th place is actually quite good, although for Brazilians, it's pretty much a disaster -- especially because it's home turf.
I hope you're able to build something better to 2018.
As for the final tonight, I cannot picture Argentina withstanding the force of the German team. Messi is apparently tired, they say. But I think it will be a very different match than the semi. Probably quite tight, and with few goals.
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Posted: |
Jul 13, 2014 - 3:48 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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I've been rather disappointed with Brazil in the whole tournament, even when they won. The defense has been all over the place, and forward (especially without Neymar) it's been about as dangerous as a fluffy kitten. Not counting the glorious Hulk, of course!
You're catching on, Thor!
Speaking of thread favorite Hulk:
Was Brazil forward Hulk the World Cup’s biggest flop?
By Sam Parker Posted on July 9, 2014
For some, the World Cup is a stage to showcase their talents to the rest of world, to engineer moves to some of the best clubs on the planet and establish themselves as a household name in the eyes of general public.
Some, however, come in with established reputations already and for them there is the pressure for them to prove it. Inevitably, some fail to back up their standing in the game on the greatest stage of all and do not manage to perform.
While Chelsea’s Eden Hazard has been singled out for his poor showing in Brazil, the natives are now looking closer to home to see who has under-performed and robbed them of the opportunity to win the World Cup on home soil.
The Belgium attacker struggled to entirely live up to his billing, though through several moments of brilliance against an unyielding Russian side, Hazard can at least claim to have impacted a positive result for his nation.
Step forward Hulk, then. So frequently talked about as one of the finest forwards in the world for his exploits with Porto and Zenit St Petersburg, Hulk was supposed to be part of a formidable attacking line-up for Brazil, linking up with Neymar to provide that support for Fred up front.
However, he has endured a rotten tournament, during which he has failed to even bag a single goal in any of his five games despite the whole competition having been something of a goal-fest, with even the much-maligned Fred having managed to get his name on the scoresheet.
Hulk, signed by Zenit for £32m in 2012, was once again anonymous as Brazil fell apart in embarrassing fashion in the semi-final, going down 7-1 to Germany, and the attacker barely had a sniff of the ball, during a complete performance from the European upstarts.
This merely capped off a very disappointing tournament from the interestingly-monikered attacker, with the closest he came to scoring coming in the 1-1 draw against Chile in the second round, ultimately denied by Howard Webb, correctly disallowing the close-range striker for handball.
As it was, this would have merely made up for the fact the scores were level; it being Hulk’s lackadaisical play that allowed Chile to peg the Brazilians back. The forward was to suffer even further misery in the penalty shootout, as he saw his spot-kick saved by Claudio Bravo.
Hulk’s shot accuracy for the World Cup was 45% (6/11).
Hulk managed to get just five shots on target all tournament, hitting the target with 45% of his attempts on goal, and managed to create only five chances in five appearances without recording an assist.
Hulk’s duel success, World Cup 2014.
He struggled to have much impact going forward at all as while he achieved 12 take-ons, this came from 27 attempts meaning 15 failed to see him beat his man successfully, while only three of his 11 contested tackles saw him come away with possession.
There was a big reason as to why Brazil were so crushed by the injury suffered by Neymar against Colombia and that was because he had been carrying Brazil through the tournament, with few of the other attacking players producing the goods.
With so much expectation on Brazil going into their home World Cup, so many players did not step up to the plate and Hulk was one of those who really let down the hopes of an entire nation.
There will be a massive inquest in Brazil as to how they were dumped out in such humiliating fashion and Hulk could be one of those who suffers come the end of things, with his performances at the World Cup having been far below the levels he has performed at at club level.
http://www.squawka.com/news/hulk-fails-to-be-incredible-in-world-cup-horror-showing/138263
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The Cup comes to an end today, and it was a great one, full of surprises and twists, exciting games, colorful characters. Despite a lot of conspiracy theories and rumors of doom, like:
- stadiuns won't be ready in time for the Cup
- airports would collapse when the Cup begins
- huge riots will erupt when the Cup begins
- Brasil bought the Cup (my favorite)
- riots will erupt when Brasil lose a game in the Cup (another favorite)
The soccer team was awful, and of course didn't deserve 4th place, as other teams were clearly superior (França, Costa Rica and Belgium specially).
But Brasil, the country, did very well at the organization of the event. See you in in Rio 2016 with the Olympics!
As for todays game, I'm hoping to see a Germany win (sorry, Lalo), and let's just hope the 100000 argentines that invaded Rio take their loss as well as we did.
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A lot of the planned construction for the WC was not actually finished. They were either abandoned or basically mocked up.
Ofcourse the parts you saw of the stadiums on TV were all nice and spangly.
Ridiculous to organize such an event in what is essentially a third world nation.
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A lot of the planned construction for the WC was not actually finished. They were either abandoned or basically mocked up.
Ofcourse the parts you saw of the stadiums on TV were all nice and spangly.
Ridiculous to organize such an event in what is essentially a third world nation.
Third world, yes. Polite, yes too. Better luck for Holland in 2018
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Bill carson prediction - germany comfortably.
Its all very well saying "i have a sneaky feeling about argentina" and "argentina have been a slow burn and played their best in the semi" "playing crap so their names on the cup" etc.
Does this override a german team that has been strong, consistent, at times unbelievable, and have so many faultless players in every position.? We will find out.
Argentina could sneak it 1 0 with a flukey or smother the germans and nick it on penalties but my instinct says Germany by 2 or 3.
We shall see.
It boils down to the greatest team in the world v the greatest player in the world. Who comes out on top?
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Argentina playing better as a unit than i thought and using messi n lavezzi pace to counter. Theyve played well.
Chances for both sides.
Equally germany starting to find their rhythm a bit.
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Argentina was much, much closer to score during most of the first half, but surprisingly Germany actually got better with the demise of Kramer.
I'm having a Hovergaarten Beer, it's belgium, but I'm drinking it at my beet glass from Munchen. Go Germany go!
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Tea. With a choc chip cookie.
And wondering how that germany seem sluggish and argentina seem to be tactically catching them out.
So far of the two teams i wouldve said its 65-45 that argentina score. Their pace is unsettling germany.
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![](http://<A HREF="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bsc3hOKIEAAPMoU.jpg" TARGET="_BLANK">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bsc3hOKIEAAPMoU.jpg</A>)
Germany's last game was a little easier.
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