World Cup 2010, thank you Green!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

And Portugal just started WW3 with their merciless beating of North Korea.

That was a middle-schooler recess game-level massacre.

[BaconForTheSoul]

And Portugal just started WW3 with their merciless beating of North Korea.

That was a middle-schooler recess game-level massacre.

Complete with the bully goals at the end when the game has long since been over.

[Cotigo]

Some N. Koreans goin' face some "re-education" when they get home. Yep.

[NotMiki]

Complete with the bully goals at the end when the game has long since been over.

s'what you get for a system that takes total goals into account for tiebreaks.

[Rozalia]

To be fair to them North Korea had a couple days ago put everything they had into stopping Brazil who is often called the best team in the world. They still played well in the first half but by the second they just fell apart due to tiredness and loss of concentration. Now that I've been nice, WHOOOOOOO PORTUGAL WON 7 NIL GOD DAMN THATS AN AWESOME RESULT!

Up next is Brazil which I don't see Portugal beating really. Both teams have problems defending counter attacks and have shaky defences overall, however Portugal are also crap at defending set pieces and their players tend to do some nasty fouls most of the time in big games, look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nuremberg to see a extreme example. For Portugal to win they'd have to expose Brazils weak defence against counter attacks and most of all for Ron to play well. On a good day Ron is unbeatable on the field, they just need that to happen against Brazil.

......Or they could just do whatever because they're already through anyway win or lose .

Complete with the bully goals at the end when the game has long since been over.

Those goals were very important. With 7 goals scored in that match it puts the goal differance to I think 9 which is so large it all but means Portugal is going through.

[Scar]

What a game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shale]

That was a freaking awesome finish. Especially since it turned into do-or-die for the US halfway through.

[BaconForTheSoul]

Another blown call costing the U.S. a goal (haven't seen video yet, but I've heard nobody say it was actually offsides.)
A wide open shot blown by a solid U.S. player

All just leads to the epic finish!

Britain winning gives us the division as well so we get the much weaker Ghana in the next round as opposed to Germany.

[Hunter Sopko]

Another blown call costing the U.S. a goal (haven't seen video yet, but I've heard nobody say it was actually offsides.)
A wide open shot blown by a solid U.S. player

All just leads to the epic finish!

Britain winning gives us the division as well so we get the much weaker Ghana in the next round as opposed to Germany.

Judging by Germany's games? Ghana is the stronger one. They pressed Germany pretty hard all game and a single defensive collapse made the difference. The first half was very even, but the second half... that was their only legit scoring chance the whole half. Say what you will about the ability of capitalizing on your opportunities, Ghana really should have won that game.

[Taishyr]

Yeaaaah, Ghana is the stronger team IMO. One massacre, one loss to Serbia, one win to Ghana for Germany... 1-0 differentials don't mean too much. Either way, though, I think we'd be out next round - both Germany and Ghana tend to be solid out the gate. Unless we can stop screwing around, we stand little chance.

And if Germany's weaker it's not by much to me. Ghana's just a really solid team and Serbia was a weird game.

[Yoshiken]

......Or they could just do whatever because they're already through anyway win or lose .

I would love to see the Ivory Coast win 10-0 or something now.

In other news, I'm actually glad England are playing Germany. We tend to do better against better teams, and I feel that Ghana are exactly the sort of team we do badly against. Judging from the play today, England are back on form, even if it'll take more than they put in today to beat Germany, but I get the feeling it's possible. Set to lose the round after that, but a win against the Germans is enough for any Brit.

[SnowFire]

First off: USA USA USA USA USA USA USA!

Was at an Irish pub with some friends to watch the game.  That place *exploded* with screams at the goal.  Man.  FIFA dodged a bullet on this one, though this kind of "right after a goal" situation is a blatant one to introduce instant replay with, since the game has already paused anyway.

I would love to see the Ivory Coast win 10-0 or something now.

No way.  Ivory Coast forfeited their scrappy underdog status when they turned the last 10 minutes of the Brazil game into a brutal shoving & fouling match after it became clear they weren't winning, and then managed to dive to get Brazil's star Kaka ejected from his next game.  (Seriously, look at the replay.  An IC player literally runs into Kaka then falls to the ground with a big show and clutches his face, and the ref bites and gives Kaka the card.) 

North Korea's big loss to Portugal makes sense, though.  Vs. Brazil, a close loss but keeping Goal Differential low makes sense, so they kept turtling up.  Having lost to Brazil, though, Portugal was must-tie-or-win.  Once Portugal got that go-ahead goal to 1-0 - the score after the first half - a 1-0 loss and an X-0 loss were exactly the same to North Korea.  They had to get the score equalized, which meant abandoning defensive play even if it was likely to run up the score *more*.  Better to take your chance and try and score then just concede.

And actually, knowing NK's shady reputation and the fact that it likes to present itself as on the side of the oppressed, they could well turn the IC game into a farce if they decide they want to spite Portugal and just let a ton of goals through intentionally.  Which would be a horrible shame if so.

[Yoshiken]

Yeah, instant replay really needs to be brought in for goals, although I can see it being overused if they allowed it on everything - there was one point in the England game where both defender and attacker went for a header and it went off for a second corner. It actually came off of the England player, so instant replay would've given the right decision, but... that'd be needlessly time-consuming, and in a sport where games can already take 2+ hours?
But yeah, having it for goal decisions would be ideal.

That said, I still see that goal as offside. Admittedly, only slightly, and I've definitely seen more blatant offsides allowed, but he was marginally ahead of the last defender.


And yeah, on the Ivory Coast thing, I solely meant to knock out Portugal. Haven't seen that game against Brazil, but... man. And I liked the Ivory Coast as well. Guess I have to find a new underdog to support now. ;(


Oh yeah, loads of people I know are hyping Argentina as winning the tournament. I'm still thinking the Netherlands are gonna take it, myself. Thoughts?

[BaconForTheSoul]

I didn't see the Ghana/Germany game, the only game I watched was their tie and I wasn't terribly impressed.  Granted that's just one game.

I will say that Group D was probably the most exciting group overall.  Only 1 tie and a lot of mixing it up in terms of the standings.  It ended with the two teams that started 1-0 advancing, but for a while it looked like both of those teams might fail to advance after their opening wins.

[Kilgamayan]

That said, I still see that goal as offside. Admittedly, only slightly, and I've definitely seen more blatant offsides allowed, but he was marginally ahead of the last defender.

ESPN did their graphic magic on that shot and showed that Dempsey's foot was, at worst, still in line with the foot of the Algerian defender just as the pass was being made, and the rest of Dempsey's body was behind his foot.

Someone posted a screenshot of it on /sp/; if I find it again, I'll show it.

Also bahahahaha Italy, getting eliminated from the cup by a team that played out the final minutes by flopping and dragging out fake injuries. Couldn't have happened to a nicer team.

EDIT: Here we go.

[Yoshiken]

Looks like they're looking at it a few seconds too early there, but I guess I'm not too certain based on that. There's really not too much time between then and when they should be judging it. ;s

Also, ahahahahaha Italy. As much as I hate the fake injuries/subbing that Slovakia did, that's Italy's usual strategy, so it was hilarious to see. Both of the last World Cup's finalists have been knocked out now, bottom of their groups. Good to see some variety in the last 16, at least~

[Kilgamayan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbn3rOPmR9w

;_;

[Captain K.]

Total points scored in a single tennis match that lasted 3 days:  138

Total points scored by all World Cup teams combined through Thursday:  120

Futbol:  We make watching paint dry look exciting!

[Cotigo]

You know, it always amuses me that people bitch about how low scoring games make the game boring.

There are many valid complaints about how the low scoring matches and how each goal influences a team's chance of advancing, but saying the game is boring is stupid.  There are still plenty of shot attempts made, and it's not like it's fucking golf where you're watching some guy stand still most of the time. 

[Yoshiken]

Some of the best football games end up with no goals.

Although that's usually because each team goes down to 9 players or something because there's a punch-up on the field.

[Scar]

LET'S GO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rozalia]

Not looking good at the moment .

[Cotigo]

By "Let's go!" I don't think he meant "Let's let a goal through in the first 5 minutes", US.  Great job.

[Scar]

Good thing we have this whole "Come Back Kids" persona this time around.

All tied up baby!

[Cotigo]

Aaand the US is out.  That was a really good game in the second half.  Ghana's defense was just better than the US's, although the US's offense was superior. They had a lot of good shots that just couldn't get through.  And the US didn't lose to any bullshit officiating.

Oh well. That's enough pretending to know what I'm talking about. Go Mexico/England.