Alternative Links

Wall Street Journal - the WSJ has an excellent world cup 2014 site

FIFA Official site

The Guardian World Cup 2014

Robert's World Cup Predictions:

which see a last 16 of:

BRAZ v NETH

IV COAST v ITALY

FRANCE v BOSNIA

PORT v RUSSIA

SPAIN v MEX

URAG v COLOMBIA
ARGEN v EQUADOR

BELG v GERMANY

and Spain beat Brazil in the Final with Argentina beating Portugal for 3rd

 Author

Robert Scott lives and works in Duabi; born in England I have since lived in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.

And so the 2014 WC ends with Germany beating Argentina 1-0 after extra time in a rather dour final saved by a world-classl goal from Mario Götze.

The semi finals were unusual affairs. Argentina beat the Netherlands on penalties after a game that both sides appeared terrified to lose.

Meanwhile Germany beat Brazil 7 (seven) -1 with a stunning display of football.

Germany led by 5 at half time and were gentle in the second half leading 7-0 before the Brazilians got one back.

The local crowd to their great credit were cheering the Germans at the end - in between the tears.

In many ways this was a joyful and colourful world cup. Russia and Qatar will be much more dour affairs, for obvious reasons.

5 July 2014

So the quarter finals are done and dusted. And they were rather dour affairs...

Germany 1 France 0
Brazil 2 Colombia 0
Argentina 1 Belgium 0

and the Netherlands beat Costa Rica on penalties after a 0-0 draw.

Van Gaal changed his goalkeeper just before the end of extra time so that he had Tim Krul in goal for the penalties. Krul is a big man - not a known penalty saver yet he stopped 2 of 5; wrote himself and his manager into the Dutch football history books and intimidated the Costa Ricans....

This is how Van Gaal looks to the Dutch.....

Brazil meanwhile turned the beautiful game into a kicking match - targetting James Rodrigues....and helped by some poor, lenient refereeing. It was not surprise when Colombia eventually gave back some of what they had taken; and a poor challenge on Neymar has put the Brazilian out of the remainder of the tournament.

The French were disappointing and played like they were in a group game not a knock out and the Belgians, despite making the quarter finals never really got started.

As for my pre tournament tips I did get the Europe v South America semi finals...I just picked two of the worst of the European teams!

30 June 2014

Sometimes you say it best when you say nothing at all....the Urugauy president might want to take note! The Guardian:

"The president of Uruguay, José Mujica, has called Fifa “a bunch of old sons of bitches” in another verbal attack on football’s world governing body following Luis Suárez’s lengthy ban for biting the Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

The 79-year-old also described the Liverpool striker’s four-month suspension from all football, plus nine international matches and a £65,000 fine, as a “fascist ban”."

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Dear KLM - are you really this dopey?

KLM sombrero tweet mocking Mexico’s World Cup exit to Holland causes fury

29 June 2014

Last 16 so far:

Brazil beat Chile - but it was 1-1 after extra time and Brazil went through 3-2 on penalties. Howard Webb refereed - not his finest game.

Columbia beat Uruguay without Suarez 2-0. Comfortable win; Rodrigues scored twice; his opening goal was outstanding.

Netherlands 2 - Mexico 1 with the Dutch scoring two late goals after Mexico took the league in 38C of heat....way too hot.

And after yet more penalties Costa Rica beat Greece. Greece had equalised in injury time against 10 man Costa Rica in injury time....Costa Rica held on to the 1-1 tie through extra time and deserved to go through to the quarter finals.

27 June 2014

Algeria 1 Russia 1 Sending Russia home and Algeria to the last 16.
Belgium 1 South Korea 0 Sending Korea home.

It has been a very poor tournament for the Asian teams.

Here are your last 16: which strangely bears no resemblance to my original last 16 :)

Brazil v Chile
Colombia v Uruguay
Holland v Mexico
Costa Rica v Greece
France v Nigeria
Germany v Algeria
Argentina v Switzerland
Belgium v United States

26 June 2014

And Suarez gets a ban....simply he did it - its his third offense - what else can he expect?  Here is the Guardian:

"In an unprecedented move Fifa has banned Uruguay’s Luis Suárez from all “football-related activities” for four months for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini, ruling the striker out of the rest of the World Cup and the start of the domestic season.

The Liverpool player will not be able to play or train for his club or country for four months after Fifa’s disciplinary committee handed down the hefty sanction, which will be appealed and has provoked dismay from Uruguay and Anfield.

The biting incident, the third in which Suárez has been involved in his career, has also led Fifa’s disciplinary committee to ban the player from entering any football stadium during the ban."

FIFA statement in full:

"The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has reached a decision in the case related to Luis Suárez of Uruguay following an incident that occurred during the FIFA World Cup™ match between Italy and Uruguay played on 24 June 2014.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided that:

· The player Luis Suárez is regarded as having breached art. 48 par. 1 lit. d of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) (assault), and art. 57 of the FDC (an act of unsporting behaviour towards another player).

· The player Luis Suárez is to be suspended for nine (9) official matches. The first match of this suspension is to be served in the upcoming FIFA World Cup™ fixture between Colombia and Uruguay on 28 June 2014. The remaining match suspensions shall be served in Uruguay’s next FIFA World Cup match(es), as long as the team qualifies, and/or in the representative team’s subsequent official matches in accordance with art. 38 par. 2a) of the FDC.

· The player Luis Suárez is banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) for a period of four (4) months in accordance with art. 22 of the FDC.

· A stadium ban is pronounced against the player Luis Suárez in accordance with art. 21 of the FDC as follows: the player Luis Suárez is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium during the period of the ban (point 3). The player Luis Suárez is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium in which the representative team of Uruguay is playing while he has to serve the nine-match suspension (point 2).

· The player Luis Suárez is ordered to pay a fine in the amount of CHF 100,000.

The decision was notified to the player and the Uruguayan FA today.

“Such behaviour cannot be tolerated on any football pitch, and in particular not at a FIFA World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field. The Disciplinary Committee took into account all the factors of the case and the degree of Mr Suárez’s guilt in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Code. The decision comes into force as soon it is communicated,” said Claudio Sulser, chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee."

Meanwhile an author speaks:

Suarez incident ugly, but a strange thing for grown man to repeatedly do in public. So punishment weirdly seems both too much & not enough.
— Irvine Welsh (@WelshIrvine) June 26, 2014

Bosnia 3 Iran 1
Argentina 3 Nigeria 2
Equador 0 France 0
Honduras 0 Switzerland 3

Into the last 16; France, Switzerland, Nigeria and Argentina.

France now play Nigeria and Switzerland play one of the favourites, Argentina.

Meanwhile: Luis Suárez’s Giorgio Chiellini clash adds to story of violence and deceit

25 June 2014

England have scored just 5 goals in their last 8 world cup games.

Greece 2 Ivory Coast 1 with a 93rd minute penalty winner
Japan 1 Colombia 4

Costa Rica now play Greece in the last 16 and Colombia play Uruguay - that could be quite a game.

England 0 Costa Rica 0
Italy 0 Uruguay 1

Suarez has been biting people again! A long ban ahead.

24 June 2014

Cameroon 1 Brazil 4
Croatia 1 Mexico 3
Holland 2 Chile 0
Australia 0 Spain 3

So the first matches of the last 16 are:

Brazil v Chile
Netherlands v Mexico

23 June 2014

South Korea 2 Algeria 4 (where did that come from!?)
Belgium 1 Russia 0 (an 88th minute winner)
USA  Portugal

22 June 2014

England are not gifted with talent, so we need to find it – and fast’ - David James - in the Observer

And from last night:

Germany 2 Ghana 2
Nigeria 1 Bosnia 0
Argentina 1 Iran 0

Iran gave Argentina a real scare holding on to a 0-0 draw until Messi popped up with a sublime heart-breaking winner in the 91st minute. Tough on Iran.

21 June 2014

Honduras 1 Equador 2
France 5 Switzerland 2
Costa Rica 1 Italy 0

In more serious news, the South China Morning Post is reporting that Macau police have busted a bookmaking racket that allegedly took HK$5 billion ($645 million, or £379 million) in illegal bets - including a single HK$40 million bet - on World Cup football matches in a week.

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And here is all you need to know about Costa Rica - one of the happiest surprises of the tournament.

20 June 2014

And Japan and Greece drew 0-0. Dull. Predictable.

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At five minutes, six seconds, the Uruquay anthem is officially the longest national anthem in the world.....

England lost 2-1...both Uruguay goals from Suarez.

How bad were England: Uruguay’s are half-decent opposition; but Óscar Tabárez’s side finished fifth in their qualifying group, and required a play-off against Jordan just to be in Brazil.

World Cup 2014: England got everything right – except the football

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Colombia beat the Ivory Coast 2-1. The South Americans are having a very good world cup. Expect Colombia to over-run Greece and finish top of the group with three wins. The Ivory Coast will need to beat Japan to make sure of being in the next round.

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England have a 72-strong entourage with them in Brazil, including a psychiatrist, nutritionists and a turf specialist. The only thing they do not have are any World Cup points

19 June 2014

Spain 0 Chile 2
Australia 2 Netherlands 3
Croatia 4 Cameroon 0.

So Brazil play Cameroon in their final game and should safely qualify and Croatia need to beat Mexico to progress....that should be quite a game.

Wow. Spain. The world and double European champions became the first team to leave the 2014 World Cup, knocked out of a major tournament for the first time in eight years.

The Netherlands and Chile qualify for the last 16. They play now to see who finishes first and second. With the runner - up likely to end up playing Brazil.

18 June 2014

Here are some basic stats from the first 16 games: (this ignores Brazil v Mexico which was the first game of  the second round of matches)

• We’ve seen a mind-boggling 49 goals, compared with 25 at the same stage in 2010 – that's almost double, by my calculations
   
• There have been only two draws (six in 2010)
   
• A remarkable six teams have come from behind to win (Brazil, Holland, Ivory Coast, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Belgium). In 2010 that didn’t happen at all in the first 16 games, and only three times in the whole tournament
   
• Only six teams haven’t scored (Cameroon, Honduras, Greece, Nigeria, Iran, Portugal). In 2010 that number at this stage was 13.
   
• There have been only four halves of football without a goal (and Mexico had two wrongly disallowed in one of them). I lost the will to count how many there were in South Africa, but definitely a lot more

From the Guardian:

"This is, among many other things, the first real Twitter World Cup, the first to be staged since the entrenching in the mainstream of the world’s favourite endlessly blurting global thought-dump (and Brazil is of course a Twitter crazy country itself).

A total of 12.2m tweets were sent from 150 countries during the opening match alone. It isn’t for everyone, but social media have formed a novel background timpani to the matches so far with insights, snarks, witticisms and celebratory shouts skittering across the world’s collected screens without borders or barriers (in most cases).

For all its whimsy and ephemerality this is a substantive thing, an often entertaining and subversive subtext to the business on the pitch and another reminder that football’s outstanding single quality, for all its overblown bluster, is its facility for bringing people together."

Last night:

BRAZIL 0 MEXICO 0
RUSSIA 1 SOUTH KOREA 1
BELGIUM 2 ALGERIA 1

Who would be a goalkeeper - Igor Akinfeev’s terrible blunder gave South Korea the opening goal in their game - it was not pretty.

Algeria scored - their first goal in the world cup finals for 28 years and their scorer - from the penalty spot - Feghouli - was born in Levallois-Perret, France, played for France U18 and U21, plays for Valencia, and has never lived in Africa.

16 of the 23 man Algerian squad were born in France. Making a bit of a mockery of nationality...

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So all 32 sides have now played....impressive - Germany and the Netherlands...disappointing - Uruquay, Spain, Portugal....maybes - Argentina, Columbia.  .

17 June 2014

Overnight football:

IRAN 0 NIGERIA 0 - well that was at least predictable - happy I only watched 15 minutes of that - apparently it was dire.
GERMANY 4 PORTUGAL 0 - Germany looked workmanlike rather than showing the speed and flair of 4 years ago. Portugal were dire.
USA 2 GHANA 1 Revenge for the Americans who will have lots of confidence before their game with Portugal.

16 June 2014

Overnight football:

SWITZERLAND 2 EQUADOR 1
FRANCE 3 HONDURAS 0
ARGENTINA 2 BOSNIA 1

The Swiss got a deserved winner with almost the last kick of injury time. It ws deserved after a poor offside decision to disallow an earlier goal.

Messi led Argentina.

And there have bee 11 games and not a draw....with lots of goals.

15 June 2014

So England lose to Italy 1-2 - there was plenty of huff and puff but no real quality from England but Italy knew they could sit back one they went ahead.

Pirlo is 35 and was superb again. A master-class in the use of possession. Ideal in that heat. Again.

England were always chasing the game and the ball.

Rooney was horrible other than his cross for Sturridge's goal. Rooney has still not scored a world cup goal.

Raheem Sterling looked the part but England's brightest young players - Wilshere, Barkley and Lallana did not start. They should against Uruguay who are there for the taking.....after Costa Rica took Uruguay apart 3-1.

England need to beat both these teams now to qualify.

Uruguay had the first sending off.

Roy Hodgson will be talking about positives - but it was all very predictable.

Henry Winter - the Telegraph's excellent footie reporter on twitter "I've been to so many tournaments covering #eng & seen them lifeless, fearful. At least they had a go here. Beaten by the better team #ita"

Joey Barton - whose comments are usually interesting - at least on football: "Faster transitions are the key. Quick incisive passes. We are passing the ball from left back to right back so slow its painful." He added :" Disruption of opposition in transition. Don't let them settle. Don't allow them to find their rhythm. We allowed Pirlo/De Rossi to dictate."

By the way Greece were awful....

ITALY 2 ENGLAND 1
COLOMBIA 3 GREECE 0
JAPAN  1 SIERRA LEONE 2
URUQUAY 1 COSTA RICA 3

14 June

Guardian on the BBC tv coverage: "Rio Ferdinand's a good pundit, isn't he? I bet people are annoyed about that. But it's true, he knows what he's talking about and so does Thierry Henry. Even Alan Shearer has improved. Sorry ITV, but the BBC is winning the punditry wars."

Day 2 of the tournament and a shocker as the Netherlands beat Spain 5-1 - yes FIVE. For the Dutch this was revenge for the 2010 final. For the Spanish this was not far short of a capitulation - in the second half they were terrible.

The tournament may already have its best goal with Robin van Persie's flying header just before half time. Genius.

NETHERLANDS 5 SPAIN 1
MEXICO 1 CAMEROON 1
CHILE 3 AUSTRALIA 1

13 June

World Cup is underway - Brazil with some help from the (very poor) Japanese referee seeing off plucky Croatia 3-1.

They really should not bother with an opening ceremony. Dismal affair.

BRAZIL 3 CROATIA 1