WORLD CUP 2014 - BRAZIL

I think Brazil wins. Germany is the best team left and are obviously a quality side who put enormous pressure on their opponents and make defenses earn their keep, but David Luiz might be the best player left in the tournament besides Messi. If Brazil can hit on just a hand-full of long balls to negate the German mid-field dominance and give Oscar and whoever else is up front for Brazil (Willian out wide/Jo most likely, I think Fred gets benched) a chance to score one and change the complexion of the game, Germany will be in trouble.

If they let Germany score first however this game is lost IMO. They need to score and get crowd going and make the German plays sweat ala the game vs Ghana when they were down. All it takes is one or two good touches from the Brazilian side to break down the German defense and hopefully they can figure away to get pas Neuer, who is probably the best keeper left in the tournament.

Neuer save against Benzema late pretty much personified his performance in this World Cup. He just calmly stuck his arm into the air and cooly deflected the shot with not so much as a flinch. He was literally like "lol try again".

Bubbles_sl said:

Robben is a fucking diver. My hatred towards him has never been stronger

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same here

Holland - Germany final for me

When exactly did robben dive against costa rica? They were gunning for Robben and robben definitely did not dive this game. I will not defend his 1 dive in the mexico game, but you cannot deny he should have gotten at least 1 pk in the first half vs. mexico. And if you hate divers, you must definitely hate brasil, costa rica, chili, colombia. Those teams took the cake with just falling over with nothing hitting them.

Since this was brought up earlier...

The Best World Cup Ever? - Atlantic Mobile

It gets said every four years, but this really is the year that Americans have finally discovered the beautiful game. The numbers prove it. An average of 14 million watched each USA game, with almost 25 million watching the World Cup game between USA and Portugal on ESPN and Univision?more than watched the National Basketball Association finals or the baseball World Series. (Still, that?s a fifth of the number who watched the Super Bowl, so American football still rules supreme.)

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On Robben, he draws fouls with his signature move and he's no doubt dangerous, but he also uses that to his advantage to flop whenever he thinks it'll be to his advantage - no to little defense he keeps his balance... A few extra defenders and down he goes.

If the flopping is a problem that literally everyone in and around the sport recognizes why not just start throwing down crippling penalties and player fines? Even hours or days after the fact upon higher FIFA review or whatever the fuck if necessary. Eventually even the biggest morons will get the message when they're writing checks after every game.

Like in the Beautiful Game of NFL Football the league has been successful in changing the game in response to lawsuits and general concern over concussions and brain injuries. They hit these guys with huge on the field penalties and then fine them the next day. A few dipshits continue to pay fines and eat suspensions but the game has definitely changed, for better or worse.

Brazil appeal Thiago Silva yellow card to overturn suspension for semifinal

Classy, simply classy move.

Robert Baratheon_sl said:

If the flopping is a problem that literally everyone in and around the sport recognizes why not just start throwing down crippling penalties and player fines? Even hours or days after the fact upon higher FIFA review or whatever the fuck if necessary. Eventually even the biggest morons will get the message when they're writing checks after every game.

Like in the Beautiful Game of NFL Football the league has been successful in changing the game in response to lawsuits and general concern over concussions and brain injuries. They hit these guys with huge on the field penalties and then fine them the next day. A few dipshits continue to pay fines and eat suspensions but the game has definitely changed, for better or worse.

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The thing is it's a sport with people who run and that is played with the feet. If you hit the feet of someone who runs, if you nudge someone while his balance is made precarious by the maneuvering of the ball, shit is going to happen. You don't even need to touch the other player: if a guy sees a contact will happen, emergency jumping will end with him in the grass more often than not. Trying to judge if the consequence is out of proportion with the cause is an almost impossible exercise. If you start to book and fine people because 'clearly he should have been able to stay on his feet' or 'clearly this did not hurt so bad' you are going to end up with a ridiculous amount of false positives (the pure flops, the ones with absolutely no contact, or the 'you touched my chest but I act like you punched my face' shenanigans will get caught, but these are not common).

I guess one can argue that these false positive will motivate players to do their best to stay on their feet and stand up quickly in case their best was not enough, but a law that, by design, will punish innocents is a bit strange. Also, no matter the penalty and the fine, soccer matches are won on such small margins that selling a foul and risking a booking/fine for it might be better than not selling it and risking that the ref' does not call the foul.

It would be a shitstorm of proportions every time a fine was handed out, but I think it would be good for the game.

Some cases would be ridiculously hard to call though. Look at Shaqiri in OT in Switzerland's final match: He jukes to the left with the ball, a player slides in to tackle him, but just before the tackle hits Shaqiri he jumps to avoid it and falls down to signal the foul. It's a "dive", since he wasn't hit. However, if he doesn't jump, that tackle 99% surely hits him in the ankle and he gets a genuine free kick, and also runs the risk of injury. This decision is made in a split second when he sees that tackle come in.

What's the right call for a disciplinary committee here? That dive was far worse than Robben's and could have been game deciding just the same, yet it can easily be justified.

Brando_sl said:

You can say that in regards to almost any top player, think it was Maul earlier who was talking about this being just a Latin thing but he's a fucking cretin and this happens in every country. I think the officials need more help and there needs to be transparency with the calls they make. A ref doesn't have to explain why he makes a call to anybody and most FA's frown on replays being shown of a call during the game for the fear it may reflect poorly on the ref. It's so hard to score in Soccer that the little calls can definitely sway the result of the game.

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Cretin? Point out where anything I've said is either wrong or stupid. Otherwise shut your cunt mouth.

My life feels strangely empty without soccer on TV. Football is so far away and the Orioles don't play until 7 tonight. I am sad.

Also go Germany!

Brando_sl said:

Umm yeah, the English don't condone it yet are more than happy to say no to an FA proposal to try to setup a committee similar to the NBA to try to clamp down on offenders.

Football Association defeated in summer plans to ban players for diving using video evidence - Telegraph

Edit: And the fact that you say Continental and South American football is full of it compared to English football is laughable as well. I can post plenty of Vids of Rooneh flopping around Ronaldo style.

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There is FAR less diving in the Premier league, how is this even debatable, you obviously don't watch La Liga or Serie A. The fact its constantly talked about, commentators are disgusted by it, Managers constantly moaning in interviews, when compared to these flopping fucks in South America who actively defend their action. It even says the reasons why they turned down the proposal was because it could set a precident of clubs asking for replays of games when retrospective action is taken. All clubs and managers want to see this stamped out but its a slow process as any changes often are.

I'm going to put your obvious attacks down to the fact that I pointed out Liverpool are the most loathed team in the league, to which you obviously can't believe is possible (have you even been to Anfield? or even the UK?). I've said it once and I will say it again, get fucked and get the blinkers off, you even have Suarez as your avatar, how much more of a prick can you be?

They should watch instant replays post-match. If someone dives in an obvious way (grabs thei face when they get hit in the leg, etc...) red card them for their next two matches.

It wouldnt affect stoppage time since it would all occur postgame. And you could be damn sure people would stop diving if it could fuck their teams for the next 2 matches. I'm sure people would still exaggerate actual hits they took, but the blatant bullshit dives would stop.