World Cup Brasil 2014

World Cup Groups

Schedule

Team Profiles

FIFA has released some really interesting videos giving information on each team and their journey to the World Cup. They can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0gFI4T56s-40XbXXQw9rAhM

Here is an example of one of the more interesting teams:

With all that said

Only a day away now folks from the World Cup.

Who will you be supporting and what are some of your predictions?

I hope nobody dies.

I will be supporting England until their inevitable exit either in the group stage or later on penalties. Other than that I would like to see Belgium do well - they have a really talented group of players and I am very interested to see if they live up to their potential.

I am just hoping that it is better than the last one which was one of the most disappointing World Cups I have known. The only one which was worse for quality matches was Italia '90 (most English people have good memories of that tournament because we got to the semis - but it was really shit, dirty negative football, with a final as bad as '10 for foul play and fear of mistakes by the players. '90 was the reason the backpass rule came in - they had to do something about crappy football)

One thing I am pleased about is the timing of the matches. 5pm, 9pm, 11pm and 2am. Great for some late night footie watching - brings back memories of USA '94.

Love the World Cup - can't wait for it to start. It just makes me feel like a kid again.

I think Brasil will probably win. They are not the best team but home advantage counts for so much and they are desperate to erase the memories of 1950 when they lost to Uruguay.

Other than that Argentina and Germany look strong and Spain are still a threat. One theme seems to be that most of the teams seem to be overloaded with amazing forwards and attacking midfielders but weak in defence (Argentina a point in case) hopefully this means exciting goal filled games.

Very interested to see how the two groups of death. Spain, Holland, Chile, Australia and England, Italy, Uruguay, Costa Rica play out.

Super excited for the World Cup tomorrow. I'll be cheering on En-ger-land until we unceremoniously crash out and then cheering on everyone but Spain from then on in. I really want some of the touted 'dark horses' in the shape of Belgium, Chilie and Colombia to do well. It's a shame that there are quite a few players injured going into the tournament that really would have made an impact (I'm referring to Falcao and Marco Reus here mainly).

Also, the later match times are perfect for me. Means lovely evenings of football after work. Bring it on!

@gatehouse: Why do you dislike Spain. Is it cos they won last time, or do you find their football boring? What are your feelings on Barcelona?

I'll be cheerin for the U-S of A, and praying to at least break our losing streak to Ghana.

USA is my team but I'm just hoping for a win over Ghana and anything good after that and ill consider it a victory for us. ill probably be rooting for Belgium after the group stage unless USA pulls a miracle.

@leebmx: It's mainly because of their enduring dominance over the last few years, it would be the same if Germany of Holland had won the last two Euros and the last World Cup in such a convincing manner.

Also, tiki-taka kind of bores me now, I prefer the more direct, attacking style of teams like Liverpool, Chile and Borussia Dortmund. Whenever I watched them in the Champions League, I found Bayern a bit duller this year under Pep Guardiola than they were last year with Jupp Heynckes.

In regards to Barcelona, they're a bit of an odd animal, as they're really in transition right now. Under Guardiola though, I thought they were a phenomenal team that played that system to perfection, although a lot of that was due to the addition of players like Eto'o, Messi and Ronaldinho, who could add that spark of direct, fast, attacking play that Spain quite often haven't shown at the last couple of tournaments.

Ireland didn't qualify, but I'd like to see Belgium or England do well as both have reasonably talented teams who should do better than they have (especially England). As others have said I'd hope to see someone besides Spain win just for a change of pace from the last couple of years and competitions.

Although I really don't like the way the FIFA is running things, i am looking forward to the matches. I'd like to see an African team win it, Germany played Cameroon the other day and they looked quite strong. Of course, I will also be rooting for Germany, since I live here. It's a shame about Reus.

Yeah a huge shame about Reus. I have put £10 on Germany to win the World Cup so fingers crossed.

I can see England maybe getting through the group but not much further :(

@gatehouse: Yeah, I just wondered. I don't want them to win (although I wouldn't be kicking the dog or anything) because I don't really like one team dominating. I think part of the reaction to Spain/Barcelona as being boring has come from the tactics that other teams have taken to cope with their dominance. I don't think tiki-taka is boring per se, just that Spain were so dominant at the last world cup that the only way the opposition could cope was either sitting back and defending with 10 men, or kicking lumps out of them like the Dutch in the final. As for Guardiola, I think he might be slipping into being a idealist rather than the pragmatist all successful coaches should be.

I love the way tactics swing from one side to another. I have just bought a book by Johnathan Wilson called Inverting The Pyramid about tactics through the ages which I am looking forward to reading.

One thing I haven't heard anyone talk about is whether if Germany, Argentina, Brazil, or Italy win this WC they get to keep it. Brazil got to keep the Jules Rimet, after '70. Will we get a new trophy maybe in 2018?

¡Viva México!

¡Viva El Tri!

A link to a schedule of the games in the first post would be appreciated.

@aegon: Here you go http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2080049-world-cup-2014-groups-schedule-full-tv-schedule-coverage-info-for-group-stage

mostly france. little bit of italy

Germany, US, Portugal, Ghana isn't a group of death?

Only if your the US.

:P

This, from a fan of a team that wouldn't even be in the World Cup without the US? You guys probably would have thrown the game had you been in our shoes to decide our fate. Next time, just say gracias.

I think he was asking you to add it to your original post. Just hit the edit button and spice it up seeing as how that is the first thing people see when they come into the thread.

Edit: Awesome, thanks!

I was almost ready to support Germany again for the first time in years with so many Dortmund players initially nominated. But with Schmelzer out, Reus injured and Weidenfeller having to make way again for Neuer despite being really good in the recent matches I have lost any interest in them. So go USA, Belgium, Australia and all you other outsider nations.

LETS GO ARGENTINA!!!!

You could have gone for the easy insult of me spelling "you're" wrong. But anyway, if I am speaking for the team them I would like to say thank you. And while I am at it, let me say sorry for that humiliating defeat in 2011.

:D

That goal is so fucking good - he never did anything close to that at Spurs.

I'm supporting England and Algeria, because Riyad Mahrez plays for Algeria and I support Leicester

Obviously, rooting for my home nation of England, but going to put a sneaky bet on Argentina to win the tournament, and Belgium to get to the semi finals.

You heard it here first...

Like @notnert427 said, Group G is much more a group of death than either of those two.

Spain and the Netherlands have got B shut down, and although Uruguay has a good team I think England will still make it out in the second spot of D.

Holland is not what it was 4 years ago. I wouldn't be surprised to see Chile send them home early.

I'm honestly pleased to see any English from a fan of El Tri. It's not like I have to resort to the low-hanging fruit of pointing out grammatical errors here, either, given that you're still clinging to something that happened that long ago. To put that in video game perspective, Duke Nukem Forever was released within weeks of that match. I further find it entertaining that you're basically saying that losing to El Tri is humiliating. Thankfully, the US hasn't suffered any of that humiliation in any of the five meetings since.

Rivalry banter aside, I'm glad you guys axed the disaster that was Chepo and appear headed back in the right direction. It's better for both the US and Mexico to push each other, especially given the relative weakness of much of the rest of CONCACAF. I hated to see the Montes injury; that was really hard to watch. Good luck in the WC. I think you can take Cameroon, but it's going to be tough sledding against Brazil and their home crowd. I'm really excited to see how it plays out.

I'm backing Germany and USA. Though no doubt the US will be eliminated quickly. Dempsey and Zusi can't carry a team against Ronaldo and our defense isn't close to good enough to stop Germany's powerhouse offense. Still looking forward to watching them play though.

haha yea I'm excited to see how far the US makes it. Ghana isn't looking too strong leaving Portugal as the team for them to beat. I hope both teams make it far (or at least past the group stage).

@darthorange: Sure, the Dutch are an unpredictable bunch and their striking power is probably fading. But they still got more than enough to get out of this group stage.

Prediction: Koke will displace Xavi by the quarters

Murica will be pasted over the pitch but hopefully they'll take a couple of points from Ghana and Portugal for a moral victory. Brazil will probably win the whole thing. Maybe Japan will make it out of group stage so I can at least pretend to root for them.

Either way, between the World Cup and the Olympics it seems all major international sports competitions are being run by literal James Bond villains now.

@dochaus said:

Seriously, that shit going on in Qatar is gross.

That said, speaking of the Olympics does anyone remember who won in 2012? I forgot. @notnert427 do you remember who won? :P

@harrytmj66: Mexico sucks (Im mexican btw) ... and what irks me the most is that Mexico always going to the world cup or any other international cup is just a drug for the masses and the people just keeps letting the gobernment fucking up with us because all the people care is for that really idiotic dream of winning a world cup or any other tournament , instead of standing up against this fucking gobernment of bullshit. (Imagine what hapens with americans and football and their politicians doing whatever they want because OMG its the superbowl , but times a 1000!!!!!!) I hate soccer and the world cup should be banned. Also instead of wasting money in frivolities the gobernments should help their people , and I agree with all the mishaps the population of Brazil is doing against this idiotic world cup and sport.

I'll be cheering for my team Mexico, I hope they can do better than the last few world cups. They have done pretty good when they hosted the world cup in 86 I believe. I really think Germany will win or Uruguay but Argentina needs Messi to do something spectacular it might be his last chance.

If this World Cup turned out to be the most boring pile of shit to ever have graced the beautiful game, I wouldn't mind as long as this happens

But anyways, I'll be supporting Belgium, England, Brazil, Algeria and Japan, even though it'd be miraculous if those last two made it past the Round of 16 and the second that England get into a penalty shoot-out they're doomed. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED! Super hyped for the tournament.

@steamrickroller: You're right about the penalties haha. The last time we won a penalty shoot-out in a tournament was Euro96 against Spain

I'm rooting for America and then Bosnia once America gets knocked out

HYPE

Since we didn't qualify, I really don't care. Selfish, I know.

@dochaus: That honestly made me laugh out loud. Sad but true.

@darthorange: Olympics? We talkin' 'bout Olympics?

2:30 hours to start the of the first match.

Go Brazil!!!!

So what are you guys expecting? Do you think Brazil completely stomps Croatia or do you think it will be a close game? In that FIFA team profile video apparently not even Croatia thinks they will win. The player saying that just seemed to accept the outcome of the match.

I'm expecting a closer game than most are predicting. I think Brazil is getting a ton of credit for being the home team and for being traditionally good, not for their actual 2014 WC squad's ability. I still think Brazil edges them 2-1 or so, but a draw or even a Croat win would not surprise me much. I fully expect Brazil to advance from the group, but I don't think they'll win it all or even get particularly close, regardless of what happens in this opener.

HALF AN HOUR UNTIL IT STARTS. HEEEEEEEEEEEERE WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I predict 3-1 win for Brazil, Brazil and Mexico will make it out of group stage

Is it just me or does Croatia's coach looks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt?

@darthorange: I was just coming to post that.

Is John Woo directing this?