Rio de Janiero - 2014 Fifa World Cup Thread

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

First topic message reminder :

Diego Costa for £32 million isn't looking to hot either...Chelsea could be looking at the 3 most expensive striker flops in history in Shevchenko, Torres and now Costa.

He lacks pace and mobility which for me are essential in the premiership.

Tbf this isn't the same Costa that's been playing for Atletico, a long hard season and a few injuries catching up with him here I think

[The Special Juan]

Does Bentekkers have a broken leg?

[Lowlandbrit]

Is it just me or do Belgium look a lot like England? Talented, but no real superstars, and struggle to break teams down. Looking forward to their disappointing elimination on penalties.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL DE BELGIUM

[J.Benson II]

Dire game between Belgium and Russia.
Capello has Russia playing like he had England playing four years ago - totally devoid of creativity.

Leaving Alan Dzagoev on the bench sums his style up.

Belgium look pedestrian. Through to the KO stages but need to show improvement if they are to live up to their pre tournament hype.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Belgium kick off my Belgium, Algeria, USA treble nicely

And yes I realise I said USA had no chance against Portugal, but this way I am right or I win money so win win innit

[CFCNick]

Lukaku is just showing what he is. He struggles to play well for a team with higher expectations than West Brom and Everton.

[Duty281]

Algeria to beat South Korea? Never.

Well actually they will, obviously, because I've predicted South Korea to win!

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Nailed on draw now, Olly, nice one.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Capello's refusal to pick Dzagoev and Kerzakhov (not sure on the spelling) coming back to bite him on the ass

How the man got more than one contract out of England I'll never know

[invisiblecoolers]

Russia 1 - 0 Belgium [ Russia to score the goal in 2nd half]
Korea 0-0 Algeria
USA 1-0 Portugal


Cheering all the underdogs to have their day today.   

Last but not least thats where my bet lies too.

0-0 Belgium Russia will yield me $250 on $10 bet.   

Thankfully I cashed out my 0-0 bet at 75th minute for $100 [0-0 full $10 @25 odds] I had a suspect one of them would make the goal at post 85th minute and it happend on 88th minute.   

Korea Algeria I am predicting a draw, lets see how it goes.

[The Special Juan]

Klose has 15 goals at World Cup finals... and all but one of them are crap. Imagine if Spain in their pomp had someone like him.

[FootballLight]

Any bets on this being the worst game in the tournament? No, surely not. Iran vs Nigeria will certainly be worse. Although, why this game is on now and there is a crunch game like USA vs Portugal on at 11, I'll never know. I suppose that's just how the fixture list turned out I suppose.

Algeria to win this 1-0.

[Guest]

Ronaldo will always be the WC top marksman for me. Sensational goals vs superior opposition, than Klose`s. I'll never forget Klose & his four goals vs Saudi Arabia.

The system doesn't suit Lukaku but he's not that great a striker, devoid of any first touch & his passing is terrible. Bailed out by Hazard & the sub. Belgium to exit at the last 16.

[FootballLight]

First half chance after less than 90 seconds fell for Algeria. That early chance is making me eat my words, slightly. Sofiane Feghouli maybe should have been doing better with that shot, for a player of his quality, should have been hitting the target there.

[FootballLight]

This game is certainly making me eat my words at the moment! 3 and a half minutes in, Algeria have had 2 penalty claims (that maybe should have been! At least one of them!) and a shot that again, he should have done better with and hit the target. Good, lively start from Algeria. Not a half bad side looking at them. Organised, got experience and slight bits of quality here and there.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Would imagine US is on later for the TV markets etc in the US of A

[FootballLight]

Good ball into the box, a free header at the back post, side netting, should have been doing better. Especially since he was the top scorer in his region in qualifying.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Amazing amount of dodgy decisions going the Koreans way, invokes memories of 2002 #fixing

[FootballLight]

I think the referee's have been poor so far this tournament. Maybe poor is a little bit harsh but they've got some key decisions wrong or a lot of decisions wrong and favouring one side.

Big chance there for Algeria. He was never set for the shot the striker, big chance.

[Lowlandbrit]

Amazing amount of dodgy decisions going the Koreans way, invokes memories of 2002 #fixing

Considering some of the decisions from the Nigeria game last night, a cynical person might suggest someone would very much like one team from every confederation in the next round   

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL ALGERIAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[FootballLight]

Algeria lead. They have been on top, they have been the one's asking all the questions, deserved lead. Good finish as well.   He pushed the Korean defender into the goalkeeper when he scored.

A SECOND GOAL!! My prediction was wrong, 2 goals in 2 minutes for Algeria. It's a well worked set piece, great delivery, good movement, good header, 2-0. Game over?

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

[Duty281]

Nooooo South Korea!

[The Special Juan]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

...

[FootballLight]

South Korea 0-3 Algeria

Tournament over for Korea, Algeria on 3 points and in 2nd place, surprise package?

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

...

Gonna be a lot of Seoul searching in the Korea camp tonight...

[The Fourth Lion]

Algeria look lively, organised and quite clinical in their finishing. But the Korean defending..? Woeful.

The last time anybody came back from 0- 3 down in a world cup finals match to win was in 1966 so unless something spectacular (and it would have to be from the way South Korea played in the first half) happens, this game is most likely already done and dusted.

OK, so Algeria progress. Well done them. I'm sure, however, they won't fool themselves into thinking the teams they meet in the later stages will be so defensively inadequate. They will know it's going to get tougher and it will be interesting to watch how they respond as the bar is set higher.

They should finish the job and totally bury South Korea in the second half.

[Champagne_Socialist]

3-2

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

That was a fantastic goal, brilliant football

[Lowlandbrit]

What a brilliant rubbish game this has turned out to be.

[kingraf]

Normally tend to back the African countries in footie, but Algerians don't really consider themselves African... So go Korea!

[J.Benson II]

Algerians probably relate more to the Middle East/Asia than Africa.

Was a cracking game though. Algeria's 4th goal was quality. Not sure how the ref missed the penalty shout for Korea in the end. As stonewall a penalty as you can get.
Good WC so far but as expected, has been ruined somewhat by poor officiating.

[Champagne_Socialist]

Normally tend to back the African countries in footie, but Algerians don't really consider themselves African... So go Korea!

What about in cricket?

[The Special Juan]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

...

Gonna be a lot of Seoul searching in the Korea camp tonight...

That's worse than the first one. Give up, Son.

[kingraf]

Quite right Benson, more middle East, than African, along with most of North Africa, except Lybia.

Agree with you re - Refs, but such is life

[kingraf]

Normally tend to back the African countries in footie, but Algerians don't really consider themselves African... So go Korea!

What about in cricket?

South Africa, and only South Africa. Same with rugby, hockey, and anything... and maybe Spain pending my Spanish passport application

[kingraf]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

...

Gonna be a lot of Seoul searching in the Korea camp tonight...

That's worse than the first one. Give up, Son.

I agree, puns aren't his forte, gonna have to look into a different Korea, Olly.

[Duty281]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

...

Gonna be a lot of Seoul searching in the Korea camp tonight...

That's worse than the first one.  Give up, Son.

I agree, puns aren't his forte, gonna have to look into a different Korea, Olly.

The summer seoulstice has messed your thinking up.

[kingraf]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

...

Gonna be a lot of Seoul searching in the Korea camp tonight...

That's worse than the first one.  Give up, Son.

I agree, puns aren't his forte, gonna have to look into a different Korea, Olly.

The summer seoulstice has messed your thinking up.

It's the winter solstice, in the SH, Jong un

[Duty281]

Korea's world cup hopes going south here

...

Gonna be a lot of Seoul searching in the Korea camp tonight...

That's worse than the first one.  Give up, Son.

I agree, puns aren't his forte, gonna have to look into a different Korea, Olly.

The summer seoulstice has messed your thinking up.

It's the winter solstice, in the SH, Jong un

Don't be so in-seoul-ting.

[Lowlandbrit]

Dempsey's nose looks in pretty good shape. It's not in the right place, but other than that...

[Champagne_Socialist]

gets dark early in brazil its only 6pm there and its dark already.

[kingraf]

It's the middle of winter.

[The Special Juan]

USA for me. Portugal are about as one man a team as Spurs were/are, and the one man's injured.

[Fernando]

Portugal 1-0 Nani

Good work Juan   

[kingraf]

How the hell did Ghana lose to this US team?

[The Special Juan]

Oh Flipkens

[NickisBHAFC]

Very sexy work by Ronaldo in the build up.

USA doing some England defending.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Told you guys the US would get shagged

[Sponsored content]