JM1
1921
Wahey. That’s shut a few people up - there were plenty of jibes about how European football was being taught a lesson by South American teams in this WC. Brazil - beaten by Holland. Argentina - humiliated by Germany. And Spain/Paraguay to come, we could have 3 Euro teams out of 4 in the semis.
Well played Germany, well played. Much fitter than their opposition and without the fear that Tevez and Messi seemed to take onto the pitch with them (how many times do you want to run up blind alleys, guys?). Not perfect - Lahm gave the ball away far too many times, for instance - but they gave it everything for 90 minutes and were just far too good for Argentina.
4-0. What a humiliation.
Tim, final word…
I accept your dictionary definition of cheating. I am merely pointing out that by using that definition, cheating is something that is ridiculously commonplace in the sport of football and that abusing Suarez because of it becomes stupid. You can’t have it both ways - either deliberate fouls (of which we saw many today) are cheating and thus every player is a cheat (making the accusation towards a single player a worthless one), or they’re not.
And that’s my last word on it because it’s a fucking stupid discussion at this point.
One final thought: Is this the most likeable German team ever? Not one character like Khan or Ballack in there. They all seem to be good sports!
I think the Argentineans had much more individual skill on the field, but they just couldn’t construct the killer moves that Germany played again and again. And Germany’s counter-attacks… every time they do the same thing: calmly lay it off to someone with a good boot, pitch it ahead of one of the runners, and then chase the action down the field. It’s phenomenal to watch.
Absolutely. They play with an absolute joy out there; it really is like they somehow switched kits with the Brazilians or something.
JM1
1924
Yeah, if any of the Argentinians managed to isolate a German defender it was curtains - but it never happened. Messi, Tevez, Higuain all got crowded out. They didn’t have bad games, and Mascherano was pretty good, but Germany just seemed to play at a higher intensity and never gave them a sniff.
Messi looked lost by the end.
This is the part I like the most, I really enjoy watching this team, they are so obviously having a lot of fun. That’s gotta be the Coach work showing up.
Vamos La Furia Roja. That is all.
Not every player is a cheat, but I’m sure every player has cheated at some point. I’ve deliberately handled the ball to stop it getting past me several times, and got booked for it. I did it in my first game for my school team: I remember it clearly because it was stupid, unnecessary and embarrassing. But I’m in no doubt that I cheated. It’s just that none of them were really big cheats.
Stopping the ball on the goal line, however, that’s disgusting cheating, imo. I don’t believe every player would do it, and I’ve shown players in an almost identical situation who didn’t even try to stop the ball with their hands. Is Diego Maradona a worse cheat for hiding what he did? Probably, although the effects of his cheating were less than Uruguay’s: Argentina were better than England and would likely have won anyway, Uruguay robbed Ghana of 100% guaranteed victory.
My problem is that saying its not cheating, and even celebrating his actions as genius, just encourages this kind of behaviour. And who wants games to be decided by the actions of cheats?
robsam
1928
I noticed this when they dismantled Australia and immediatley jumped on the German bandwagon, I figured I would need a backup team when USA got knocked out.
hong
1929
At least this result demonstrates that Austria is just as good as Argentina!
Yep. This is the reason that I finally stopped rooting against Germany (a favorite activity of mine in previous World Cups) in the 2006 World Cup. Just watching the young German players, under Klinsmann having the time of their lives is just infectious. How can you root against that? So even though they just eliminated the team I always support in every World Cup (who always let me down), I can’t help but be happy for Germany, and hope they actually make it to the final. Since 1990, I’ve always wanted the Netherlands to win at least one World Cup, since they’ve had such great teams but never won. So it’ll be tough to know who to root for if it ends up being a Netherlands vs Germany final.
What a wonderful game, I’m so happy with this result. Now it’s Uruguay all the way. And I’m still looking for Messi…
Quick update on the Suarez thing: I’m now with Tim, Rock8man, hong, Juan Rayo, Volsky, and Kingson.
robsam
1934
Thanks for turning on me Dave. Have you no sense of loyalty?
I just don’t believe what you believe any more, okay?!
One thing I really like about this young German team is that it’s also a pretty nice cross-section of the new Germany, with a more varied makeup that represents the demographics of the country pretty well. And they seem to be able to blend youthful energy with a reasonably disciplined system–yeah, Argentina fielded some technically more skilled and certainly more experienced players, but where was any sort of system or scheme for their side? When those stellar individuals didn’t live up to billing, it all came crashing down, hard.
I just wonder how much missing Mueller in the next match will hurt Germany.
My favorite part of this thread is that Tim thinks Encarta is some kind of ultimate authority on what words mean.
Tim, the OED would like a word with you (“cheat,” to be precise):
I’m having a difficult time finding deception in Suarez’s play.
That’s a highly abridged definition. Where are you getting it from?
Some more detailed and sourced definitions:
I couldn’t find your OED definition, but I found this one:
“1 [no object] act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage:she always cheats at cards.”
Breaking the rules in order to gain an advantage is just cheating. If someone is using a wall hack in Counter Strike, is he not cheating if he boasts about doing it?
With apologies to our Argentine members – I thoroughly enjoyed that performance by Germany. Is there any chance Maradona will have learned a lesson in humility today? No.
I’m kinda finding it hard to pick a team to support tonight. I want a final where both teams are not already world champions. There’s not been a final like this since 1978 when neither Holland and Argentina had ever won before. In fact no non-champion has made the final since 1978, so it will be pretty amazing if it happens.
But neither Spain nor Paraguay have ever been champions before, so that doesn’t help. I was hoping for South American fail because of all the unsupported spooging the British press, especially the BBC, have been doing all over these teams. All this talk of “a South American World Cup” and an all South American semi-final seemed like a lot of hot air, when not a single South American team had beaten anyone decent.
But with Brazil and Argentina out, and Uruguay only getting through by cheating, my ire is dying. And from what I remember Paraguay don’t cheat and dive like Brazil and Argentina, so they don’t make me want them to lose for that reason either. Paraguay are also the underdogs, and I almost always support teams less likely to win…
Can anyone help me make up my stupid mind in the next 15 minutes or so? :)
