If defense wins you championship then no team has been really impressive in that department. France, Netherlands and Brazil are the most prolific sides so far but their defenses are nowhere near solid. For three consecutive games the opponents have succeded in exploiting the spaces left by Brazil's marauding full-backs. Last night was no exception, even worse it wasn't exactly a counter attack but Dani Alves was sold too easily for Cameroon's solitary goal.
They're probably gonna approach the game in a more defensive manner in the second round though, especially since Chile's Alexis Sanchez loves to play in that zone. But if they concede first, then thing s will be a lot more complicated.
per l'amaro e il dolce
I think Brazil are growing, though Nalx is totally right, they need to improve defensively. I do also think Brazil are getting a lot of harsh treatment this world, perhaps justified, but still harsh. Mostly, I think the win vs Croatia has kind of made them the "bad guys" because of the refereeing. In terms of play, while they're hardly spectacular, I do think at this point they've done what was expected of them and had it not been for Ochoa, they'd have gone through with a perfect record, much like Holland.
Speaking of which, Holland have been kind of the "darlings" of the tournament, but realistically, we're looking at a team that was spectacular vs Spain (who have proven to be dire), struggled a lot vs Australia and managed to do a solid job vs Chile. Brazil, in this respect haven't performed particularly worse in that they've both had suspect defences and both have shown some good moments going forward. Neither have been particularly consistent in their performances, but at this point I don't think Holland are particularly better, just that Brazil seem to have much more pressure to play exceptional football.
I watched parts of the Mexico - Croatia match and up to the 70th minute I admit I got pretty bored. Things got pretty hectic thereafter and Mexico deserve to go through imo.
Croatia's performance was purely disappointing. They are the ones chasing for a victory more than their opponent, but didn't take their chances well.
MILAN! MILAN! SOLO CON TE!
MILAN! MILAN! SEMPRE PER TE!
06-28-2014, 07:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-28-2014, 03:47 PM by Best-Pundit.)
So Brazil and Mexico advanced.
The Good (who got both right):
None
The Bad (Who got both wrong):
Stitch 0a
The Ugly (Who got 1 right, 1 wrong):
Acmir 1a
Aficio 1a
Androgynous 1a
Gio-mania 1a
maharaja 1a
Mystik 1a
mzk57 1a
nefremo 1a
reza 1a
xudong 1a
ZvonimirBoban 1a
Argentina will win the World CupĀ 2022
Formerly mzk57