Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So Algeria is going to seek revenge for the Non-aggression pact of Gijón on Monday against Germany, and then the USA will face Belgium on Tuesday. Can't wait!

Good games today. Brazil managed to move on and Colombia also got the win. So the first Quarter-Final match is shaping up to be great.

I also saw this posted today. It's the internet, so take it with a grain of salt :




Automatically Appended Next Post:
And just some thoughts about how the different Confederations performed so far.

Percentage of each Confederation that advanced into the Final 16:

Asian Football Confederation (AFC): 0%
Confederation of African Football (CAF): 40%
Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football(CONCACAF): 75%
South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL): 83%
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA): 46%.

Yeah, Europeans just aren't good at soccer.

 Seaward wrote:
Yeah, Europeans just aren't good at soccer.

It would seem that European soccer is in a similar state to Rugby: that is to say, outside of a few absolute powerhouse nations, the rest are gak.

Well, they are still plenty good. They might just not be the only good teams in the World Cup anymore.

Europe and South America have been considered the only "real" powers in soccer with the other Confederations just maken a token appearance at the World Cup. And Europe still gets to send more teams to the World Cup than any other confederation with 13 teams going. North and South America combined only get 7 guaranteed spots.

Now, Europe does have a lot more teams in their Confederation and this year could always be a fluke with both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF playing closer to home than Europe. But if both Federations continue to do well in 2018 it might be realistic to look at the allocation of spots and maybe take a spot or two from UEFA and give it to the Americas.

FIFA has been talking about expanding to 40 teams, so that would also allow them to make some adjustements..

Edit: correction of automatic spots for North & South America

 d-usa wrote:


Europe and South America have been considered the only "real" powers in soccer with the other Confederations just maken a token appearance at the World Cup. And Europe still gets to send more teams to the World Cup than any other confederation with 13 teams going. North and South America combined only get 10 spots.

This doesn't seem all that odd to me really... There are far fewer nations in North/South America than there are in Europe. It's just that most of our Western Hemisphere countries cover larger portions of land than much of the European countries.

Doesn't North America get to send three at most? Does Cuba count?

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 d-usa wrote:


Europe and South America have been considered the only "real" powers in soccer with the other Confederations just maken a token appearance at the World Cup. And Europe still gets to send more teams to the World Cup than any other confederation with 13 teams going. North and South America combined only get 10 spots.

This doesn't seem all that odd to me really... There are far fewer nations in North/South America than there are in Europe. It's just that most of our Western Hemisphere countries cover larger portions of land than much of the European countries.

CONMEBOL is the oddball here, with only having 10 members. But UEFA really doesn't have that many more members than the other confederations.

CONMEBOL and CONCACAF combined have more member nations than UEFA, but get almost half as many guaranteed spots in the World Cup.

Here is the number of automatic spots per Confederation compared to the number of member nations (and the percentage that automatically qualifyies to the World Cup):

UEFA: 13 spots, 54 members (25%)
CAF: 5 spots, 56 members (9%)
AFC: 4 spots, 47 members (9%)
CONMEBOL: 4 spots, 10 members (40%)
CONCACAF: 3 Spots, 41 members (7%)
OFC: 0 spots, 12 members, (0%).
1 spot for the host, 2 spots in a play-off between OFC/AFC/CONMEBOL/CONCACAF.

Now I realize that you can't just look at "each Confederation should be able to send 16% of their teams to make it fair", and that individual performances of the Confederations have to be taken into consideration. CONMEBOL has been a powerhouse for a long time, so even though they are a very small confederation they end up with a large percentage of members participating and they usually do well. They also ended up sending two more nations than their given allocations due to being the host and winning the playoff for one of the toss up spots (with CONCACAF getting the second spot when Mexico managed to get included). UEFA has been a powerhouse for a long time, so they send a lot of members to the World Cup and usually do very well. I think all World Cup winners have been from those two Confederations alone.

Personally, considering the performance out of the groups in this World Cup I would probably split it up like this:

1 host
UEFA: 12 spots, 54 members (22%)
CAF: 5 spots, 56 members (9%)
AFC: 4 spots, 47 members (9%)
CONMEBOL: 4 spots, 10 members (40%)
CONCACAF: 4 Spots, 41 members (10%)
OFC: 0 spots, 12 members, (0%).

1 playoff spot between CONMEBOL and CONCACAF
1 playoff spot between OFC and AFC

(I would advocate just taking a full spot away from CONMEBOL but the continent would burn )


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Breotan wrote:
Doesn't North America get to send three at most? Does Cuba count?

We used to have 4 guaranteed spots, which got reduced to 3 for 2014 with the 4th being a playoff spot against Asia.

 Seaward wrote:
Yeah, Europeans just aren't good at soccer.

It could be worse, the four teams from the Asian confederation got a grand total of... three points, all finishing bottom of their group.

 Dheneb wrote:

 Seaward wrote:
Yeah, Europeans just aren't good at soccer.

It could be worse, the four teams from the Asian confederation got a grand total of... three points, all finishing bottom of their group.

That means only one of them is worse than England

 d-usa wrote:

That means only one of them is worse than England

I keep thinking the eagle on your shirt is a small child clinging desperately to your torso.

Lets get this out of the way right now.... England were gak... But, we did draw with the mighty Costa Rica, which Italy and Uruguay failed to do

Now, moving on. I'm glad Uruguay got beaten last night. Not because they beat England, but because of the outrageous way they attempted to defend Suarez. As for the rest of the games, Brazil were lucky but you need luck to win a world cup, so that's fine.

And as much as I'd like to see good old 'Murica beat Belgium, I just can't. Putting my seers hat on for a moment I think the other QF's will be France v Germany, Holland v Costa Rica and Argentina v Belgium.

Historically, European teams don't do that well in South American competitions, so I'm willing to put good money on an Argentina v Brazil final.

I don't know about Brazil. I think Colombia might manage to sneak past them.

 sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
Historically, European teams don't do that well in South American competitions

Any reason this might be so?

 Jimsolo wrote:

 sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
Historically, European teams don't do that well in South American competitions

Any reason this might be so?

heat and humidity

 d-usa wrote:
I don't know about Brazil. I think Colombia might manage to sneak past them.

It's possible yes. But Brazil have to hit top gear eventually, they can't keep stuttering through games like they have been. Speaking as a neutral, I'd love to see Brazil get to the final. It's always a good thing for the whole competition if the host nation does well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Jimsolo wrote:

 sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
Historically, European teams don't do that well in South American competitions

Any reason this might be so?

heat and humidity

That maybe closer to the truth than you realise! But it works both ways. South American imports in the Premier League have struggled in the past. Veron at Manchester United and Forlan at the same club prove that theory. Both brilliant players, but I guess playing against Burton Albion in the pissing rain on a November night in the cup is just not what they are used too... Another case in point is Gary Medel for Chile. Brilliant in the world cup, relegated with Cardiff from the premiere league....

Marvellous game between Chile and Brasil!

Drama in the last minutes between Mexico and Netherlands. I hoped Mexico would go forward, they've showed more fighting spirit.

Gutted I missed the Mexico game. Penalty in the final stages is a bit gak. Heard the ref wasn't that bothered about giving penalties up until that point. Should have let it go into extra time.

 Knight wrote:
Marvellous game between Chile and Brasil!

Drama in the last minutes between Mexico and Netherlands. I hoped Mexico would go forward, they've showed more fighting spirit.

Phah! Next time we'll see where their fighting spirit goes, playing a match in the rain at 10 degrees Celsius!

 d-usa wrote:

Spoiler:

Except that was mostly England and Canadas doing.

Happy the Mexicans lost. They played pretty aweful. They were pretty lucky we didn't get even more penaltys before the last goal. Pretty to see some of those asshat supporters cry actually. The Mexican fans are animals overall from what I have seen and heard.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Gutted I missed the Mexico game. Penalty in the final stages is a bit gak. Heard the ref wasn't that bothered about giving penalties up until that point. Should have let it go into extra time.

Nah, he did not give a valid penalty kick in the first half and the penalty kick he granted was justified as well. Robben was a pretty damn drama queen about it, but it was a foul nevertheless.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Should have let it go into extra time.

the penalty was given in extra time... and I also am glad that my southern neighbor is out of the World Cup this year

Honestly, the ref should have given the Dutch the penalty kick in the first half anyway so I had zero issue with his call at the end of the match. Yes, Robben was dramatic, but it was a foul in the penalty box and the ref made the right decision.

Apparently Mexico missed out on penalty too. High boot contacting a player's head.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
Should have let it go into extra time.

the penalty was given in extra time... and I also am glad that my southern neighbor is out of the World Cup this year

Injury time mate. Injury time. I'm sure you'll be soon to follow them!

 The Grumpy Eldar wrote:

 d-usa wrote:

Spoiler:

Except that was mostly England and Canadas doing.

Happy the Mexicans lost. They played pretty aweful. They were pretty lucky we didn't get even more penaltys before the last goal. Pretty to see some of those asshat supporters cry actually. The Mexican fans are animals overall from what I have seen and heard.

I'm sorry? who's an asshat? Animals?

Female dog, please.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Gutted I missed the Mexico game. Penalty in the final stages is a bit gak. Heard the ref wasn't that bothered about giving penalties up until that point. Should have let it go into extra time.

the ref should always try and make the right call regardless of the position of the ball and the time on the clock

 Knight wrote:
Marvellous game between Chile and Brasil!

Drama in the last minutes between Mexico and Netherlands. I hoped Mexico would go forward, they've showed more fighting spirit.

More fighting spirit? Their fighting spirit disappeared like snow before the sun after the Dutch changed tactics. The Mexicans played very well, and the Dutch were gak for a large part of the game, but after the Mexicans scored, the Dutch pulled themselves together, and in the final stages of the game the Dutch were simply better.

Of course, one can argue about the fairness of that penalty, but hey: We have WON
And it was one of the most exciting, nerve-wracking games I've ever watched.
The World Cup is one of those rare times I am actually proud to be Dutch. Normally I just feel ashamed And of course, dressing in orange is fun.

My Roy Donders juichpak is ready!

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Knight wrote:
Marvellous game between Chile and Brasil!

Drama in the last minutes between Mexico and Netherlands. I hoped Mexico would go forward, they've showed more fighting spirit.

Phah! Next time we'll see where their fighting spirit goes, playing a match in the rain at 10 degrees Celsius!

It would certainly be interesting.

The Dutch were horrible in the first half time. Yes, in the last 20 minutes they made a difference. Still loved what Mexico showed.

I'm kind of bummed that Greece were knocked out. With such a shaky team (basically Mitroglou, Samaras, Papastathodopoulopoloubolos and Papadolopolopoloulopodolos), slipping through two games with last minute goals shows great spirit, sucks to be beaten by such a lottery as penalties.