WCF: Semi-Finals

[God The Mechanic]

Absolutely staggering result.  Could legitimately have an impact on some young players' careers.

Chelsea would have no chance at getting £50million for Luiz after that.

[..Kya.ffc..]

Just wow.

I felt optimistic with my bet of 2-4 with müller to score, at odds 1:130.

Germany just killed them. Impressive is too small a word.

[F(f)CUK]

I would love to have heard the Brazilian commentary. I suspect there were not too many Os in Gooooaaaallllll.

[God The Mechanic]

I would love to have heard the Brazilian commentary. I suspect there were not too many Os in Gooooaaaallllll.

Ronaldo was apparently very warm in his praise for Klose, which I thought was a nice touch.

[Forever Fulham]

Very classy of Ozil to deliberately miss  and thus avoid piling on.  Is there anyone left who doubts the value of Thiaggo Silva?  Brazil was helped all along in this tournament by the referees.  Fred has to be one of the worse players I've ever seen in a World Cup.   

[FPT]

Amazing to watch. Simplicity is bliss.

[In the Enclosure]

Yes saw a quote that Refereeinio had his worse game of the tournament for Brazil tonight.

[Airfix]

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[Blanco]

So impressed with Germany. Typical Germans. Go there and get the business done no messing about. Brazil were finally shown up for what they are. Average. Got this far due to luck, home crowd and 100% effort. Doesn't win you world cups though. Luiz is massively overrated but we knew this before the world cup.

I'm glad Brazil are out now like I predicted. Roll on Germany Holland final!

[jmh]

Is there anyone left who doubts the value of Thiaggo Silva? 

That's one thing I was saying early in the tournament - outside of him, there weren't a whole lot of Brazilian players particularly good at (or, maybe more importantly, particularly committed to) actually defending.  Maicon (or Alves earlier in the tournament), Marcelo, and even David Luiz would rather get forward and support the attack.

[Airfix]

This 2nd/3rd place playoff is rubbish!

[cmg]

Watching that little clip of Cruyff doing his, now legendary, 'Cruyff turn' made me smile.
A recent tribute piece showed Alfredo Di Stefano doing the exact same manoeuvre in 1957 when Johann was 10 years old.

[Humbled]

Does anyone else get fed up with hearing Messi - Messi - Messi!???

Don't get me wrong he is a great player but he has been poor all tourn.
He was praised for his late goal against Iran but he had 10 shots and numerous dribbles on the edge of the box when team mates were better placed.

Today he was the worst player on the park yet afterwards everything is Messi.
Eg look how happy he is, I assume they are all happy. Oh Messi deserves this, don't his team mates then?
He wants to go and thank Mascherano today.

I am not doubting his ability but the way he will be forced on us regardless of how he plays is very frustrating to me. 

[YankeeJim]

All that attacking talent on the pitch and the star, at least until he missed his penalty kick was Vlaar. The Dutch smothered Messi, Higuain & Aguero. I have gained a grudgingly new respect for Robbin. Once the ref demonstrated that he wasn't going for the nonsense, he put his head down and got on with it. He was still running hard after 120 minutes just as he was against Costa Rico. This ref should have handled the Brazil/Columbia match. If he had, it likely would have been Colombia yesterday facing the German assault.

[God The Mechanic]

Don't get me wrong he is a great player but he has been poor all tourn.

Messi has been far from poor all tournament, in the same way he wasn't poor last tournament either.  He's one of the top scorers in the whole competition at the moment, in a team that has done absolutely sod all collectively.

Not that I'd suggest that he's set it on fire, but none of the attacking players in that Argentina squad have done ANYTHING.  And the midfield is atrocious.

[YankeeJim]

Don't get me wrong he is a great player but he has been poor all tourn.

Messi has been far from poor all tournament, in the same way he wasn't poor last tournament either.  He's one of the top scorers in the whole competition at the moment, in a team that has done absolutely sod all collectively.

Not that I'd suggest that he's set it on fire, but none of the attacking players in that Argentina squad have done ANYTHING.  And the midfield is atrocious.

I'm sure the Dutch will take great solace in that.

[God The Mechanic]

The Dutch haven't been good either, barring a mental second half against Spain that likely wouldn't have happened had David Silva scored just before half time.

[Forever Fulham]

What we really saw was a club team, Bayern Munich, beating Brazil and very probably will beat Argentina, too, despite the sheer football brilliance of Messi.    So many players on the German team play for Munich--or have done so until recently--that they play as much on learned habit and instinct with one another.  And that translates into a cohesive unit which can pick apart 'national' teams the members of which get together here and there, when they can, and try to gel or meld into a productive side.  Since the money isn't as good playing for South or Central American top division club teams, those players migrate to Europe.  But that results in 11 strangers playing with one another when they get together to play as a national team.  I was so sure before the Argentina game today that Netherlands would win.  What a defensive battle!  Like a clever chess match.  Never thought I'd see Lionel Messi as a traffic cop on the pitch, playing what looked like a holding mid position. 

[FP]

What we really saw was a club team, Bayern Munich, beating Brazil and very probably will beat Argentina, too, despite the sheer football brilliance of Messi.    So many players on the German team play for Munich--or have done so until recently--that they play as much on learned habit and instinct with one another.  And that translates into a cohesive unit which can pick apart 'national' teams the members of which get together here and there, when they can, and try to gel or meld into a productive side.  Since the money isn't as good playing for South or Central American top division club teams, those players migrate to Europe.  But that results in 11 strangers playing with one another when they get together to play as a national team.  I was so sure before the Argentina game today that Netherlands would win.  What a defensive battle!  Like a clever chess match.  Never thought I'd see Lionel Messi as a traffic cop on the pitch, playing what looked like a holding mid position. 

+1

i would add that the current World Champion (until Sunday) is Barcelona