Well, no surprise here. Same shit happening over and over again for the last 20 years. The only thing that I’m disappointed about is the number of goals scored by Columbia, the score should’ve been way higher.
I haven’t changed my mind, at least not drastically
Spain and Brazil have both four points, but were rather dissapointing. Brazil have problems up front: they have technically skilled payers galore, but their centre-forward, Jesus, looks unhappy, he is not served well by the others and Neymar is playing too much for himself, he’s not really thinking about the team**. Spain** :The Spanish play is too slow, too static, they still play the same kind of football they played in 2010, but some key players are missing (notably Xabi Alonso and Xavi) and some others are getting a bit old (Iniesta, Silva). Their centre-forward, Diego Costa, has scored a few goals, but he’s no Ricardo Villa. And I don’t like his style at all.
So, ironically, of the three great favorites, Germany made the best impression on me. The 0-1 against Mexico was not a complete surprise to me - I knew Mexico had lots of talent and were mighty strong on the counter attack, but the win against Sweden was quite an effort, especially when you look at the way the game developed. The Swedes have no great player personalities, at first sight they look like a rather modest team, but they are very strong block, pure granite. Somehow Germany managed to bounce back after a disastrous first half and stupid 0-1 (I really thought they were k.o.). That second half was impressive. But they’ll have to do something about their defensive vulnarability. They have too many players upfront, often there are only two real defenders, that’s suicide against teams that play the counter attack well.
In Belgium everybody is lyrical, and yes, Belgium did well so far, but they haven’t had any serious opposition yet. France won their games, but seem to miss a play maker, the one with ideas who delivers the decisive pass. England was nice surprise but the best impression of the teams I did not have among my favorites, was made by Croatia. What a way to demolish Messi and Argentina …
David Villa?
That defensive vulnerability was already a problem in the EC 2012, and wasn’t solved, and Italy then had only to say “Thank You” in the HF.
And it was actually also a big problem in 2014, until Löw ordered Lahm back as a right defender, after even Algeria used the space the German defence gave them.
When they don’t change that, they will probably shipwreck early.
An Eight Final against Brazil is pretty possible now, but at least Brazil will try to play against them, but surely not as careless as 4 years ago.
And yes, Croatia had a good team.
Funny thing, if Mexico loses against Sweden, they still can bow out in the group phase.
Sure, David Villa. He was a real ‘Spanish’ forward, a technically skilled player, a joy to watch. This Diego Costa hurts the eye …
It will be interesting to see what happens in the Mexico - Sweden game. I hope Mexico will get through, it’s quite a spectacular team, but it’ll be a tough, physical game and it that aspect, the Swedes will have an advantage. But I guess this last minute goal by Kroos was a real shock.
A second round game Germany - Brazil would be spectacular, but maybe not a good thing for the tournament. That should be a least a quarter final pairing. Brazil has a better team now than four years ago, but I still think Germany can beat them.
Of course, but it only can be either the Second Round or then the Final.
I expect today that Spain and Ronaldogal will make it, and this will lead to interesting games against Russia and Uruguay next weekend.
They did, but it was far from easy. This is a strange tournament so far. Not sure what’s happening, but still the four teams you expected to go through from groups A & B finally managed to do so. If Argentina, Germany and Brasil will do what everybody expected them to do, reach the second round, things would be more or less normal, even if some match results were really stunning
Yes, Spain and Portugal made it, but played more or less disappointing against the 2 underdogs. At least their goals showed their class.
Between Portugal and Uruguay everything is possible (even fistfights 
) but I expect Spain not to have much problems against Russia.
And I expect then the QFs against France and Croatia, and these c(sh)ould become exciting (and telling).
I tip Uruguay as the winner of the game (battle) against Portugal. They seem to have a good team spirit and play a system that works for them. And then they have two world class strikers, Cavani and Suarez (hopefully he won’t bite anyone)
Cristiano Ronaldo is very lucky to be able to start against Uruguay. That looked like a clear red card to me.
After another night to remember, we eventually got the result everybody was expecting before the tournament: Croatia and Argentina are the two teams from group D to qualify for the second round.
So Argentina managed to prevent a complete disaster, One brilliant Messi moment (he was nearly invisible the rest of the time) and a good goal falling out of the blue sky in the 85th minute, kept the Argentine Titanic afloat. But I don’t think they’ll get much further. This team is probably the weakest Argentine national team in history. On the other hand, the French haven’t been that impressive either so far.
One thing: the Argentines don’t have the best team, but they have the best fans. The atmosphere in the Saint-Petersburg Stadium was unbelievable. Thrilling. I pumped up the volume a little to enjoy the community singing
Well, that went well. 
I watched the other game (except for the final 10-15 minutes) so I don’t know what went wrong for the Germans. Probably everything that could go wrong. I only saw a good chance for Hummels (in the 86th minute), but otherwise: no ideas, no “Schwung”, no nothing. And rather stupid behavior by Neuer (what was he doing overthere, dribbling an opponent??). I thought Germany was impressive in the second half against Sweden, but if you can’t beat Korea you probably do not deserve to go through.
Remarkable: the three most recent world champions, Italy, Spain and now Germany were all out after the first round. Coaches keep and keep and keep making that same mistake: instead building a new team, they keep relying on those players who brought them the title four years ago. I thought Löw was wiser, but no. But still this group of players should have qualified for the second round.
Well, Well
What can I say, pretty entertaining world cup so far, some good games and in my opinion there’s a general equalization with normally less rated teams doing pretty well.
Not only but also because, it’s natural that the best players that compete in major European leagues arrived to a world cup more tired and that is something to take in consideration when you play against teams that don’t have the quality players but are well organized and motivated.
Our group on paper seemed pretty straightforward, but only in paper. Iran is probably the best Asiatic team, prepared almost in specific for the world cup, with a Portuguese coach in full revenge mode. I like Queiroz during the early 90’s he started the new generation of players that in the end raised the game in Portugal, but in the process he has a long story with the Portuguese Football Association, he’s behavior during the match with Portugal in my opinion went farther than what can be considered just professional, Morocco is also a strong African team well orientated he were very lucky against them, that tie with Spain sure means something.
Can we win the cup, difficult task we have to improve a lot, and learn to not depend so much in Ronaldo and other experienced players like Quaresma or Pepe, but our new generation of players are not doing so much as I expected, the likes of Guedes, Bernardo, Andre Silva, this last more marketing than quality player, are not doing that well, but we still are a hard team to beat, it’s not easy to win a game against Portugal in this tournament’s.
As for the rest I was surprised By the German defeat against Mexico, but after that their early exit was no surprised two goals in three games is just very little for favorite team.
The real world cup is starting now, let’s see what happens
And France too in 2002, and in 2006 Brasil reached the QF, but played a pretty lame tournament either.
That Germany played so disappointing today was a surprise. I thought after the Sweden game they would fight and improve, like they did so often.
Well, they had enough chances in all 3 games, but like in 2016 had a problem to make more goals from them.
Löw will now be blamed for deploying again Khedira and Özil, and for not bringing Gomez from the beginning on, but it was the fire which was missing, the fire he could not kindle.
And what will England do now without the Germans? Winning the QF in the end? Cum on …
Without losing on penalty kicks to Germany??? I’m sure England will win the title now
Right. It’s not easy to get to the top, but it’s even harder to stay there
Sure, but before only Brasil in 1966 failed so early. Often the title holders reached the HF in the next tournament.
Funny Italy in 1938 won again with a nearly new team, only 2 played in both finals, and only 4 players from 1934 were still in the WC squad, one of them the 2nd goalkeeper who played in neither tournament.
But Brasil in 1962 won easily with nearly the same team. Only 3 different players, one only because Pele was badly injured after 2 games, and many older than 30 years.
Well, actually I hope so. I’m for England from now on.
1966 was the first tournament I was able to follow thanks to televison. I remember that Brazil came up with some of the players that brought them one or two world titles, who were all in their thirties the, except for Pele (who was only 25): Djalma Santos (37), Gilmar (35), Bellini (36), Zito (33), Garrincha (32) … so they made that traditional mistake as well.
Round of 16:
Uruguay v Portugal
France v Argentina
Brazil v Mexico
Belgium v Japan
Spain v Russia
Croatia v Denmark
Sweden v Switzerland
Colombia v England