2014 World Cup thread

Oh dear. Brazil aren't even going to finish third. I'm sure the country's extremely proud of this set of players.
 
Yeah I think it's not going to be as much as an enquiry into what happened, but more like a post mortem
 
Well have to say the Dutch players look quite happy with themselves, I think they know it's been a really successful tournament for them, most looked past them in the group stages, let alone anything else.
 
What a terrible referee that was...

I also thought it was pretty disrespectful of the brasil squad to go straight to the locker room, instead of waiting for the ceremony. Yet I was impressed by the fans in the stadium, more than half stayed to applaud for the Dutch team, and impressed by Maxwell who did a live interview on dutch television.
 
Scolari deserves it isn't it. Dropped Miranda and Luis who had brilliant season with Atletico Madrid.

Coutinho and Rafinha as well. Brazil squad is really not as average as people like to think ... The manager is the problem here
 
Coutinho and Rafinha as well. Brazil squad is really not as average as people like to think ... The manager is the problem here

Would Coutinho and Rafinha have solved anything with this Brazil squad? I'm not convinced. Miranda and Luis might have.

Brazil's main problems were some properly bad defending - that was a system issue as well as a personnel one - and a lack of anything resembling a striker. Fred was bad and Jo was worse, and although often nowadays strikers aren't used purely to score goals and in fact used as something of a striking pivot (one could argue Emile Heskey was a PIONEER!) neither of them played well in an all-round sense quite apart from their goalscoring exploits: or lack thereof.

Not sure we can purely blame Scolari or the players or the system. Everything was pretty bad at one stage or another. Luiz went from playing at his best in the opening stages to his full on headless chicken worst, Marcelo was ineffective going forward AND back, every single midfielder other than Bernard and arguably Oscar was pretty ****, and even Julio Cesar didn't cover himself in glory. Scolari made silly picks and sillier substitutions. The system clicked for Neymar and nobody else. All round failure.

It was ******* funny though.
 
Confederation Cup victory, particularly the trashing of Spain, pulled really nasty trick on Brazil. It froze both selection and the tactics, and they basically wasted a year that could have been spent on refining things. Easy to be Captain Hindsight though, better man then Scolari could have fall for that one. In fact I can't really think of manager who would have avoided this trap. Very few would have the balls to massively tinker with squad that destroyed the reigning champions and heaviest title favorite, knowing all well that if it fails, people would hang them from the lamp post.
 
Last edited:
Coutinho and Rafinha as well. Brazil squad is really not as average as people like to think ... The manager is the problem here

Like GC said not sure about these 2 players as the attackers did well enough. Saying that Lucas could have been better option even though he had decent season as pace with skill is superb threat to have in the team.
 
A problem for alot of the Brazilian squad is the fact they have hardly had a break in over a year. They have gone from the Confederations cup win straight back to league football and then into a World cup. Most looked exhausted.

Did someone say Scolari is the problem?

Won a World Cup previously with Brazil. Took a Portugal side to a European Championship Final. He took over the squad when they were really struggling and won a Confederations Cup with them. Yeah he really is a problem. Laughable. Probably said from a bitter Chelsea fan.

The reason why Brazil struggled was because of the expectations put upon them and the intense pressure from everyone thinking they were going to win this with flair and exciting football. They are the victims of their own success in many ways. It is sad to see a team with so much tradition capitulate so easy.

Brazil need to have an overhaul of their football like Germany did in 2000.
 
Back
Top