England wants Belgium to score because under the fair play rule if it remains as it is England advances to the tougher group...now that Belgium has done that I don't expect much effort from England to score
That certainly wouldn't speak well of England and its confidence in itself. Great competitors and teams always want to prove themselves against the best...
And here are the 16 teams that made it to the Knockout Stage: BRACKET 1 Uruguay vs. Portugal - Saturday June 30 France vs. Argentina =- Saturday June 30 Brazil vs. Mexico - Monday July 2 Belgium vs. Japan - Monday July 2 BRACKET 2 Spain vs. Russia - Sunday July 1 Croatia vs. Denmark - Sunday July 1 Sweden vs. Switzerland - Tuesday July 3 Colombia vs. England - Tuesday July 3
The hard 8! Portugal vs Uruguay-hmmm Ronaldo vs Surez...Uruguay I think Uruguay has better support cast and will cut off supply to Ronaldo France vs Argentina, - France... Messi is great but Argentina doesn't have France's depth, like Ronaldo they'll be looking to cut off the service to Messi Brazil vs Mexico- Brazil... too much depth for Mexico to cope with, and they don't have anyone at Neymar lethality... Belgium vs Japan...Belgium
the easy 8 Spain vs Russia-Spain anything else would be an incredible upset Croatia vs Denmark...tough one! hmmm....can I call a draw? no.... Croatia Danish keeper could change that outcome... Sweden vs Switzerland...another close one...Sweden I have no idea why...okay because Sweden has cuter women! England vs Columbia...England I Believe Columbia has picked up some injuries to some key players, I'll cheer on Columbia just the same...
My predictions/winners: Uruguay - Better all around team than Portugal - Right now I expect them to beat France in the Quarters, too France - I'm not impressed with either team, but Argentina looked absolutely awful against Croatia Brazil - Too much for a Mexican team that just got drubbed by Sweden Belgium - Still my favorite to hoist the Cup Spain - Russia got exposed against Uruguay Croatia - This team could wind up in the final Sweden - A bit too much for Switzerland England - Colombia loses without James Rodriguez - if he was healthy I'd take Colombia
I'm actually hoping for Belgium v Spain final...getting out of the Belgium's group of 8 is gonna be tough...
That's the most likely scenario in my estimation, but Croatia has been playing inspired ball and they're in the weak bracket. I'm terribly pleased with how these brackets panned out - as you pointed out, one is strong and one is relatively weak in comparison.
I won't be displeased if Croatia comes out on top of their group, Belgium V Croatia final would be awesome! a new 9th WC champion!...not sure I could take the gloating from my Belgian dentist if they win, I've been taunting his team for years as my hillbilly cousins...but does Croatia have a realistic chance of beating Spain? maybe...
England didn't seem to be playing to win today against Belgium,and they didn't 1-0 loss.The game today is far too much defense and not nearly enough offense.The game in the 1950's was far more concentrated on scoring goals than todays game.
Belgium manager admitted beforehand they weren't going out to win, they won in spite of themselves and England wasn't in a hurry to change the result...FIFA will be looking at the this farce and consider it's options to prevent a re-occurence.
Makes me think about Michael Schumacher's self-induced “crash” at the 1994 Australian GP to take out the only serious contender (Damon Hill, at only 1 point behind) and win the F1 season ”as is” on points he’d accumulated during the previous months. I hated Schumacher from that moment on and I could never manage to rekindled my love for the sport, ever again.
Oops - I meant to type I'm NOT terribly pleased with how these brackets panned out. I would have much preferred to see the power teams distributed more evenly through both brackets
The only way FIFA can fix that is to change the current format, which means getting rid of the round-robin Group play and making every match an elimination match. Otherwise, we're going to continue to see teams sandbag games in the Group round. I don't know how anyone outside England can root for that team moving forward...
Someone lend me a hand here, please. I was abroad when the games began (in a nation where I cannot even read the language, never mind understand it) and I cannot find any list of those countries that said they’d boycott the game. Does anyone know where I can find the list of those countries …… which of them were invited ……. those of them that qualified in the first place ….. and which of them attended anyway?
one suggestion I heard that would work is to have a random draw like what is done for the groups... winners of group stage are exempt, 2nd place finishers find out which group winner they play in knockout round by the draw, eliminating the ability to choose their opponent...downside is fan logistics, 2nd place team fans would need to change venues/cities which in geographically large countries requires flying and then finding new accommodations...
So let's revisit my predictions: Group A: Perfect Group B: Perfect Group C: Perfect Group D: Perfect (Argentina, whew lol) Group E: Perfect Group F: 50% (one of the worst WC German teams I've ever watched, high on talent, low on imagination, I'm guessing Lowe is fired or resigns, maybe gets hired for the US? lol) Group G: Perfect Group H: 50% (I overestimated Poland) Not bad, 14 out of 16, 87.5%.
Now for my round of 16 predictions: Uruguay v Portugal - Portugal France v Argentina - France Brazil v Mexico - Brazil Belgium v Japan - Belgium Spain v Russia - Spain Croatia v Denmark - Croatia Sweden v Switzerland - Sweden Colombia v England - England
