World cup in Brasil 2014

[Surfbird]

Ill do it with flank defenders as well and in 4-4-2

Goal: Neuer

Defense:
Lahm
Hummels
Vlaar
Zabaleta

Midfield:
Schweinsteiger/Mascherano (Schweini showed Mascherano how tough he is in the finals, so I personally go with him - but yeye, not international enough...)
Kroos
Neymar (I put him into midfield (left))
James Rodriguez

Striker:
Müller
Robben (although not perfectly working in this system but whatever)

Obviously no German bias. But we are the champions, so fuck it

---
Half serious sidenote:

I noticed 8 of the German team could easily stand there with only replacing Özil with Robben, Höwedes with Zabaleta and putting Müller as striker so there is room for James on the flank. Certainly German biased and some questionable positions, but from a neutral perspective it wouldn't even be totally unreasonable.

---

@ Schneider: I agree the decision for Messi is a joke. James, Mascherano, Kroos or Müller should have got it.

[Slayer]

LOL Surfbird, opting for a job at FIFA?

Agreed with the MVP award, Robben should have gotten it. Again, the Castrol Index shows something completely different to what FIFA decides in the end. Only when it comes to goalkeepers they agree (I'm surprised the Dutch goalkeeper came in second in that index, btw).

[Torenico]

The midfield is Argentina's under performing side. Messi is forever alone. Argentina has loads of top class attackers, and yet they still keep Tevez, Milito, etc from the squad.

Castroman

Tévez is an asshole, he always sucked on the National Team, he is having a great time in Juve but he was average on the national team. Diego Milito is too old, in fact he just returned to Racing from Inter during the World Cup, nobody noticed.

Castroman, you got to be kidding me.

Just wondering, since you're an Argy bargy, what is your opinion of Messi?  I read an article in the Economist recently that says he is considered too Spanish by most Argentines.  I know he's not Maradona, but do you like him, personally?

On that note:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/messi-im-sorry-i-let-down-the-people-of-barcelona,36456/

Personally I really like Messi, it's a shame he doesn't work very well in the National Team. We all know what is Messi, a winner, but winners today need a good team. People here need a scapegoat, someone to blame for all of our failures and Messi was the chosen one, because people believe he is like Maradona in 86-90 and Napoli, playing in a very different football and having a totally different personality. He gets called "Pecho Frio", which roughly translates to "Cold Chest", in other words, not having blood or being a coward, which is laughable considering all Messi's displays in Champions League finals, in clasicos against R. Madrid, in crucial matches for La Liga or winning the Club's World Cup while millions of eyes are on him, he is no coward.

He is not working in the National Team because he doesn't have a good "Socio", partner, there is Gago but Gago sucks and sometimes he is too far away from Messi to assist him, there was Pastore but Pastore wasn't even called, Riquelme a few years back would have been a perfect socio, but Riquelme is a bitch. Other forwards are alright, he kinda has a small society with Aguero, but this WC Aguero was kinda injured and didn't do well at all, coming in from the bench in a final to do nothing is hard to forgive. What Argentina needs is a guy who can supply Messi with the ball. In the last two matches, vs. Holland and vs. Germany, Messi was part of a team that didn't played for him, Sabella concentrated his efforts on a stronger defense (quite the logic thing to do), this way Messi had to start from the midfield, with two men already on him and having to command a counter, rival teams of course take great care of Messi. I don't think he is underperforming, he was well marked against Holland and against Germany he wasn't supplied with the ball very often, and repeating the same strategy he found once again starting from the midfield.

We don't know how to exploit Messi's amazing skills, while you see Holland exploit Robben, Brasil exploiting Neymar, France exploiting Benzema, everyone assists their best player who can make the difference, Argentina doesn't. He gets a lot of bullshit for that, for something that is not his fault, calling him that he plays for Barcelona more than he does for the National Team is nonsense, calling him "not a true Argentine" is also nonsense, when he was offered a shitload of money to play for Spain U-17 and he refused because he wanted to play for us.

[Zoologic]

Well, at least Messi's team  > Cristiano Ronaldo's team.

[Schneider]

Not quite sure about the MVP for Robben, Müller, Kroos. I would probably opt either for Rodriguez or Neymar. Rodriguez probably wasn't even considered as he got the boot already.
Neymar on the other hand - it was quite easy to see what a big difference he made for his team, especially after his injury. He practically created 90% of all chances Brazil had in front of goal.
However, his excessive diving ruined it a bit for me. He didn't even dive so often technically, he usually was really fouled, but the way he kept rolling around and playing the dying swan... well. No wonder at first none took it seriously, during the first seconds of his injury.

[Surfbird]

@Slayer

As I said, half serious. I don't get rid of the feeling that people still underestimate this team though. This was no luck. You have to see that we have tons of more quality in the team than any other semi finalist, not to speak about all the other teams. This is the strongest German team ever if you ask me, and Reus wasn't even there. Probably one of the top national team lineups forever.

We are just the most complete team in the world cup by miles. I already said that in the preliminaries. Currently we are way ahead from any other competitor.

Robben doesn't deserve best player awards either. Not for letting his team get to 2 penalty shootouts in a row with one of it vs Costa Rica. After preliminaries his performance got weaker, like with the whole NL team, so I don't want to blame him, he usually tried but wasn't succesful.

That joke game for the third spot doesn't save him there. I don't measure Kroos performance by the 2 goals he scored vs that joke of a Brazil team either.

[Slayer]

I know, that's why the was there. At least I don't underestimate the German tea, and I think you might be underestimating how everyone is not understimating the Germans right now, if you catch my drift I even put four (4!) Germans in my dreamteam, that should mean something

I put Robben in because he made the difference for our team, a bit like Neymar did for Brazil (like Schneider posted), but Neymar didn't play until the end and Robben did. Following your logic none of the Germans should get it and none of the Argentinians either as they also needed extra time and/or penalties. CR just played with 10 in front of their goal, with quite a nice goalkeeper in it. They were 120% lucky not to concede a goal against us.

I don't measure players by theor goals only. Kroos had some great performances, in the Castrol index he is number one. That also means something.

As a part of the audience, a person focuses on certain parts of the game. Most of the time it is the assists and goals, sometimes on spectacular saves by goalkeepers. But everything else inbetween is motly overlooked by the majority. But how a player moves on the field (with and without the ball), how his passes are, what he does for the defense, is almost as important, if not even more imprtant, than scoring goals.

In retrospect I'm glad that "joke of a game" was there. Our guys went home with a somewhat better feeling than if they hadn't played it and all the world could see that Brazil really sucked this WC, not just because Thiago Silva was missing in that "other match". Most conceded goals in the tournament award went to them btw

[Surfbird]

Yea I know that from 2006 & 2010. It's like, "We were close but with that 3th place we achieved something and had a nice game. Next time we do better"- attitude. It's good and somewhat deletes the negative feelings of a lost semi finals.

I would vote Kroos because of his consistent play (except for the header to Higuain giving me a major heart attack haha), high pass %, great flanks from free kicks and corners, for running a lot and working hard and for having played every game over full time (I think).

He's just not a self promoter like other players are. That's why Bayern thought they could get him a cheap new contract, he demands a bit more money and now he packs his bags for Real Madrid where he perfectly fits in my opinion.

But on the other hand German teams performance was a real team effort, more than with most other teams. It's very hard to outline specific players there, because every position contributed with so much quality that the end result was simply great and not specific actions. The nice effect also is that with players dropping out, there are other players who can jump in and do a great job as well and we were never dependend on any other position than Phlipp Lahm playing the right defender as things didn't work out as intended with him in the defensive midfield.

[Slayer]

Yea I know that from 2006 & 2010. It's like, "We were close but with that 3th place we achieved something and had a nice game. Next time we do better"- attitude. It's good and somewhat deletes the negative feelings of a lost semi finals.

Therefore I hope our team can make the steps the German team made in the past few years.

The biggest drawback we have, is that our competition is not strong enough to house a team like Bayern. Because a team like that is the base for the national team, just like Barcelona has been the base for te successful Spanish team. It's a faraway dream to have teams like Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV competing for the top spots in the CL again, like back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It's a simple commercial/financial thing that prevents us to return on that level.

So I hope that we can achieve a nice WC without this factor, as I really believe the team we have now is capable of doing better next time, which means a place in the final at least, and hopefully the title. I don't need four or five stars on the jersey, just one or two would be cool enough already

[Surfbird]

Not really about the worldcup anymore. But German team captain Philipp Lahm just announced he retires from the national team today. That's surprising and leaves a gap at our right defense but also opens new opportunities of a new captain. He's a great player but I never felt he was a real team captain, so overall this is a big loos but it also gives some new opportunities.

I guess he feels like the mission is fulfilled by winning the world cup after all. Gotta respect that.

[Slayer]

Only 30 years old, really young to quit the national team, imo. A pity, I liked to see Lahm play.

[Surfbird]

I think as Guardiola is schooling him to a defensive midfielder (which is a crime imo) and as he seems to view this as his new go to position at this point, there generally have been many discussions about his role. He is stepping down now rather than being pushed from one spot to another and being the center of the team captain discussion at some point in the future.. He makes room for a new captain to develop until the EC and gives other, younger players the chance to take his spot. There is probably some more internal stuff behind it that the regular fan does not have insight to as well. I don't know, the decision is definitely thought through and I don't get rid of the feeling that this might have a positive twist to it. Looking at Spain you see what happens when you are succesful and stick too much to the structures of the past, sticking to what you are used to but not evolving. This change might come at the right time.

[Slayer]

That all sounds very nice and positive of course, and I understand that coming from you But 30 years is way too young to quit your international career, some might even say that it is ungrateful: now that he's got what he wants, he quits. Physically he should be able to do at least one more tournament, maybe even two. Take a look at Klose.

[Surfbird]

Yea he's in shape. But I don't want to brag about someone that helped getting us to win the WC 2014. Yea, he is still somewhat young for an ordinary retirement. But you know, in teams like this you don't just stay captain because you have been captain for years. Before the WC 2010 Ballack injured himself, Lahm took the spot as captain. He wanted to keep it and the aging and injury prone Ballack who also was over the point of making top performances was out of it. At some point something similar might come up with Lahm. Maybe in 2, maybe 4 years in the future it would have happened. But as there are so many talents around and the discussion about him was dominating the media in the first half of the WC, I can understand the step.
For him personally it seems to be the best, it certainly does not seem to be the best for the national team, but I am certain that this move got us rid of a leadership discussion in the future. There is no better time to discuss this than after a WC victory with plenty of time to prepare for the future and the biggest succes in recent German football behind them.

What won us this WC was the amazing team spirit, which is based on a stable structure in the team. By Lahm retiring right now, I'm sure we can keep this stable structure up. Some people are not made for being a team captain for an eternity. If you ask me, Lahm is one of them. But as I said, this is te positive side of this that I see. I know he leaves a big gap and is a major loss for the team from the pure gameplay point of view. Despite lots of talents, high quality players on his position are very rare, even in Germany.

[Zoologic]

Young Germans claim continental crown (German U-19 won the UEFA U-19 Euro Cup)

http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/news/newsid=2414758/index.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_news

Holy shit, they are unstoppable.

Looking at other countries, such as UK's England, they can designate Liverpool FC as the team development club, just like German's FC Bayern Munich and Spain's Barcelona FC. Where almost half of their starting national players come from.