The Round Ball Game

[Nick Armstrong]

[EdgeleyRob]

Khedira pin drop in that Brazilian dressing room tonight

[pastoralguy]

[Nick Armstrong]

Khedira pin drop in that Brazilian dressing room tonight

- Did Brazil win, tha' knows, son o'mine?

- Neymar

[teamsaint]

Am I the only one (apart from JC) thinking that England might have been wise giving the germans(and Dutch) a swerve in this world cup?


Incidentally, I still don't rate this German defence that highly.

But that midfield...........amazing.

[EdgeleyRob]

It's just like watching England

[johncorrigan]

It's just like watching England

Germany?

[Parry1912]

That must be the worst defence that Julio Cesar has ever played behind ... and he was the QPR goalie when we were relegated.

Mind you, the Germans were wearing the QPR 2nd-choice strip so perhaps Julio got confused.

[jayne lee wilson]

Bradford City fans once sang (perhaps they still do ) , "Just like watching Brazil..."... tonight, NOT. But which Brazil? A historical concept, a fantasy?

At first it was exciting... then, stunning, then... after half an hour it really became quite hard to watch... at 0-5, I don't think I've felt more uncomfortable watching a match since Schumacher's assault on Batiston, the feeling that you can't just carry on after this...

But they had to... over on Newsnight someone mentioned "psychological contagion", a group of professionals, of players who, so shocked, simply don't know what to do next...
Surprised that no-one - on the commentary or in the studio - mentioned Spain though. Spain 1 Netherlands 5 was a parallel destruction, not as complete a capitulation as the first half tonight but another group of players, on the end of their own great and weighty - burdensome - tradition of brilliance and success, who had no answer to what they were up against. It isn't entirely unprecedented (Denmark 1 Spain 5 1986, Germany 1 England 5 2001, Man Utd 1 Liverpool 4 2009 , etc) but will certainly feel like a personal and national tragedy to the tearful Brazilians. Like England in a different way, they probably DO have to forget 1970, 1982, "Pele & all that", and the beautiful game... weep over the ashes of their myth, and find a new Phoenix.

[pilamenon]

Yes, it became hard to watch. The Brazilians seemed to suffer a complete collapse mentally and physically - they have not impressed all tournament, and really bad luck for their fans that they hosted with their worst team in decades. I'm not convinced Germany are as good as this result makes them appear. They struggled against a well disciplined defence like Algeria's. On the one hand, this has given them a huge psychological boost, but they will now be under huge pressure as favourites to win it.

[Anna]

As I very wisely (!) said last week:

What now for Brazil without Neymar and Silva, all that raw emotion versus something like the old, teutonic Germany emerging again – it’ll be tears before bedtime.

They came to bury Cesar, not to praise him. I too found it uncomfortable to watch, so retreated behind the newspaper only glancing up when the commentary grew even more excited. I never expected Brazil to win, or at least without a mega struggle, but no-one could have been prepared for that utter humiliation. What now - surely a European final? Tonight promises to be very interesting .. (Actually I had the same thought as ts and jc - thank goodness England were out of it!!)

Edit: Very interesting article in The Guardian about Van Gaal and Messi http://www.theguardian.com/football/...il-semi-finals

[johncorrigan]

Edit: Very interesting article in The Guardian about Van Gaal and Messi http://www.theguardian.com/football/...il-semi-finals

Thanks Anna. I like Barney Ronay. Always has an interesting take on things.

Talking of the Dutch, the most interesting thing I heard through this tournament (apart from antongould's stat: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...904#post407904) came from the clean tackling Edgar Davids on 5 Live last week. He said that in Holland they learned about footie, thought about it, discussed systems, ways of playing from the moment they started the game. They would even argue with the manager if they disagreed systems, which he said explained some of the breakdowns between players and managers among the Dutch.

However, said Ed, the Central and South Americans play more by intuition and he felt that when they get in a team they know what others are up to, rather than playing a system. He said that it explained for him why players considered fairly ordinary in a lower European league suddenly have played way above themselves in their National Team. I suppose that's what we loved about those great Brazilian teams, that they played almost without system, like they knew what everyone was going to do, and they could do anything. But with so many South Americans now playing in Europe perhaps we have to leave it to those less glamorous teams like Chile and Mexico and the like to play a version of something which has now disappeared from Brazil. For all I expected them to be beaten last night without their two best players, it turned out to be really the end of an era and there is a big bit of my footie heart which laments its passing.

[Radio64]

The Germans must at least feel guilty for making so many Brazilian children cry.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

what a drubbing; give it six weeks and no one will talk about it [much] ... apart from the most awful performance ever seen at half back by Luiz [Jose will be smiling all the way to the bank, imagine trying to sell him now] it was a complete failure of teamwork and tactics which must be laid at Scolari's door ....

i fancy tonight will be an altogether different melodrama involving kicking and diving ....


bloody great world cup though ....

[Radio64]

Sad Brazilians