Smogon's Official World Cup Discussion (Congrats to Glaucius on winning Pick'em!)

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Argentina vs Belgium
Holland vs Costa Rica
France vs Germany
Brazil vs Colombia

Holland pretty much end Costa Rica's amazing run, after that all the ties look like they could go either way.

The entire Argentina team except Messi have barely shown up, still not convinced by Belgium.
Colombia have been the best team so far but there playing the hosts and Brazil whilst playing poor are still a step above everyone else Colombia has run through.
Figured Germany were a lock vs France, after that Algeria display now not so sure.
 
We are doing this now? Alright let me take a Stab:

Argentina vs Belgium

Defensively both teams are rather similar and you can argue the same as well about the midfield, so if both teams manage to hold down their defensive lines correctly and manage to create chances and reach goal, I'm going to have to give the decisiveness of Messi's Argentina over the Devil's Hazard if yesterday's match is any indication.

Holland vs Costa Rica

I love Rica, I really do, they have managed to even surpass what Croatia did in its debut without having any notable stars in its line up, a true testament of how strong the competition truly is worldwide. But reality is this team has no stamina to park the bus to get a surprise goal or PENs, their team is littered with yellows and reds and Van Gaal will not be repeating his mistakes infront of Mexico, certainly no statements of "This should not end at X team". It was an excellent run, GG Costa.

Now on to the actually hard ones:

France vs Germany

I may be a minority here but the defensive flop that was Germany infront of Algeria should be a one time thing and that Neuer (read Never) and Lahm will be able to push back the French offense led by Benzema and with a plethora of offensive players such as Mueller they will edge out France in a goal frenzied match up. This should be good.


Brazil vs Colombia

I really love Colombia, as others said they are the only consistent team in the tournament and they have attackers capable of scoring Play Station goals. Brazil while still being poor and all over the place, managing in one match to score a festival of Goals with Neymar being the hero (Arigato Gozaimasu) and in another looking like they hosted the tournament by accident and having to praise the one and only true Post. I have confidence Scolari will actually manage to lock out King James, Ceasar pulling out saves from his glory days and Neymar actually showing up to play. Who knows, maybe Fred will manage to...lol no.
 

Soul Fly

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Will someone other than Messi and Di Maria stand up please? It was embarrassing how the Swiss almost got away by solely crowding out these 2 players. This was exactly what I was worried about after I heard of Aguero's injury. No one else is even close to being as imposing as these 2, without Tevez on the squad. And Higuain and Palacio was fucking shameful to watch.
 
Argentina vs Belgium
belgium seem to finally have gotten their shit together, really solid game vs USA, both offensively and defensively. they just kinda lacked a quality finisher imo though (mirallas was bad, origi didn't shoot well, and lukaku is good only if he comes late game). still, argentina has been incredibly bad in all games, i doubt they'll win; messi, and maybe di maria, are the only ones pulling their weight, and even those couldn't do much after switzerland crowded them.

Holland
vs Costa Rica
this is NOT an easy prediction lol, crc can easily surprise everyone again by beating holland; all they need to do is park the bus, crowd robben/rvp and score a goal on a counter-attack, because holland's defense is slow as balls, not to mention they have climate advantages (this is being specially underrated on this wc so far, but you should notice how europeans overall are doing poorly). however, crc severely lacks in the offensive department, as they showed on the game vs greece, while holland doesn't.

France vs Germany
france can definitely defeat what is imo the most overrated team in the world cup (besides spain LOL). everybody was hyping germany before it started playing, and even more after it 4-0d portugal, but tbh, germany's defense is far from solid, while they don't have much firepower, with klose being their best striker. however they do have what is the best midfield in the wc, both skill- and tactic-wise. still, france's midfield has also been top notch, while benzema is a huge threat for germany, especially if france plays counter-attacks, like argelia did.

Brazil vs Colombia
even though i am brazilian, i doubt we'll beat what has been the best world cup team so far. brazil has absolutely horrid tactics, if they have tactics at all lol. it won all of its games on luck (except for cameroon, but they played like shit), having a ridiculously poor attack (the attack is literally just neymar), a midfield that is defensively good, but totally lacks pace, flair and criativity, and a defensive line that while has good CBs in david luiz/thiago silva, is incredibly weak to wing plays because alves/marcelo are ALWAYS attacking, and colombia has very dangerous wingers in james/cuadrado. still, this should be exciting to watch.

also, i think who wins between brazil vs colombia will win the world cup. calling it
 

Imanalt

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Argentina vs Belgium

Defensively both teams are rather similar and you can argue the same as well about the midfield, so if both teams manage to hold down their defensive lines correctly and manage to create chances and reach goal, I'm going to have to give the decisiveness of Messi's Argentina over the Devil's Hazard if yesterday's match is any indication.
These are not similar defensive teams. belgium has a much better back line, vertonghen and kompany are both world class, unlike anyone argentina has. The midfields are also not at all similar... Argentina fields di maria (who has looked poor overall this tournament, although is certianly capable), and 2 dms. A midfield of fellaini (who has looked much more like his everton form than his united form this cup), de bruyne, and witsel is very good, both defending and attacking. Argentina probably has a slightly better front three, although if lukaku plays well hazard/lukaku/mertens is very strong. Just through what I've said so far, it looks very close, maybe slight edge belgium. The deciding factor though, will be the size differential. There is no way argentina can contain the height of belgium on set pieces, and id be shocked if they dont score at least one goal from them. And I don't see how argentina scores more than 1, given how much of a struggle theyve had breaking down defenses. If belgium plays similarly to how switzerland did, just with better players, the absolute worst case for them is penalties. To me belgium is probably the single worst matchup in the entire tournament for argentina.
 

Max Carvalho

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Holland trashed Mexico in the last 20 minutes and you expect them to suffer to the climate against crc?
Maybe not. There will be a 90% chance of raining in any hour of the day. However, max temperature will be 25º (or 77 F) so it's still way too much for Dutch guys. Rain can be a relief tho.
 
Costa Rica can count themselves lucky that their into the QF. Netherlands should be able to beat them. It will be close like every other game in this WC but Netherlands will overcome them with Robben and Van persie and the Hunter coming off the bench if needed.
Netherlands to win.

I want Colombia to beat Brazil but it's still brazil who haven't lost a game on home soil. 2-1 to Brazil.

Germany have to make changes like not starting howedes at fucking lb. France will probably use Griezmann on the left.
Really looking forward to this match. Germany to win 3-2

Argentina should be able to gain more space because belgium don't protect their cbs. Messi and di maria should push Argentina through.
3-1 to Argentina.
 

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
This World Cup is extremely hard to predict, and considering how mediocre most of these sides were at some moments during the last round, the games could change a lot depending on tactical decisions and lineups.

Argentina vs Belgium
Belgium didn't convince me in the group round but they had some really good moments against USA. Argentina is probably the most lucky team to be here (along with Costa Rica) and have both the height and defense disadvantage so Belgium should win this.

Netherlands vs Costa Rica
I think I won't be convinced by this Netherlands team until they win the World Cup (if they do). It was the same in 2010 too, mediocre performances all along but always getting good results somehow (they looked worse in 2010 though). This game will probably be a stalemate and I think Costa Rica have a pretty good shot at winning this, but for once I'll predict the Netherlands to win.

France vs Germany
Hardest game to predict in my opinion, but not because the teams are even in terms of quality but because I question 2 things:
-Will Benzema play as the striker or on the left like against Nigeria?
-Will Joachim Low finally decide to use fullbacks? Howedes and Mustafi (who is now injured) have looked anything but comfortable in that position, and while Boateng is a bit better I think that his speed might be needed in the centre of the defense against France.
A lot of people say they're not convinced by Germany because of their defense (understandable, I'm sure I commented Germany's defense isn't solid before the World Cup started) but France hasn't been too convincing either. Their defense did though, and that's a start. Conclusion: despite predicting Germany to win the whole thing, I think that France has looked a bit better in the World Cup so far. Let's see if Low can fix the defensive problems...

Brazil vs Colombia
Not sure about this as Colombia hasn't faced an actually good team so far and they looked nervous at the back against CIV... They've been impressive when going forward and Luiz Gustavo won't play this game so I think they can actually pull this off, as long as they don't let Brazil counterattack comfortably.
 
the game was supposed to be 10-0 belgium if wasnt for tim howard being a god

algeria on the other hand outplayed germany for a considerable amount of time in the game

as a disclaimer i dont think germany is bad it was mostly not being ready for algeria playing very well
 

Imanalt

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Its more the fact that France have looked really good, miles better then Argentina.
just want to asterisk this by pointing out that france has played bad teams, and theyre a team built for beating inferior teams. Argentina is a team that struggles against worse teams but does well against better teams that want to go out to win the game. I agree that france has played better than argentina so far, but not by as much as people are saying
 

Sapientia

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It doesn't matter how you've looked in the matches before. Otherwise we would have beaten spain in 2010. I think all of the teams left are capable of bbeating every other team (maybe minus crc)

On Lahm: The problem was/is that khedira and Schweinsteiger were injured before the world cup and both benders still are.
But honestly I would expect lahm as rb against france, especially if hummels can't play. Maybe boateng as a left back and khedira + Schweinsteiger in midfield. But I doubt that Durm or Großkreutz will start. So far we only played centre backs, which is the reason why they sucked
 
France vs Germany

Germany would have sorted out their defensive frailties by now (or could go with a change of formation with 3 at the back!!), and I think both their experience in their squad as well as the depth of the squad would push them over the line. 2-1 normal time

Brazil vs Colombia

I still have this niggling feeling that Brazil will win the cup or get close to, and that this will be their best performance of the tournament. I also have a feeling that Colombia just won't perform on their day. 3-1 Brazil

Belgium vs Argentina

This is totally not because I have Argentina in a sweepstake. 0-1 Argentina AET

Netherlands vs Costa Rica

So I guess I'm the only one here going for a Costa Rica win? I really do think they can do it; they beat Italy and Uruguay deservedly so, and if Netherlands play like they did against Australia or Mexico then they have a better chance than most people think. 1-0 Costa Rica
 

pj

is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnus
World Defender
France vs Germany
Benezeme is in Form with taking most of Attempts in 2014 world cup i think he will score Goals

Brazil vs Colombia
I want brazil to win just cuz of Oscar



Belgium vs Argentina

I like Messi and i hope he scores goal

Netherlands vs Costa Rica

I like Netherland becaus of Robben skills
 

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
France vs Germany

Germany would have sorted out their defensive frailties by now (or could go with a change of formation with 3 at the back!!), and I think both their experience in their squad as well as the depth of the squad would push them over the line. 2-1 normal time
A back 3 would be a suicide against France as that would leave Griezmann and Benzema with tons of space... Plus Germany doesn't have true strikers so playing with 7 midfielders would be kind of nuts lol

On Lahm: The problem was/is that khedira and Schweinsteiger were injured before the world cup and both benders still are.
But honestly I would expect lahm as rb against france, especially if hummels can't play. Maybe boateng as a left back and khedira + Schweinsteiger in midfield. But I doubt that Durm or Großkreutz will start. So far we only played centre backs, which is the reason why they sucked
I understand why Lahm has been playing as a midfielder (despite not agreeing with it), but is there any reason why Grosskreutz and Durm haven't played at all? Doesn't make any sense to me, they might not be top class players but they can surely perform better than Höwedes and Mustafi on the fullback position...
 

Sapientia

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It seems like Löw doesn't consider them good enough for the world cup. Boateng isn't that bad as a rb and kinda ok, but he should have at least tried Durm on the left side. I assume Löw is convinced of his 4 CBs idea, otherwise Höwedes doesn't make much sense

It's also weird that Mustafi played every match so far as he didn't make the original roster and just got nominated to reus's injury. So why nominate Ginter first if you rate Mustafi higher and why would you even nominate a centre back to replace a striker? Löw's thoughts are sometimes a bit strange
 
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