I want the respect that CONCACAF deserves and love to see our teams do well. But I cannot pull for rafa marquez or any team that he plays for. In my mind, he's karla malone x 10000000000. I love nothing more than to see him get beat. I have nothing against the rest of the players for mexico.
Interesting. Many of the dutch media also thought the ref favoured us. I did not see it that way. In my opinion he let the players play. And did not fall for flops (from both sides. Robben had a couple terrible flops). I have to say i did not see replays with offside calls so i cannot judge that. I hope you will play well and advance far in the tournament. Chile played nice footbal this tournament so far.
I have been watching WV games since 1978. I can't remember a most uninspiring Brazilian side. Either that or the rest of the world has gotten a lot better.
A little of both. This isn't Joga Bonita any more. It's a more direct style of play. As I write this, Neymar scores again...
Mexico couldn't finish for **** on those perfectly at up balls. Fun game so far. Love the toughness of Croatia.
Agreed. Other than WV games, I really do not follow soccer. I am shocked as how just about every team in this tournament goes hard on defense, like going for the opposing player's ankles. If I were to guess, I would have to say European influence with their super clubs.
I feel the ref favoured us on a couple of calls. I think some of our players should have had yellow, at which point we would had to have played less aggressively. Interesting interview from the keeper: http://nos.nl/wk2014/video/665479-bravo-nederland-wilde-niet-voetballen.html He's basically saying that the result was written before the game and his facial expression suggests he's talking about rigged officiating or something similar. He also mentions it a couple of times throughout the rest of the interview. I think that's a bit exaggerated. It's not like there were clear penalties there. In the end, Chile didn't create any real chances and they can't blame the ref for that. But whatever, I'm sure I see things through Orange-tinted glasses as well - hard not to I suppose. However, the flopping in the penalty area was ridiculous on a couple of calls. Chile couldn't create proper chances and they started flopping. Robben did a few flops as well, which was annoying - luckily he does it far less than before. To me, the game was a tactical masterclass from van Gaal. He knew that the midfield pressing from Chile would kills us, so he basically skipped the midfield. Can't really blame us for trying to use the strengths of our best players and trying to derail the Chilean pressing game (which I really like actually). ATW, you're so positive about us. :grin: I'm not as confident as you are, but I wouldn't be surprised if we managed to get quite far. Then again, we've also messed up after good group performances plenty of times - 2008 being the most recent I can remember. That was painful.
So, where in front of Azteca will the Mexican federation going to erect the statue of the USMNT scoring a meaningless goal against Panama? If the US doesn't advance and Mexico does, I may quit sports.
