OT: 2014 World Cup

FIRE0808 · Jul 13, 2014

If only Tele Santana is still around, he will create beautiful game that Brazil are known for.

raw33man · Jul 13, 2014

These 2 last games just ruined Brazil's football's history

ALLEX · Jul 13, 2014

FIRE0808 said:
If only Tele Santana is still around, he will create beautiful game that Brazil are known for.

And lose 3-2 to Italy? No thanks...

The beautiful Brazilian game is long gone.
There's still talent, but today's football is too fast to do those fancy things Pelé and Garrincha used to do.

Every skilled player has 2 or 3 defenders on his ankle all the time. Individual skill rarely wins top tournaments now.

If our coach can form an organized team, like our 1994's, the talent ends up making the difference. Otherwise we will always have trouble with teams that are more disciplined like Germany.

Most of our today's coaches suck big time and the CBF is just too proud to hire a foreigner. At least until now.

That said, there's rumors that they have been talking to Mourinho for 2018.

ALLEX · Jul 13, 2014

Germany is World Champion. Congrats.

Medic08 · Jul 14, 2014

Allex, how does the World Cup work? I noticed that there were several teams competing. So I assume its not like baseball where you have play offs and the best two teams compete at the World Series. Regardless of the teams records does every team play in the World Cup in an elimination style tournament?

Sorry for the stupid question, but I literally know nothing about soccer.

ALLEX · Jul 14, 2014

Medic08 said:
Allex, how does the World Cup work? I noticed that there were several teams competing. So I assume its not like baseball where you have play offs and the best two teams compete at the World Series. Regardless of the teams records does every team play in the World Cup in an elimination style tournament?

Sorry for the stupid question, but I literally know nothing about soccer.

It's a bit complicated.

32 teams have to qualify on their confederations. 8 groups of four. Traditional teams (high scorers on the Fifa ranking or former champions are head of their groups).

After group phase comes knockout phase, last 16, 8, 4 and 2.

This should help:

Medic08 · Jul 14, 2014

Yes, this helps, thank you. It looks like your typical tournament format.

32 of the best teams participate in the World Cup sounds like a lot to me. Especially since I didn't realize that there were even that many total teams, period. So how many teams are there in professional soccer all together? If 32 participate in the World Cup then I would assume that there are at least double all together. Is that about right?

scrapper13 · Jul 14, 2014

Medic08 said:
Yes, this helps, thank you. It looks like your typical tournament format.

32 of the best teams participate in the World Cup sounds like a lot to me. Especially since I didn't realize that there were even that many total teams, period. So how many teams are there in professional soccer all together? If 32 participate in the World Cup then I would assume that there are at least double all together. Is that about right?

Actually there are 203 teams and qualifications for this tournament begin almost 3 years before the tournament takes place. To just make the tournament is a big deal.

mytreefiddy · Jul 14, 2014

Germany played better IMO.... Argentina had its chances and couldn't capitalize.... great game.... Germanys victory was well deserved

scrapper13 · Jul 14, 2014

mytreefiddy said:
Germany played better IMO.... Argentina had its chances and couldn't capitalize.... great game.... Germanys victory was well deserved

Germany is going to be a powerhouse for a long time. The guy who scored the goal yesterday as well as the one who assisted are the first wave of german players from their revamped youth soccer system. After going 0-3 at the 2000 Euros the country invested massive amounts of money into its youth soccer system, building academies affiliated with their professional teams that are now pumping out talent after talent. When they started the program they said it was their goal to not have a golden generation but instead to have a sustainable powerhouse. Looks like it's working so far.

ALLEX · Jul 14, 2014

scrapper13 said:
Germany is going to be a powerhouse for a long time.

Yep, and they've been a powerhouse since ever as well... 4 World titles is no joke.

But yes, they are investing even more and wiser. Professional coaches go to every small town in Germany and promote training sessions and matches. Kids start being selected by the age of 4 and talented ones get sponsored by the government, going to a special school, where they live, train, have physiologists, doctors, etc... Everything free. Very good program. Best in the world.

scrapper13 · Jul 14, 2014

ALLEX said:
Yep, and they've been a powerhouse since ever as well... 4 World titles is no joke.

But yes, they are investing even more and wiser. Professional coaches go to every small town in Germany and promote training sessions and matches. Kids start being selected by the age of 4 and talented ones get sponsored by the government, going to a special school, where they live, train, have physiologists, doctors, etc... Everything free. Very good program. Best in the world.

Exactly, but like I said above this program is still relatively new and the first players who benefited from it are just now starting to reach the national team. They are only going to get a lot better once the current veterans are gone and the team consists of all players brought up through the new system.

ALLEX · Jul 14, 2014

Medic08 said:
Yes, this helps, thank you. It looks like your typical tournament format.

32 of the best teams participate in the World Cup sounds like a lot to me. Especially since I didn't realize that there were even that many total teams, period. So how many teams are there in professional soccer all together? If 32 participate in the World Cup then I would assume that there are at least double all together. Is that about right?

I don't really remember a country that doesn't have a national team, so that's 32 out of 200 or so...

Next year qualifications start again for Russia 2018.

Regarding regular teams, not national, there are 783 professional teams only in Brazil. Biggest sport in the world by far.

Medic08 · Jul 14, 2014

Wow, yeah I didn't realize it was so big. So there's a World Cup every year just like any other team sport?

ALLEX · Jul 14, 2014

Every 4 years, like the Olympics. Read more:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup"]FIFA World Cup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

scrapper13 · Jul 14, 2014

Medic08 said:
Wow, yeah I didn't realize it was so big. So there's a World Cup every year just like any other team sport?

No the qualification process takes 3 years so the tournament is held every 4 years. There are 203 national teams. In germany alone there are 33,000 teams in the germany football system. Americans don't understand how big of a sport soccer is to the rest of the world.

Medic08 · Jul 14, 2014

scrapper13 said:
No the qualification process takes 3 years so the tournament is held every 4 years. There are 203 national teams. In germany alone there are 33,000 teams in the germany football system. Americans don't understand how big of a sport soccer is to the rest of the world.

Yep, admittedly so.