Luis Suarez: What next for troubled Liverpool striker?

bbc.com ^ | 26 June 2014 | McNulty

[Berlin_Freeper]

The shockwaves will have been felt from the Maracana in Rio, to Melwood back in Liverpool, as Luis Suarez received a four-month ban from all football-related activity and was suspended for Uruguay's next nine matches.

Uruguay's talisman has been removed from their World Cup reckoning for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini and Liverpool will be without arguably the Premier League's finest player until November.

Fifa needed to act swiftly and decisively and has done so on an unprecedented scale at a World Cup.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Watch Germany star Thomas Muller hit World Cup fan in the face

[BeadCounter]

I just watched some of the replay, the announcers talk about the laser right before the goal in the 59th minute. Whomever that fan was needs to be thrown out. More cheating. No telling who did that. More World Cup shame, what effect it had on the goal is not clear.

[Berlin_Freeper]

No doubting Jurgen Klinsmann now
At this point, Klinsmann and the U.S. team find themselves with an opportunity to do something special. With the imposing group-stage slate in the past, the Americans have a winnable second-round clash against Belgium on Tuesday.

While the Belgians are loaded with talent, with stars including Manchester City center back Vincent Kompany, Chelsea winger Eden Hazard and Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, it’s an untested team.

Belgium hasn’t even played in a major tournament since 2002, failing to qualify for every World Cup and European Championship since. Given a forgiving group, alongside Algeria, Russia and South Korea, it won all three games but none by multiple goals.

[Berlin_Freeper]

▶ 12 Hour | Epic Music Ultra Mix Vol.1 - YouTube

[BeadCounter]

France’s group was a bit soft but then, except for group G, maybe the second half of the bracket was a bit soft.

In the upper bracket, it appears at some time, you are going to have one team coming out of Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Netherlands.

But per FIFA rankings, the two halves of the tournament, group A-D and E-H may be relatively equal.

[dfwgator]

No one gave the US a chance to get out, after Klinsman dropped Donovan, and then lost Altidore against Ghana.

But he’s proved the detractors wrong. He is precisely what US Soccer has needed for a long time,

Here is a great article on Klinsman that came out a few weeks before the WC began.

How Jurgen Klinsmann Plans to Make U.S. Soccer Better (and Less American)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/magazine/how-jurgen-klinsmann-plans-to-make-us-soccer-better-and-less-american.html?_r=0

[BeadCounter]

In the Round of 16; except for Belgium/USA, I’d go with the favorites. I’d expect Costa Rica to win as well, they are a slight underdog, not sure why. Perhaps by the ranking systems. USA slight underdog to Belgium.

Otherwise, even if I don’t care for the result, I’d think the favorites hold up.

[Reaganez]

I am not sympathizing with him.

Stating a fact. This suspension is not a slap on the wrist.

It is his fault. And he is paying a reasonable price for it.

There are plays in the world cup, with cleats exposed that threaten the players career. And players receive a one game suspension. This bite does not threaten a players career.

He is missing extremely important games. It is not just the game count.

[BeadCounter]

Switzerland got it handed to them by France and Switzerland then rebounded vs. Honduras, okay, not a big-player as a country but from Argentina’s 3 matches, Switzerland should be able to make that a good game.

[BeadCounter]

Greece star Georgios Samaras invites young Irish fan to the World Cup

A YOUNG IRISH fan is set to travel to the World Cup to watch his hero Georgios Samaras in action, after being invited to the tournament by the star himself.

11-year-old Celtic supporter Jay Beatty, who has Down’s syndrome, also encountered the Greek star when he was taken from the stands by him to join in the Scottish side’s league title celebrations earlier this year.

The pair also met during a Celtic game in Ireland, and their relationship was renewed after videos of Beatty cheering on Greece at this year’s World Cup gained traction online.

Greece is a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the competitors.

[BeadCounter]

I saw one neutral say it will be the USA balloon that gets popped here.

[Delta Dawn]

The US/Germany match represented everything that is wrong with soccer.

While Germany was playing keep away for most of the game, the US was timid and even seemed afraid to attempt to advance the ball into the German zone. The best play the Americans had was to pass the ball backwards. If they could have, they would have passed the ball back to Miami.

The US only had 1 or 2 chances to actually score in the game, so being shutout was not that surprising.

There were of course the obligatory dives from the Germans and even one or two attempted dives by the Americans.

The play that encapsulated everything that one needs to know about soccer was the yellow card on Benedikt Howedes.

Germaine Jones had gotten past the defender with the ball and would have advanced on the German goal with superior numbers. Better scoring opportunities don’t often come along in soccer.

In typical sporting fashion, Howedes did the only thing that he could. he reached out and intentionally kicked the legs out from under Jones.

Unsporting, against the spirit of the rules of soccer and a potentially dangerous play. Soccer has a mechanism for dealing with this type of play. The red card. Howedes should have been tossed from the game. Here comes the ref running up to the play and he is reaching for...the yellow card.

The dirty little secret of international soccer is that you never penalize a favored European team against a non-European team especially so early in the game. The fix was in and the outcome was no longer in doubt.

[dfwgator]

Belgium played a man down for over a half against Korea.

And they still were able to score a goal even a man down to win.

[Delta Dawn]

They weren’t giving the, AMERICANS, a man advantage...

[Delta Dawn]

Usually, when the yellow card gets pulled, the side awarded the yellow will put up a hue and cry in an attempt to at the very least intimidate the ref by letting him know that he will get much the same if pulls another card.

What was telling in this instance was that there was not a whimper of protest from the German side as they knew they had dodged a bullet.

[dfwgator]

Keep in mind that Germany had a crucial extra day of rest, and also the US played a grueling game in the conditions at Manaus just a few days before.

Not getting blown out was a huge victory for the US.

I think had Germany played the US first, instead of last, it would have been a much better game on both sides.

[BeadCounter]

Belgium, 4 goals, all in the last 20 minutes of games. If I were backing the Red Devils, I wouldn’t really care for that, 3 of them by Substitutes.

http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/1916922/world-cup-stats-last-16

But it’s not all rosy, guess what team gave up 55 shots on goal, the most by any team in the group stage? We did.

Interesting stats.

[BeadCounter]

Belgium “scored” 4 goals, all in the last 20 minutes. In case that is not clear.

[aposiopetic]

As much as I was disappointed with Klinsmann for not including Donovan in the 23, I must admit he will know to adjust tactics in the final 20 minutes. I don’t expect this to be a problem as I gather we learned from the late goal conceded to PT.