It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

7-1 !!!!!!!! i thought Brazil were the kiddies at this game ... Did the Germans cheat ? i did see that dirty bar steward dive early on in the tournament ,i think he was German ..

The Germans didn't need to cheat, they just systematically destroyed a very poor Brazilian side and thank goodness Hansen is going to retire from the BBC, I'm fed up hearing him droning on about bad defending !

You just leave Hanson alone DB, because after some of his World Cup performances in Spain in 82' or 83' for Scotland.. he is very well qualified to comment on bad defending -):

Hansen talks wet anyway as does the rest of the BBC Match Of The Day panel.

They talk of British World Class Players.........tell me .......what planet are they living on??????????.

And if this last World Cup hasnt shown them how badly they have judged our players they should all resign on block.

Come on the Argies!!!!!!!

Taken from: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5b7e294-077b-11e4-81c6-00144feab7de.html#ixzz36zfdsx3i

July 9, 2014 5:57 pm
Eight lessons rock-bottom Brazil need to learn from the best
www.FT.com
By Simon Kuper in São Paulo

Ten years ago this week, the German team was at rock bottom. It had exited Euro 2004 without beating anyone, not even Latvia. Germany’s sorry side served chiefly as raw material for German comedians. Nobody even seemed willing to become national coach. That week I asked Jürgen Klinsmann what was wrong with Germany. “We don’t have a killer up front,” he smiled. “We are still making the mistake of passing sideways. The lack of speed may be another reason.” I asked if he might become coach of Germany. “No!”

Three weeks later, Klinsmann became coach of Germany. He and his assistant Joachim Löw ditched tradition and revolutionised the way Germans play football. Just before this World Cup, Klinsmann, now coaching the US, eulogised the new German team to the magazine Elf Freunde: “These high-speed players with their technique, who can play furious attacking football with fast positional changes. Everything that we scribbled in theory on flipcharts in 2004 has become reality.” Tuesday’s 7-1 hammering of Brazil in the semifinal possibly even qualifies as hyperreality.

Now a Brazil at rock bottom needs to revolutionise the way it plays football. Here are eight lessons from Germany:

1. Never let a crisis go to waste. You will never have greater consensus to rethink everything in your football than now. In German parlance, this is “zero hour”.
2. Your past is irrelevant. Brazil’s five world titles mean nothing today. They serve only to kid you that you are still good at football. Your aim must be to play like Germany 2018, not Brazil 1970.
3. Don’t blame individuals. Brazilian fans on Tuesday night were jeering poor, hapless Fred, but it is not his fault that he was arguably the country’s best striker. The system has failed. Fred is only a symptom.
4. The most important thing in football is the pass. It is not the dribble, or passion, or psychology. The Germans obsess about the geometry of passing. Brazil, by contrast, no longer thinks seriously about tactics, which is why coach Felipe Scolari and the Brazilian media spent half the tournament obsessing about the players’ penchant for tears.
5. Learn from the best countries. Accept that you no longer understand how to play football. The Germans from 2004 learned passing from the Dutch and Spaniards, pace of play from the English Premier League, minority recruitment from the French and fitness from Americans.
6. The corollary: you probably need a foreign coach. Klinsmann was a German but a longtime expatriate who had ended up in California. Brazil should have asked the Spaniard Pep Guardiola to coach them in the World Cup, as Ronaldo suggested. Hire a European now.
7. Set the bar at number one. For Germany or Brazil, the only aim is to be the world’s best. At Euro 2008, a young German team reached the final, where they were passed off the park by Spain. Germany’s coach Löw did not congratulate himself on finishing second. Instead he thought: “I want a team like that,” and began working out how to become like Spain.
8. You will not immediately become good but you can almost immediately become professional. Germany leads football in nutrition, statistics, physical preparation and so on. Brazil must aim to match that.

Brazil has a harder route to reform than Germany did. The German football federation, with 6.85m members, is the largest single-sport association on earth. Brazil has no comparable central power to push change at all levels. Brazil does have a lone genius, Neymar, who sometimes serves to disguise Brazilian football’s malaise. (Lionel Messi has the same retarding effect on Argentina.) And geographically, Brazil is poorly connected to cutting-edge football countries.

All this impedes learning. But there can be no excuse for turning up in Russia in 2018 (presuming Brazil qualify) with talk of 1970 and jogo bonito. That’s dead.

The new Brazil flag:



Neymar points at a can of .....?



Christ the Redeemer is shocked and stunned:

The Brazilians should have thought that they were Dutch and they would have won.

In my dreams anyway.

Expecting a Dutch win tonight but it will be tough.

The Argies will obviously be thinking we are Everton tonight, what a thrashing they would be in for.

LOL gf, buying the premiership hope the Argies work it up em :O)

Speculation tonight that Everton are chasing Brazils FRED.

Lets face it the top teams on the premiership wouldnt be interested.

I suppose he appeals to a mid table to bottom table premiership team.

Could get Messi for the Dutch tonight! :O)

Hope its not that sub goalie again. Cheating

Well done Argentina.

The krauts though will thrash you.

OOOps!! :O)

I thought the Dutch team was most deservant but you just can't argue with missed penalties.

Argentina v Germany for the Final

Since it doesn't appear to be so hard for them to score goals, my money now just has to be on Germany to win the Jules Rimet Trophy.

Fyi, Doc, the chances of Germany winning the Jules Rimet Trophy are zilch. The Jules Rimet Trophy was won outright by Brazil in 1970 after they won the tournament for a third time, and replaced in 1974 with the current FIFA World Cup Trophy.

A tad late..

Hmmm?

Brazil, you say?

Are you sure?

Good God, Hils! you are right!

http://www.topendsports.com/events/worldcupsoccer/world-cup.htm

The Dutch were the better side by far but with penalties anything can happen and the Argie goalkeeper was mighty impressive ! you have to say....Holland just couldn't create a few extra chances...kept on going back....as Messi was lurking...he is such a dangerous player...I think Germany will win it as they will open that Argentinian defense up.....