2014 FIFA World Cup: Group G (GER/POR/GHA/USA)

[BUCKnation]

Rough loss as a Ghana fan. Felt as though we controlled the entire game and were constantly on the attack. 21 shots to 8, and 60% possession. Unfortunately, the ball could just not find the back of the net. I'm happy with how the guys played, but not getting a point against the U.S. is extremely frustrating and costly. Have to hope for an off game from Germany on Saturday.

They controlled the game, but rarely looked threatening. They either crossed it in and hoped someone would make a mistake, b/c they don't really have a target man to consistently win those, or bombed it from 25+. Other than a couple of controlled saves, Howard didn't do much. Their goal was one of the few bits of real play and patience, but yeah, this was a must win for both teams.

[Grants Goggles]

No one cares about their origin, they were born in Switzerland, brought up in Switzerland, they are "real" Swiss.

Dude you have no clue what you are talking about. Not even %1.

Behrami was born in Kosovo. They moved to Switzerland when he was 13 years old.
Djourou was born in Cote d'Ivoire.
Shaqiri was born in Kosovo.
Rodriguez was born in Barcelona.
Seferovic was born in Bosnia.
Mehmedi was born in Macedonia.

They weren't born in Switzerland yet they are playing for Switzerland.

You may not care but a lot of people care in all over the world. There are Germans who don't accept Mesut, there are Turks who didn't accept Marco Aurelio, there are Spanish who don't accept Diego Costa. Get your facts right. It seems you started watching football since world cup started.

Rodriguez was actually born in Zürich, Switzerland.
Seferovic was actually born in Sursee, Switzerland.

As for the rest, you can't possibly blame those families from moving away from the hell-hole that was the SFR Yugoslavia around the time of those awful wars. If a child grows up in a country, it should be possible to apply for citizenship of that country, or would you have them be a citizen of a country they can hardly remember?

But whatever, you're free to hate on other countries on a sports level. Lord knows I do some times.

[treiz]

age players moved to switzerland

Shaqiri- 1
djouou- 17 months
behrami- 5
Rodriguez- Born in zurich
Seferovic- born in sursee, switzerland
mehmedi- 2

they all learned their football in switzerland and we're raised there from an early age or were born there. There is not a big deal. Mesut was born and raised in germany and learned his football there , if there are germans that don't accept him then shame on them. I understand Diego costa and Aurelio cases though.But hey it's just football at the end of the day , if they want to play there and the nation wants to call them up.. so be it.

Does it really matter what age they moved there? To me, not really. Those players were raised by their parents with the culture of another country. For example, I bet, Shaqiri couldn't speak french until he started going to the school. Seferovic's native language is Bosnian. He was raised with Bosnian culture even though they lived in Switzerland.

Obviously, they can choose to play whoever they want. I am just saying my personal opinion. I don't like it. I lke the way Brazil National Team. Everyone is Brazilian if not any exception. Argentina is the same. Italy is the same. Maybe I am a bit patriotic guy but if it is called national team, I don't want a guy in my team with raised by different culture, language or whatever.

Of course age matters, when you move to a separate country at a very young age, you're only going to be exposed to that type of culture. To use your example, for Shaqiri, even if he couldn't speak french before he went to school (although he probably did) being exposed to the Swiss culture at a very young age is huge. As kids, they're only exposure to living is from their parents but as they get older and start learning things, they'll tailor their lifestyles, mannerisms and tendencies on what's around them living in Switzerland for x amount of years, usually that's the Swiss culture, whether it be from school, entertainment, or media etc. Heck in most of those example they learned their football and how to live and behave from the Swiss, only fair to return the favour. So, can you blame them for feeling more Swiss as opposed to anything else?

[Rasho Brezec]

No one cares about their origin, they were born in Switzerland, brought up in Switzerland, they are "real" Swiss.

Dude you have no clue what you are talking about. Not even %1.

Behrami was born in Kosovo. They moved to Switzerland when he was 13 years old.
Djourou was born in Cote d'Ivoire.
Shaqiri was born in Kosovo.
Rodriguez was born in Barcelona.
Seferovic was born in Bosnia.
Mehmedi was born in Macedonia.

They weren't born in Switzerland yet they are playing for Switzerland.

You may not care but a lot of people care in all over the world. There are Germans who don't accept Mesut, there are Turks who didn't accept Marco Aurelio, there are Spanish who don't accept Diego Costa. Get your facts right. It seems you started watching football since world cup started.

Behrami was four years old when his family moved to Switzerland.
Djorou was 17 months old.
Shaqiri was even younger.
Rodriguez was born in Zürich and went through the FC Zürich football system.
Seferovic was born in Switzerland and his family had been there since the 80's.
Mehmedi was two years old when his family moved to Switzerland.

Seems like you're the one who needs to get your facts right. Nobody cares where they were born when their whole socialization was Swiss.

[Rasho Brezec]

"Women soccer is more popular than men soccer in USA and is a mandatory class in US high schools."

This is hilarious.

who the hell made that up?

The alcoholic announcer I was listening to. They had to cut him from a hockey feed once because he was too drunk to stay coherent. He says a lot of stupid things, but he was in his prime yesterday. I guess cachaça is too good to pass up in Brazil.

[LittleOzzy]

DD12 & bbms,

Talk about the games at hand, or move on.

This isn't the place to discuss team heritage in depth.

[AlexDelta]

Who is Ronaldo?

Have Bayern fans forgotten so soon? [/quote]
Real could have played some random dude off the street that night and they would have trashed us.
Maybe I will remember who he if he scores the 1-3 against Ghana and celebrates it as if he just won world cup, before he flies back home.

[TheAdmiral]

Still butthurt I see?

[Higga]

Ghana may have controlled possession but they didn't really threaten the U.S. much. And you have to factor in Altidore and Dempsey both being injured(Dempsey could barely breathe with that busted nose and it's even worse in that humid Brazilian weather). If Altidore doesn't get hurt I bet the U.S. score a 2nd goal before half.

Gotta give props to Klinsman. I was upset with him when he didn't bring Donovan but the winning goal was sparked by two subs. Clearly the dude knows what he's doing.

Can't wait for Sunday. Portugal is beatable with Pepe out, but even a draw gives us a real good chance at advancing.

[Andi Obst]

[cgf]

Well of course he's the most awesome American, he was born in Berlin!

[DD12]

He was never gonna make it if he wanted to play for Germany. So he chose USA


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[cgf]

He was never gonna make it if he wanted to play for Germany. So he chose USA


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Makes me wish Turkey had qualified and been drawn to this group instead of portugal, then all of germany's B-teams would be there together

[Foye]

He was never gonna make it if he wanted to play for Germany. So he chose USA


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Makes me wish Turkey had qualified and been drawn to this group instead of portugal, then all of germany's B-teams would be there together

In before Massimo's "you don't know how to discuss"-post.

[Andi Obst]

Well of course he's the most awesome American, he was born in Berlin!

[Foye]

It was the perfect game yesterday for Toni Kroos & Mesut Özil to shine btw.
11 vs. 10, up early, no real pressure from the opponent at all and you don't have to do much defensive work at all.

Mesut Özil these days doesn't even shine in these games, though. That miss alone in front of the goal.

I know I sound like a hater now after a 4-0 victory but it is like it is. It was the perfect game for them.

Come semi-final time I'm sure Kroos will refuse to defend like this again:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy6U-PAoKKo[/youtube]
He had two chances to stop the goal from happening. Either not let Bale jog away or sprint to Ronaldo (who couldn't even run full speed because it would've been offside in that case) but I guess he felt too exhausted because he had to jog back to the own penalty area. And that in a CL semi final.

Or Özil will miss a quadrillion 100% chances again.

[Boognish]

I was too busy moaning about Donavon when Jozy went down to consider than Eddie Johnson would also be a nice option right about now.

[Ted Lasso]

No one cares about their origin, they were born in Switzerland, brought up in Switzerland, they are "real" Swiss.

Dude you have no clue what you are talking about. Not even %1.

Behrami was born in Kosovo. They moved to Switzerland when he was 13 years old.
Djourou was born in Cote d'Ivoire.
Shaqiri was born in Kosovo.
Rodriguez was born in Barcelona.
Seferovic was born in Bosnia.
Mehmedi was born in Macedonia.

They weren't born in Switzerland yet they are playing for Switzerland.

You may not care but a lot of people care in all over the world. There are Germans who don't accept Mesut, there are Turks who didn't accept Marco Aurelio, there are Spanish who don't accept Diego Costa. Get your facts right. It seems you started watching football since world cup started.

Behrami was four years old when his family moved to Switzerland.
Djorou was 17 months old.
Shaqiri was even younger.
Rodriguez was born in Zürich and went through the FC Zürich football system.
Seferovic was born in Switzerland and his family had been there since the 80's.
Mehmedi was two years old when his family moved to Switzerland.

Seems like you're the one who needs to get your facts right. Nobody cares where they were born when their whole socialization was Swiss.

Telling people they have no idea what they're talking about as he makes factually inaccurate statements is an infamous Massimo classic.

[MaliBrah]

It was the perfect game yesterday for Toni Kroos & Mesut Özil to shine btw.
11 vs. 10, up early, no real pressure from the opponent at all and you don't have to do much defensive work at all.

Mesut Özil these days doesn't even shine in these games, though. That miss alone in front of the goal.

I know I sound like a hater now after a 4-0 victory but it is like it is. It was the perfect game for them.

he had that nice backheel that helped set up the first goal and set up the pass to gotze that brought the corner for hummels goal. You expect what 3 assists and a goal from him each game??You're standards are ridiculous. Every german player was missing 100% chances yesterday.

[Foye]

It was the perfect game yesterday for Toni Kroos & Mesut Özil to shine btw.
11 vs. 10, up early, no real pressure from the opponent at all and you don't have to do much defensive work at all.

Mesut Özil these days doesn't even shine in these games, though. That miss alone in front of the goal.

I know I sound like a hater now after a 4-0 victory but it is like it is. It was the perfect game for them.

he had that nice backheel that helped set up the first goal and set up the pass to gotze that brought the corner for hummels goal. You expect what 3 assists and a goal from him each game??You're standards are ridiculous. Every german player was missing 100% chances yesterday.

I dont remember anyone who was alone in front of the goal and could ve either passed for an easy tap in or scored himself one on one vs. the keeper.

Özil needs to get rid of the "I want to prove my doubters wrong"-habit he has for years now.
If he did that he would be much more comfortable in front of the goal and dont feel pressured to make the goal himself when he can easily set up a better positioned player and of course finish with more confidence as well.