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WORLD CUP FINALS and 3rd place game: SUNDAY AND saturday LIVE THREAD

World Cup 3rd place game

GAME IS SATURDAY

BRAZIL - NETHERLANDS in Brazilia. It starts SATURDAY at 1pm pacific, 5pm in Brazil, 9pm in England, and 10pm in Holand and western Europe.

I guess FIFA makes money off this game cause why have it? There just aren't any similar games like this that come to mind. The NCAA men's basketball tournament used to have a third place game but they got rid of it for lack of interest. The NFL had a 3rd place game in the 60's called "The Playoff Game" that died a merciful death in a couple of years. Oh well.

I predict a Holland win just cause they will play loose and Brazil is having an emotional crisis.

WORLD CUP FINALS

GAME IS SUNDAY

2) GERMANY - ARGENTINA in Rio de Janeiro and will start at 12 noon pacific, 4pm in Argentina 8pm in England, and 9pm in Germany and western Europe.

Game promises to be tight, tough, defensive with moments of genius that will determine the outcome. Fair chance it goes to penalties.

For Germany, they will do what they have done the whole tournament: attack from different angles and different players though mainly they prefer to attack down the middle of the field: they haven't used their flanks much and when forced to their attack slows down. What we have learned is if the opposition is not tight on defense it could be a blowout. See the Portugal and Brazil games as evidence of this. But defensive minded teams can slow them down and bring them practically to a stop. Algeria did stop them and the USA almost did this. Another weakness they have is surprisingly in the otherwise best midfield in the tournament: they don't have a destroyer d-mid like Nigel de Jong. We'll get back to that later but you saw this in their tie with a Ghana team endowed with an attacking and multidimensional midfield.

Otherwise Germany is...jeez one just HAS to resort to stereotypes with these guys: a ruthless machine looking to destroy all carbon-based lifeforms in their path. They come at you from all angles and at speed. Again: give them an inch and they have you by the balls. And letting go never crosses their mind.

For Argentina the main thing people think of them is "disappointing". And yeah, with the attackers that they have it sure seems like they should have scored a lot more than they have. Messi has carried them-until the last game vs Holland where his performance was-got to say it-subpar.

But here's the thing: since I already resorted to stereotypes I might as well resort to truisms to: defense wins championships. Argentina has played this tournament with a strong defense-first mentality and as the tournament has wound down the team that this reminds me of the most in recent history is Italy 2006. Argentina will be prepared to suck the life out of this game in order to keep Germany away from goal and if you wonder if they can do that then look again at what the USA and particularly Algeria did to Germany: basically bring it to a standstill. Cause Germany can lose the plot at times since while they have a whole bunch of Grade A players they don't have a Grade A++ player in their lineup.

And Argentina do. How Germany deals with Messi will be most interesting since as I said above Germany does not have that destroyer d-mid that will focus solely on Messi and kick the living shit out of him. And without that destroyer in the midfield, Germany is gonna have to be wary of Messi on the counterattack. Messi and Higuain and probably di Maria too. You can bet your sweet bippy that the German brain trust has spent days thinking about this problem.

I wonder about why Messi had a poor game vs Holland. yeah, de Jong, but more to the point Messi stayed the whole game in the center of the field. That was unusual cause a standard trick for him is to drift out wide and bring a couple of defenders with him thus opening up the center for his teammates. That played into Holland's strategy and he can't do that vs Germany and expect to win.

I don't know who will win but I don't expect any kind of blow out. Which means probably there will be one.

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Con game player of the day: a three way tie between Alans1472, pablo777, and Chris Fontecchio!!!!!!!!!

62 points for each of them, one short of the max possible. All three have Argentina at 32 and Germany at 30.

Con Game Sepp Blatter player of the day is YARB and Pigilito!!!!!!!!!

Yarb Yarb Yarb Yarb Yarb. And Pigilito. One nice thing is that Septic has been dropping in the standings as the knockout rounds have progressed. let's knock him down some more! Sepp's at the halfway mark in our standings: let's get him down towards the bottom.

Where's Mr. ELO?

1,248 points.

The race for the Lantern Rouge

Davie Porter-Zoo. Hey! He crossed 1000!

Updated rankings. Here are last Wednesday's rankings. Same leader- ther00kie16!!!

LET US ALL SUBMIT TO THE GREATNESS THAT IS THER00KIE16. PRAISE HIM WITH GREAT PRAISE BECAUSE HE'S WON THIS COMPETITION. So ther00kie16: time for you to tell me which rider gets a two point discount in next year's VDS competition. My only request is that the rider be worth more than 12 points.

  • ELO 1,248
  • 1. ther00kie16 1202
  • 2. mpw5 1195
  • 3. Gizzardfanny 1189
  • 4. Celticpride 1187
  • 5. tgsgirl 1185
  • 6. Chris Fontecchio 1178
  • 7. broerie 1177
  • 8. (tied) Holmvoka 1175
  • 8. (tied) sebastiandeluded 1175
  • 10. Ben Corson 1173
  • 11. (tied) Wastrel 1171
  • 11. (tied) ursula 1171
  • 13. Larrick23 1170
  • 14. Bought with Blood 1168
  • SEPP BLATTER 1164
  • 15. (tied) Yarb 1163
  • 15. (tied) Pigilito 1163
  • 17. Retancourt 1161
  • 18. Pintahead 1159
  • 19. aldietrich 1155
  • 20. Strides85 1136
  • 21. johnnysteeler 1135
  • 22. pablo777 1131
  • 23. Mathieug 1116
  • 24. conork17 1112
  • 25. Jens 1111
  • 26. MrSneaky 1109
  • 27. Alans1472 1095
  • 28. Davie Porter-Zoo 1027


I will update these rankings in the comments section after the 3rd place game and then at the end of the final game.