0 World Cup Final Tweets of the Day - 14 July 2014

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is over. Germany are the victors, to the relief of millions of Brazilians. And Argentina claims another unwanted runner-up position.

Twitter traffic was high during and after this morning's match. Here's just a small selection of reaction:

The Germans can claim the title of World Champions until the 2018 tournament in Russia. The Russian organisers will have a hard job emulating Brazil, but then who would want Brazil's World Cup debt right now?

0 World Cup Tweets of the Day - 9 July 2014

What an amazing morning of football it has been. Here's a small summary of the day's action from Twitter.

First-up, Piers Morgan's reputation as a predictor has been shot; as has ours, to be fair, but we're NOT Piers Morgan!

Unsurprisingly, German fans at the match were delighted, and they had plenty to celebrate:

The same cannot be said of home fans. This montage of photos reflects the widespread doom and gloom being felt by Brazilian fans.
 

Brazil has now booked a place in the match that no side ever wants to play in; the play-off for third and fourth. After having gone unbeaten in competitive matches at home between 1975 and this morning, who would bet against Brazil losing twice in a week? 

0 UPDATED: And then there were four. Make that three...

FINAL SCORE: BRAZIL 1 - GERMANY 7

What an unbelievable score-line in a World Cup semi-final. And there are already reports of Brazilian fans taking this result very hard, and rioting in the streets. And the Telegraph in the UK reports:

Brazil spent $11 billion on a national calamity. The world’s greatest football nation was left numb, humiliated and flummoxed as five German goals flew into their net in the first 29 minutes of a crushing 7-1 defeat.

Neymar was not the only one missing in action. It was true of Brazil’s whole defence, discipline and structure. A majestic display of German passing through the centre of this Belo Horizonte pitch will be obscured by the trauma endured by Brazil. But Joachim Löw’s men will not mind that. Their eyes are on the prize of becoming the first team from Europe to win a World Cup in Latin America.

The indignity of this night will haunt Brazilian football for generations.

The defeat by Uruguay in the 1950 final at the Maracana has always been the most persistent ghost in the home of football arte. Brazil, though, have won five World Cups since then, and have paraded before the world some of the game’s greatest players: Pele, Garrincha, Jairzinho, Rivelino, Zico and Ronaldo. The golden shirt was never meant for journeymen. In international terms, Fred and Hulk are solidly in that category.

“We lost one match to a great team,” Luiz Felipe Scolari, their coach, tried to argue, without success. “Five goals [in 29 minutes] – it was because of their skill, and we respect that.” It went much deeper, to a failure of Brazilian talent, tactics and temperament. 

Elsewhere we have seen this result described as "the night the music died". It is a result that will send shockwaves around the footballing world.

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LIVE UPDATES: Germany scores early, from a corner to lead Brazil 1-nil.

And Germany adds a second, then a third; Brazil will be in a state of mass depression. Surely Brazil can't come back from three down...

... or four-nil. Germany has absolutely stunned the hosts with an incredible opening half hour, breaking Brazilian hearts.

And then there were five. If the German side was a racehorse, it would most certainly be swabbed!

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The FIFA World Cup began around three weeks ago with 32 teams. As we type this, just four remain standing, and that number will reduce to three by mid-morning and two by mid-morning tomorrow.

It is entirely unsurprising that Germany, Brazil, Argentina and the Netherlands are the four teams remaining for the semi-finals. They are football's heavyweights, two from Europe and two from South America.

The first semi-final this morning is between the Germans and the home side; the Herald previews the contest:

Brazil and Germany collide in a heavyweight clash of continental superpowers as the World Cup semi-finals get under way this morning.
The prize for the winner is a place in the final where they will meet either Argentina or the Netherlands, who face off in another South America-Europe semi-final duel on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).
Brazil face Germany missing star striker Neymar and captain Thiago Silva after an appeal to FIFA to rescind his suspension fell on deaf ears on Monday.
Two hundred million Brazilians may not agree with him but German coach Joachim Loew suggests this twin misfortune may help rather than hinder the hosts.
"Setbacks often set free additional forces," Loew said.
"Nobody should believe that our task is made easier by the loss of Neymar, quite the opposite.
"And Thiago Silva's suspension shows the depth of the Selecao's squad.
"(Brazil coach Luiz) Felipe Scolari can now use a player like (Bayern Munich centre-back) Dante, so I can't see there being a loss of quality."
Scolari has urged Brazil to use Neymar's injury blow as motivation to reach the title.
"I think the additional motivation we must have in every match is going up another step and getting closer to our objective of the final," Scolari said.
"The way Neymar spoke to the players made them understand that he had done his share and now we need to do our share.
"Myself, the other players, all the Brazilian people. This match is very important, it could take us to the final.
"We are playing for our country, it is everything we imagined and dreamed of, and also for Neymar."

The loss of Neymar to injury is a blow to the Brazilians, but not a fatal one. They can still beat the Germans, but they would need to do it in regular time, we reckon. We believe that if the match goes to extra time or to a penalty shoot-out the composure of the Germans will trump the emotion of the home side.

FIFA's dream final would be Argentina vs Brazil, although to be fair a final between the Netherlands and Germany would also be a cracking match. We'll stick our neck out and pick Brazil to win by a single goal.

Get in quick with your tip for the match, which kicks off at 8am. We'll see who has bragging rights at the end of the day!

0 World Cup Tweet of the Day - 29 June 2014

Chile and Uruguay were eliminated from the FIFA World Cup this morning. Chile lost to hosts Brazil on penalties, after the match ended at 1-all after extra time. And the Luis Suarez-less Uruguyans were beaten 2-nil by a rampant Colombia.

The Uruguyan result has prompted this tweet:

Not much we can add to that; bring on the next two games, as four teams will become two.

0 World Cup Tweet of the Day - 28 June 2014

There has been no play in Brazil today prior to the commencement of the knockout phase of the tournament. 

But Luis Suarez is still the name on everyone's lips, and we found this more than mildly amusing:

With all the wonderful football that has been played already in Brazil, Suarez's moment of madness stands out as a particular low for the Beautiful Game. Here's hoping that the remainder of the tournament will be remembered for the quality of the football.

0 World Cup Tweet of the Day - 27 June 2014

The 2014 FIFA World Cup has been spectacular so far; for the most part. But there's one blight on the game.

Acting, diving, simulation; call it what you will. Whatever you call it, it's cheating, and it's a blight on the game. So some wag has found the time to produce statistics as to who are the leading simulants at the 2014 World Cup; check this out:

Whilst Brazil has the most instances of faking it, the fakes are "healed" relatively quickly; an average of just 11.6 seconds each. On the other hand, it has taken each French player an average of 43.9 seconds to be restored to health after such dramatic injuries that they have been forced to the ground, writhing in agony.

And kudos to the players from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have had the fewest dives. They may not have progressed to the knockout rounds, but they have played the game on their feet, as intended. We salute them.

0 What a stunning performance

Mexico and Brazil fought out a nil-all draw at the World Cup this morning. But the match was anything but dull, and Mexico can thank its goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa for a performance of a lifetime; here's some of the action:

Ochoa's keeping brought back memories of Mark Paston's efforts against Italy at the 2010 World Cup. The first save on the video was probably the best, and if there is a better save at this year's tournament, it'll be worth seeing.

FIFA's goal-line technology later showed that the header from Neymar had reached but not crossed the goal-line before a sprawling Ochoa got a hand on it and deflected it forward. It was a moment of absolute brilliance from the Mexican.

Let's not forget too that is was Mexico which stood in New Zealand's path to the 2014 World Cup. Wouldn't that have been a dream match for the All Whites; playing Brazil in the World Cup finals in Brazil?

Well played Guillermo Ochoa; what a stunning performance to keep Mexico is contention for the second round.

0 A feast of sport

We've got quite a lot happening over the next few weeks. So SWMBO suggested a couple of weeks ago that she would plan a work trip around a weekend with her family, and when we checked the sporting schedules, we encouraged her heartily!

That's because there's a veritable feast of sport this weekend, and the Sky remote will be ours and ours alone! It's not like we're obsessed or anything, but you know what it's like.

For many, the FIFA World Cup is always a highlight. All the talk and all the speculation is over, and Sepp Blatter will be glad the focus is about to go off his leadership of FIFA and onto the Beautiful Game itself. Blatter has made comments about needing a fifth term as FIFA president to "finish my mission", and if his mission is to make sure that FIFA is seen as corrupt, he's almost there!

But the World Cup itself is about to kick off. The Opening Ceremony is underway, and shortly, Brazil and Croatia will play the opening match. It should be a feast of football over the next month.

Pinehurst No. 2 is a golf course steeped in tradition. It's 15 years since Payne Stewart won his second US Open (and his third major) at Pinehurst. A few short months later, Stewart died in a bizarre plane accident. And how can we forget the last Pinehurst winner, Michael Campbell? 

The US Open is underway, and Pinehurst No. 2 with its signature turtle-back greens is already providing a fantastic test of golf for the world's best players, with only 23 players under par at the moment, and the leaders at only two-under. Steven Alker has made a difficult start, and is three-over after six holes, but he is in good company. You can follow the live scores right here.

If that's not enough, there's the normal weekend diet of NRL, the second test between England and New Zealand, the semi-finals of the IRB U20 tournament with New Zealand out for revenge against a giant South African side and the test match between England and Sri Lanka at Lord's in London.

It's almost too much of a good thing. But with the remote in our palm, and with the magic of MySky, we'll manage to watch a good selection of sport this weekend. What's not to like about that?