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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?
For today's effort, we couldn't go past this piece of pictorial and sub-editorial genius from the good folk at www.stuff.co.nz:
No further words are needed; the picture and headline say it all!
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?
From 32 teams to the round of sixteen; now just eight teams remain at the FIFA World Cup. The USA was the most recent side to bow out, losing 2-1 to Belgium. Football fever reigned in the US for a few short hours:However another wit has tweeted this morning that just 1437 days remain until the USA becomes a soccer-mad nation again; assuming of course they qualify for the 2018 version!And goalkeeper Tim Howard produced an incredible performance yesterday as he bravely held the Belgians out until extra time. That has produced dozens of internet memes, of which this is but one example.The USA fought bravely yesterday, but not even Barack Obama's support could save them. Roll on the quarter-finals on Saturday morning (NZ time), and especially the clash between European heavyweights France and Germany. And could Colombia provide possibly the biggest upset in World Cup history, and oust the hosts?Bring it on!
There may be another one of these after this morning's second match. But for now, let's look at the way KLM has bid farewell to the Mexicans:
We're not sure whether KLM flies in to Mexico City, but we suspect that if they do, patronage will be down over the next few months!
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.
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.
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.
Here's a shout-out to all the English football fans who might be down in the dumps about England not qualifying for the knockout phase of the 2014 World Cup.
On the other hand, we're feeling good. We drew Switzerland in a local sweep, and their 3-nil win over Honduras this morning takes them through to the round of 16 where they will face Argentina. France won that group, and their prize is a sudden-death match with Nigeria.
Luis Suarez's disgraceful bite apart, this has been a brilliant World Cup so far. And it's only going to get better, going into the second phase of the tournament.
There's been a bit of a merchandising glitch at the FIFA World Cup:
For the record, here's Chris Smalling:
There's a passing resemblance, but that's where it ends. It'll give all the Obama birthers something to get excited about though!
Costa Rica provided the upset of the World Cup to date so far, upsetting 2006 champions Italy 1-nil. That's bad news for England, whose mathematical chance of qualifying (and a complex equation it was too!) was stuffed by the Costa Ricans.
Here's the agony and ecstasy of two nations:
And the French weren't bad either, winning 5-2 over Switzerland. The parade of brilliant football rolls on.
Barring some kind of divine intervention, England's World Cup is all but over. The drought which began after 1966 will continue for at least another four years.There were plenty of possibilities for today's World Cup Tweet of the Day, but in the end this one won out:We have supported the New Zealand cricket team since before England last won the FIFA World Cup. We know exactly what John Bishop means!No further comment is required.
The first major upset of the 2014 World Cup has taken place. After only two matches in the Group phase, defending champions Spain have been eliminated after losing two-nil to Chile. That's prompted this tweet:
Australia will also fail to progress after a three-two loss to the Netherlands. But at least our trans-Tasman neighbours were far more competitive than the Spanish who, like Italy in 2010, have surrendered their World Champion status far too meekly.
We drew Switzerland in a World Cup sweepstake, so to see this is a little bit gut-wrenching:
Switzerland did manage a late winner, but this is a clear blunder by the match officials; supposedly the best in the footballing world. A decision like this could be crucial to a team's progress in the competition. There has been some average officiating so far, especially in the penalty area. That's a shame, because otherwise, the quality of the football has been outstanding, and the 2014 World Cup could be the best ever.
England kicks off its World Cup in about an hour's time. Expectations are low, as the side prepares to take on Italy, eliminated in 2010 by New Zealand at a venue deep in the Amazon rain forest.
Private Eye may be being a little unkind:
TVNZ's Rawdon Christie is the perenially optimistic Englisman however, and looks for divine intervention:
Christie may be forgetting the fact that the iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer was struck by lightning a few weeks ago, requiring hand surgery. Here's hoping for his sake that the patched-up Lord is not an omen!There's a feast of football today, and MySky is already set to record the England vs Italy match whilst we worship in a less exotic location than the England faithful.
Twitter is full of pithy observations about the FIFA World Cup. So in our wisdom, we've decided to create a category just for those that catch our attention in some way.
And here's the first; a novel way for Germans to watch the football going on half a world away:
That's the kind of comfort we would enjoy! And with this tweet having been retweeted almost 600 times, it looks as though those sofas will be in keen demand.Well done Union Berlin.
