2014 World Cup

[Liep]

Not a good world cup for African nations either...there time has passed.

Once again they had the talent, once again they failed to be even remotely organized as a team.

I am a bit worried about Ivory Coast.  They got 3 points from Japan.

Don't worry. Their first half against Japan was shit, they'll crumble and start headbutting each other like Cameroon did when they face real opposition.

[Zanza]

Most popular shirt by state excluding Mexican and US shirts.

[Norgy]

Italy in New York? What a surprise.

[Sheilbh]

That map would be very different if Ireland had qualified

[The Larch]

Italy in New York? What a surprise.

But New Jersey went with Portugal... 

[The Larch]

Any ideas on who is going to replace del Bosque?

It's a total blank, nobody expected this kind of meltdown. I believe he still has 2 more years in his contract, but I can't see him continuing after our ludicrous display.

I know the team is getting older, but is it really called for to blow the whole thing up? Spain did well in qualifying and was considered a favorite. The team only really has 90 minutes of poor play against 2 strong sides (the 2nd half against Netherlands, the 1st half against Chile).

Yes.

Spain looked tired, slow, bereft of ideas, unmotivated. While the rest of the world has gradually caught up, Spain sat on its supposed dominance of the international game and did little to evolve to the new challenges surfacing. Del Bosque shoulders a lot of the blame for a debacle of this magnitude.

This. I really respect Del Bosque, he has managed to achieve what nobody else achieved at the helm of the national team, but he has always had the spirit of a caretaker manager, never wanting to rock the boat and favouring stability over everything else. Luís Aragonés was the architect of this Spanish national team and its string of successes, Del Bosque wisely continued his work and nurtured the seeds he planted, but when that model started showing lots of flaws in the last couple of years he hasn't been able to correct them or has been unwilling to make the difficult decissions that had to be made. Other national teams have learned to play against tiki taka, but he hasn't been able to develop alternatives to that. Casillas has played very little the last couple of seasons, was it right to keep him as our starting keeper? I guess that if Valdés' hadn't been injured he should have been our starting keeper, but that's a fantasy. When the matches go wrong, is Torres really our best alternative from the bench? Lots of players arrived to the WC in dubious fitness due to injuries and age (Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Costa, Alba, etc.), yet they were called upon and made starters anyway. And so on and so forth.

Every virtuous cycle has an end and this has been ours. Now it's time to make the most of it, give experience to the younger players (I guess that against Australia the old guard will be given rest and less used players will be fielded, but even most of those are "old faces") and plan for the future.

[Sheilbh]

Italy in New York? What a surprise.

But New Jersey went with Portugal... 

I believe in Jersey Ronaldo is considered a 'style icon'.

[DGuller]

Italy in New York? What a surprise.

But New Jersey went with Portugal... 

I believe in Jersey Ronaldo is considered a 'style icon'.

[PDH]

I doubt that map.  Come hunting season the Dutch jersey is the most popular here.

[Duque de Bragança]

Italy in New York? What a surprise.

But New Jersey went with Portugal... 

There's a significant Portuguese community in Newark.

[Admiral Yi]

Lots of Portagee in Weehauken too, but still surprising its more popular than Italy.

[derspiess]

Most popular shirt by state excluding Mexican and US shirts.

We do have a lot of soccer nerds in Ohio that favor Germany.

[Ed Anger]

The Polacks in Indiana would have bought the polack jersey, but they were too busy getting their heads stuck in pickle jars.

[Grey Fox]

I wonder what Quebec is, probably Italy.

[Admiral Yi]

The Polacks in Indiana would have bought the polack jersey, but they were too busy getting their heads stuck in pickle jars.

  Never heard this one before.