World Cup 2014 General Chit Chat Thread

[Chazza]

Casillas was by far the worst keeper.

His performance against Holland was a shambles.

[RichC]

Casillas was atrocious against the Dutch but also against Chile as well.

[Glenn Hysen]

Facts say Hart.

[Yozza]

Facts say Hart.

Shows how crap English keeper are if this knobhead is our #1

[Reece]

Did he even make a single save across the two games he played? I'm struggling to remember one.

[Shaggy]

He's not very good but he's the best of a bad bunch at the moment.

[ChesterDave]

FIFA confirm that Zuniga will face no action for a deliberate fould that caused a pretty nasty injury. He's lucky he did so much damage or he'd have a lengthy holiday coming up!

[Trippendicular]

FIFA confirm that Zuniga will face no action for a deliberate fould that caused a pretty nasty injury. He's lucky he did so much damage or he'd have a lengthy holiday coming up!

The Zuniga situation is laughable. If it was same challenge, but didn't injure one of the tournament's biggest names no one would have given a ****.

[Boogs]

World Cup 2014: Ray Whelan, British director of Fifa hospitality partner, arrested in

link

A British director of the World Cup’s hospitality provider was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night as part of an investigation into £200 million of illegal ticket sales.
Ray Whelan, who used to work as an agent for Sir Bobby Charlton, was detained as part of Operation Jules Rimet, a police probe into touting at this summer’s tournament.
The executive of Match Hospitality was arrested at the luxurious Copacabana Palace Hotel, the official accommodation for Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, and other senior officials from football’s world governing body.
A spokesman for the Rio de Janeiro State Security Secretariat confirmed that Whelan was in custody and would spend the night in a Rio police station. He was the 12th person arrested in connection with alleged touting, or “*scalping”, which last week saw 131 tickets seized – at least 70 of them for corporate hospitality – after police claimed to have smashed an international gang.
They said the alleged racket could have operated at four World Cups, siphoning off as much as £52 million per tournament. Those arrested could face charges of money laundering, criminal association and illegally selling tickets.
Whelan is not a Fifa employee but has become well known in recent years in connection with the governing body through Match, a division of Byrom plc, which is based at Cheadle in Cheshire.
Match announced earlier that it had blocked sales to four companies following the seizure of tickets by Brazilian police. The four companies are Atlanta Sportif, whose chief executive was one of those arrested in Rio last week, Reliance Industries Ltd, Jet Set Sports and Pamodzi. Jet Set is based in New Jersey, Reliance is one of India’s biggest companies, and Padmodzi is based in Nigeria.
A statement from Match read: “Following... the arrest of Lamine Fofana, CEO of Atlanta Sportif, engaging in illegal resales, Match Hospitality has cancelled all hospitality packages purchased by Atlanta Sportif for the remaining matches of the 2014 Fifa World Cup. Pending further investigations, Match Hospitality will block the packages of Reliance Industries Ltd, Jet Set Sports and Pamodzi. The customers and agents mentioned above are to co-operate with Match Hospitality by helping the authorities with their enquiries regarding the hospitality packages with their names on them found in Mr Fofana’s possession, failing which, Match Hospitality will cancel their tickets for the semi-final and the final too.”
Police said last week that Fofana had connections with Fifa or Match and that the original source of the tickets to be sold illegally at hugely inflated prices was “someone higher up”.
Match is the main provider of hospitality packages for the World Cup and paid $240 million (£140 million) for the exclusive rights to sell corporate hospitality at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.
Blatter’s nephew, Philippe Blatter, is the president of a company which is a shareholder in Match.
Re-selling World Cup tickets for profit is illegal in Brazil and against Fifa rules. Police said they had information from 50,000 phone calls they tapped during their touting investigation. Fifa said yesterday it had provided officers with lists of telephone numbers for its staff and that of its service providers, which included Match.
Of the more than three million tickets for the tournament, 445,500 were allocated to Match, according to Fifa, whose ticketing regulations dictate that any unsold or unused corporate hospitality tickets should be returned, to be made available to the public. Police estimated last week that the touting ring was *making £263,000 per game by re-selling tickets.

[Norbs]

He looks like Roy's fat brother

[Gibbo]

@Joey7Barton: I'd be delighted for them to get pumped and go out. Kicked the life out of James Rodriguez and cry when 'The Pony' got kicked, once!

Barton upto his usual. He does have a wee point though, even if Neymar did break his back.

[dww]

He's not very good but he's the best of a bad bunch at the moment.

At his best he is very good IMO. Didn't have a good season though. Will be interesting to see if he bounces back this season.

[Alex]

Hart is ranked as the worst goalie!

Dont those same facts have Ben Foster as the best?

[Shaggy]

I see the Germany squad went to a club last night to celebrate their win.

Muller and Neuer

[Gingawaria]

Brazilian fans provoke a group of Argentina fans in a shopping centre in Porto Alegre, the reaction is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwFhPqLcW3U&feature=youtu.be