World Cup KNOCKOUT STAGE - WHO WINS IT ALL?

[dj shanon "Notshavin" smeya]

And I apologize for my typical "in defense of soccer" in light of JayB and Duke's contributions, great discussion with specific examples of our program.  And Bao great job on picks.

There just still seem to be so many who are like, I get soccer and can appreciate it to a point, but "compared to catching a football running full speed, there's nothing to it. It's the only sport you don't use your hands."

Really?  Try "catching"(which is what you have to do to maintain possession) a ball with your foot kicked just as far(if not further) running full speed after jogging/sprinting non-stop for up to 90+min with one short break....

People just don't appreciate the skill involved.

[bao187]

To me soccer isn't just an every 4 year sport. I love watching the premier leagues and concacaf. I try mls every year but get bored with it. If I had anything to do with mls I would advertise the hell out if it right now before its too late.

[Hogfaniam]

[dj shanon "Notshavin" smeya]

I LOVE Germany, the way they play and the dominance they are starting to show.

But today I'm going with a pesky Argentina, and Messi - his destiny is to lead his nation to the greatest championship in the world.

Argentina, che, La Albiceleste gana 2-1.

[4Lions04]

I just hope one team comes out and acts like they actually want to win the game, instead of trying not to lose or be the player that messes up.  I would put Germany as the most likely to play this way.  They should have tons of confidence.  Man to man, Germany is considerably better, but, in Argentina's case, its always nice to have the best player on your team. I think it ends 2-0 Germany. I think they score midway through the 1st half, and then put it away late when Argentina has to go for it.

That being said, I hope one team wins 3-2 game with Messi showing how great he is and ze Germans showing how great they are.

[JayBell]

Let's consider something with respect to Messi and this World Cup.

We have read so much about how a victory in this WC would 'establish' Messi on some sort of all time scale of the greats. There's just one problem.....Messi hasn't been that good in this World Cup.

A player worthy of the 'all time' greats label usually gets better as the tournament progresses.  If he is a goal scorer, he should be scoring throughout the tournament.  As a midfielder, the standard for 'greatness' is not centered exclusively in goal scoring so consideration of assists is certainly important here too.   

None of these statements are true of Messi in World Cup 2014. 

Don't misunderstand, this is not to knock Messi because I'd sure want him on my team but I'm not sure his performances in the three World Cups he has played in is sufficient to elevate him to such a lofty all-time status as the major media mouths have suggested.

Now then, lets see what he does today and possibly revisit this.

Messi was pretty damn good in the first four games.  He and Mascherano pretty much dragged that team through to the quarterfinals.  Then they faced some really listless efforts from Belgium and the Netherlands.  The defenses were focused on not letting Messi beat tem.

But I do agree that Messi was never transcendent, which is what you have to be to be up there with Pele and Maradona.  I think Messi will deservedly end up alongside the other greats like Cruff, Beckenbauer, Best, Di Stefano and others who just weren't on the "greatest of all time" level with Pele and Maradona.