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You are here: Home / Sports / Third Place Game Open Thread – Brazil v The Netherlands

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    Brazil looks dog faced and hurt. Seems like the have nothing to win and everything to lose.

  3. 3.

    MikeJ

    That one mascot girl was trying to be heard singing above everybody else in the stadium.

  4. 4.

    mali muso

    I hope that Brazil can at least play decently and recover a little face. That said, I think the Netherlands is the stronger team.

  11. 11.

    MattR

    @Mike J: Definitely. I could have seen him giving the foul just outside the box, but it should have been a red card.

    Gonna be tough splitting my time between Netherlands-Brazil on the TV and Japan-Iroquois on the computer.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    Nothing left for the Selecao and the Oranje to fight for now but their good name. If Big Phil can’t wake his team up for this one, he really should go, and the Brazilian FA should ask if Mike Bassett is available.
    ETA: Nope, conceding so early was not what Brazil needed.

  14. 14.

    Brian R.

    How the hell is Thiago Silva a captain?

    He’s a moron who constantly puts his team’s well being in danger with stupid moves — he missed their last match because he drew a second yellow card jumping in front of the goalie on a kick, a move that could have had no good outcome for him, and now he almost got a red card and another ejection trying to stop a goal.

    Moron.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    Who will win the game that at the beginning of the competition none of the teams wanted to play?

    I dunno, a team which nobody expected to get any further than the group play or maybe the knockout round (USA for one, but that describes a dozen or so teams) would probably be absolutely thrilled to have made it as far as the third-place game.

  23. 23.

    Violet

    Wow, this is looking bad for Brazil. Did they get this team from the local school down the street?

  24. 24.

    Alex S.

    I see, the Brazilian defense is still ridiculous. Apparently, it was offside though. The referees are just as ridiculous. The tournament comes full circle.

  25. 25.

    Runt

    That should have been offside. Two goals, two errors by the referees. Not that Brazil hasn’t messed things up unforgivably in defense, but that is spectacularly bad luck.

  26. 26.

    Amir Khalid

    Brazil are clearly still messed up in the head from that semifinal hammering. It looks like they’ve forgotten how to play football.

  28. 28.

    LT

    I had no idea the World Cup was structured for 2nd & 3rd place, uh, winners(?).

    I would definitely watch a game in which the the losers of the NFC & AFC championship games square off before the Super Bowl. It could be called The Loser Bowl, or the Not Quite Good Enough Game.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    Guardian have been speculating that Paris Saint-German might want their 62mil euros back from Chelsea that they paid for him. I could defend better that that.

  33. 33.

    MattR

    @LT: Made sense when they gave out bronze medals. Not sure if they still do that or if 3rd place is now purely ceremonial.

  34. 34.

    SRW1

    Not sure it’s a wise strategy for the Dutch defense to assume that Brazil will continue missing these chances from crosses.

  35. 35.

    Steeplejack

    Wow. Just turned on the game after doing some other stuff, and I was thinking, “This will be a good gut-check/redemption/mental-toughness opportunity for Brazil,” and the first thing I see is that they’re already down 2-0. Oof.

  37. 37.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @LT:

    They called it The Playoff Bowl. It seems as if only raven and I [eta: and maybe efgoldman] are the only people here who know anything about it.

  39. 39.

    scav

    @Steeplejack: Well, wouldn’t that still technically be true although they may not get the cookie of winning because of it? A near-repeat? — I personally shudder, but am entirely clueless as to how it would play locally: a distinction without a difference?

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    Brazil aren’t quite as bad today as they were against Germany (which would have taken some doing) but they don’t look quite like winning this match either.

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack

    @⚽️ Martin:

    Yeah, just saw that on the replay. Robben oversold his reaction, but it should have been a red card.

    And that second goal was pure inattention and negligence on Brazil’s part.

    If Brazil doesn’t make a good showing in this game, the German rout will seem not so fluky and Brazil will truly have the stank of failure on them.

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    The good news for Brazil, if you care to call it that, is that at halftime they’re down three fewer goals than against Germany. But they still look less likely to score than their opponents.

  44. 44.

    MattR

    @Amir Khalid: Yeah. At least they walk back on the field to start the second half knowing there is a chance they can still win the game. Maybe not a great chance and it might take a fluke goal to help them along the way, but not completely unreasonable.

  45. 45.

    Schlemizel

    @LT:
    It could not be less entertaining than most Stuperbowls.

    Has Brazil just fallen apart or how did they get this fat to begin with?

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    @scav:

    I think a once-in-a-lifetime disaster can be partially excused in many people’s minds by the sheer immensity and rarity of it. “Yes, mistakes were made, but, my God . . .” Example: the Titanic sinking. But, if you’re the White Star Line, you need to make damn sure that your next ship doesn’t go out and immediately run over another iceberg. That looks like a trend.

    Right now Brazil is not inspiring me to book passage on the RMS Behemoth anytime soon.

  48. 48.

    Steeplejack

    Robben is getting pawed a lot, but he is making every touch look like Willem Dafoe’s death scene in Platoon.

  49. 49.

    scav

    @Steeplejack: Same page I think. Too many ice cubes in this particular second round so far. But my emotions aren’t involved. Maybe it’s easier for some if the cheating boyfriend turns out to be a bank-robber, baby-duck-stomper and delinquent in filing taxes in 14 states.

  52. 52.

    dmsilev

    @Steeplejack: One of Titanic’s sister ships (the Britannic) did sink. World War I U-boat, not iceberg, so I suppose that’s OK in some sense. The third one (RMS Olympic) did manage to survive for a couple of decades and was eventually sold for scrap.

    Edit: Wikipedia: “Although the two younger vessels did not have successful careers, they are among the most famous ocean liners ever built.”. Uh, yeah, and Ford’s Theater in Washington is one of the most well-known theaters in the country…

  53. 53.

    Randinho

    Let’s see, a penalty given for a foul outside the box, a goal given when the player g iving the assist is clearly offside and a clear penalty denied and the attacking player given a yellow card for simulation. The only break Brazil has gotten is Thiago Silva still being in the game.

  54. 54.

    scav

    @dmsilev: I’m trying to figure out how they managed to not have successful careers as ships, given they transported passengers without overmany getting internally overwet and eventually were either sold for scrap or sank. That sort of is the standard career-path. Ordinary and non-catastrophic just doesn’t get the respect it used to.

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack

    ESPN announcer just said that Sepp Blatter will be dealing out bronze medals after the match, so apparently there is some hardware on the line.

  56. 56.

    Amir Khalid

    Unless Big Phil or one of his substitutions makes something happen, and soon, this will be a fairly comfortable 2-0 win for the Netherlands. Brazil have not let in any more goals, but they haven’t managed to bother the Dutch keeper much either.

  58. 58.

    Alex S.

    @Randinho:

    They should still have managed to score at least once though. The only purpose of this game was to show that they still have the heart. Brazil should not rely on lucky breaks.

  61. 61.

    Cacti

    In terms of overall talent, this is the worst Brazilian Selecao I’ve ever watched. Pity for the Brasileiros that it worked out that way when they got to host the tournament for the first time in 64 years.

    Fred and Hulk should never wear the yellow jersey again. Scolari should never walk their sidelines again.

  62. 62.

    Cacti

    @Schlemizel:

    Has Brazil just fallen apart or how did they get this fat to begin with?

    If the tournament were anywhere other than Brazil, no chance does this year’s Selecao make the semifinals.

  63. 63.

    Violet

    @Randinho:

    Let’s see, a penalty given for a foul outside the box,

    From the Guardian liveblog:

    Before you think about that, read this by Arnaud Réveillon. “Regarding whether there is penalty or not, here is the rule: ‘If a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area and continues holding him inside the penalty area, the referee must award a penalty kick.'” So it should have been a penalty – as it looked to me like he was still holding in the box – and it should have been a red card. Sorted, yeah?

  64. 64.

    Amir Khalid

    @SRW1:
    Can’t speak for Randinho, of course, but Barca should go down to Petsmart, or its Catalan counterpart, and buy Suarez a muzzle to wear in all his matches.

  66. 66.

    Runt

    I can already picture the next manager of the Brazilian team in front of a blackboard: “This is something we call defense. D-E-F-E-N-S-E. In football, this has proven very useful. Most teams have one, these days.”

    And then he’ll give David Luiz a smack on the head for texting in class.

  68. 68.

    Cacti

    @Runt:

    I can already picture the next manager of the Brazilian team in front of a blackboard: “This is something we call defense. D-E-F-E-N-S-E. In football, this has proven very useful. Most teams have one, these days.”

    It wasn’t just the defense.

    Outside of Neymar, nobody on the offense has been worth a damn either.

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    Okay. That’s it. Big Phil is out of the Brazil manager’s job. And whoever comes in must start over with an entirely new squad. This lot can’t defend for nuts, can’t midfield worth spit, and the forwards stink.

  70. 70.

    SRW1

    @Amir Khalid:

    Might be better to invest that money into a good psychologist. I just can’t believe anybody would do this biting stuff deliberately in front of thousands of spectators and the knowledge of it being documented in excruciating slow motion by plenty of cameras. There must have been some serious issue(s) in Suarez’s youth.

  71. 71.

    Cacti

    Single name designations that will never be used by future Brazilian footballers:

    1. Fred

    2. Hulk

  72. 72.

    dmsilev

    @Amir Khalid: A colleague suggested that Suarez be allowed to play so long as he wore a Hannibal Lecter mask while on the field. Either that, or one of those plastic cones used to keep pets from biting themselves.

  73. 73.

    Alex S.

    Well, Neymar can lead the next generation that now has to step up. And surely there are better strikers than Jo and Fred, maybe in their Serie A, not in the European top clubs. Then they need a coach with a tactical concept. There was just no defensive discipline. This is all going to take some time, 2-4 years. I just hope that Brazil is not going to descend to the level of, say, Portugal, with Neymar as Ronaldo and a very average team, or Uruguay after 1950.

  75. 75.

    Amir Khalid

    @SRW1:
    Liverpool FC have a good consultant psychiatrist working with the team, Dr Steve Peters. So that’s been tried with Suarez, and it hasn’t worked. I’d get the muzzle.

  76. 76.

    Randinho

    The one thing Brazil, the nation can take away from this WC is that all the potential horror stories about this World Cup being an organizational disaster have not come to pass. On the field it wasn’t a success for the hosts, but at least the event itself turned out well.

  80. 80.

    Cacti

    @Randinho:

    The one thing Brazil, the nation can take away from this WC is that all the potential horror stories about this World Cup being an organizational disaster have not come to pass. On the field it wasn’t a success for the hosts, but at leadt the event itself turned out well.

    The Brazilian poor got screwed in the process of getting the place tournament-ready. Then for their bread and circus, they got to see the national team do a face plant on the world stage.

    If I were Dilma, I wouldn’t show my face in public for a long time.

  81. 81.

    Randinho

    @SRW1: Rumor has it that they have a no-bite clause in his contract. If he plays like he played for Liverpool last year, great. One waits with bated breath . . .

  82. 82.

    Violet

    @Randinho: Outside of Brazil playing terribly, it’s really been an entertaining World Cup. And the stadiums and logistics and all that seem to have worked out pretty well.

  83. 83.

    Onkel Fritze

    @Amir Khalid: But an actual, targeted therapy is something else entirely. Supposedly Suarez was offered one after his second incident, but he refused. He really needs to do that, or he is going to bite again.

  86. 86.

    Cacti

    @Randinho:

    I’m at least glad it was a success and hope that Dilma takes a political beating at the polls.

    The Brazilian people acquitted themselves well.

    Should bode well for the Olympics in two years.

  87. 87.

    Bill Murray

    @Amir Khalid: the bad thing for Brazil is that Big Phil had to rebuild after the crap that was Brazil at the 2011 Copa America and he mostly did that

  88. 88.

    Origuy

    Anyone know where I can get an Uruguay football jersey and a Hannibal Lector mask in time for Halloween?

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