JadedWolf

Ahh, I don't think so. Religion can sway individuals to extreme acts and it can inculcate the young and impressionable. To say it's simply a tool of politicians is a gross simplification. And to cite ye old peaceful times when christians and muslims lived together is lunacy. There will be no peace between Christians and Muslims, ever. It's in the books. I agree in the sense that the core root of the problem between the Israelis and Palestinians is a religious difference and the fact people on both sides feel they have a religious given right to certain areas that are historically significant. But they only believe they are significance because of religious doctrine That's true up to a point, but it's also true that religion and ethnicity are so intertwined here that it's difficult to make any distinction. Is it really a struggle between two religions, or between two ethnic groups (jews and arabs)? On the other hand, among the Arabs are Christians and those do seem to react differently to the pressures they are under than the Muslim Arabs. Over the years, many of the Christian Arabs have emigrated elsewhere, while those that remain have not generally opted to use violence. For example: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27883685 "A Palestinian Christian family that preaches non-violence from a farm in the West Bank is battling to hold on to land it has owned for 98 years. Now surrounded by Israeli settlements, the family is a living example of the idea of peaceful resistance." I applaud their use of peaceful resistance, and I would hope to think that it may be a far more effective path than the senseless spiral of revenge and counter-revenge the Muslim Arabs engage in with the Israeli's. But then again I may be wrong, and people may prefer to give attention to bombs and rockets instead.

For most Dutchies this is definitely the most memorable Bergkamp goal: It really is a crime that the 1998 team didn't manage to get further than they did. They were certainly one of the best Dutch teams ever.

Bringing in Krul wouldn't have made Sneijder and Vlaar not miss, so can't blame Cillessen. In any case, I'm proud of the boys. They gave their all, did much better than anyone expected, and only lost on penalties. Now let's see if the Germans can beat the Argies with the same superiority they showed against Brazil. As for the match for the 3th place. Meh. Who cares?

That comic sans is such a douchebag.

I had a discussion with my brother yesterday. I put forth the proposition that the Palestinians would have gotten a lot more done for themselves if they had used peaceful tactics to draw attention to their plight. He retorted to that by saying that if they had done that the international community would just generally ignore them. What do you guys think?

Apparently hundreds of Brazilians were waiting for the German players when they arrived at the hotel. To applaud and sing for them, in recognition of their awesome display. Very sporting from the Brazilians, my hat off to them.

Aaaaand 7-0. I was thinking, there'll have been plenty of Brazilians who bought tickets to the finals. If Argentina wins tomorrow they will have to watch this Germany play Argentina, and they will go crazy trying to decide whom of the two to support.

You reckon Low told his boys at half time to take it easy on the Brazilians as they still have to get back to their hotel alive?

Pathetic display by Brazil. Unbelievable how bad their defence is.

I am convinced that it was deliberate. Unless Neymar was wearing some sort of invisibility cloak, Zuniga knew exactly what was going to happen when he went up with his knee. Of course Zuninga didn't mean to break his vertebrae - though God only knows what he was thinking. Maybe it was frustration at Colombia not being able to play their game or whatnot. But his action was stupid and reckless. The ref was also to blame, of course. It was actually Brazil that started to get too physical, and the ref allowed it. Then the Columbian players started to get in on it too, figuring that if the ref was going to allow all that they might as well go along with it. As for this only being a thing because this happens to be Neymar - well, I am not a huge fan of the current Brazil team and Neymar out of the lot seems to be one of the few, if not the only, player in the whole team that's worth watching, so it really is a big loss to the tournament. But if it had been any other player that was sent out of the tournament with such a serious injury caused by thuggish behaviour like this I would still feel the same way.

Reminds of the demented Liverpool fans out to defend Suarez after the incident, saying it should get less penalty than a red for violent conduct, etc. A tackle gone wrong is a lot different from one intended to injure (see Witsel's famous one for an example) or just plain biting/spitting/punching someone. Please quote where I am defending Suarez. Also, this wasn't a tackle. There was no attempt at hitting a ball. He came from behind Neymar and put his knee in his back. He should be punished for it. End of story.

Well, speaking for myself, I would really rather be bitten than to have someone break one of my vertebrae, especially since if it had been one a bit higher up Neymar would have been paralyzed for life. But that's just me.

What they should do is ban the chap who did a job on Neymar for a couple of months. While not wanting to say that Suarez' punishment was undeserved. what Zuniga did sure was a lot worse.

It does not matter one way or the other, we failed to use the very good chances we got, we can't blame Costa Rica for that.

Eh, why?

Wow, I guess I've been proved wrong on both counts.

Don't understand the decision to change the keeper, just.... what the hell. Please don't let van Persie take a penalty, this really has not been his match.

If Costa Rica manages to keep a clean goal for another 15 minutes it's as good as over for us. We suck at penalty shoot outs.

Eh, if the Costa Rica coach complains about the ref at the end of this match he'll have plenty of cause.

I think the Argentinians will be feeling veeeeeery confident watching this travesty of a match. I feel sorry for Robben, he's been great but he can't do everything alone. Van Persie is just begging for a substitution.

Someone please inform van Persie about the rules regarding off-side. You can say what you want about Costa Rica' s defending but we have had our chances, and we butchered all of them so far.

Yeah, it's an awful match.

The first few moments of excitement in what has otherwise been a complete snorefest so far.

Poor Belgium, they played with too much respect for Argentina and never reached their potential in this match.

It seems the Germans got tired of trying to play attractive attacking football and went back to their roots.