World Cup Final !!

Which team will be in the final !!?

my guess is Argentina vs Brazil !!

argentina's so far so good. on the sad side, many ppl will finally hit the ground (from high rise) and hotel rooms will be haunted too. and the guys on top of the food chain get to buy out more islands and posh bungalows in london and tokyo, hey, veyrons, maybachs and jets too!

haih... sad but true. don't mean to break the fun but ppl continue "cashing-in" eventhough its "hollywood showtime!".

i thought katy just said "waking up in vegas"

anyway i love the maradona gangsta look. haha.

Germany is tactical & technical team..

final will be Germany VS Brazil

Bro wataru, i also like to see 'Argentina vs Brazil' in the final, my dream that never come true for so long!
Bro kancan! now i know you r a Germany fan.. hehe
Bro drife! i love to see maradona's gangsta look too, very entertaining!

any team in the final is good for me. as long as its a clean game. if the players keep falling off or pretend to trip over every 5 minutes then i switch off the tv and switch on the hifi.

bro shukor, the buffer ok? got wow factor or not?

hi drife, off coz the buffer so good! use it for my every listening session.. haha. Put it in between pre & power amp as u suggested, so can feel the warm and 'wow factor' sound from whatever source that i use

am glad you liked it. the buffer has been giving new life to my "amps n sources that were being put aside" because they were thin and harsh sounding. Now they can sing. Even with the stock Shuguang 6j1, the warmth level's so close to the Soundstage amp with TungSol, JJ/Tesla, Behringer tubes.

i've always liked the grunt and speed of transistors with a touch of tube warmth on the mids and highs. Well, what to do? I'm not WongKN and can't afford Audio Research yet haha.

anyway, enuf of buffer talk. back to the topic...

Got any good underdog teams? i remember once Cameroon played until the quaterfinals. So fun to watch... the semangat and passion.. underdog powah!

Brazil.... flair, flamboyant and Germany very technical approach to their game. Brazil counter attack is fast and they posses a killer strike when the opposition defence is taking a breather.

But .... Argentina are there too.... with their robust tackles and Messi causing lots of mess with the opposition defence with his close control of the ball.

Brazil and Argentina gets an adrenalin rush as they advance from stage to stage.

These is where it would get interesting..... and which ever team is over confident...it could spell their demise from the CUP....

Drife / Shukor...

Tube Buffer ..... ???? it really oozes the juices for my setup as well.......

Buffer in between a pre and power... there is WOW factor....warm and controlled.....think of the possibility of a DAC / buffer combination for a CD player....mmmhhhhhh.....

cheers

Argentine will rules....
If won da world cup DIEGO MARADONA will be a legend in football history...

Unfortunately he is forever tainted by incidents like the 'hand of god' incident against england. Or his addiction episode. He will never rise up to the ranks of the truly greats like Pele and the Kaiser.

WongKN wrote:Unfortunately he is forever tainted by incidents like the 'hand of god' incident against england. Or his addiction episode. He will never rise up to the ranks of the truly greats like Pele and the Kaiser.

So what about the hand of god ? All's fair in love and war. If the referee missed it, then too bad. Its all part of the game. Just like that England Goal by Frank Lampard that bounced inside the German net but was disallowed.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Player_of_the_Century

Both shared by Pele and Maradona.


Its easy to condemn or pass judgement on the shortcomings of famous people or any human in general, but one must be reminded that even at age 50 Maradona would probably still outdribble everyone here on hifi4sale.net forum (but perhaps not on football.net forum).

Case in point: As a golf fan, which one of Tiger Woods' sticks would be the focus of an avid gamer's attention: On the fairway, or in the bedroom ? More likely its the non-golf fans that would waste time and gossip on Tiger's exploits outside from the greens instead.


So lets celebrate and appreciate their talents as such for the right reasons.


On a lighter note, this could be the reason why Frank's goal was disallowed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRd6wiIbCh8

There is a difference. Hand of God was a blatant attempt to cheat. It cannot be compared to the disallowed goal. However, different people see things differently and some sees it as being fair. I.e. try to cheat, get away, then no prob. Just like how dives are so common nowadays, until many long time football fan are now getting fed-up with all the shannanigans. Some might want to see Maradonna being on par with the two greats but I personall will disagree.

World Cup has affected my relationship with my hifi hobby a bit recently.
Spending lesser time with my system.

Well, to quote one local motorsport/tuning legend of his era: "never fight fair... you might lose!".

WongKN wrote:There is a difference. Hand of God was a blatant attempt to cheat. It cannot be compared to the disallowed goal. However, different people see things differently and some sees it as being fair. I.e. try to cheat, get away, then no prob. Just like how dives are so common nowadays, until many long time football fan are now getting fed-up with all the shannanigans. Some might want to see Maradonna being on par with the two greats but I personall will disagree.

Something not in relation to football but similar in situation.....

I.E. ...Sellers peddling "clone" gear but not informing would be buyers if its original or clone ....

In short... there would be "two sides of the coin" opinion, where one set would be for and the other set against.

How these situation get addressed...process, controls and review.... this is what FIFA is trumpeting but for how long.....until the dust is settled. After that its anyone guess....

cheers

The 'never fight fair' quote is quite true as well. Anyway, I am not judging Maradona, just saying what is the general feeling out there. Legends like Pele and Franz Beckenbauer did not have any such episodes in their career so they will forever be held as 'gods'. I think the best Maradona can hope to get to will be cult status like Platini or Cryuff. It's a bit like in F1 for e.g., people like Fangio and Aryton Senna will forever be held as 'gods', and regardless of how much people like Micheal Schumacher acheives (or will acheive), he can't get himself up to that level. I have seen similar arguements against him, e.g. how he tried to ram Jacque Villenueve off the track, how he tried to sabotage the qualifying in 1 year of the Monaco GP by pretending his car engine died halfway in the middle of the track (and got penalized for that), etc. Life is like that.

Actually its not only relationship with hifi, but for lots of people, relationship with wife and family as well. The ladies have the term 'football widow' as in the husbands spends more time in front of the TV than with her. Wait until after world cup and we get horny and want 'it', THEN they will get their full revenge !!

hey...shhh... some underaged kid might be a member here. anyway i think mod was trying to say:

after WC, when we're ready to get back to our back-loaded-horns the wives would have already unplugged the internal wiring or stick some nasty material in the chambers while we're camping in front of the tv.

then later we start to wonder, how come the sound lari ah? must be too much football. hah aka "The Missers' Revenge"

Wingman, any suggestions for a sweet sounding DAC? or are u on one of those DACs with tubes?

WongKN wrote:The 'never fight fair' quote is quite true as well. Anyway, I am not judging Maradona, just saying what is the general feeling out there. Legends like Pele and Franz Beckenbauer did not have any such episodes in their career so they will forever be held as 'gods'. I think the best Maradona can hope to get to will be cult status like Platini or Cryuff. It's a bit like in F1 for e.g., people like Fangio and Aryton Senna will forever be held as 'gods', and regardless of how much people like Micheal Schumacher acheives (or will acheive), he can't get himself up to that level. I have seen similar arguements against him, e.g. how he tried to ram Jacque Villenueve off the track, how he tried to sabotage the qualifying in 1 year of the Monaco GP by pretending his car engine died halfway in the middle of the track (and got penalized for that), etc. Life is like that.

also not forgetting the similar blantant ramming incident on Damon Hill.

Having said that, I wouldn't say Michael Schumacher is not on par with Aryton senna in terms of racing legendary status. Likewise, I would not berrate Maradona for that hand of god cheat. Didn't he also score the Goal of the Century (also voted The Goal of all World Cups) in the same match? It was well recognised that he single-handedly carried the Argy team to world cup glory in 1986 and did it again to the final in 1990. He did it day in day out at Napoli with no major big name (ok, maybe Careka [sp?], the Brazil striker then) to win Serie A titles. Pele in his world cup winning years, look at the name appearing on the Brazilian team sheets!

They both are legends to me.

bassraptor wrote:

sflam wrote:aiya bassraptor, this is a decent place for decent hi fi followers lah.

u just confirmed that u r a dirty ol man lah.

Wah, such high praise, coming from you ....

WongKN wrote:

Actually its not only relationship with hifi, but for lots of people, relationship with wife and family as well. The ladies have the term 'football widow' as in the husbands spends more time in front of the TV than with her. Wait until after world cup and we get horny and want 'it', THEN they will get their full revenge !!

Hahaha .. looks like we have another dirty ol' man here. Sama sama gang with Bassraptor !

WongKN wrote:
Actually its not only relationship with hifi, but for lots of people, relationship with wife and family as well. The ladies have the term 'football widow' as in the husbands spends more time in front of the TV than with her. Wait until after world cup and we get horny and want 'it', THEN they will get their full revenge !!

hmmm, there is alway the slot between 12 midnight till 2.30am to care for the "loneliness" of the better half

If !!! maradona assist the argentine winning the world cup that will be the great achievement that legends like Pele,kaizer or anyone else cant achieved it is???

Hi drife.....

Haven't got any DAC for the time being .....the Tube Buffer is carrying that task well with my setup..... ????

So enjoying it at the moment..... until the AV Fest.....see whats available.... and with the right pricing.....

Back to the World Cup ....

Hmmmmm... with the two day break before the Q-Final everyones mind is re-focusing back to the better half... and maybe the after effects.....

Swing you got it spot on....... ....

cheers

fizi wrote:If !!! maradona assist the argentine winning the world cup that will be the great achievement that legends like Pele,kaizer or anyone else cant achieved it is???

That would put him alongside Der Kaiser who had won the trophy as a player(1974) and as a coach(1990).

Yeah, I wasn't sure if fizi really knows about the two legends he is talking about. He seems to put Maradona and Argentina on an extremely high pedestral but does he knows who Pele and Franz Beckenbauer are and what they have acheived? Maradona is only TRYING to emulate the Kaiser this year, by being the 2nd person who has led his country both as captain and coach to a world cup title. But he hasn't yet. Argentina has only won the world cup twice. Germany and Brazil more than that. There is a very far journey for Maradona and Argentina to go before they can claim to even match Germany, what more Brazil and the great Pele.

Well, I am not too interested in what Argentina, Germany or Brazil have achieved in their past World cup achievements although I am aware that Brazil have won the most titles followed by Germany and then Argentina. In this 2010 World Cup the match between Argentina and Germany is a repeat of the 2006 World cup whereby Germany knocked Argentina out with penalty kicks.

In this World Cup Brazil remains as the one of the strong favourites to retain the cup, and I foresee three strong teams that will meet Brazil in the final -Argentina, Germany or Spain. Personally I like all the four nations here(I do not care for England or France even before the tournament started). Germany are technically strong but I like to watch the South Americans play. The style of play in the flair and short passes of the Brazilians, Argentinians and the Spanish are a delight to watch. Between the Germany-Argentina match, I would prefer Argentina to win, and if that happens the match between Spain and Argentina will be a cracker.

Having said that Germany seem to have a knack of prevailing on big matches, and Argentina may find it tough to break through the German defence although Messi and Tevez are at the top of their game at the moment.

ryder wrote:although I am aware that Brazil have won the most titles followed by Germany and then Argentina.

Should also include italy.....

ryder wrote:In this 2010 World Cup the match between Argentina and Germany is a repeat of the 2006 World cup whereby Germany knocked Argentina out with penalty kicks.

also the repeat of 1978 final, 1986 final, 1990 final

ryder wrote:In this World Cup Brazil remains as the one of the strong favourites to retain the cup

does it make you wonder, the starting XI in Brazil squad consists of:

Elano & Robinho - outcast from Man City
Giberto Silva - outcast from Arsenal

tat is 3 out of 11 and yet they are deemed no good for EPL as players. You might ask, where is England national team now

ryder wrote:Having said that Germany seem to have a knack of prevailing on big matches, and Argentina may find it tough to break through the German defence although Messi and Tevez are at the top of their game at the moment.

Gary Lineker once said, football is a game where 22 players chase after one ball for 90 minutes, and in the end, the Germans alway win

WongKN wrote:Yeah, I wasn't sure if fizi really knows about the two legends he is talking about. He seems to put Maradona and Argentina on an extremely high pedestral but does he knows who Pele and Franz Beckenbauer are and what they have acheived? Maradona is only TRYING to emulate the Kaiser this year, by being the 2nd person who has led his country both as captain and coach to a world cup title. But he hasn't yet. Argentina has only won the world cup twice. Germany and Brazil more than that. There is a very far journey for Maradona and Argentina to go before they can claim to even match Germany, what more Brazil and the great Pele.

actually there is another person, Mario Zagallo, but he won world cup as both a player and coach, not captain and coach.

Only three nations have won the world cup at least 3 times, Brazil, Germany and Italy from what I remember. Those who won twice includes Argentina. Surprisingly for the mightiness of the EPL, England has never been very successful in the worldcup. When it comes to nitpicking, the statisticians say Germany is the most successful nation in the Worldcup because they have advanced to the final and semi-final the most number of times, though Brazil have won it most. One of the players most wasted because he never appeared in the world cup but was widely admired in the EPL was Ian Rush who is from Ireland. And lots of other trivias, all selective according to the person and how high fever he has lar.

There are a few camps of football fanatic. Some just watches the game but many are also heavy on the history. Just like how all F1 fans knows who Fangio and Senna are and what they have acheived, as well as Jackie Stewart, Nikki Lauda, etc. So too the football fanatics knows names like Pele, Beckenbauer, Platini, Cryuff, Best, Overafth, Mueller (the bomber, not the modern germany player), Rossi, and so forth, yes including Maradona (he is indeed very famous). In hifi, the old-timers remembers fondly the days of open-reel tape, the romantic valve era, then legendary names like LS3/5A, LP12, Apogee Scintilla, and so forth, those things that change the face of hi-fi. Again, if one do not know or not interested, it is not wrong, perhaps just points to a different way or approach to enjoying the hobby.

The same can be said of so many hobbies actually. Say one likes classical music or pop or whatever music, then most will know about legendary composers or legends of pop and rock, etc.

WongKN wrote:One of the players most wasted because he never appeared in the world cup but was widely admired in the EPL was Ian Rush who is from Ireland.

Is Ian Rush an Irish? I thought he played for Wales?

The same can be said about Ryan Giggs.

Yeah!....he is from Wales.....sadly a very talented player who never make it to the World Cup. A Liverpool legend.

Sorry, my mistake. Great britain has so many countries, i always gets it mixed up. Wales is the correct country.

George Best

During break time at the cafe, lots of people will start to talk about World Cup and also their match predictions.
One of my colleagues jokingly said that the team which win matches with the slightest margin and minimum goals will have the highest chance of winning.
He was actually reflecting at previous winner, Italy and European champions, Greece and Spain.
"Yang manyak goal tu tarak chan(ce) tuk menang punya lah"

Most of the times, I find it enjoyable while listening to their creative way of doing predictions.

Bern Schuster is another talented footballer who never had a chance to represent his country (Germany) but due to club committments and others.

Car o scope, actually there is some logic to those observations. My personal observation is that in a championship/tournament, there seems to be a process of 'peaking' or 'hitting form', after hitting the peak, then one seems to degrade. So the logic stems from the observation that those teams who scores big and plays extremely well in the early stages are peaking too early and by the time they get to the quarter or semi final, they would have past their peak and now going down. They often falter at the later stages. In one of the world cups in the 90s, Germany was one such country. They peaked during the semi-final, against Holland. That time Jurgen Klinsmann was so good during the semi-final that he was able to dribble around a dutch defender until the dutch player actually GAVE UP trying to chase him. So they won the semi final match easily and went into the final against Brazil/Argentina (I forgot which, I think it was Brazil more likely). In the final, it was clear they are past peak already, no longer 'in top form' and they were easily out-played by Brazil. None of the skills or flair they showed during the semi-final was evident at all.

WongKN wrote: In one of the world cups in the 90s, Germany was one such country. They peaked during the semi-final, against Holland. That time Jurgen Klinsmann was so good during the semi-final that he was able to dribble around a dutch defender until the dutch player actually GAVE UP trying to chase him. So they won the semi final match easily and went into the final against Brazil/Argentina (I forgot which, I think it was Brazil more likely). In the final, it was clear they are past peak already, no longer 'in top form' and they were easily out-played by Brazil. None of the skills or flair they showed during the semi-final was evident at all.

i wonder was the semifinal match between german and holland you were referring to actually did happen during 90s...let see:

1990 italia - germany met england in semifinal, it was the famous match where Paul Gascoine got his yellow card that even if england got through, he will be suspended in final, and he cried when the yellow card was shown to him. Eventually england lost to germany in penalty roulette and germany went on to beat maradona led argentina by 1-0 in the final.

1994 - the final was between brazil and italy, so no way for germay to play holland in semi final.

1998 - the final was between brazil and france, so no way again for germany to play holland.

in 1986, jurgen wasn't even in germany team when they play argentina in the final which was held in mexico.

in 2002, michael ballack led germany won against south korea, the world cup co-host, in the semi final which ballack got his yellow card in that match and had to sit out the final match which brazil won.

so, which year were you talking about? or were u referring to european championship?

It's definitely World cup, because the final was between germany and either brazil or argentina. I think it was 1990s or it could be the early 2000. I don't remember that much detail. But I am sure about Jurgen Kinsmann and Holland or perhaps Denmark. Let me do some googling of my own.

Yah, the history doesn't seem to tally with what I remember. After watching world cups for over two decades (since 1980s) till now, can't really remember everything clearly. Let me check further. Jurgen Klinsmann did not play for Germany for that many World cups from what I remember. So it has to be one of those years. It could be I remember the opponent wrongly.

I think it's 1994 and 2nd round qualifier instead of semi-final. Germany vs Belgium. After that, Germany's form dropped so much that they lost to Bulgaria in the quarter finals. Hmmmm... 1994, that's already 16 years ago.

I guess some of us here saw the Octopus which predicts German's matches in the newspapers.

I think it will end up on a dinner plate if it got the prediction wrongly.

Shocking result eh ? Brazil - Holland match....

The Argentines just got Slaughtered..

Just bought a German away shirt this afternoon. Really worth wearing it tonite.

4-0 ka ka ka

The results this year are really shocking. I was expecting a Brazil vs Argentina final and with the top 2 South American teams gone we'll most likely see a Netherlands vs Germany final. The Germans are really unstoppable today as Messi and Tevez can't get into the game as they keep losing possession. The beautiful passing and flair of the Argentinians are just missing against Germany today. With this kind of performance by the Germans it will be an uphill task for Spain to get past them in the semi-finals.

haiiyyaaaa...so so so sad lor 2nite...

its clear on the 1st half german team 'browsing' around to identify whos being marked by argentina's player. the best strategy is to score 1 st & watch on players. after confirmation they start to switch strategies on second half & score heaps for victories !!

argentina kena sayur dowhh!!!!!

Brasil lost...Argentina lost but no hi-end equipment for sale cheap cheap? haiya!!!!

The Octopus is safe and will not end up on a dinner plate for now.

The problem with south american teams like Brazil and Argentina is that they just have too many 'superstars'. Every other player is a super-star with 'superb ball control' and expected to tear other teams apart and win the game all by himself. When playing, they are often -individual- 11 players on the field. But football is a team sport and teams like Germany plays as a -team- of 11 players. The self-lessness of the German players have been the key to 3 of the goals against Argentina. If it were an Argentinian player, he would have make the shot because he wanted to be the 'hero', to score the winning goal for his country and to then sign a megabillion contract with a rich football club. But in the case with Germany, players like Podowski and Steinberger selflessly passed the ball to a teammate who is in a better position to score. As a result, in the 2nd and 3rd goal, the scorer more or less stands there and ease the ball in (Federicks and Klose). The fact that the Argentinian players were so arrogant and thought so lowly of the german players that often even Klose himself was left unguarded made the game all the more easy for germany. And as the goals piled up, suddenly everyone in the argentinian team passed the ball to Messi at every opportunity because being -the- superstar in the team, he can afford to lose the ball or to miss his shot. Others will be chastisted if they try to take the shot and not pass to Messi because it would be argued -the- superstar would have scored. But Messi was totally ineffective in the game. In the end, it is just that, ego was what did Brazil and now Argentina in. Before the quarter-finals, they boasted how this year would see an all South American semi-final. Before the Brazil-Holland and especially the Argentina-Germnay game, they were talking about how inconsequential Holland and Germany would be and were already talking about the next game, as if the two oppositions did not exist. Of course now, there's only 1 south american team left in the semi-final.....

WongKN wrote: Of course now, there's only 1 south american team left in the semi-final.....

Maybe this is Uruguay year. Had been exactly 60 years since they last lifted the cup. No European country ever won outside Europe.

@1:9.50 maybe should place a small wager with Singapore Pools for Uruguay!

tycham wrote:
Maybe this is Uruguay year. Had been exactly 60 years since they last lifted the cup. No European country ever won outside Europe.

on that theory, i would rather see holland vs spain in final. Imagine two most well recognised under-achieving teams in world cup will finally be reduced to one