Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kazan on May 03, 2006, 09:06:23 am
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our national team roster was annouced yesterday
we're going to do some owning - ranked #4 by FIFA
(http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2005/12/13/GR2005121300932.gif)
PS: see you in the semifinals limeys
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If Brazil gets it's act together I don't know who can beat them... then again, this can be said every world cup.
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The US would do well to get out of their group (Italy, Czech, Ghana) IMO. I can't see past Brazil either, myself, although I think Argentina will go further than perhaps is expected of them - especially if Messi is fit and playing. Spain, surely, must be due for a good run; although they're perhaps are a wee bit light up-front (not impressed with them at Euro 2004), they have a great midfield (especially if Xavi is back to full fitness) and good width (Torres with Reyes on the left and Joaquin on the right?), plus one of the best defenders in the world in Carles Puyol.
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Italy and Ghana should be no problem, Czech republic we need to atleast tie. We need to get first in our group to avoid facing brazil in the group of 16 (which, barring miraculous play, would be disasterous - though i'm not going to assume any result to a theoretical USA vs Brazil match)
To get first in our group we need to at worst
Tie Czech, win vs Italy, win vs Ghana
I think we have a good chance to sweep our group.
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Italy and Ghana should be no problem, Czech republic we need to atleast tie. We need to get first in our group to avoid facing brazil in the group of 16 (which, barring miraculous play, would be disasterous - though i'm not going to assume any result to a theoretical USA vs Brazil match)
To get first in our group we need to at worst
Tie Czech, win vs Italy, win vs Ghana
I think we have a good chance to sweep our group.
Really? I can't see it myself, to be honest; man for man I think the other 3 teams are better (Ghana, admittedly, is rather tougher to call, but the likes of Essien are an edge) and - crucially - have more top-level experience for their clubs and countries due to a much harder qualifying group. I'd fancy the Czechs to top the group. Italy have the best squad, but are too inconsistent of late; even so I'd expect them to scrape second.
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[singing]"
Latenight HLP football smalltalk moment!"[/singing]
:lol:
Sorry, me goes away now...
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Aldo :wtf: do you even pay attention to soccer
http://www.soccerphile.com/soccerphile/news/fifa.html
USA #4
Czech Republic #2
Ghana #50
Italy #14
11 players on the USMNT roster are MLS players, the other 12 are from a mix of european leagues - mostly england.
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It's football.
The USA play against easy teams week in week out, the only time they play any good teams is every 4 years at the World Cup, that's why they're ranked 4th. I can't see them beating the Czechs and it depends on how Italy are playing, whether they'll beat you or not.
England should get through the group stages, but I can't see us getting any further than the quarter-finals without Rooney.
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this dismissive attitude really pisses me off
who's going to be the next mexico hmm?
i hope as farking hell it's you limeys - teach you a lesson for your stuck up attitude.
you're going to keep telling yourselves "oh the USA can't play!" right up till the moment we spank you - we barely lost to germany 1-0 last world cup, and they can thank Kahn for that. Guess what? Kahn is getting old, and he's not starting anymore. "played easy teams" pfft. Some other US soccer fans refer to people like you are "Eurosnobs"
there is skill to be had in soccer on this side the ocean to!
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Aldo :wtf: do you even pay attention to soccer
http://www.soccerphile.com/soccerphile/news/fifa.html
USA #4
Czech Republic #2
Ghana #50
Italy #14
11 players on the USMNT roster are MLS players, the other 12 are from a mix of european leagues - mostly england.
Firstly, the FIFA rankings mean **** all, because they're determined as much by the oppositions' weakness as the strength of the teams' playing. Brazil are top, that's about all (the Czechs weren't even in the last WC but are 2nd). Are Mexico better than England or France? I doubt it. Are Trinidad and Tobago better than Ghana? Nae chance. Etc. You get the likes of the US, Mexico, etc high up because they play a lot of weak teams compared to the Europeans in particular.
I've never actually heard anyone claim the FIFA rankings are reliable for this, to be honest. Offhand, I think France were still ranked at or near the top after their dismal 2002 showing.
Now, looking at the Us teams' european players;
DaMarcus Beasley M PSV Eindhoven
Carlos Bocanegra D Fulham
Steve Cherundolo D Hannover 96
Bobby Convey M Reading
Cory Gibbs D ADO Den Haag
Marcus Hahnemann GK Reading
Tim Howard GK Manchester United
Kasey Keller GK Borussia Mönchengladbach
Eddie Lewis D Leeds United
Brian McBride F Fulham
Oguchi Onyewu D Standard Liège
Claudio Reyna M Manchester City
Beasley is the only one playing for a top-level team that's involved in european football (howard has been on the bench all season behind Van Der Sarr). I'm not sure if Reyna is first choice at Man City now, actually (Sibierski might be nudging ahead), but in any case both MC and Fulham haven't had a sniff of european football for ages. Both Reading and Leeds play in the 1st division (although both could be promoted this season). ADO are a mid table Dutch side, IIRC, and Hannover likewise in Germany. Mönchengladbach i'm not sure about, except that they had a bit of a 'mare when Advocaat was managing them and finished 15th in 04/05. Liege are the one team that probably can qualify regularly for europe, but Belgium is rather a poor league.
That's not to say it's a bad side, but in terms of where players are playing, I reckon the other teams have a stronger base with the possible exception of Ghana, who have some very good players like Essien or Appiah but perhaps a weaker 2nd string.
Anyways, stop taking the huff. You'll see in a month or so, but there's been little evidence on this side of the ocean that the US are anywhere near being one of the top teams in the world. Maybe about the level of Denmark or Sweden - a solid, skillful side but without the spark of genius characterising a great side. Maybe they'll be astonishingly good, and i'll eat my words. Let's wait and see.
Worth noting that the last World Cup was utterly, utterly bizarre though in terms of results (stand up S.Korea!), with a lot of the best teams going out early when, man for man, they should have went far further. I mean, just look at Germany in Euro 2002, out in the group stages and struggling to beat Latvia.
EDIT: next Mexico? Mexico have never done well in world cups on the 'wrong' continent; no S.American team, other than Brazil, has either. The only time Mexico went beyond the 2nd round was when they hosted it (plus Mexico have been playing in the Copa America, so they have more top-level experience against the worlds best teams).
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this dismissive attitude really pisses me off
who's going to be the next mexico hmm?
i hope as farking hell it's you limeys - teach you a lesson for your stuck up attitude.
you're going to keep telling yourselves "oh the USA can't play!" right up till the moment we spank you - we barely lost to germany 1-0 last world cup, and they can thank Kahn for that. Guess what? Kahn is getting old, and he's not starting anymore. "played easy teams" pfft. Some other US soccer fans refer to people like you are "Eurosnobs"
there is skill to be had in soccer on this side the ocean to!
Oh no Eurosnobs! However will I cope?
Germany aren't all that good you know, they were beaten by England 5-1 at home about a year before that World Cup.
If you can tell me any good teams (note plural) which play against the USA other than at World Cups then I'm happy to concede.
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We're in a group with Argentina and the Netherlands, ranked #3 and #4 in FIFA. It would take nothing less than an act of God to get Serbia past the first round. Sure, we did OK in qualifiers, but sadly I think this is out of our league. Not to mention that those bastard Dutch are the reason we didn't advance in World Cup 98 and didn't qualify in 2002. Honestly, it's either a very strange set of coincidences, or they're on some sort of vendetta.
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I don't want to sound like a bashing kind of person Kazan, but they are sort of right... http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/team/overview.html?team=usa
Look at the friendlies... that 4-1 isn't exactly something to brag about. And that was about a month ago. Germany was #19 together with Greece in the Fifa rankings at the time.
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why is it people presume that we're putting our best team in the field on a friendly? :wtf:
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So you assume USA would have beaten Germany if you had what players on the field?
EDIT:
BTW, what do you people think Angola's chances are?
Most people here are seeing them as a dark horse.
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Most of the African teams that attend this time are sort of a blank paper, since Nigeria and Cameroon are missing.
The German team is in pretty bad shape at the moment, not that that ever stopped them from getting really far in the tournament.
@Kazan: As Aldo so kindly put it, the FIFA rankings are worth ****. I'd be really impressed if the US beats the Czechs and Italy, but good luck anyway.
I would put my money on either Brasil (the usual suspect) or Argentina. My half-argentinian friend swears on the combination of Messi and Riquelme. What I've seen of Riquelme in the Champions League was promising (ok, the last penalty not so)
But of course my heart beats for Switzerland, and our team is in pretty good shape, definitely better than at WorldCup'94.
We'll be facing France, Togo and South-Korea in the first round, which gives us a realistic chance I hope.
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why is it people presume that we're putting our best team in the field on a friendly? :wtf:
Well, FIFA rankings are also determined by friendly results.....
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So you assume USA would have beaten Germany if you had what players on the field?
EDIT:
BTW, what do you people think Angola's chances are?
Most people here are seeing them as a dark horse.
if Kahn wasn't on the field - he saved their butts
why is it people presume that we're putting our best team in the field on a friendly? :wtf:
Well, FIFA rankings are also determined by friendly results.....
you do have a point there
i still expect to beat ghana and italy without problem - czech republic will be a challenge.
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i still expect to beat ghana and italy without problem - czech republic will be a challenge.
Me, I doubt that (certainly 'without problem' - you have seen the Italy squad, right?). However, we shall see come June, so let us wait till then. After all, this a bit early to have a WC thread before most domestic leagues have completed.
EDIT; for those who count such things - match odds http://www.oddschecker.com/betting/mode/c/card/worldcup2006-worldcup/scard/17323/btype/M
(United States (3/1) Draw (11/5) Czech Republic (15/13)
Italy (5/8) Draw (45/17) United States (9/2)
Ghana (29/12) Draw (9/4) United States (6/5))
Of course, we all know how unpredictable the World Cup is (Come on Trinidad & Tobago! :D)
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our domestic league runs april->november so if i waited until after ours was over the world cup would be long over
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our domestic league runs april->november so if i waited until after ours was over the world cup would be long over
Yeah, but you're just weird. Proper countries run till June.
Except the cold ones.
...
:nervous:
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gets too cold here in the winter, and we have armored wankball to compete with in that season
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BTW, what do you people think Angola's chances are?
Most people here are seeing them as a dark horse.
Well the Angolans I've talked to are basically saying that they don't care if they go home after the first round. Getting to the World Cup is achievement enough for them. They didn't do that well in the Africa Cup a few months ago so I'm not particularly getting my hopes up for them
Gotta love the irony of them playing Portugal though :)
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BTW, what do you people think Angola's chances are?
Most people here are seeing them as a dark horse.
Well the Angolans I've talked to are basically saying that they don't care if they go home after the first round. Getting to the World Cup is achievement enough for them. They didn't do that well in the Africa Cup a few months ago so I'm not particularly getting my hopes up for them
Gotta love the irony of them playing Portugal though :)
Especially given that IIRC both have poached players from the other (I think Pedro Emanuel is now playing for Angola, but not any Angolans for Portugal at the mo- also I think Angola asked Mourinho to be an ambassador-type during the world cup). Togo had a bloody awful African Nations, too. Ghana are probably due a decent World Cup run; they've had a pretty good history at U-21 level, yet never translated it to full international success. Ivory Coast are the strongest of the African teams, IMO. Think it's a shame there's no Eto'o at the world cup, though.
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Tonight it starts. Walkover for Germany I reckon.
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I can't wait for the red-hot excitement of Poland vs Ecuador..........
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I can't wait for the red-hot excitement of Poland vs Ecuador..........
ROFL :lol:
French better bow down tomorrow, Its been a hard week so tomorrow, My crew is hitting the old Battlecruiser and ncecking stupid amounts of Nelson......
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why is it people presume that we're putting our best team in the field on a friendly? :wtf:
So, maybe that counts for the other teams as well...?
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Wasn't as easy for the Germans as I thought. Still, they had picked Lehmann and Ballack was injured; Costa Rica impressed me upfront, but the defence was shocking.
The ball is...different than most, swings through the air, going to be a nightmare for the keepers.
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Hmm.
I really hate the english commentators, though. It seemed every second comment was mentioning whether or not Germany could beat England, slagging off the German defense (not entirely unjustified, to be fair), or blaming the inadequacies of Costa Rica (especially with regards to Lahm). That, and I can't stand this 'the German Theo Walcott' type pish we'll no doubt be hearing for every single game featuring a young striker.
Plus side; good match, little slow paced, Germany look like being a good team if they can sort out the defense. (and who'd have thought anyone would be saying that last sentence?)
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*looks left and right* :nervous:
F*** FOOTBALL!!!!!
*runs away*
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*looks left and right* :nervous:
F*** FOOTBALL!!!!!
*runs away*
Tsch. and you have Prso in your team and everything.
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Anyone know what the **** Sven thought he was doing taking his striker off when we're 1-0 ahead with 40 odd minutes of the game left?
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Indeed, that seemed a bit odd at the time. But to be honest, if he hadn't done it Paraguay probably would have scored (well, scored again, strictly speaking) an equalizer, what with the English defense being in tatters for much of the second half and all. They definitely did not look like a team that can get anywhere near the title unless a lot of things get fixed very fast.
First of all, they need to come up with a better attack plan that "Lob ball at the really tall bloke up front and pray", second, the midfield needs to work out some kind of cooperation scheme with the offense and themselves where they can actually pass the ball forwards or sideways instead of exclusively passing it back or trying a solo run every time they recieve it. And third, the defense needs to actually attack the guy with the ball instead of just standing around looking dumb until he gets within striking distance.
[Edit] PS, not that it affected the result, but was that ref really as poor as I thought or was I just dreaming? Oh, and no offense to the 'tall bloke' (Crouch, right?) they kept lobbing balls at, he was one of the few who did a really good job on the English team. It's just not gonna work if that's all they do.
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Let me just say that, though I hope otherwise, I forsee a massacre against the Netherlands tommorow. Playing without Vidic sure as hell doesn't help the situation.
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Indeed, that seemed a bit odd at the time. But to be honest, if he hadn't done it Paraguay probably would have scored (well, scored again, strictly speaking) an equalizer, what with the English defense being in tatters for much of the second half and all. They definitely did not look like a team that can get anywhere near the title unless a lot of things get fixed very fast.
England started a bit badly but they went downhill very fast the second Owen came off. Their entire style changed from attacking (Which England do very well) to defending deeply (Which we can do against middling teams but which will cost us against the really top class teams).
First of all, they need to come up with a better attack plan that "Lob ball at the really tall bloke up front and pray"
I've been saying that for nearly 10 years. It's a crappy tactic and while it work against poor teams the second you give away the ball like that against a good team like Brazil you won't see it again for the next 5 minutes.
[Edit] PS, not that it affected the result, but was that ref really as poor as I thought or was I just dreaming? Oh, and no offense to the 'tall bloke' (Crouch, right?) they kept lobbing balls at, he was one of the few who did a really good job on the English team. It's just not gonna work if that's all they do.
Crouch did pretty well but he had absolutely no support once Owen came off. The amount of times England lost the ball because they kicked it at Crouch and he had no one to head it on to was ridiculous.
Notice how in the first half England dominated because that wasn't their tactic.
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I actually didn't think Owen made much of a difference while he was playing. He's gifted when he's "on" for a match, but he didn't seem to be today. That unknown guy who came in near the end showed commendable spirit though, much more than many of the 'regulars' had done over most of the match. What was lacking up front was simply will - Noone bothered to press forward for most of the second half, and when that's the case it really doesn't matter what strikers are on the field.
As for Owen, perhaps the English play was just too slow for his style today... it seemed that following every pass, the recipient had to take 10 seconds just looking around and toeing the ball a bit before actually doing something with it. No first time passes, no fast combinations. In fact, I only saw those things twice in the second half, and both resulted in Paraguay getting into real trouble, though ultimately nothing came of it.
The final 10 minutes or so were a bit better, at least, so there is potential. But more is needed when facing an opponent who doesn't score your goals for you.
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I thought England were pretty poor throughout, but Paraguay were simply awful in the first half and incredibly short on confidence. There were a number of times when they'd break upfield, and there was no width whatsoever, especially on the left. England did create a few decent chances, but at the same time the Paraguay keeper made, what, 1 good save?
Certainly nothing to justify the hype, IMO.
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I don't know about poor throughout. I did see some good play from them. I also saw them giving the ball away foolishly even in the first half though.
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I feel bad for Sweden. And says a fair bit, coming from a Dane. Never have I seen a game so dominated by one team without them actually winning.
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Hislop and Yorke were absolutely fantastic in that match. Hopefully they won't be able to pull out that kind of performance again against England.
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what the **** is wrong with this belgian ref :hopping: in the Ivory Coast vs Argentina game? he denied them two PKs in my opinion - one of them was :hopping: OBVIOUS :mad: DOGSO :hopping: and the american announcers were saying that it should have been a PK
he also didn't call pretty much any foul in favor of Ivory Coast :(
they got raped by the ref :hopping:
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Oh well, if it's American announcers, then you know it's bollocks..........
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what the **** is wrong with this belgian ref :hopping: in the Ivory Coast vs Argentina game? he denied them two PKs in my opinion - one of them was :hopping: OBVIOUS :mad: DOGSO :hopping: and the american announcers were saying that it should have been a PK
he also didn't call pretty much any foul in favor of Ivory Coast :(
they got raped by the ref :hopping:
That's football, some decisions go for you, others go against you. All part and parcel of the game.
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Meh the Swedes blew.
The black people had all the stamina, Swedes tired out quickly, accuracy went to hell. I quite think it would've been quite deserving for Tobago to have scored in 85-90 and making it 1-0 for them.
Awful play. So many chances. All wasted.
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Oh well, if it's American announcers, then you know it's bollocks..........
we tend to have decent annoucners for the world cup - for germany vs costa rica it was a former member of the NY Cosmos who played with pele, and a former member of our national team
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You say decent, but I've heard the muppets you lot get stuck with for regular footie.
Still, at least you're free from the ****ing ITV mob mentioning England every 12 seconds.
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Ohgodsabovepleasegrantusvictoryagainstourenemyonthefieldofbatt leandourobediencetoyouwillbeforever
affirmedandwewillsacrificemanyvirginsinyourhonour.
Givethose****ingdutchbastardsatasteoftheirownmedicineandthankyoulordforremovingthatbastarddavids
fromyourmostholyandcelebratedtournament.
Amen.
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We won:D w00t:D
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i take it you're an Organite dark?
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Good game. Best of the WC so far, and you deserved to win :) Hope there's nothing seriously wrong with that keeper though, he looked rather shaky at the end.
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i take it you're an Organite dark?
That is correct:)
It was a good match imo:)
Although Van der Sar was indeed kinda shaky, we'll see how it go's with him.
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Dutch deserved it, but only just; Serbia came back really well for the 2nd half, but they just lacked the invention. If they had another Stoijkovic or Savicevic, it could have been a different story.
Robben was superb, though, and I thought the Dutch actually defended pretty well. I think Argentina are just nudging it for the best team I've seen so far.
Roll on......Mexico vs Iran.
Ah.
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you know what's funny - I find myself cheering for iran because i dislike mexico more (plus te problem with Iran is more their government and religious authority than their average joe-on-the-street)
PS: **** borgetti
(http://www.southerngent.org/soccer/onyewu_borgetti.jpg)
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Why, because he's staring at an american bloke?
(Mexico; 2-1)
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Maybe he was caught trying to sneak over the border with a group of 10 others, claiming they 'just wanted a nice game of football'? Damn illegal aliens.
PS. Mexico 3-1. Good watch so far, nice to see the Iranians not hiding in their own penalty box but actually trying to play ball.
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Robben was superb, though....
It was basically Robben vs. Serbia-Montenegro ;)
He was godamn-inseperatable from the ball in that game.
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Credit where credit is due: Robben kicked ass. Maybe having Vidic on defense would have helped, or maybe not. Maybe if Kezman learned not to trip over his own ****ing feet when on an attack, twice, we could have accomplished something. I don't know what was up with Serbia, they were just playing badly. Colliding, being slow, moving out of the way when we finally get a chance from a corner.
This is the third time now. Don't think I'm not keeping count, Dutchies.
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Angola aquitted themselves quite admirably I thought. Everyone expected them to take a drubbing but they really made Portugal work to beat them 1-0.
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Angola aquitted themselves quite admirably I thought. Everyone expected them to take a drubbing but they really made Portugal work to beat them 1-0.
Rather dull game, though.
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Although lots of oportunities were wasted, now can you see why I was worried? :p
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So... Australia vs Japan. I have no clue about the level of either team so this could be interesting. But good luck to those down under :)
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Just remember, you can't pick the damn thing up in this game ;)
Should be an interesting game to be honest. Japan are fast on their feet, and pretty good at working as a team, but lack physical presence, which is where Australia could probably gain an advantage :)
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*looks left and right* :nervous:
F*** FOOTBALL!!!!!
*runs away*
Tsch. and you have Prso in your team and everything.
What can I say - I love it and hate it at the same time.. I love it as a sport. I hate how people behave and the media bombardment...
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So... Australia vs Japan. I have no clue about the level of either team so this could be interesting. But good luck to those down under :)
And I can't even get the bloody Radio 5 commentary at work because our network goes via Amsterdam, grr.
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I seem to recall seeing a 'listen to this live' link on the BBC for pretty much every match I read about. Might work if nothing else does. Oh, and wtf is up with Australia having Peter Stormare as their keeper? :p It seems to be working either way, aussies seem to have the upper hand from the start.
[Edit] Yep. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/4852706.stm, just above all the red tabs.
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I seem to recall seeing a 'listen to this live' link on the BBC for pretty much every match I read about. Might work if nothing else does. Oh, and wtf is up with Australia having Peter Stormare as their keeper? :p It seems to be working either way, aussies seem to have the upper hand from the start.
[Edit] Yep. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/4852706.stm, just above all the red tabs.
Aye, but it's limited to UK only, and all our networky stuff goes via Hamsterjam (even though I'm actually in cumbernauld).
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lol @ Hamsterjam
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And I can't even get the bloody Radio 5 commentary at work because our network goes via Amsterdam, grr.
Maybe FootieFox (http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/footiefox?L=1) is something for you ?
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And I can't even get the bloody Radio 5 commentary at work because our network goes via Amsterdam, grr.
Maybe FootieFox (http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/footiefox?L=1) is something for you ?
Nah, I've got live scores. It's live commentary or - even better - video I'm trying to fetch. Unlikely, sadly. Especially as P2P based apps are banned in the office.
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Take a radio and headphones in with ya :wtf:
Surely you can "style it out"
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Take a radio and headphones in with ya :wtf:
Surely you can "style it out"
Well, it's a bit bloody late now, innit?
Sigh.
time to dig out that old portable telly, I guess. :D
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2 Goals in 10mins! Nice going Aussie!
Make that 3....
You guys are on fire ;)
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WE WON!
Further validation of my policy that you can leave everything to the last minute, and still come out on top. :D
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Yeah, that looked like a loss for most of the match. Superb comeback. And I really dont think Japans goal should even have been counted, the way they trounced the keeper looked like a clear foul to me. Can't deny that Japan played well though, better than Australia for most of the match after the 20min mark, so they definitely deserved to score... but damn, the fighting spirit the australians showed was impressive even when they were being outplayed.
Ref had issues I think. the kind of issues best solved by a one-way plane ticket to someplace not Germany. Next up US vs Czech Republic. Haven't seen the US play since they had that keeper with the huge red beard who played in a Danish 1st division club, but their world rankings (for what those are worth, which isn't too terribly much, I mean, Denmark is ranked above both Italy and Germany and we didn't even pass the WC qualifiers. Must be our 4-1 destruction of England that still keeps us floating) suggest they're good. Guess we'll see :)
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Offhand, I remember the US team as a bit like a middling european team; little short on top-level experience (there's, what, Reyna and Beasley?), strong at the back, good technically, maybe a bit short on flair and genuine invention. IIRC they beat Latvia and Venezuela in warm-ups but lost to Morocco.
The Czechs', I'd say, are just that bit better all round and - crucially - have genuine world class players in the form of Nedved and Rosicky (although IMO the Us do have a wee bit better width if they play Beasley on the right).
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The yanks have a team?
These guys i s'pose you can call em a team ;7
1 HOWARD Tim (GK)
2 ALBRIGHT Chris
3 BOCANEGRA Carlos
4 MASTROENI Pablo
5 O BRIEN John
6 CHERUNDOLO Steve
7 LEWIS Eddie
8 DEMPSEY Clint
9 JOHNSON Eddie
10 REYNA Claudio
11 CHING Brian
12 BERHALTER Gregg
13 CONRAD Jimmy
14 OLSEN Ben
15 CONVEY Bobby
16 WOLFF Josh
17 BEASLEY DaMarcus
18 KELLER Kasey (GK)
19 HAHNEMANN Marcus (GK)
20 MC BRIDE Brian
21 DONOVAN Landon
22 ONYEWU Oguchi
23 POPE Eddie
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/team/overview.html?team=usa (http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/team/overview.html?team=usa)
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The Czechs', I'd say, are just that bit better all round and - crucially - have genuine world class players in the form of Nedved and Rosicky (although IMO the Us do have a wee bit better width if they play Beasley on the right).
Nedved is still in the team ? I thought he resigned after the EC. He's briliant though, I'd put my money on the Czechs.
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The Czechs', I'd say, are just that bit better all round and - crucially - have genuine world class players in the form of Nedved and Rosicky (although IMO the Us do have a wee bit better width if they play Beasley on the right).
Nedved is still in the team ? I thought he resigned after the EC. He's briliant though, I'd put my money on the Czechs.
He changed his mind and, er, unretired.
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Aha, following the footsteps of Zidane and Figo.
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USA just hit the post, keeper was beaten.
EDIT: 2-0 to the Czechs, absolute screamer.
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Yep. The Czechs - bar that Reyna shot - have looked pretty comfy, nice passing game and sitting back to hit on the breack, US short of any invention to break through.
US have brought on some more attacking players for the 2nd half, should get a bit more interesting; first half seemed really slow to me.
Italy and Ghana should be no problem, Czech republic we need to atleast tie. We need to get first in our group to avoid facing brazil in the group of 16 (which, barring miraculous play, would be disasterous - though i'm not going to assume any result to a theoretical USA vs Brazil match)
To get first in our group we need to at worst
Tie Czech, win vs Italy, win vs Ghana
I think we have a good chance to sweep our group.
Famous last words?
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That post shot was awesome, but other than that I agree the Americans haven't looked anything like a contender for the match. Czechs are just ahead of them at every turn it seems, and unless they start taking some risks to get to the czech goal they have no chance.
[Edit] And that would have been 3-nil if Koller hadn't been injured.
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Screamer by Rosicky off the bar, too.
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The american coach looks... well... catatonic I guess is the best description. It's time to take chances, do something crazy, not sit there and chew gum while events unfold (well, unless you're Duke, in which case you're out, pissed, and everyone else in trouble).
[Edit] And it's 3-nil. Beautiful pass by Nedved, clear run to the goal for Rosicky and bingo.
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The american coach looks... well... catatonic I guess is the best description. It's time to take chances, do something crazy, not sit there and chew gum while events unfold (well, unless you're Duke, in which case you're out, pissed, and everyone else in trouble).
They've come on a wee bit stronger the last few mins but.......... 3-nil.
EDIT; AS I typed that :D
Deserved, I think. Czechs have barely broke sweat, I don't think the US has got behind their back 4 once as of 80 mins.
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Definitely deserved. It could have been 4 and 5 goals for the Czechs if they'd bothered trying in the last 20 minutes. And that defense was like a brick wall. Strongest showing of any team yet, for sure, but I found it a bit stupid of them to draw yellow cards for kicking the ball away on free kicks when ahead by 3. Very entertaining game despite their massive dominance actually.
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Italy and Ghana should be no problem, Czech republic we need to atleast tie. We need to get first in our group to avoid facing brazil in the group of 16 (which, barring miraculous play, would be disasterous - though i'm not going to assume any result to a theoretical USA vs Brazil match)
To get first in our group we need to at worst
Tie Czech, win vs Italy, win vs Ghana
I think we have a good chance to sweep our group.
Ahahahahaha.
I think you'll be lucky not to finish last in the group.
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So this is... the US's 8th consecutive defeat (of 8 played) in any World Cup organized in Europe.
Will there be a 10th?
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This Italy-Ghana game is bloody ace, bytheway. :D
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Great entertainment, Ghana may lack organization but they can leave the Italians in their tracks whenever they accelerate... just need some accuracy and they would be on level score. But wtf is up with Ghana's keeper? Could he possibly be any worse? If Italy just aimed for the goal on the corner kicks instead of at their players, they'd be ahead by 7 or 8 by now :p
[Edit] Oh wow. This ref is worse than the Ghanese keeper...
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Italy and Ghana should be no problem, Czech republic we need to atleast tie. We need to get first in our group to avoid facing brazil in the group of 16 (which, barring miraculous play, would be disasterous - though i'm not going to assume any result to a theoretical USA vs Brazil match)
To get first in our group we need to at worst
Tie Czech, win vs Italy, win vs Ghana
I think we have a good chance to sweep our group.
Ahahahahaha.
I think you'll be lucky not to finish last in the group.
screw you!
we come out flat in one game and you start making jackass comments like that?
go jump off a bridge
To Advance the following has to happen
Italy Beat Ghana (ghana could beat italy, but it would still be teh same)
Czech beat Italy and Ghana
USA Beat Italy and Ghana
that would make it
Czech 3-0-0, USA 2-1-0, Italy 1-0-0, Ghana 0-0-0 (WLD)
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screw you!
we come out flat in one game and you start making jackass comments like that?
go jump off a bridge
To Advance the following has to happen
Italy Beat Ghana (ghana could beat italy, but it would still be teh same)
Czech beat Italy and Ghana
USA Beat Italy and Ghana
that would make it
Czech 3-0-0, USA 2-1-0, Italy 1-0-0, Ghana 0-0-0 (WLD)
Insipid, uninspired, technically competent but devoid of artistry and flair to break down teams. Having watched Ghana vs Italy, both those teams are far, far, superior in terms of pace and flair.
Now, I appreciate you're hurting at a 3-nil humiliation, but get that arrogant and it bites you right in the arse, and I have no sympathy if you're going to be huffy about it.
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teams are far, far, superior in terms of pace and flair.
Now, I appreciate you're hurting at a 3-nil humiliation, but get that arrogant and it bites you right in the arse, and I have no sympathy if you're going to be huffy about it.
i'm "Getting all huffy" about people making jackass uninformed comments - we came out flat in one game and it cost us - no way in hell ghana is better than US and we should beat italy
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teams are far, far, superior in terms of pace and flair.
Now, I appreciate you're hurting at a 3-nil humiliation, but get that arrogant and it bites you right in the arse, and I have no sympathy if you're going to be huffy about it.
i'm "Getting all huffy" about people making jackass uninformed comments - we came out flat in one game and it cost us - no way in hell ghana is better than US and we should beat italy
See? Arrogant.
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teams are far, far, superior in terms of pace and flair.
Now, I appreciate you're hurting at a 3-nil humiliation, but get that arrogant and it bites you right in the arse, and I have no sympathy if you're going to be huffy about it.
i'm "Getting all huffy" about people making jackass uninformed comments - we came out flat in one game and it cost us - no way in hell ghana is better than US and we should beat italy
See? Arrogant.
the only arrogant one here is YOU making presumptions
i said should beat italy, but there is no arrogance in saying there is no way ghana is better than the USMNT
we had one flat day and you accuse me of being arrogant for speaking a simple fact?
screw you
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I shall let my ICQ reply stand in ripose, and suggest you stay away from the bevvy. Thank you for proving my point. :)
28119425: **** you retard
28119425: you're the one that is being arrogant
28119425: we have one flat day and you start running your mouth as if you know more about my own farking national team than me
aldo: grow up
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[15:50] Kazan: you first
[15:51] Kazan: throwing arround "Arrogant" at people for making factual statements is immature
[15:51] Kazan: and rather insulting
[15:51] Kazan: if you cannot refrain from baselessly bashing other peoples national teams then I suggest you STFU and get out of that thread
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Nice job Italy, clear and deserved victory, especially as they did not fall into the trap of 'playing italian' and just defend the game home from a 1-nil lead without trying anything offensively, but instead kept up the pace throughout. Very promising for their further efforts. Commendable effort by Ghana, but they seriously need to ditch that keeper and put someone else on the goal... just some random fat guy picked from the crowd would do better.
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Nice job Italy, clear and deserved victory, especially as they did not fall into the trap of 'playing italian' and just defend the game home from a 1-nil lead without trying anything offensively, but instead kept up the pace throughout. Very promising for their further efforts. Commendable effort by Ghana, but they seriously need to ditch that keeper and put someone else on the goal... just some random fat guy picked from the crowd would do better.
I think they lacked a bit of composure up front more than the keeper. If they've learned enough from this match, they could be very dangerous - they look strong enough to press anyone. Italy look very soild, but they actually were lucky not to give away a couple of penalties. Their other 2 matches are against much slower teams (with the possible exception of Baros, who seems to blow very cold for his club, and very hot for his country), which should suit them a lot more, and I was quite impressed how they used their narrow midfield to draw out the fullbacks and give Gilardino and Toni space down the channels & pull apart the defence. Not sure that tactic would work against most defensive-minded teams, granted.
Although, just saw a replay of Kuffour-Iaquinta, and it was a horrific challenge, clear red card were it not, of course, for the offside. Of course, he got caught be Iaquinta for the 2nd.......
NB: Ghana keeper wasn't too bad; he did do a good shot-stopping job.
[15:50] Kazan: you first
[15:51] Kazan: throwing arround "Arrogant" at people for making factual statements is immature
[15:51] Kazan: and rather insulting
[15:51] Kazan: if you cannot refrain from baselessly bashing other peoples national teams then I suggest you STFU and get out of that thread
Can I suggest, if you want to keep insulting people and acting all petted-lip, you do it on the forum for all to see, rather than talking to yourself on an ignored ICQ channnel?
NB: watching USA-Czech highlights. Feel vindicated.
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He was good at stopping shots yes. But on every set piece situation he wasn't there, but was instead in some random location in the penalty box colliding with his own defense, falling over, looking flummoxed, or any combination thereof. Ghanas luck Italy never caught on to that and started just aiming for the goal instead on their corners.
Their offense is definitely dangerous though. Once they get their aim sorted out, they're going to be a terror to keep from scoring. Anyway, Iaquinta getting that second goal in that particular way really was justice wasn't it? :D
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aldo if you want to continue to be an abrasive arse and make fun of other people's national teams I suggest you go shoot yourself.
seriously you're an ass. Did I make fun of the Three Lions when they barely managed to beat a significantly lesser opponant? Do I make fun of how freaking pathetic of a pretty-boy your captain is?
seriously. right now what you're doing is known as kicking a man when he's down.
you have ANY idea how much US Soccer has riding on a good performance by our national team and good ratings of the cup entirely, seriously - this is the first time EVER the tournament has been broadcast here. We'll do the slaughtering of our own team for their poor performance today, but mindlessly bashing them is going to do nothing but piss off americans :hopping:
our pro league is only in it's 11th year, this is the mosted hyped world cup ever in america, we NEED a good performance out of the team and when we're smarting from a terrible showing you come in and start kicking us while we're down with mindless bashing
(http://www.cnra.net/media/yellowCard.jpg) to Aldo for unsportsmenlike behavior
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He was good at stopping shots yes. But on every set piece situation he wasn't there, but was instead in some random location in the penalty box colliding with his own defense, falling over, looking flummoxed, or any combination thereof. Ghanas luck Italy never caught on to that and started just aiming for the goal instead on their corners.
Their offense is definitely dangerous though. Once they get their aim sorted out, they're going to be a terror to keep from scoring. Anyway, Iaquinta getting that second goal in that particular way really was justice wasn't it? :D
Aye :D
Good to see Italy not just sitting back for once. It's only taken them what, 6 years to learn that lesson?
seriously you're an ass. Did I make fun of the Three Lions when they barely managed to beat a significantly lesser opponant? Do I make fun of how freaking pathetic of a pretty-boy your captain is?
Well, that little comment just shows how idiotic you're acting justnow then, doesn't it?
Now, if you want to carry on, by all means, but keep it quiet & the piccies small, eh? I'm trying to talk about the world cup here.
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seriously you're an ass. Did I make fun of the Three Lions when they barely managed to beat a significantly lesser opponant? Do I make fun of how freaking pathetic of a pretty-boy your captain is?
Well, that little comment just shows how idiotic you're acting justnow then, doesn't it?
Now, if you want to carry on, by all means, but keep it quiet & the piccies small, eh? I'm trying to talk about the world cup here.
no that comment shows how idiotic YOU'RE being, because I was giving examples of what COULD have been said if I were acting like you. Your guys had a flat day agaisnt a mediocre team and still pulled off the win, we had a flat day against an excellent team and got owned because of it.
You could have been gentlemenly and just extended a polite condolence, but instead you start running your mouth about "american arrogance" and how you know more about my own national team than I do ::)
In your "trying to talk about the world cup" you're being a mindless america-bashing drone and are being extremely rude. :hopping:
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Heehee. :drevil:
Still not got it, have you?
I'll give you a clue. I am very good at recognising **** national teams, and I've seen Reyna play first hand. That help?
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Not wanting to get into the argument ...but
[15:51] Kazan: if you cannot refrain from baselessly bashing other peoples national teams then I suggest you STFU and get out of
Bashing other peoples national team is an integral part of international soccer culture, it's what makes it so fun.
And I think the US team got the first tranche of a reality check today. Counting on beating Italy to advance to the 2nd round is just naive. Do you know who Italy is in the world of football ?
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Sadly mi national team failed to make it into the world cup....(IDIOTS) that team was so pulling into all directions and failed to act like a cohesive group and as a TEAM that they byrried themselfs.
So basicly what i'm tring to say is that lucky i don get bashed around for cup matches.
Oh and Kazan no offense please but you do realize that Italy has maibe the best defensive play in the world. Also I wouldnt go too much on fifa ratings since well they dont tell the whole picture.
Remember when france got eliminated by.....Senegal . I was like....wtf just happened???
So lets all be civilized about it and try not to go either by the ratings or by different performances in the past...lets all take each game at a time and coment politely about the game.
Also since most of you are more entuziastic about each team then me lets all keep our rude and agresive coments about his team or that team in a civil maner. Pls.
I'm not posting this because i want to bump anyones post or anithing i just know how fare suppoerters and fans can go.
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enough trolling aldo
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Oh, you're done? Cheers.
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no, i've just written you off for what you are :rolleyes:
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Lovely.
Right, who's looking forward to seeing Brazil tomorrow?
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I would be if i wasn't still too bummed over getting raped by the czechs
farking arena.. playing 4-5-1 against the ****ing czech republic, and playing farking beasely... gawd
should have been
GK: Keller
D: Pope, Cherundolo, Gooch, Berhalter
M: LD (offensive center), Reyna (defensive center), Dempsey and Convey on wings
F: McBride and Ching
(Note: that is just my initial guess - i'm going to watch the game later but that probably won't change my opinion)
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Always look forward to seeing Brazil play. And against Croatia it could be a seriously awesome game if both sides give a near-peak performance. Brazil of course the favourite, but if they hit an off-day Croatia are good enough to have a real chance.
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Always look forward to seeing Brazil play. And against Croatia it could be a seriously awesome game if both sides give a near-peak performance. Brazil of course the favourite, but if they hit an off-day Croatia are good enough to have a real chance.
I'm just praying Prso doesn't knacker himself :D
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being an American and a realist...
Italy will rape us
Ghana will give us a hell of a game
we'll finish with one point in group if were lucky
with that i say Viva Espana (where I was born....even though I know theyll **** up too)
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US got schooled, plain and simple. Yes, I watched the whole match and it was worth staying up until 2 am. When I saw that there was 2 penalties, 1 yellow card, and a goal in the first 5 minutes I knew it would be interesting.
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after reading the first page of this thread finally, Kaz are you serious?
the FIFA rankings mean about nothing, take a look at this
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jonah_freedman/06/05/cup.rankings/index.html
you'll notice that this is made by an American and was posted before Team USA bent over and took it in the ass yesterday. Team USA ranked #11, not even on the first page, Italy and Czech both top 10
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i said should beat italy, but there is no arrogance in saying there is no way ghana is better than the USMNT
I watched both games live, and from what I saw the USA have by far the weakest side in that group. Italy are far stronger and Ghana aren't a bad side. It'll be a hell of a shock if you come out of that group with more than three points.
Y'know, Some other English football fans refer to people like you as "Amerisnobs".
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the FIFA rankings mean about nothing, take a look at this
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jonah_freedman/06/05/cup.rankings/index.html
To be fair, all sports rankings, those included, mean about nothing. Otherwise we wouldn't bother playing the games.
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Right, who's looking forward to seeing Brazil tomorrow?
I'm more interested in seeing Croatia. After last night, I don't think Australia is going to be utterly trounced by Brazil, but I (along with the rest of the world) also know Croatia is our only chance of getting into the second round.
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after reading the first page of this thread finally, Kaz are you serious?
the FIFA rankings mean about nothing, take a look at this
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jonah_freedman/06/05/cup.rankings/index.html
you'll notice that this is made by an American and was posted before Team USA bent over and took it in the ass yesterday. Team USA ranked #11, not even on the first page, Italy and Czech both top 10
He's full of **** if he thinks Mexico are better than Spain.
(wish they were; I got them in the office sweepstakes)
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Is Portugal that overrated in you people's minds? :confused:
16th?
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Is Portugal that overrated in you people's minds? :confused:
16th?
To be honest, i think that list is rather a load of old tosh.
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Theres one list that counts, and that's the one after the contest. Anything else is guesswork ;)
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Has anyone lid any cash out at a turf accountants yet?
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screw you!
we come out flat in one game and you start making jackass comments like that?
go jump off a bridge
To Advance the following has to happen
Italy Beat Ghana (ghana could beat italy, but it would still be teh same)
Czech beat Italy and Ghana
USA Beat Italy and Ghana
that would make it
Czech 3-0-0, USA 2-1-0, Italy 1-0-0, Ghana 0-0-0 (WLD)
:lol:
My statements aren't baseless.
Your team SUCKS. Its track record only proves it. None of us held our breath when you took the 3-0 dive.
Learn to live with being stuck with the losing team. You're not going places any time soon.
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Just go back and look at what we posted about the English squad after the Paraguay game... and they won. Then think about how badly we'd have roasted them had they lost by 3... hell, I think the fires would still be burning if that had happened :p It's just the way we talk Football in Europe, there's no sugar coating, and that's how we like it. They play badly? They get lashed, and it really has nothing to do with what team it is.
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Oh yeah you guys tried hard alright...
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41757000/jpg/_41757318_injury_getty416.jpg)
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41757000/jpg/_41757436_obrien_afp300.jpg)
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we're giving them a thorough roasting on our own forums - but an informed roasting and not just "Ha ha you guys lost, but no suprise because YOU SUCK"
Landycakes didn't bring his testicles to the pitch, DMB shouldn't have been on the pitch and Gooch needs to not get carded in the 5th farking minute
and all the guys need to get in the game and connect their passes
if we keep playing like that WE WILL come in last.
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if we keep playing like that WE WILL come in last.
Captain Obvious strikes again
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Captain Obvious strikes again
http://www.faceparty.com/CAPTAINOBVIOUS (http://www.faceparty.com/CAPTAINOBVIOUS)
My 21 year old little bro :D
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go to hell, if you cannot make any constructive posts and just wish to flame on then get your own thread
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I'm just waiting till we go out on penalties in the Quarters as usual, then I won't have to put up with it any more and we can go back to flaming each other about ordinary things like Evolution ;)
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go to hell, if you cannot make any constructive posts and just wish to flame on then get your own thread
why are you so hostile Kaz, admit it, were not that good, this isnt basketball, this isnt track and field
we dont dominate the sport, for you to even suggest we have a shot at beating brazil is nuts and for you to say what i quoted you might as well say 'if we dont breath well die' .....umm duh
and Dekker do you play eve?
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i'm hostile? let's see.. why would Kazan be hostile - oh right, other people started with the mindless bashing and then expect kazan not to get pissed about people mindlessly bashing his national team
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we're giving them a thorough roasting on our own forums - but an informed roasting and not just "Ha ha you guys lost, but no suprise because YOU SUCK"
I believe I did point out the flaws in the US in both the first and 4th pages before the match or even tournament, though. If anything, living in a football obsessed country and watching the WC as a neutral fan makes you more observant, not less.
Even if 3-0 was somewhat of a surprise, a simple glance at the pre-match odds means a Czech win certainly wasn't. Sometimes '****' is a fair description; you can have all the organization in the world, but ultimately if the individual players simply aren't as good, you'll struggle. It's scarcely a shame to be 2nd (well, 4th as looks likely) best behind the likes of Toni, Essien, Appiah, Totti, Nedved, et al.
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its not really mindless, there seems to be some basis to it
im not bashing, im being realistic, we dont have a very good team on the world stage, simple as that, 3-0 kinda proves that point. When England or spain or togo or whoever gets trashed by somone Ill do the same **** talking.
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Out on penalties on the quarter finals eh? Gotta get there first, which you won't unless they bring their game to an entirely different level than against Paraguay. The potential is there, certainly, but it remains to be seen if Eriksson can figure out how to use it properly, something I'm not entirely confident of.
By the way, S. Korea is beating Togo. 2-1 so far, decent play from both sides at times but last 20 mins have been all Korea. Oh and Togo are a man down after one of their players slaughtered a korean with a free run to the goal and deservedly got his second yellow of the match, so there's little risk of them making any comeback. If you ask me, neither team looks good enough to go much further.
[Edit] It's scarcely a shame to be 2nd (well, 4th as looks likely) best behind the likes of Toni, Essien, Appiah, Totti, Nedved, et al.
Indeed. It's not a fun group to be in, any team would struggle to advance with that competition, hell even Brazil would have to work for it.
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Te h USA and football go together like UK And basketball, they're not our strongest points but we still try cos its all we can do.
(not a dig)
and Dekker do you play eve?
Never have mate
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Out on penalties on the quarter finals eh? Gotta get there first, which you won't unless they bring their game to an entirely different level than against Paraguay. The potential is there, certainly, but it remains to be seen if Eriksson can figure out how to use it properly, something I'm not entirely confident of.
Yeah, agreed, Englands been pretty much lukewarm so far, I hope it's because Eriksson is aware that the England Squad tends to burn itself out pretty quickly, we rely far too heavily on getting out goals early, he might also be trying to avoid injuries in the play-offs.
Personally, I don't hold much hope for us, it'd be nice to see us do well, but I'm inclined to agree that unless we get our arses in gear, we aren't going to go far beyond the qualifiers.
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it IS mindless bashing when you make bigoted comments like "USA = sucky football", it IS mindless bashing when we play one terrible game and you're like "you suck"
if we suck how did we get to the quarters last time 'round with the german press declaring to a man "the better team lost" when they knocked us out
you think that czech republic match was in ANY way like their normal play? hell no it wasn't - they didn't bring their testicles to the pitch, they didn't even bring their c-game
where the **** was landycakes? why in the hell did arena let DMB PLAY with him being as suck as he has been?
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Bad coaching? bad manageent?
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and Dekker do you play eve?
Never have mate
lol k theres a character named General Dekker in there some of us know, thought youd gotten a promotion or somthin :p
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it IS mindless bashing when you make bigoted comments like "USA = sucky football", it IS mindless bashing when we play one terrible game and you're like "you suck"
if we suck how did we get to the quarters last time 'round with the german press declaring to a man "the better team lost" when they knocked us out
that was 4 years ago, this is a differnet team and Keller and the rest of em have only gotten older
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Bad coaching? bad manageent?
some of it - DMB shouldn't be playing, you cannot go 4-5-1 against the czechs
some of it was the guys left their testicles in the locker room - get out there on the pitch and play, don't be afraid of the farking czechs - play the damn game!
too late now though
/sigh
---------------
the stupid "older team" argument.. you know people said the same about the Czechs and they're the strongest team in our group as well as the oldest!
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the stupid "older team" argument.. you know people said the same about the Czechs and they're the strongest team in our group as well as the oldest!
see i never called your argument stupid or insulted you in any way, dont be a ****ing cock
czech is not the strongst team in the group, Italy is
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Dont worry Kaz, theres always next time :yes:
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If you ask me, neither team looks good enough to go much further.
So I hope, that would leave us 2nd place in the group.
Although we played 1:1 twice against France during the qualification, that was without Henry and Zidane. So it would be a major success if we get a draw again today.
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Dont worry Kaz, theres always next time :yes:
no. there isn't
you guys really don't understand what we have riding this year?
this is the first year all 64 games are being played in the US
this is the most advertised world cup ever in the US
our pro league is only 11 years old
we apparently have been managing to get new viewers watching the various games!
last time we got to the quarters
we must perform and the snide comments are rubbing salt in a wound, made all the worse by the fact that the snide comments are ignorant
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and yet its being shown on ESPN2 which is an insult in and of its self, they let stupid **** like world series of poker stay on ESPN
except for the weekends when its on ABC
it is beautiful in high def though
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it's being shown period which is more than could be said before
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so yeah nice comeback by the S Koreans not too long ago
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it IS mindless bashing when you make bigoted comments like "USA = sucky football", it IS mindless bashing when we play one terrible game and you're like "you suck"
if we suck how did we get to the quarters last time 'round with the german press declaring to a man "the better team lost" when they knocked us out
South Korea reached the semis that year, but you'd be hard pressed to find a single person ranking them in the top 10 in the world nowadays. Likewise, Greece won the European Championships but didn't qualify. Senegal and Turkey were also in the 2002 QFs, again not qualifying.
Whilst it is still an impressive - historic - achievement for the US, it doesn't suddenly mean they are in the top 8 of the world. Cup tournaments cannot be held as a definitive judgement for teams abilities due to the simple vagarity of random group selection (and indeed qualifying - plus the likes of Trinidad and Tobago or Saudi Arabia ahead of superior European teams has an impact); nothing can, really (given the lack of an international league or somesuch), beyond trying to analyse the individual players and historical record both across multiple tournaments and also in recent matches.
Likewise, even after 2002, most people probably wouldn't rank the Germans as 2nd in the world. Now, I already said my piece on the US team earlier; technically good, tactically competent, but lacking top level experience and genuine invention. You can try and blame your own team all you like, but it's somewhat disrespectful to the Czechs if you are implying their superiority in general had nothing to do with the result. Not many teams in the world have players to match Rosicky and Nedved (or even the rather untroubled Cech), after all.
NB: I would also say Italy look the strongest team in the group. They just have that tiny bit more in general squad depth; the Czechs don't have anyone IMO the calibre of Iaquinta, Gattuso (probably first pick, of course) or Del Piero (finally seeming to be back on form) available to them, plus they strike me as more mobile in attacking with that quartet of Toni-Gilardino-Totti-Pirlo. Also, it's worth noting Italy have been in superb form all the way up to the tournament and, with low domestic expectations, are perhaps protected from some of the weight of expectation.
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Dont worry Kaz, theres always next time :yes:
no. there isn't
you guys really don't understand what we have riding this year?
this is the first year all 64 games are being played in the US
this is the most advertised world cup ever in the US
our pro league is only 11 years old
we apparently have been managing to get new viewers watching the various games!
last time we got to the quarters
we must perform and the snide comments are rubbing salt in a wound, made all the worse by the fact that the snide comments are ignorant
Hey i cant help how long it took the states to love "original football ;7 "We never took to hockey that much over here to be honest so if we ever hosted a worl tourney then i wouldnt expect us to do great. Take the oppertunity to spread the gospel of the beutiful gae and ensure the guys get some practise.
(not a dig)
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What you guys really need to beef up interest in Football is probably something equivalent to the UEFA Champions League (arguably the strongest football tournament anywhere, ever, WC included). Some kind of pan-american tournament featuring only the very best teams from each country. It would improve the play of your home league by letting them compete on a higher level, and it would garner more interest as the quality of play is better and, well, it's always something more when a home team is fighting the 'evil barbarians'.
Resting all your hopes on WC success every 4th year is just a bad plan. But of course, as you presumably aren't the head of the US football association (whatever it might be called) nor a national TV staion, I guess saying that doesn't help much :( I think most here would like to see the US perform well, we genuinely enjoy good football. And trust me, if you do go out and trounce Italy, people will then be congratulating as much as they've been critisizing after the Czech failure.
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What you guys really need to beef up interest in Football is probably something equivalent to the UEFA Champions League. Some kind of pan-american tournament featuring only the very best teams from each country. It would improve the play of your home league by letting them compete on a higher level, and it would garner more interest as the quality of play is better and, well, it's always something more when a home team is fighting the 'evil barbarians'.
Resting all your hopes on WC success every 4th year is just a bad plan. But of course, as you presumably aren't the head of the US football association (whatever it might be called) nor a national TV staion, I guess saying that doesn't help much :( I think most here would like to see the US perform well, we genuinely enjoy good football. And trust me, if you do go out and trounce Italy, people will then be congratulating as much as they've been critisizing after the Czech failure.
The problem is that the Mexicans already play in the Copa Libertadores (as with the Copa America), and it's hard seeing the American public taking to a competition where they'd see their teams struggle rather badly (which in turn would make it more difficult for said teams to adjust to the competition, etc). I suspect the US needs to sort out the MLS to have proper transfers, though; AFAIK all players have their registrations owned by the league, which to me can only stifle competition.
And the US winning any game in the group would be a tremendous achievement, as both Italy and Ghana have already shown themselves to be top class teams.
Of course, the Brazilians seem to have done rather well despite having one of the most chaotic and bizarre league systems in the world.
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I always think of it like the WWF, theres a lot of jibes swapped etc between fans, it's all part of the show ;)
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what we need is some marque name to come play here in the MLS, Red Bull NY tried to get Ronaldo not to long ago but was shot down pretty quick. You could go around and most peopl dont know a member of most of the teams in the MLS
without bigtime name recognition weve got nothing, Freddy Adu aint cuttin it
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I always think of it like the WWF, theres a lot of jibes swapped etc between fans, it's all part of the show ;)
Trust me it was happening decades before WWF :lol:
I come from a Millwall / Charlton famly, so every time we get round a dinner table the conversation is heated to say the least.
(Thats right lions fans can use forks and knives for food as well as violence)
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Well, struggle is part of learning. European football wouldn't be where it is today, I think, if not for all the tournaments pitting top teams from different countries against eachother. And once american crowds started to see the spectacle that a match against, say, a top brazilian team can be, that will increase interest even in case of a (probable) loss. And it would give the american teams something more to fight for.
That it's never gonna happen is a different story. Or hell, try broker a deal to get a team into the champions league. Even less likely to happen (it's UEFA only), but it would rock to see it.
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what we need is some marque name to come play here in the MLS, Red Bull NY tried to get Ronaldo not to long ago but was shot down pretty quick. You could go around and most peopl dont know a member of most of the teams in the MLS
without bigtime name recognition weve got nothing, Freddy Adu aint cuttin it
Odds are Adu will be shuffling off to Chelski within a year or so anyways.
what strikes me, though, is how many derbies in the MLS are there? Other than the Chivas offshoot, there appear to be bugger all; and i don't think you can have a proper league without the blood and sweat of derbies. Of course, I remember having the misfortune to be in Florida during the 1998 world cup finals (just after Argentina-Holland, which i missed from flying - bah), and reading a newspaper article which essentially said footie was unpopular in the US because it wasn't (literally) violent enough.
So maybe best just send Duncan Ferguson over.
Well, struggle is part of learning. European football wouldn't be where it is today, I think, if not for all the tournaments pitting top teams from different countries against eachother. And once american crowds started to see the spectacle that a match against, say, a top brazilian team can be, that will increase interest even in case of a (probable) loss. And it would give the american teams something more to fight for.
That it's never gonna happen is a different story. Or hell, try broker a deal to get a team into the champions league. Even less likely to happen (it's UEFA only), but it would rock to see it.
They still have plans to re-start that abortive World Club Cup, I think (I think it was Vasco that beat Palmeiras in a penalty shootout to win it the only time it was played...or was it the other way). Of course, the Brazilian league IIRC has a bit of a reputation for being somewhat dull (midfield attrition rules) and dirty, although it's been so long since I've seen one of their games I'd have to leave it to a native to elaborate/contradict.
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Not violent enough? I think there's just not enough commerc... err... pee breaks for the networks to like it :p
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I heard Real Madrid was coming over to blast one of our MLS teams later this year, I want tickets for that
i duno about not viloent enough, but after talkin to some of my friends who havent had the pleasure of living in europe they dont like to watch it because a)not enough scoring(same with hockey) B) the horrible acting and wussyness after some players take a tackle
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I heard Real Madrid was coming over to blast one of our MLS teams later this year, I want tickets for that
i duno about not viloent enough, but after talkin to some of my friends who havent had the pleasure of living in europe they dont like to watch it because a)not enough scoring(same with hockey) B) the horrible acting and wussyness after some players take a tackle
Well, I agree with b) wholeheartedly (I'm all for retrospective red cards for diving), but I think a) would actually cheapen the game if it wasn't hard to score. In most US sports, to the outsider, it seems as if scoring is pretty worthless (especially basketball); plus the defensive side of the game is equally attractive to me.
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its not neccesarrily worthless but it doesnt mean as much as scoring a goal in a game.
say a team is up by 2 goals, that probably equates out to like 25-30 point lead in basketball
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A) Armored wankball doesn't have more scoring, it's just 7 points or 3 points per score depending on nature
B) basketball scoring = oh look, i tossed the ball over my opponants head into a ring, w00t I can do a dog trick
you need a soccer culture - it's grown here in the united states - my local PDL (4th division) team ran adds on ABC during some of the matches aired on ABC - and in our exhibition match at home, in unseasonably cold (50s F) temperatures we had our best crowd all season because of those comercials (i talked to several people who came out just because of the comercials)
the FO was brilliant and sent someone to run out and get stuff to make hot chocolate (Which they normally don't have in the concessions) and the concessions was busiest i've ever seen it - they turned a profit that day :D
funny thing was is the Reserves were playing instead of the main team because it was just an exhibition and they played terribly but still won (We dominated our league, soon as we can get a city to sign on and help build our stadium will be moving to USL1 [2nd division])
tommorow we have a Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match vs a US ASA team.. hopefully we'll get excellent turn out again :D
(a team up 2 goals is the equivilent of 14 points in armored wankball)
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Rugby i prefer every time, but round about WC or Euro tiime i always get psyched for England,
I can see Kazans devotion to yooessay, and nothing wrong with that.
Armored wankball??? LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111122222222222233333333333333
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I vote for that to become the new official name of the sport :lol:
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I knew the humor of Armored Wankball wouldn't be lost you guys across the pond - unfortuantely most of my countrymen don't get it
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A) Armored wankball doesn't have more scoring, it's just 7 points or 3 points per score depending on nature
B) basketball scoring = oh look, i tossed the ball over my opponants head into a ring, w00t I can do a dog trick
ok whens the last time youve watched some good college or pro football, scoring is damn near always in the 20-30 range
and being a college basketball player im gonna say **** you, you try to make in the hoop from 15 feet away with someone covering you. Until then shut the **** up if you dont know what youre talking about.
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Armoured wankball = YooEssAy footie- NFL etc?
Ahah Now the laughter has tripled Muahahaha!
Its just rugby with pads and cheerleaders.
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Truth is Football is probably more violent than AW. But for now, time to see if the french can get their old legs into high gear against the swiss.
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i've played basketball
omg boring 2ez n00b next :D
rugby with pads? nad that would be more respectible - it's wankball
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Official Wnkball thread 2006 coming soon.......
I'm gonna use that phrase until i die now. I will only call NFL armoured wankball, even if i'm stared down by a USMC Gunny.
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ok Kaz, id like to see you play some real competition and then see how easy it is, playing with 10 year olds doesnt count
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lol k theres a character named General Dekker in there some of us know, thought youd gotten a promotion or somthin :p
Seems more likely that he named himself after the character from the A-Team :)
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nono i meant like an actual person named General Dekker(its an mmorpg) not an actual character from a story
but youre right though :p
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Is France that bad or are the Swiss this decent?
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France was definitely that bad. By far the worst game of the cup so far, entertainment wise. No speed, no inspiration, just 93 minutes of mindnumbing boredom accentuated by moments of sheer slightly-less-boredness. Neither of those teams deserve to advance, that's for sure.
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Well, that was ****ing turgid.
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woot Brazil is on next
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i'll be out of the thread until after i view that game
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Who they playing?
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Probably a good idea. What kind of time delay are they showing the matches at over there?
[Edit] Croatia
[Edit 2] Whoa... they've always had some chequered pattern on their shirts, but damn... this time round you could play a game of chess on each of those guys :p Might be a tactical advantage though, kind of a zebra effect when closely packed...
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its live here, but he may be at work or taping it or sommat
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Probably a good idea. What kind of time delay are they showing the matches at over there?
[Edit] Croatia
[Edit 2] Whoa... they've always had some chequered pattern on their shirts, but damn... this time round you could play a game of chess on each of those guys :p Might be a tactical advantage though, kind of a zebra effect when closely packed...
FIFA ordered the Croats to have less white on their shirt, apparently.
EDIT; well, that was a screamer. I feel sorry for Croatia, they've been playing so well.
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very very nice shot
Roberto Carlos takes a lot of shots
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Yeah, real good goal. Croatia may be down, but if they can keep that play up they're definitely not out yet.
[Edit] Nice security there :p Guards every 10m, yet the guy manages to get past them, over the adverts, across the whole field, over the adverts on the other side, past those guards, and manages to kiss the feet of the Croatian manager before being escorted from the field. That guy would rule at Armoured Wankball, noone could ever stop him.
Superb effort by the Croats. Deserved a draw at the very least. Brazil was a bit disappointing though, plently of skill but not much spirit or willingness to work for it. Good game :)
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Shiiiiit... That second spot is looking mighty difficult for the Socceroos all of a sudden...
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Well, that was ****ing turgid.
I agree wholeheartedly, it was a pain to watch. I think since both teams know each other so well from the qualification , that they effectively nullified each other to a point where no actual gameplay was happening.
But hey, a point is a point ;)
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eh....
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Ah, I was talking about the France : Switzerland match, not the Brazil game.
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yeahyeah so was i, that about how i felt about it... eh
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Colonol Dekkers from Wing Commander 4 onwards,
Brazil played god aweful.
Switerland were too defensive, And Thursdya should be good fuun.
PS- I hope Poland beat the Germans..
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Wow. Spain look strong as hell. 2-0 in 17 minutes. Ukraine needs to switch up a couple of gears or this will be a total rout.
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Hmm the Ukraine switching up a gear,............... :no: :lol:
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They're good as a team, and players like Shevchenko are no joke to be up against. They just don't look it at the moment against Spain. Spain does seem to have switched down a gear after their 2nd goal, but they are still dangerous, still maintain like 70% possession and aren't letting anyone get too close to the goal.
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Spain are flying.
I got coverage over IPTV at work :D
Unfortunately, it's ESPN, so the commentary is vapid, uninformative tosh. And there are loads of adverts and a stupid bar cluttering the screen.
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Nice, score one for football over work :p
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yeah unless its in high def i always watch it on the Spanish speaking channel
why isnt Cesc Fabregas playing?(not like hes really needed)
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Well, the ref just sealed the game for Spain. 3-nil, on a penalty. With a red card for Ukraine... in probably the worth call of any ref in this tournament so far. There was hardly any contact between the defender and the striker, and the spaniard didn't even try to fake anything, he just tripped over the keeper. Spain would've got 3-nil anyway sooner or later they way they are playing, but that doesn't make it better.
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It's a pity having a playback system would break the flow of play, but then, in this day and age, the Ref could more or less carry round a handheld and review the last few seconds from any camera angle he so chose before making a decision.
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yeah - i think the FA just doesn't want to turn this into Armored Wankball with their 10minutes of review of a 3 second play
and they're right
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True, I'd certainly rule out review by appeal, because every decision is appealed in Football.
Ah well :)
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I agree with all that :nod: Just sucks when you're on the recieving end of a misjudgement like that. At least it didn't affect the result, I see no way the Ukranians could have gotten back into the game regardless of what happened - Spain are just too superior in all facets of the game. not to mention, still hungry... 3 goals doesn't seem to satisfy them one bit. If I was going to encounter spain later and was watching this game, I would be scared. Very, very, scared.
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True, I'd certainly rule out review by appeal, because every decision is appealed in Football Armored Wankball.
Ah well :)
corrected
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4-nil. Absolutely phenomenal goal, just... wow.
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Brilliant, both Puyol and Casillas are in my fantasy World Cup team :D
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why can't the USA have these
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/fifa/gen/afp/20060614/i/1289712778.jpg)
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Cos otherwise you would be spanish :P
You have cheerleaders and Sorority girls, stop hogging all the good stuff :D
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why can't the USA have these
[]http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/fifa/gen/afp/20060614/i/1289712778.jpg[/]
Just be glad you're not going to be at Saudi-Tunisia, I guess :D
EDIT; oh jesus, it's actual american commentators. They are ****ing awful..... truly, truly terrible. Already made a mistake about Roger Lemerres' history, mispronounced the name of Tunisia (and Nuremburg), and used the word 'slammed'. Oh, and I don't want to know 'this portion of the match is brought to you by T-Mobile' - I don't give a ****!. And the bizarre, overexcited and entirely meaningless summation of a player falling down in the box.
It is physically painful to listen to.
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watch it Galavision, you cant understand the guy but he sure makes the **** sound exciting
and do they not have good dental work in Spain some of those chicks teeth are hooked man
as far as fans go, id rather have the drunk chick with the hot friends
(http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20060608/capt.xfll10606081631.wcup_world_cup_soccer_brazil__xfll106.jpg)
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Last week, I never would've thought a game between Saudi Arabia and Tunisia could be 15x as entertaining as France vs Switzerland, but there you have it... not pretty or well played, but decently entertaining.
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well Poland just blew my prediction of Ecuador winning Group A by giving up that extra time goal
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Germany seemed a lot worse than the opener. I can't help but wonder if they were slightly unsettled by the presence of Ballack.
Odonkor, though, should surely be a starter for the next game and beyond?
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IS anyones office showing the game cos E+Y are ummin and arring about it.........
"Fuming<<<
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Germany did disappoint... often lacked imagination when attacking. Almost like all the other players thought "Hey, Ballack's back, let's all just leave it to him and relax a bit". Which won't get them far. In fact Germany in this game was a lot like England in their first game, they did have the upper hand but just didn't know how to get anything out of it short of outside intervention, be it a red card or an own goal.
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IS anyones office showing the game cos E+Y are ummin and arring about it.........
"Fuming<<<
Well, i'm watching Coasta Reeka play in Humburg on IPTV ESPN, with Whan-chope up front for the Coasta Reekans. They seem to be under the impression Coasta Reeka and Ecuador play regularly, despite them being in entirely different confederations.
And some good circulation of the ball by Ecuador there, whatever that means.
Oh, and Ecuado scored. Like a 'quick counter-punch', apparently. 'Bang', it would seem. Very excitable, these lot.
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You're not actually serious, are you? They don't actually talk like that... do they? Please say no and save my sanity.
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Did anyone else see the ads for Budweiser (pissweiser more like) "
You do the football, We'll do the beer?"
Is that the states team?
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You're not actually serious, are you? They don't actually talk like that... do they? Please say no and save my sanity.
I'm afraid so.
A 'play' has just been ruled offside for Coasta Reeka. Apparently Ecuador are putting on a 'clinic' (the summariser said that twice, now; I think he should be in a clinic) and 'eliciting frustration' with their pesses. This section of the match is being brought thanks to T-Mobile.
Oh, and some 'great lateral cover' there (i.e. defender covered the ball).
Like nails down a blackboard.
EDIT; did you know, you become a Cinderella team by coming out of nowhere and winning a knock-out game? Oh, and that's some great 'officiating' there by the referee.
EDIT; oh god, now we've just had a trailer for the 'Kia Half Time analysis' cover half the screen, replete with some brief banter as to how amusing/great the name 'Rhys Davies' is. This section of the match is being brought to you by Kia. And some more screen-obscuring ads & stats (just a quarter of the screen, now), replete with incredibly annoying transition noises.
And Roger Gomez has been 'tackled away'.
EDIT; he's SHOUTING because the deflection has HIT THE POST! (only noticing that this had happened a good minute after it had pinged away, and 5 minutes later that the keeper had saved it). The summariser has gone a wee bit hoarse from shouting. And now they're talking about a Us player scoring from a similar position in 2002, and trailing 'one of the worlds great soacker nations' Italy, who have Toayti. This section of the match is brought to you by Adidas.
(de la Cruz played for 'Austin' Villa apparently. Jesus.)
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Great game by Ecuador. Their match vs Germany should be quite interesting... and going by current form, I think they could actually win. I hope so anyway, I like their offensive style, we need more of that in football. Although this whole tournament so far has already delivered far more goals than is normal for the first round matches, so maybe it's a general trend towards more interesting games... one can hope anyway :)
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I think using a flyaway mouldmaster probably helped, too :D
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Sure you weren't watching wrestling? Would explain much...
[Edit] Holy ****... T&T should be ahead with that chance... that was unbelievably close. Is England trying to lose or what?
[Edit] 0-0 at the break. But T&T could have been ahead by two, definitely had the biggest chances (though not the most, by far). England look like they're all playing with a broken leg, what with that lack of pace in both running and passing they continue to display.
[Edit] England getting better finally. Now playing like a 2nd division team instead of conference league. 'Lampard shots way above the goal' count = 14ish or so... I forgot to count :p
Oohh, I think they moved up to 1st division now as I was typing that. Definite progress.
[Edit] Finally! England 1-0. About damn time... and deserved at this point as they've upped their game, but wouldn't really have been much earlier.
And 2-0. Nice to see them pick themselves up like that near the end and actually play real football.
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That was shocking. I know they won 2-0, but Crouch was awful, and so was Lampard. We should be scoring more than 2 against Trinidad and Tobago. We'll really need to step up a gear if we're going to get any further than the Quarters.
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who would yall play in the quarters assuming yall win the pool?
new power rankings from SI.com for yall to mull over
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jonah_freedman/06/15/cup.rankings/index.html
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Sweden's blowing vs Paraguay right now.
This one comes to mind...
Jebite se fudbaleri
s trzista mi ti ne seri
svi imate strasnu cenu
a serete po terenu
Rade vas k'o volove
daju vama golove
joj joj joj joj joooj
Jebite se fudbaleri
igrate k'o penzioneri
zezaju vas svi na seve
imate dve noge leve
Rade vas k'o volove
daju vama golove
joj joj joj joj joooj
Jebite se fudbaleri
igrate k'o amateri
koji li je vama kurac
niste ni za palilulac
Rade vas k'o volove
daju vama golove
joj joj joj joj joooj
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Paraguay are definitely smelling blood right now. Sweden look struck by what shall henceforth be called the 'england syndrome'*, plenty chances but no decent finishing whatsoever... very poor. And Paraguay are good enough to be a real threat in the other end.
* unless Sweden keep this up the whole game, then it will be the 'swedengland syndrome'.
[Edit] Hm. I thought the swedes were pretty decent in the first half, aside from not scoring. But right now they're just god-awful. It's almost embaressing.
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who would yall play in the quarters assuming yall win the pool?
new power rankings from SI.com for yall to mull over
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jonah_freedman/06/15/cup.rankings/index.html
'power' rankings
*hack spit*
(Trinidad higher than Ghana? You must be taking the piss......)
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Yay, Sweden 1-0 Paraguay. All it took was getting two strikers from the top Danish league (Elmander and Allbeck) onto the field ;7
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Cor-rikey.
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'power' rankings
*hack spit*
(Trinidad higher than Ghana? You must be taking the piss......)
haha I didnt say they were mine, I do like Spain that high though
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(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41771000/jpg/_41771998_fansgowild416.jpg)
That expresses my feelings for yesteray perfectly.........
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Perhaps I'm merely insane.
But that guy on the far right there looks like he's puking out his nose.
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There are no "Far Right" English fans ;7
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(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41771000/jpg/_41771998_fansgowild416.jpg)
What's mine is mine
What's yours is mine
You must understand
That this ain't a crime
No turning back
When you cross the line
People c'mon
Its riot time
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You know it! Safe blud' Riots are our national pastime, there was one at canary wharf last saturday too :D I dunno if it made the news but Millwall (my family team) were definately a factor..
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Argentina-Serbia next.
Replete with terrifying awful ESPN commentary (ulp)
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It's a pity you can't record the audio, it sounds quite comical, though there were some classic Capt. Obvious quotes from the ITV commentator yesterday during the English game.
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BBC or ITV is the true viewers way...... Or sky spports
ESPN = YooEssAy cackpants !! :mad:
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Oh, I don't know, 'If England hope to win, they have to score before the end of the Match' caused much hilarity yesterday where I was ;)
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Every TRUEblood football fan knows the classic>> Complete this FAMoUS quote
"Its a game of ___ _____ !!!!"
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Oh, I don't know, 'If England hope to win, they have to score before the end of the Match' caused much hilarity yesterday where I was ;)
OMG that's so funny. On par with the classic Plan 9 from OUter Space line "Inspector Clay's dead, murdered, and somebody's responsible". You can't beat over stating the blantantly obvious.
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It's a pity you can't record the audio, it sounds quite comical, though there were some classic Capt. Obvious quotes from the ITV commentator yesterday during the English game.
It is actually worse. They never, ever, shut up, ever, atall.
Whilst the constant 'England expects' references in, say, Holland vs Ivory Coast matches grate, it's like standing in dog poo versus drowning in it.
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Every TRUEblood football fan knows the classic>> Complete this FAMoUS quote
"Its a game of ___ _____ !!!!"
"TWO HALVES"
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/fifa/gen/fifa/20060610/i/1420419405.jpg)
Yet another proud fan...
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Argentina.. wow. Anyone else uncontrollably salivating at the thought of maybe seeing Spain and Argentina, in the final, both playing like they are now? Poor Serbia.
[Edit] OMFG! 5-0. If Serbia were hoping to salvage some dignity in the 2nd half, well, they failed miserably.
And it's 6-0. Colour me officially impressed as hell by those guys. That's football at the very highest level.
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6-nil.
Crikey.
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Only bad thing about the match was the producers spending way too much time on an either drunk or stoned (knowing him, probably stoned) Maradona instead of the action on the grass :p Rest was spectacular.
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Argentina put one foot into the last 16 by demolishing Serbia and Montenegro.
Maxi Rodriguez fired Argentina ahead from Javier Saviola's pass before Esteban Cambiasso rounded off a flowing 24-pass move, finishing from 12 yards.
Rodriguez added his second after sloppy defending, Hernan Crespo converted the fourth from Lionel Messi's cross and Carlos Tevez rolled home a fifth goal.
Tevez's pass set up Messi to complete the rout with the sixth goal. Mateja Kezman had earlier been sent off.
[edit too paste 'Doh]
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Told you so. Argentina demonstrated a near perfect game today, and they really play as a team, even the big name players aren't egoistic when they're storming towards the goal. If they keep playing like this, they can beat Brazil.
The red card against Serbia was quistionable, not that it would have changed anything.
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Well guys, it's been nice knowing you. I'm going off to a deserted island to hide my shame, away from civilized society, like a leper only much, much worse. I'll probably drink myself into the grave within a month or two, trying desperately to forget the yawning abyss of cruel defeat which is forever etched in to my soul.
/love, life, everything
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No shame in being beaten by a better team. Argentina was just flying today, anyone would have lost to them, Brazil included. And if that doesn't help, you can always blame it on Montenegro or something.
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Rictor, make sure you have an extra, I'll be joining you shortly.
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Well guys, it's been nice knowing you. I'm going off to a deserted island to hide my shame, away from civilized society, like a leper only much, much worse. I'll probably drink myself into the grave within a month or two, trying desperately to forget the yawning abyss of cruel defeat which is forever etched in to my soul.
/love, life, everything
Oh, you're coming to Scotland?
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Oh, you're coming to Scotland?
Jockanese refugee alert !!
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Though I will say that the ref was clearly biased in favour of Argentina. They took dives twice when we were in their box, obvious ones too, and he let it go. He have us a yellow when our own player was fouled. And so on. Which is not saying that Argetina would otherwise have lost, but they probably wouldn't have won so thoroughly.
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Woehoe!!! HOLLAND!!!
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I'm hoping for a win by the Ivory Cost, just because they're clearly the underdogs. Who knows what could happen in the 2nd half...
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wow....6-0 asskicking....i cant even score that many in the video game, very impressive
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Time to pull the keg open!:D
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oh the Darkage I remember didnt need an excuse to have a keg already there and tapped :p
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Felt pretty sorry for the Ivory Coast. They didn't deserve to go out based on the two matches they've played.
As for the Angola vs Mexico game even as a England supporter I was pissed off that ITV choose to completely ignore the half-time analysis in favour of yet more speculation about the England vs Sweden match. Just shut the **** up about it and talk about the match we're actually watching!
As for the result. Well so much for Angola being the groups whipping boys. They could actually still qualify. If Portugal beat Mexico then it comes down to goal difference. And the Portuguese probably wouldn't mind helping Angola qualify either :)
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What kara said.
Except the 'even as an England supporter' bit, of course.
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Tomorrow I can watch the US play Ital, but unfortunately it is not on until 3 am.
Personally, I'm betting that the US will get creamed. Italy is a very tough team and considering how poorly the US played against the Czechs, I just don't see how they can win.
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The big US chance as I see it is that the Italians could have seen them play the Czechs and expect a walkover. Arrogance has felled many a good team, and the Italians have shown a tendancy towards it before. If the US can pick up their play - and we certainly didn't see them at their best in their first match - and Italy doesn't play at 100%, then just maybe they could surprise us.
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The big US chance as I see it is that the Italians could have seen them play the Czechs and expect a walkover. Arrogance has felled many a good team, and the Italians have shown a tendancy towards it before. If the US can pick up their play - and we certainly didn't see them at their best in their first match - and Italy doesn't play at 100%, then just maybe they could surprise us.
Before they played the Americans, the Czechs did say "we will win". I'm not sure they played 100% either.
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Well, Ghana look like they want to give the US a hand... they might get by with a draw vs Italy and win vs Ghana if this 1-0 lead holds.
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Ghana played incredibly well. They won 2-0.
If Ghana keeps playing like this, even if the US does get a chance to play them I doubt the US could win.
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Well done Ghana, they were superb. I thought that would be a really interesting match, actually, with Ghanas sheer pace and athletecism against a slower but more measured Czech team.
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Now this is more like it from the Americans. Playing an aggressive game instead of the passive and uninspired crap from their first match. This could get interesting :)
And agree about Ghana, they were great in that match, while the Czechs looked nothing like they did in their first match.
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They're pressing the Italians really well, and the Italians simply can't get the space they need in midfield - especially as they lack real width.
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Wow. That ought to have been a goal right there... had the aim been good, the goalie would've been sold. Awesome so far.
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Encouraging from a Scottish point of view, too; I remember us playing a similar game in the 1-1 draw at Hampden, and if Italy remain vulnerable to an agresively pressing team, it bodes well for (our very, very outside chance in) the qualifiers.
EDIT; sod that, 1-nil Italy. Abysmal defending, good finish, typical Italian &, well, undeserved. This will get very interesting, what with the Italian tradition of counter-attacking.
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Definitely undeserved... but they messed up on defense and you just can't do that against a team like Italy.
[Edit] And a straight red for Italy, following a move that belongs nowhere outside a boxing ring. That was deserved. A full hour for the US against 10 italians. Oh, and 1-1 too ;)
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What the **** was DeRossi thinking? :D
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Well, I don't know what McBride said about his mother... but it worked like a charm :p
[Edit] And now what wtf was that guy thinking? You're up a man, it's far from your own goal, it's nearly half time, and then you go straight for the legs drawing a straight red. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And deserved, too... that could have broken an ancle.
So 1-1, and 10 vs 10.
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It's still 1-1 at half time with 2 red cards: 1 from Italy because he nailed an American player with a elbow and 1 from America with a nasty slide tackle.
The Americans didn't really score either, an Italian messed up and accidently scored for them.
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US have been the better team so far, although it's been in the sense (IMO) of stopping the italians play rather than perhaps playing through themselves. Both deserved red cards, I think (having the replays). 1st was obvious, 2nd because it was lunge in that could have easily broke Pirlos' ankle.
That was a hilarious OG, though :D
10 vs 9; Pope sent off for a 2nd yellow.
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I nearly pissed myself laughing at that OG :D
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Well, the US team just needs to last until Italy get reduced to 9. Shouldn't take long the way this game is panning out ::)
[Edit] Wow, that was one weird match. And entertaining. Americans definitely redeemed their honour with that performance.
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Crikey.
That was just weird.
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And funny as hell :D
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1-1, tie game
The US did play defense a lot better......but they really did play dirty. I saw many cases of American defenders grabbing and holding Italian players. I think the referees let them get away with a little too much.
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FIFA needs to hang its head in shame. terrible refs... first red was obvious, but all the rest, definately not.
I definately see a case of anti-american bias here.... In the first half, everything was called, second half, nothing. terrible.
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Oh dear. I hope we're not getting into the 'blame the ref' syndrome here.
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aldo, let me know when you go to see the eye doctor. because obviously you need a pair of glasses.
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Did anyone else catch Clive Tyldsley screaming Equaliser on the USA's disallowed goal? (which should have stood, IMO)
The US did better than I'd thought they would.
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Oh dear. I hope we're not getting into the 'blame the ref' syndrome here.
Italy didn't play particularly well, but that doesn't excuse the way the US played during the second half.
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The 2nd red was clear as day. Studs directly on the ancle and nowhere near the ball, he slaughtered him in that tackle. Anytime, anyday, that's a straight red. But it didn't even need to be, that player already had a yellow so no matter what he'd have been gone. I think the ref actually managed about as well as one could expect for a game with that level of sheer weirdness and confusion.
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aldo, let me know when you go to see the eye doctor. because obviously you need a pair of glasses.
Right, very good comeback there. *slow handclap*
Hmm... let me think.
Ankle-high lunging tackle. And a 2nd booking for pulling someone else down outside the box.
The US did very well to hold on, may I add.
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I'll grant it did resemble speedball more than football at times, but hence the cards. 2nd half was simply a fight for both sides, and aside from the situations that were punished it wasn't that rough.
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It was tenacious more than dirty, I think, although I do remember one bit where Iaquinta was very close to getting a penalty for his shirt being tugged. Amazingly, he didn't take the opportunity to have a wee dive.
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Game like that... Kazan's going to be.... back. But I don't think US can realistically still qualify the way Ghana's been playing of late.
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not thanks to those red cards, no.
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Not really an excuse, mind you, given that Ghana will also be missing a couple of really good players in Gyan and Muntari.
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wow that own goal.... :sigh: lol
USA played better than I thought could, good on em
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wow that own goal.... :sigh: lol
USA played better than I thought could, good on em
Yeah, they did themselves real credit with that, for much of the 2nd half it wasn't obvious which team had the man less.
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The 2nd red was clear as day. Studs directly on the ancle and nowhere near the ball, he slaughtered him in that tackle. Anytime, anyday, that's a straight red. But it didn't even need to be, that player already had a yellow so no matter what he'd have been gone. I think the ref actually managed about as well as one could expect for a game with that level of sheer weirdness and confusion.
i have a clear replay - Pablo's studs were down, he came in from the side and he got the ball
same thing with eddie pope
this referee has been suspended in the past for "irregularities" - we just found out what they are - in no previous match of this world cup, in no match I have ever seen, would those have been bookable offenses
a stern warning to be careful perhaps, but not bookable offenses
check his bank accounts
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Check the replay again. The ball was passed away a full second before contact was made. Not tackled away. Passed. By the Italian. Then Mastroeni comes flying into the picture and takes the ancle. And that's rightfully a red card.
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oh for Gods' sake, get a grip. 1-1 for any team with a man down vs Italy is a tremendous result, and you're throwing about these bizarre allegations?
The very fact that you think he got the ball in the first tackle (Mastroeni) is not only visibly wrong but against the law of physics, because the ball had already left Pirlos foot. See how it rolls about 90 degrees opposite to the angle of Mastroenis' lunge? That's because Pirlo kicked it already.
Tell you what, get your replay/s, and post it.
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yeah against the laws of physics when my SD replay and another person, who has an HD replay and agrees with you that a card was deserved said pablo touched it
shouldn't have been a red card. period. yellow - ok whatever, but not a red
second yellow against Pope - total BS - contact was shin guard to shin guard, studs on the cleats down and away from the player, solid ball contact
should have been a USA win, hands down
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should have been a USA win, hands down
Oh well, you win some, you lose some. It's how you play the game that matters, no?
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Since someone in this thread seems to be grouchy now, I'll just spread whatever's left of my joy around...
WE WON!! :D
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should have been a USA win, hands down
How do you figure?
Our attacks on goal were a joke at best, were lucky that defender(#2 cant remember his name) hit that ball with some wicked spin and the Italians played pisspoor in the 2nd half or else we'd have another L in our record
the Italians were shorthanded for a good while during the game and I saw nothing from us to try to take advantage of that.
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wow, not sure what game you were watching but I saw tremendous heart from the USA team, they finally played like a world class club for the first time. lets not forget that they are playing a much better (on paper) team, and with only 9 men on a side. I think they did very well and had some good opportunities, but the offside they had and the fact they were tired did them in as well.
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you misunderstood, i never said they didnt play without heart, but there runs on the goal were nothing to be worried about by the Italian defense
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Oh and just in case you missed it here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM5qsu1W2PQ) Christian Zaccardo putting one in the net in the USA vs Italy game. Shame it was his own net but you can't have everything can you Zaccardo? :p
BTW I can't understand most of the commentary but I'm pretty sure that palermo(sp) means idiot same as it does in Portuguese so keep an ear out for the commentators calling him one :D
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Palermo is the name of an Italian city :p
Palerma is what you are looking for, but I don't think the word exists as it is in Italian. :D
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wow, not sure what game you were watching but I saw tremendous heart from the USA team, they finally played like a world class club for the first time. lets not forget that they are playing a much better (on paper) team, and with only 9 men on a side. I think they did very well and had some good opportunities, but the offside they had and the fact they were tired did them in as well.
Tremendous effort and pressing, absolutely. But I think it's fair to say they lacked just a wee bit of creativity that could have got them 2-1 up when they had a man extra (for example), and I'm not sure exactly how many shots on target they had.
Offside was definately, er, offside, though, because McBride (I believe) clearly blocked Buffons view of the shot. It's not too dissimilar to Gattusos' 'goal', in that sense (the offside decision affecting the keeper).
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What is going on with Brazil? They're playing like a third rate team... the aussies are so going to win this (or atleast get a draw) if something doesn't change. And very good effort by them, constantly pressing the person with the ball, and quite effective in bringing the ball forward on the offense. Hope they win, would be cool :)
[Edit] Guess they listened. Much more spirit over the brazilian play after halftime, and a very nice 1-0 goal.
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Yeah baby go Brasil!!!! 2-0
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Bad luck to the Ozzies, though, they played well. Brazil still have to find their top gear; I've seen them play far better in the qualifiers, where they were simply outstanding.
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Man, the French truly are screwed. I bet they're kicking themselves for not taking Guily, too.
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They're lucky as hell to be in that group. Any other and they'd be out for sure with the play (well, lack of play) they've shown. And even in group G they may very well still not make it.
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Of course, if Togo win, then it's entirely open.
If Togo even play, that is.
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Was anyone else in danger of breaking ribs from laughing when Korea scored? :lol:
I've always said that its the height of stupidity to defend a 1-0 lead for half a game and yet again my point has been proved. They had warnings from the Koreans mere moments before the goal went in and underestimating a team which reached the semi-finals in the previous Cup doesn't exactly put me in a sympathetic mood towards them.
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I'm just amazed at Advocaat doing something competently.
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Err - hold on... this should have been 2 - 1, France win. Yet more piss poor ref action
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No idea why they haven't started using something more advanced than the mk1 eyeball to determine whether the ball has crossed the line or not.
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Am I the only one who thinks Otto Pfister looks like a dirty old man sitting there with his shirt half-off?
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mk1 eyeball
Don't you keep up on the evolution thread? We're on mk57 at the very least by now, mk1 would only be able to tell whether it was night or day ;)
Nice game by Switzerland. Looked a bit pressed in the first half despite the goal, but in the 2nd they really came through. And good to see a team actually trying to get another goal instead of just defending, to the point of adding another striker.
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I think Togo went to sleep after the first half. Most of my sympathy for them (for the disallowed penalty) evaporated when with 10 minutes of the game left they still didn't seem to have realised that they would go out if they lost this game.
Oh well. With luck they'll still prevent the French from progressing and it won't have all been in vain :D
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Well Korea did alright widda one-one draw twards teh end.
I reckon france will have a bit of a rough run these next few games..
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I think I went to sleep after the first half.......
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Japan on Sunday was a laugh, They're violent little bessahs, I saw one of 'em shove a bloke over for approachinging within 2 feet.
"DESIST YOUR ADVANCE OR IT WIL BE TAKEN AS AN ACT OF AGGRESSION!!"
"wtf?"
"HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
"thud"
"MUAHAHAHAHA"
"yellow card"
" :("
Total class.
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:lol:
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WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
(http://is.blick.ch/img/gen/v/C/HBvCDMDH_Pxgen_r_333xA.jpg)
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Good effort by Ukraine so far. On a cheap background, certainly, but still puts the spanish victory into perspective... it was not a bad team they beat, and they beat them big time.
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Spain 3-1 Tunisia - What. A. Game! That had everything. Spain definitely deserved the win, but Tunisia definitely also deserved their goal. It'll be a while before I forget this match... now how the hell do I wind down so I can get some sleep this night? :p Just... wow.
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WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
(http://is.blick.ch/img/gen/v/C/HBvCDMDH_Pxgen_r_333xA.jpg)
what does it say
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what does it say
"Wanna change shirt with me ?"
And "Köbi" (around her bellybutton) is the nickname of our coach.
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lol crazy fans ^^
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Some USA fan at Italy v USA had "Patriot Missile" painting on his chest w/ an arrow pointong down
some people were dressed up as minutemen, others as uncle sam
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Hmm. Next time I go to a football game I'l bring a spare shirt with "Yes!" painted on it, just in case she shows up ;)
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hey guys, remember football isn't a contact sport!
(http://soccer.sportsnet.tsn.ca/images/stories/20060617/Mcbride_67618.jpg)
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It is a contact sport.
Just not elbow-face contact :D
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the comment was a dig at Armored Wankball fans saying football isn't a contact sport
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Heh. There's a lot more contact in football simply by virtue of them actually playing for most of the 90 minutes instead of standing still plotting for 8 out of every 10. And getting by a defense without losing the ball is not entirely dissimilar from wrestling :p
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exactly
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Germany just beat Equador 3-0.
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(http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=tbn:U2qODrykaQ4LzM:www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/images/brooks_m_pic2.jpg)
Its about time they had a reason to celebrate......
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No real surprise there. Nicely played match by the Germans, but there was no real competition after the early goal.
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Owen already out !!! Damn....
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Yeah, what was that about? Not a Swede in sight, just a pass and then something went wrong as he was stopping his run - hope it's not as serious as the stretcher made it seem :blah:
On the plus side, nice aggressive start by both sides.
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That goal was Divine. The rest has been uninspiring.
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That goal was Divine. The rest has been uninspiring.
Yes, it was a peach.
Bugger.
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wheres the pics of the hot english ladies ?
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wheres the pics of the hot english ladies ?
Oooh, you might struggle there.
(sound of glasshouse shattering)
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Congrats England on the group win :) Getting points looked a bit iffy at times during the second half but they did well to come through. Of course, the fact that Sweden was dominated in the first half even more than they dominated the second is also part of the story... night and day really for both teams. Draw was a fair result imo.
[Edit] Oh yeah, anyone know more about what happened with Owen? Our commentators never really followed up on it after he was carried off, but I imagine the british ones would be rather more interested in getting information on him.
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Congrats England on the group win :) Getting points looked a bit iffy at times during the second half but they did well to come through. Of course, the fact that Sweden was dominated in the first half even more than they dominated the second is also part of the story... night and day really for both teams. Draw was a fair result imo.
[Edit] Oh yeah, anyone know more about what happened with Owen? Our commentators never really followed up on it after he was carried off, but I imagine the british ones would be rather more interested in getting information on him.
Possibly knee ligament damage.
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Doh. That would be bad :blah: He's the kind of player that can make a game worth watching when playing his best.
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bye bye limeys
Ecudar 3 - Limeys 0
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Ecuador.
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One of our commentators kept making it sound like Equator. Think he's got a few things mixed up...
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One of our commentators kept making it sound like Equator. Think he's got a few things mixed up...
I had the misfortune of seeing a game on ESPN (IPTV) where the commentator insisted on pronouncing tunisia as 'Ton-ees-ey-ah'.
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lol ! As we all know, it's TOO - KNEE - SEEE - YER. :nervous: :nod:
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bye bye limeys
Ecudar 3 - Limeys 0
not how they played against the Germans today
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England 1 - Ecuador nil
USA nil - Ghana 2
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DOUBLE POST :nervous:
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Wow. Well done England. As usual.
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wheres the pics of the hot english ladies ?
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/graphics/2005/05/11/f0.jpg)
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England 1 - Ecuador nil
USA nil - Ghana 2
remove your head from your arse
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England 1 - Ecuador nil
USA nil - Ghana 2
remove your head from your arse
He's just saying the scores, I didn't pick up any cynicism/sarcy remarks from it :eek2:
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England 1 - Ecuador nil
USA nil - Ghana 2
remove your head from your arse
He's just saying the scores, I didn't pick up any cynicism/sarcy remarks from it :eek2:
stupid call bolded for emphasis
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stupid call bolded for emphasis
Eh? It's a perfectly valid prediction; the Czechs gubbed USA, Ghana swept past the Czechs, ergo it is perfectly reasonable to expact a Ghana victory vs a team worse than the Czech republic, particularly given Ghanas' confidence justnow.
Moreso, a customary check of the bookies makes Ghana favourites to win.
Just because you disagree doesn't make it stupid.
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Eh? It's a perfectly valid prediction; the Czechs gubbed USA, Ghana swept past the Czechs, ergo it is perfectly reasonable to expact a Ghana victory vs a team worse than the Czech republic, particularly given Ghanas' confidence justnow.
actually it's not - it's lacking in depth analysis
Moreso, a customary check of the bookies makes Ghana favourites to win.
sorry euro bookies opinions on USA mean squat - they've been wrong far more often then they've been right
Just because you disagree doesn't make it stupid.
you presuming that i called it stupid "Simply because I disagree" makes you the moron, not I.
I called it stupid because it is clearly lacking of any KNOWLEDGE
USA match v czech republic was a very odd exception to the rule - they didn't show up on the pitch at all, it's a stasticial outlier - chuck it from your figuring
USA v Italy was more violent than a normal match - the high intensity of play is typical but overzealous carding is not.
Italy v Ghana showed italy spanking ghana 2-0, USA tied Italy 1-1 a man down on italy
Ghana v Czech Republic showed again that Czech Republic v USA was a oddball match
Czech Republic lost Jens Koller to injury, possible others to cards (dunno)
Italy is missing De Rossi - not enough to cost them v Czech
Ghana is missing both of it's strikers that scored on Czech Republic in the match v USA
USA is missing Pablo (important player, but we can live without him) and Pope (can be lived without)
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http://www.willhill.com/iibs/en/buildcoupon.asp?couponChoice=WC1306084 (http://www.willhill.com/iibs/en/buildcoupon.asp?couponChoice=WC1306084)
http://www.coral.co.uk/sb.go?page=grouppage&groupid=113521&lang=20&sid=20&ms=MS (http://www.coral.co.uk/sb.go?page=grouppage&groupid=113521&lang=20&sid=20&ms=MS)
http://www.oddschecker.com/betting/mode/o/card/worldcup2006-worldcupteamspecials/odds/2342383x/sid/894965 (http://www.oddschecker.com/betting/mode/o/card/worldcup2006-worldcupteamspecials/odds/2342383x/sid/894965)
Teh third one in particular,...................
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sorry euro bookies opinions on USA mean squat - they've been wrong far more often then they've been right
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sorry euro bookies opinions on USA mean squat - they've been wrong far more often then they've been right
Yes, because so many bookies are going bankrupt justnow.......... :sigh:
Oh well, go back into your box or wherever you work up justifications for insulting people based on their opinions differing.
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This is a US site, at least ours include other teams :D
http://www.betus.com/sportsbook/Soccer-lines.asp (http://www.betus.com/sportsbook/Soccer-lines.asp)
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US bookies know less about US soccer than european bookies :lol: - europeans as a whole underestimate us, US bookies don't understand the sport!
PS: give me odds in a format I can farking read
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LMAO,......... Umm
Here we go, all the yank sites are weird, Thsi is easy enough, Please dont ask for an explanation otherwise i may scream...............
http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/worldcup/winner.php (http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/worldcup/winner.php)
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not only do i not give a rats about winning the whole thing, I've already said bookies mean exactly jack to me even when I can read their bullocks
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So, its not just euro bookies as you previously stated, but ALL bookies... I see. Well, good luck with that then.
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LMAO,......... Umm
Here we go, all the yank sites are weird, Thsi is easy enough, Please dont ask for an explanation otherwise i may scream...............
http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/worldcup/winner.php (http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/worldcup/winner.php)
Look, it's become obvious he's not going to accept any odds (or indeed opinion) you give that don't explicitly agree with him, so I wouldn't even try to bother.
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you know ive never cheered agasint my own country, but god i hope they lose so youll shut up
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Look, it's become obvious he's not going to accept any odds (or indeed opinion) you give that don't explicitly agree with him, so I wouldn't even try to bother.
no i'm not going to accept baseless opinion that shows no analysis
i've posted my analysis - if you want to have a difference of opinion then attempt to point to flaws in my analysis and we'll discuess them, otherwise stfu
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LMAO,......... Umm
Here we go, all the yank sites are weird, Thsi is easy enough, Please dont ask for an explanation otherwise i may scream...............
http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/worldcup/winner.php (http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/worldcup/winner.php)
Look, it's become obvious he's not going to accept any odds (or indeed opinion) you give that don't explicitly agree with him, so I wouldn't even try to bother.
That? No this wasnt just for whoever, but it was for everyone :D
Also, Kazan so we have to disprove your view to have our own............
How very American of you dear chap ;)
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So, its not just euro bookies as you previously stated, but ALL bookies... I see. Well, good luck with that then.
No, look it's really easy. Nobody but Kazan understands the infinit complexity that is football. Ergo everybody stating an opinion differing from Kaz's views must be ignorant.
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No, look it's really easy. Nobody but Kazan understands the infinit complexity that is football. Ergo everybody stating an opinion differing from Kaz's views must be ignorant.
or you could stop running your mouth and attempt to argue with my analysis of the situation if you think i'm wrong
being able to make that challenge is the privaledge of having had the testicles to post my analysis and reasoning for why the USA is in a better position to win usa v ghana
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incase you missed it
USA match v czech republic was a very odd exception to the rule - they didn't show up on the pitch at all, it's a stasticial outlier - chuck it from your figuring
USA v Italy was more violent than a normal match - the high intensity of play is typical but overzealous carding is not.
Italy v Ghana showed italy spanking ghana 2-0, USA tied Italy 1-1 a man down on italy
Ghana v Czech Republic showed again that Czech Republic v USA was a oddball match
Czech Republic lost Jens Koller to injury, possible others to cards (dunno)
Italy is missing De Rossi - not enough to cost them v Czech
Ghana is missing both of it's strikers that scored on Czech Republic in the match v USA
USA is missing Pablo (important player, but we can live without him) and Pope (can be lived without)
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This is true fan science, the sort of thing people discuss down the pub, One of those discussions its just great to listen to and smile :D
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Right well its amusing the most passionate poster in this thread is a damned yank. I mean really...
As for more interesting issues, looks like Owen is definately out for a long while: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/5100516.stm
Combine that with the fact they had to pull Rooney off during the game last night (and his little strop afterwards) I'm not going to be expecting a fantastic showing from England in their next game. A solid back line could hold them up, but its going to be tight.
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Look, it's become obvious he's not going to accept any odds (or indeed opinion) you give that don't explicitly agree with him, so I wouldn't even try to bother.
no i'm not going to accept baseless opinion that shows no analysis
i've posted my analysis - if you want to have a difference of opinion then attempt to point to flaws in my analysis and we'll discuess them, otherwise stfu
I've already pointed out reasoning. right from the start of this thread, when you were predicting a 'clean sweep', I've pointed it out. And your response is basically summed up in that 'stfu'. Now, you're 'analyisis' is basically twisting every fact to suit what you've decided; US were utter ****e against the Czechs, ergo that match does not count. Ghana were superb vs that same - minus Koller - Czech side, ergo that match does not count. And soforth.
We post the consistent opinion of bookies - people who make their money through prediction - and you call it 'biased'. You really think people who, as i said, make their money from prediction are going to allow bias?
Right well its amusing the most passionate poster in this thread is a damned yank. I mean really...
As for more interesting issues, looks like Owen is definately out for a long while: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/5100516.stm
Combine that with the fact they had to pull Rooney off during the game last night (and his little strop afterwards) I'm not going to be expecting a fantastic showing from England in their next game. A solid back line could hold them up, but its going to be tight.
fortunately for them, they have probably the easiest 2nd round they could hope for.
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Ghana were superb vs that same - minus Koller - Czech side, ergo that match does not count.
I said the ghana match DOES count and implied as much - I said that ghana match was reinforcement that Czech Republic v USA was an anomaly. I pointed out that Ghana is missing their two strikers who scored against the Czechs for a reason. I was saying Ghana did well against the Czechs - but since they lost to Italy and USA tied Italy a man down that helps reinforce my s tatement that USA v Czech was an anomaly.
Right well its amusing the most passionate poster in this thread is a damned yank. I mean really...
that it is
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Ghana were superb vs that same - minus Koller - Czech side, ergo that match does not count.
I said the ghana match DOES count and implied as much - I said that ghana match was reinforcement that Czech Republic v USA was an anomaly. I pointed out that Ghana is missing their two strikers who scored against the Czechs for a reason. I was saying Ghana did well against the Czechs - but since they lost to Italy and USA tied Italy a man down that helps reinforce my s tatement that USA v Czech was an anomaly.
Or, Italy vs USA was an anomoly.
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@Kazan:
Ok.
First, You're making the assumption that the USA vs Czech. Rep. match was a big exception. But stating that usually the US would have been better is more wishful thinking. That's the harsh reality of the WC, either you're up to the pressure and show your best game, or you don't. The US team didn't in the first game, which for the rest of the world wasn't a surprise, because the US still has the reputation of a nobody in the world of football.
Further, have you followed the EC 2004 ? If yes, you should know that the Czechs clearly outclass the US team, and thus it's more the Czech. Rep. vs Ghana match, that is the oddball. Or rather that Ghana is better than expected.
Also, all your predictions are pure speculation. If you followed any previous WC, you should know that reasonable rules don't apply to the WC.
And at last, there really is no reason to use that many sweary words in your posts. All it does, is make you look like an ill-tempered 15 year old fanboi, which we know you're not. So, cool it down a little.
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I don't give a rip about the world's estimation of the US MNT because it's been proven wrong multiple times - WC2002 we drove to the quarter finals and barely lost to germany in a tight match in which the germany press declared that the better team lost.
that should have gained us some respect, but nope you keep writing us off.
I'm also taking something into account that the rest of you probably aren't - the send off series.
In the Send off Series we played 3 friendlies - one against a team that played in Czech's style, one against a team that played Italy's style and one against a team that played Ghana's style
we lost to the team that played czech's style (1-0), we beat the other two - thus far the pattern has held true (i consider the Italy v USA match holding with that because we would have won on an even playing field)
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I don't give a rip about the world's estimation of the US MNT because it's been proven wrong multiple times - WC2002 we drove to the quarter finals and barely lost to germany in a tight match in which the germany press declared that the better team lost.
That's the same press that stated that the ref in US vs Italy made everything right.
In the Send off Series we played 3 friendlies - one against a team that played in Czech's style, one against a team that played Italy's style and one against a team that played Ghana's style
we lost to the team that played czech's style (1-0), we beat the other two - thus far the pattern has held true (i consider the Italy v USA match holding with that because we would have won on an even playing field)
Care to elaborate what teams those were ?
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That's the same press that stated that the ref in US vs Italy made everything right.
they're not always correct - that pablo red card was inconsistent with every other card issued for that same tackle, and worse versions of it, in every other match in this world cup including matches refereed by the same ref
Care to elaborate what teams those were ?
Morocco 1-0 L
Venezuela 2-0 W
Latvia 1-0 W
we were playing with our lineup and figuring out the best combos, etc
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I'm also taking something into account that the rest of you probably aren't - the send off series.
In the Send off Series we played 3 friendlies - one against a team that played in Czech's style, one against a team that played Italy's style and one against a team that played Ghana's style
we lost to the team that played czech's style (1-0), we beat the other two - thus far the pattern has held true (i consider the Italy v USA match holding with that because we would have won on an even playing field)
What Style are you talking about, and a team playing those styles isn't playing those teams, not the same players and not in the same class!
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What Style are you talking about, and a team playing those styles isn't playing those teams, not the same players and not on the same class!
::) :wtf:
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I'm also taking something into account that the rest of you probably aren't - the send off series.
In the Send off Series we played 3 friendlies - one against a team that played in Czech's style, one against a team that played Italy's style and one against a team that played Ghana's style
we lost to the team that played czech's style (1-0), we beat the other two - thus far the pattern has held true (i consider the Italy v USA match holding with that because we would have won on an even playing field)
I believe Wobble wants to know what style you are reffering to.
As do i :D
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Morocco 1-0 L
Venezuela 2-0 W
Latvia 1-0 W
we were playing with our lineup and figuring out the best combos, etc
In a stunning, seemingly unrelated coincidence, all those teams are far worse than their world cup counterparts, making the actual result rather worthless when you consider things like, ooh, the ability of individual players.
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You may think those teams play the same style, but they're all inferior to Czech Rep. and Italy (Ghana is a blank paper).
The Pablo red card has been debated at good length. So you already know that you're the only one around here who thinks that way.
Not giving a red card in another game because the ref didn't see it clearly doesn't make the foul any less red card-worthy.
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I'm also taking something into account that the rest of you probably aren't - the send off series.
In the Send off Series we played 3 friendlies - one against a team that played in Czech's style, one against a team that played Italy's style and one against a team that played Ghana's style
we lost to the team that played czech's style (1-0), we beat the other two - thus far the pattern has held true (i consider the Italy v USA match holding with that because we would have won on an even playing field)
I believe Wobble wants to know what style you are reffering to.
As do i :D
Is right Dekker! ;)
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You may think those teams play the same style, but they're all inferior to Czech Rep. and Italy (Ghana is a blank paper).
thank you Captain Presumption Obvious for telling me what I already know and for presuming that I'm not taking that into my analysis
The Pablo red card has been debated at good length. So you already know that you're the only one around here who thinks that way.
not my fault you cannot read the LOTG and refuse to acknowledge that every other time that call has been made in this cup, including other times by this ref, it has only been a yellow card even for significantly more dangerous ones (like the one in Ecuador v Germany or the one in Australia v Brazil .... )
Not giving a red card in another game because the ref didn't see it clearly doesn't make the foul any less red card-worthy.
I'm talking about referees who CLEARLY see the foul, including the ref from USA v Italy, who are giving yellow cards for more severe versions of the same tackle
just admit it was a bogus makeup call and a prime example why make up calls ahve no business in football and be done with it
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That old chestnut,...
The refs getting blammed now.
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/team/stats.html?team=USA (http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/team/stats.html?team=USA)
A good artist never blames the canvas cos his paints runny.........
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Do you have a video (link) to one of those more severe fouls ?
I haven't seen the Ecuador vs Germany match.
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i'll see if i can find it - i'll describe it though
ballack passes away the ball and is up on one foot - ecuadorian slides in under ballack's lifted leg, catches his ankle and flips him - ecuadorian was 3 to 5 seconds late (as opposed to pablo's 1/2 second lateness)
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You may think those teams play the same style, but they're all inferior to Czech Rep. and Italy (Ghana is a blank paper).
thank you Captain Presumption Obvious for telling me what I already know and for presuming that I'm not taking that into my analysis
And yet you used the friendly matches as an argument why the US should have won against the Czechs ?
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And yet you used the friendly matches as an argument why the US should have won against the Czechs ?
learn to read
I said that losing to the czechs was consistent with the pattern in the friendlies - but still anomalous because of the fact that it was the first friendly and we were doing lineup playing.
IE not suprising to loose to the czechs (like 1-0 style), but playing that badly was atypical
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And yet you used the friendly matches as an argument why the US should have won against the Czechs ?
learn to read
I said that losing to the czechs was consistent with the pattern in the friendlies - but still anomalous because of the fact that it was the first friendly and we were doing lineup playing.
IE not suprising to loose to the czechs (like 1-0 style), but playing that badly was atypical
right, and you don't think the opposing teams' lineup (players and formation) might have had an impact upon that?
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Thats not how football works surely............ ;7 :lol:
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right, and you don't think the opposing teams' lineup (players and formation) might have had an impact upon that?
*sigh* please learn to read my posts (where I make reference to a certain czech player being important, and where I include who is missing from the roster as important in tommorow's games)
infact I do think the opposing teams lineup in Czech Republic v USA mattered
if they hadn't had Jens Koller to get the early goal and demoralize an already not-completely-there USA squad I think it would have been a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 game that could have gone either way
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right, and you don't think the opposing teams' lineup (players and formation) might have had an impact upon that?
*sigh* please learn to read my posts (where I make reference to a certain czech player being important, and where I include who is missing from the roster as important in tommorow's games)
infact I do think the opposing teams lineup in Czech Republic v USA mattered
if they hadn't had Jens Koller to get the early goal and demoralize an already not-completely-there USA squad I think it would have been a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 game that could have gone either way
Then why are you citing friendlies against rather poor non-qualifying teams as any sort of guide?
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Then why are you citing friendlies against rather poor non-qualifying teams as any sort of guide?
because play style matters almost as much as individual talent!
am I seriously the only person in this thread who has stepped foot on the pitch in a competative league before?
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My god he doesn't know english natives at all does he, i played for catford wanderes for at keast 2 years when i ws 15. Done a bit of rugby/footbal for the CRE in the forces and Im thinking about playing for the corporate games.
http://www.corporate-games.com/newweb/eng_pages/gamesinformation.asp?GAMESID=93&LANGUAGEID=1 (http://www.corporate-games.com/newweb/eng_pages/gamesinformation.asp?GAMESID=93&LANGUAGEID=1)
Come on really, did you think no-one from england played, its like crumpets and red busses, Football is our blood..........
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Then why are you citing friendlies against rather poor non-qualifying teams as any sort of guide?
because play style matters almost as much as individual talent!
am I seriously the only person in this thread who has stepped foot on the pitch in a competative league before?
The style with which a team plays is determined by ability. The tactics and formation within which a team plays are also determined by ability, and part of that includes the teams ability to play within that set of tactics and formation. Would the Brazilian diamond be as effective without 2 tremondously fit full backs? Or what about the Italian diamond - same basic shape, but different manner of play; instead of the fullbacks pressing up so much (especially as Zambrotta is naturally right footed but usually plays left side), Gilardino and Toni tend to spin off into the flanks and make space for someone like Totti through the middle.
This is not a dispute that organization, etc, can win a game; just look at, for example, Northern Ireland versus England. But, you can't expect to play one team with a similar set of tactics to another and then expect the same result against superior players using a similar setup. Do any of those 3 friendly teams have a Rosicky, a Nedved, or an Essien?
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This is not a dispute that organization, etc, can win a game; just look at, for example, Northern Ireland versus England.
All good points Aldo, but was that about footy or thw IRA?<confused>
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Then why are you citing friendlies against rather poor non-qualifying teams as any sort of guide?
because play style matters almost as much as individual talent!
am I seriously the only person in this thread who has stepped foot on the pitch in a competative league before?
The style with which a team plays is determined by ability. The tactics and formation within which a team plays are also determined by ability, and part of that includes the teams ability to play within that set of tactics and formation. Would the Brazilian diamond be as effective without 2 tremondously fit full backs? Or what about the Italian diamond - same basic shape, but different manner of play; instead of the fullbacks pressing up so much (especially as Zambrotta is naturally right footed but usually plays left side), Gilardino and Toni tend to spin off into the flanks and make space for someone like Totti through the middle.
This is not a dispute that organization, etc, can win a game; just look at, for example, Northern Ireland versus England. But, you can't expect to play one team with a similar set of tactics to another and then expect the same result against superior players using a similar setup. Do any of those 3 friendly teams have a Rosicky, a Nedved, or an Essien?
in my expirience overall regional style comes before individual skill in determining the style of football playedo n the pitch
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Which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual ability of the team. Otherwise Luxembourg and Holland would be equal.
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don't forget tho, freaky things happen in finals. I mean. Greece winning euro-whatever-year-it-was ?
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don't forget tho, freaky things happen in finals. I mean. Greece winning euro-whatever-year-it-was ?
Yup, that's true. Very much an exception, though.
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Another "we won" time...
We won!! :D
Too bad Angola couldn't make it :( , they showed they are a team not to be understimated.
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How very American of you dear chap ;)
hold on, dont throw all of us in with this dick
now you brought up us getting to the quarters in '02 and that it wasnt an anomaly, but I seem to recall S. Korea making it the semis or somthing like that. Is that the norm too? Did I miss where S. Korea became a world power in soccer(football)? No didnt think so, anomalys do happen
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How very American of you dear chap ;)
hold on, dont throw all of us in with this dick
now you brought up us getting to the quarters in '02 and that it wasnt an anomaly, but I seem to recall S. Korea making it the semis or somthing like that. Is that the norm too? Did I miss where S. Korea became a world power in soccer(football)? No didnt think so, anomalys do happen
Albeit...home advantage.
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Indeed. Home advantage can be huge in motivating a so-so team to play above their ability.
[Edit] And lack of anything to play for can do the opposite... case in point, Argentina-Holland. Gawd what a bore. Two great teams, much skill, nothing to play for. Second half slightly better than the first, but still, for two teams of this caliber it's a letdown.
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Yes, very dull.
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Kazan, question. Hypothetically, if the USA do lose to Ghana, will you admit that your analysis might be slightly off? And that's hypothetical, so there's no ""But they wont" or anything like that. It's a few days from now, the USA have lost and been eliminated, was your analysis before the game inaccurate?
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probably not, hell say we were cheated and continue to think we were the best thing to happen to soccer since the ball was invented
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Argentina - Holland: boring. Though I expected Argentina to win eventually.
Ivory Coast - Serbia Montenegro: Nooooooooooooooo!
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Heh, what the hell was that serb thinking anyway on the first IC goal? Did he actually think he could get away with using his hands? I'm somewhat surprised he didn't get a red card. Stupid, I think is the word. Trading a possible goal for a certain goal and a yellow card... bad trade.
Entertaining match though, unlike the other.
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don't forget tho, freaky things happen in finals. I mean. Greece winning euro-whatever-year-it-was ?
Yup, that's true. Very much an exception, though.
not to mention the giant killings everyone loves and has made the FA Cup far more interesting than it probably has any right to be.
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Terrible mistake at the back, 1-nil Ghana (slightly against the run of play).
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Not showing that match here yet... the US still has a chance though if they can get back into the match: Italy 1-0 Czechs just about 10 seconds ago. Also a bit against the run of play, Czechs have had a slight upper hand so far.
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Not showing that match here yet... the US still has a chance though if they can get back into the match: Italy 1-0 Czechs just about 10 seconds ago. Also a bit against the run of play, Czechs have had a slight upper hand so far.
I'm getting both on IPTV :D
http://www.11football.com/coupedumonde2006/ has videos of the goals more or less as they happen
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Neat, thanks for the link. Will be getting the match, just timeshifted to right after the other one... but nice to be able to stay in the conversation ;) We just got a replay of it during a lull though, but I'll load it up anyway in case of later developments. Having seen it now, I can only agree... monstrous mistake, definitely not the kind of thing you want to do when fighting for survival.
The Italy match is actually turning out really good despite their lead. Very un-Italian the way they're playing actually. They don't even need to win, but they're playing real football instead of just defending like they'd have done 2 years ago.
[Edit] Well, site doesn't respond... guess there's lots of people watching at work. Not that important anyway, we seem to be getting replays of important stuff whenever there's a break in the action. Like that American goal just now ;)
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US equalizer, good cross & finish. (the ESPN commentator is going a bit nuts)
EDIt; Ghana penalty, and a really soft one at that. (Appiah scores). Admittedly my connection kind of froze up at the replay, but it looked like a nothing award. And Czechs down to 10 now, apparently.
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Well, double yellow->red card for Jan Polak. Tackle from behind. 15 seconds before halftime... nice work, that. Should seal the match for Italy.
[Edit] Oh boy. Someone's gonna have a field day with that ref. But nice work Pimpong, plays for the current Danish champions so I guess I should be cheering for Ghana ;)
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WHAT A ****ING DIVE! Referee hook, line & sinker!
gooch's arms where at his sides, player who dove already has a yellow - should have been a second yellow for simulation and a send off - not a pk!
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Er, yes, quite.
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we'll get it back and make ghana pay for their simulation
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(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41799000/jpg/_41799374_essien416.jpg)
Dont look Kazan,................
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Dont look Kazan,................
You had to didn't you! we'll never hear the end of that now! ;7
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:lol: at the face he's making. Looks like a ballet dancer who just tripped over his own feet in front of a 5000-strong audience.
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so since he gave Ghana a PK is he the worst referee ever?
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Italy 2-nil. Czechs were putting everything forward, lost the ball, and it was 3 Italians against 1 very lonely keeper.
[Edit] And it's over. Deserved victory for Italy, all things considered. Czechs never stood a chance after their (correct) sendoff. Nedved was amazing though, he was the only real threat the Czechs had in the second half. Very impressive given his age and the fact that he did a lot of it more or less singlehandedly.
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Finished Ghana 2-1. USA finish bottom, Czech 3rd, Ghana will face Brazil in the next round sans Essien.
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At least goals were scored.......... :yes:
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guess i was wrong about czech being an exception
go home USMNT and hang you heads in shame for most pathetic showing
fire arena
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Isn't Czech Republic ranked among the Top 5 teams in the world? What the hell happened? I guess Ghana is who I'll be rooting for now, unless Croatia squeeks through in front of Australia.
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Czech were rated #2, USA #5
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Finally had a chance to review that penalty. Didn't look like a dive, but whether that was a penalty was debatable. They were just both vying for the ball. Ref must have thought Pimpong was being forced down, which is a free kick, and it did look like that from some angle - but didn't from others.
So I dunno... it could have been either way - Ref saw a free kick and, well, a free kick in the box is a penalty. No card was given, so he obviously didn't think it was particularly serious. But anything that can give a free kick can also give a penalty if it's in the box, so it didn't really have to be. I'm sure it will be reviewed to no end.
Oh, and world rankings mean exactly nothing for close teams. Can give a general idea of good, average or bad, but that's it, once you get below a difference of +/- 10 places it's entirely arbitrary.
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actually only offenses that produce DFKs result in penalties
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guess i was wrong about czech being an exception
go home USMNT and hang you heads in shame for most pathetic showing
fire arena
wasnt neccesarily a pathetic showing, granted they played like ass, but their group was not an easy one, they were just outclassed
read somewhere, Klinsmann was coming to coach the US team soon
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Well, holding a person is one of the offenses that warrant a DFK, so in this case it would still have been a penalty if, as he did in this case, the ref saw it as a free kick.
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he clearly wasn't holding
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Not clearly. I do agree he was not, but from some angles it looked like he was, and some angles it looked like he wasn't. I would not have awarded a penalty in that situation based on what I could see, but as always, the ref makes the call based on what he can see from his position and not based on what we can see from the TV pictures.
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yeah it was a BS PK
we had many chances to get it back and we just couldn't finish
if we could finish we would have won
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True, it was actually a pretty well played match from the US. Aside from the chronic goal-missing thing.
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and some chronic misconnecting of passes
we just weren't up to it in the last match - we didn't have the magic we had in the italy match and we needed it
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Woah, what a kick! Croatia 1-0 Australia. Absolutely amazing shot. Of course, we all know what that means... final result will be 1-3 ;)
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Rat bastard!
EDIT - And a dirty tackling bunch of rat bastards at that. That was disgraceful that the ref didn't pick it up.
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You could've gotten a penalty there if the ref had been awake. Hugs are nice and all, but not while you're in the box trying to score.
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and some chronic misconnecting of passes
we just weren't up to it in the last match - we didn't have the magic we had in the italy match and we needed it
what magic was that? i seem to remember them drawing because of an own goal, and doing nothing to help themselves
Edit: very nice goal by Croatia
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whoaff... 1-nil Japan.
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Oh my, Japan 1-0 Brazil. Very nice goal too.
[Edit] Umm... yeah. What he said.... I type too slow ;)
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Australian penalty - absolutely correct too, holding and hands on the ball.
And 1-1. Deserved.
[Edit] Oops, should've edited my earlier post, didn't realize I had the latest in my excitement :) Anyway, awesome game this. Beats Brazil-Japan currently, though just by a bit.
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1-1 Ronaldo. Crikey, the fat bloke sticks it in the onion bag.
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Yeah, he's actually been, you know, playing in this game. Touching the ball. Even passing. About time. And thank god for replays, I missed the goal cause I'm switching between both games. So, that puts Australia in the 1/8 finals for now.
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from another forum
At work? Want to watch Brazil?
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=272717
explains how you can watch ESPNMotion games by just altering a link. It's pretty simple.
http://espnevent1.espn.com.edgesuite.net/FIFA_June22_Japan.asx
For the Japan/Brazil game.
You can just change in the date and the country for whatever game.
I assume ESPN will figure this out pretty soon and change it, but I hope I can watch the Brazil game now while getting paid for it.
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2-1 Brazil. Another great shot. Lots of those going around today :)
[Edit] And 2-1 Croatia. Where the hell did Australia dig up that lousy keeper? He's looked shaky in several situations now.
[Edit] And 3-1 Brazil. Too fast... can't keep up with both channels.
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All these Gilbertos are getting confusing.
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What the... a Croat boxed the ball away, yet no penalty for Australia.
[Edit] Equalizer for Australia. Very, very deserved, Croatia have been pushed way back for a while. Glad to see that after they were cheated out of a penalty. Only problem is now they have to hold it, and they have like no defenders left on the field, only strikers.
[Edit] Heh, and 4-1 Brazil. Ronaldo's 14th WC goal, ties the record.
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Ozzies 2-2
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Whoa, temper. Red card Simic for pushing the ref.
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uh-oh did Ronaldo wake up
world could be in trouble
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Wow... this game just keeps on giving. Emerton red card, blocking ball with his hands. By far the most exciting game yet I think, not the most well played but definitely the best entertainment.
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In other words, I've got the wrong game on. Well done BBC.....
EDIT; another Croat red! And the Ozzies go through - well done former colony #2 :D
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I think it's over now. One of the most entertaining games ever. Amazing. Given how I feel now, I dare not thing about how any watching Australians might be feeling. They're probably all dead from cardiac arrest :p But if, by freak chance, any are still alive... congratulations :)
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WWhat the **** was that? Wackiest Game I've ever seen. I think Siminic got 3 yellow cards, traitorous bastard deserved them though. We were denied two separate penalties, and a couple of really good shots, our keeper was rubbish, theirs was excellent/ Man. I woke my flatmate up yelling through the whole thing :D
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Yeah he did get 3 didn't he? I think the ref was just so overwhelmed at the end he couldn't keep up with anything :lol:
[Edit] And what was your flatmate doing asleep anyway with a game like this on? Good thing you woke him up :p
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Yeah he did get 3 didn't he? I think the ref was just so overwhelmed at the end he couldn't keep up with anything :lol:
[Edit] And what was your flatmate doing asleep anyway with a game like this on? Good thing you woke him up :p
That's half the reason I was yelling so loud :D I ended up banging on the wall to wake him up and get him out :)
That said, it is 5 AM here now, game started at 3.
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Now that is the worst Referee in the history of Soccer :D
Missed the penalty when the Croat was basically giving the Aussie a hug in box. Misses a second penalty due to a pretty blatant handball. Gives Siminic 3 yellow cards even though his second offence was so blatant that it probably qualified for a red all on it's own.
Fact is that while the first two of those could possibly be explained away as him missing them there is absolutely no excuse for the third. If the ref can't keep track of the yellow cards he's given out he has no job being there.
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i'm pretty sure the guy refereeing USA v Italy and Croatia v Australia were the same guy :P
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Nah - he missed a chance to send someone off, remember? :D
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I think he'd already given out so many yellow cards that he hadn't any room left to write down Siminic's 1st one... and so forgot about it. Might be a record for this game, most yellow cards in a single WC match, both total and for a single player :p
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Nah - he missed a chance to send someone off, remember? :D
heh
nah it wasn't the same guy - i just went and looked it up
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It was Graeme Poll. I remember, because the bbc seems to take particular interest in any sort of english involvement, even when it's a referee.
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And FIFA has, according to the BBC, given him a bollocking and sent him home.
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http://gprime.net/video.php/soccerpractice
this is the italian national team practicing ;)
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anyone got the link for that epsn saudi-spain game? (@work :()
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try that link i have before for Japan with "23" instead of 22 and "Spain" instead of "Japan"
[edit]
Saudi i guess
http://espnevent1.espn.com.edgesuite.net/FIFA_June23_Saudi.asx
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Not much to see yet. Spain seem unwilling to risk even breaking a sweat, and the saudis are utterly incapable of making them.
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try that link i have before for Japan with "23" instead of 22 and "Spain" instead of "Japan"
[edit]
Saudi i guess
http://espnevent1.espn.com.edgesuite.net/FIFA_June23_Saudi.asx
gracias
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Oh, and if the Gilbertos of yesterday were confusing... well... there are seven Mohammeds on the saudi team. Whether that number includes any great prophets is currently unknown.
Oh, and the B-Team (Spain is playing with all their reserves) seem to be getting warmed up. Starting to run occasionally, and some nice shots on goal. Total dominance.
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Not much to see yet. Spain seem unwilling to risk even breaking a sweat, and the saudis are utterly incapable of making them.
Aye. i'm switching to Ukraine versus 'Ton-es-eyaah'.
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And 1-nil Spain. Still without breaking a sweat.
Breaking news! Saudi Arabia are now noted for a 'shot' on goal. In truth it was more like a pass to the keeper, but still, almost has to count as a victory considering how dominated they are at the moment :p I'm left with the lingering feeling that Spain could be ahead by 10 if they bothered to try.
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Ukraine game was pish, so I switched back. After the goal. Inevitably, Ukraine will now score...
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I agree, Ukraine game sucks. Switched over to look a couple of times, but it's just not worth my time.
[Edit] And of course there's the second yellow card for a Tunisian just after I post that. Lunging tackle, not huge but it seemed correct, so they're down to 10. Half time 0-0. At least with a man up for Ukraine, 2nd half might have more in it.
[Edit] 1-nil Ukraine on a penalty that shouldn't have been. Doesn't make it any less mindnumbingly boring.
[Edit] And both matches over. Finally. Personally, I don't know why any of those teams even bothered to play, they might as well have stayed in bed and saved the trouble.
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zzzzzzzzzz........what? eh? where am I?
So boring, i actually did work instead.
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Oh you poor thing.
I think the evening games will be more interesting. 3 teams can still qualify for the next round.
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Oy, France look like they actually want to win this match.
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uh-oh bummer, seems ESPN fixed their hole :(
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what game are you trying? try both teams names in different combos
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tried all 4 different teams that are on
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France ahead by one just now, nice goal actually. Also Switzerland 1-nil against Korea, so that puts those two in the 1/8th finals if the scores stand until the end - And Togo are certainly trying to make sure that isn't the case.
[Edit] And France on 2-nil. Completely different team from the first two games, the way they're playing. Good to see.
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Switzerland FTW!! :D
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go party at the Hexxenkessel in Luzern for me
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go party at the Hexxenkessel in Luzern for me
Kaz .... you know the Hexxenkessel ?!?!?!?!? You know, I live about 25 minutes from Luzern. When have you been there ?
Anyway, this evening I was in the middle of Zurich in front of the biggest screen they had there, together with several thousand people. I'm not gonna comment on the game, since I'm obviously heavily biased. But WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
The ambiance was incredible even hours before the game, after the first goal there was cheering as expected..... but after the second goal the whole crowd went completely bonkers, beer flying everywhere, everybody jumping and singing to this (http://n.ethz.ch/student/ebuerli/download/Baschi%20-%20Bring%20en%20Hei.mp3)
Excuse the crappy cell phone image quality:
(http://n.ethz.ch/student/ebuerli/download/23-06-06_2230.jpg)
(http://n.ethz.ch/student/ebuerli/download/23-06-06_2256.jpg)
After the match the whole city was on the street, traffic completely collapsed and it was just one big party. There are still honking cars driving around as I type this.
(http://n.ethz.ch/student/ebuerli/download/23-06-06_2342.jpg)
That's a police man trying to manage traffic and cheering with the fans at the same time.
Now looking forward to the match against Ukraine.
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go party at the Hexxenkessel in Luzern for me
Kaz .... you know the Hexxenkessel ?!?!?!?!? You know, I live about 25 minutes from Luzern. When have you been there ?
yes, i've been to the hexxenkessel
Seid ihr bereit für die nächste Stufe im Aquagen-Zyklus?
Dann zieht euch warm an,
und ab geht´s
Könnt ihr es spüren?
Könnt ihr es fühlen?
Es ist da!
Es ist überall!
Es ist Zeit für Partyalarm!
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Oohh boy, does Sweden have problems. 2-nil Germany after the first half, and frankly, it could've been 3 or 4-nil and it would still be deserved.
They've had all the play, all the chances, except for the last 10 minutes when the Swedes apparently decided it was time to enter the playing field. Not only that, But Sweden had a man thrown out on a double booking... the second for a silly and unneeded offense in an entirely non threatening spot.
Germany will win this for sure now. It's only a matter of how any goals they win by.
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haha nice penalty kick by the Swedes ::)
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Bit of a walkover there, really.
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and england only managed a draw against 'em...... :no:
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Lets face it, if England go out to Ecuador I won't be in the slightest bit surprised. Maybe they're being overconfident but what can you say about a team who thought before their match with Germany that they really didn't give a stuff who they played from Group B and decided to rest half their team?
Compare that with England's attitude (Must not play Germany. Must not play Germany) and it kinda shows how pitifully the English team really rate their chances.
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Lets face it, if England go out to Ecuador I won't be in the slightest bit surprised. Maybe they're being overconfident but what can you say about a team who thought before their match with Germany that they really didn't give a stuff who they played from Group B and decided to rest half their team?
Compare that with England's attitude (Must not play Germany. Must not play Germany) and it kinda shows how pitifully the English team really rate their chances.
All I can say is...4-5-1 with Owen Hargreaves as a right-back........
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To be fair, Sweden played a hell of a lot better against England. Well ok, in the 2nd half they did, in the first they were as lame as in this match :p This match they just started out poor and never got better as the game progressed, not to mention that drawing that stupid red card and blowing a penalty didn't exactly help them either.
In fact, this was by far the worst play by Sweden in the tournament. Not the best time to bust out that sorta stuff when you're into the elimination stage, that's for sure.
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The Argentina vs Mexio match is proving surprisingly thrilling :)
Argentina are bloody lucky not to be down to 10 men.
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Yeah, I saw a red coming there for sure, but turned out wrong. Stroke of genius by the Mexican manager to keep the Argentinian playmaker covered like he is, it really stifles their buildup phase with him nearly out of the game. Makes for a good match :)
[Edit] Though it does seem like Argentina are getting the upper hand now. Mexicans are looking a little bit tired. And aside from not entirely agreeing on that non-red card, I have to say I think this ref has been amazing so far.
[Edit] Omfg! Fantastic goal for Argentina. Brilliant!
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Well it looks like the officials are determined to prove you wrong about that. First the ref books the wrong Mexican player and then the linesman disallows a perfectly good Argentinian goal.
And as I'm typing this Argentina scores. 2-1.
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wow what a goal :nod:
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Yeah he slacked off just after I wrote that. Typical :p
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Whoaff cor crikey, etc.
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Hmm, Tall Bill seems conspicuously missing from the english lineup today. Will be interesting if that's good or bad... good if it means they're going to play football instead of holding a competition of 'who can kick the longest', bad if they keep up with the old tactic and suddenly don't have anyone tall enough to get to it, I guess.
[Edit] 1-nil England on an excellent free kick by Beckham. Not really deserved going by how they've played, but the kick itself most certainly did deserve ending up in the goal.
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Fantastic free kick.
Anyone else get the feeling this is just an inevitable procession to elimination by Scolari's side in the Quarters yet again?
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Fantastic free kick.
Anyone else get the feeling this is just an inevitable procession to elimination by Scolari's side in the Quarters yet again?
What? :confused: :nervous:
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World Cup 2002, we were eliminated by Luiz Scolari's Brazil
Euro 2004, we were eliminated by Luiz Scolari's Portgual
Next match we're playing the winner of The Netherlands against Luiz Scolari's Portugal.
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And what is wrong with that? I don't see anything wrong.
(assuming we manage to win against the Netherlands which I doubt)
:nervous:
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And what is wrong with that? I don't see anything wrong.
Of course you don't, you want Portugal to win! :p
There's nothing wrong with it, I just think it's unusual how we keep coming up in Quarter Finals against Scolari. Might be third time lucky I guess, but not the way we've been playing.
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Like I've said before we'll progress until we come across someone good and then we'll be cruicified.
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Anyone have a clue what exactly Costinha was thinking on that second yellow? One of the stupidest things I've ever seen anyone do in a football match. Own team ahead by 1, 2 minutes until halftime, you're on the safe side of the centre line, you already have a yellow card, and then what? Yep, reach out and clearly and deliberatly use your hand to deflect the ball.
He must be either insane, or braindead. Or both. Looked like a sure win for Portugal until that little stunt.
[Edit] Just saw a replay of the foul on Ronaldo. That was a straight red card, for sure. Holland are lucky as hell they only drew a yellow for that, well, tackle doesn't even cover it, assault I think fits better. But now they're the ones one man up for a full half (not that Costinhas's red wasn't ok - It was), not to mention having injured possibly the best player on the Portugese team. I don't care how well they play for the rest of the match, they don't deserve to win after getting away with that foul.
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10 vs 10; and Figo should maybe have been off before getting Bouhlarouz sent off.......
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Possibly, he sure did complain a lot just before. But that elbow in the face certainly did warrant the booking. Regardless, in my book it's just a little late justice for the first red card they didn't get :p
Looks good for England though I guess. If they keep up this kind of play, neither Portugal nor Holland will have a single playing without a booking going into the next game, regardless of who advances.
[Edit] Whoa. Holland are being an absolute disgrace to the game right now. Portugal aren't exactly angels either, but damn...
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This is getting like USA-Italy, now. Crazy.
EDIT; bloody hell, Deco off. England must be licking their lips; at this rate they'll be playing against a reserve team.
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Red card Portugal. Oh, and only 10 players left on the field who haven't been booked. Insane.
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regardless which team will win this match they will not have enough players left against england :lol:
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Only way England could get past either of these two teams anyway with their current form, so their luck.
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yes, i've been to the hexxenkessel
When/how/why ? ... I must know ;)
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holy ****, Gios' been sent off. This is just ridiculous.
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I do not envy the guy who has to fit the 2nd half into 10 minutes of highlights...
[Edit] All done... whew. 16 yellow cards, 4 red cards. That has to be some sort of record. Congrats England on meeting a crippled team in the quarters.
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the battle of nuremberg is over...
neither portugal nor the netherlands deserve to get any further in this championship :no:
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The referee went nuts in the second half. Every foul no matter what kind was given a yellow card.
Anyway, this lets me have a we won moment...
WE WON!!! :D
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Glad holland lost actualy, because all this orange and world cup stuff was getting realy out of controll and it drove me nuts. now things can hopefully get back to damn normal.
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I saw the replays for the Portugal game, and I really wished I stayed up to watch it (which I would have done if the England game wasn't so damn boring).
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Ozzies nil-nil at half time.
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Pretty good watch so far. Good work by Australia holding on still, and actually being dangerous several times.
[Edit] Whoa. Red card Italy. Not sure if I agree with that... yellow for sure, but think red was a bit over the top.
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Didn't look last man to me, I think Cannavaro was on him as well.
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Holland-Portugal was awesome!
It looked like a riot was going to break out. 16 cards given out, if you count reds as two. I was hoping that the teams were going to just say **** it and start clobbering each other. The ref screwed over Holland, even I have to admit that. Figo's headbut wasn't called, the kick to the face on Robben wasn't called, ditto for Van Der Sar getting kicked.
What happened to the good old days of hooliganism? If ever a match deserved a riot, this was it.
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To be fair, he screwed over Portugal first by letting the dutch slaughter Ronaldo for just a yellow card. I think that's what led to the bloodbath... players saw that and realized just how much they could get away with, not to mention wanted revenge since the ref didn't administer justice properly. Ended up with an 'eye for an eye' situation with the ref unable to do anything about it. Most entertaining, yes :p
[Edit] Is it just me or is it really hard to tell that Italy are in fact down to 10?
[Edit] Penalty? Penalty?!? No way... that defender was lying down 10 minutes before the Italian went out of his way to trip over him. Should have been a yellow card for faking it. And 1-nil Italy. Of course, the red card was wrong too, and Italy would be ahead if they'd had 11 on the field given their play with 10 so the result is not entirely unfair, but still... lousy ref.
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what the hell just happened?
a penalty 10 seconds before the end of the game...
now guess who was in the kitchen to get some food and drinks to prepare for the coming 30 minutes :hopping:
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Let's face it, the quality of the refereeing this tournament has been abysmal.
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The Quality of diving has been excellent, unfortunately.
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Well actually it's been rather unimpressive. They only got away with it because of the poor quality of the refereeing in most cases.
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They fooled the ref, that's what counts, even if he is awful.
FIFA should impose penalties after the match on players who dive, at the moment the worst you can get from a dive is a yellow, and the most you can get is winning the match for your team, like today.
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Problem is that unlike pulling shirts (which does carry a fine) it's a matter of judgement as to whether the player dove, fell or was fouled.
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Christ, this is boring. I've resorted to playing Metroid DS now......
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Yeah. With only 1 yellow card after 88 minutes at this world cup, you just know neither team is really into it :p At least I had time to make dinner. Curry = Good.
[Edit] 102 minutes, and we get the first offside of the game. The first. What kind of game doesn't have a single offside until 12 minutes into the 3rd half?
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What's up with this game?!?
117:00 ....
At least they started playing a bit.
Edit: Yeah... now they all fall on the ground... :wtf:
Edit2: If you ask me... they should both get kicked out. :P
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I bet they won't even be able to decide it on penalties. 3am this morning it'll be 47-47 and still going. *yawn*
[Edit] Or 0-0, it turns out. They can't even score on penalties...
[Edit] The Swiss really seriously suck at penalties. 3-nil Ukraine, who missed one as well.
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switzerland misses all penalties :eek2:
that means the most boring teams Italy and Ukraine will meet in the quarterfinals :P
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urgh .... now that was a uneventful game. And we really, really do suck at penalties.
From a neutral POV, both teams didn't deserve to get to the next round.
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Well... you could say they were so extremely evenly matched, that the games just had to turn out boring...
On the other hand both teams seemed to be a bit unmotivated. The last twenty minutes were most interesting imo.
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Let's face it, the quality of the refereeing this tournament has been abysmal.
Very true. It's really the reason I quit playing football/soccer/whatever around age 13. I'm too emotional when it comes to competitive sports. Ask anyone who's ever seen me at a Penn State home game. Basically, if I was subject to a moronically called red card the way some of these players have been, I would basically get a second one on purpose after I go up to the ref and go "Hey listen you f**k, you're an idiot!!".
That aside, some of these matches have been very good. My brothers and I are watching every one. I'm pulling for either England or Italy, but both my brothers say neither's gonna happen.
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England has players capable of winning the World Cup. Something went horribly wrong when trying to make them into a team though.
If England can play above the level they've shown so far then they stand a chance. But unless they can raise their game in the same way that Mexico did against Argentina (even though they lost) then they have no hope.
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Probably won't need to raise it too much against Portugal. Those guys will be mortally afraid of tackling, as pretty much every yellow they get means a match ban :p Wonder if they'd actually be allowed to start a semi-final with 8 players instead of 11...
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1-0 Brazil. Great finish by Ronaldo.
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what a goal. he broke the record with that one didnt he?
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Yep, 15 now. And what a goal to do it with. PS, nice to see a yellow card for diving. Those have been sorely missing lately.
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Unluck for Ghana not to have equalised from that header.
Damnit. Adriano was offside for that one. That goal should have been disallowed.
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it seems that the better team will lose this match
Ghana had bad luck on one occasion and bad referees...
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Totally agree, Ghana have been excellent. And I actually think there were 2 or 3 seperate instances of offside on that second goal. Damn entertaining first half either way, I want more... who said they could take a 15 minute break?!
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Ghana need that 15 minute break for their coach to figure out how to deal with the Ghanaian defence. If they can sort that out Brazil may have some real problems in the second half.
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Well, their coach seems to be MIA from what footage I've seen of their bench. Maybe 15 minutes isn't enough for such a large project and he's locked himself in a closet 'till it's done :p
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is anyone watching the American idiots, err.... commentators
seems this prick has had somthing agaist Ronaldo, havent heard him say a good thing about him in either this game or the last one where he scored twice. I believe he just said 'even fat people can still dance', enough with the mediocre ex american soccer players talking :no:
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Penalty for Spain. Looked dodgy at first, but replay vindicated it... definite foul there. And 1-nil as I'm typing. Well done penalty too, nice to see someone can do them after yesterday's farce.
[Edit] 1-1. Great match so far :D Very nice play by France in that counter.
[Edit] France on 2-1 following a free kick that looked rather iffy. Old boys out for revenge it seems :p And not actually undeserved, they're playing really well - Much better than any of their previous matches. But Spain are disappointing in the 2nd half, not showing any real imagination on the offense.
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The bad reffing continues. Just witnessed an AWFUL call on Spain that ended up in a French PK to make it 2-1. That could cost Spain the game.
[Edit] Dammit, Shade. Beat me to the punch.
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He's actually been rather decent through most of the game in my opinion. That one was a bad call though, but from what I could tell it was actually one of the assistant refs on the sideline who made the call, and the main ref just went by that.
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bummer....they choke yet again :sigh:
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Heh, and 3-1 by Zidane. Impressive.... most impressive. Went solo for a long way, ditched a couple of defenders and put it in. How old is he again?
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Shame. I was kinda rooting for Spain. Oh well.
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Me too, I loved their play in the earlier matches. But they simply didn't bring their A game today, and France without a doubt deserved the win.
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let it be known i hate the French
I hope Brazil dicks them
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must hold out until friday...
no football, must hold out...
at least the quarterfinals will beginn with a crushing defeat for argentina :pimp:
and i for myself hope that the french can repeat their victory from 1998
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Shame. I was kinda rooting for Spain. Oh well.
So was I, although then I remembered Aragones comments about Henry.......
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weeeee argentina - germany in an hour
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If Argentina continue playing like they did up to this point, the Cup may very go to them. Anyway, an interesting match to watch.
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what's the second game today? Portugal England?
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what's the second game today? Portugal England?
Italy - Ukraine
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Italy-Ukraine later today.
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I don't see how Germany will win unless they really get their offense together.
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England Portugal is tommorow and England's luck has run out.
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gggggggggggggggGGGGGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
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England Portugal is tommorow and England's luck has run out.
I'd say so usually but Portugal were quite impressive in crippling their own team so England are in with a sliver of a chance if they can improve a bit.
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Penalty time!
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Crikey. Germany go through.
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Some of the Argentine players were attacking the German team after Germany won. What's up with that?
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Argentina is out.
je, i really don't care much...
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Some of the Argentine players were attacking the German team after Germany won.
Great, that just had to happen for the one game I wasn't home for. Ah well, got to see penty of fighting in the USA-Italy and Portugal-Holland games at least :p
So... did Germany deserve it or did they just luck out? The momentarily-TV-access-impaired of the world want to know...
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Yeah, they probably deserved it. Argentina subbed Riquelme for Cambiasso 1-0 up with 20 or so mins left, I think that attitude can only lead to defeat.
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I only watched the first half, over time, and the penalty shoot out.
During the first half Germany's offense was really not too good.
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Some of the Argentine players were attacking the German team after Germany won. What's up with that?
wow what do you mean by that? like fighting? damn Thunderbirds if they werent here practicing id have watched the game :p
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Not bringing Messi on was fatal for them.
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Heinze tried to assault Bierhoff, but he didn't get through. Don't know why ... maybe he insulted his mother ?
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1-0 Italy; Zambrotta.
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Germany dit not deserve it... I wish to check the bank account of the referi... Argentina whas the best in the 120min... Germany only have one or two chance sin all time and she have the fu* luck... And the mayor problem for Argentina in penalties penalty shoots, has been Abondazieri... is a great for penaltys... She won a lot of titles for Boca in penaltys shoots.
And about the fights... well... I underthem them... but she attack a member of the official germany futbol associety... Probbrably, because of the refery. I wish to know how many the Germans have pay today.
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we didn´t payed anything ... we kidnapped his family :p
btw 2:0 Italy :mad:
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Hmmmm.
I need to see that second Italian goal again cause I could swear that both Italians were offside.
Ukraine are incredibly unlucky not to have put it away yet.
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Heinze tried to assault Bierhoff, but he didn't get through. Don't know why ... maybe he insulted his mother ?
Heinze punched a german player and Bierhoff tried to stop him.
The referee was awesome. He saw some things, I could hardly see in slow motion. He saw the dive in the german penalty area. Impressive.
Imho the win was well earned. The team really put a lot of effort in the game. And the argentine players do have more feeling for the ball.
Lehmann is a great keeper too. So I think it was rather hard work, than luck.
And about the next game: I feel really sorry for the Ukraine. You can really see how important this game is for them. :(
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The referee was awesome. He saw some things, I could hardly see in slow motion. He saw the dive in the german penalty area. Impressive.
The replays I've seen show the german take the guys legs and not touch the ball.
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Damnit! Now when someone points to the 6:0 defeat, I can't say that at least we were beaten by the best. Stupid Germany, taking away my excuse.
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Stupid Germany, taking away my excuse.
:lol:
nice Germany - Italy next round
i am a bit disappointed that there will be no Germany-England in this world championship
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that was not the only one... there is other where a german touch the ball which a hand...
The germans do nothing... Their have 2 good maybe 3 times in the Argeninian area... ok, Argentina dont do too much anyway... but the germans has been too denfencive this time... in Overall Argentina has been the Best and their have two penaltys. Thats why the fighting. The referee... well this dont matter how anyway... but if smeone deserve to win in 90Min or in the 120Min ime has been Argentina. not the Germans.
And about the Argentinan keeper, that has been really a bad luck, which him, the Germans should never get 1-1, and if does, she is a veryyyy good in penaltys... she should cacth atleast two of that penaltys... and the history will be diferent.
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i am a bit disappointed that there will be no Germany-England in this world championship
Not necessarily, we could still meet in the final or 3rd place play off.
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The replays I've seen show the german take the guys legs and not touch the ball.
I see the same, he didn't touch the ball. Some say, he overdid the fall, ending in some kind of simulation, I don't think so...
that was not the only one... there is other where a german touch the ball which a hand...
I see that too, however there is also this time where Ayala grabs a german player (Ballack?), that was penalty too.
Another problem is that the referee gives a yellow card to Argentina's player for simulating the penalty, but when germany's player simulates (was Ballack again?), the referee didn't show any card to him, not even a yellow as he does to Argentina for the same action...
What bothers me was what happens with Abondazieri, he was supposed to be the key if Argentina ended in penalties, however he ended injured pretty bad, and the referee didn't show even a yellow to the german player who injury him, that was too much, I bet no one ever imagined that Argentina could loose their goalkeeper.
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The referee was awesome. He saw some things, I could hardly see in slow motion. He saw the dive in the german penalty area. Impressive.
The replays I've seen show the german take the guys legs and not touch the ball.
To me it looked like he was falling before he even touched the german player.
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What bothers me was what happens with Abondazieri, he was supposed to be the key if Argentina ended in penalties, however he ended injured pretty bad, and the referee didn't show even a yellow to the german player who injury him, that was too much, I bet no one ever imagined that Argentina could loose their goalkeeper.
Showing Ballack a yellow for that would have been grossly unfair. The ball was free so they both had every right to go for it. They both did and the Argie goalkeeper came off worse. Could have just as easily gone the other way and it still wouldn't have been a yellow card offense.
I see the same, he didn't touch the ball. Some say, he overdid the fall, ending in some kind of simulation, I don't think so...
I'd need to watch it again to check when he starts to fall but I tend to agree with you there. It is definitely clear that the German didn't touch the ball and got his legs. If he was already falling is something I'd have to see in replay.
Another problem is that the referee gives a yellow card to Argentina's player for simulating the penalty, but when germany's player simulates (was Ballack again?), the referee didn't show any card to him, not even a yellow as he does to Argentina for the same action...
Yeah. I noticed that and I wasn't impressed.
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if this guy says 'Christian' Ronaldo one more time im saying **** it and watching the spanish channel
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if this guy says 'Christian' Ronaldo one more time im saying **** it and watching the spanish channel
You mean like they pronounce all the other player's names?
Like Figow, Decow, Ricardow, etc...? :p
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At least you've got something to comlain about. Can help break the monotony of an otherwise rather boring game. First 10 minutes were promising but since then it looks like they're scared to stray more than 20m from the halfway line.
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Like Figow, Decow, Ricardow, etc...?
How are you supposed to pronounce them? Is the "o" pronounced as it is in rock?
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No, it should sound like double o ( as in shoot, boot, etc... ). A short one preferably, it's a god damn silable, not a whole word like they seem to spend time pronouncing.
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What bothers me was what happens with Abondazieri, he was supposed to be the key if Argentina ended in penalties, however he ended injured pretty bad, and the referee didn't show even a yellow to the german player who injury him, that was too much, I bet no one ever imagined that Argentina could loose their goalkeeper.
Its not just that, forget about the yellow card, she dint even stop the game!, that is a clear fault to the goalkeeper... And their dint say enything, that could end in a Germany goal!
(http://www.ole.clarin.com/diario/2006/07/01/fotos/argen4.jpg)
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Straight red for Rooney. I can't really agrue with it, stepped a guy right in the crotch with what looked like his full weight (god that must have hurt) less than 2m from the ref, then pushed another while the ref was trying to calm things down.
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He was only going to get a foul for it (as it looked like an accident), but he did pick a fight with one of the Portugal plays and was probably arguing with the ref. Smooth.
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Yeah, it was his pushing the second player and going off at everything near him that made it a red.
[Edit] It actually looks like England could still win this despite the red. Portugal don't seem able to come up with anything effective on the offense, and the English are getting some decent chances. Now if they could only hit a barn door from 5 metres, they might even score.
Plus I'm praying that sooner or later all that diving the Portugese are doing will cost them some cards. Ref seems to disagree with me though. It really doesn't become a team that technically capable to throw themselves to the ground every time they get within 50cm of a tackle.
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Now it's going into over time. You're right about Portugal's offense and their tendency to fly around, but then again they are pretty much just a reserve team now.
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Penalties. I'm hard pressed to say which was the less boring, this or Switzerland-Ukraine. Neither deserve actually being labeled as a football match.
My guess? 4-3 England after the 5 shots.
[Edit] Well there goes that prediction. They suck even more than I thought. And it seems Lampard can't even score on penalties :p
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:( Man. I was hoping for England/France. F**k.
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Damn, you english must be starting to really hate Ricardo... :nervous:
Anyway... WE WON!!! :D
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England actually deserved the win imo. They were far more aggressive and dangerous during overtime than Portugal. Figures, kept winning when they deserved to lose, now they finally deserve to win... and they lose.
But congrats anyway :D
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Heh, Quarter Finals+Penalties every four years ;)
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As a Scot.......I don't really give a **** who deserved to win :D
But it was a pretty gash game, neither side put in decent delivery.
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What is impressive? Everyone knows that the finals going to be germany-Brazil since the groups has been sortie. Is all about money.
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As a Scot.......I don't really give a **** who deserved to win
You're pretty moderate I take it. A Scot I work with is rather passionate about England not winning football matches, and declared yesterday that if England were to become champions, he would kill himself. He was joking of course, but still... he's quite the happy camper tonight I imagine :p
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Damn, you english must be starting to really hate Ricardo... :nervous:
Starting!?
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Well, I guess I was being too optimistic :nervous:
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As a Scot.......I don't really give a **** who deserved to win
You're pretty moderate I take it. A Scot I work with is rather passionate about England not winning football matches, and declared yesterday that if England were to become champions, he would kill himself. He was joking of course, but still... he's quite the happy camper tonight I imagine :p
no, I said I didn't give a **** who deserved, not who won :D
My throat's still hoarse, shall we say :D
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Its not just that, forget about the yellow card, she dint even stop the game!, that is a clear fault to the goalkeeper... And their dint say enything, that could end in a Germany goal!
As I said before that's not a foul in the slightest. The ball was loose. Both players had the right to go for it and the argentine one came off worse.
England actually deserved the win imo. They were far more aggressive and dangerous during overtime than Portugal. Figures, kept winning when they deserved to lose, now they finally deserve to win... and they lose.
No we didn't. England were ****. I lay the blame for this squarely at Ericson's feet and I'm ****ing glad the guy is gone. Like with Argentina our game was completely scuppered by our manager.
1) We had no spare strikers so we play with a stupid formation with one isolated man up front. That's Sven's fault. Sure he might have been forced into it following the injury to Micheal Owen but it's Sven's ****ing fault for going to the world cup with 3 strikers (two of which are injured or just recovering from injuries) and a completely untested 17 year old.
That's old news but I thought I'd mention it because it sets the scene for the rest of it.
2) The one man in front formation wasn't working yet Sven refused to change it. Rooney was left isolated at the top of the field and being the sort of player he is Sven should have told him to not be constantly demanding the ball is passed 50m up field to him when it's practically hopeless that the ball will both
a) reach him
b) stay with him
Instead we saw a return (as if it ever went away) to the long ball forward. :rolleyes:
2) Pretty much every commentator was well aware that given Rooney's temperament leaving him out of the game the majority of the time was a potential powder keg. Sven ignored this fact and things went exactly how everyone else in England suspected it might with Wayne's emotions getting the better of him and getting him sent off.
3) And this is the biggie. In the last quarter of extra time when a fresh pair of legs could be devestating against men who have been on the pitch for 105 minutes Sven decides to save his final substitution for 3 minutes before the end because he wants to go for penalties.
Which England are **** at.
And Portugal beat us at 2 year ago.
Due to them having a goalkeeper who has an excellent track record of saving penalties.
At this point words fail me at the stupidity of that tactic. :rolleyes:
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****.
For the first time ever today, I actually started to care that we were doing well. We had a great bit of national pride going on - those of you who don't live here will have to take my word for it - more cars than not have little union flags on poles on them, they're flying from houses, pubs and shops.
But it's all over.
As for what I thought?
Both sides did terribly in the first half. England missed every oppertunity (as did Port.) and didn't really have much support up front. That said, I was appalled at the amount of diving I saw from Portugal. Sure I have a bit of a biased opinion but there were moments when their actions were beyond belief and - in my opinion - the referee was in bad judgement. That doesn't advocate what Rooney did though.
I was impressed in the second half when we kept on going with all we had despite being a man down and lacking our captain (which I thought would be the finishing blow). Rooney acted like a dick - though I will say the Port. players were massively guilty of crowding the referee on several occassions and didn't get so much as a warning.
Extra time saw our best performance - we put up a solid (near fantastic) attack on several occassions and defended well. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and it came down to penalties where our goalie screwed up royaly (I wasn't impressed) and - credit to them - the Port. strikers took advantage of it.
All in all? We deserved to win, that much is true. The Port. players didn't act professionally at all and should have been disciplined for it IMO but since they weren't... well that's life. I only hope their eventual defeat is a crushing one.
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The English players played well once down to 10 men. Don't get me wrong on that.
But you can only play with the tactics you're given.
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I didn't even watch the game, but as soon as I heard honking outside (I live in a part of town where Portugese make up the largest ethnic minority), I thought "No way, they couldn't have won with a decimated team like that". Wrong. Well, good for them.
Here's praying that France somehow miraclously beats Brazil. They haven't been playing at their best this Cup, but then again Brazil hasn't faced any football powerhouses either.
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Well, that's Brazil gone. Deserved, they haven't played well at all this tournament. France really coming through in these last matches though, I never would have thought they still had that kind of play in them.
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:D that was great. It's showtime, people: we got ourselves an all-European World Cup!
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I love it!
France deserved to win, even after I mistakenly counted them as dead. They played very well, unlike Brazil. No offense to the Brazilians on here, but I like to see Brazil lose, just because they're generally arrogant about their football prowess.
Ronaldo took a dive in the box around the 85th minute, trying to get a penatly, but the ref saw through him. Henry and the little ugly guy who looks like he just underwent a lobotomy (uh, "Ribery" says the WC website) played an excellent game, in addition, of course, to Zidane. I hope France wins the Cup, it would be a nice end to his career.
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That little ugly guy plunged through the windshield in a car crash when he was two years old. Hence the scars. :)
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I loved one of the comments that I heard about Ronaldo's handball from the French free kick.
"Well obviously he'd put that hand up there to protect his good looks"
:lol: Cruel but funny :)
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so who's left ? France, Portugal, Germany and who else ?
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Italy
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I'm hoping for a Germany / France final myself.
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Me too. France are going to win it if they can keep it together.
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I'm rooting for France.
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Only the host Nation of the World Cup, Brazil, Argentina, Italy or West Germany ever win it. I believe that record has stood since the start of the World Cup, and I can't see it changing this year.
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I hoping it will be Italy and France in the final. I would like to see that. Shame about England, though. I was hoping they would get to play France just so I could go "This is great! We're gonna have the 100 Years War again! Only this time it'll only last roughly 100 minutes!" (Did I get that reference right?)
BTW, can somebody enlighten me as to the last few winners of the cup? My brother believes Germany has only ever won one, and I believe he is grossly misinformed.
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Germany as a whole has never won one, however West Germany has won 3.
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Ah, thanks. Still counts, I guess :).
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IIRC W. Germany was 1954, 1974, 1990
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England have been dissapointing in every game. I'd like to see Germany v Italy myself.
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You know that's Tuesday's semi-final, right?
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Im glad England made it as fa as they did, Rooney should've cooled it down a bit but i can understand why he got so p1$$ed off with the jellyfish, It should never have gone to penalties.....
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question: Do they have to be in the game at the end of OT to be in the PKs? or can just anyone off the bench come in?
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Ouch... that must have hurt.
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I feel sorry for Germany - they've been brilliant -but what a match that was. Cracking. Italy deserved it, too.
@NH; yes, they need to be on the field at the end of the match to take PKs (and they need to go through all 10 outfielders if it keeps going long enough and into suddent death). Otherwise it'd be a bit of an unfair farce, ala bringing in 'goalkickers' for American football.
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damn you last minute :(
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Jesus, nailed one in like a minute before the whistle. And then another one, adding insult to injury. That's what I call luck - nothing for two hours of play, and then a goal at the crucial moment.
They both played well, and you can't say one team dominated since obviously it went into overtime.
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That had to be one of the best finishes I've ever seen. I'm happy for Italy, and I will also be happy any way this thing ends now, though I think Italy versus Portugal would be far more interesting.
EDIT: I know that's contradictory to my earlier post, but that was before I remembered that Portugal's never won one.
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I feel soo happy, Argentina out? well, Brazil, England, Germany too.
I seems that the justice have finally arrived to this world cup.
Germany didt do anything to reach semi-finals.
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Yeah they did. They beat Argentina.
What a strange statement........
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Yeah they did. They beat Argentina.
What a strange statement........
At penalties, right?... And we all know Argentina pushed harder.
In the end, I was supper happy for yesterday's match. Another piece of history. The exact play I was hoping to watch: after having heard countless times about Mexico '70 and Spain '82 from my grandparents, uncles, aunts I finally saw one myself. And the result was even better :D So much for Pizza and Mandolino.
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Yeah they did. They beat Argentina.
What a strange statement........
At penalties, right?... And we all know how Argentina pushed harder.
In the end, I was supper happy for yesterday's match. Another piece of history. And the result was even better :D So much for Pizza and Mandolino.
Well, the Argies did **** all after they went in the lead IIRC, just sat back and let the Germans at them; they should never have sent on Cambiasso for Riquelme, that just handed the Germans even more impetus to get at them. The very least they could have done was shove on Messi instead, and dropped Tevez back into the Riquelme role; anything rather than surrender the forward threat and invite the Germans on, especially given that up to that point Argentina looked the most dangerous forward-going side in the tournament by a mile.
And then embarassed themselves afterwards, of course.
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I want France to win, but even I must admit that that penatly wasn't called for. Henry wasn't fouled either badly or intentionally, it just seemed like an arbitrary call on the referee's part.
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I'm pretty disgusted by how the BBC commentators were continously attacking and sniping at the Portuguese.
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The French must be glad Saha isn't playing in the final after seeing him stuff it up time after time after seeing him go on.
Didn't want to the Portuguese international diving team to win though.
I'm pretty disgusted by how the BBC commentators were continously attacking and sniping at the Portuguese.
I was disgusted by Christian Ronaldo attempting to claim a penalty for an obvious dive. They really needed to give out some yellow cards for that.
And that's nothing to do with the England game cause quite frankly I don't think England deserved to win either.
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Meh... too much hatred went into this game, nothing good could come out of it. :p
Now we only have to wait 30 years for the next chance. ;)
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The French must be glad Saha isn't playing in the final after seeing him stuff it up time after time after seeing him go on.
Didn't want to the Portuguese international diving team to win though.
I'm pretty disgusted by how the BBC commentators were continously attacking and sniping at the Portuguese.
I was disgusted by Christian Ronaldo attempting to claim a penalty for an obvious dive. They really needed to give out some yellow cards for that.
And that's nothing to do with the England game cause quite frankly I don't think England deserved to win either.
Oh, I'm not condoning the Portuguese antics or anything. Just sick of the ****ing behaviour of the commentators, gloating over another teams defeat like cackling 12 year olds.
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Doesn't matter what sport you're playing, when the commentators start acting childish, then it takes the fun out of the game.
EDIT: Whee! Post #666!!!
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they sent Cambiasso for Riquelme because they want Cambiasso to recover the ball in the midfield! and Riquelme are tired too(Riquelme have played the 120min vs Mexico)... Messi never enters because the obligate chance of Abondazieri... and Messi is not soo great as everyone say... its still too young. The only change that may be bad is Crespo for Cruz.. Crespo ask the change and they send Cruz in, They could use Saviola, Palacio or even Messi instead... But you must remeber the high of the german players... Germany only wins because of luck... Nothing more, nothing less, Italy play vs Germany in the same way than Argentina do it, the only diference is that they have the luck in the last minute... see, this time the luck has been on Italian side.
Germany have followed the easy way until Argentina and Italy, and in both machs they has been VERY defensive, Germany has been offensive only agasint easy teams... I dont like that type of coward attitude.
Italy has followed the really easy way until Germany too...
France Is the only who deserve to win, they have a bad start, but is getting better, BUT, they dont show anything VS Portugal.
France VS Portugal has been Pathetic, someone plese toll them that they are playing the semifinals of the world championship.
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Oh, stop ****ing whinging. Germany won fair and square; if you pull off your most creative midfielder to defend a 1-nil lead, you deserve all you get.
Luck? bollocks. Get a grip; no-one likes a bad loser.
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Germany have followed the easy way until Argentina and Italy, and in both machs they has been VERY defensive, Germany has been offensive only agasint easy teams... I dont like that type of coward attitude.
i wouldnt say that exploiting the weaknesses of your opponent is a coward attitude...
what did you expect , that the germans run with 4 strikers against the bulwark that the italian penalty area is?
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Oh, I'm not condoning the Portuguese antics or anything. Just sick of the ****ing behaviour of the commentators, gloating over another teams defeat like cackling 12 year olds.
I agree with that point too. Had they just confined it to Christian Ronaldo (Who even the French fans were booing) it would still have been over the top but there was no point in slagging off the entire team.
That said many of those comments were coming from your fellow scots like Alan Hanson for instance.
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Oh, I'm not condoning the Portuguese antics or anything. Just sick of the ****ing behaviour of the commentators, gloating over another teams defeat like cackling 12 year olds.
I agree with that point too. Had they just confined it to Christian Ronaldo (Who even the French fans were booing) it would still have been over the top but there was no point in slagging off the entire team.
That said many of those comments were coming from your fellow scots like Alan Hanson for instance.
Hansen? bloody Hansen?!
Put it this way, his wages are 30 pieces of silver. I don't think he's been north of the border in about 20 years.....
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I was disgusted by Christian Ronaldo attempting to claim a penalty for an obvious dive. They really needed to give out some yellow cards for that.
hmm... right sentiment, wrong colour.
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I was disgusted by Christian Ronaldo attempting to claim a penalty for an obvious dive. They really needed to give out some yellow cards for that.
hmm... right sentiment, wrong colour.
Seconded......
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I'd have rather seen those affected reduced to Gazza style blubbering when they realised that they couldn't play in the final and then have to stumble about the pitch for another 50-60 minutes than get the quicker pleasure of seeing them go off for an early bath.
But then I'm a cruel, cruel man :D
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Is it just me, or did the ref give out like four or five free kicks against Portugal for so much as glancing at a German player. As always, Scolari is the most entertaining part of the game.
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its a compensation for the not given penalty that germany deserved :P
[edit] 3:nil :)
[edit] 3:1 nice goal
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Is it just me, or did the ref give out like four or five free kicks against Portugal for so much as glancing at a German player. As always, Scolari is the most entertaining part of the game.
Even though Germany deserved to win, the referee was... very disturbing. For example, there was a moment near the 30 minutes (start of the game) where the referee ignored a obvious foul against a portuguese defender, and when the same guy that did the foul was fouled (a few seconds later), he immediatly stopped the game.
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:D Woohoo! Way to go Deutschland! :yes: :yes:
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Even though Germany deserved to win, the referee was... very disturbing. For example, there was a moment near the 30 minutes (start of the game) where the referee ignored a obvious foul against a portuguese defender, and when the same guy that did the foul was fouled (a few seconds later), he immediatly stopped the game.
Considering the way Portugal have cried wolf all the way through the tournament it's hardly surprising that no one thinks they've been fouled.
Not that Germany weren't diving all over the place too but they weren't quite as blatant with it as Portugal. It annoys the hell out of me 20 players who all think they're Superman and only realise they can't fly in mid-air!
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Well, that was quite an unceremonious exit for Zidane. Nasty stuff.
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FORZA ITALIA!!!!!!
<sounds air horn repeatedly>
:wakka: :wakka: :wakka: :wakka: :wakka: :wakka: :wakka: :wakka:
(double post, I know, but it had to be done).
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Well that was a ****e ending.
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So we won the World Cup...
I don't like football,and the only team I was of,the USA,has been eliminated.
I'm listening the sounds from outside...my English Setters that play <woof,woof>,fireworks and car clacson.
The nearest town is about 2 kilometers away,but everything is clear!
Now I know that Trayus is Italian too,well..greetings!
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Uh.....no. I'm not Italian, but I fell in love with Italy when I visited two months ago, and I heard that they hadn't won one since '82, so I thought they deserved it.
As to the "Forza Italia" thing, that was all over political posters in Rome. I looked it up, and found out it was a football battle cry. It seemed the appropriate thing to say just now, is all.
Having said that though, I'm quite happy for Italy. Congratulations! :)
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hmm
crikey.
Well, I was marginally favouring France, until Zidane made a twat of himself (and ****ed up my fantasy footie team - ta muchly for that), but, um, meh. I have to admit being a wee bit disappointed with the match itself.
Congratulations Italy, of course, whom everyone seemed to be wrongly writing off in the start despite being on a superb pre-tournament run.
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Well, I was marginally favouring France, until Zidane made a twat of himself
Quoted for Truth.
I lost all sympathy for the French after that. All across the world one billion people are wondering what the **** he was thinking.
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Of course we already knew the result (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsZnSSoyzzI).
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Only if we have nothing better to do than watch women playing football :p
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Only if we have nothing better to do than watch women playing football :p
*ahem*
Bikini models
I rest my case.
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That was definitely weird about Zidane. Whatever mother of all insults made him do that, Materazzi is probably writing it down right now to remember it for future matches. Reminds me of some Monty Python sketch about a deadly joke and, well, that was about as close to a deadly insult as I've ever seen in a football game :p
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*ahem*
Bikini models
I rest my case.
Not much of a case considering that it's beach volleyball season :)
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CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONICAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI CAMPIONI!!!!!!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!
Zidane has ended his career in the worse possible way...
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:rolleyes:
I thought you were Swiss?
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Well that was an entertaining world cup wasn't it? :nervous:
Worst world cup... EVAR?
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I thought the group stages were good. And I nearly pissed myself laughing during the quarters......
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Actually yeah I didn't consider watching it for comedy value. My loss.
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:rolleyes:
I thought you were Swiss?
Swiss Father, Italian Mother :)
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Oh well don't get cocky. You only half won :P.
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No, I double won.
I hate the Freanch team.
And Switzerland ended up winning the Qualification group. So f**k 'em :D
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FIFA need to do something about the quality of the refereeing. Pretty much every problem I had with this years cup stems from that.
Oh and can we please put sensors in the ball or cameras on the line or something so that we know when the ball has crossed the line? It's ridiculous to be trusting that sort of thing to eyeball Mk I in this day and age.
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Ah, but is the Eyeball Mark I Mod 0?
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Revision number is a matter for another debate :)
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I don't know if this has been posted and I'm not going to check. Thanks for Kazan for the link. Get ready for the Zidane-super-headbutt-'o'-doom. If gets worse every time you watch it yes, but also funnier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am4q6jEJi4A&search=zidane%20headbutt
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YTMND are having a field day with this :D
About half of the most viewed pages are Zidane related :)
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(http://content.ytmnd.com/content/1/2/5/125e067ac32841a86fc20e71015e584b.gif)
Yep. This is the best so far, IMO.
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lmao
he looked like he was in the WWF for a second there
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http://content.ytmnd.com/content/1/2/5/125e067ac32841a86fc20e71015e584b.gif
Yep. This is the best so far, IMO.
Ah yes. France Fighter II Turbo :D
I quite liked this one :)
http://zidanewantscandy.ytmnd.com/
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I wonder how long before someone makes a mugen fighter out of him...
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I liked these:
http://zidaneexplains.ytmnd.com/
http://emca.ytmnd.com/
Surprised Zidane got sent off when no-one actually saw the incident on the pitch. I don't buy it from FIFA that the Fourth Official saw it himself, rather than watched a replay. Zidane would have gone straight away if that had been the case.
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I liked these:
http://zidaneexplains.ytmnd.com/
http://emca.ytmnd.com/
Surprised Zidane got sent off when no-one actually saw the incident on the pitch. I don't buy it from FIFA that the Fourth Official saw it himself, rather than watched a replay. Zidane would have gone straight away if that had been the case.
Bear in mind neither the 4th official nor the referee spent their time twiddling their thumbs; what's likely IMO is that the 4th official saw something, tipped off the ref; the ref walked back up to the incident, spent a few minutes talking to the players and calming them down, and then went to the linesman to hear what he saw, and only then got out the card.
I doubt, in a world cup final, the referee would want to send of Zidane without at least getting the linesmans view of things (given where the 4th official was located in seeing the incident).
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Isn't that what the headsets are for?
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You know, something like that already happened several times, but this time someone noticed
Btw this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpG4AHlZrL4) is interesting too
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this is what i think about italy winning
[12:37] Kazan: **** italy
[12:37] Kazan: Diving is for swimming poools, do da, do da
[12:37] Kazan: Diving is for swimming pools, oh do da dei
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I have no idea what this is all about, but those headbutt movies are hilarious. :lol:
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this is what i think about italy winning
[12:37] Kazan: **** italy
[12:37] Kazan: Diving is for swimming poools, do da, do da
[12:37] Kazan: Diving is for swimming pools, oh do da dei
You're not bitter in the slightest, though.
Mmm.... you might want to edit page 1 before anyone looks, though.
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i called things wrong, without going back and reading i believe i put "could" and other thingsl ike that in most of the time.
I don't need to go edit things to hide the fact that I made a bad call
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i called things wrong, without going back and reading i believe i put "could" and other thingsl ike that in most of the time.
I don't need to go edit things to hide the fact that I made a bad call
Not so much out as 'Frank Lampard shot', though :P
Well, I did say so, if I do say so myself :D
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Zidane this,Zidane that...he isn't 100% French,you know this.
France won the world cup in 98,winning another cup after 8 years,c'mon...
A world cup is what Italy needs now.After the M-today(read "M-oggi")Calciopoli,players like Buffon(clown)and Del Piero now will certainly play in series C with some point penalties. News reported:"We won the world football cup,but are we going to win the Justice's one too?".
PS. Don't say "FORZA ITALIA" with political intent.I don't know what do you think out there,but Berlusconi "Made Italy free from Liberty" for over 5 years. We all hate him,except the Padanian League loyalists,the same who want to divide Italy in North,Central and South like before the unification in 1861.
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The likes of Del Piero, Cannavaro, Buffon etc will almost certainly have release or cut-price transfer clauses in their contracts, so if Juve go down, they go elsewhere. I could see Barca swooping for Buffon, in particular.
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The likes of Del Piero, Cannavaro, Buffon etc will almost certainly have release or cut-price transfer clauses in their contracts, so if Juve go down, they go elsewhere. I could see Barca swooping for Buffon, in particular.
That's not so easy.A contract ends when it is supposed to do.If a footballer has a contract with a team until 2008,for example,he has no choice but to remain in that team.In fact,all these players were pretty sad during the World Cup.
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The likes of Del Piero, Cannavaro, Buffon etc will almost certainly have release or cut-price transfer clauses in their contracts, so if Juve go down, they go elsewhere. I could see Barca swooping for Buffon, in particular.
That's not so easy.A contract ends when it is supposed to do.If a footballer has a contract with a team until 2008,for example,he has no choice but to remain in that team.In fact,all these players were pretty sad during the World Cup.
Nope. Players often negotiate release clauses into their contract, such as for a set minimum fee (either in general - the Golden Handcuffs - or for specific events like relegation), or even a free transfer upon relegation. Additionally, under UEFAs' guidelines, a player can hand in their notice at a club and leave (only for a club in another country, and with a compensation tribunal); see Andy Webster for example.
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...players like Buffon(clown)...
I didn't know his name meant clown.
General comment about this World Cup:
My brother's best friend once sent an SMS that said: "This World Cup is a hat of crap" (strict translation). That sums it up that gameplay was killed, especially after the group matches. We had some good matches, granted, but not all were notable for the game itself, but its referees. Somebody being sent off only after three yellow cards is unheard of, a thing people will make fun of, or sending off four players and setting out a dozen yellow cards in the same match is not a good way of advertising (popularizing) soccer. The Hungarian commentary noted sometime in the middle of the group matches that soccer started to become more popular in the US, a country that normally prefers its own sports like baseball. I started thinking about how actual it is now, after the end of the World Cup. I am interested in this, because I learn American Studies at University and would like to keep my eyes on events in the US.
The World Cup somehow lost interest for me after Brazil was eliminated. I didn't have a problem with France until they beat Brazil in 1998. I somehow knew that there can hardly be any other outcome for Brazil. I dare say Brazil is basically a superior team to France, but I must admit that they deserved those two victories. Same thing with Germany, they were underestimated but got better and won the third place, which is not a bad result, despite it is Germany that hosted the games.
Finally, I was insatisfied with the final because it had to be concluded in a penalty shootout. I just had to put up with it. I cheered for Italy, just because it is France that eliminated Brazil and I was glad that Italy won, overall.
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I find the fact that this world cup was decided by a penalty shootout an appropriately ****ty end to a monumentally ****ty tournament.
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Well said, but admit that the match itself was not bad.
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A little late cause I just got home. I watched the game on a theatre-size screen at my friend's university, and this final will be one I remember for a llong time.
1. One of the most exciting game's I've seen, both in the context of the WC finals and on its own merits. I thought it would be boring, but after both teams scored within 20 minutes, every subsequent minute was pure heaven.
2. Italy are ****ing dangerous on set plays. After the first half, I didn't know how France could possibly keep it together for the duration, given that every Italian corner kick was pretty much a 50/50.
3. But Les Blues came back and dominated the second half and extra time. I don't know if Domenec gave them PCP at halftime, but they were flying. Ribery especially put his mutant powers to full use, he seemed to be everywhere on the field at once, so props to him.
4. But alas, Zidane's red card ruined the whole game for me, and Italies subsequent victory. Yes, everyone can clearly see that it's his fault, and he should know better, and an example must be set bla bla, but we're talking about Zizou here. He ranks with Pele and Maradona in legendary staus. What the **** kind of **** is this, giving the greatest player of a generation a red card in the last 15 minutes of the last game of his career?! Aside from the fact that Mattarazzi obviously said something to make Zidane snap, which deflects some of the blame, if ever there was a situation warranting bending the rules, this is it. Yes, fine, give him a red card. But for ****s sake, not allowing him on the field to claim his medal is just absurd. If the Italians had an honorable bone in their body, they would have invited Zidane back on, to celebrate the end of an infamous carreer as he deserved. And the French should have refused to take their medals without their Captain, had they had a ****ing backbone. You play brilliantly for nearly two decades and **** up once, and suddenly all that past never existed? Give me a break. The correct thing to do would have been for Italy to share their victory with a legend playing his last match, and playing it damn well might I add. This is, after all, a game about people, wonderful and flawed as they are, and respecting a rigid set of rules over the players themselves, being anal to the point of stupidity, is not OK in my books.
With that said, damn that looked painful. This was no wimpy Figo headbut, this was "****, who hit my chest with a sledgehammer?" headbut. I hope it hurt like hell.
5. Who the hell takes off Henry and puts on Trezeguet. If Henry held on for the entire match, he could have waited ten more minutes. Knowing that it was likely to go into a penalty shootout, taking out a strong kicker in favour of a man who was destined to **** up at the crucial moment...well, what can I say.
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4. But alas, Zidane's red card ruined the whole game for me, and Italies subsequent victory. Yes, everyone can clearly see that it's his fault, and he should know better, and an example must be set bla bla, but we're talking about Zizou here. He ranks with Pele and Maradona in legendary staus. What the **** kind of **** is this, giving the greatest player of a generation a red card in the last 15 minutes of the last game of his career?! Aside from the fact that Mattarazzi obviously said something to make Zidane snap, which deflects some of the blame, if ever there was a situation warranting bending the rules, this is it. Yes, fine, give him a red card. But for ****s sake, not allowing him on the field to claim his medal is just absurd. If the Italians had an honorable bone in their body, they would have invited Zidane back on, to celebrate the end of an infamous carreer as he deserved. And the French should have refused to take their medals without their Captain, had they had a ****ing backbone. You play brilliantly for nearly two decades and **** up once, and suddenly all that past never existed? Give me a break. The correct thing to do would have been for Italy to share their victory with a legend playing his last match, and playing it damn well might I add. This is, after all, a game about people, wonderful and flawed as they are, and respecting a rigid set of rules over the players themselves, being anal to the point of stupidity, is not OK in my books.
No wait.... if the same thing had happened to an Italian player, nobody would have given a s**t about it. And you know it.
If I insult you, it's not your RIGHT to punch me. You can do it, of course, but you have to accept the consequences.
Besides, it's not like the first time Zidane behaves like that. Technical wise, he is wonderfull. But he always had a temper problem. Not like THE real french GOD of football. Platini. Which, go figure, did nothing else than bashing Italy from day one. So much for that.
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Clearly, legendary players should be exempted from the laws of the game because, er, it sets such a good example to others.
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Clearly, legendary players should be exempted from the laws of the game because, er, it sets such a good example to others.
I couldn't have said it better.
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rictor a red card is a red card - means GTFO the pitch
he deserved that red card, a lot
not just some little tossing of an elbow that can happen unintentionally, but tht is like 5-10 game suspension material red card there
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Lets face it. Off the football pitch that little incident could have resulted in a court case for assault.
Zidane should consider himself lucky to get away with not being able to collect a medal as a punishment. Especially when you consider that he's retiring and FIFA can't give him the suspension his actions deserved.
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PS. Don't say "FORZA ITALIA" with political intent.I don't know what do you think out there,but Berlusconi "Made Italy free from Liberty" for over 5 years. We all hate him,except the Padanian League loyalists,the same who want to divide Italy in North,Central and South like before the unification in 1861.
That had crossed my mind. I gathered from when I was over there that Berlusconi was something of a jackass (Honestly, though, could he really be as much of an idiot as Dubya is now?). What I had thought, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that Forza Italia was originally a football cheer, and that political party just took it and made it it's name.
BTW, thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to remember that if I ever visit again.
EDIT: Oh, and I'm with karajorma on what to think about Zidane's incident.
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Looks like it's finally out what Matterazzi said. First he called Zidane whatever the French equivallent for nigger is, and then called him a "son of a terrorist whore". By the way, his mother was taken ill to the hospital earlier on Sunday. Tell me that that's appropriate behaviour. Tell me that it's an acceptable strategy to sling insults at the other team and hope they will act out. I'm pretty sure FIFA has some sort of rule against racial slurs.
I'm not saying Zidane shouldn't have gotten the red card, he definitely should have. But it would have been harmless to send him off properly, instead of having him end his career in a locker room somwhere. To my mind, you can't just view this game as any other. Were it any other match, I wouldn't care. But the game must also be seen as the culmination of a long career, the final hurrah, and as such it merits special importance and I see no harm in bending a rule which is idiotic and pointless in the first place. Essentially, the specifities of one match should not be allowed to invalidate the past fifteen or twenty years, which is symbolically what happened.
If FIFA were to stick to strictly enforcing the technicalities, players also aren't allowed to take off their jersey, and I'm pretty sure I saw a lot of Italians (or indeed any WC winner) with their shirts, and also pants, off. But that rule is not enforced due to the importance of the occasion, which is what should have happened with Zidane.
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And anyone not retiring immediately after would be looking at a multi-match ban.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5168890.stm
:confused:
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He probably watched Ukraine - Switzerland.
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Looks like it's finally out what Matterazzi said. First he called Zidane whatever the French equivallent for nigger is, and then called him a "son of a terrorist whore". By the way, his mother was taken ill to the hospital earlier on Sunday. Tell me that that's appropriate behaviour. Tell me that it's an acceptable strategy to sling insults at the other team and hope they will act out. I'm pretty sure FIFA has some sort of rule against racial slurs.
So Zidane should have just shouted back at him until the ref came over to see what was going on. Had that happened it would probably have been Matterazzi who got sent off instead of Zidane. Not to mention the fact that the Spanish learned the hard way that making racist taunts at the French team only fired them up. That would have been a much better response that what is basically a criminal offense regardless of the provocation.
Fact is I don't give a **** who Zidane is. Any other player would have gotten the same treatment for that. I see no good reason why he should get treated any differently just cause he was retiring. If he was so worried about his legacy maybe he shouldn't have thought about not headbutting an opposing player in his final match.
Besides where did you hear that this was what was said anyway?
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Looks like it's finally out what Matterazzi said. First he called Zidane whatever the French equivallent for nigger is, and then called him a "son of a terrorist whore". By the way, his mother was taken ill to the hospital earlier on Sunday. Tell me that that's appropriate behaviour. Tell me that it's an acceptable strategy to sling insults at the other team and hope they will act out. I'm pretty sure FIFA has some sort of rule against racial slurs.
He (Zidane) should explain today at 8pm (GMT+1)
So Zidane should have just shouted back at him until the ref came over to see what was going on. Had that happened it would probably have been Matterazzi who got sent off instead of Zidane. Not to mention the fact that the Spanish learned the hard way that making racist taunts at the French team only fired them up. That would have been a much better response that what is basically a criminal offense regardless of the provocation.
Fact is I don't give a **** who Zidane is. Any other player would have gotten the same treatment for that. I see no good reason why he should get treated any differently just cause he was retiring. If he was so worried about his legacy maybe he shouldn't have thought about not headbutting an opposing player in his final match.
Besides where did you hear that this was what was said anyway?
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Various lipreaders have come up with various interpretations; one is calling his mother a terrorist whore, another is wishing his (Zidanes) whole family a horrible death (Zidanes mother was in hospital at the time, although who knows if Materazzi knew); both from the BBC (radio 5 and the bbc news respectively, I think).
But let's be just a wee bit careful here; almost every media examination of Zidanes actions has seemingly sought to exonerate him of responsibility based on what Materazzi might have said. But ultimately words are one thing, actions are another; there will not be a professional player in the world who has not gone through a match without opponents constantly trying to wind them up into doing something stupid.
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He (Zidane) should explain today at 8pm (GMT+1)
Hardly an unbiased source.
Besides my point is that while he can explain why he did it, he can't excuse it.
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Zidane Apologises:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5169342.stm
"I want to ask for forgiveness from all the children who watched that.
"There was no excuse for it. I want to be open and honest about it."
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Zidane Apologises:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5169342.stm
"I want to ask for forgiveness from all the children who watched that.
"There was no excuse for it. I want to be open and honest about it."
That's what he needed to say.
Materazzi(another strange surname,it means...well..what there is between you during sleeping and the bed...),if you check the video,was looking elsewhere.Saying something like "son of a terrorist" and do not see the "target" it's almost impossible.
The Italian cronisti of the match said this,istantly translated:
"Zidane did this simply because he couldn't break trough our defense,he was angry of it"
The headbutt was so stupid,as stupid was Materazzi when fell on the ground.
An headbutt...and you give him a medal?Maybe someone was so happy the Zizou will play football anymore,and gave him a medal...
Also stupid is Zidane's mom:she wants revenge?What kind of revenge?
I have 4 rifles and I'm able to shot with two of them at the same time(translated:kill 4 people in 1,5 seconds).
<I was kidding,I'll never kill people!>
Then,why giving so much importance to Zizou?If you wached the match,you probably saw how many times the ball shooted by Italian attackers hit the traversa...there are about two missed goals...
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Okay, I couldn't make head or tails of the Lt.General's last message, but whatever.
In my opinion, Zidane did the wrong thing and deserved the red card he got of it. I also think that he wouldn't have done that without being provoked to it by some serious insults, but headbutting them is still the wrong choice. Right choice would've been to just walk away and next time when he got the chance to kick the ball, to imagine it was Materazzi's insult-spitting head... :D
Anyway, despite the controversial ending of the game, Italy deserved their win. The goal that was not accepted was - by the new rules - not an offside. There were two Italian players in the offside, but as far as I could see, the only one who played the game was not. This is one of the reasons why I think that the old offside rule must come back, as it's much clearer and thus less prone to judgement mistakes. For example, in this case the linesmen sure had difficult time seeing who it was who played the ball and whether or not he was in offside. As opposed, by the old rule it would've been a clear offside, end of story.
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The world cup is dead........... come on Euro.
rather than start a new thread i thought i'd post it here.
http://www.footymax.com/zidane.htm
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/zidane_headbutt_outrage/
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The goal that was not accepted was - by the new rules - not an offside. There were two Italian players in the offside
Actually I reckon all three of them were offside. :p
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There, you see?
That's exactly the reason I'd like to see the Good Ol' Offside rule back. :lol:
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Why? If the active player was offside it makes no difference as to whether the goal should have counted.
The rule was changed so that perfectly good goals weren't diallowed cause some dickhead on the other side of the field happened to wonder offside when a vital pass was made.
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Individual dickheads' actions should affect the game just like good performances do, because football is a team sports. I think it more like, if one "dickhead", as you say, is in offside, the team is in offside, and then the goal isn't valid because the team made a mistake. Be it an individual dickhead or not, he is still part of the team.
Just like when some non-dickhead scores a goal, he scores it for the team, though he also gains personal credit from it. Well, whatever.
But the main point is however that it's easier for the linesmen to call offsides when there's less chances of error. By the old rule, they only need to keep theyr attention on one - the lowest - player at a time; by the new rule they sometimes have to simultaneously follow as many as four... perhaps even more players at some occasions. There are bound to happen errors more with this rule than with the old rule. And call errors being decisice to the result are not something we want to see. Therefore - a rule that make sless errors possible = good, a rule that makes more errors possible = not so good.
Oh, and about this particular offside call in question - I only saw it a few times slowed down, but it definitely seemed to me like the player in the middle wasn't on the offside. On the other hand, they were all in one big cluster and it was sure very difficult to linesmen to see who was where and who played the ball. And, by the old rules it would've been offside, simply and effectively. 8)
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/zidane_headbutt_outrage/
That's cool,but I didn't see Zidane flying!
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Again, to save starting a new thread...
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/324787
ULTIMATE WORLD CUP 2006.
very fun little game- now with shotgun