Well it was only a matter of time before someone started up a page to discuss this year's World Cup, so who better than me! Just witnessed another shocking display from England. They have a brilliant team in theory, but their strikers are dodgy: Owen is not long back from injury & hasn't found his scoring touch; Rooney (and his damn foot) came on today for 30 minutes against Trinidad & Tobago; and Crouch is over-rated as a striker if you ask me (I do realise he scored today!) Other hot topic of the day: Ecuador- how the hell have they won 2 games already! If they draw against Germany, in their final group game, they will top their group!! This would not be a good thing for England; it would mean that if England win their group, they would then play Germany in Round 2! As Gary Lineker once quipped "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win."
England's always had problems with finding reliable strikers and it hasn't helped that two of the countries best aren't operating at 100%. Always thought it was a shame Shearer retired from international football quite early, he's certainly been doing alright for Newcastle ever since. Must admit I've not seen much of Crouch, but after he'd scored the commentator mentioned he'd scored 6 goals in 9 games for England, which sounds promising so I'm withholding judgement for now, see if he can score against some really decent defence. Was a shame that we got that second goal though, puts a dent in T&T's hopes of getting into the next round via goal difference. Still, if we manage to beat Sweden and T&T beat Paraguay it could still happen. They played well enough to deserve it.
It took the English 80 minutes to finally score... ;-) T&T is coached by a Dutchman (Beenhakker) so I felt a bit proud how well they stood up to the English team. (Actualy there's 4 dutch coaches in the worldcup this year: T&T by Leo Beenhakker, The Netherlands by Marco van Basten, Australia by Guus Hiddink (who got Korea to the 4th place last time) and Korea is now coached by Dick Advocaat) The Dutch team just won 2-1 from Ivory Coast. So that's Argentina and the Netherlands going through for group C, with Argentina leading with 8 (!) goals for and 1 against. I'm kind of hoping Portugal places second in their group (D ), otherwise it's going to be Portugal - Holland in the next round... And I want those two in the final...
I guess I caught the virus after all. Well, when if not now? I really enjoyed the match Germany - Poland - especially seeing it was my favourite player scoring the goal. The way the whole quarter fell into chaos, with people celebrating til 6 in the morning, was a little over the top, though... But I guess its true what a commentator said recently: The whole country decided to enjoy a six week party no matter what, but its so much easier with a reason... It is straining, though, to live in the one quarter of the town, where all public viewings and World Cup related parties are taking place. We're living under constant sonic bombardement, every day until 23.00, and we also have to live with all the things people leave behind for us... Just imagine the usual leftovers of a wild party as a constant flow... (Sorry. But you really don't want to know about what we find in our doorway these days.)
Well I'm doing my usual jump on the band wagon for any large sporting event. I stayed up on Monday night until 4am in the morning to see Australia lose to Brazil (although we did put up a pretty good showing for the most part). The next game where all we have to do is draw against Croatia to advance to the second round is being played at 5am local time... This is going to be hard but national pride and a cultural tendency to be sports nutters dictates that I make the effort.
Well, that's the punishment for wasting so many talents on sports no one outside the USA really understands.
[quote:bc3037823d="QuothTheRaven"]*Resigns self to the fact that my country will never win the world cup*[/quote:bc3037823d] Isn't the American league of baseball called World Cup? I have a vague memory of someone saying that once.
[quote:e6af911fae="KaptenKaries"][quote:e6af911fae="QuothTheRaven"]*Resigns self to the fact that my country will never win the world cup*[/quote:e6af911fae] Isn't the American league of baseball called World Cup? I have a vague memory of someone saying that once.[/quote:e6af911fae] You mean the World Series?
[quote:df6a0b96ca="QuothTheRaven"][quote:df6a0b96ca="KaptenKaries"][quote:df6a0b96ca="QuothTheRaven"]*Resigns self to the fact that my country will never win the world cup*[/quote:df6a0b96ca] Isn't the American league of baseball called World Cup? I have a vague memory of someone saying that once.[/quote:df6a0b96ca] You mean the World Series?[/quote:df6a0b96ca] Yeah, that's it. But only American teams are playing this series, right?
Canadians too. I still remember when the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Phillies. And, I hear that we beat Italy! At least, so my source thinks.
The USA played so far: USA 0 - Czech Republic 3 USA 1 - Italy 1 ...a tie in after a very brutal match. It got a touch of a group brawl after Italian Daniele De Rossi purposely smacked his ellbow into the face of Brian McBride. De Rossi was immideatly sent off the place. Several red and yellow cards for both teams followed. The match against Ghana is still to come, and Ghana is surprisingly good (they beat the Czech Republic, which was considered to be a sure candidate for the round of sixteen - now it's unsure). If I got it right, the USA had to win over Ghana, and at the same time, the Czeck Republic would have to loose against Italy, for the USA to make it into the round of sixteen. This might all be wrong, but I think I got it more or less. It's kind of complicated for a newbie in football matters, but it will become easier from the round of sixteen on - you loose, you go home. And: No tie ins possible.
Ah yes, Germany is going to play against Sweden on Saturday. And poor Owen... Looking at the slow motion was nauseating. I've heard two of the English games on British radio, and no one seemed to be too happy with their team so far. "Ironic applause" was mentioned once... never heard of that. How does it work? Do you clap with an eyebrow raised? They're expected to make it against Equador, though. Quarter finale, then.
Just got back from the pub, I'm glad I went, they gave away some free snacks at half-time Not being beaten was more important today for us English, keeps the morale up, especially as we won the group. Poor defending from set-pieces was a worry though, as is the lack of real chances being created. We [i:885033e0bd]should[/i:885033e0bd] beat Ecuador, hopefully the game will allow us to hit our stride. [quote:885033e0bd="Hsing"]"Ironic applause" was mentioned once... never heard of that. How does it work? Do you clap with an eyebrow raised? [/quote:885033e0bd] Ironic clapping is like flapping your hands together when someone does something simple right, when all they've done previously is get it wrong. Normally, in football, this is aimed at the referee when he finally gives your team a decision, normally accompanied with an ironic cheer too. Raised eyebrows are optional. [quote:885033e0bd]This might all be wrong, but I think I got it more or less. It's kind of complicated for a newbie in football matters, but it will become easier from the round of sixteen on - you loose, you go home. And: No tie ins possible.[/quote:885033e0bd] This should clear up who can go through with what results and so forth.
[quote:4bf2130585="Electric_Man"]Not being beaten was more important today for us English, keeps the morale up, especially as we won the group. Poor defending from set-pieces was a worry though, as is the lack of real chances being created.[/quote:4bf2130585] I was happy Sweden still haven't lost a game to England for 38 years. We had some real good chances, three balls hitting the bar just centimetres from scoring. The final goal by Henrik Larsson in the 90:th minute was more luck than skill, but I still think we deserved atleast a draw from how we played that game. Best of luck to England in the eights, Equador should be a walk in the park. So Sweden's facing Germany in the eights. The track record before this match is even more impressive than against England. Sweden haven't beaten Germany since 1956. I would be surprised if we'd make it to quarter finals, but still, I'm looking forward to the game. Edit: Removed a stray 'W'. Edit: Ben told me it's called "scoring" and not "goaling".
Yay we made it to the second round!! After a very awful and early 5am start to the day Australia manged to draw with Croatia 2-2, which is enough to see us through (not thanks to some bloody awful refereeing which saw one Croatian player receive THREE yellow cards before being sent off). I will go party :drinkers: :rock: :supz: (and it looks like this)
Yay english referee! T'was a good game to watch though. The drama was so high that I think it had been smoking something for the entire evening beforehand...
[quote:0599d5698a="QuothTheRaven"]*Resigns self to the fact that my country will never win the world cup*[/quote:0599d5698a] Well, at least we made it as far as we did (which, I admit, wasn't very far).
I have now missed all 4 of England's matches live because of having to work! I think their next match is July 1st, a saturday, and I should be able to see that one. From what I've heard, England were dodgy again today. They badly needed two in form stikers; as it is, they rely on midfielders like Beckham & Lampard to create chances themselves
They played 4-1-4-1 with Carrick just in front of the back four and Rooney, a striker only just returned from injury, alone up front. Predictably this meant the chances of applying much pressure up front was pretty low to begin with. Surprisingly though Rooney made a pretty good game of it and kept catching the Ecquador defence off guard. In spite of Ecquador sounding like being pretty simple a challenge it has to be kept in mind they beat Argentina and Brazil in their qualifying games to actually reach the world cup and it was quite a good match. They really need to pick up their performance and tighten the passing when they meet Portugal. Speaking of Portugal, did you manage to see their game against the Netherlands?! Officially the dirtiest match in world cup history. 16 yellow and 4 red cards! Big plus for England though, Portugal are going to be short some of their best for the meeting with us
[quote:0ffbccc277="Watchman"] Speaking of Portugal, did you manage to see their game against the Netherlands?! Officially the dirtiest match in world cup history. 16 yellow and 4 red cards! Big plus for England though, Portugal are going to be short some of their best for the meeting with us[/quote:0ffbccc277] That was some tense & dirty match alright. Holland could never get into a flow of attack because someone was always getting fouled & play stopping every few minutes. Good news for England was Deco getting sent off, as he's a valuable player; he sets up a lot of goals, including Maniche's winner against Holland. England have the bit of luck now that they need to beat such a depleted Portugeese side.
We were robbed!!! It was way too much to handle at 3am in the morning a penalty from the box 5 seconds from full-time given to Italy for one of the lamest bad ref decisions of all time*... gah! Now I'm tired and depressed. On the upside apparently coaches are offering there services to Australia now rather than us having to go out and beg / pay through the nose. Bring on 2010 say I! Good luck England.. *For those who didn't see the match. Italy's striker was on the left hand side of the goal square, an Aus defender did a sliding tackle that managed to miss everything, but did leave him lying on the ground. The Italian player kicked the ball over the defender but managed to trip on the fallen player (who made no effort to trip the guy) when he tried to jump over him. This was awarded a penalty shot at goal after time had ended, giving Italy a 1-0 win... Damn them!
[quote:0f6d0837f5="spiky"] one of the lamest bad ref decisions of all time*.[/quote:0f6d0837f5] I could probably name 10 worse without having to strain my memory, quite a few worse in this tournament already (the starting whistle for Switzerland-Ukraine being the absolute worst). The thing is, Lucas Neill dived in along the ground, you simply can't do that as a defender in the penalty box - you're just asking for the attacker to go down. On first view, I thought it was a clear-cut penalty and the referee only gets one view. On subsequent views, the Italian could have avoided the defender sprawled across the floor, but he took the easier way out, safe in the knowledge that the Australian had dived in in such a way to make it look like a foul. Besides, Lucas Neill is a dirty cheating git, who's broken a few legs with 'rash' challenges in his time. In general I like the Australians, they play decent football, but Lucas Neill is a complete set of asterisks.
For someone who isn't getting to view ANY of the games, could you give me a description of the Switzerland-Ukraine starting whistle gambit? This is one of the few times that I wish I had television.
[quote:11e6607c7f="redneck"]For someone who isn't getting to view ANY of the games, could you give me a description of the Switzerland-Ukraine starting whistle gambit? This is one of the few times that I wish I had television.[/quote:11e6607c7f] Heheh. It was just that the game was so poor that it would've been better that it hadn't been played at all. To be fair, the first half wasn't too bad - both sides hit the bar, but the second half and extra time was dullsville, neither team pushed many men forward. So nothing actually happened at the starting whistle, just the start of a very poor game. The actual worst refereeing of the tournament so far did involve Australia, but a previous game. Graham Poll booked a Croatian twice, but neglected to send him off as he had initially written the wrong name in the book! He later gave the player a third yellow card and then produced the red. Nate, I'd also suggest you search around on youtube, I would guess that some of the goals are on there - there's been a lot of stunning goals in the tournament so far.
If I remember correctly, a player can be yellow carded as many as three times or even more, according to FIFA rules. I'll have to find my rule book again and look it up. I had it memorized at one point when I was acting as referee. Good luck to England and Australia. Who is in the lead so far? *I would wish good luck to France, but they're a bunch of pansies.
[quote:65d8d69435="redneck"]If I remember correctly, a player can be yellow carded as many as three times or even more, according to FIFA rules. I'll have to find my rule book again and look it up. I had it memorized at one point when I was acting as referee. Good luck to England and Australia. Who is in the lead so far? *I would wish good luck to France, but they're a bunch of pansies. [/quote:65d8d69435] A second yellow card constitutes a red, I'm certain of that. Progress of the teams in the knock-out stage so far
My mistake. Just reread the rules of the game and it says "A player, substitute or substituted player is sent off and shown the red card if he commits any of the following seven offenses. 7. receives a second caution in the same match." I didn't realize that a player is cautioned if he removes his jersey when celebrating a goal. All of the rules can be found here.
[quote:439554afe4="redneck"]*I would wish good luck to France, but they're a bunch of pansies. [/quote:439554afe4] Don't worry, the whole of France has been saying precisely that since the last world cup. Poor guys though, must be tough to know your whole country is laughing at you... Maybe with a little more support and belief, they could be small gods again, for now, they're just verbally abused tortoises.
By the way, I keep hearing about this match between Brazil and Garner... isn't he going to feel a bit lonely out on the pitch against 11 brazil nuts ? Unless of course I'm getting this completely wrong and Brazil is just this guy... After all, it's not as though I know all that much about football
[quote:291f69cd7d="spiky"] *For those who didn't see the match. Italy's striker was on the left hand side of the goal square, an Aus defender did a sliding tackle that managed to miss everything, but did leave him lying on the ground. The Italian player kicked the ball over the defender but managed to trip on the fallen player (who made no effort to trip the guy) when he tried to jump over him. This was awarded a penalty shot at goal after time had ended, giving Italy a 1-0 win... Damn them![/quote:291f69cd7d] Yes, Australia were robbed alright; they played well and could have capitalised on the extra man advantage in the 30 minutes of extra time. Though in some fairness to Italy, 4 years ago they had 2 good goals disallowed for offside & were eventually robbed by South Korea 2-1 after extra time
[quote:1e50dba3ec="Mikor"]Y'know, I think i'm the only person in england who dosnt care at all about the world cup, lol.[/quote:1e50dba3ec] Maybe we should switch places, because it seems as if I am the only person in the US who does.
Quoth, I have found out recently that the World Cup is pretty popular here. Even in my rural area people are talking about it and keeping up with it.
[quote:0cf0d34330="Hsing"] Sorry, but this made me grin after a pretty *ยง&`"** day...[/quote:0cf0d34330] The funniest bit was hearing the guy on the radio the next day saying "wow, did you see that match, Garner got quite a thrashing !"
Poor Garner. He must be feeling quite sore after all of this action he's been getting. Ben, its not so much the decision of itself its just an awful way to lose a game. Especially at 3am. And if Poll is England's best ref then god help you.
[quote:1de4d8f6d7="spiky"]Ben, its not so much the decision of itself its just an awful way to lose a game. Especially at 3am. And if Poll is England's best ref then god help you.[/quote:1de4d8f6d7] Very true and even truer
I caught the virus. I'm so excitetly waiting for tomorrow. Well, it wouldn't be too much of a shame for our team to loose against Argentina, but after the brilliant start, it would be pretty sad if it was over tomorrow... At least if they lost, no one could sing, "You can fly home, you can fly home..."
Well, same for France, it's not that bad to loose against Brazil, it's better than being eliminated by Togo... And hey, they have beaten them befor now, although admittedly not often Oh what the hell, go England !!!
Germany robbed Argentina in the first quarter-final match. Argentina took off Crespo & Riquelme to help keep their 1-0 lead but to no avail. Germany scored with 10 minutes left & held out until penalties, whilst clearly being the weaker side. Typical really, Germany winning 4-2 on penalties in a match they did not deserve to win.
[quote:57ac214823="TheJackal"]Germany robbed Argentina in the first quarter-final match. Argentina took off Crespo & Riquelme to help keep their 1-0 lead but to no avail. Germany scored with 10 minutes left & held out until penalties, whilst clearly being the weaker side. Typical really, Germany winning 4-2 on penalties in a match they did not deserve to win.[/quote:57ac214823] Pfffft. We've seen both teams giving more, well, beaut performances. Both teams seemed rather confused at some times, trying to avoid mistakes instead of deciding where to push the game. But if the Argentinians had really been as highly superior as everyone predicted, it shouldn't have been as hard to them, should it? After all, there hasn't been anything like a goal that hadn't been count, or their best players fouled until they had to be carried away on stretchers. They weren't robbed, they lost.
[quote:3c85957c8b="mowgli"]Ukraine vs. Italy in 18 minutes!!! GO KIEV!!!!![/quote:3c85957c8b] 3 - 0... ouch ! Bad luck Mowgli...
And England is out after a pretty nerve wrecking penalty that might have gone different if there weren't the obstacles of bureaucracy.... I wasn't for or against any of both the teams, but loosing this way is, well, how Spiky put it regarding the Australian team.... [quote:e73972b8f0]Ben, its not so much the decision of itself its just an awful way to lose a game.[/quote:e73972b8f0] Maybe its genetic disposition, but I think it's kind of sad.
Can't believe England lost another match on penalties. Portugal missed 2 themselves which is usually enough for the other team to win!
good englands out it was geting aning in scotland as i do not suport england and everyone keept on going on about it and i was geting anoyed about it.
**smirks** France 1 - Brazil 0... Oh well, I guess days like these I'll just have to pretend to be French... Bad luck England, it was a very close game, nil-nil all the way through... Still, annoying, I would have really enjoyed a France-England match in semi...
I was totally surprised. Even though watching their last few games, and thinking "Wake up, this already [i:c3fa8a564e]is[/i:c3fa8a564e] the World Cup, and you play as if you were still waiting for it all to start..." - I thought the Brazilians had an enscription for winning the World Cup. Now, it has really become an [i:c3fa8a564e]EM[/i:c3fa8a564e]... Which is a tad sad, actually, because some of the international flair is gone, its a club thing again. I wish one of the African teams had made it further, and the final being a match between teams from different continents would have felt more right, too.
I'm still a little crestfallen about the england game - but I've had one of those seasons for club and country - I'll get over it. DMC was a great aid to make me forget about it, even Doors didn't mention it after the game. It's just disappointing, Portugal played crap, and if England hadn't played crap also, we would've won it. I'm still not 100% sure why the referee sent Rooney off. He seemed satisfied with just a free kick when he awarded it, and Rooney's push was barely a touch - if he had hugged him he would've moved him more. But I guess it's just a case of C'est La Vie (damn french...)
Watching the game at the pub, with all my board friends around me was brilliant, to see Ben with his head in his hands with each goal attempt and to hear the roar when we scored the penalties was a great feeling. The fact we lost didn't deter from the fact that the support all around and the atmosphere was amazing. I couldn't imagine losing in a nicer way. Thanks for not rubbing it in Doors. The scottish accent might have made me hit you with a my empty pop bottle that i carried round all bloody day and then thought a good idea to bring home with me!!!! *Sulks* Don't care if you are taller than i imagined!
Well, if it makes you feel any better, the guy who scored for France against Brazil (Thierry Henri, for those who didn't watch) is an Arsenal man...
I'm not much of a football follower but i do enjoy watching international matches. I must say that for how we (England) have been playing we truely deserved to go out, although not in that match and certainly not like that. The referee was biased, Rooney didn't foul Rondaldo, it looked to me asif he were fouled. He was pretty much dragged to the ground by the two Portugeese (Spelling?), it was because they were pulling at him that he stepped back onto Ronaldo. Also it he had actually made contact with Ronaldo (concidering where he supposedly stamped on him) he would have been off injured, which proves that he didn't touch him. I didn't see the foul against Beckham but beeing that he was injured from it wouldn't that contribute at least a freekick? That is the best we'd been playing so far this world cup but it still wasn't upto our standard. Lampard was dismal, we should have had Crouch start to give Rooney a little support rather than have Lampard smash the ball over the net at every opertunity. We were never going to win the world cup with how we were performing but we deserved to win last night. OOh and well done France. I would have much prefferd France to win than Brazil, It seems that no team has been playing to their potential with the exeption of France and Germany, so I'm glad that they are through to the Semi's.
did you see the wink after roony was sent off hmm a bit surspisos (Speling) just imagin a France v Germany final that would be intresting.
[quote:5c26c659b4="Katcal"]**smirks** France 1 - Brazil 0... Oh well, I guess days like these I'll just have to pretend to be French.....[/quote:5c26c659b4] Shut it frenchie.
I wasn't really surprised that France beat Brazil because Brazil never played that well in their other games. They even went behind to South Korea, although they woke up after the goal & won convincingly enough that day. When Brazil finally met a qulity team, the french showed up their weaknesses and deservedly won.
Well the world cup has just become open slather for the remaining teams. Am i allowed to go for Portugal because they don't seem to have won it as much as the rest, and I'm a sucker for the underdog? BTW didn't Rooney get sent off not so much for the push but because he stomped on the guys groin? Well thats what they showed on the news here... Sorry fellas I couldn't do another 3am morning just to watch england, I just couldn't.
[quote:131ea2cbb0="Rincewind"][quote:131ea2cbb0="Katcal"]**smirks** France 1 - Brazil 0... Oh well, I guess days like these I'll just have to pretend to be French.....[/quote:131ea2cbb0] Shut it frenchie.[/quote:131ea2cbb0] **smirks doubly**
