2010 FIFA World Cup

[Junai]

Cameroon-Denmark in 5..

 

Me thinks 0-2.

 

 

 

J.

[Gorgon]

Man that was sheer terror. Our defence collapsed in long periods, fortunately Cameron wasn't much better.

[Guest The Architect]

Even though we were playing a depleted Ghana side, I'm glad we didn't have a mental meltdown after going down to 10 men and conceding a penalty. Credit to the boys. Ghana were awful and have been a disappointment in the World Cup so far, it seems as if Essien carries the team and his absence from the side is telling. I thought we played pretty well but we didn't show anywhere near enough in attack to suggest we are even capable of scoring more than 1 goal against Serbia, and not only do we have to win that game by 2 goals +, we will probably have to rely on the Germans winning by at least 3 goals against Ghana, which is possible if Muntari, Appiah and their two first choice central defenders don't start.

 

Too early to say but I think our awful performance against Germany just made them look better than they really are. I actually saw signs in that game that a side with a solid defensive structure could trouble them, but I think we all expected them to take all 9 points from the group stages. Have no idea why they took off Ozil and Mueller in the Serbia match. As for the red card on Kewell - can't it only be a red if it's a deliberate handball? If the referee didn't think it was a deliberate handball, wouldn't it have just been a yellow card? If so, well **** you ref. Think we would have won 2 or 3-1 with 11 men, but having said that, Wilkshire should have done better, defender or no defender. And Bresciano should not have been substituted.

 

Holland is starting to look like a contender. Theoretical quality, underwhelming performance, wins nevertheless. All the markings of a World Cup winner.

 

Hahaha took the words out of my mouth, in past World Cups the Dutch are ominous in the group stages and then they suck everyone into thinking they're a real shot to go all the way (a bit like how the media sucks people into thinking England's one of the strong favourites to win every pre-tournament build up, and then they choke). Now the Dutch can rest Robben in the 3rd match and they can play their best football when it counts - in the knockout stages.

Edited June 20, 2010 by The Architect

[Shryke]

At least England had a good game of rugby against Australia today, like I say the real world cup takes place in New Zealand next year.

 

ah my ignorance due to completely ignoring any news about sport has had me wondering

 

this does explain the puzzling sudden interest everyone in this country seems to have with football.

go back a couple of months and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who gave a **** about it

[Monte Carlo]

The All Blacks chewed up the Welsh like a meatgrinder. Painful to watch.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Even though we were playing a depleted Ghana side, I'm glad we didn't have a mental meltdown after going down to 10 men and conceding a penalty. Credit to the boys. Ghana were awful and have been a disappointment in the World Cup so far, it seems as if Essien carries the team and his absence from the side is telling. I thought we played pretty well but we didn't show anywhere near enough in attack to suggest we are even capable of scoring more than 1 goal against Serbia, and not only do we have to win that game by 2 goals +, we will probably have to rely on the Germans winning by at least 3 goals against Ghana, which is possible if Muntari, Appiah and their two first choice central defenders don't start.

 

Too early to say but I think our awful performance against Germany just made them look better than they really are. I actually saw signs in that game that a side with a solid defensive structure could trouble them, but I think we all expected them to take all 9 points from the group stages. Have no idea why they took off Ozil and Mueller in the Serbia match. As for the red card on Kewell - can't it only be a red if it's a deliberate handball? If the referee didn't think it was a deliberate handball, wouldn't it have just been a yellow card? If so, well **** you ref. Think we would have won 2 or 3-1 with 11 men, but having said that, Wilkshire should have done better, defender or no defender. And Bresciano should not have been substituted.

 

The penalty was unfair, and I'm not saying that just because we were cheering for Australia here.

 

Germany is good but its not unbeatable.

[Junai]

Man that was sheer terror. Our defence collapsed in long periods,

It made for an interesting match.

Could easily have been 3-4..

 

 

J.

[Maedhros]

The penalty was unfair, and I'm not saying that just because we were cheering for Australia here.

 

You sure it was unfair? Kewell illegally prevented a goal-scoring opportunity in the penalty area. Going by the rules, that's a penalty and a red card, intentional handball or not. The unintentional handball rule only applies in situations where there is no goal-scoring opportunity for the opposing team.

[Gorgon]

Why did he do it though. Surely it helped nothing. Maybe he wanted to be in the papers as the match-loser ?

[RPGmasterBoo]

The penalty was unfair, and I'm not saying that just because we were cheering for Australia here.

 

You sure it was unfair? Kewell illegally prevented a goal-scoring opportunity in the penalty area. Going by the rules, that's a penalty and a red card, intentional handball or not. The unintentional handball rule only applies in situations where there is no goal-scoring opportunity for the opposing team.

 

It was a split second thing and he did try to hit the ball with his chest. The ball hit the side of his chest and arm... Slamming him a red card + a penalty is practically deciding the game. If it was against any team other than Ghana (which can't score a goal to save its life) Australia would have been ruined.

Overall I think it was too drastic.

[RPGmasterBoo]

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/highlights/vi...1043/index.html

 

Its at 0:42. You gotta admit its not a 100% sure thing, especially at the speed everything was happening.

[Maedhros]

Why did he do it though. Surely it helped nothing. Maybe he wanted to be in the papers as the match-loser ?

 

It was unintentional, but intentional in the sense that he didn't have the arm "attached" to his body. If his arm had been attached to his body it would've been completely legal.

Edited June 20, 2010 by Thingolfin

[Gorgon]

Nice going NZ

[Tigranes]

They really need to let Cannavaro retire in glory... wasn't an easy ball but his reaction time is surely down with age.

[Gorgon]

Why did he do it though. Surely it helped nothing. Maybe he wanted to be in the papers as the match-loser ?

 

It was unintentional, but intentional in the sense that he didn't have the arm "attached" to his body. If his arm had been attached to his body it would've been completely legal.

That makes no sense. He reached hs hand up near where the ball was, that can't be unintentional, except in the brain fart kind of way.

[Tigranes]

Penalty to Italy.

 

There's a light shirtgrab but he lets go before De Rossi dives - it's both a penalty (if a soft one) and a dive. But then what do you expect from modern football.

[Gorgon]

From Italy you mean.

[mkreku]

They've found all the missing North Korean players! Yay!

 

In fact, at the last count they were no longer only 23 players in the group.. they were 24! :D

 

Go NK!!

[Gorgon]

Ok maybe not so much defectors as Ill Sung jugend.

[Wombat]

Well fought, NZ. Italy needs Pirlo, I guess.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Well fought, NZ. Italy needs Pirlo, I guess.

 

If a team depends so much on an aging (brilliant, no doubt, but still aging) champion, then we deserve to go out.

[Wombat]

If a team depends so much on an aging (brilliant, no doubt, but still aging) champion, then we deserve to go out.

And injured, too...

[Walsingham]

Watched Brazil vs Cote d'Ivoire (3-1) yesterday. I thought there was something distinctly fishy about the referee. I think there's a definite case for preventing him working at this level again. In general he blew up for the strangest reasons and at very odd times. Then of course there was Brazil's second goal as a result of two consecutive hand balls. This basically put Ivory so far on the back foot that it was a miracle they scored at all. Then he sent Kaka off for an incident he could only have seen out of the corner of his eye, as it happened off the ball. Something I think he only did so as to distract from the handball incident.

[Guest The Architect]

7-0 win to Portugal! Great performance from Portugal, if they can avoid Spain in the last 16 they might yet go back to back in semi-final defeats. Do you think maybe the goals came also because of the rain? The ball would be heavier, it wasn't floating over the bar as much, and the long passes and through-balls were holding up more often than not. I definitely think the ball has kept several results closer than they should have been - but that is not to say we haven't seen some underwhelming performances from some of the best teams in the world so far.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Watched Brazil vs Cote d'Ivoire (3-1) yesterday. I thought there was something distinctly fishy about the referee. I think there's a definite case for preventing him working at this level again. In general he blew up for the strangest reasons and at very odd times. Then of course there was Brazil's second goal as a result of two consecutive hand balls. This basically put Ivory so far on the back foot that it was a miracle they scored at all. Then he sent Kaka off for an incident he could only have seen out of the corner of his eye, as it happened off the ball. Something I think he only did so as to distract from the handball incident.

 

Yeah. The refereeing on this world cup is horrible. I don't know why they refuse to study the slow motion stuff before they make their decision. It would save from much embarrassment.