World Football Thread XX: Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

[Cort Haus]

You'll never convince me in a month of Sundays that Germany is a better side, man for man, than England.

Which makes it all the more baffling they were lucky to lose by only 4 goals to one.

Are you mad? Germany were miles the better side, and have miles the better players. If England could play decent football like that it would be a first since about 1970.

These English players do freeze over in big games, but even then, technically they're probably not as good as Algeria.

[Tuberski]

Why is Brazil wearing blue? Surely they will lose because of it.

ACK!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Those Brazilians are good.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The Dutch are showing their resiliance!!! Awesome

Netherlands up 2-1!

[Tuberski]

Told you. Blue is bad.

ACK!

[duke o' york]

Always bet on, er.... orange?

Ghana will win this anyway. Don't know why the others are even still trying.

Off-colour joke for a totally different sport:

Sorry lads, my lass can't come out tonight.

Why's that? What's wrong with her?

Well she's been suffering from something weird ever since her office did a Wimbledon sweepstake.

Any symptoms?

No idea, but she had Berdych when she came home.

Ba-dum tish.

[SpencerH]

I cant say that I support the Dutch team but I think they may win it all. Arjen "rubber-legs" Robbyn surely had Brazils number today. He drove em nuts and that's what you've got to do to beat em.

[Serb]

I cant say that I support the Dutch team but I think they may win it all. Arjen "rubber-legs" Robbyn surely had Brazils number today. He drove em nuts and that's what you've got to do to beat em.

You must be kidding me. The bald guy was just terrible first 60 minutes. The only thing he was good at was diving/"half-diving". The first period of his was just insane (a wasted corner??? WTF???).
It's Sneijder who made the game for the Dutch. He is the hero of the day.

[Kitschum]

Off-colour joke for a totally different sport:

Sorry lads, my lass can't come out tonight.

Why's that? What's wrong with her?

Well she's been suffering from something weird ever since her office did a Wimbledon sweepstake.

Any symptoms?

No idea, but she had Berdych when she came home.

Ba-dum tish.

Good one but I had to imagine it mangled through a UKEnglish filter before I got it.

[Dauphin]

Just need Spain to beat Germany or Argentina, and I clean up. Had 20-1 for Spain to play Netherlands in the final.

[Ben Kenobi]

Go Netherlands!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Rooting for a Protestant country, Ben?

[Frozzy]

Are you mad? Germany were miles the better side, and have miles the better players. If England could play decent football like that it would be a first since about 1970.

These English players do freeze over in big games, but even then, technically they're probably not as good as Algeria.

Yeah, they were miles the better side. I'm not denying that. England, man for man, pound for pound, have better players. It's just that those players don't gel together well in this side because you can't get a foreign anchor man to let the Gerrards and Lampards do their own thing.

The biggest problem England have is this daft pandering to reputation and just picking the 11 best players regardless of whether they work together. The side that went to South Africa was unbalanced and poorly selected, not untalented. That's just disingenuous knee jerk stuff.

And they freeze over in big games? How many Premier Leagues/FA Cups/Champions Leagues have they collectively won?

The same "untalented" players are going to be the same ones that big spending Premier League clubs build their teams around and draft in dozens of foreign players to get the most out of them. They're not stupid.

[duke o' york]

Bloody Suarez.

Bloody Gyan.

Bloody everything.

[Hueij]

You must be kidding me. The bald guy was just terrible first 60 minutes. The only thing he was good at was diving/"half-diving". The first period of his was just insane (a wasted corner??? WTF???).
It's Sneijder who made the game for the Dutch. He is the hero of the day.

Right on the first part of your post, totally wrong on the second part. Dirk Kuyt won this match for us.

Robben's corner will go in the history books )

[Hueij]

BTW, we kicked ass today. Brazilian ass...

[Frozzy]

Bloody Suarez.

Bloody Gyan.

Bloody everything.

Most unjust thing I think I've ever seen in a sporting event.

[Serb]

Right on the first part of your post, totally wrong on the second part. Dirk Kuyt won this match for us.

Oh come on, that's Wesley who scored two wonderful goals, not Dirk.

Robben's corner will go in the history books )

Just in case if any one has missed this masterpiece.

BTW, we kicked ass today. Brazilian ass...

My congrats once again

(btw, whenever you guys don't play against Russia I always cheers for Holland and Germany).

[Zopperoni]

Yea, that corner kick was rubbish.

For those wondering what the hell that was supposed to look like:

[SpencerH]

You must be kidding me. The bald guy was just terrible first 60 minutes. The only thing he was good at was diving/"half-diving". The first period of his was just insane (a wasted corner??? WTF???).
It's Sneijder who made the game for the Dutch. He is the hero of the day.

The "bald guy" plays for Bayern Munich (you may have heard of them) and was Footballer of the Year in Germany for the year 2010. Here's where it becomes useful to read other peoples posts. I didnt say that Robben had his best game or that he was Hollands MVP, I said he "had Brazils number". They had to cover him closely cos despite the ease with which he hits the ground he's a dangerous striker. OTOH they knew that he draws fouls and free kicks like flies to ****. Robben drew masses of attention to himself and disrupted Brazils psyche. Eventually Brazil became frustrated with the situation and as a result Melo was red-carded for a foul on Robben.

[Cort Haus]

Yeah, they were miles the better side. I'm not denying that. England, man for man, pound for pound, have better players. It's just that those players don't gel together well in this side because you can't get a foreign anchor man to let the Gerrards and Lampards do their own thing.

The biggest problem England have is this daft pandering to reputation and just picking the 11 best players regardless of whether they work together. The side that went to South Africa was unbalanced and poorly selected, not untalented. That's just disingenuous knee jerk stuff.

And they freeze over in big games? How many Premier Leagues/FA Cups/Champions Leagues have they collectively won?

The same "untalented" players are going to be the same ones that big spending Premier League clubs build their teams around and draft in dozens of foreign players to get the most out of them. They're not stupid.

They freeze over when playing for England, because they're not in the comfort-zone of their club, where there is no head-baggage of the 'expectations of a nation' etc. They know what they're doing better for their clubs, are usually surrounded by technically-strong foreign players.

Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard and A. Cole are certainly very good players domestically, but the rest are really nothing special at all. Cashley was the only one who was half-decent in this tournament though. Perhaps because he's used to the pressure of being the most unpopular player in England - so fair play to him for his performance.

Another factor is that the top England stars get the rub-of-the green from the FA-employed refs. So Gerrard is allowed to dive, Rooney can abuse refs, and Terry can foul and handball with impunity. I expect they lose much of the 'big fish' confidence they get from their domestic status when they play internationally.

I agree with you about the reputation thing. It's the end of the road though now for most of them. Perhaps Jack Wilshere, if he continues to develop well, will give a future England team the kind of creativity they've been lacking.

[Cort Haus]

Most unjust thing I think I've ever seen in a sporting event.

It shouldn't even have been a free kick in the first place.

You need to watch more sport if that was the worst you've seen. When Liverpool's Henchoz handled the ball on the line in the 2001 FA Cup final he wasn't even penalised. No penalty, no red card.

History is littered with controversial handballs. Some too obvious to mention.

[Cort Haus]

Bye-bye Diego! :wave:

Germany have to be favourites now

[Serb]

Don't cry for me Argentina! Cry me a river for yourself, instead.
WHAT A BEATING!!!

GERMANY

[Hueij]

Germany - Us (IF we beat Urugay)

We are going to kick them back all the way to '74

[Frozzy]

It shouldn't even have been a free kick in the first place.

You need to watch more sport if that was the worst you've seen. When Liverpool's Henchoz handled the ball on the line in the 2001 FA Cup final he wasn't even penalised. No penalty, no red card.

History is littered with controversial handballs. Some too obvious to mention.

The Henchoz one is barely comparable (though I can presume you're an Arsenal fan already; if so this is a dead argument ). It didn't have the blatant 'well, the punishment doesn't fit the benefits of me palming it away' aspect of the Ghanaian one. That's a case of the referee simply not spotting it, and the punishment would have fitted the crime given that there were 45 minutes to play. The punishment in the Ghana game simply didn't fit the crime in any way, shape or form.

In fact, IIRC from watching that game (though it was 9 years ago...) Arsenal were the better side regardless up until the last 10 minutes? The handball might have affected post-match arithmetic but it didn't prevent Arsenal from winning the game.

Argentina deserve that loss, this world cup has shown pretty spectacularly that you can't just throw the best 11 players you have on to the pitch and expect it to work. Germany look like a very, very well organised side and are just going to tear teams that aren't balanced.

[Cort Haus]

In fact, IIRC from watching that game (though it was 9 years ago...) Arsenal were the better side regardless up until the last 10 minutes? The handball might have affected post-match arithmetic but it didn't prevent Arsenal from winning the game.

Post-match arithmetic? What is this nonsense? Arsenal were miles the better side and had a goal denied which, had it stood, would almost certainly have won them the match. Liverpool got lucky (and unpenalised) just as much as Uruguay got lucky - albeit in a different way.

So I disagree, the Liverpool handball allowed them to go and win the game - as Uruguay's handball allowed them to win the game. Uruguay's was more certain because of the timing, but ultimately they were both handballs that won the match for their team.

[Frozzy]

Post-match arithmetic? What is this nonsense? Arsenal were miles the better side and had a goal denied which, had it stood, would almost certainly have won them the match. Liverpool got lucky (and unpenalised) just as much as Uruguay got lucky - albeit in a different way.

So I disagree, the Liverpool handball allowed them to go and win the game - as Uruguay's handball allowed them to win the game. Uruguay's was more certain because of the timing, but ultimately they were both handballs that won the match for their team.

You couldn't have missed the point more if the point was in South Africa itself and you shot at Cardiff. The two incidents just aren't comparable when talking about sporting justice.

Missed decisions happen all the time in sport. That's not unjust, that's just the nature of a sport that spurns video technology. It's unlucky. It's not the fault of the rulebook that they didn't see Henchoz leave his arm hanging out, no more than it's the rulebook's fault that Lampard didn't get a goal against Germany.

This one was spotted, but the rules inadequately punished the offender to take away any rewards gained from breaking the rules. That's pure injustice.

Put it this way. The Uruguay incident is like stealing all the gold in the world but only getting a fine of $100 because that's all the law allows for. That's not just.

The Henchoz incident is like stealing all the gold in the world, but nobody notices. Ridiculous and unfortunate, but not unjust.

[BeBro]

[Ben Kenobi]

Rooting for a Protestant country, Ben?

Utrecht might have something to say about that.