World Football Thread IX - Weltmeisterschaft Ausgabe

[GePap]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Great game by team USA, they played better than I thought. I figured the score would be 4 or 5 zero at the end.

You don;t go to the World Cup expecting to get swept 4 or 5 nil.

That has been the worst goal differential of the entire tournament as of yet. How anyone can qualify that as anything more than a pathetic outing is beyond me. I mean, heck, Angola kept the game 1-0 with Portugal, and Trinindad tied Sweden with 1 man down...

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Locutus
The Czech's strategy only works against a weakish opponent, do that against the Italians and you lose the ball to the other side almost every time (which is why the Americans didn't do it).

Maybe, maybe not.

Suppose the team has a very fast winger such as Robben. Then it's way better to just pass the ball down to him instead of trying to slog it up the middle through your opponent's midfield players.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by GePap
I mean, heck, Angola kept the game 1-0 with Portugal, and Trinindad tied Sweden with 1 man down...

The Trinidad game was quite an upset to the Swedes. The goalie made at least five or six important saves.

[cinch]

3-1! Go Socceroos!

(Late to the party, I know.)

[Daz]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I also noticed how when the Czech goalie got it, he'd usually kick it downfield. But when the US goalie got it, he'd just pass it to the nearest defender for him to slowly work it up the field. Very slow, plodding, and ineffective.

It works for the Czechs cause they have two towers in the offense who redirect the ball. Thats why they have Koller and Lokvenc.

The Americans have dwarves in the offense so they have to build up their attack slowly.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

You don;t go to the World Cup expecting to get swept 4 or 5 nil.

That has been the worst goal differential of the entire tournament as of yet. How anyone can qualify that as anything more than a pathetic outing is beyond me. I mean, heck, Angola kept the game 1-0 with Portugal, and Trinindad tied Sweden with 1 man down...

due to fifa wanting to have teams from each region represented and not the best 32, you end up with ****ty teams in the world cup such as the USA.

[CerberusIV]

Watched Italy v Ghana. Essien is a different player when he's let loose for his national team (except for still having the nasty habit of elbowing opposing players in the face). Wtf is Jose doing with his players?

Didn't seen the USA game, only the "highlights". Ghana could still qualify. Several of the Czech team are in their last tournament before retiring and if Ghana get at them the way they did the Italians, the Czechs may not stand the pace. As for the USA, Ghana only need to figure out how to get their shots on target.

[C0ckney]

italy v ghana was a good game to watch.

ghana are a typical african side, lots of pace, strength and skill, but pretty naive at the back and that will always be their undoing against the better sides.

i was very impressed with the referee in that match, he let the game flow and didn't put up with any nonsense.

[lightblue]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Watched Italy v Ghana. Essien is a different player when he's let loose for his national team (except for still having the nasty habit of elbowing opposing players in the face). Wtf is Jose doing with his players?

Didn't seen the USA game, only the "highlights". Ghana could still qualify. Several of the Czech team are in their last tournament before retiring and if Ghana get at them the way they did the Italians, the Czechs may not stand the pace. As for the USA, Ghana only need to figure out how to get their shots on target.

The Czechs played a very highpaced attacking game with most of the midfielders and the full backs joining in on almost every attack. Don't underestimate their fitness, they ran the Americans into the ground.

[Kropotkin]

Originally posted by Daz
The Americans have dwarves in the offense so they have to build up their attack slowly.

Dwarf or not, they did use McBride in a target roll. He's probably superb in that roll against mighty sides like Jamaica, Canada, Haiti and Guadelope.

As for the czechs tactics. Karel Bruckner should not be underestimated in his abilities to change his teams tactics against a better team than the US. Notice how he probably suprised the americans with keeping his team in very low starting positions, reducing their chances to counter-attack.

[Tim_Augustus]

Originally posted by duke o' york


No, it should have been 2-2, because Cahill should have been sent off (and not just for being a dirty Blue, but for being a thug to boot), and hopefully Japan would have scored the penalty.
I thought that Angola were particularly agricultural with their challenges against Portugal, but Australia certainly lived up to their reputation.

Did you folks watch the same game? Japan's only goal came after two of their players took out our keeper...

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Tim_Augustus
Did you folks watch the same game? Japan's only goal came after two of their players took out our keeper...

No, the keeper walked into that bunch of players himself, you can hardly expect the Japanese to politely step aside to give the keeper space. Considering virtually all Australians play in the British leagues where the goalie is a free-for-all target they should be the last to complain about that...

Schwarzer played a very poor match and the Aussies were lucky to get away with conceding only the one goal.

Originally posted by Kropotkin
Notice how he probably suprised the americans with keeping his team in very low starting positions, reducing their chances to counter-attack.

Uhm... that's how the Czechs usually play. If anyone was surprised by that they don't know the Czechs very well...

[Cort Haus]

The Czechs are easily the best team to have played so far apart from Argentina. Granted, the opposition was not the strongest, but according to FIFA the USA are the fith best team in the world, and the Czechs administered the first real spanking of the tournament.

Of course, FIFA rankings are are pile of poo, and the CR may suffer the loss of Koller, who clearly won't play again in the tournament, but I thought they were excellent last night.

[alva]

Originally posted by Tuberski


It's not?

Then why have goalie or a net?

ACK!

No, the game is about tackling!

[MikeH]

I thought you were Belgian not Italian!