World Football Thread X - Germany 2006

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Robben just got a yellow for diving. Even though I couldn't completely follow this decision, I told ya they exist, Spencer.

I never said they didnt exist. The question is why the african who dove in the box earlier didnt get one. That incident was either a PK or a dive.

[Harovan]

A lot of decisions of this referee were somewhat strange. And the African falling in the box in the first half was a clear foul, a slow motion during the break showed this.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
A lot of decisions of this referee were somewhat strange. And the African falling in the box in the first half was a clear foul, a slow motion during the break showed this.

Then it should've been a PK. If the ref didnt award one he must've thought it was a dive (but didnt give the card). In any case, I agree, this ref was stranger than most.

[Harovan]

Der Spiegel online brought a series of pictures right after the game.

Who said that man can not fly...

[Harovan]

... and that women can not pee standing

[Cort Haus]

Are we sure they're peeing?

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
... and that women can not pee standing

Typical Dutch, they're all perverts.

[lightblue]

Man... at least we're through before playing the argies, the are going to rip us to shreds if they play full strength. Seriously any team with Tevez and Messi on the bloody bench is due to win the Cup in my opinion. It's going to be hard for any team to beat them.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Jeez... I'm gone for a week and change of WC and I have to wade through 15(ish) pages of nonsense .

I will say that it sucks that the games are all on during work hours in the US *grumble*. However, I have watched and listened (on the free XM radio on Airtran Airways on my trip back home today) to enough of the WC to know that Ivory Coast was really unlucky to be stuck in the group with Holland and Argentina. They seem to be the best African team and deserved better.

US plays again tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep the goal differential to 2 goals this time? After all, it'd be best not to finish last in this thing . Unfortunetly the squad seemed to have a decidedly lack of passion and aside from Reyna's hitting the post and Johnson's near miss, they played like utter ****. Hopefully the ship can be righted by tomorrow... but, well, we'll see. They are beginning the infighting again as well. It's like 1998 all over again... though perhaps I'm being a bit fatalistic.

And good job by Ecuador and T&T! I do love it when the minnows do well and show they can hang in there.

Btw, when England went to a 3-5-2 against T&T, moving Lennon to the outside and Beckham more to the center, they really looked good. Now, I don't know if Sven will actually try that at the beginning of a match, but it is an interesting though. Lennon really gave the team a great spark and gave Beckham more space and time to make crosses, like the one that broke the game open.

[DanS]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Not yet. I was more impressed with the 4th and 5th goals than the first three since defenders were at least covering Crespo and Tevez. It could be argued though that the match was already over when Kezmen was red carded.

If they can accomplish 1/4 of this result against Holland (and I sincerely doubt they will) then they will be a clear favorite.

Did you see Argentina's match against the Ivory Coast? Of all the first games, I thought Argentina's play was the best, even if it ended up 2-1 (props to the Ivory Coast).

[Drake Tungsten]

Christ, America didn't play that bad. They were lacking in energy and surely didn't play well, but they weren't bad either. It was a solid performance, but they had the misfortune of playing a world class team at their best. The Czech Republic beat the US; the US didn't beat themselves.

And all the talk about Arena's legacy being in danger is ridiculous. How soon the US media (which doesn't even care about soccer anyway) forgets all about the quarterfinal run in 2002 after one loss to a clearly better Czech squad...

[DanS]

I don't know dude. It was pretty painful to watch.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DanS
I don't know dude. It was pretty painful to watch.

Ditto. It's like they were lost out there.

[OzzyKP]

Damn, all of a sudden the Americans reappear in the thread. Where have you guys been all this time?

But I've got a question... at some point people were discussing what nations are large enough to handle World Cup, and can build enough stadiums and such. And I know last time it was split between Korea & Japan. But why?

They only play 3 games a day, and never more than one at the same time. Why do they need more than 3 stadiums?

[Kropotkin]

Don't know if the grass could handle so many matches in such a short time. I don't think they would want to play the final in a mud field.