World Football Thread XXX - Germany 2006

[reds4ever]

Footies, so you didn't watch the Sweden game?

[Footie Mad]

Gerrard was rested because of his yellow card yes, otherwise he would have started with Lampard. As he will against Ecuador. The unforseen changes with Owens injury forced Sven to put him on.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Newcastle have been doing it for the last 90 years......

In this case, they have been so successful that even they believe it themselves

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Locutus
No penalty. I think everyone can agree on that.

But the Americans blaming everything that went wrong these past matches on bad refereeing are horribly wrong: if you score only 2 goals in 3 matches you just ain't good enough, no amount of bad refereeing can change that...

Agreed, the U.S. was definitely the worst team in their group. The bad refs certainly haven't been limited to the U.S. games, I've seen some pretty bad officiating in about half of the matches. The sad thing is that in games where it hasn't been terrible it has often been very good. There are a few officials who are actually good at working at this level, but apparantly the quality curve drops away sharply.

[Tim_Augustus]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III


Not to forget: the second Australian goal was offside.

Just watched the replay... For me it's a bit hard to tell... If he was, then that just fits the pattern of the match

Now for Italy.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Raymond Domench is without doubt the most annoying coach in the world cup. everytime they ask him a question, he gets all philosophical , starts talking about "extraordinary signs" "fabulous destiny" "daring and conviction" like he some sorta modern day jesus leading france to world cup glory.

the only direction hes leading them is out the 'small door'

[Lawrence of Arabia]

france's lineup (4-4-2) :

Barthez, Sagnol, Gallas, Silvestre, Ribéry, Viera (C), Makelele, Malouda, Henry, Trezeguet.

ya think they can put two past togo without taking a goal?

switzerland's lineup (4-4-2)

Zuberbuehler, P. Degen, Muller, Senderos, Magnin (the savage eh spiff), Vogel, Cabanas, Barnetta, Wicky, Streller, Frei

bring in off the bench: Valon Behrami (for Wicky) Johan Djourou (for Muller), Hakan Yakin (not before the 80th minute, too outta shape)


there were 100,000 swiss fans in Dortmund for the match Togo- CH. thats like half the country.


in other news, Julian Esteban, top scorer in the 1st League (3rd division swiss football league) will stay on with newly promoted Servette (Geneva) for two more years in Ligue Nationale B (Challenege league, 2nd division) Dude scored more than 25 goals and had more than 12 assists and could one day play for the senior national team. this despite the fact that Servette could not offer to pay him a full time salary (so he must work on the side) and despite the fact that he was given offers from St. Etienne (france, 1st division) and several Ligue Nationale A (super league, 1st division switzerland) teams to turn full time pro.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Tim_Augustus

Just watched the replay... For me it's a bit hard to tell... If he was, then that just fits the pattern of the match

Now for Italy.

Well, *this* wrong decision certainly won't be Poll's (or his assistent's) main concern, it was rather close. However, on Autrian TV they analyzed the situation with computer and it was offside.

However: Australia.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Michel Pont (assisnt coach) just said on the radio that Xavier Margairaz could come in for Cabanas during the match (bad move, hes too slow)

[Locutus]

Gerrard, Rooney and Joe Cole are the only talented players England has, Lampard is okay but not great. The rest is grossly overrated (or just plain crap with everyone knowing about it). And yes, the English midfield is very much unbalanced. Anyone with a smidgen of football knowledge can see Gerrard and Lampard shouldn't play on the same midfield, you gotta pick one or the other, but not both. You can't put two attacking midfielders next to each other, you force them both into a role they can't play and they just get in each other's way. Gerrard + Hargreaves or Lampard + Hargreaves would create much more balance and allow each player to play their own game (Gerrard is a better player but Lampard allows you to play a diamond formation on the midfield, you'd have to experiment to see what works best).

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Right, so we've separated the wheat from the chaff and the real competition can begin. Who do you guys fancy to win it?

are you kidding? how can you say that when england and mexico are still in the competition?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

de rossi got 4 matches and 10 000 swiss franc fine

[reds4ever]

Experiment? This should have been sorted out before the world cup. IMHO you either have lampard or gerrard and two strikers. Or both and one striker.

Take yer pick....

[Imran Siddiqui]

With Owen down and Rooney not 100%, I think the one striker idea is a good one and have Rooney come in for one of them as a 2nd half sub. Then again, Rooney may be in better shape that I currently think he is... but Rooney is far more effective as a withdrawn forward than as a traditional striker.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

what? you and your 4 - 5 - 1