World Football Thread XXX - Germany 2006

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Sikander
There are a few officials who are actually good at working at this level, but apparantly the quality curve drops away sharply.

No, there are plenty of good referees but the FIFA just won't let them play. For reasons of political correctness many of Europe and South America's referees are left home so that refs from Singapore, Japan, Australia, Mexico and other 3rd world football nations can be invited so that those those countries don't feel left out. That these referees are generally utter ****e is something the FIFA is willing to take for granted.

Of course, it doesn't help if the few refs that *are* generally good at their job are horribly underperforming for some strange reason (as we saw with both Poll and Merk yesterday and Ivanov earlier in the tournament).

[Locutus]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Experiment? This should have been sorted out before the world cup.

I agree, and if England had had a capable coach that's exactly what would've happened. Now you're screwed (but of course we knew that months ago).

[reds4ever]

Well if getting through to last 16 unbeaten and playing Equador to get into the last 8 is "screwed" then I guess we are.*


* yes, that WAS sarcasm....

[Ecthy]

Some people have no clue. England is doing pretty well, they just lack a bit of good luck with goals, similar to Germany.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

some dude on radiosport just reported that theres an agreement between switzerland and korea, if france is tied in the last 10 minutes, and CH - SK are tied too, CH - SK will play for the tie.

[Ecthy]

Such agreements are illegal, I wonder where that dude gets his information from and what will happen if it turns out true.

[Dauphin]

Why? It wouldn't exactly help South Korea, and Switzerland only need a draw anyway.

[Ecthy]

Because it is an agreement between teams in a competition. They're not supoosed to happen.

We'll ban them all.

[Dauphin]

Not direct at you ecthy.

My point is, that a draw for South Korea is not gonna make a difference if France don't win, and if France are winning, then a draw isn't in Korea's interest. So why would they do it?

[lightblue]

A draw will help SK if France isn't winning by more than 2 clear goals isn't it?

[MikeH]

Originally posted by 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).

Au Contraire, Lampard is excellent, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole also. The others, meh, but that's enough. The best four players in the Premiership are Henry, Gerrard, Lampard, John Terry probably in that order. It's a few years since you'd have had 3 England players in the top 4.

The reason the midfield is 'unbalanced' is because the manager wants to fit in Lampard and Gerrard who are two of the best players in their position in the world. I tend to agree that there's only space for one of them but leaving one out is difficult because they are both so good. Gerrard is the one who always gets played out of position because he's so versatile.

In Euro 2004 they played together quite successfully, scoring 4 goals in 4 games between them, and that was with Paul Scholes basically playing in the advanced position of a 4-4-2 that they'd both prefer.

My view is that they are both good enough to play central midfield, get forward and back and get goals. They aren't going to have the luxury of playing in an advanced role like they do at club level. And I've been saying for a long time we need a holding player, and I think Beckham is the man to be dropped to make way for him.

[reds4ever]

It about goal difference, they are banking on France not getting enough goals in the last 10 mins and they both go through.

[Dauphin]

lightblue, it also depends on goals scored. If France are 1-1 and Korea are 0-0 at 80 minutes an additional goal for France would mean France and Korea would be drawing lots to see who goes through..

[Locutus]

Originally posted by MikeH
Au Contraire, Lampard is excellent, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole also. The others, meh, but that's enough. The best four players in the Premiership are Henry, Gerrard, Lampard, John Terry probably in that order. It's a few years since you'd have had 3 England players in the top 4.

The reason the midfield is 'unbalanced' is because the manager wants to fit in Lampard and Gerrard who are two of the best players in their position in the world.

You British have an amazing capacity for self-deception...

[Lawrence of Arabia]

switzerland has the chance to be the only team to go through to the second round without conceding.