World Football Thread XXX - Germany 2006

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well it's Serbia's first two goals of the tourney . And they came in a quick time span. Apparently it is a very exciting match (according to reports), so I guess no diddling about.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Well it's Serbia's first two goals of the tourney . And they came in a quick time span. Apparently it is a very exciting match (according to reports), so I guess no diddling about.

All I seeing are the stats and Ivory Coast is now up to 71% ball possession. I haven't seen them play but I assume that they must be prettty slow and deliberate in their advances to have that much possession in a game they are NOT dominating

you can actually tell a bit from the stats -- like Serbia must be palying a trapping defense since Ivory have gone offside 5 times so far ( Serbia zero so far)

[reds4ever]

One to watch on the round up later tonight....

[Flubber]

Ivory Coast 3 Serbia 2 in minute 90

[Harovan]

God, what utterly wasted 2 hours of evening prime time. And I am not talking about Serbia and Ivory Coast.

[Hueij]

Haha, 0 - 0 against the next World Champion. Portugal, here we come!

[reds4ever]

Dutch fans, whats happened to van der Vaart? The last time I saw him (admittedy a year or so ago) he looked amazing....I know it only a couple of games into the WC but he deson't seem the same player?

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
God, what utterly wasted 2 hours of evening prime time. And I am not talking about Serbia and Ivory Coast.

I warned y'all

Didn't think it was too bad though, it wasn't great but I've seen worse this week.

And yeah, I'll have to catch the rerun of Côte d'Ivoire vs Serbia and Montenegro, that sounds like it was an interesting match.

[SpencerH]

If I was Dutch I wouldnt be looking forward to playing Portugal.

Locutus, does your location say "Van Basten is a turnover" it seems kinda odd?

True but odd.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Dutch fans, whats happened to van der Vaart? The last time I saw him (admittedy a year or so ago) he looked amazing....I know it only a couple of games into the WC but he deson't seem the same player?

He's recovering from an injury (which is why he's a 2nd team player to begin with).

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Locutus


You're gonna base a team's quality on a single game??

Actually I am now basing it on three games on the biggest event in the world

Originally posted by Locutus


Serbia have the strongest defense in the world,

and in this event they have the worst goals against of ANY team at 3.33 per game. I know the one blowout sways that but there are teams yet to surrender a goal and several that have surrendered only 1 or 2.

Originally posted by Locutus

You could argue whether they should be just inside or just outside the top 10, but they're definitely one of the strongest teams in the world.

I grant then that they were strong in qualifiers and friendlies but the test of an elite team is how well they do at the most important events.

Lets sum up--

close loss to netherlands -- no shame there
Blown out by Argentina
Losing to Ivory Coast (ranked 22) in a game where every statistic favors the Ivory Coast

so 3 games, 3 losses with 2 goals for and 10- against

Notwithstanding the fact that they may very well be a much better team than they have shown in this event, the results here fully support the idea that a ranking in the 30s or 40s is reasonably accurate. A true "top ten team " does not lose ALL their games

[Locutus]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Locutus, does your location say "Van Basten is a turnover" it seems kinda odd?

Magician (or wizard, technically).

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Flubber
and in this event they have the worst goals against of ANY team at 3.33 per game. I know the one blowout sways that but there are teams yet to surrender a goal and several that have surrender only 1 or 2.

They've also played against 3 of the strongest teams in the world and have been having all sorts of internal conflicts for weeks. And they only lost their game against Côte d'Ivoire because of a red card and 2 penalties against them (they were 2-0 up before that). But I haven't seen the game yet so I can't really judge that. Statistics are the worst form of lies.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by SpencerH
If I was Dutch I wouldnt be looking forward to playing Portugal.

As long as Figo plays we're very confident about it

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Locutus


He's recovering from an injury (which is why he's a 2nd team player to begin with).

Ah, cheers.