2010 FIFA WORLD CUP

[Swazi]

4-0 .....Shit, this is going to be a short visit to Sth Africa.....No need to unpack the suitcases !!!!

 

Yeah but your form coming in wasn't good either, and the loss to the USA last week was pretty heavy. Germany do exactly what England should do, quicken the pace and vary things from time-to-time. They did it 4 times and scored 4 goals. Without the lumbering Ballack they look a better side IMO...

Agreed !!!!

 

Yep, I agree as well, and I must say that I was pretty surprised - in a positive way - how well Germany performed and how little Ballack actually was missed.

The ref was a little easy on the cards, though, especially on the red one.

 

Ballack just slows your game down. He's a top-quality passer/play-maker (like we have Lampard) but he just kills the pace of the team, and without him you counter much quicker - which is what caught the Aussies out of position. This is why Chelsea needed to ditch him - as players with pace, like Anelka, were really suffering - and why Germany play with more tempo with Ozil instead of Ballack. This is the same reason why England played so poorly in the opening game and had no pace, they need to ditch two wingers and play Barry/Lampard/Gerrard together and let them inject the pace that so lacked in the first game...

 

the result should have been 8-0. Klose in particular cannot afford to miss chances like that, when they play better opposition.

 

 

This I agree to as well. But considering he has been going through quite a bad time recently, everyone is glad he did score at least one goal eventually. Anyway, without any doubt it has been the best game so far, with the best result, but a few things still have to be improved to get past the "big" teams.

[Glen]

A potential slip up by the Italians...being held by Paraguay. In the mix now for who will top the group. Italy vs Holland in the last 16 would be hilarious!!

 

Italy looked hopeless in the first half....turned it around tho in the last half hour.

[Geoff]

Well, it turned out we had the snowy black and white "reception" for the soccer out at the farm, which meant you could make out the players and the ball so that was all I really needed. Didn't watch any other games, but got up at 4:30am for the Australia game. What a waste of sleep!

 

They were awful, and I agree with Glen that 8-0 could have happened if Germany really put on the accelerator. Cahill's send off it part of the reason I hate soccer so much. And then as if I didn't hate it enough already I hear he'll miss the match against Ghana and could even face a 2 match suspension (thus, obviously, ending his World Cup 2010 campaign)?!

 

That's a huge gripe I have with soccer. Surely it's evident to everyone he pulled out of that tackle and only deserved a yellow card at the time. So how does it escalate into a one match, let alone two match suspension after a "comittee" has had time to review it?

 

Oh, and where was Hazza Kewell, the big girl's blouse?

 

Anyway, good to see Holland go through - the only score I have picked overall too! (like Glen I only picked 2-0 for Germany over Australia).

 

The time difference of the matches is killing this world cup over here in Australia, but I'll try to catch the 9:30pm game as often as I can (luckily that was Holland v Denmark last night - unluckily I had a HUGE weekend and was asleep 10mins into the game ).

[JamesEagle]

Yeah, the Kewell sending off was a ridiculous decision by a referee who is known to send players off for fun (yet FIFA still appointed him for the World Cup). The challenge was stupid, but was it malicious or dangerous? No. Surely those must be the main criteria to judge the severity of a foul? As I said earlier, the referee effectively killed the game at that point, Australia were still having a few attacks and if they's sneaked a goal on the break it would have been game on.

 

Holland were disappointing, but it often takes a game to kick start a team. At least, that's what I'm hoping in England's case!

[Wotty]

Yeah, the Kewell sending off was a ridiculous decision by a referee who is known to send players off for fun (yet FIFA still appointed him for the World Cup). The challenge was stupid, but was it malicious or dangerous? No. Surely those must be the main criteria to judge the severity of a foul? As I said earlier, the referee effectively killed the game at that point, Australia were still having a few attacks and if they's sneaked a goal on the break it would have been game on.

 

Holland were disappointing, but it often takes a game to kick start a team. At least, that's what I'm hoping in England's case!

Yeah the "Kewell" sending-off was so weird everyone thought it was "CAHILL"

[JamesEagle]

Yeah, the Kewell sending off was a ridiculous decision by a referee who is known to send players off for fun (yet FIFA still appointed him for the World Cup). The challenge was stupid, but was it malicious or dangerous? No. Surely those must be the main criteria to judge the severity of a foul? As I said earlier, the referee effectively killed the game at that point, Australia were still having a few attacks and if they's sneaked a goal on the break it would have been game on.

 

Holland were disappointing, but it often takes a game to kick start a team. At least, that's what I'm hoping in England's case!

Yeah the "Kewell" sending-off was so weird everyone thought it was "CAHILL"

 

 

Schoolboy error, I hang my head in Robert Green-like shame.

[Glen]

Yeah, the Kewell sending off was a ridiculous decision by a referee who is known to send players off for fun (yet FIFA still appointed him for the World Cup). The challenge was stupid, but was it malicious or dangerous? No. Surely those must be the main criteria to judge the severity of a foul? As I said earlier, the referee effectively killed the game at that point, Australia were still having a few attacks and if they's sneaked a goal on the break it would have been game on.

 

Holland were disappointing, but it often takes a game to kick start a team. At least, that's what I'm hoping in England's case!

Yeah the "Kewell" sending-off was so weird everyone thought it was "CAHILL"

 

 

Schoolboy error, I hang my head in Robert Green-like shame.

 

 

I would bet my bottom dollar that Kewell is injured.....like he has been for the rest of his career, the bloody sponging sick note.

[Wotty]

I just watched New Zealand grab a 94th min equaliser against Slovakia which finished 1-1 in a frankly,uninspiring game....

 

Nice to see one Antipodean team who didn't just "give up" !!!!!!!!

 

Ivory Coast v Portugal shortly.......

[Swazi]

Uhhh ... ! A lot of these games are really really POOR ! Actually most of them so far.

 

I hope the quality will improve in the next rounds.

[JamesEagle]

I thought the Ivory Coast Portugal game was good. 0-0, but quite entertaining and the Ivory Coast played really well. Now just have to hope both teams can beat Brazil.

[Glen]

fairly straight forward win for Brazil in the end, but they did look a bit pedestrian at times and had some surprising difficulty breaking down the N Koreans. Gives some hope to others in the later rounds.

[Geoff]

Have to definitely agree with Bernd that despite my thoughts on the game, the matches at the moment do seem very poor... moreso than usual. I caught the New Zealand v Slovakia and 3/4 of the Ivory Coast v whoever game. Was great to see New Zealand snatch that last second draw, but other than that they were really uneventful games.

 

Out of curiosity, who is PowerZZZ is this little tipping comp we have going? At the moment he's first and I'm 2nd. I'm such a soccer expert.

[Glen]

i cant get in anymore...keeps asking for a password??

[Wotty]

Chile beat Honduras 1-0 in what I'll call an "interesting" match

 

Spain v Switzerland up soon....

[whiplash1972]

Spain 0-1 Switzerland

 

Wow. First really BIG upset of the tourney so far... definitely did not see this one coming.

[whiplash1972]

i cant get in anymore...keeps asking for a password??

 

Glen,

 

There's no password for the group; only our Group ID#: 12651

You may just need to sign in to your regular Yahoo account.

[TIM (2)]

Spain 0-1 Switzerland

 

Wow. First really BIG upset of the tourney so far... definitely did not see this one coming.

 

Spain are notoriously slow-starters, plus they have a few bad games in them too (people forget that before their recent Euro success they were generally pretty hopeless in big tournaments). The beauty of this tournament for the big teams is that there are at least 2 weak teams in each group, so Spain will effortlessly win their last two games and qualify easily. I wouldn't read too much into this....

[embrock]

Spain 0-1 Switzerland

 

Wow. First really BIG upset of the tourney so far... definitely did not see this one coming.

 

After a quite weak streak of friendly games in the months before the WC, I really haven't seen that one coming...but WOOOHOOO time to party all night long!!!

[Wotty]

Spain 0-1 Switzerland

 

Wow. First really BIG upset of the tourney so far... definitely did not see this one coming.

 

After a quite weak streak of friendly games in the months before the WC, I really haven't seen that one coming...but WOOOHOOO time to party all night long!!!

A big "up" to the Swiss,who with luck,effort and team spirit,knocked the stuffing out of Spain,who in all honesty played the match in a conceited "we'll beat these cos we're Spain" arrogance !!!!

 

Well done Switzerland !!!!

[Wotty]

Argentina 4 Sth Korea 1

 

Hmmm. We'll see how good the Argies are when a "proper" side actually GIVES them a game !!!

[Glen]

Argentina 4 Sth Korea 1

 

Hmmm. We'll see how good the Argies are when a "proper" side actually GIVES them a game !!!

 

Germany in the quarters....should be a corker.

 

Messi might actually stay on his feet for 5 seconds, although I doubt it!!!!

[JamesEagle]

Argentina 4 Sth Korea 1

 

Hmmm. We'll see how good the Argies are when a "proper" side actually GIVES them a game !!!

 

Did you see the game yesterday? At 2-0, it looked like the Argies would score a hatful, but then South Korea started playing, got a goal and looked most likely to score the next goal until Argentina got their third. Going forward Argentina look very good, but overall they aren't that brilliant and had some very nervous moments yesterday.

 

To be honest, no team has looked like World Cup winners yet. It could be a poor World Cup like the previous one, with Germany just about the best of a bad lot.

[Wotty]

Argentina 4 Sth Korea 1

 

Hmmm. We'll see how good the Argies are when a "proper" side actually GIVES them a game !!!

 

Did you see the game yesterday? At 2-0, it looked like the Argies would score a hatful, but then South Korea started playing, got a goal and looked most likely to score the next goal until Argentina got their third. Going forward Argentina look very good, but overall they aren't that brilliant and had some very nervous moments yesterday.

 

To be honest, no team has looked like World Cup winners yet. It could be a poor World Cup like the previous one, with Germany just about the best of a bad lot.

I've not missed a game yet......

[JamesEagle]

 

I've not missed a game yet......

 

Nice one!

[whiplash1972]

Watching Germany v Serbia right now. This match official has officially lost the plot. 6 yellow cards in 37 minutes, and a second (RIDICULOUS) for Klose which will DEFINITELY affect the outcome of this one. Serbia takes the 1-0 lead; can Germany fight back for the draw, or even a win? We shall see....