The Official World Cup Thread (no.1)

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No need to teach me any footballhistory, i'm well aware of the team lead by ferenc Puskas that nearly won the worldcup, but is it really necessary to bring that up ? I mean it's more than 60 years ago for crying out loud, and they haven't managed to field a half decent team since. That's why i said that Hungary is a crap footballnation. I'm not interested in how good they were in the dark ages, it's about right here and right now, and right now they suck with a capital S, and they have been sucking for the past 50+ years.

 

Did you see that fourth goal? That was brilliant!

 

Saudi vs Tunisia, fight till the very end, that's what i watch for in football! (that's what Gerrard is about)

 

So much for everyone who wrote off Spain, then.

Damned Saudi game. I had picked a draw, but then changed it to a Tunisia win because everyone everywhere was saying that the Saudis were hopeless. Last time I listen to anybody about anything.

EDIT: Ooh, last minute goal by Germany! I thought we might have been looking at an upset (and a possible England v Germany 2nd round clash!) but normal service has been resumed.

[ June 14, 2006, 22:53: Message edited by: Harbourboy ]

 

And again

 

No that it was a bad match, mind you. Germany deserved far more goals. The outcome is just, isn't it.

 

Germany deserved the win, but what i don't understand is why the Polish coach took out an attacker for a defender at a time where Poland still looked like they might win this one. So at a certain point he clearly decided to go for the 0-0 draw, which would have been absolutely useless for Poland, especially if Ecuador beats Costa Rica tomorrow.

From my point of view that makes the Polish coach an incredible incompetent dumbass of the highest order.

 

That was a very good game played in a very good atmosphere. That just proves to dmc that a game can be 0-0 (for 91 mins...) and still be exciting. Really intense match from start to finish.

Typical German jammyness, but it's good for us.

 

Yeah, as neutral observer, I was hanging out for something that would lead to an England v Germany 2nd round, but that looks unlikely now.

 

Who says that England will not finish second in it's group?

 

hehe I'm with Barmy on this one. If you Brits don't win against TNT, better just pack it up

I'm also actually pretty disappointed with the France - Switzerland draw :/

 

I pretty surprised that Poland is going home. While they aren't a traditional powerhouse, and had they beat Germany it certainly would be considered an upset, I had expected them to beat both Ecuador and Costa Rica, finish 2-1-0, and advance. I can see some sense in playing for the tie, as sometimes 1-1-1 is enough to get you into the next round, whereas 1-2-0 certainly isn't getting you anything.

 

Oh my! No score but Trinidad & Tobago could have been in the lead against England by halftime.

 

Oh no, Crouch scores! What a shame. This was looking like the best soccer game ever, until England finally found their feet in the last 7 minutes.

I think England need to find some real strikers somewhere. That Crouch guy looked like he was drunk for most of the game.

 

In England's defense...it's a real pain to play against teams that dig themselves in around their own penaltybox, we've had our share of similar teams in the qualifying rounds, and you're lucky if you manage to score an early goal, otherwise you should consider yourself lucky with a 1-0 or 2-0 win. There's no shame in that. It's easier to play against teams like France, just to name one, because they also try to win. T&T didn't come to win today, they came to keep England from winning. They almost pulled it off too, but i'm always glad when teams with such a type of play don't get rewarded.

 

There's certainly no shame in winning 2-0, but it would have been pretty funny if they had come away 0-0. And really, they had plenty of opportunities but Crouch and Lampard were hopeless. And it would have been super funny if one of the Trinidad and Tobago corners had gone in. Shame that TnT didn't have at least one more inspirational player.

 

Hey all, first time poster , i dont think England's performance was too poor though Crouch really should have scored in the first half and Lampard lacked in the finishing deptartment. To be fair though TNT had no intentions of trying to win the game apart from set pieces and just sat deep and defended making it difficult for us to break them down. Lennon was very impressive with his pace on the wing and if he can put in a repeat performance against Sweden i hope Sven will use him in the knockout stages. Also nice to see Roonaldo back.

 

I don't think Trinidad and Tobago's strategy was that bad. It was their best chance of winning - to hold England out and attempt to snatch something from a corner or long range free kick. That came pretty close to working so I think they were being pretty smart. They just relied a bit too much on Dwight Yorke and I'm sure they could have done better if someone else could have taken the free kicks so he could have gone in the box to use his experience to sneak one in.

 

The Swedes came in big numbers to berlin today, it almost looks like an invasion. Did anyone notice the tension on Zlatan and Larsson's face ? Expect fireworks from the Swedes today.

 

To be fair, to say TNT 'came close to winning' is a shocking statement. We had about 20 opportunities to score, they had about 2. I'm not being funny, but any team who plays eleven men behinmd the ball from minute one (no exaggeration) deserve presicely dick from a game. It's no way to play football. It's incredibly hard to break down any team who play 11 men behind the ball all game. Though how Lampard and Crouch didn't get about 3 goals each is beyond me.

AGAIN we were far too one dimensional. Until Lennon and Rooney were brought on we had one game plan. Hey, I know! This time, let's get the ball out to Beckham so he can boot it high into to box for Crouch's head, we've only tried that one 16 million times!. Christ. We look very, very good when we up the tempo and play fast, expansive football.

We'll have to up our game in the 2nd round onwards, but I think we will. Now Rooney is back fit, we've got that extra something and will have other options going forward. Drop Owen, because he's just not fit and keep Crouch and the Roonster up front.