World Cup, Take Two!

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It doesn't matter whether I try it or not. I'm not one of the world's best soccer players. These guys should never miss penalties as often as they do. I'm amazed you have such low expectations of your players. It's one thing to get beaten by another team, but it's another to miss a virtual open shot at a huge goal from such close range. The goalkeeper should have no chance in that situation.

 

It isnt just taking a penalty though, they have the weight of a countrys hopes on their shoulders, nothing is easy under that much pressure and also you have to remember this team lost to Portugal on penalties 2 years ago making the situation even more diffcult. Anybody who take a penalty in a shootout no matter how poor the penalty has to have guts. Nobody can blame someone for missing a penalty under those circumstances. And Crouch played very well he could have snatched a late goal a few times and did a fantastic job as a lone striker with hardly any support. Oh and ive never heard of a penalty 'kick off'.

 

You must have been watching a different tall skinny bloke to me. He was hopeless. Hargreaves, Lennon, Terry, Gerard, and Ferdinand played well. The defence was very well organised. Portugal would never have scored, even if they'd had another hour of attack.

Sorry, I still disagree. These are not only the best soccer players in the world, they are the ones specifically chosen to take the penalties. They have trained and trained for this (or should have). Missing a penalty kick should be a very rare event. In knock out games, you that there is a pretty high chance it will come to penalties. They have trained and trained for this (or should have). Missing a penalty kick should be a very rare event.

 

Or, perhaps, you're wrong? He did a fantastic job up front on his own for the last 30 mins. Picked the ball up, held onto it and linked it. Very, ver good.

It isn't just 'a penalty'. It's an extremely high tensity situation and takes SERIOUS bottle to keep your head. Englad playerd don't seem to have that bottle and never have done...

 

That's what I was trying to get at.

He did a reasonable job of using up time up front, which I assume was the tactic once Rooney went off. But he never looked like scoring and muffed the few opprtunities he got, which is similar to how he looked in the previous games as well. He was one of the least dynamic players on the field.

 

He wasn't really there to look like scoring. He was there as a target, so when the defenders won the ball back, they had somebody to just boot the ball up to who will be able to get it under control or just stick a head on it.

 

And to be fair Ricardo is one jammy little ******* when it comes to saving penalties, Gerrard's and Lampard's were still fairly poor penalties but the chances are the keeper will dive the wrong way occasionally, like Robinson did. Unfortunately for us Ricardo seems to have a sixth sense when guessing which way to dive. Crouch played very well and on another day could have won us the match, he was much better than Rooney in that position and he hasnt received any flak for his performance (apart from the nut crunching), i think Crouch is just an easy target for criticism being a lanky dancer and all.

 

Anyway, that game is done now, and neither Portugal nor England really looked like they could have won the Cup based on their performances to date.

Looking ahead, a big question is now whether France are peaking at the right time, given how slowly they started a few weeks ago, compared to how well they controlled Brazil this morning.

 

Well they practically have a free run to the final so long as the Portugese play fairly but thats hardly likely.

 

Surely Portugal don't have anything left. France should be far too good for them. Unless France have another of their up and down days.

 

Yeh France can be a bit unpredictable, their like Barthez, you never know which one will turn up. I dont know about the semi final you would expect France to cruise it but Portugal can make it difficult but so long as France dont suffer any disasters i.e having Sven drafted in as an emergency coach, they should be able to get through comfortably.

 

is this his last game? this might be his last game. everytime we say that, boom, his team advance, both zidane and figo.

 

Although, they did say the same for Pavel Nedved, and look how that went.

 

but the two play together.

 

Yes, but for neither of them, it will be the last game, no matter how it end up, except if any of them get injured or get a red card. Why? There's the final, and there's the bronze game.

 

Zidane probably had his best game of the tournament this morning. He looked like a quality player today.

 

Both Lampard and Gerrard's penalties were below par. Some soccer nut/statistician has claimed that for a 6'4" 'keeper 28% of the goal is unprotectable in a penalty situation. We saw that with Hargreaves' penalty where Ricardo got to the ball but could not save. Also what ever the hell was Carriger doing taking a kick anyway? I thought it would be Lampard, Gerrard, Crouch, Hargreaves and then Cole. I still don't understand why Joe Cole was taken off by Swen.

And France won My cousin is gonna give me grief for the forseeable future now.

 

this is euro 2000 replay. zidane on figo, figo on zidane. Nothing beats two geezers fencing with walking sticks, nothing.

 

Thank you, Shrikant, for backing me up on the whole penalty thing.

 

Yes, he was quite the difference in that game