World Cup, Take Two!

Remove all ads!

With the Italians, it's their technique which is fantastic when they are playing well. A pass will come to one of them and you'll think "ooh, that's an awkward ball, he'll struggle to control that" but it's under control and being passed on so quickly, that's technique. And they never panic and just hoof it up field. I have seen nothing from England that leads me to believe we could have played as well as either of those teams did last night, it was brilliant, technical football played at a real high tempo. It's hard for me to say this, but I don't think they have one bad player. I want them to win this WC now (although that might be to do with me disliking France and hating Portugal, but hey).

 

game was on at 3am this morning so I couldn't see it. just saw the replay. what a game, sheer bad luck prevented gilardino and zambrotta 's goals but grosso's goal was awsome.

I agree, which is probably why they took them out before it got to that

the reason for your hating portugal is pretty obvious, but is there any particular incident this WC for disliking france? Apart from the fact that they played like crap until Spain and Brazil.

 

Because they're France. I'm English, they're French, what more reason do you need?

 

now this next post is technically against the rules, but it's the only thing I've got in response to that:

 

Cheer up mate, bloody hell. You need to understand rivalry.
England and France have a history of close matches, most recently when they beat us 2-1 a few years back with 2 really late goals, after Beckham has just missed a penalty to seal the game.
We've got a few rivalries in football, with Germany, Argentina, Turkey, Scotland and France and people always want to see their rivals lose.

 

See, I got a different reason for hating France's football team:

They are lucky cheaters that have about three or four good players, the rest are average at best.

 

Haha, what a dive by Henry.
Zidane puts the penalty away, 1-0 France.

 

Sounds like Portugal minus the good players.

 

Duffin, like it or not, but Portugal HAVE very good players, such as Ricardo, Ronaldo, Figo, Deco, Gomez, Valente, and Costinha.

EDIT: ****. France won again on a dumb penalty that they shouldn't have had.

[ July 05, 2006, 22:55: Message edited by: Rutkowski ]

 

Bah. I knew I was a fool to expect it to go to 2-0. Damn! There was no chance of a second goal.

Oh well, who knows what to pick in the 3rd place playoff?

 

HB, Germany.

 

if italy wins, italy wins.
if france wins, zidane will be comparable to pele.


question,
at the end of the game, zidane spoke to figo while changing jersey. What language the two converse in? italian? english? spanish? or they just speak their own and the other understands?

 

Great, I should have known. After one semifinal turned out to be the best game at this world cup, the other two semifinalists decided to give us possibly the most boring one (well... second most boring - the masterclass of ennui from Ukraine and Switzerland is not to be forgotten).

France played badly but Portugal hardly played any better. Zidane was invisible and Barthez was a disaster (what the hell was that? volleyball??). However, the formidable defence of Vieira-Thuram-Makelele played relatively well. As for the opposition...

Of which two (Ricardo and Ronaldo) played well today. The rest were bland - even Maniche - whom I would have put ahead of all the above mentioned...

In the end, it seems that the Germany-Italy game was the real final of this world cup. As things stand, unless Zidane or Figo decide to perform miracles, the Germans and Italians should easily cruise through their matches.

Note: I am slightly surprised that the penalty decision is being regarded as controversial? It wasn't a bad foul or a nasty one, but Henry was in the box with a chance and he was tripped up by Carvalho, whose tackle got Henry's leg. Henry made a meal of it, granted, but it was a foul nonetheless.

 

That was a game full of diving, moaning and gesticulating at the ref. It wants stamping down on that does, big time.
Not a scratch on the previous semi-final.

 

Ricardo, Ronaldo and Figo are good the rest arent anything to write home about. But Figo doesnt count as this is probably his last major tournament, Ronaldo doesnt count because hes a big fat cheat (okay not fat ) and okay Ricardo's starting to establish himself as one of the worlds best keepers.

EDIT: oops i forgot Deco, yes he's Portugals best player IMO.

 

This World Cup is the most disappointing of all 4 world cups I have seen so far...

God, how BORING can semifinals get??

 

Semifinals will usually tend to be boring, because soccer just does not lend itself very well to knockout games, due to the ease with which teams can play defensively to avoid conceding goals. It's just like the FA Cup, which is also miles more boring than the Premiership, where at least there is an incentive to score loads of goals.

 

Faraaz, I agree, France versus Portugal wasn't too good, but IMO, Germany against Italy was the best game of the tournament. Intense, and full of good football.

And 2002 was a really bad cup. 1998 was okay, I guess, but 1994 was too riddled with defensive football to be able to be enjoyed properly.

 

Since both players are active in Spain for quite a while now, and they're also on the same team, i think it's most realistic to assume they communicate in Spanish.

 

Ease? it's not an easy thing to do, playing with the goal of not getting scored at when meeting such good teams. Italy masters this, but it's not easy.