The inevitable World Cup thread!

Lestat · Post by **Lestat** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:26 pm

Well if the last WC was the one of surprises and new faces, I think we can say this is the one of the reconfirmation of the traditional power houses of football, with nary a non-European or non-South-American team in the last 16 and none with the last 8, and at least 3, if not 4 (if England wins against Portugal) former WC winners in the semi finals..

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:46 pm

[QUOTE=Luis Antonio]@CE: just picking on you, dear.

You miss so scarcely. Also, send my regards to your friend from south america.[/QUOTE]

I miss rarely? You must be blind then, I think all my posts contain a higher typo than word average because I always type far too fast.

Although he is Argentinian? I'm sure you say that just because they are out

[quote="Monolith]
I'm still all dizzy. I can't believe Germany won! What a day. WHAT A DAY!!! BERLIN"]

Congrats to all of Germany and good luck to you in the semifinals! I will be cheering for you against Italy. A lot of Swedish people are anti-cheering for Germany now because of Germany's demolishion of Sweden in the last 16.

Unfortunately I can't watch tomorrow's quarterfinals and the semi finals, since I'm going for a hike in the mountains tomorrow, but I will bring a radio so I should at least be able to listen to the radio broadcast. I hope you all will post interesting comments about the games here, so I can read it when I return.

The Ukraine-Italy game was very much as I expected although I had guessed 0-2 rather than 0-3.

I am bothered by Kaka's abscence tomorrow, I don't think it will be an easy game for Brazil, especially considered the underperformance of several Brazilian players. Kaka has been brilliant though, so I believe he will be missed.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:32 pm

Its weird this World Cup, I was actually cheering on Germany yesterday and I have no idea why considering they are (traditionally) the main rivals of England lol. I'm hoping for a Germany-England final and to be honest if that happens (again for some wierd reason) I'll be happy if either team wins. Realistically though I think it will be a Germany-Brazil final.

As for the events after the Germany-Argentina game, I guess it just shows how much Argentina wanted to win the Cup but I do think they came across as spoilt brats in the end. There was no need to be like that after losing.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:38 pm

I actually hoped Germany would win in regular time - would have been better for my score in the competition I participate with some co-workers. But due to to much "gambeling" - I'm now far behind.

France Brazil - that's a tough one.
I do hope Brazil will win and kick out France

D), so I'm putting all I can from France onto my team today ... that'll teach them. (Starting to get a rep at work, where people just do the oppersite of me to win

)

England - Portugal. I think Portugal is to amputated with the lacking of Deco and Constathina(sp?). I think England will pull it off, but unless England starts to play better (they have not impressed me yet at all), it'll be another dull match going into overtime.
I'm hopeing for Portugal though.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:56 am

[QUOTE=Xandax]Well - would you suggest that all players are to stand perfectly still, not allowed to move, while the ref checks the replays to figure out if he infact should award a free kick or an offside?
Otherwise the positioning advantage would be eleminated from the game.[/QUOTE]

No, the ref makes his call (eg. thinking that infact a penalty should be awarded). The team quickly takes a kick, the ball ends up near the box and a striker then manages to knock it in. They then go back and ensure that the penalty was in fact correct. However, say they take the kick, the defender manages to header it clear, another member of the team collects it and play resumes, with no goal being scored directly from the penalty.

Now, I know you're going to say 'how do you know when the penalty had an effect', well, logic will be able to decide (logic being the video ref's logic), whether or not the impact was crucial to the goal.

Monolith · Post by **Monolith** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 3:33 am

[QUOTE=C Elegans]Congrats to all of Germany and good luck to you in the semifinals! I will be cheering for you against Italy. A lot of Swedish people are anti-cheering for Germany now because of Germany's demolishion of Sweden in the last 16. [/QUOTE]
Thanks. Italy will be tough, but somehow I expect it to be easier than the match against Argentina.

[QUOTE=Xandax]I actually hoped Germany would win in regular time
[/QUOTE]
I think they would have won if the ref gave 'em the (blatant) penalty in the last minutes of the game. But hey, he didn't punish Klose for shoving his knee into the gut of Argentina's goalkeeper, so it's alright I guess...

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 6:18 am

Meh, certainly didn't expect that fight ... does anyone know what triggered it? Oh well if they allowed themselves to go to penalties Arg should have been prepared for a loss, which happened. Will be cheering for Italy though, well naturally I guess.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:37 pm

Brazil game was a shamefull experience. From now on I'm Portugal. Oh well, someone has to play football.

Ravager · Post by **Ravager** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:47 pm

England lost! Yaaaay! I can hear less about the football.

And I don't care how unpatriotic I'm being... :laugh:

Maharlika · Post by **Maharlika** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:20 pm

A World Cup full of upsets.

My sympathies to all the English and Brazillian fans.

Rooney should really learn to control his temper. I understand where he is coming from, but his action can never be validated nor justified.

I'll go for Germany and France in the Finals, with the host getting number four.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:24 am

[QUOTE=Maharlika]My sympathies to all the English and Brazillian fans.

Rooney should really learn to control his temper. I understand where he is coming from, but his action can never be validated nor justified.

I'll go for Germany and France in the Finals, with the host getting number four.[/QUOTE]

The England fans are used to going out on penalties now (I think thats 5 shoot outs in a row we've lost now!) lol. Rooney getting sent off was no surprise. He always does stupid things when he gets frustrated, and ideally he should never have been the sole striker as it led to that frustration. He needs someone to pass the ball to and allow him to demonstrate his skill, and our system did not allow that. I'm not trying to justify his actions as he deserved to be sent off, but the manager should have known that something like that could happen - the rest of the country knew it would happen if the formation stayed like that. At least our team did us proud afterwards. It was hard watching them go out in the way they did, but they played so valiantly after going down to 10 men that I can't be anything but proud of them and realistically they were never good enough to go much further anyway (not based on how badly they were performing at these finals).

France beating Brazil shocked me a bit but its nice to see Zidane back on form. I'd like to see a Germany-Portugal final with Germany lifting the cup, but I'm expecting a Germany-France final with the same outcome. I wonder if I'm the only Englishman supporting Germany lol

TonyMontana1638 · Post by **TonyMontana1638** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:18 am

I admit that I'm still reeling from my Argentinians exiting and it was made much worse by seeing England go as they were my two favorite teams after the US. I never thought Brazil would make the finals again, I just didn't think it was in the cards, but I couldn't believe they went out to France. I was elated earlier in group play to see the French seemingly dying off, so where the hell did this second win come from? Zidane looks like he's 26, Henry has officially broken his streak of playing badly in international play and Fabian Barthez somehow became amazing. I'm stunned.

Anyways, I'm rooting for Italy or Portugal now... Portugal because I think it'd be great to see them at least make the finals and give the fans '66 all over again and Italy just because I like them. Luca Toni's the mack. I don't hate Germany or anything, but beating Argentina didn't exactly endear them to me. If I have to pick a final I think it'll be Italy-France with Italy on top. Germany is at home and play better as a team than I think anybody in the whole tournament (France and Argentina were close), but I just don't think they can do it. They struggled to score against the Argentinian defense, letting them dominate possesion time and get pushed around by Ayala, and Italy's defense is even better as Buffon seemingly can do no wrong at the moment. France is simply on a roll and I feel I have to pick them but we'll see if the old legs can keep going. Portugal is getting some people back like Deco who should be well-rested and I like their chances: it should be a great game. Both of them should, for that matter.

Lestat · Post by **Lestat** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:33 am

*groans* I just hope that France doesn't win the Cup. Not that I have anything against the team (if they weren't French, I might just root for them), but the French become just "insupportable" for months if not years when their team wins, and chances are I'll have to work with some French in the near future... (Class: look up "insupportable" in your F-E dictionary).

TonyMontana1638 · Post by **TonyMontana1638** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:11 pm

[QUOTE=Lestat]*groans* I just hope that France doesn't win the Cup. Not that I have anything against the team (if they weren't French, I might just root for them), but the French become just "insupportable" for months if not years when their team wins, and chances are I'll have to work with some French in the near future... (Class: look up "insupportable" in your F-E dictionary).[/QUOTE]
*nods* A more true statement has never been uttered in my hearing. :laugh: :laugh:

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 10:08 am

I dont want France to win too. Zizou played magnificiently against Brazil, but Parreira left him without anyone close to him. I want Portugal to win, because AFAIK they've never won a world cup, and their coach is brazilian. I also hope they wont have trouble with the semifinals and finals referee.

Damn, Brazilian game was boring.

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 10:32 am

[QUOTE=Lestat]*groans* I just hope that France doesn't win the Cup. Not that I have anything against the team (if they weren't French, I might just root for them), but the French become just "insupportable" for months if not years when their team wins, and chances are I'll have to work with some French in the near future... (Class: look up "insupportable" in your F-E dictionary).[/QUOTE]

I wholeheartedly agree. Italy or Portugal for me. I don't think I could stand it if the French win.

TonyMontana1638 · Post by **TonyMontana1638** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:39 pm

ITALY!!!!

Maharlika · Post by **Maharlika** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:13 pm

The Italians have done it again.

Yes, well done, Italia. Too bad for the Germans. I thought that if by overtime the score is still nil-nil then Germany can wrap things up during the penalty kicks.

The present Italian team is living up with tradition.

Germany has yet to beat Italy in the World Cup.

With the Germans booted out by the "European Boot," I wouldn't care any less now who wins the World Cup. I just hope that the Final game would be an exciting one.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:33 pm

I bet on Portugal vs Italy in the finals, and I really think that both may be winners, but I would really appreciate Portugal winning.

Lestat · Post by **Lestat** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:40 pm

[QUOTE=Luis Antonio]I bet on Portugal vs Italy in the finals, and I really think that both may be winners, but I would really appreciate Portugal winning.[/QUOTE]
I second that.