GameBanshee Forums

@Littiz: I agree Italy has had very bad luck with the refs, but now you are through, so it's time to calm down and look forward to the next round. Many teams have suffered from erranous penalties, wrongy disallowed goals etc, but even if Italy have been the most unlucky you are now through, and will face South Korea. Not too bad, eh? The fact that the Italian team has made it despite these disallowed goals, will now strengthen the team, they can take advantage of their misfortunes since overcoming difficulites as a team, will increase their confidence. I'm convinced Italy will go far in this tournament.

What I meant with thanking Ecuador was simply that if they hadn't beat Croatia, Italy would have had problems. If Croatia had beat Ecuador, Italy would perhaps not have it even if they had got the disallowed goal. The WC is not a question about what the teams earn, or what is fair. If that was the case, no tournament wouldn't need to be played, medal could just be awarded on the basis of ranking.

Italy actually didn't play so great for a large part of the 2nd half.
Sometimes we must accept that the teams we cheer for can't play their best all the time, in every game. But IMO, things are looking very good for Italy now.

@Littiz I am taking this directly from FIFA's 2001/2002 Laws of the Game(the official rules) on the pages about offside:

A player is an offside position if he is nearer to his opponens' goal line that both the ball and the second to last opponent.

(so they are basically saying that if an attacker is ahead of the second to last defender and the ball the moment the ball is touched he is offsides)

A player is not offside if:

-he is in his own half of the field of play.
-he is LEVEL with the second to last opponent
-he is LEVEL with the last two opponents

It could be that with years of football playing at local levels referees were in shortage or something allowing players growing up on football that has been altered by years of misinformation, and the rules are always altered by referees themselves on accident.

Here you go

http://www.ask.co.uk/reply.asp?ask=what ... sk%21.y=20

@Word: yes, you have to be right, I guess it's some sort of hoax
grown with time... grown indeed!!!!

Right C Elegans, Italy played a HORRIBLE 2nd half!!!!
But having seen it, I just can't imagine how the players were
living that match...
We started with 20 great minutes, all knowing that already two goals were cancelled, so no one really expected this to happen again...
Inzaghi marks, cancelled again.
If I was about to crash the TV, imagine the players...
Then Mexyco maked its goal at the first shot, we all simply thought that this was not the Cup for us.
Moral was at the ground, the rest was only chaos...

We should consider MORAL in these matches, for Argentina it was just the same!
Anyway, the penalty was EVIDENTLY irregular, and no one invalidated it...

South Korea?
Well NORTH Korea kicked our butts in '66.......
They all run like crazy.....
Help!!

@Lillitz: The Italian team has shown great strenght and moral to come back from a situation like they were in in the 2nd half. They looked so stressed for a while, nothing seems to work, but unlike Argentina and France, Italy managed to regain their play and come back. That's why I think all those misfortunes will strengthen the team now, they must feel they can do anything.

A final between Italy and Brazil would be great, a really classic meeting!

Damn! I'm afraid of our match against Paraguay. Hamann, Ramelow and Ziege have been suspended on tuesday. Bode (actionally a striker) will have to replace Ziege on the left side, since Böhme is injuried. And I've just heard that Ballack is injuried as well. Possibly he'll be able to play, but definately not in the best physical condition. UUUUARRRGH! Our defensive midfield line is gone!

@Littiz, what is your opinion on the Inzaghi/Montella situation, i personally do not rate Inzaghi very highly and would much rather see Montella playing, what do you think?

Also the Del Piero/Totti situation, i think Totti looks exceptionally tierd whereas Del Piero is really sharp... they are in fact the opposite of the Euro championships 2 years back.

Bad news for Senegal, they will probably lack three players in Sunday's match against Sweden Not only are important midfielders Fadiga and Diao out due to being sent out in previous matches, the excellent defender Coly, one of the best in the team, has a knee injury and did not participate in training Friday. He will undertake a test Saturday, but he himself says it is not likely he will play Sunday. It's looking bad for Senegal

I think Italy will not be pleasantly surprised by Korea as I believe Korea can pull out the victory. Oh Im really worried bout the US game Mexico looked strong against Italy and their possesion style will really give us problems.

@Word: we know, as I said, we already once underestimated koreans.
They can win.
Only, let's hope this won't be 'cause they're at home, so linesmen once again will feel the need to help them!

@Mr. Sleep:
I'm not so a good analyst...
hmm, we're well covered in that role. Really, no problem.
It's the mid-line that will give all the troubles...

Vieri is untouchable, for now, he's not elegant and skilled,
but in the area is a killer.
So we need the classical 10...
I'd keep Totti. I don't think he's tired, he already showed
many numbers, only the last match was strange, but not only for
him...
Del Piero at last is in good shape, but we tend not to trust him,
he's very good, but he has always problems of every sort...
But good to enter at half-time, maybe!
Inzaghi or Montella, I don't really know, I like 'em both,
maybe Inzaghi seems a bit more agile, but Montella seemed more "cold"...
Don't know.
Yet, the first 20 minutes against Mexico, showed that together
Totti-Vieri-Inzaghi have really a great potential, IMHO!
But they'll all end in a large turn-over, if our cup goes on!

As I said, our problem is the midline, and at least for the
next match, defense too...

So.....anyone from Denmark?

Interesting with the offside rule... so the last man does not necessarily have to be the keeper - could be anyone. And what about corners? Is the offside rule disallowed?

Anyway, I'll see you all about 1 o'clock...

How much do ya wanna bet that Sven plays $%^£ Heskey...WE WANT SHERINGHAM!!!!!

See you guys after the match...I might have to bring out the huge Eng-er-lund flag again

I dunno...Heskey's been on very bad form this WC, but I rate him high on a club level (arrrgghh...must resist urge to talk like football pundit ) I reckon Sherringham might come on early in the second half. He really looks good this year, and even if Heskey is strong and skilful, he isn't scoring goals...

Germany - Paraguay: IMO, the most boring game yet. Serious zzz-warning. The result was 1-0 to Germany.

Alas, it is all pointless I have noticed that since I started watching football (ie the last two weeks) I have gained supernatural powers as a seer. Ouuuuuum! Ouuuuum! The results for the 2002 World Cup are as follows:

Denmark - England: England wins 2 - 1.
Sweden - Senegal: Senegal wins with a sensational 4 - 1.
Turkey - Japan: Japan winns 1 - 0 after extension.
Brasil - Belgium: Brasil winns 4 - 0.

Germany - Paraguay: Well, I dont need to predict this one.
Ireland - Spain: Ireland wins 1 - 0.
Mexico - USA: USA wins 1 - 0.
Italy - South Korea: South Korea wins 3 - 2.

... which means that the following go to the next round.

England - Brasil: Brasil wins 3 - 1.
Senegal - Japan: Senegal wins 9 - 3!

Germany - USA: US doesn't win.
Ireland - South korea: South Korea wins 4 - 3.

Next round...

Brasil - Senegal: Senegal wins 11 - 7!
South Korea - the other team: South Korea wins 6 - 2.

Final

South Korea - Senegal: Senegal wins 16 - 3 !!!!

Thats it. Sorry to spoil the fun. You can all go home now.

England - Denmark, I am impressed, especially by the first half. Congratulations!

counting the seconds before the result of the match till be obvious...

Yeah England are looking rock solid now. Great defense and great counter attacks. Could go far. I don't think Brasil will beat England. Their defense is not good.
It seems that offensive, good to watch, football is not very effective on international level.

Eng-er-land Eng-er-land Eng-er-land Eng-er-land Eng-er-land!

Come on the boys! Howay the lads!

All you Heskey doubters, shuddupa your face!

Fantastic first half, the best defence in the world cup, conceded one goal in the whole tournament so far and we haven't lost in 18 matches. The Brazilian forwards versus the English wall, that will be a fantastic match.

Come on England!

So everbody should know by now, England beat Denmark 3-0, all goals in a fantastic 1st half. Congratulations England

Originally posted by Nippy
All you Heskey doubters, shuddupa your face!

My thoughts exactly - Heskey should play from the start!

Brazil - England would be a great quarterfinal, and it looks very likely. And England certainly have a chance against Brazil, if they play liked they played the today, it could be a game of epic qualities
As Bruce Lee says, the football that is entertaining to watch, is seldom the football that gets large scale international sucesses. Especially not in the cup format, where the teams want to avoid mistakes and thus take less risks. I doubt we will see Brazil play like they did against Costa Rica, the beautiful game they played then would be far too dangerous against England.

Congrats...

...to all you English fans...

The problem I see for Brazil if they play England is if they play their attacking football. If England are able to stop them in their tracks (which Ferdinand and Cambell can do, no doubt) then the pace of Owen and Beckham playing it forward over the head of Brazil, if England play an aerial game and rely on our heading then Brazil will not approach the likes of Cambell or Ferdinand in the box, they are extremely powerful. The two wing-backs were powerful today, Cole and Mills played a solid game and Cole's defensive frailties were non-existent. They were good going forward and strong in the tackle. I though Scholes and Butt played a masteful game in the centre of the park and stopped everything from going through, Beckham and Sinclair never stopped taking the ball forward and challenging the defense and Heskey and Owen were too much, the difference between the two in their strength and speed causes a lot of confusion.

I must say though that I was impressed with some of Denmark's play. Gronkjaer was quite tricky to handle and Tomasson was unlucky with some of his play. I thought Sorensen's mistakes were very unlike his normal keeping for Sunderland, but I won't complain about it!