Football World Cup 2006

[SonofBattles]

Argentina has another strong showing today! I cannot wait to see the Argentina v. Netherlands game!

 

Sorry Germany...Argentina is going to send you home in the next round....at least you won't have to go far!

[Guest Majsju]

Argentina is amazing against Serbia! If they can keep this level not even Brazil will be able to stand up against them.

 

And I almost feel sorry for Serbia, the defence that was one of the strongest in the world during the qualifiers completely fell apart without Vidic.

 

And just as I write this, Messi scored his first WC goal for 6-0!

 

This is insane, but what a game :D

[DragonSpawn]

I found the match of Germany vs Poland funny. Most commentators even said the german team was a bit reluctant, and jokingly even said about half the german team is polish players,...... obviously not that many, but quite a few players are polish immigrants playing for Germany, most notable Podolski.

[Guest Majsju]

Argentina has another strong showing today! I cannot wait to see the Argentina v. Netherlands game!

 

Sorry Germany...Argentina is going to send you home in the next round....at least you won't have to go far!

 

Impossible, Germany will play against Sweden or England in the next round. Only if they win that game can they eventually face Argentina, if both teams either win their group, or both teams finish second. If one team wins the group and the other finish 2nd they can't face eachother until the final, and well, Germany won't make it that far.

[MetalMonkeyMood]

Man, I felt so sorry for CIV today, they were playing brilliantly, but lady luck was against them and they had a few unfair decisions I thought. I was actually rooting for them, after England :(

[Guest Majsju]

I think it was quite fair, Oranje owned first half, CIV the 2nd. CIV also got a few unfair decisions with them, so it evened out in the end.

 

But of course, I cheer for Oranje, of course I think it was perfectly fair :D

[MetalMonkeyMood]

Bah, we'll see what happens when England meets Sweden on the 20th.

 

/me throws down the gauntlet and looks all challenging and intimidating and stuff.

[Guest Majsju]

As usual, a draw. England hasn't won against Sweden for 38 years, don't see that they would start now. Especially since Rooney is not 100% matchfit yet.

 

It can turn into a bizarre match though, if Ecuador gets at least a draw against Germany, neither Sweden nor England will want to win, because then 2nd spot means facing Ecuador instead of Germany.

[MetalMonkeyMood]

Honestly speaking, Ecuador's been the most impressive so far out of all the teams. I wouldn't want to face them either if I were Ericsson.

[SonofBattles]

Oops...right. I got a round ahead of myself. The Germans have one more round to advance against Sweden! Heartbreaking yes, but inevitable.

 

THEN...

 

they will get kicked out by Argentina!

 

BEFORE THAT...

 

Argentina will beat the Netherlands on the 21st thus winning the "group of death." However...the Netherlands will have a rematch for third place and win!

 

This is all true...I have called the psychic hotline to check!

[Guest Majsju]

Ecuador has performed well, but I'm not that impressed. They haven't really played against the toughest opponents.

 

And even though Svennis must have really fond memories of playing against Germany as coach for England (5-1 will never be forgotten :D ), he would most definitly prefer playing against Ecuador.

 

But I think both England and Sweden have quite a good chance at sending germany out of the tournament. Scary if Sweden would have to face Argentina though, I think they might want revenge for not qualifying from the group 2002...

 

I'm watching the game again, Argentina's 2-0 is pure genious. 24 passes before the goal, they held the ball for way over a minute.

[Ozhammer]

Australia did really weel Vs Brazil, for a 2 nil loss. It was a tough , competitive game where the ball didnt roll our way, the Ref gave us absolutely no calls whatsoever, and the Brazilians class in front of goal proved the difference.

[Leafburner]

I agree regarding the ref's dcalls, but it's not as though we didn't make our own opportunities. At the end of the day our inability to find the goal was our downfall. I think their keeper actually had to defend the goal twice the whole game. We just weren't on target.

[Ozhammer]

True, we make the opportunities but just dont take them. That ref was rubbish though. We didnt even get the 60/40 calls. If we touched any of them it was a foul! All Kewell had to do was pretend he was Happy Gilmore and "tap it in"!

2 hours sleep is not conducive to efficient work habits! :twisted:

[Illiara]

 

 

 

Argentina will beat the Netherlands on the 21st thus winning the "group of death." However...the Netherlands will have a rematch for third place and win!

 

Group of death? If you ask me, Group E is the group of death, Italy, the US, Ghana, and the Czechs could all make it into the second round. Italy is already in, and if the Czechs lose to them, then the winner of the US and Ghana goes in.

 

By the way, I watched the US vs Italy, and the first red card on the US was unfair. You don't give someone the card for the sake of fairness. If you wanted the game to be fair, then why did you make it Italy with 10 players and the US with 9?

[Guest Majsju]

Both US red cards were perfectly fine. The first one is reckless and dangerous play, he went in with both feet first, and studs up. In a situation like that, it's only luck that he didn't break Pirlo's leg.

[Ozhammer]

Thats true, sometimes you get the calls, sometimes you dont. We did not get one call all game vs Brazil, but it didnt cost us the match at least.

[Illiara]

I see your point, I just wanted my team to win...

 

But I'm surprised Italy didn't win when we got down to nine guys. They tried, but the goalkeeper just made some good saves, and kept the game even. Even though I thought we had the game won when the goal went in that didn't count, I still thought that Italy was a really good team. I'm surprised that the Americans tied.

[Guest Majsju]

Oz, it's quite a difference between the game between Australia and Brazil, and the tackle that got the first US player sent off. There were no tackles even near the recklessness of that one in your game. Brazil doesn't play that way, and while Australia plays hard, I have not seen anything out of line, except the occasional tackle that takes bad by mistake. But that happens to everyone. Except me, I always go for the player, not the ball :lol:

[Illiara]

I guess Italy and the US are both aggressive teams then. Did you see the hit that got the Italian kicked out?

[Ozhammer]

I know Maj, I wasnt comparing the two games, except that sometimes things can never go right sometimes. The foul count for us was 25-9 against us! Brazil were not two goals better than us. But we do have a reputation for playing physically, and the ref obviosly had a preconceived notion about that before the whistle blew! I just meant that sometimes, for all the teams best efforts, you dont get the result because fate conspires against you!

[Leafburner]

I think a good portion of the calls went against us because we didn't sell our injuries like the Brazilians did. That's the one thing about Soccer that we don't do really well - fake injuries!

 

I lost count of the number of times a Brazilian would fall to the ground after a relatively minor encounter with an Australian and clutch his ankle and screamm in agony only to be back on his feet and running happily once the call went their way.

 

And I HATED that we had to play in black. :twisted:

[Ozhammer]

Thats why is doesnt have too much cred. Break out the scuba gear, cos there is a sh*tload of diving going on! :twisted:

[Guest Majsju]

Illiara, De Rossi's elbow should render him extra suspension, that behaviour does not belong on a fottball pitch. I hope FIFA has the guts to suspend him for the rest of the tournament.

 

What I can't understand is what the hell the first american was thinking. They were one man more, had 1-1, Pirlo was on the Italian side, there was absolutely no need to tackle him, just screen him.

 

 

As for Australia getting more freekicks against them keep in mind that they also tackled a lot more. And the freekicks Brazil got was mostly in the middle of the pitch, where you need Beckham on the team for them to be very dangerous.

 

And it was a 2-0 game, Brazil had pretty good control over it, and if they had needed to they could have stepped up their game a few notches. And 2-0 is not a big victory, I've seen plenty of very even games end with a two goal difference. Just be glad Brazil didn't start with Robinho instead of Ronaldo, in that case there might have been a few more goals. But with fatboy on the pitch, Brazil is playing with 10 man most of the time, he's not the player he once were, and it takes a lot to make him take a run.

 

I think he's only starting so he can get that record.

[Leafburner]

I don't buy that, Maj. Are you implying that Brazil only did what they needed to in order to beat us?

 

They were all talk about how they were going to win by 4 goals, they claimed to have never heard of any Australian players ever, they talked themselves up and at half time, they were more than a little concerned. granted they won, I am not taking anything away from them, but let's give credit where it is due. We kept them from running away with the game. We remained competitive and showed we can go toe to toe with the best.

 

Gee, these grapes are sour!