Official World Cup Thread

BKS, I'm not an Ecuadoran and I didn't place any bets on them for this match ~:) "Stealing away" refers to a single moment that a single man of England shone and it doomed the score to finish that way. Who can debate over Beckham's mighty feet. As I had told in my Ecuador - Poland review, the Ecuadoran keeper Mora sucks indeed -he is the weakest link of that courageous and quality team.

After seeing the posts about England here, I got the impression that either I watched some other match or the England fans are easily satisfied.

Oh congrats on the progress but do not expect that team going any further. I was into laughter after how Sven cowardishly substituted Joe Cole with Jamie Carragher in '75. He is underestimating the squad he is managing and that damages England's reputation as a team and prevents them from shining all over.

If Turkish team was able to make passes like how Ecuadorans did, we wouldn't be [SomePaperHeadline]Turkish Delights[/SomePaperHeadline] through the preliminary stage.

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Originally Posted by Dutch_guy

Well, going to watch Holland - Portugal. Thinking it's going to be a 0 - 1.

But I surely don't hope so.

:balloon2:

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I hope not, Holand have been playing fantasticly this tournament and it would be a shame to see them knocked out so early....getting knocked out in the Quarter finals by England wouldn't be so much of a shame :laugh4:

0-1 in Portugals favour, but they'll have to do with 10 men from now on. Should be exiting...

Portugal with 9 men.

This match will be remembered for its terrible reffing. What was the red for Deco for? The ref has lost control.

Still 1-0.

Crazed Rabbit

portugal/holland

1st half: pretty good game, some harsh yellows, but overall good half.

2nd half: holy wow! what can you say about this? at this point, i'm hoping they break the record for yellows. not much class being displayed on the field.. by the players or the refs. anyway, i think portugal has played better, but it's hard to tell at this point.

england must be elated.


why didn't van nistelroy play?

I blaming it all on you Dutch Guy, you jinxed it with your POR 1-0 HOL talk :juggle2:

:embarassed:

J/K ~;)

Ah well someone had to go through. Beware England.

Portugal vs Holland

That was so brutal with so much tension that you could hang an axe in the air. Football is war - true indeed !

Ok, well first of all: [DnC] and Dutch_Guy, I'm sorry, you guys deserved it not Portugal. Second of all, kill your coach for not putting Nistelrooy in at least if he wasn't going to start. (would you happen to have any info on that living in Holland?)

To all of the Netherlands. I was rooting for you so hard I gave myself a headache. I think you would have beat England and Portugal will not. It's a shame.

Good luck :bow:

Now maybe you can root for the country near you? DEUTSCHLAND DEUTSCHLAND!:2thumbsup:

That was one beautiful game!!!

Congratulations to Portugal for a hard fought and well deserved victory.

Good lord, what a farcical/incredibly close-fought game, depending how you look at it. 16 yellows and 4 dismissals?! I think I also counted about four fights of one kind or another. The Dutch deserved to at least equalise though, they were all over Portugal in the second half-even if they were diving all over the place. Most exciting game of the tournament so far.

I wonder what would have happened if it had gone to extra time? If they kept playing the way they were, there would have been another two players off.

No Deco against England! Hooray! [/partisan mode]

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Originally Posted by Big_John

why didn't van nistelroy play?

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I'm not the Dutch-guy here, but I think it was because he wasn't playing in accordance to the rest of the team. An scorer should know how to get the centers and all other balls in the area and van Nistelroy didn't should that feat during the games. Also van Basten has shown an strong actitud for renovation, van Nistelroy, Cocu and van Der Sar were the only old players (i think). Even so, I don't agree with the change.

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Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon

I think you would have beat England and Portugal will not. It's a shame.

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SSSSHHHHHHHHH!
don't jinx it boy! :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by Soulforged

I'm not the Dutch-guy here, but I think it was because he wasn't playing in accordance to the rest of the team. An scorer should know how to get the centers and all other balls in the area and van Nistelroy didn't should that feat during the games. Also van Basten has shown an strong actitud for renovation, van Nistelroy, Cocu and van Der Sar were the only old players (i think). Even so, I don't agree with the change.

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ah ok, that would make sense for not starting him, at least. but you have to put him in if you need a goal in the 70th minute, i think.

hahhaha....that was a great fun game!!!

FULL CONTACT FOOTBALL!!!! :P

Van Nistelrooy hasn't given a stellar performance this WC sadly, but even so he should have been put in in the late game. We had nothing to lose afterall.

What the hell is the temperature like over there, anyway? Did Beckham actually toss his cookies on the field not long after his penalty kick?

It was in the 100sF. :laugh4:

Ecuador - England

Boring match for an outsider, really. The English don't look fit and their collective play looks awful. There were one or two highlights in midfield but the last deadly pass was always missing. Backham got a lucky punch and a deserved victory, after all. Ecuador showed nothing of the flair they produced in the first two games in the group stages. I think England can consider themselves lucky not to have played a rampant Germany...

Well done England nonetheless!

Portugal - Netherlands

A very exciting match indeed. A stark contrast to the afternoon fixture. Both looked strong but Holland simply lacked experienced leadership and seemed to have very little plan on how to score their goal (lob it forward and see what happens). The Portuguese were positioned well in defense and allowed very little while the game was still being played on even terms. Had the ref shown Boularouz the deserved red card for the foul on C. Ronaldo, maybe the match would not have turned out the way it did. Some dodgy decisions for yellows but all the send offs were correct. Perhaps one or two should have gone off straight away (Boularouz, Deco).

I suppose Van Basten is right in saying that their real aim is to do well in the Euro Championships 2008. The team is still very young and has much to learn. Pity the coach couldn't stop himself teaching Ruud a lesson for being a **** in practice...

Well played the two and well done Portugal for qualifying for the quarters!

England will have to raise their game considerably if they want to have any chance of getting into the semis. Lucky, however, that Portugal's midfield is missing their most important man in the next match...

Quid

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Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon

I think you would have beat England and Portugal will not. It's a shame.

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Euro 2004, anyone?

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Originally Posted by SSNeoperestroika

Euro 2004, anyone?

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What are you getting at?

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Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon

What are you getting at?

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Don't follow European football much?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=najSAWgJZTk

Yes, Portugal had home advantage, but I would say England were stronger then.
Add to that the fact that Scolari knows well how to organise teams against England.
He did it 2 years ago, and 4 years ago.

[Just noticed the oh-so-friendly comments under the video, heh. No love lost between
Holland and Portugal, eh. The rivalry from the semi-final then has only been exacerbated
by the latest match.]

And the 2002 World Cup as well, unfortunately.

Third time's the charm!

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Originally Posted by Big King Sanctaphrax

And the 2002 World Cup as well, unfortunately.

Third time's the charm!

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Do you honestly think the team's good enough to be beat Portugal this time
around, though? There's just too much lacking, at least from what I have seen.

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Originally Posted by SSNeoperestroika

Do you honestly think the team's good enough to be beat Portugal this time
around, though? There's just too much lacking, at least from what I have seen.

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I think Portugal will be missing some players too much for them to win. I'm not saying it'll be a blowout, but I do think England will win. Maybe it's wishful thinking.

England - Ecuador

It maz not be easy to play well against a defensive team like Ecuador, but the english side made a terrible impression on me. Look on the statistics of the match and the english players. Possession was even, shots on goal close, and so on. Only foulwise the Ecuadorians proved to be much more rough: 24 against 8.

Lampard and Gerrad just had a low number of passes and a underwhelming percentage: 78%. And this with a low-risk approach. Beckham was able to deliver a shameful 63% of his passes with absolutly no risk-taking :sweatdrop:
Basically he was just there to make freekicks - which he does supremly - and to defend a bit.

Rooney was almost all the time alone, never got a decent pass in the whole game. Still one of the best of the english side with the Coles - which was not exaclty difficult, given the woeful performance of almost all players - Ecuadorians included - on the field.

They really have to make a big step performances-wise and/or rely on their luck.

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Originally Posted by SSNeoperestroika

Do you honestly think the team's good enough to be beat Portugal this time
around, though? There's just too much lacking, at least from what I have seen.

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Deco is out next game, plus England played below their potential last game. They played in a way that made them look bad - missing the crucial last pass all the time. If they had got the crucial passes forward but the attackers hadn't been running so well everyone would have said they were playing extremely well but were unlucky not to score. But both scenarios are really equally far from being in top shape.

===

Portugal - Holland was a pretty fun game, but I was disappointed about Holland who seemed to start the game with an attitude of playing ugly, and it seemed they were concentrating more on hurting Portugal's players than about actually playing well with the ball, which was a pity because if they had concentrated more on that they would probably have scored once or twice and probably won.

:italy: - :australia: will be Italian victory I think. Australia have done well but probably can't manage to beat Italy, who are looking quite good at the moment (though not in top shape)
:switzerland: - :ukraine: this will be fun - both these teams are teams that weren't expected to go that far, and it's difficult to predict who will win
:brazil: - :ghana: this too will be fun - ghana is the best African team this WC, and Brazil hasn't really been playing too well lately. Hopefully Ghana will win!
:spain: - :france: this is also interesting - both teams have problems penetrating good defense, and both teams have good defense. France attacks too much in the middle, Spain attacks with too much short passes and tend to get bogged down against good opponents. I wonder who will score the crucial goal

Well, I think everything has been said but I'll give my view on the Holland - Portugal match anyway.

Right from the start it was plain this was going to be one physical and tough game. Boularouz trying to break Ronaldo's leg is of course the prime example. Looking back on the match, and especially knowing the ref. , I'm surprised he wasn't sent off immediately.

We played decent the first 15 minutes, we had our long distance shots but in the end our static defence killed us. Lack of experience and communication is what caused the early goal, Deco should not - ever - be allowed to pass the ball, and Pauletta should not have been able to pass the ball back to Maniche.

We should have known what Maniche is capable of since he scored the winning goal 2 years ago...but obviously we didn't and he got to score the winning goal.

After costinho (sp?) was sent off the field just before half time, after hitting the ball with his hand, the game was all open again.

van Basten then started the second half by taking a defender off the field and putting an attacking midfielder (van der Vaart ) in the game. This meant of course that we we're going to risk it all. But we had to take chances of course.

It paid off almost immediately with a ball against the upper bar (is that the right word?) and some good shots from the second line.

Now I'm sure we must have set some kind of record concerning the yellow and red cards that were given. Something like 16 cards, total, I believe were given.

Something that I found really disgusting was the way how Figo fell to the ground when he lost the ball to Boularouz, it was smart yes, but disgusting, as the replays show there wasn't enough contact between the two to warrant a second yellow card, even though one might argue that Boularouz should have been sent of in the first half.

Now I didn't quite complain yesterday, but why the hell did he send Deco of the pitch, obviously that ref. completely lost it in the second half. A shame really.

Another thing that really bothered me was the fact that the ref. sent van Bronckhorst of the pitch in the fourth minute of the added time !

You just don't do that, not in the added time.

Other than that it was a great game, especially the exiting second half. I would have loved to have seen us score a goal, but it didn't happen. Although we were very, very close at times.

So as much as the ref. tried to destroy the match, he didn't quite succeed.

Good luck Portugal, and congratulations.

PS: I did manage to predict the match correctly, damn.

PPS: van Basten didn;t play with van Nisterlrooy because he disappointed in the games in which he played. And van Basten considered Kuyt to be the better played at the moment.

:balloon2:

Lots of diving going on in the Holland-Portugal match.

England-Ecuador, well, at least England won. It gets rather boring and pointless though if with virutally every goal kick the ball gets lobbed to Rooney, who of course has no chance of reaching it; I think that Rooney was getting tired, which strangely was a good thing, since he became more selective and went for the most promising runs and became more dangerous. Hopefully he keeps doing that. I'd like to see more of Lennon, but I guess while Beckham is still on the team there's not much chance of that. But in all, England was sloppy and need to tidy up their game before playing Portugal. At least some of their players are out.

I dont think theres much for me to add, as everything has generally been covered...except...

Luis Figo's headbutt.

Will Fifa ban him? I hope so!