Whoops. I'll try to be less American. Kind of hard living here!:2thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneApache
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Whoops. I'll try to be less American. Kind of hard living here!:2thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneApache
If France gets knocked out tonight, I'm going to find myself doing the
unthinkable, and backing Argentina. All of the other teams I would like
to see lose just too badly.
Hey no problem mate, the smilies I'd hoped gave it away. It's great that so many 'Yanks' are finally getting the bug, that you call soccer and we call 'footy'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon
Fair play to you and your kith and kin.
:party:
hmm, not very impressed with brazil. thought they'd found their form against japan, but ghana has played better than brazil except for the finishing. maybe an odd thing to say about a 3-0 game, but the 2nd goal was offsides, and the 3rd goal came in garbage time when ghana was all forward.
brazil can't play this way against either spain or france (well, maybe france, depending on which team shows up).
Me and a few of my friends were talking about this yesterday. If the US bread all of its best athletes for soccer like the European teams and the South American team, the US would be good. Instead of taking all our best athletes and making them football players and basketball players we breed them to play soccer. I mean if you put Brian Urlacher who is 6' 4" 250 and can run the 40 in a 4.4 at sweeper if would just be a question of how long the opposing forward was in the hospital with a concusion. If a player like Shaq was put up at forward to win balls out of the air like crazy and would make that Crouch guys look like an ant. If we put Reggie Bush at mid and have him fly by and juke out everyone. It is just kind of fun thinking about how good the US could be if we actually trained our best athletes to play soccer. Although I am pretty sure that this wont be happening in the near future because nobody in the US cares about soccer. But there is that old question "What if..."
ooophf.. ouch, france. up until henry's rediculous flop, i didn't care who won this game.. but now france goes up 2-1 from that foul call?
ouch...
i hope spain can come back.
edit2: great, now i'll have to pull for brazil.. see what you've made me do france? booo hissss!
I can't believe that was the same French team that played in the group stages. Louis will be pleased.
It was nice to see Zidane score.
Edit:Henry played it up, which was a bit disapointing, but Puyol did block him. It should have been a free kick without the face-clutching.
As much as I like Henry as a plaer, that was a blatant try at getting that defender sent off, not his shining moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big King Sanctaphrax
So what do you think England's chances against a depleted Portugal side?
No offence Louis, or any French fans, but I hate to see this happen. I would hate it if Spain won too. I'm just so torn. I love both teams. I wish both could advance. After every player on Germany my favorite player is Torres. He's such a badass. Also, Spain HAS to be the most underachieved nation. They're so good, but they just never make it.Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneApache
To France: Congrats, and great win. To Spain: I love you, just bounce back.
I'm so sad :no:
I don't want the World cup to be over *cries*
Once again Spain flatter to deceive, offering virtually nothing in attack despite having a great deal of quality possession. France had less possession but they were more constructive and probing in attack with it. Well played France, and good to see ZZ score once more.
spain was maybe a tad too passive, but they put several great chances together, as did france. except for the flop (which was not a foul, BKS, sorry.. pujol simply beat henry to the ball), it was a great game. neither team clearly 'deserved' it more than the other. but henry's theatrics were game-winning, and thus i must hope brazil beats france (which i think will happen anyway).
so what do we have?
i'll take portugal over england, even though they'll be missing a few people. i think this could be a boring match. i can see both teams kind of sitting back and waiting for the other to make a mistake.
brazil over france.
argentina over germany, this should be the final, unfortunately. the winner of this should take it all.
italy over ukraine.. neither team is that impressive. i think this is the battle for fourth place.
Germany vs. Argentina is the first game tommorrow am I correct?
it's the next game, but there is no world cup until friday. sadly, we have a little break before the quarterfinals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon
germany v argentina 11:00am EST, friday, june 30
Yes... :book: :laugh4: ~:cheers: :jumping: :thrasher: :beatnik2: :creep: :2thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Soulforged
ZIZOU!!
ZIZOU!!
ZIZOU!!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
We need to pretend the World cup is still going after it's done. I can't go back to my non-world cup life anymore. It's just not the same!:embarassed:
Never thought that I would watch soccer but it is really fun to watch I'm getting into it. Its pretty exciting.
Glad France won! I'm hoping for either a France Germany match or an England Germany match, love the great rivalry. My buddy Jose wanted to see a Spain Portugal match but that dream was crushed and he had to pay up in drinks!
I'm hoping for Germany to beat Argentina. Unfortunately even though I want to root for Ukraine because Jose lost today's bet he got to choose the next game.
I'm glad that there's other Americans enjoying soccer. I've always like it and loved playing it in Elementary and then being a linesman for my brothers games in Highschool but as everyone got older they wanted to play football or basketball. I'm glad that at least in my Army experience there are plenty of foriegners that enlisted that I could play with/against.
Well good job France, and nice goal Zidane and Ribery !
Looking forward to the germany - Argentina game, going to be a great match - it just has to be.
After seeing both teams play a fantastic tournament, it's bloody hard to predict who's going to take the win...
:balloon2:
Hmm, I now really hope that we, Germany, will win the Championship, because all my other favorites are out already...:help:
I reckon Argentina will struggle to beat Germany myself. They (Argentina) have been looking good, but have they played a good side yet? Mexico rank as only "Ok" IMHO and they didn't exactly put them away did they, and Germany are not an easy team to play against. Plus I want the Germans to go through because you all know an England-Germany final would be the most exciting sporting event in the history of the world ever. Even you Louis. (Oh cruel fate, I will be in France that day, this is what happens when you leave holiday arrangements to women)
I also reckon England-Portugual will be a stinker. Assuming Portugal play to their potential they should have it, but with their suspensions, plus, surely, England have to play at least one good game in this tournament, I'm hoping England will do the business. That would set us up for a semi against Brazil (boring) or France (we-hay, almost as good as Germany) Unfortunately for my beating-the-Germans-in-the-final fantasy I can't see us getting past the semis though
Spain again did what they always do in World Cups - excellent play in preliminary round and pathetic after that.:laugh4:
But when Henry will finally play good enough?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dutch_guy
On Croatian TV commentators called Boulahrouz as a butcher. When he got second yellow card they said that butcher finally go out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon
The main problem of Spain in game was defense. They played defensive tactics called "offside's traps". Defenders were 35m from goalkeeper. It was matter of time whem Frenchmen would go through defense. Rebery was player of the game.
What to add - Ukraine was second and they are now in quaterfinal. Unkrainian tycoons promised 22 million euros if Ukraine won! :dizzy2: So far they payed over 2 or 3 million euros to players for succes.
I agree with the fact that Argentina will have a hard time beating Germany. However, Germany hasn't had a 'hard' game yet either. This will be the first proper test for both of the teams. Dare I say though, if Germany wins this one, they will go and win the championship. The euphoria will be so high that there will be no stopping them. Already now Germany is playing much better than they are supposed to be able to. Quite depressing, really.Quote:
Originally Posted by English assassin
Actually, I am also hoping for a 'good' game of England. It has been a long time coming. They have not performed really well ever since the 5 - 1 against Germany. Problem of course is, England is severely lacking a good and fit striker at the moment. The midfield has not lived up to their potential either. And let me just not lose a word about the supposedly best defense worldwide... Am still uncertain as to whether it was a good idea to play Lampard and Gerrard at the same time...I sort of get the feeling they are impeding each other and cannot live up to their best form. It will be a good game. Portugal being weakened by the suspensions and England...well, generally being weak so far.
Good luck to the both of them!
Quid
Oh, and common Argentina!!!
Germany - Argentina should have been the final of this tournament.Quote:
Originally Posted by English assassin
But I'll settle forDresden-CoventryGermany - England too. :balloon2:
Hahaha...:laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Spain and Ghana both showed poor defensive tactics in their second round matches.
With the rubbish new offside rules, the offside trap just does not work. Linesmen, referees themselves state they do not know what the rules are so it is easy for teams too take advantage of this. Playing high up the field trying to catch highly mobile, technical teams like Brazil and France, does not work.
Playing deep is the only answer, and they didnt do this, and thats why there out.
Who does everyone fancy out of Germany, Argentina? I believe whoever wins that game will go on too win the competition.
Confusing as they sometimes maybe, that is why I agree with the new offside rules. Previously, under the old rules, there was nothing more boring than teams who had perfected the off-side trap. Now, you are playing with a loaded gun if you persist with such tactics, as the Spanish found out.
PS My only real beef with the offside rule is that the benefit of doubt is supposed to reside with the attacker, but it very rarely does so in practice. However, in mitigation, it is a difficult rule to police for the officials.