Official World Cup Thread

[Rodion Romanovich]

That first half was certainly Argentina at it's best!

I don't think second half will be worth watching though, they'll probably save their tricks for later games now that they are leading with 3-0. Serbia broke together almost completely after 1-0 and a series of about 2-3 dubious referee actions. The coach seemed to give up already from start, which explains how the first goal and a few dubious referee decisions made the Serbian team give up. A pity, because judging from their performance in last EC and other games they have a lot more potential than they showed today. Then came the 2-0 goal - the most beatiful goal in the entire WC so far IMO, after which the Serbian team gave up completely. 3-0 was probably the second most beautiful goal of this WC, but by then Serbia had already largely given up so it wasn't an as impressive show as it seemed.

I'm pleased to see Argentina being able to score with longer distance shots too (1-0 goal), it means they've got what they've been lacking the last few tournaments. Without the ability to threaten opponents from a distance they only had the close short passes tactics which tended to get get bogged down and easily stopped by teams with good defense. With good long-distance shots they can threaten the opposing defense in more ways and get more flexibility.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I do hope so !

Hope Germany and Holland 'll meet in the quarter finals by the way, now that would be interesting !

I'm making myself a Germany shirt right now. I will buy some replica jerseys later, but now I just got a white T-shirt, put the German flag on it, put DEUTSCHLAND on the front. On the back I have DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES IN DER WELT!


Clegane: what is a good chant for Germany other than that?

[scotchedpommes]

Good night, Serbia and Montenegro.
Looking forward to seeing the Argentina Holland match now. I think some people
might just be looking for a little revenge for that day in Marseille.

5 - 0 now. No, no, no.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Good night, Serbia and Montenegro.
Looking forward to seeing the Argentina Holland match now. I think some people
might just be looking for a little revenge for that day in Marseille.

Holland will put Argentina in their place. FORZA HOLLAND!

[Riedquat]

Holland will put Argentina in their place. FORZA HOLLAND!

Our revenge is not against Holland, you must know that.

[scotchedpommes]

FORZA HOLLAND!

Very Dutch.

[6 - 0.]

[Dutch_guy]

That first half was certainly Argentina at it's best!

I don't think second half will be worth watching though, they'll probably save their tricks for later games now that they are leading with 3-0. Serbia broke together almost completely after 1-0 and a series of about 2-3 dubious referee actions. The coach seemed to give up already from start, which explains how the first goal and a few dubious referee decisions made the Serbian team give up. A pity, because judging from their performance in last EC and other games they have a lot more potential than they showed today. Then came the 2-0 goal - the most beatiful goal in the entire WC so far IMO, after which the Serbian team gave up completely. 3-0 was probably the second most beautiful goal of this WC, but by then Serbia had already largely given up so it wasn't an as impressive show as it seemed.

.

The second half was just as exiting as the first, really, argentina at its best.

They even brought in Messi, who then proceeded to humiliate the Serbs even more, eventually giving the assist that led to the 5th goal. And then made the 6th one himself.

And I agree, goal number two was the best goal of the WC thus far.

[InsaneApache]

Argentina played well.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Wow, Serbia got absolutely thrashed. That was actually quite painful to watch.

[x-dANGEr]

Currently watching Netherlands VS CIV.. Man, what's the matter with this referee? As far as I counted, he had 'ignored' a penalty kick for the CIV, given one of their players a yellow card for nothing and counted the 2nd goal for the Netherlands which was an offside (As far as I believe).

Edit: (For comments, had to go at those last lines)

Man.. The 2 first goals in the match were both awesome.. Really nice! Seems like a well game through the first half. Good job to both teams ;)

[[DnC]]

Currently watching Netherlands VS CIV.. Man, what's the matter with this referee? As far as I counted, he had 'ignored' a penalty kick for the CIV, given one of their players a yellow card for nothing and counted the 2nd goal for the Netherlands which was an offside (As far as I believe).

Edit: (For comments, had to go at those last lines)

Man.. The 2 first goals in the match were both awesome.. Really nice! Seems like a well game through the first half. Good job to both teams ;)

The second wasn't offside. Their leftback (? or was it another?) made it possible for Van the Man to score because he made the difference between on and offside.

Anyways... What an unbelievable bunch of bull from the Dutch defense. Come on, how friggin' poor! If they continue to play this way Holland will lose. Very unsatisfied with the defense. Offense however does a quite a good game. Perhaps too many long balls are made though.

If there is any team I'd like to see win the world cup besides my own country, it will be without a doubt ARGENTINA!! Awesome team. WOW!!!!

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Very Dutch.

[6 - 0.]

I know

Dutch, Cote d'Ivoire isn't going down without a fight. Getting lucky with Piercy (sp?) saving that goal line.

[Big_John]

dutch were thuroughly outplayed. côte d'ivoire got very unlucky not only in this game, but being put in this group.

ref was pretty bad, but he probably didn't change the outcome that much. if the côte d'ivoire had a better goalie, they'd have won this game.

2010 WC in south africa.. will be interesting to watch how côte d'ivoire performs there.

[[DnC]]

'Robin Van Persie' AoM.

Netherlands did not win deservedly despite one great freekick and a nicely finished goal by Van the Man.
Cote d'Ivoire deserved a draw. Hell I predicted it would be 2-2 and it would have almost been that.

It's really, really too bad Cote d'Ivoire cannot go through. Nice team. Hope they get more luck next time and don't land in another killergroup.

I'm glad however, but still feel a little bad about how they won. I wish they could have played more dominately. At least they have a chance now to grow in the tournament and really am hoping the defense gets their act together, far too many mistakes. Bad covering, passive defense which gives their opponents to much room. Second half they improved though, but it still needs to be better if they want to win the World Cup.

Van Persie is really showing his worth, what a guy!

Also no more friggin' Heitinga, Boulahrouz all the way!

[Taurus]

Argentina were absouloutly awesome, FIFA should take a good look at their rankings, 9th??? .

I felt sorry for Ivory Coast though I think they deserved at least another goal they played very well, very unlucky.

[x-dANGEr]

Yes.. Unlucky 'cote d'ivoire'.. I think they also outplayed Argentina in their game with it.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Ivory Coast were really unlucky, they played very well and deserved at least a draw, I felt. It was a good match in general, although the second half was a little less exciting than the first.

Props have to go to Van Persie, he was everywhere!

[DukeofSerbia]

Good there was no match between Serbia and Poland... our anthems have the same melody for some reason, jeez this would be weird...

Yes, it true. That's why everybody hate former anthem "Hey Slavs". That's anthem of communist's Yugoslavia and Serbia has anthem.

[DukeofSerbia]

Argentina – Serbia and Montenegro 6 – 0

Argentina wasn’t better team. Argentina was DRASTICLY better team.

Roberto Rossetti is the worst referee so far in the World Cup without any doubts. He was referee in game Iran – Mexico where he judged bad and now he was much worse! I watched game (ARG – SCG) on Croatian state television (HRT 2) and co speaker was former Croatian national couch Ćiro Blažević. He said for Rossetti that he is a hoof at least 8 times in second half and added: “He is referee in World Cup only because he is Italian. He is total anti talent!” For Serbian defender he said: “Four balks”. I agree with him 100%.
Serbian defense without Nemanja Vidić is pathetic, weak and disorganized. In midfield there is no player who can well pass to strikers. We don’t have player who can shoot well free kicks or corners. Pathetic!

P.S.
When Crespo scored in first half there was no offside and Kežman didn’t deserved red card.

[DukeofSerbia]

Netherlands - Cote d'Ivoire 2 - 1

Cote d'Ivoire has poor goalkeeper (Tissue) and poor realization of chances. On other hand, Netherlands had a lot of luck and referee was on their side. Columbian referee Oscar Ruiz is even worse than Rossetti. Rossetti didn’t impacted on match Argentina – Serbia, but Ruiz’s decisions had huge impact on this game. At least two penalties he didn’t give to Cote d'Ivoire and, to be honest, one to Netherlands.

[DukeofSerbia]

On the back I have DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES IN DER WELT!

Deutschland hat gute Manschaft, aber sie sind nicht die beste.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit!

That is the motto of Germany, and the part of the anthem now sung. "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" is for right-wingers, and doesn't do Germany justice.

I'm making myself a Germany shirt right now. I will buy some replica jerseys later, but now I just got a white T-shirt, put the German flag on it, put DEUTSCHLAND on the front. On the back I have DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES IN DER WELT!


Clegane: what is a good chant for Germany other than that?

Try 'Deutschland, Deutschland, alles ist vorbei...alles ist vorbei....alles ist vorbei!'

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit!

That is the motto of Germany, and the part of the anthem now sung. "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" is for right-wingers, and doesn't do Germany justice.


Try 'Deutschland, Deutschland, alles ist vorbei...alles ist vorbei....alles ist vorbei!'

Well you people have to tell me what they mean!

HAHAHA! All of Mexico is crying. Tremendous effort put forewards by Angola. Nice tie (might as well be a loss). All we can hope for is that Angola will beat Iran and some how advance instead of Mexico.

And BTW, Serbia is a good team and didn't deserve a 6-0 loss (of course they did play pretty bad, but they're worth more). And Duke of Serbia, Germany does have the best manpower, but they are the best.

[InsaneApache]

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt.

To my untrained English ear this as always sounded like..

Deutschland, Deutschland ünter alles, ünter alles in der Welt.

Now. Isn't that better?

[Soulforged]

Looking forward to seeing the Argentina Holland match now. I think some people
might just be looking for a little revenge for that day in Marseille.

Oh yes.... I'll have to disagree with Favius here, I certainly expected this match since I suffered that match in 1998. It will be hard though, Serbia wasn't and easy team but an error in the defense at the start and morale goes down quickly, if the same happens to Holland then we'll see...

[Dutch_guy]

Well, what can I say ? I'm happy we made it to the next round.

Had we not won this match, then we would have had to get a draw against Argentina - or a win. Neither is very likely judging by our current defence which is horrible

We outplayed IC the first 40 minutes, scored twice and generally kept them on their half - of course not taking into account their goal, which was a great one.
The second half, well I don't know what van Basten told the team, but they started playing way to defensive, and gave away far to much room. The correct way to have played was to continue like we did in the first half, and score another early goal, thereby making it an almost impossible task for the IC team to win the match.

However we didn't and gave a way to much room on the midfield, giving IC a lot of chances which weren't at all necessary had we played a more attacking game.

All in all, because our team played a bit too defensive in my opinion, we gave away chances which could have led to a draw. It's sad that IC had to lose this way, I'd rather have them rewarded for their play in yesterday's match, but I am glad we're through.

[scotchedpommes]

Oh yes.... I'll have to disagree with Favius here, I certainly expected this match since I suffered that match in 1998. It will be hard though, Serbia wasn't and easy team but an error in the defense at the start and morale goes down quickly, if the same happens to Holland then we'll see...

And how I cheered then. I'm confident the Dutch will fight. [There is a good
chance that they will crash and burn now that I've said that. The only underdog
to put up a successful fight and win was Australia - excuse for an overly dramatic
clip.]

[Ser Clegane]

Try 'Deutschland, Deutschland, alles ist vorbei...alles ist vorbei....alles ist vorbei!'

Deutschland, Deutschland ünter alles, ünter alles in der Welt.

[Quid]

Try 'Deutschland, Deutschland, alles ist vorbei...alles ist vorbei....alles ist vorbei!'

He he he...I like...a lot! On the other hand, I suppose since Germany is the host we will let them proceed one or two more rounds. They have been very good so far with all the stadia filled and a wonderful atmosphere.

Quid

[Rodion Romanovich]

Grr, a decent WC day today, but I'm eagerly awaiting tommorrow's games:
JPN-CRO 15:00 - kamikaze goals please
BRA-AUS 18:00 - go Australia/Hiddink!
FRA-KOR 21:00 - hopefully French players wake up. If not, hopefully Korea will score 2-0 or something



Oh and Angola holding Mexico to a tie yesterday was a pretty entertaining game to watch!