Official World Cup Thread

[LeftEyeNine]

I wonder whats wrong with Ronaldo these days. To me he just doesnt look match fit anymore. I remember back in the days when he was good, moving into space, picking the ball up and running at players, generally just getting involved with everything in attack. Now he just stands up front like the fat boy, who got told by his dad that hes coming off at half time.

He offers nothing!

Sitting on your arse for 2 years because of an injury that nearly threatened his football life to end devastated his fitness. He still has the ability but looks like a taller Maradona in his 40's -not a football in shape, rather like an american football ball. He definitely needs challenge and fan support in his football club carreer. I think stepping down a team in Primera Liga or move to Premiership will vitalize his last years, a happier end would it be that way.

[InsaneApache]

I wonder whats wrong with Ronaldo these days. To me he just doesnt look match fit anymore. I remember back in the days when he was good, moving into space, picking the ball up and running at players, generally just getting involved with everything in attack. Now he just stands up front like the fat boy, who got told by his dad that hes coming off at half time.

He offers nothing!

Mr. rotund, corpulent, voluminous, chubby Ronnie boy ate all the pies.

As for a move to the EPL, who would take him on in that shape? Even 'big' Sam would have to wire his jaws up. (but then he'd only strain melted butter through his teeth)

[x-dANGEr]

It's just the strategy of Brazil.. Leave the 5 cities to the enemy, so he conquers them and stuffs his troops in them, to keep them in order. With that, the enemy forces will be stretched quite thin, so you take them out with a unit superior to it's opposite by a little more men.. What do you know about coaching..

[Quid]

Am happy with the 0 - 0 of France and Switzerland. Could have won but at the same time we could have lost it in the last minute too. All is well. Most here were hoping for a draw anyway.

Poland - Germany is going to be interesting. Last chance for Poland and Germany under pressure finally facing real opposition. I am looking forward to their defense...

Quid

[naut]

Also looking forward to the Poland - Germany match, Although the Spain - Ukaine match could be a stunner!!!

IMO Czech Rep. have looked the most promising so far! Rosicky is AMAZING. I'm so glad Arsene Wenger bought him before the WC, saved lots of money doing that.

[LeftEyeNine]

x-dANGEr, boy, get your Croatia - Brazil highlight here !!!

Croatia - Brazil Rapidshare Link

[Dutch_guy]

Hoping Poland - Germany 'll be a good one !

Hope poland 'll be able to put up some kind of a fight, winning would surely make the group a whole lot more interesting - especially if Ecuador beats CRC !

As I only watched the first half of the Brazil - Croatia game, I have to say I'd overestimated Croatia, which isn't a good thing considering the fact that Brazil was probably playing at about 70 % of it's strength...

Luckily for them, they have players like Kaka who can turn the tide with one solo. Great shot by the way !

[scotchedpommes]

I would still maintain that Croatia played better than Brazil. Considering their
only previous meeting [last year] was a draw, it was reasonable to expect them
to get more from the game.

Today though, the Ukraine have been on the end of some poor refereeing
decisions - and I'm glad to see that Spain just had what would have been their
fourth goal effectively ignored.


We've seen that Germany are nothing special in terms of their defence, so I
hope Poland can exploit their weaknesses.

[Big_John]

ukraine never got off the bus. that was easily the worst performance of the WC so far. wow.

the red card PK was also the single worst call of the WC so far. that ref should be fined for that. not that it mattered.. spain was always going to win this one, since the ukraine seemingly fielded a bunch of goat herders instead of a football team.


yikes.

[Dutch_guy]

However that my be, the fourth spanish goal was excellent !

[Big_John]

speaking of excellent goals.. did you see the flying, twisting volley by jaziri?

tunisia is my sleeper pick.

edit: but the saudi's are looking pretty good.

edit2: so much for a sleeper pick.. saudis played a better game, though 2-2 is a fair result i think. very good game.. not as good as sweden/t&t but very entertaining i thought. great result for ukraine, interesting to see who gets second out of this group.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Wow! Injury time goal from Neuville in the Germany/Poland game! The Poles must be kicking themselves.

They should have won by a couple more though, missed a couple of great chances.

[scotchedpommes]

My hatred of the German national football team is now firmly cemented.

[cegorach]

Damn, the very last minute....

But honestly the Germans were unlucky to score so late. At least they were almost, almost, almost good enough to wear the bloody Husaria wings on their T-shirts, almost...

As usual not enough and far too late, still it is much better than 4 years ago.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

AHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa


THEY WON, THEY WON MY GERMANS WON!!!!!!

NEUVILLE WITH THE GOAL!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I CANT BELIEVE IT! I WAS SO MAD BEFORE!!!

I ran outside screaming with my flag. Some maid was outside about to get into the car. I stopped her, asked her for a hug, and hugged her.

I was watching the game with all my friends who wanted Poland to win (because they knew I was big time German fan).

ON TO THE CUP!!!

BALLACK IS BACK!!!

I'll admit Poland did well, but that goal was long overdue. Germany hit two cross bars in one try. Insane.

That's why I play the best sport in the world.

[scotchedpommes]

As usual not enough and far too late, still it is much better than 4 years ago.

At least there was a win then.

[cegorach]

Costarica shouldn't be a challenge... besides Polish football team is very good at winning when it doesn't matter ...

At least there will be less jokes about them after this clash.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES

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

[x-dANGEr]

x-dANGEr, boy, get your Croatia - Brazil highlight here !!!

Croatia - Brazil Rapidshare Link

First of all, thank you, you didn't have to have the trouble.

Though, am getting this message:

You have requested the file Croatia-Brazil_0-1.rar (5403 KB). This file has been downloaded 380 times already.
IMPORTANT: Download-accelerators are only supported with a PREMIUM-Account!

Your IP-address xx.xxx.xx.xx is already downloading a file. You have to wait until it is finished.
Premium-accounts can download many files at the same time. Get your own Premium-Account now. Instant download-access!
If you are not downloading anything, you are using a proxy-server or a shared IP-address. A Premium-account solves this problem as well.

And no, am not DL-ing anything, and am the only one who's gaining internet from that modem.. Any idea?

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Yay for Germany! Good game, Poles, really, twas a tough one. Had me on the edge of my bed (was watching it in my room) at times. Smashing work.

[LeftEyeNine]

x-dANGEr, this can only happen if you are using a shared connection. If you have a wireless LAN, check if anyone hacked into your connection and exploiting it. If it is an ordinary LAN, I don't think you would not notice some other cable plugged into your modedm to share your connection where you reside.

[Ser Clegane]

Wow - what a match against Poland. We watched it in a crowded sportsbar (fanatastic atmosphere) and the last 20 minutes really had averybody on edge.

Good fight by Poland - but in the end they were just too tired and the deccicive goal was more than deserved and overdue.

I wouldn't say that our team was "great" but they were clearly very enthusiastic and driven by the homefield advantage ... let's see how far this motivation will carry them...

[naut]

Germany will lose to Equador though. Spain was impressive, bad call in the box by the ref.

Edit: I meant Germany not Poland!

[Rodion Romanovich]

Germany vs Poland - one of the best games so far! I was personally hoping Klinsmann would make a substitution to get Odonkor in the field - a fast guy was exactly what was needed to break through the Polish defense. He got a bad start but got better and better for every offensive, eventually making the extremely accurate pass to the 1-0 goal

[spmetla]

Loved the Germany Poland game. Was rooting for the Germans all the way, so glad when they finally made a goal. Was a bit disappointed in the Poles though, they played a good defense but they rarely tried to move the game into the German half of the field.

[Fragony]

Poor Polish, of course germany was meant to win but geez

[Quid]

Germany will lose to Equador though. Spain was impressive, bad call in the box by the ref.

Red card was justified, in my opinion; those are the rules. It was, however, outseide the box and should not have been a penalty. Spain looked the strongest of all teams so far in the first round of play.

Good win for Germany (it really hurts to say that). Lucky in the end but well deserved. It shows that you needed a Swiss born player to score the decider, eh?

Quid

[naut]

No doubt about the red card. But, the majority foul I saw was commited outside the box.

[Ser Clegane]

My hatred of the German national football team is now firmly cemented.

What for? For winning when they were clearly the better team?

[[DnC]]

Red card was justified, in my opinion; those are the rules. It was, however, outseide the box and should not have been a penalty. Spain looked the strongest of all teams so far in the first round of play.

What? The ukrainian did nothing wrong. The spanish forward (Torres?) either fell because he misstepped/slipped or stepped on the ukrainian defenders boot (which is how it looked to me in the replay) which made him fall down. And the "foul" was made inside the penalty area
Or was a foul commited before the penalty box that I hadn't seen?

Incredibly poor flagging and reffing though, simply unbelievable.
So many offsides that weren't offsides! Argh!