World Cup

Considering North Korean players don't get around much they did a great job of holding Brazil to 2-1. As unpopular the country is the players deserve credit for a sturdy performance. They must have one of the best defences in the WC. Perhaps a player gets shot if they don't play well enough? Certainly England's goalkeeper would have ended up as fertiliser if he was playing for them!

The last time they were in the world cup it was England 1966 and they beat one of the favourites Italy 1-0 and were 3-0 up against Portugal as one point before losing!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/other_news/newsid_2018000/2018677.stm

It will be good fun if they manage to get through and play the USA or South Korea this time!
 
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perseus said:
Considering North Korean players don't get around much they did a great job of holding Brazil to 2-1. As unpopular the country is the players deserve credit for a sturdy performance. They must have one of the best defences in the WC. Perhaps a player gets shot if they don't play well enough? Certainly England's goalkeeper would have ended up as fertiliser if he was playing for them!

The last time they were in the world cup it was England 1966 and they beat one of the favourites Italy 1-0 and were 3-0 up against Portugal as one point before losing!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/other_news/newsid_2018000/2018677.stm

It will be good fun if they manage to get through and play the USA or South Korea this time!
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Very true.

Strangely enough, North Korea sometimes fields a surprising good football team. In 1966 they stunned everyone by making it into the Quarterfinals by knocking out Italy 1-0.
 
Yeah.
North Korea looked a much stronger side than during World Cup qualifying in fact. It's easy to hate the country but for 90 minutes it was hard to hate the team.

The refereeing in South Korea vs Greece was quite possibly worse than Greece itself. And if the guy from the winning side complains about the refereeing, you know it was probably a complete nightmare. Hopefully South Korea will do alright against Argentina because despite not scoring, Nigeria looked like a pretty decent side!

PS It's Denmark, not Norway. Norway didn't qualify.

South Africa down 1-0 to Uruguay. If it stays this way or if it gets worse, the hosts might be leaving the tournament early.

Swiss actually beat Spain. Wonder if the refereeing was any good for that one. World Cup 2006 was just absolutely ridiculous. The Swiss had 4 or 5 handballs in their penalty area, refs called none of them, not to mention the odd rugby tackle they made in the penalty area that went ignored.
 
South Africa beaten 3-0 wonder if that will silence those vuvuzela's!

No doubt Spains defeat was partly down to another sturdy defence (the Swiss have been notorious for this for a thousand years! LOL) and making the most of their one chance, perhaps sending the Spanish defence to sleep? In other words its partly the nature of football that the victory doesn't always go to the team which has the ball most or even plays best, there is a degree of luck in it as well. The Spanish have been called the chronic underachievers, stronger in local performances, a bit like England.
 
England and Algeria played a great game of football, goals or no goals.
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That explains it I was watching the wrong match!

If you were an Englishman we would dismiss this comment at taking the piss!

England striker Wayne Rooney shouts "nice to see your own fans booing" to a TV camera as he walks off the pitch after the 0-0 draw against Algeria

Algeria coach Rabah Saadane admitted he was surprised at how poorly England played in the 0-0 draw in Cape Town.

Try reading the headlines in the best selling newspaper

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/
 
All i can say is hats off to the Algerians, they were hungry and kept trying. Their ball control and passing were sharp, they fought for each and every ball and they didn't stop trying, what really let them down was the ability to finish. As for England, the less said the better, but there was little one touch football, no control, little accurate passing, no speed, energy or motivation. They were complacent, sat back for the first half and did nothing. They tried to apply pressure in the second half, but as always half arsed it and left it too late.

On this performance I will be glad to see England depart the World Cup. It is an event where we expect to see sterling football and England just haven't shown that they have the right to occupy 90 minutes on a council pitch, let alone the world stage!
 
perseus said:
That explains it I was watching the wrong match!

If you were an Englishman we would dismiss this comment at taking the piss!

England striker Wayne Rooney shouts "nice to see your own fans booing" to a TV camera as he walks off the pitch after the 0-0 draw against Algeria

Algeria coach Rabah Saadane admitted he was surprised at how poorly England played in the 0-0 draw in Cape Town.

Try reading the headlines in the best selling newspaper

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/
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It was certainly better football than the England US game. Algeria played England much better than the US did. I mean, had it not been for your own keeper's mistake, we would've lost that match. England certainly wasn't playing up to its full potential, but I think Steve McManaman said it best, "Individually, they're excellent, but when you put them all together, they're not that great."

English fans are like Brazilian fans. If they lose, they're furious, if they draw, they're disappointed and furious, and if they win, they're furious, disappointed, and happy all at the same time! England could win by ten goals, and you Brits wouldn't be happy about it. :p
 
A fan who managed to find his way into their dressing room said it all

David Beckham was directly in front of me. I noticed him in his grey suit. I wanted to make the most of this opportunity to tell him how frustrated us, his fans, are.
"I said to him 'David, we've spent a lot of money coming out here. That was a disgrace and what are you going to do about it?'
"He looked at me in surprise and stunned. He didn't know what to say.
"As he was about to say 'Who are you?' one of the Fifa officials came towards me and asked me that question. All the players were looking at each other and looking at myself.
"I said 'My name's Pavlos and I'm just looking for a toilet.'"
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The UK football league is the wealthiest in the world, and pay absurd amounts of money for the players. Whilst many of the players who play in the Premiership are foreign, all the English ones still need to compete for 1st team places and several of them are Captains in the top clubs.

How does this compare with the Algerian League, whilst Football or 'Soccer' isn't even played as a mainstream sport in the US. What would happen if the UK managed to draw with the US at Baseball or American Football? I guess some heads would start rolling.

No the National football team always takes second place to club football in England. Spain are another underachieving country with top class clubs.
 
Alrighty. . . Do not get me started on the officiating of the US-Slovenia game. I don't have the vocabulary adequate enough to describe how awful that was.
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I guess the referees should have their performances rated after the match and 'mistakes ' and 'good decisions' identified on Video.

Moreover, if players are deemed to have got away with an infringement or fallen over deliberately, they should get a yellow card or red card in retrospect which is passed on to the next game (or vice versa if appropriate).
 
Re the US - Slovenia game, one of the things that everyone seems to overlook is that the ref had blown the whistle for some infringement, prior to the ball crossing the goal line. The question is what did be blow for? Well there was certainly enough argy bargy going on in the box that he had plenty to choose from.

As for England, yes we do have high expectations. These guys collect a healthy salary and are paid to perform. I wonder how they would feel if they had to recompense their fans for dismal perfomances - that might spur them on to put some energy into a game where they have been selected to represent the nation, instead of blowing it off as a Sunday kick around.
 
Well I found this at least mildly funny...

New Zealand 1 Italy 1.

Seems more than the Euro has crashed.
 
Would have been funnier still if NZ had held onto their lead.

Well done to resist the tempation of not picking the ball up, kicking it over the bar or running over the line for a try! :smile:

Perhaps England have got confused instead?
 
Can you all believe whats happening to France?

1. The FFA announces a month before the Cup that Laurent Blanc will replace Domenech immediately after the cup is over. Now Domenech is a terrible coach who is hated by both the players, media and fans, but firing him BEFORE the cup certainly does marvels to demotivate him. He keenly displays a "I-don't-give-a-fu**" attitude from day one of the world cup.

2. Not surprisingly France ties and loses games they should have won.

3. Domenech chews out Anelka for not scoring in the past 5 games. Of course that begs the question of why Domenech has Thierry Henry is sitting on the bench.

4. Anelka tells Domenech "to go f*** himself you dirty SOB".

5. Anelka is booted off the team for this.

6. Yesterday the team boycotts practice (because of Anelka's expulsion) 2 days before a crucial must-win game against South Africa.

7. A fist-fight nearly erupts between one of the trainers and the Team Captain Patrice Evra -in full view of the media and fans.

Oh, its a exciting time to be a French football fan. Frankly I blame the FFF for not having fired Domenech in 2006 and again in 2008. Not only does the French squad hate their coach they hate each other even more.
 
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The penalty awarded to Italy was a joke.
The Italians have to cheat to manage a draw against New Zealand. I for one cannot understand why neutrals support the Azurri.
 
A Can of Man said:
The penalty awarded to Italy was a joke.
The Italians have to cheat to manage a draw against New Zealand. I for one cannot understand why neutrals support the Azurri.
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Well to be honest Soccer is slowly becoming the ball equivalent of WWE wrestling, more and more matches are being determined by piss poor acting, primadonna's and crappy refereeing than by ball skill which is why I think this world cup has been a bit of a non-event.
 
There is some dissent in the England camp but Capello has a tight reign on them. He didn't allow them to bring their WAGS like the other managers did

Problem is that European international footballers have become overpaid spoilt brats.

Regarding France, come on South Africa!
 
perseus said:
There is some dissent in the England camp but Capello has a tight reign on them. He didn't allow them to bring their WAGS like the other managers did

Problem is that European international footballers have become overpaid spoilt brats.

Regarding France, come on South Africa!
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Perseus. Looks like you got your wish. France 1, South Africa 2
Odd how Mexico can loose yet still advance. (Mexico 0, Uraguay 1).
Tomorrow is the big test for the US (0-2-0). If they can beat Algeria (0-1-1) they should advance. We will see.
 
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