Round 16 and Beyond

[FaaipDeOiad]

Germany
France
Portugal
Italy

I don't mind any of the top three really. Portugal are usually pretty entertaining but haven't proved so this WC though, so I'll go with Germany, who have been good to watch throughout.

 

[Neil Pickup]

for me

Germany
France
Italy
Portugal

Same here. Remarkable how we're actually backing the Germans.

 

[aussie]

Discrediting France there mate, they were unbelievable good tonight everything clicked and they fully deserved the win. It was not like Brazil did not turn up, France did not allow them to play. As FaaipDeOiad said Makelele and co. were immense.

no i'm not descrediting France's performance, they did extremely well, i haven't mentioned it on CW but i have been saying to some of my friends that i think Brazil would not win the world cup because of weakness in defense, Cafu & Roberto Carlos are great players no doubt but they are clearly past it & make more mistakes that usual & all opposition teams needed were fast enough wingers and they would fly past them, then at the centre of defense Juan & Lucio for me weren't going to be good enough to stop sides with world class fowards.

To counter that the sided also need to have a good defense to combat Brazils fantastic four, throughout Brazil's campaign team the teams they played troubled their defense but didn't have the quality up front to put their chances away. France did all of that perfectly & to me if England had won today & not lost Owen & Rooney they could have done it too..

 

[steds]

Germany
Don't
Give
One about any of the others.

 

[TT Boy]

Same here. Remarkable how we're actually backing the Germans.

Aryan brothers should stick together…

 

[Scaly piscine]

I heard that, yeah. Certainly can't argue with it, it's not like scoring the only goal in a world cup quarter final against Brazil matters. I suppose the "big game" will be the next one he doesn't have an impact in. Against Portugal maybe.

Tells you something about France's forwards when they dominate a game like that and only score once, but of course this simple fact would be lost on a lot of people. A good international striker like Klose, Ronaldo etc. would have scored a hatful playing with Zidane tonight and actually bothering to stay onside and exploit the acres of space that were on offer behind Brazil's back line for most of the game.

 

[aussie]

really dont care who wins the world cup from here, but if asked to pick a side to win i'll go for the azzuri.

 

[grecian]

hee-hee again.

Edinburgh festivals coming up, you thinking of doing your stand-up there SP

 

[steds]

I don't know why everyone hates the Germans anyway. The world wars were a long time ago, and hardly the fault of this generation, so why do we hold it against them?

 

[wpdavid]

Same here. Remarkable how we're actually backing the Germans.

Well, some of you, anyway. I'm afraid I'm of the generation whose first WC ended with the 3-2 loss to WG after leading 2-0, so logic goes out the window here. As someone said the other say, maybe if a meeting could be arranged with Gerd Muller like a crime victim with their assailant maybe some sort of closure could occur, but that isn't likely. I know it's unreasonable, and I really like Klinnsman, but it's going to take something pretty substantial fo me to ever want the Germans to win.

All that being said, anyone claiming that they're above all the diving and feigning injury just haven't seen them play over the years.

 

[grecian]

I don't know why everyone hates the Germans anyway. The world wars were a long time ago, and hardly the fault of this generation, so why do we hold it against them?

Oh I dislike them for beating us on pens in two semis, whilst being the worse team in both, utterly depressing

Like you say the world wars were around before most of us were born.

 

[TT Boy]

I don't know why everyone hates the Germans anyway. The world wars were a long time ago, and hardly the fault of this generation, so why do we hold it against them?

I don't but moronic idiots seem to think the Germany people are all seemingly cut from the same Third Reich cloth.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Tells you something about France's forwards when they dominate a game like that and only score once, but of course this simple fact would be lost on a lot of people. A good international striker like Klose, Ronaldo etc. would have scored a hatful playing with Zidane tonight and actually bothering to stay onside and exploit the acres of space that were on offer behind Brazil's back line for most of the game.

The same Klose and Ronaldo who have missed plenty of easy chances this WC?

The fact is, Henry has had a good tournament so far. He's been one of the best performing strikers along with Klose, Torres, Crespo and so on. All those guys have got into good positions, play for teams that supplied them well, and finished well when they got the chance. However, every striker has missed chances, even easy ones, because it's just part of the game. Nobody finishes everything, but the good strikers enough of the chances they get to have as significant impact on their matches, and Henry has certainly done that.

 

[grecian]

Your missing the real point though, a top-class stikers main point is to get into the positions, its 95% of the attackers art, finishing is the extra bit. This is what scaly fails to appreciate, Henrys caught offside so much coz he makes so many runs, his movement is what makes him world-class. Also why Ronaldos lack of movement means hes finished as a world-class performer.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Anyway will be interesting to see if chief poseur can time his runs today instead of being caught offside needlessly over and over again.

Yep. Posing all the way to the semis.

Scored the only goal to knock out the World Champions, not bad for a flat-track bully I'd say.

 

[marc71178]

anyway, for the brief time after Beckham went off and Rooney was red carded, we played our best football of the tournament imo, and even when Rooney went off we were more dangerous going forward. Hargreaves was very good, as was surprising Crouch when he came on.

Rooney's dismissal was an absolute joke.

We'll never know how it would've turned out after that, but never in a month of Sunday's was it a red card.

 

[marc71178]

I'm not flame baiting here, but what was honest about what Rooney did? Or was that fair play?

It was absolutely nothing - foul possibly.

At the outside a yellow card for the hand on Ronaldo, but never a red.

 

[marc71178]

I'll break it down then. If you commit a foul, particularly a serious one that might have been worthy of a yellow card, and then you show clear dissent after the decision, and even resort to acting out your frustration with another foul on a nearby player, you run the risk of being red carded. There was nothing the least bit surpising about the call, as soon as he stood up after the foul and started acting like an idiot I figured he'd be gone.

If, as one might imagine, he also verbally abused nearby players and/or the referee, it'd be an absolute no-brainer to send him off.

Small point, but where was this so-called "serious foul"?

 

[Tom Halsey]

At the outside a yellow card for the hand on Ronaldo, but never a red.

Plus a yellow for abusing the ref, if what some are saying is true.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Small point, but where was this so-called "serious foul"?

That'd be the solid kick in the crotch.