Official Football Thread

I do not want to see Italy go out, personally, but if they do, they do. Slovakia will deserve it.

But as I type, they are 2-0 down. Just heard some trivia, never in the history of the World Cup had the previous tournaments finalist both gone at the first round.
 
Albie said:
But as I type, they are 2-0 down. Just heard some trivia, never in the history of the World Cup had the previous tournaments finalist both gone at the first round.
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And it will be only the fourth time that the defending champions go out as well. Actually Italy were also the first to accomplish that, in 1950.
 
Howard Webb is not as keen with the red as some other refs in this World Cup. Mucha could easily have been sent off there. Still, I think a yellow is just, since the Italian is nearly assaulting him while he's laying in the back of the net. I thought it was a yellow for the Italian first and I think the goalkeeper was just defending himself.

Plus, the Italian exaggerated the "punch" a lot. If you're hit on the nose and there isn't even a drop of blood, it is really nothing to roll around for.

And a very, very marginal offside there ... what a game!

3-1! Game, set, match!
 
FIFA shows 3:2 for Slovakia.  I have no flash player to find out.  Can anyone update the full standings for us impatient ones at work?  :D
Will-I-Am said:
...and ?? You are Croatian anyway  :P
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Remember I said at the beginning, even though I expect Italy to make it to the next stage, I'm still unhappy about last WC.  Besides I don't like their style of play.
 
What a great half of football. Enough drama for everyone! And here I was originally planning to skip the match because I was sure it would be a dull 1-0 to Italy ...
 
Genghis Khan said:
FIFA shows 3:2 for Slovakia.  I have no flash player to find out.  Can anyone update the full standings for us impatient ones at work?  :D
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I'm sure you know now that Italy finished bottom, Paraguay won the group and Slovakia second.

Eddies Wingman said:
And a very, very marginal offside there ... what a game!
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As well as Skrtel's goal line clearance (was it in?). Tough calls by the linesman on both occasions - but got them just right, I think.
 
Albie said:
As well as Skrtel's goal line clearance (was it in?). Tough calls by the linesman on both occasions - but got them just right, I think.
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There was at least no TV angles that could confirm it was in. From the best ones, it looks like the linesman was right. The offside, a little more dubious, but he shouldn't be crucified for that either. It was such a close call.

This doesn't look good for Denmark. They have produced a few decent chances, but they are defending like a junior side. 2-0 to Japan, goalkeeper Sørensen should really have kept the first one out. The second was a rarity for this World Cup - a free kick that was curled over the wall and directly into the net. A little beauty.

Denmark defended flawlessly for 45 minutes against Netherlands. Since then their defense has been on holiday.

Hope for Denmark with ten minutes left. Jon Dahl Tomasson gets one back! Has a penalty saved, scores on the rebound and pulls a thigh muscle in the process ...
 
Albie said:
I do not want to see Italy go out, personally,
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I do. Back to the theatre again, lousy bunch of actors!  :ok:

Holland didn't play that great, especially the defense was messy this time, and the goalkeeper as well.
And right now we have 6 players with yellow cards, which is not good.  :mad:

But I loved that winning goal! Did you guys notice that awesome pass by Sneijder?

Japan was almighty, really a strong collective with their super striker, Honda. They scored twice with a direct freekick. So it is possible to do this with this cursed ball!
 
Forostar said:
Japan was almighty, really a strong collective with their super striker, Honda. They scored twice with a direct freekick. So it is possible to do this with this cursed ball!
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That's an exaggeration. Japan gave away lots of space in defense, especially in the first half - but just like against Cameroon, Denmark failed to take advantage of it. They had some really good chances, albeit Japan had more of them.

Also the first free kick was a blooper from Thomas Sørensen. I mean, it passed between his hands! The second one, on the other hand, was class.

Still, I don't think Japan were that good. They were good, yes, and surely better than Denmark, but I hold Paraguay as favourites in the round of 16.
 
Japan were good but were hardly tested at the back by the woeful Bendtner and Tomasson. Exciting match to watch, a few good goals, and one of the worst penalties.
 
In the history of the World Cup New Zealand is only the 3rd country that did not survive the group fase with three draws:

1982: Cameroon
Peru - Cameroon: 0 - 0
Poland - Cameroon: 0 - 0
Italy - Cameroon: 1 - 1

1998: Belgium
Netherlands - Belgium: 0 - 0
Belgium - Mexico: 2 - 2
Belgium - South Korea: 1 - 1

2010: New Zealand
New Zealand - Slovakia: 1 - 1
Italy - New Zealand: 1 - 1
Paraguay - New Zealand: 0 - 0
 
Albie said:
I'm sure you know now that Italy finished bottom, Paraguay won the group and Slovakia second.
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The reason I asked for a quick recap is that in a rush to get back to work I misread Winger's post, and thought that Italy actually had a chance to advance.  As a result, I questioned my memory of the standings.  Anyway, thanks.
Eddies Wingman said:
Still, I don't think Japan were that good. They were good, yes, and surely better than Denmark, but I hold Paraguay as favourites in the round of 16.
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Maybe.  Paraguay also scored less than Japan and couldn't do so against New Zealand.  I did not watch any of the games today, but the highlights do not show any impressive attack by Paraguay players.  Maybe the Kiwis were just putting up a wall of defense.
Albie said:
As well as Skrtel's goal line clearance (was it in?). Tough calls by the linesman on both occasions - but got them just right, I think.
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Eddies Wingman said:
There was at least no TV angles that could confirm it was in. From the best ones, it looks like the linesman was right. The offside, a little more dubious, but he shouldn't be crucified for that either. It was such a close call.
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To clarify, I only saw the highlights.  Both of you think that Skrtel's goal line clearance call was correct (no goal).  But Wingman thinks the offside should not have been called (which would have resulted in an allowed goal).  Sounds like controversy.  I wonder what Italian fans will think of this.
 
Mind you, I said dubious, not outright wrong. From the pictures I saw, I would probably not have called it if I were the linesman. So despite I wouldn't have him burnt at the stake for this, I can understand if the Italians are pissed. Still, they were piss poor and deserved to go out.

Genghis Khan said:
Maybe.  Paraguay also scored less than Japan and couldn't do so against New Zealand.  I did not watch any of the games today, but the highlights do not show any impressive attack by Paraguay players.  Maybe the Kiwis were just putting up a wall of defense.
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I agree that Paraguay haven't been that impressive, attacking-wise. But they've been solid in defense and they have shown some good moments of attacking football, both against Italy and Slovakia. Still, it's their defensive quality that I think Japan will have trouble with. They did score 3 against Denmark, but remember one was a goalkeeping mistake and the third came when Denmark were throwing everything into attack - and the Danes were also ten men at that time.  I stand by my prediction on Paraguay to win - my tip is 1-0.
 
Believe me, my friends, I don't think that here in Italy there's a single fan that is pissed off about those episodes, instead they're all against the coach, attacking him because of the "wrong" players that he brought in South Africa. Personally, I think that, taking into account the situation of our national championship, he couldn't do any better. And what disappoints me is the total lack of gratitude for what he did four years ago. But, you know, sometimes memory is short...
 
I haven't really followed Italy's national team between these last two World Cups. But I do have an impression that the team is in the progress of a generation change now? I mean, quite few of the players in this year's squad were part of the 2006 champion team. I know some are injured, of course (like Totti). But still, I was never expecting this Italian team to go all the way. I saw this as a quarter-final team, not more. What were the expections like in Italy?

And of course, wanting to lynch Lippi now, considering the very same man led them to the title four years ago, is shameless. Memory is indeed short.
 
I'm in favour for most Latin American (including Spain) & less European teams as possible. Ideally, Brazil & Spain will top today.
Germany -England is a perfect match : Only one of those two will go on  :) and I really hope it's gonna be England, this time.
Paul Gascoigne is the reason to once love English team (1990 -2002) and the starting point to dislike German team (1990 -now).

ABandOn said:
Believe me, my friends, I don't think that here in Italy there's a single fan that is pissed off about those episodes, instead they're all against the coach, attacking him because of the "wrong" players that he brought in South Africa. Personally, I think that, taking into account the situation of our national championship, he couldn't do any better. And what disappoints me is the total lack of gratitude for what he did four years ago. But, you know, sometimes memory is short...
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Exactly. The same one could say for France's Domenech until 2008...
Though there are many people in France that support that the real coach of 2006 France was Zidane, not him.
 
Any one fancy answering this? The oldest World Cup debutante made his debut in this World Cup. Who is he?


Germany v England is a tough call, I think, but it is about time we beat the Germans in a World Cup finals match as we have failed to do so on the last three occasions:

Mexico '70 Quarter Final: England 2-3 W. Germany (and England lead 2-0).
Spain '82 Second Round: England 0-0 W. Germany (when the second round consisted of four groups of three).
Italia '90 Semi-Final: England 1-1 W. Germany (lost out on penalties).

However, we can take heart in the fact that two of the last three meetings in a competitive match have seen England win:

Holland/Belgium 2000 first round: England 1-0 Germany.
World Cup qualifier 2000 Wembley: England 0-1 Germany (only a few months after the above match).
World Cup qualifier 2001 Munich: Germany 1-5 England.
 
Albie said:
Any one fancy answering this? The oldest World Cup debutante made his debut in this World Cup. Who is he?
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I know this one, so I'll let others take a guess or work it out.

Italy: is there a reason Camaronesi didn't play in the last match? He seemed their best player in the first two matches and I think he only started one of those too. I think their main problem this year though was that they missed the spirit of Materazzi, who was definitely the star of the last tournament. :bigsmile:
 
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