World Cup 2010

[01101010]

I usually root for the underdog but it was pretty impossible after the ridiculous sending off.  With Brazil already through the suspension shouldn't affect them much though.

Also, the French team seems to have exploded today.

I am suddenly in favor of France to win it all... 

[sigil]

Looks like the English are jealous of the imploding

[Hoax]

1. I'm really not sure what the convo about the hand ball was, either he was saying "I suspect you used your hand the second time but I didn't see it" or honestly I have no idea.

2. Kaka deserved to be sent off. You have to look at the entire sequence of events in that final 10 minutes. Kaka was at the middle of all of that. He was carded, a Ivorian was carded going after him, he went after someone else (he clearly intends to body check the guy) Kaka was not heeding the earlier warning and the game was becoming dangerously out of control there had been a slew of bad dangerous plays and someone needed to be sent off to get the teams to calm the fuck down and return to actually playing soccer. That is good reffing. Kaka was being a bitch and in the wrong place at the wrong time did something childish and stupid for the second time.

3. Overall the reffing in this cup has been great. Germany v Serbia is the only completely fucking flabbergasting game I've seen besides that its been a few calls people didn't like. The guy who did USA v Slovenia didn't control the nonsense in the box and was unlucky that the USA scored when he had already decided to blow his whistle on that free kick no matter what. I felt his control of the game was poor but he didn't let any dangerous shit go on or force the game to be dictated by his whims if anything he was far too lenient in both the wrestling in the box and all the hands they were putting on Jozy in the first half.

If somebody is going to say "but what about Italy's pk omg" don't bother. You don't tug a jersey for that long in the box ever. If you do you deserve the pk you've just given away, same goes for people sticking their goddamn arms out (Australia, Vidic for Serbia etc) in the box.

I'm very disappointed in FIFA since they know that the play in the box on freekicks is a mess currently but clearly they haven't given the refs a proper set of guidelines on what do about it and I bet we wont have that until after this WC is over. But to say this is some terribly officiated cup so far is just plain not true.

[Paelos]

Overall the reffing in this cup has been great. Germany v Serbia is the only completely fucking flabbergasting game I've seen besides that its been a few calls people didn't like. The guy who did USA v Slovenia didn't control the nonsense in the box and was unlucky that the USA scored when he had already decided to blow his whistle on that free kick no matter what.

You are trying to justify a make up call.

I mean really, that's ridiculous. Get real, that play was so horrendous they suspended the damn ref because they couldn't let it dominate the group round.

[Abagadro]

I guess the rule is thus: "slightly tug on an Italian's shirt, PK for Italy; bear hug an American, no goal for America"

[Falconeer]

They denied a penalty of Lucio on Drogba (although now that I think of it, it was probably out of the box, but no call anyway) for more significant shirt holding than the New Zealand player on the Italian comedian. I am pretty sure the ref gave them the penalty to even-out the wrong call on NZ goal (it was offside).

[Azazel]

I mean really, that's ridiculous. Get real, that play was so horrendous they suspended the damn ref because they couldn't let it dominate the group round.

I haven't been able to find anything that suggests this is true.


I just can't ever support the Italian diving team in World Cups anymore. It's just too much.

[Chimpy]

I just really wish that Wood's shot would have curved the other direction and gone in instead of wide by less than a foot. Then the Italians and their diving BS would have been for naught.

The reason people are upset about the Italy PK is not that it was not a foul at all, but every other game in this Cup has had much more blatant jersey pulling and holding in the box and not had PKs called on them. There needs to be some consistency.

[Sir T]

Secret Italian training vid 

[Der Helm]

Secret Italian training vid 

Looks legit to me.

[ghost]

Overall the reffing in this cup has been great.

 

[rk47]

5-0 . Geez, this tourney's weird.

[Stabs]

Heroic free champions of capitalism, Portugal, beat Stalinist masters of oppression North Korea 7-0 in a clear display of cultural supremacy! Huzzah! Long live consumerism, the Euro and national debt!

[Azazel]

Secret Italian training vid 

Heh. I'm pretty sure I first saw that in the last cup right after they played Australia. Wouldn't surprise me if it's been doing the rounds for a lot longer than that.

Great match. Watching Portugal was just enjoyable, especially without any cards or other bullshit to mar the experience. They're right up there with Argentina now in teams I just enjoyed watching.

[WayAbvPar]

That goal was not offsides (the only one to touch it was the defender) and the penalty was a typical Italian flop job, but nice result.

This. Fucking Di Rossi is such a goddamned douchebag. I hope him and the rest of the Italian Dive Team go home with France after the group stage.

[Falconeer]

Sadly, the goal WAS offside, there's clearly a soft touch by Reid, but the dive is pathetic. I hate the Italian team, reading the papers today was so much fun. I'd pay for them to be kicked out by Slovakia.

[murdoc]

Sadly, the goal WAS offside, there's clearly a soft touch by Reid...

The way the CBC announcers explained it here was that it wasn't offside because the Italian defender touched the ball before Reid tapped in it. I'm a soccer fan every four years, so I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but the offside wasn't called because Reid wasn't affecting the play, the Italian defender (two of them in fact) touched the ball before he did, so it negated the offside...

A handball *could* have also been called on the Italian defender before Reid got it anyways.

[HaemishM]

Long weekend of football.

Germany/Serbia: This was a good game, totally fucked to hell and back by a ridiculous ref. Yes, Klose made some stupid tackles, but the first most certainly was not a red card. That ref was looking to give away cards, and he did, and it influenced the game. Of course, if Podolski could hit a goddamn penalty kick, Germany at least gets a point so I can't exactly say they were robbed. That guy on the wing for Serbia, Krasic, he was fucking amazing. He totally made Badstuber his bitch. Also, new Liverpool signing Jovanovic looked good as well.

USA/Slovenia: Fuck no, the USA was robbed robbed fucking ROBBED. Yes, they let in two goals by not pressing the ball. Their first half was mostly terrible, no rhythm, no passing skill. Every pass seemed like the ball had a weight attached to it. But, that second half was awesome. Donovan's first goal was fantastic (please let him go back to the EPL, MLS - I'd prefer in a Liverpool jersey). Jozy had a right to be pissed off by the end. He might as well have been wearing a Slovenian jersey for as much as those bastards were hanging on to him in the box. Yes, there's always tugging, pushing, shoving and pulling in the box. This was fucking RIDICULOUS. The disallowed third goal was a fucking disgrace to the game. The ref continually called phantom fouls on the US in the opposition box, fouls which were not called when Slovenia was in the US box.

England/Algeria: It was late in the night when I started watching this on Tivo, and I cannot claim to have been awake for more than 5 minutes consecutively through the whole match. Goddamn, it was boring. What I did see is that Algeria is a better side than their points indicate - Zanni on the wing is especially good. The England team is absolutely clueless. Their whole formation is wrong. If you insist on having a guy in there to head the ball as the withdrawn striker, go with Crouch because Heskey is a fucking joke. But really, if they are going to insist on having Lampard in there with Gerrard, put Rooney up front as the lone striker (he's been getting service like he's a long striker anyway), put Gerrard and Lampard behind, use Cole/Lennon/Wright-Phillips/Milner on the wings and put either Barry or Carrick as the holding midfielder. Of course, their leaky defense is about to get leakier, with Carragher missing the 3rd game with 2 yellows, King not being well. I think Michael Dawson is their last option.  

Brazil/Ivory Coast: You know what? Dunga is a douchebag. He needs to sit down and stop bitching at every foul that comes up. That said, the Ivory Coast team needs to stop playing like fucking bitch ass thugs. It's like 11 Drogba's on the field. That red card to Kaka was retarded, because he didn't really do much of anything and the refs bought the bullshit playacting. I'll be glad to see Ivory Coast go if only so that bullshit gets punished by results.

Italy/New Zealand: My wife is Italian and roots for them, but I can't. That bunch of whining, diving pussfaces piss me off. I'll be overjoyed if they don't make it out of the group stages. New Zealand played like motherfuckers and Italy played like shit. They have limped through both of their games and I really hope they go home.

France:  

[rk47]

ivory's gone with the 7-0 drubbing by portugal, the goal difference is just insane. Unless Portugal loses by 3-0 and Ivory trashes North Korea by 7-0 ....Not gonna happen.

[Falconeer]

"I don't care who win as long as it's not Italy".

Sucks that there's no subtitled version, but that's pretty much what the corus says. I got a rough translation from a friend and I agree with 99% of the lyrics.


Automated translation and German lyrics under the spoiler tag:

[ghost]

I'm just hoping that Brazil and Portugal come out to play real football when they meet.  That could be a great match, if they go at it hard.

[Cyrrex]

I'm just hoping that Brazil and Portugal come out to play real football when they meet.  That could be a great match, if they go at it hard.

It may be entertaining for the exact opposite reason:  They likely won't go too hard, because they're both through.  That might open up the field pretty nicely, however.

[Hoax]

I don't think Portugal has much for Brazil anyways, it would be a great game against old Brazil but Dunga's Brazil is so much more disciplined and tight at the back that I suspect nothing at all will happen for most of the first half and then at some point Brazil being Brazil will unlock them with some creativity out of nowhere and then the game will return to being mostly blunted attacks and lots of possession going nowhere. If you go into that one hoping for a shoot out your going to be disappointed.

Spain coming up, I need to look up the over/under on goals.

[Amarr HM]

I'm currently in Portugal & the locals are ecstatic, but nothing compared to the Brazilian community over here who went absolutely nuts outside our hotel last night, street was closed for three hours.  Shame we're not going to be here for the final as they are the definite favourites.

In other news Cappello is 100% to blame for Englands shitness, I think the best formation he has is with Joe Cole or Gerrard in the hole and Rooney the lone Striker cause Heskey is appalling and only worth ten minutes at the end when all other options have been exhausted, starting Defoe would be the less sensible option. I keep thinking he would have been wise to gamble on one of the form players like Zamora or Parker, but he seems to prefer experience over form. I mean they hired Capello for x million and he's basically playing the same formation as the last guy.

EDIT: The table I was looking at earlier had a mistake on it.

[El Gallo]

The disallowed goal was BS, but I have trouble hating on the referee when our boy Dempsey slammed his elbow into a Slovenian's face and then lied to the referee to get out of any penalty by indicating that it had been head-on-head contact.  We probably should've played with 10 men for 88 minutes, which is probably worth at least a goal.

[HaemishM]

Dempsey is the luckiest motherfucker on the planet.

[Der Helm]

Good bye France. 

[Paelos]

Good bye France. 

I think South Africa has to run up the score 5-0 on the French while the Mexicans have to lose to Uruguay to have a remote shot.

Also, how hilarious would it be if France didn't score a goal in this entire group round before getting shamed back home.

[Azazel]

Good to see France doing so well at this point. Entertaining game between Uruguay and Mexico as well. I'm mostly watching that one and just flipping across now and then to the FRA/RSA game.

I really want to watch Argentina v Greece later tonight. But 4-4:30am kick off. 

[Der Helm]

South Africa needs 2 more goals if my (shaky) math is right.

[Paelos]

2-1, RSA needs a miracle. 

[Stabs]

Not a disaster for South African football. They punched above their weight in a horrible group. Finished on a win and beating France, even emo nerd rage I'm taking my ball home disastrous France is still a hell of a scalp for a small country.

As for the French - apparently the government is talking about a national inquiry. Do they still guillotine people over there?

[Cyrrex]

As for the French - apparently the government is talking about a national inquiry. Do they still guillotine people over there?

No, they probably just make you eat imported cheese or something.

But good on RSA, even if if this was a self-destructing France.

[Amarr HM]

Good bye France. 

Karma. Although I kinda respect that they stuck up for Anelka, wish Ireland did something similar with the Keane & the Saipan incident.

[ghost]

Uruguay is looking strong.