World Cup 2010

[Ingmar]

It doesn't really matter whether Uruguay have Saurez or not, because if they play the way they played against Ghana, they will lose to the Oranje.

Yeah Trippy, that's the attitude -  you want the people who can beat your team to lose to other teams. That'll make the US look better. ;)

He's a Stanfurd fan, you can't expect his rooting decisions to be logical. 

[squirrel]

Don't personally care much about Ghana vs. Uruguay but I'd like the Ghanians to have won.

Love the fact the fact the Dutch won though - best team in the world that has never won a WC. Not saying they will either, Argentina/Germany will be fearsome and Spain is still ranked #1. But damn that was a tense last half and had me cheering for Orange.

EDIT: Oh and thanks for the Simmons link. Am in Belize with very unstable WiFi so am being choosy on what I bother to click as any click may be the last for the night. Great quotes in that though - "And again … what's wrong with MORE sports? Like you'd be furious if there was another USA-Canada gold-medal hockey game in 30 months?"

Actually, it made me want to go to war with Ghana. I wanted to invade them. I'm not even kidding. That's another great thing about the World Cup: Name another sport in which you genuinely want to invade other countries when you lose

heheh.

[Azazel]

Just watched the replay of the second game. Man, Ghana got fucking robbed.

[rk47]

A hero to his nation, but a cheater to the rest of the world. I can't blame him for it, celebrate Humanity imo. This world cup's special.

[Azazel]

I'm now forced to root strongly for the Dutch. 

[Sir T]

Kinda off topic but found this cool montage of players who scored the winning goals on world cups throughout the years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/gallery/2010/may/29/worldcup2010-worldcup2006?picture=363061636

[Amarr HM]

Kinda off topic but found this cool montage of players who scored the winning goals on world cups throughout the years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/gallery/2010/may/29/worldcup2010-worldcup2006?picture=363061636

That's pretty cool.


No wonder they've never won.

[ghost]

Germany versus Netherlands final? 

Go germania

[Abagadro]

Germany really exposing Maradona's "we don't need defenders" strategy.


EDIT: Now it's just ugly.

[Amarr HM]

Scwheinsteiger 

[ghost]

Germany has one of the best counterattacking offenses I've ever seen.  They have a stout D and a ton of speed, which makes them really fun to watch.  I am going to pull for them to win it just because I really like this style of play.  

I have this vision of Maradona right now, which comes right out of the movie Airplane:  "I picked a bad day to stop snorting coke off of transvestite hookers' asses........"

[rk47]

YEAH!  amazing! Best German Team of the Decade SURELY!

[NiX]

Har har har! My works pool just got effed right up. If Spain goes out it's over, someone will win based on second round results.

[Sir T]

Hey guys, lets make our manager a total egomaniac that pissed his talent away on coke and hookers. What could go wrong? 

I was with a friend and we passed a TV screen and I've never seen someone turn white so fast when she saw the score. 

[01101010]

Germany vs Spain will either be an incredible game to watch or too stupid to watch. I look forward to it.

[Engels]

I dunno, 20 minutes in, Spain's playing sleepy and Paraguay's defending nicely.

[Abagadro]

Crazyness!

[Stabs]

The BBC commentator just claimed 22.6 billion people watched the final 4 years ago. It's almost as if they make these numbers up!

Looks like a gritty job well done for Spain. As for Germany - wow, just wow. Looks like England only losing 4-1 (4-2 really) might have been a better result than we felt at the time.

[Amarr HM]

Agreed this German team has really been underestimated by most people including myself. I always felt Lahm left a lot of space behind him, but now his runs look a lot more intelligent, which is not what I would say about his opposite number for Spain, Ramos. Spain look a bit shaky at the back, what was Pique thinking there?? They looked a whole different prospect when Fabregas was introduced for Torres and Villa pushed forward. Will be interesting to see who performs on the night between Xavi and Schweinsteiger, footballing genius on display.

[Hoax]

Will be great to see Torres not starting after all these attempts to get him fit.

[HaemishM]

I feel bad for Ghana, but those guys looked like they'd never taken a PK in their life.

Yeah, that was a terrible set of PK's. I felt really bad for Ghana, as they looked to be punching well above their weight the whole tourney. But even without Essien, they showed they have a helluva lot to look forward to.

About those PK misses? The Spain game tonight shows that even the top level players can shit the bed on PK's. Of course, why Alonso's second take at the PK didn't lead to another penalty for taking out Fabregas, I don't know. That ref sucked monkey balls. I'm not sure Paraguay deserved their penalty, but they sure deserved it more than Villa for the penalty he won. And seriously, if the Villa one was an actual penalty, shouldn't the player who pulled him down have gotten a red card for being the last defender on a goal-scoring opportunity? Paraguay still played their asses off and should be quite proud of that game - other than the PK miss.

Germany... holy fuck, what do you say? An absolute masterpiece of domination over Argentina. Messi never got in the game, they didn't take the chances they got, and when Germany got ahead, it was over. That team is top to bottom even better than I thought they were, and I thought they were a lock for 2nd place. With the form Spain is showing, I'm not entirely sure they can beat Germany, but goddamn, it'll be a better game than the final.

Brazil fell the fuck apart after that first goal. I'm glad the scorekeepers changed their mind this morning and gave it to Sneidjer. Cesar should have cleared his own man out to get to that ball, but it was going in whether it got a touch or not. The second goal was well deserved, and the red card was one of those what the fuck are you thinking moments.Brazil's first goal and the shot Kaka made that got saved were the last bits of class that team showed. After that, the Dutch just grabbed hold of the game and deserved the win.

EDIT: Torres definitely shouldn't be starting for Spain. He's not anywhere near 100% fit, which you could tell from the first game he got on. It's not like Villa can't hold that single striker position himself, he did it all the time for Valencia. They've still got Fabregas, Silva, Pedro, Navas, Llorente or even Mata that could start if they needed another body. There are very few club or international teams in the world where any one of those players wouldn't start.

[squirrel]

I hate to be a team flopper - but Germany has shown up with the only team I can say I believe is a champion team after spending many hours watching these matches. Fucking amazing play by the germans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXjv3F5XipE

[Amarr HM]

And seriously, if the Villa one was an actual penalty, shouldn't the player who pulled him down have gotten a red card for being the last defender on a goalscoring opportunity?

If you forget about the official rule (Law 12 ugh) there's a good argument for referee discretion, if the foul is accidental then a penalty and a yellow card should be compensation enough. The odds of the player scoring from that position under pressure is about the equivalent of scoring a penalty ,although this WC has proved different, been some really bad penalties. Law 12 should be amended to include the word deliberate as it's t0o open to interpretation and you can't have players sent off for a mere clip of the heels or something innocuous that leads to a penalty.

I agree the retake for encroachment was silly though.

[Sir T]

Holland seem in control so far.

{edit} And just as I hit enter Holland makes it 1-0 against Uruguay 

[Sir T]

Ouch. Nasty foot to the face incident, but I have no problem calling that an accident.

[Stabs]

Yay! Football again! I was getting withdrawal symptoms.

Engrossing match, thought the foot in the face was a clever way to knock the Dutch out of their groove. Everyone has been talking up the Dutch before kick-off but it really looks like it could go either way. I'm predicting extra time, the Dutch won't want penalties though.

[Paelos]

The third goal from the Dutch is going to put them in the finals for sure, hopefully versus Germany.

Holland v. Spain would be a huge who cares for me. I want the David and Goliath matchup. Also, REMATCH!

[rk47]

Almost had a heartattack back there 
Dutchmen need to learn how to finish things off. So goddamn close.

[Sir T]

I honestly thought Uruguay were actually gonna equalize in those last 2 minutes. The talk about hanging on my your fingertips

[rk47]

They used up their luck. Seriously. Fucking hell. They avoided a last EXTRA TIME GOAL with HANDBALL. And Ghana PK taker MISSED, for Uruguay to win the shootout. How lucky can you get? They had their fun. GO HOME! 

[ghost]

It was a good match.  The Dutch will make for a better match versus either Spain or Germany, and that's all I care about right now.

Edit:  the Dutch team reminds me of what it would be like if Eminem fielded a team made out of nothing but his clones. 

[NowhereMan]

Plus the Germans will go fucking nuts over a Germany v. Holland final

[Righ]

That's what most of the Dutch fans I know want. Me, I want Spain in the final.

[Righ]

This got a giggle out of me:

[Abagadro]

Classic posess/build v. counter match-up so far.  I don't think there was a foul other than offsides for this first 26 minutes (probably 1 or 2 could have been called but pretty clean playing all around).  Puyol should have buried that sweet Iniesta cross.