Neowin's Official World Cup 2006 Thread

[Guol]

Aww man I was sitting in computers when Japan scored the first and I found out later in the day about the amazing Australian three goal come back, good for them! I'm definitely catching the rerun of the three goals in a row :yes: The Czechs deserve the win, imho they aren't second in the world but the U.S. sure as hell isn't 5th. 3-0 just shows you how stupid those rankings are. If anything, they would have won 3-2. And then Italy and Ghana. Ghana played well but Italy played better. That's basically it, 2-0 and it's over. Anyone remember Tino's crossbar? Damn that was close.

Hell yeah...I watched the first half of the game but got bored and went to sleep [at 12:30]...next morning I switched on the rest of the game and fast forwarded until the goals and I couldn't believe it!

Such an awesome comeback..

Fantastic work Australia :woot:

This is our first World Cup since 1974. We'd never even scored a goal in it before, now we've managed 3 in 10 minutes lol. I foresee many late night/early mornings ahead. Damn you timezones :rofl:

Totally :p ... that was some awesome play from Australia...and to think the 2 SUBSTITUTES scored the goals :laugh:

I am sorry, but Brazil has too many "stars" and Ronaldinho will not do his crazy stunts in this game. I compare Brazil to Real Madrid; they have all these world stars and they never get anywhere because they play individually and not collectively.

Yeh, true....having 'all the stars' does not necessarily mean they work well as a team..

Who knows, they may all have big egos and try to hog the ball as much as possible ;)

Looking forward to the Aus -v- Brazil match...Do us proud, Australia..

[Julius Caro]

The game was very disappointing. I kept waiting for Brazil to get off their arses and turn on the style, but it never happened, though Kaka's goal was great.

Credit to the Croats though, they played really well, too bad they couldn't score.

What to say about Ronaldo? He wa off in his own world, and aside from that one shot on goal,h barely touched the ball. Same with Adriano, poor performance. Hopefully we'll see Ronaldo back to his best soon enough. He always performs best at such events.

Exactly! The croats deserved to score!!

[leesmithg]

Ronaldo only performs when they need him to perform.

Go Italy! :)

I have watched every game so far, except the second half of Australian and South Korean games.

Italy in my opinion have played the best followed by the Czech's.

[wicker_man]

I think what you said resume everything pretty well.

If Brasil dont win by a score of 3 or more goals everyone will just throw up that they are playing crap.

What you dont see is that Brasil manage to be pretty stable, with the victory against Croatia, Brasil has a new record of 8 consecutive victories in world cups.

Imo, Brasil did a good match against a tough adversary.

Now Parreira can fix the team.

And you can be sure that we will win our 6th star this year. You'll see.

:D

Go BR !!!

See, you just refuse to admit your country didn't stack up as everyone expected it to do againt Croatia. Come on, I didn't see all this free-flow brazilian football at all except for a couple of sparks of brilliance (which Croatia had as well), I actually fell asleep at the end of the match I thought I would be watching with excitement because Brazil played. After all, taking into account their status, they played crap, just like other major teams, including France, England in the 2nd half, Holland, etc. As you have noted in one of your posts above, I myself have yet to see a World Cup class match (although I think Argentina vs Ivory Coast was brilliant, and way better than Brazil vs. Croatia), and that didn't happen when Brazil played as everyone has expected. It's not that they played just crap, they played crap compared to how they can play. Reason? I think Ronaldo is a mean fat producing machine, and R. Carlos and maybe Cafu should rest from football by now, Brazil has more young blood to offer. After all, you guys got lucky when Kaka scored (although it was a very good goal) just like England did, as well as Holland. Take my words as constructive critique, nothing more.

P.S. And I hope Brazil doesn't win this year, if I it a South American team, I hope it would be Argentina.

[Krpano]

^ Brasil had some great oportunities to make 2 more goals and unfortunately it didnt happen.

England presented a poor football just like Germany, France and few others including Brasil.

Poor compared with what they can really do.

The problem with you all is that if you dont see some perfect game from Brasil, ppl will start complaning.

The one against Croatia was the toughest one till now.

I never said Brasil was perfect but the 3 points is what it counts. Of course for you non-brazilians isnt interesting but for me it is.

Just like your match against Paraguay was good for you but not entertainement for me and others.

I agree, Argentina x I. Coast was one of the bests together with the one with Ecuador.

But still they had easy adversaries.

You cant tell me the standard in this world cup is very high, ive seen some really crap games.

Anyway, im sure the second round will bring much more exciting games with a bit more quality.

Till now im disappointed with this WC overall.

[Brodel]

Anyway, im sure the second round will bring much more exciting games with a bit more quality.

Till now im disappointed with this WC overall.

Yea, I agree. Once teams get thier first game under thier belt and they depend more on wins to stay in, the games will get even better.

[wicker_man]

^ Brasil had some great oportunities to make 2 more goals and unfortunately it didnt happen.

England presented a poor football just like Germany, France and few others including Brasil.

Poor compared with what they can really do.

The problem with you all is that if you dont see some perfect game from Brasil, ppl will start complaning.

The one against Croatia was the toughest one till now.

I never said Brasil was perfect but the 3 points is what it counts. Of course for you non-brazilians isnt interesting but for me it is.

Just like your match against Paraguay was good for you but not entertainement for me and others.

I agree, Argentina x I. Coast was one of the bests together with the one with Ecuador.

But still they had easy adversaries.

You cant tell me the standard in this world cup is very high, ive seen some really crap games.

Anyway, im sure the second round will bring much more exciting games with a bit more quality.

Till now im disappointed with this WC overall.

This is NOT a problem with everyone else or with me to that matter especially, so don't even go there. They just weren't up to scratch according to their status and expectations, that's all. And OF COURSE everyone expects Brazil to perform very well, just like they expect other 'big' teams like France, England, etc. to perform well, but so far I've seen only Argentina showing good football (from the 'big' teams, so to say).

And the fact that they had 2 more goal opportunities that they failed to convert into the result just proves that. Croatia had opportunities as well, but Brazil being Brazil should have converted their chances, which they didn't have many. So there's no need to keep finding problems with me or everyone else just because your country didn't perform as they were expected to, just be a man and admit it and hope the next time will be better - everyone has their good and bad games.

It looks like you are interested in football alot, but you think Brazil is simply the best as this is you home nation's team. They're not, and hopefully it would be proven this year. See, I live in England (although I am not English myself) and support England, which is natural, and I do think they played very bad compared to what kind of game they can produce, so you've got to have some critique towards yourself (which you don't seem to have really) sometimes as using backpedalling arguments won't do you good.

Anyways, enough abot Brazil and back to the topic: just a moderate start to this WC with only a handful of games being interesting - hopefully that would improve as the tournament goes on.

[Krpano]

So there's no need to keep finding problems with me or everyone else just because your country didn't perform as they were expected to, just be a man and admit it and hope the next time will be better - everyone has their good and bad games.

JUST BE A MAN!!!

C'mon mate, what are you talking about ?

Seems you are the one going away from the point of this thread.

Ppl started quoting me, when i said sanctified was right when he said that if Brasil dont do a perfect game everyone else will complain.

I never said they did a perfect game, just like your team and most of the others till now.

And when i read the news around the world saying that Brasil game was poor , imo is a away to hide behind their own poor presentation.

I think this is a good advantage, because now other teams will understimate us and we will have more freedom to play.

This is a world cup thread(not a BR one), lets not ruin it like some one tried some pages ago with the "soccer" "football" discussion.

Go Spain !!!

[Martyn]

There is so much passion in this thread, dont you just love what the World Cup does to you?

Spain v Ukraine is hopefully going to be a very good match (Y)

That will indeed be a very good match. Spain normally underachieve at the World Cup but they have a fantastic squad. Spain is my second team, mainly due to Liverpool's Rafaloution! To bad I wont be able to watch it live, as I am in an exam :(!

[the godfather]

2-0 to Espana!@!!!!

[Krpano]

Yeah Martyn, this is all the beauty of WC....:D

If Ukraine score one goal soon in the second half, the match will become quite good i believe.

edit.

omg, 3x0 and Ukraine has 1 player less....seems its over..

[mikebiacsi]

3-0, ouch. The games not over yet and Ukraine are already on the wrong end of a butt kicking as well as being a man down.

[KoL Veteran]

4-0 Ukraine is done unless they do something like Australia.

?Viva Espa?a!

[the godfather]

wat a goal by espana, beautifully set up, one of the best of the tournament so far!!!

[KoL Veteran]

Good game and the last goal was awesome.

[mz_]

Ukraine so far is the worst team on this cup....

And yes, the fourth goal was one of the best of the tournament. :D

[qdave]

what a slaughter for Ukraine!!!! They dont play like a team..just confused individuals. It seems haveing just one good player doesnt help one bit :p

anyway Espa?a is the most promising team so far...they played just beautifully. Perfect defence! I hope they will get lucky to go up to the finals:DD

btw red card was unfair.

[Subfusion]

OMG

4 - 0 ESPA?A ESPA?A! OLE OLE OLE!

Good game and the last goal was awesome.

Yeah, Fernando Torres really has some skill!

[BlueFighter]

Spain is the team that has impressed me the most so far.

Puyol played liked a champ and so did all Spains attackers!

Tomorrow will be a really good day

England - T&T

Sweden - Paraguay (:D)

Hopefully Sweden & England wins and we'll have a game for the group victory on tuesday!

I love these weeks :)

[leesmithg]

Spain scored! 1-0

A chav scored :|

Now 2-0

/edit... you can all take the urine out of me I deserve it as I have just realised it's highlights on digital.

DUH@me. :wacko:

Edited June 14, 2006 by leesmithg

[spa2k]

Spain scored! 1-0

A chav scored :|

Now 2-0

/edit... you can all take the urine out of me I deserve it as I have just realised it's highlights on digital.

DUH@me. :wacko:

typical bloody arsenal fan, an hour behind the rest of us!!!:)

The spain game was probably the best so far, an excellent performance (particularly from the liverpool lads) with a big win too. Looks like the form team so far are Spain then!

[djpnuemo]

WHAT A FINISH!!!!

[Brodel]

Nooooo!!!! I had an awesome bet on Saudi Arabia to win god dammit!

[KoL Veteran]

Wow what a game. :yes:

[leesmithg]

typical bloody arsenal fan, an hour behind the rest of us!!!:)

The spain game was probably the best so far, an excellent performance (particularly from the liverpool lads) with a big win too. Looks like the form team so far are Spain then!

yeah yeah yeah.

At least I support my local team. HA!

Was a good game, sending off was a joke, not a penalty or a red card.