Neowin's Official World Cup 2006 Thread

[Martyn]

Its simple, Martyn. I am not trying to be a hard head or an ass of some sort but everyone here that is defending England keeps making up pathetic excuses, e.g Ronaldo is a cheater (for what? Rooney stepping on the guys nuts?)

If everyone was like Krpano and fellow Brazilians, they would let it go and call it a good game.

I am over England losing! England did not deserve to win the World Cup for the way they have performed in Germany, even though in today's game they did match Portugal. We were always going to lose on penalties though.

Ronaldo is a cheater in many ways. Just watch the Premiership week in week out. Today he dived a lot, and he also contributed to Rooney's sending off, although I am not saying Rooney did nothing wrong.

I think what I have said is fair. For everyone saying I am being really bitter about England losing, just look at my massive post on the other page, were I actually praised Portugal and wished them good luck (Y).

[underscorebios]

I felt england played better AFTER the expulsion ;)...

Anyhoo france is next :]

[Krpano]

You know, what happened to BR proves that it wont worth a **** to have amazing players if you DONT have a good coach.

This applies not only for BR but to England and Argentina.

I would like to see Italy x Portugal in the final.

Italy because with all the problems they are facing actually, players still able to keep moving.

And Portugal because they play with honor and respect for their country and flag. (something that our multi millionaire players dont have)

[giga Veteran]

You know, what happened to BR proves that it wont worth a **** to have amazing players if you DONT have a good coach.

This applies not only for BR but to England and Argentina.

I would like to see Italy x Portugal in the final.

Italy because with all the problems they are facing actually, players still able to keep moving.

And Portugal because they play with honor and respect for their country and flag. (something that our multi millionaire players dont have)

Argentina played marvelously this world cup imo. One of the better teams to go out bitterly due to penalties. (never a good way to solve a match)

[the godfather]

and so continues the theory/trend that South Americans do not win in Europe :p

[L3thal Veteran]

Actually, there have been a few marvelous teams that played good. Ones that come to mind are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sweden, etc.

Like Scolari said last week, the teams that play "beautiful" are home and the teams that "don't" are still here. That comment is as true as the wind.

[gaurav]

Argentina played marvelously this world cup imo. One of the better teams to go out bitterly due to penalties. (never a good way to solve a match)

If only Messi had played. :cry:

[Kamael]

You know, what happened to BR proves that it wont worth a **** to have amazing players if you DONT have a good coach.

This applies not only for BR but to England and Argentina.

People here are not blaming the coach (actually he has quit and ppl is against that), and are very proud of the team. Brazil showed nothing during the WC (with the excuse of 'saving the best for the next stages'), Argentina at least showed good football most of the time, and we were defeated in penalties, not in game time...

I'm pretty sure ppl in Brazil surely want to hang their coach right now...

[giga Veteran]

Actually, there have been a few marvelous teams that played good. Ones that come to mind are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sweden, etc.

Like Scolari said last week, the teams that play "beautiful" are home and the teams that "don't" are still here. That comment is as true as the wind.

France played beautiful football today--you can't deny that.

[Bioshadow]

All I've gotta say is Ricardo is an amazing keeper, end of.

He made me cry for 2 times, geez, 2 years ago he defended a penalti without his gloves and scored the last penalti and today he defends 3 penalties, awesome, he's like a hero.

[Commodore Max]

Man, I find it laughable that whenever a team wins that the majority weren't rooting for, they are always categorized as divers and/or cheaters.

Took the words right out of my mouth ... :)

[kaffra]

Argentina played marvelously this world cup imo. One of the better teams to go out bitterly due to penalties. (never a good way to solve a match)

argentna did have a good WC, even in the match against germany. But they underestimated the germans and paid the price. i thought it was too early for them to take out riqeulme and play too defensively. Anyway their coach has resigned and the fight at the end was disgusting.

[Krpano]

^ exactly my point.

bad coaching.

Argentina played marvelously this world cup imo. One of the better teams to go out bitterly due to penalties. (never a good way to solve a match)

I agree.....but my point is that a single bad move from the coach is enough to destroy one team.

If Argentina lost is because Pekerman bad replacements at a bad moment.

He replaced Riquelme and Crespo too soon, about 30 mins before the final.

He tried to lock the midfield, and this forced Argentina to play 30 mins without a creator....So Argentina game was resumed to defense only. Actually they were lucky the germans didnt win during the normal game.

He made me cry for 2 times, geez, 2 years ago he defended a penalti without his gloves and scored the last penalti and today he defends 3 penalties, awesome, he's like a hero.

You know and it **** me off when i hear here from some portugueses that Scolari is an idiot because he didnt want to pick Vitor Baia.

Portugal should make one statue to Ricardo.

He saved you in the Euro and now again.

PS.

Im so frustated with BR...if i was in Brazil i would go to the airport to wait for Parreira and throw some eggs at him....lol

[L3thal Veteran]

France played beautiful football today--you can't deny that.

I don't consider their game today as "beautiful". They played very efficiently and maintained possession of the ball most of the game, causing Brazil to never get in rhythm.

[gaurav]

Not only did Brazil get bad coaching, but the players themselves were arrogant....they just didn't play right.

During Zidane's free kick, Roberto Carlos was just standing with his hands on his hips just waiting, instead of taking on Henry who ultimately scored the only goal.

[FlibbyFlobby]

I agree, Rooney let his team down.

Did I see a different game or something? Rooney had two players clearly fouling him by pulling an arm each and hacking away at his legs. When the one Portugeuse defender finally lost his balance and fell to the ground he pulled Rooney too, who put his foot in the only place he could to stay up right, which just happened to be the defenders crotch. It wasn't violent play, if anything it was a yellow card offence at best.

As for players pressuring the referee to give a card, that should be a bookable offence too in my opinion. Many of the teams are guilty of pressuring referees this competition and its not on at this level.

That said England still played the better game with 10 men, but as usual we suck at penalties and for that we deserved to lose. If the whole team had played with the vigor and passion that Owen Hargreaves put into the game perhaps the result would have been better.

I have one major gripe with the whole World Cup so far and that has to be the dire refereeing and the absolutely disgusting standard of professionalism from some of the teams (see above). Diving seems to have become the norm for the majority of the teams, and I think its a sad day when a world class player like Thierry Henry pretends hes hit in the face purely for self gain. I also think its sad the ease that players seem to go down in the box too.

That said I'm tipping Germany to go all the way. If anyone deserves to win for the standard of play and passion its them.

[blackspawn]

You know and it **** me off when i hear here from some portugueses that Scolari is an idiot because he didnt want to pick Vitor Baia.

Portugal should make one statue to Ricardo.

He saved you in the Euro and now again.

People say that now but the fact is back when Scolari made the decision to not even call Baia and make Ricardo the n?1, Baia was playing better. But you have to hand it to Scolari, the belief he demonstrated in these players (including Maniche, Costinha and Ricardo) has payed off! Remember that maniche didn't play for most of the season, costinha didn't have a club to play on for some time, Ricardo was on the bech in his team (Sporting). However this trust and confidence Scolari demonstrated in the group made them surpass themselves.

That said it is still strange (i.e something other that pure "professional" choice must have happened "behind the scenes") that Baia went from n?1 to "not called".

Anyway that's water under the bridge, Scolari has show that he is a great "national team" coach. His ability to instill confidance and trust within the group and belief in victory is why we are where we are! Good players are not enough (look at brazil for example)

[L3thal Veteran]

Scolari is hands down, the best national coach in history. What he has done with Brazil and Portugal is legendary to most.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Did I see a different game or something? Rooney had two players clearly fouling him by pulling an arm each and hacking away at his legs. When the one Portugeuse defender finally lost his balance and fell to the ground he pulled Rooney too, who put his foot in the only place he could to stay up right, which just happened to be the defenders crotch. It wasn't violent play, if anything it was a yellow card offence at best.

Even so he shouldn't have pushed Ronaldo. He probably would have had a yellow were it not for that... if he had a red without the push then he would of been entitled to be angry and lash out as it wouldn't have made a difference. Still, he was being fouled by two Portugal players (shirts grabbing, pulling, etc), with a third player on him as well - they should have been booked as well.

NEway, we're out. We weren't very good during the whole tournament. We had a lot of injury to deal with (not an excuse... actually a criticism). Our tactics were poor. I'm surprised we got as far as we did. Still, this World Cup has seen some awful judgements and it is really sad that FIFA have not brought in technology to assist the refs / overrule the refs... that's nothing to do with the England game, Rooney was out of order, I'm just talking in general. Also, I object to L3thal claiming that every English supporter is making excuses... most interviews with our fans expressed grave doubt about our chances and, aside from the theatrics from several Portugese players, nothing was really unfair about the game - there are always people that will disagree but they don't represent the majority of fans (I'm not saying I do either).

[Wannes]

I enjoyed reading this topic every day and sometimes put in my opinion but as the final approaches you see the heat rising and what for? A simple sport which was designed to be a fun way of entertainment? Who cares, the facts are down. England, Brazil, Argentina, ... are going home. Portugal, France, Germany & Italy still make a chance of getting this cup.

If I recall correctly, the minimum age to register is 13 years? Well, the level of discssion here says some people haven't agreed correctly to the COPPA agreement. A sport, and I repeat, is designed to have fun, fun and fun. Ok, it's not always as correct as it should be but I am not going to loose sleep over it, you shouldn't either. Just enjoy the game.

Both, France and Portugal, deserve to move on. Let's focus on that and - hopefully - I'll find myself reading a peaceful thread again tomorrow.

Cheers

James

Ps. If anyone cares, soccer isn't my favourite sport but this is no fun anymore.

Pps. I have to agree with l3thal on the Scolari part. Great coach

Ppps. Don't go telling me to **** off now, I think I'm older than the average teenager here and I have seen better soccer than this in my life.

:)

[samriley]

for a start rooney had done nothing wrong untill the push, and that wasnt anywhere near a red card offence. its not like it was a punch or even remotly hard push. yes a yellow card should have been shown to him for the push but thats all.

"FIFA officials were surprised by the sending off and said they had not yet been informed of the reason by the referee."

http://www.express.co.uk/sport.html?fSKU=2...ND-INCIDENT.XML

and seriously get a load of the ronaldo wink. cant see him playing for manchester united any more, such a shame that hes got a 5 year contract with them. would LOVE to see man u bench him untill his contract was up.

http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/?...delivery=stream

EDIT: [note - open the link in windows media player]

just as a side thing, the refereeing for the entire world cup has been abysmal. the refs should be carding players asking for cards. the amount of diving as well is just attrocious

Edited July 2, 2006 by samriley

[HadeedG]

**** brazil wow they angered me

[Bioshadow]

for a start rooney had done nothing wrong untill the push, and that wasnt anywhere near a red card offence. its not like it was a punch or even remotly hard push. yes a yellow card should have been shown to him for the push but thats all.

"FIFA officials were surprised by the sending off and said they had not yet been informed of the reason by the referee."

http://www.express.co.uk/sport.html?fSKU=2...ND-INCIDENT.XML

and seriously get a load of the ronaldo wink. cant see him playing for manchester united any more, such a shame that hes got a 5 year contract with them. would LOVE to see man u bench him untill his contract was up.

http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/?...delivery=stream

How the hell do you english guys have the right to call us anti fair play when lots of you are going to give Ronaldo his own HELL? Stop being so ridiculous, every euro / world cup the same thing goes on: England allways tries to get excuses, allways get problems, cant you guys accept being beaten? Pathetic.

You cant find reason for Rooney's red card? Are you all blind? He smashed Caravalho's guts and pushed Ronaldo, dont tell me he didnt do that on purpose, we all know Rooney, stop being so hypocrit, it is so typic of him to do this kind of things on purpose, i know him very well.

[Storm]

the ref in the england came was a complete **** though, and ronaldo was a **** faking his injurys!

[Bioshadow]

:rofl: I give up, it's prooved that english people cant accept being beaten.