Neowin's Official World Cup 2006 Thread

[L3thal Veteran]

Wow, L3thal jumped off that bandwagon pretty quick.

Now thats a real fan.

Oh, I am sorry I have a job and responsibilities :pinch:

What bandwagon are you talking about, if I may know? :unsure:

[I am Reid]

Oh, I am sorry I have a job and responsibilities :pinch:

What bandwagon are you talking about, if I may know? :unsure:

That was a pretty sweet avatar you had for a few days.

Why's it gone?

[L3thal Veteran]

That was a pretty sweet avatar you had for a few days.

Why's it gone?

Well, maybe because my team lost so I should, in respect to the two finalists, remove it? That also says I accept defeat and move on with my life. I don't make excuses about a loss for five days and bash players from other teams to make me feel better.

[acedriver]

can't wait for the final

hope to see Cannavaro lifting the World Cup and getting the best player of the tournament award.

Forza Italia!! Forza Canna!!

[FlibbyFlobby]

so blaming ronaldo for getting rooney sent off is just doing the same thing... you guys really need to grow up. takin' this rooney thing for example: if a player 'asks' the ref to show a red/yellow card its against the rules so, if the ref thought it was fair to show a yellow card to ronaldo then he would have done so. and blaming ronaldo on this is just laughable, if he has this misterious power to get other players sent off i just dont understand why he doesnt use it every match.

portugal is not a diving team, we surely didnt get this far (like we did on euro04, reaching to the final) by diving, if the team you were supporting (like england, for ex.) lost just face it, k?

finally, play-acting has allways existed, you guys are just bringing this up now 'cuz you find it as the best excuse for the fact that your team was 'kicked out' of the competition.

netherlands played a very good game against us, they could have won as they could have lost. they lost!

england didnt play good enough (as they werent playing before) to defeat us so they lost.

against france, portugal was a little bit better but france scored and we didnt, so they won. period.

Like I've said several times in this thread (but people ignore it because it suits them), the English MEDIA are putting the blame on Ronaldo, nobody else. Fans like myself accept England didn't play good enough (in quite a few games) and didn't score enough penalties. So please stop this broken record that the English blame Ronaldo for their exit from the World Cup.

What England fans are actually angry about is the conduct of Ronaldo and the blatent attempts by the Portugeuse to gain an advantage through diving, as was confirmed against France. Play acting and diving is scrutinized in the English Premiership (which Ronaldo plays his club football in ironically) and the fact that its ignored at international level is disgusting. Sure play acting wasn't purely coming from Portugal, many other teams were guilty to, but if we started a league of divers, lets face it Portugal would come out on top as it stands.

The Netherlands v Portugal was a disgrace from both teams. Fighting and diving from both sides, not exactly world class football by any stretch of the means. I still can't believe the foul on Arjen Robben that was completely ignored. Slightly worse than Rooneys I'd say. ;)

[Martyn]

I am back from York. Anyone miss me?

I watched the two semi final's while I was there, it was mad when Portugal nearly scored in the last minute :laugh:. About the final, I am pretty sure France will win (will be fitting because Zizou is a legend), and I also think that Germany will get third.

The final will be very, very close and I have a feeling that it will be settled on penalties. Italy have a brilliant defense, but have not been that good going forward this World Cup. So yeah, France to win on penalties.

[PaulCabby]

so blaming ronaldo for getting rooney sent off is just doing the same thing... you guys really need to grow up. takin' this rooney thing for example: if a player 'asks' the ref to show a red/yellow card its against the rules so, if the ref thought it was fair to show a yellow card to ronaldo then he would have done so. and blaming ronaldo on this is just laughable, if he has this misterious power to get other players sent off i just dont understand why he doesnt use it every match.

If you look at his location. He's American? Stfu.

Well, maybe because my team lost so I should, in respect to the two finalists, remove it? That also says I accept defeat and move on with my life. I don't make excuses about a loss for five days and bash players from other teams to make me feel better.

Aww. You're not out... yet. 3rd place playoff! :shiftyninja:

[ecotrojan]

To be honest England didn't play well. I dont care if it was Svens tactics or a team full of primadonas.

As an Englishman, supporting England - I wanted Portugal to go on and win this world cup (after knocking England out).

Why? - because only then would I know that we got knocked out by the best team in the world.

Unfortuantely they haven't. Therefore I have to resolve to the fact that my team, England are crap.

[fascist]

To be honest England didn't play well. I dont care if it was Svens tactics or a team full of primadonas.

As an Englishman, supporting England - I wanted Portugal to go on and win this world cup (after knocking England out).

Why? - because only then would I know that we got knocked out by the best team in the world.

Unfortuantely they haven't. Therefore I have to resolve to the fact that my team, England are crap.

We tied them :cool:

[RootWind]

Interesting:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/socc...k.ap/index.html

BERLIN (AP) -- Who's the baddest World Cup team of them all? A software company says Paraguay ranks at the bottom when it comes to misbehavior at the global soccer tournament.

Staff at the British office of Information Builders (IBI) tracked a string of alternative statistics during Germany 2006, including dives, feigned injuries, referee intimidation, and tantrums -- even players who didn't sing their national anthem.

According to their findings from watching TV broadcasts of the 32 teams' games, Italy leads in dives (32), France in tantrums (28), Paraguay in fake injuries (12), and Serbia and Montenegro in players not singing the anthem (31).

Croatia, France, Italy and Portugal are tied in bullying the referee incidents with five, although Croatia played half the games (three) than the others did.

Information Builders devised the "IBI Foul Play Index" by awarding points for yellow and red cards, bullying the referee, dives, fake injuries and tantrums. The total is then divided by the number of games played.

Paraguay leads the tournament with an index of 45, followed by Italy (40) and the Netherlands, Ivory Coast and Portugal (37).

France, Italy's opponent in Sunday's final, is tied with Germany, Switzerland and Togo for 14th at 26. England, tied with South Korea, is 19th at 23.

Trinidad and Tobago was the best behaved team the tournament, with a Foul Play Index of just 14. Next were Brazil, Costa Rica and Sweden (all 15) and the U.S. (16).

T&T were nailed for just four dives, three tantrums, two fake injuries and three players not singing the anthem.

Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Spain all scored perfect marks in anthem participation.

Information Builders is using the information to promote its software, which organizes data.

FIFA has its own Fair Play Index, but declined to provide it when asked Friday.

[Shetland]

first of all. i never mentioned the portugal v england game. rooney is a disgrace, that's all i have to say about that. i don't 'have a team'. the US is terrible at soccer and i don't consider MLS to be any sort of professional league. the US is awful. for most of the cup, i've been rooting for the underdog. as it's gone further, i've wanted france to win, because it's zidanes last cup and i would like him to win another, because HE is a true sportsman.

yes, portugal IS diving team. at least in this cup, that's what they showed to everyone.

i KNOW play-acting has always been a part of the game. alebit a small one. but when it gets to a point where everytime you have the ball and a defender touches you, you fall to the ground, SIT THERE, and look at the ref with your hands up waiting for them to call it, your not a true sportsman. not only that, you're not helping your own team at all because you're sitting there complaing. also, i'm not saying portugal is the only team that does it. they are just the worst i've seen.

why are you bringing up all these games? if your going to talk about what i have to say, at least stay on topic. england played like crap all tournament. they were lucky to get as far as they did.

like that article says, when you're trying to get an UNFAIR advantage, it's cheating. which is exactly what the portugal team did, ten-fold after the france penalty, so they could get back in the game. i realize that players are going to do whatever they can to gain an advantage, but when you obviously are not fouled, complain that it wasn't called, THEN blame the ref for being unfair... you lose EVERY bit of integrity, in my opinion. it's not the players decision on whether a foul is worthy of a booking. ONLY THE REF. to sit and moan, it unsportsman-like and doing that on a regular basis should be grounds for a booking itself!

again, as i stated in an earlier post. it doesn't matter what i say or anyone else. soccer is like religion. you have your team/religion and you will defend it to the end! win, lose, whatever. there is always someone cheating, if you lose.

^exactly right,

and i simply just do not like ronaldo as a person, he's footballing scum.

[qdave]

Interesting:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/socc...k.ap/index.html

these are some cool stats! I am glad germany is not one of the biggest foulers :)

[Toastyone]

To be honest England didn't play well. I dont care if it was Svens tactics or a team full of primadonas.

As an Englishman, supporting England - I wanted Portugal to go on and win this world cup (after knocking England out).

Why? - because only then would I know that we got knocked out by the best team in the world.

Unfortuantely they haven't. Therefore I have to resolve to the fact that my team, England are crap.

:laugh: I was going on that same train of thought :p I figure it is better to lose to the eventual winner than some team that is just lucky... Ah well England never played well the whole world cup IMO :(

[T.Barl0w]

I also use to want the team that beat mine to go and win the cup so that we can say that we were beaten by the best, but with Portugal i could not wait until they were beaten. they play good football but they are full of cheaters. im glad ronaldo didnt get young player of the tournemt and im glad he cried when they lost to france and i wish that holland player who injured him in that game had snapped his leg in half because hes a discrase

[ecotrojan]

I also use to want the team that beat mine to go and win the cup so that we can say that we were beaten by the best, but with Portugal i could not wait until they were beaten. they play good football but they are full of cheaters. im glad ronaldo didnt get young player of the tournemt and im glad he cried when they lost to france and i wish that holland player who injured him in that game had snapped his leg in half because hes a discrase

whoa tiger, take a chill pill :D

Its only a game, ;)

[sn00pie]

Woo, Portugal vs. Germany in just over an hour! :D

[L3thal Veteran]

djpnuemo, can you please not be a hard head and keep posting the same nonsense after it was deleted more than once? What you are posting has nothing to do with the World Cup and its just flame bait. Common sense tells you if it was deleted it was because it doesn't fit here. Is that so hard to understand?

[djpnuemo]

well, one thing, if you look at the site, it has to do with THIS world cup. has polls on whether or not people think he is a cheat. not to mention videos from THIS CUP ONLY, proving what he does, since all the portugal supporters disagree. he gets under my skin like no one else ever has. i shall, from now on, talk only about what is happening RIGHT NOW, mr. mod.

[Martyn]

well, one thing, if you look at the site, it has to do with THIS world cup. has polls on whether or not people think he is a cheat. not to mention videos from THIS CUP ONLY, proving what he does, since all the portugal supporters disagree. he gets under my skin like no one else ever has. i shall, from now on, talk only about what is happening RIGHT NOW, mr. mod.

Ha ha, I take it you posted something from that IHateRonaldo site, which is pretty funny but look's like it was created by an idiot.

Shame Figo is not playing for Portugal tonight, I would imagine he will retire from international football after the World Cup and it would of been nice for him to make a last appearence.

There are also rumours that Scolari will be leaving Portugal on Tuesday.

[djpnuemo]

i only posted the link to the site, which apparently is verboten, since it was deemed a 'flame bait' and has nothing to do with the world cup. which is wrong! but, i'm not a mod and get no say.

hahahah, excellent addition to your sig, martyn!!!

i can't believe i just saw that kaan is starting in the net for germany!!! excellente! he's one of my favs.

GO GERMANY!

[Martyn]

i only posted the link to the site, which apparently is verboten, since it was deemed a 'flame bait' and has nothing to do with the world cup. which is wrong! but, i'm not a mod and get no say.

hahahah, excellent addition to your sig, martyn!!!

i can't believe i just saw that kaan is starting in the net for germany!!! excellente! he's one of my favs.

GO GERMANY!

I dont think it should be forbidden, it's just a site and many people have posted the same link on here and nothing has been done about it. That link in my sig has been there for a while now ha ha.

It is nice than Khan is starting, he was upset that Lehman was going to be the number 1 goalkeeper, but credit to him for working hard for the German cause. He is a great goalkeeper (Y).

[djpnuemo]

i hadn't noticed that site being posted here. i'm going to just add it to my sig.

it's so sad there's just these two games left. :(

[djpnuemo]

ricardo has my vote for keeper of the world cup. he's been incredible!

[Martyn]

I agree, Ricardo has been great at this World Cup and even previous tournaments.

Anyone just see that terrible Ronaldo dive :no:?

[RadishTM Veteran]

That dive was unbelievable, he actually expected a free kick :rofl:

Radish?