Brazil sucked.

Well, not Brazil, they're a solid team, ofcourse, but the coach.

Why did he have that fat cow Ronaldo play?

Robinho should have been there all along!!
France however, had their stuff together.

Enjoyable match. Not many goals, but a nice match to watch.

stonefan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The referee was very good !


LOL.. crisis averted. Zizou est toujours le plus grand

Another one from this afternoon. Sad, sad, sad...

Nice to see Mick brought his pet monkey on that last photo.

CONGRATULATION FRANCE YOU DISERVE TO BE THE WORLD CHAMPION!!

Great result - gone Brazil team, they have played terrible, they thougt they could walk on the water, winning without playing - hopefully they now realize:

To win - you need to play and you need to fight - the name doesn't give you anything.... but that happens. The players think too much about themselfs, earn way too much and think they don't need to do anything......

Gone are Ronaldo, Cafu, Carlos, Emerson etc.... it was thier last tournament ever and they will be out of the "Selecao".....

Congrats France, the best football exhibition of the world cup. Fantastic.

Lizard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice to see Mick brought his pet monkey on that
> last photo.


Going by what Jimmy and the lady in front are doing, it would appear that Mick has just "let one go"...

Must have been during the penalty shoot out....

Incidentally - Jimmy is wearing a Neil Young t-shirt. "Rust Never Sleeps"!

Gazza, that explains Mick's "controlled embarrassed"-expression.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-07-02 01:34 by Erik_Snow.

Havo Wrote:
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> rugby----whats that???

only the best game in the world.

ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ! ON A GAGNÉ!

JuanTCB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How weird - England, Argentina, and Brazil are out
> but Portugal & Italy are still in? I'm pretty new
> to the soccer/futbol thing in general, but is any
> of this considered to be an upset?

Well, Portugal going this far is quite unusual, actually it's the very first time the get to the semi-finals.
Italy is one of the world's top teams, we won three cupsand, as far as I can remember, we got to the finals three times since 1974, lost twice from Brazil and won one with Germany.
BTW Italy has played against Germany 28 games.
We won 13, lost 7, ties 8. We scored 42 goals and they scored 33 against us.
Last time we played against them we won 4-1, two months ago, and in this world cup our defense has never suffered a goal.

dunhill!!
Portugal is the second time on the semifinals, after 1966 when they became on third place. and it not that unusual, some of these players were World Champios under 21 twice, Vice European champions on 2004 , Champions League Winners with Porto, etc, etc

Riffbuk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dunhill!!
> Portugal is the second time on the semifinals,
> after 1966 when they became on third place. and it
> not that unusual, some of these players were
> World Champios under 21 twice, Vice European
> champions on 2004 , Champions League Winners with
> Porto, etc, etc


My mistake. I wasn't playing down Portugal football, just talking about its resume in the World Cup. 1966 is 40 years ago. That's it.

Very glad to know that FIFA also hates Brazil and England. This should make Argentina feel better!!!

mttlacroix Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Havo Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > rugby----whats that???
>
> only the best game in the world.


Yes , it is the best game . By the way, I was totally wrong in my guessing. As for the french team, their greatest enenmy is inside them.

Brazil was disappointing all the way. Winning against Japan and Australia
was no problem because they had the room/space to play the ball fast.

The first REAL competitor was France, who played badly before. But
yesterday´s game by France was just great. They didn´t let Brazil
play their magic game. They were attacking earlier than the other teams
and had great chances to score. Zidane was magic - the Spanish wanted to
retire him but failed. Now he is the old magician again. Another great
player was Ribery.

Brazil was sent home because they just hadn´t the fire.

I just can't beleive that some people here just can't stop bashing the FIFA or the referees. I think the referees have a very tough job to do. Why? Because some stupid players can't stand the pressure put on them and behave like idiots. Don't blame the referees for that, they are basically doing a great job. Thinking that the FIFA "hates" some countries and "loves" others is pure bullshit and blaming FIFA or the referees for the fact that some teams are on their way home now is simply a behaviour that only bad losers show. Hey, it's just a game called football, folks - and the winner is the team that scores more goals than the other. It's as simple as that. Who will win the World Cup? Also easy...the team that wins the final !

JuanTCB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How weird - England, Argentina, and Brazil are out
> but Portugal & Italy are still in? I'm pretty new
> to the soccer/futbol thing in general, but is any
> of this considered to be an upset?

I think it's probably par for the course with this sport........

TooTough Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brazil was disappointing all the way. Winning
> against Japan and Australia
> was no problem because they had the room/space to
> play the ball fast.
>
> The first REAL competitor was France, who played
> badly before. But
> yesterday´s game by France was just great. They
> didn´t let Brazil
> play their magic game. They were attacking earlier
> than the other teams
> and had great chances to score. Zidane was magic -
> the Spanish wanted to
> retire him but failed. Now he is the old magician
> again. Another great
> player was Ribery.
>
> Brazil was sent home because they just hadn´t the
> fire.

agreed my friend..your answer once again proofed that you know a lot about football..tactics and strategy..that said, Brasil & England both did not deserve to be among the last 4 of the world cup.

England was unlucky vs. Portugal for sure...but if you take all the games from England, compared to all the matches from Portugal in this tournament...Portugal deserved it much more to go to semifinal...England just had one good halftime...against Sweden..a match which I saw live in the stadium by the way..but they were horrible against Paraguay,Trinidad and Ecuador..they seemed to be not fit phisically..and they had no system..if you have Gerrad AND Lampard..you have to play much better...and without a forward....no goals..

Owen was not fit before and got an awful injury during the WC..Rooney did not play for 2 months before...Theo Walcot a 17 year old child never playd in the Premier League before...so just the basketball player Crouch...one scorer only...not enough on this highest level.
and yesterday they beat themselfes by the foul from Rooney.

And....to score penaltys..you must have nerves..it is not only luck, but I could see it in their eyes that they were totaly down mentally when going to shoot the penaltys...the only one who scored well was Heargreaves..and he is the only one who plays in Germany( Bayern Munich) so he has got a kind of postive German mentality like "we are strong and noone will or can beat us."

And Coach Ericson had no concept and no balls...his whole philosophie was totaly defense...but defense is nothing for English football mentality..its cool for the Italians for exampled but England has to move forward which they did not do.
So it is a lucky that Ericson leaves now..cause if you take just the players from the English team they have the potential to win the worldcup..but having the potential is one thing...you have to play and fight first.

And now to Brasil....what a dissapointment !

They were arrogant...phisically totaly unfit..I am not talking of Ronaldo only...I mean he had almost 20 kilos overweight..seing him was ridicilous.

They ( similar to England) just had one great performance..the second half vs. Japan !!
The Croatia team and Australia had so many chances to score that it was just luck they did not loose before.

Beating Ghana was not because Brasil was so good...because Ghana were so naiv and because African teams seem to be unable to score goals.

So France was the first real test for Brasil...and they failed dramatcily bad..the second half was 70 minutes old until they made their first shot on goal !!

So..all in all...The four teams now left in the world cup all deserved it to be there.

The greatest suprise is the german team though...I know they have a great history..and its been the 10th !!! time in WC history that germany reached the semifinals...but this time they playd a fantastic football from the very first game...Together with Argentina they have been the 2 teams who dominated this world cup so far...But now its Italy....a very tough team..almost impossible to beat...I am afraid this time it could be over for germany...but I hope they can top themselfes on more time.

The other semifinal is totaly open IMO....France vs. Portugal...but I think France has so much self confidence now that they will succeed somehow.

So, my hope is Germany vs. France....but my fear is, that it will be Italy vs. France.

salar

Great post, totally agree with you, salar.

From a french point of vue :
i agree
i'm wishing for Italy vs France because Germany is our black cat.
France vs Germany is a long story full of beautiful games (1982 and 1986) but at the end, Germans win.
Against Italy the matches are very closed and tighted and France wins (1998 and 2000) more often.

it's exactly what I wish !

first we have to beat Portugal and then we would meet Germany which would be a wonderful gift.

It's been more than 20 years that we've been dreaming of a revenge

It's time !

France were great last night, made up for the Rooney disgrace, what a prick.

salar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TooTough Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> But now its Italy....a very tough team..almost
> impossible to beat...I am afraid this time it
> could be over for germany...but I hope they can
> top themselfes on more time.
> ....
> So, my hope is Germany vs. France....but my fear
> is, that it will be Italy vs. France.

In Italy we grab our balls when people say things like you did.
Don't jinx it to us.
I too wish for an Italy vs. France, we crave for revenge

I don't think France will make up to the final. They have already played their 2 great matches in this tournament. Job is done for them. Sad, but Portugal have never been in a Final. It's their turn. What about a final : Italy vs Portugal ?



PS : Don't know a damn thing about this crazy game. Rugby is a joy to me. France will top over Australia or New-Zealand in the 2007 worldcup.

france played excellent. especially zidane.congratulations france.
i hope they'll beat portugal and play for the second title.

phd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think France will make up to the final.
> They have already played their 2 great matches in
> this tournament. Job is done for them. Sad, but
> Portugal have never been in a Final. It's their
> turn. What about a final : Italy vs Portugal ?
>
>
>
> PS : Don't know a damn thing about this crazy
> game. Rugby is a joy to me. France will top over
> Australia or New-Zealand in the 2007 worldcup.

Well, the Portuguese have played 2x120 min, and France played only the regular 90 min. France was awful during the 1st 3 games and their physical preparation seems to bring them higher every day, whereas the other teams were at their top at the beginning of the competition and may be slowing down a bit.
This was a huge risk (we almost went out after 3 games) but now, it seems to be paying.

Concerning rugby, I think that France playing at home can do a lot.
We regularily beat the All Blacks (of course not every time, but still, not every 5 years either). I hope we'll play a great worlcup next year, without being handicaped by too many injuries, and let the best win !

[doctorstonesblog.blogspot.com]

"...But now its Italy....a very tough team..almost impossible to beat..."

- reminds me of Cruijffs brilliant paradoxical adaga: "Italians cannot beat you, but you can lose from them" ("Italianen kunnen niet van je winnen maar je kan wel van ze verliezen").

----------------------------
"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"