The Official Football Thread

[srb]

Originally Posted by Bracken33

I think Italy played fair against Germany in the semifinal. I did not see all their matches. The referee was fine too.

Totti's still on the team, and Totti's nothing but cheating scum. That makes it hard to cheer for them.

I used to love the Italian national team when I was small, but Totti has ruined my love for Italian football.

I'll be cheering for France in the finals.

[^Aya^]

We'll see how it goes Obiouvlsy I'm rotting for Italy

Forza azzurri!

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Sun_Tze

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAoe1MheTU4

So, only the POR team has grassdivers?

Not at all. If anything, Italy's even more infamous for it. But still. Five, in one match.

That kind of stuff poisons the game, and makes it damn hard to give any kind of praise to them. If they didn't cheat, and we'd lost the game, we could have gone "well, it's the game. Congratulations and good luck for the finale." If we'd lost because the grassdives had worked, we'd have gone "cheating scum. You stole that victory, you didn't deserve it."

[tugatosmk]

Every team dives once in a while, ones more than the others. It's something that has become part of football, unfortunately. That youtube video sure says it all...

And that referee sure didn't help Portugal, with a penalty that wasn't marked against France when Ronaldo was pushed to the ground on his back. So, Portugal are the only foulers...?

BTW, apart from the dives, Portugal played a nice football, so, had we won, it would be more on skill. (I say this to those who claim that Portugal only dives and has no skills).

[Anh_Minh]

You mean when Ronaldo wasn't even touched and hit the ground?

[Caliban]

Henry knows how to dive too, it wasn't a foul worthy of a penalty, it was a foul worthy of a yellow card on Henry.

[Anh_Minh]

I watched the slow motion. There was contact. Henry got his leg tackled. (Couldn't see it very well from every angle, but one camera caught it quite neatly.) He almost recovered before his momentum brought him down. Now, I won't claim it was an intentional foul (you'd have to be a damn moron to intentionally foul in the box), but it most definitely deserved a penalty.

[arias]

Carvalho has already admitted there was contact, and the penalty was somewhat deserved. No more whining here.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...373398&cc=5901

[tugatosmk]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

You mean when Ronaldo wasn't even touched and hit the ground?

Wasn't even touched...? Come on, everybody saw that! Even Scolari complained! If you're denying the obvious, I might as well end this conversation with you, as you'll attack the portuguese team no matter what, as you've been doing until now.

Originally Posted by arias

Carvalho has already admitted there was contact, and the penalty was somewhat deserved. No more whining here.

Hehe, I never mentioned that penalty in this thread because it has indeed a foul. No whining from me, that for sure.

[Blablabla]

Originally Posted by tug

Wasn't even touched...? Come on, everybody saw that! Even Scolari complained! If you're denying the obvious, I might as well end this conversation with you, as you'll attack the portuguese team no matter what, as you've been doing until now.

He wasn't touched... he dove and moved his body as if he was pushed while jumping... but a little after than Sagnol's hands brushed him while diving.
Look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu9PWsF0CL0

[Illuyankas]

He dove between those defenders like a graceful swan (not that swans dive, I suppose), then cried his eyes out like a tosser told that Real Madrid don't want him and that he has to go back to his club and train with the man he got sent off (mwahaha). Revenge is sweet

[Sun_Tze]

Originally Posted by Illuyankas

He dove between those defenders like a graceful swan (not that swans dive, I suppose), then cried his eyes out like a tosser told that Real Madrid don't want him and that he has to go back to his club and train with the man he got sent off (mwahaha). Revenge is sweet

Rooney didn't denied he did that foul, though.

Doesnt take a rocket scientsit to notice that he wasn't on a "proper" behavior.

BTW: Is it just me, or 2 different cameras can show 2 different things?

On a camera behind Henry, it looks like Carvalho has his leg in front of Henry's foot

But on a camera behind Carvalho, it looks like Henry is stomping Carvalho's foot.


Oh well, we couldn't defeat France now, but in 2 years we can get our revenge.

[Illuyankas]

It looked like he was fouled first, but I'll accept it was a foul, just not an instant red card. Rooney REALLY needs to control himself.

[Renji]

Really i cant state enough how much i hate rooney and that face of his..

And as for the foul on henry, contact was made in the box with the player, no contact with the ball, penalty, but henry could of stayed on his feet if he wanted to, but its still a penalty..

[1.0.7.]

wake up call for england fans
pretty good insight i say. in any case, rooney's is nothing to the real greats that have graced the game. how should i say this, the english are deprived. it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. this boy doesn't have the makings of a legend.
EDIT:
hehe..this has to be shared LoL

[Kinny Riddle]

Originally Posted by 1.0.7.

wake up call for england fans
pretty good insight i say. in any case, rooney's is nothing to the real greats that have graced the game. how should i say this, the english are deprived. it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. this boy doesn't have the makings of a legend.
EDIT:
hehe..this has to be shared LoL

While most of the criticism is straight to the point (plus I rarely support England), As a Reds fan, I must be compelled to argue against this paragraph concerning Gerrard which reeks of "pro-Gooner bias".

Conspicuously only ever happy when he is the centre of attention, Gerrard is keen to remind us with a beat of the chest that he is 'The Man' after dispatching a thirty-yard shot into the net of such opposition as Luton, Olympiakos or West Ham. Against the the big men for England however, the Liverpool captain has only ever been the lost little boy, with a lapse in concentration gifting France a win at Euro 2004 and an impotent performance against Portugal in Germany summed up by a tame penalty miss.

Spoiler for Gerrard-defending rant, Gooners can look away:

In the end, the author could only criticise Gerrard based on these two rare errors instead of judging him on his overall performance. For that error gifting France the win, that was really the rarest of errors, and by the time when he was distracted by Chelski.

And it really sickens me to see people jumping the bandwagon to blame the players who miss penalties whenever it suited their justification of their argument. Besides, Lampard was asked to take the penalty first, he was supposed to give the the remaining penalty takers confidence, instead HE missed, why doesn't the author blame Lampard instead?

If Sven hasn't shackled him and insisted on putting him alongside Lampard, whose roles are basically overlapping, than maybe there could be something.

Anyway, tonight is the "wothless" 3rd place playoff between the hosts Germany and Portugal. For Portugal, it will be Figo's final international match, for the hosts, they might want to salvage something, with Oliver Kahn back in goal.

Speaking as a tennis fan and football fan at the same time, once again I must face the dilemma of how to allocate my concentration between the World Cup and another Federer v Nadal face off. (The first one, the Roland Garros final, coincided during the Group Stages, this time it's in grass on Wimbledon. )

[Kinny Riddle]

Half time of the 3rd place play off.

Since time is short, I'll comment on this:

Now that was the most beautiful Olympic-winning performance from Cristiano Ronaldo, totally beating the Chinese Olympic Diving Team. 20 out of 10 points.

(This has nothing to do against the other Portuguese, OK. I apologize if any offence is caused. Just some random Ronaldo bashing in good fun. )

[Jinto]

4 goals. 2 times germany, 2 times portugal.

edit:

regarding Oliver Kahn, he declared after the game, that it was his last game for the german national team.

[Kinny Riddle]

Great finale from Germany. Two wonderful goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger. They did themselves proud even though this is a "mini-final". Oliver Kahn also proved he was still world class in probably his last match.

And Figo also can have some consolation for setting up the Portuguese goal. Farewell to another world-class player from international football.

Moving to the final.

[tugatosmk]

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

Half time of the 3rd place play off.

Since time is short, I'll comment on this:

Now that was the most beautiful Olympic-winning performance from Cristiano Ronaldo, totally beating the Chinese Olympic Diving Team. 20 out of 10 points.

(This has nothing to do against the other Portuguese, OK. I apologize if any offence is caused. Just some random Ronaldo bashing in good fun. )

LOLOL!!

Well, don't worry about that. I also thought that. Unfortunately he does has this annoying tendency of "diving", and on that game he was "inspired". He really should stop doing that. Still, he's just a kid, and hopefully he'll grow out of it - or at least he'll diminish his tendency.

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

Great finale from Germany. Two wonderful goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger. They did themselves proud even though this is a "mini-final". Oliver Kahn also proved he was still world class in probably his last match.

And Figo also can have some consolation for setting up the Portuguese goal. Farewell to another world-class player from international football.

Moving to the final.

Yes, both teams played some good football. I was surprised to see Portugal playing an "anti-Scolari" football (Scolari = defensive football). Maybe Scolari just said to the players: "Oh, what the heck! Just go out there and put on a show!" And I believe Klinsmann probably said the same to his team. The germans just went on stroming to attack like a hurricane! Since the pressure was off, the players could play like they liked. It was very entertaining.

I just can't understand why Germany held back such an overwhelming attack force against Italy. To me, they are one of the best and most dangerous teams in this World Cup.

It's sad to see Figo and Kahn quit, but age doesn't forgive and sooner or later they'd have to make this decision. I was touched by the image of Figo and Kahn together at the end of the game; it's almost the end of a particular generation of players.

Now it's up to both countries' younglins to continue the saga.