The Official Football Thread

[srb]

I love Fredrik Ljungberg.

[1.0.7.]

halftime argentina v serbia and montenegro..
whoever missed argentina's performance don't deserve to live!
they were just superb.. and that second goal.. forget the blasts by rosicky or that german guy.. cambiasso's goal is goal of the tournament!!

EDIT:
FULL time!! 6-0 to argentina... oh my god.. how good were the goals..
man how awesome was that, except for crespo's goal of course, the others were just brilliant..

[Hydex]

A stunning 6-0 victory for Argentina!

[Zappster]

Originally Posted by Onizuka-GTO

rooneny schooney. He did notihng. zilch. It was lennon who won it for us. The minute he came on, BANG! We just went from second gear into fifth!

I'm not surprised. I didn't expect Rooney to set the world alight when he came back given that he's been injured for the last few weeks. The more match time he gets the better. Get his fitness levels up and he will be a crucial player IMO. If he had produced something special that would have been a bonus. As it is I think it was more about getting him back into the swing of things.

Also Argentina were awesome today. Very nice to see Messi coming on and scoring. Hopefully we get to see more of him in the tournament. Best performance by any team I've seen so far. Definitely the team to beat.

[Pellissier]

Serbia though, did the same of what happened in Euro Championship 2000.
No willing, no spirit of sacrifice, no tactic application, and they were served of a 6-1 from Holland, in the first round. Today they got the second set completed.
Quite of a humoral team. Who knows if they could complete this (tennis-based) match on next competitions.

Argentina impressive indeed, but it's better not to lose the focus on the reality. They're impressive for the players they can feature and for how they go ('till now) well together, more than for having won 6-0 with this opponent.

Ah, the second argentinian goal has been so far - imho - the best one of World Cup 2006. And very difficult to surpass, in a virtual ranking, if you ask me.

[Kinny Riddle]

So much for the Group of Death, it wasn't too hard to guess who would go through, in the end, was it? (No disrespect intended to any Ivorians and Serb-Montenegrins here. )

Totally in awe at Argentina's demolition of Serbia-Montenegro. Messi and Tevez could well be the new Argentine dynamic duo, especially the former's introduction, setting up the fourth and scoring the sixth after coming on. They're probably the team with the best chance of beating Brazil. Even Maradona is ecstatic about it.

[ShikaShika]

I'm hopping on the Argentina bandwagon, though the Serbs having a very improvised backline didn't help their chances. (Remember they conceded only one goal in the preliminaries.) I feel sorry for the Ivorians, they could easily have qualified from most of the other groups I'd say, definitely a pity that we'll only see one more game with them, a meaningless one at that. 16 shots and 8 corner kicks as opposed to 9 and 3 respectively for the Dutch... When are the next African championships?

[Onizuka-GTO]

goddaam argies.... meh. it won't be interesting without 'em....

As for the next African Champions? Well, I Think it's still some time, at leased another two or three cups in the future.

But by then i suspect they will have a much harder time, with other new nations, that is, if we all haven't been wiped off the face of the earth with nuclear fire...

[evil-samurai]

Originally Posted by ShikaShika

though the Serbs having a very improvised backline didn't help their chances. (Remember they conceded only one goal in the preliminaries.)

That really was the big hit for them, two of there best Defenders were out and they couldn't cover them no doubt I think that if they had those two men it wouldn't of been 6:0 still Argentina would of won but.. it wouldn't of been such a bad loss.

I wonder who is going to be the one get past 2 goals, so far there are 10 men on two goal. I'd think it will be Rosicky in the next match against Ghana, it could be a first win for Africa though.. I cant see Czech losing, but a upset would be great =)

[Matt Soulblade]

Oh yeah Argentina 6 Serbia 0. Cambiasso's goal owned was the best Germany World Cup so far.
Gogo Argertina, Holand is next.

[USB500]

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

Once again poor Shaka Hislop gets beaten by Steven Gerrard. And near the very end at stoppage time again to boot.

Got to give credit to Trinidad & Tobago for fighting valiantly, to be fair to them, they deserve a goal at least. Erikkson is probably the most relieved man. Sir Alex on the other hand, would be quite livid back in Manchester, I suppose, to see Rooney being sent on by Erikkson.

I second. Trinidad & Tobago gets my salute for their excellent performance (I was expecting them to give some shocks, but I'm rooting for England so yeah). Maybe if they can make it through their last match against Paraguay, they might write another chapter in their football history

BTW, I think Yorke deserved the title Man of the Match better than Beckham. Why? Not only he blocked the ball (forgot whether it was Lampard or Gerrad who tried to score) with his groin, he even massaged his pained "lil' bro" in front of the spectators (and millions of TV viewers worldwide). Even I was like "WTF is he doing?! " He really was the man of the match XD

[Kinny Riddle]

Ghana 2 - 0 Czech Republic.

Oh my, Group E is the true Group of Death. Ghana showing people why they deserve to be in the World Cup, they are after all, African champions many times before, so it was surprising that this is only their first World Cup.

The Czechs seem to completely lose their dominance they showed against the US, they were like a completely different team without Koller, if it wasn't for Petr Cech, they would have lost by a greater margin. Now they must beat the Italians in order to have any hope of getting to the last 16.

Now to see if Team USA can survive against the Italians.

[AnimeFangirl]

Everything points to an Italian win, but anything could happen tonight. I almost win USA would win, just to shake things up a bit in the world cup. Wahahahahahahaha!

[ShikaShika]

The last round would truelly be a sight to see if the US managed to scrape a win tonight.

Edit: De Rossi, what an idiot.

Edit 2: Interesting first half.

[Lemonhead]

sigh we(u.s) still can't score a damn goal. It takes italys strike power to put us on the board, talk about a lucky break huh.

I hope the ref's get alittle less card happy for the 2nd half, cause this is alittle silly.

[mxg]

Well being the only guy from Trinidad on these boards I would like to thank you all for giving such merit to my country. And they certinly played really well in their both matches. I hope they can win their next match.

GO SOCA WARRIORS !

[evil-samurai]

End score 1:1

Damit! I was hoping Italy would score towards the end but it wouldn't be :/

The Ghana match was Fantastic and the Italy match was great! but just different with 3 red card given and seeing Totti getting a yellow card within the first 4 mins and not long after that getting substituted. They shouldn't of subusitute Toni though he got 3 offsides within 3 minutes which was really annoying, I think he would of been a great chance to score in the remaining minutes when Italy just kept on attacking.

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

Oh my, Group E is the true Group of Death.

It really is I'd put my money on Ghana to beat the US, and Italy only need a draw to go into the next round, so I'd stick with them, the Czech & Italy match should be a really good one. Though if Czech play just like they did againt the US

[Pellissier]

First of all, congratulations to U.S. national team , I knew they weren't as bad as shown in first match vs. Czech Republic but I was surprised by their brilliant start.
Italian advantage was totally undeserved, after 20 minutes of sufference, and with seemingly just one team on the spotlights.
The funny Zaccardo's own goal then made justice, though I had preferred if Americans did manage to score on their own.
Then the protagonist became the referee, but not his fault at all:

De Rossi : you know where to keep your elbow, next time (maybe, but knowing him, I have to say maybe not..) . Red Card : correct. I expect a 3-4 turns disqualify for this (but also more, Fifa is very severe with those who like to use the elbow. I think it's the #1 on the ranking of worst acts a player could commit, according to Fifa's rules, but I do agree as well).

Mastroeni: Assassin tackle on Pirlo, with both two legs. Red Card: correct. Probably a 2 turns disqualify.

Pope: Already booked, he committed a series of foul (in the first half), I think the referee had this in mind. Then, a tackle not dangerous for opponent's health, but with not a chance of hitting the ball. Yellow Card --> Red Card . Correct.

The American goal invalidated. The offside position became active since the players was covering the sight of the goalkeeper (not allowed), but even more, because he moved his leg to let the ball pass. That's partecipating actively to the action. And since he was behind all the defenders, offside. As consequence, no goal. Correct.

Naturally, I was hoping for Italy to manage to get a second goal anyway, but all in all I think the draw is the best result for this very whimsical match.
I'm also happy because I heard excessive thriumphalisms after victory with Ghana, a thing that should never happen. I hope that a bit of good sense will bless the whole environment now.

Originally Posted by evil-samurai

with 3 red card given and seeing Totti getting a yellow card within the first 4 mins and not long after that getting substituted.

Totti would have been necessary in the second half when 10 vs. 9 but on the moment he was substituted (10 vs. 11) it was the best move for coach Lippi to do.

They shouldn't of subusitute Toni though he got 3 offsides within 3 minutes

Toni was clearly out of physical condition. That's not the Toni we've used to see in the italian league (for the records, he scored 31 goals this year, with just 2 or 3 penalties).

and Italy only need a draw to go into the next round

But remember that a draw could lead to a second place which most likely would mean to cross Brazil in 1/8 finals. That's an out of discussion kind of risk. Our objective shall be to beat the Chzechs, which will have a couple of players disqualified too.

[srb]

Originally Posted by mxg

Well being the only guy from Trinidad on these boards I would like to thank you all for giving such merit to my country. And they certinly played really well in their both matches. I hope they can win their next match.

GO SOCA WARRIORS !

Your team showed a lot of heart versus our team, and you should thank your lucky stars that your usual goalie injured himself during the warm-ups and Shaka Hislop played instead.

However, I must hope that Paraguay beats you.

[Maceart]

Although it was only a 1 to 1 tie, United States completely smothered Italy. Considering the fact that Italy had 2 more men on the field, the U.S held on it's own for the whole last half.

Now all U.S. needs to do is beat Ghana by as much of a point difference as possible and hope Italy loses to Czech Republic to enter the final 32.