930 Forums
=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: Frank Gallagher on December 06, 2005, 09:06:00 am
-
England seeded for 2006 World Cup
England have been placed among the top eight seeds for the 2006 World Cup.
Sven-Goran Eriksson's side are in a top pool of hosts Germany, holders Brazil as well as Argentina, France, Italy, Spain and Mexico.
England will now avoid meeting those countries in the group stages when the main draw for the tournament is made in Leipzig on Friday evening.
Under the seeding system used by Fifa, England came out second to Brazil while Italy narrowly beat the US into eighth.
Fifa's ranking co-effiecient saw performances at the 2002 World Cup, when England reached the quarter-finals, given twice as much weight as at 1998.
They also took into account a country's world ranking over the last three years.
"It's excellent news," Eriksson told the English Football Association website.
"I think it's right too. We are one of the teams that have the potential to do very well in Germany and we have some of the best players in the world.
"Finishing top of our qualification group with the second best record in the whole of Europe was a big achievement and I'm sure that has played a part in this decision."
Serbia & Montenegro were the lowest placed European qualifier and have been placed in a special pot to stop three countries from the zone being in the same group.
For the draw on Friday, around 3,700 people will be present in the auditorium at the huge trade fair hall in Leipzig's Neue Messe exhibition centre.
It is being transformed into a football stadium for the occasion.
The World Cup finals in Germany begins on 9 June 2006 and the final takes place in Munich on 9 July.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POT ONE
Germany (hosts)
Brazil (holders)
Argentina
England
France
Italy
Mexico
Spain
POT TWO
Australia
Angola
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Togo
Tunisia
Ecuador
Paraguay
POT THREE
Croatia
Czech Republic
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
POT FOUR
Iran
Japan
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Costa Rica
Trinidad & Tobago
US
Special pot: Sebria & Montenegro
-
Shhh, don't tell anybody about the US squad almost being a seeded team. Americans like a winner and people might start watching.
Ah, who am I kidding? It's still soccer and I prefer the bars with less people in them, especially fewer less knowledgable people.
More importantly Mank, FIFA decided squads for the World Cup must be submitted by May 15 and no player will be allowed to appear for their clubs afterwards. The only exception is the Champions League Final - that means no World Cup players in the FA Cup Final.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Shhh, don't tell anybody about the US squad almost being a seeded team. Americans like a winner and people might start watching.
Ah, who am I kidding? It's still soccer and I prefer the bars with less people in them, especially fewer less knowledgable people.
More importantly Mank, FIFA decided squads for the World Cup must be submitted by May 15 and no player will be allowed to appear for their clubs afterwards. The only exception is the Champions League Final - that means no World Cup players in the FA Cup Final.
It's impressive the USA is seeded 9th....and got just pipped out of the top 8 by Italy. How far they have come in recent years.
As for the FA Cup final....does anyone really care about that one anymore? It's just one rung up the ladder from the Carling Cup these days. Still a bollocks though. I wonder if they change the FA cup schedule, or just keep it as is to let the smaller teams go for it, because the big ones won't even try at this point. What's the point in going through all the rounds for you to be prevented from fielding your strongest team in the final.
-
This thing is a circus. How can Spain be a top seed? They had to play to these last minute playoffs against Slovakia. The criteria used by FIFA are a complete joke. The funniest thing though was the Trinidad Bahrein and Uruguay Australia games in four days including all these trips to the other side of the world.
I don't care at all about the World Cup. Champions League is the one.
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
I don't care at all about the World Cup. Champions League is the one.
I wonder why that is! :roll:
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
I don't care at all about the World Cup. Champions League is the one.
I wonder why that is! :roll: [/b]
Yes, maybe the day Catalunya has its own team I will be more interested in the World Cup.
It's not that I don't care at all, just that I don't have a team I support as much as I support Barça. This time, I will go with Trinidad and Tobago and the African Teams.
-
Some pleasant news!
Manchester United crashed out of the Champions League and had the safety net of the UEFA Cup ripped away as well as they went down 2-1 to Benfica.
-
Sorry for Manchester United. Now, I don't want to see Chelsea or Bayern against Barça in the round of 16.
Group A
1. Juventus
2. Bayern Munich
Group B
1. Arsenal
2. Ajax
Group C
1. Barcelona
2. Werder Bremen
Group D
1. Villareal
2. Benfica
Group E
1. Milan
2. PSV Eindhoven
Group F
1. Lyon
2. Madrid
Group G
1. Liverpool
2. Chelsea
Group H
1. Inter Milan
2. Glasgow Rangers
-
US beats Mexico to make the '02 quarters...yeah, '98 was a disgrace, but did Mexico make it that much further
then, we beat them in qualifying, are ahead of them in the world rankings....yet, they get seeded, we dont
I call bullshit
-
I wonder what the Glazer boys had to say when they went in the United locker room after the debacle!!!! ;)
In reality, I was thinking the best thing for United would be third and then go and win the UEFA Cup, because that was their only hope of silverware this season......having said that, I am an optimistic minded die-hard, (even after the Glazers) so they will now be able to concentrate on winning the premiership by not having to look at the Champions League schedule to see which players to rest the week before a champs league match.
Ferdinand, Ronaldo, RVN and O'Shea to go in the January window, buy a new centre back then bank the rest of the money so the new manager can buy in the summer. Move Smith up front with Rooney and put Park in Ronaldo's position every game...Ole on the bench as a super sub. That would be my plan.
-
Where will be the place (bar/restaurant) to see the games in DC next summer?
that is if I dont make the team first..
-
Originally posted by freddyadu:
Where will be the place (bar/restaurant) to see the games in DC next summer?
that is if I dont make the team first..
I would say the Lucky Bar on Connecticut Ave. is probably your best chance.
-
Goleo and Pille The Erudite Ball (http://www.expertfootball.com/competition/germany2006/mascot.php)... these might very well be the worst mascots ever. Only the Germans could come up with something so terribly lame.
-
Originally posted by pip:
Goleo and Pille The Erudite Ball (http://www.expertfootball.com/competition/germany2006/mascot.php)... these might very well be the worst mascots ever. Only the Germans could come up with something so terribly lame.
I guess you haven't seen the mascots for the Turin Olympics:
<img src="http://www.olympic.org/common/images/games/torino/v_mascotte_400.gif" alt=" - " />
"Neve": she is a gentle, kind and elegant snowball; "Gliz": he is a lively, playful ice cube. They are the two symbolic characters of the XX Olympic Winter Games. They complement each other and personify the very essence of winter sports.
The mascots were born from the pencil of Pedro Albuquerque, a 38-year old Portuguese designer who won the international competition launched by the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games in Turin (TOROC) on 25 March 2003. He was inspired by his passion for water and the incredible shapes this element takes on when it is transformed into snow or ice; by his research into the Italian spirit and the places hosting the Olympic Games; by the Olympic values; and by the technical characteristics of the various sporting disciplines of the Games.
"Neve" and "Gliz" reflect the spirit of the Italian Olympic event: passion, enthusiasm, culture, elegance, and love of the environment and of sport. They are the symbol of a young generation that is full of life and energy.
http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/torino/index_uk.asp (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/torino/index_uk.asp)
-
The draw is this evening...what's the odds Germany (hosts) and Brasil (cos they're Brasil) get 'drawn' in weak groups.
-
Any top seed that can avoid being drawn against the US, Holland or the Czechs will have had a good draw.
-
Seriously, can't we just get this started??!?!?!?
You Euros and all of your "drama" - it's very queenie if you ask me.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
You Euros and all of your "drama" - it's very queenie if you ask me.
Which reminds me, is Heidi Klum the only hot german woman? And how did she escape the rule in Germany where women are hot until they turn 18 and then slowly begin to turn into men.
It's as startling as what happens in Austin when hot chicks graduate from college and turn in to "fine Dallas women."
-
Claudia Schiffer is German
2 supermodels from a country is no bad going.
-
I dig that woman from Run Lola Run.
-
The US is screwed....Italy and the Czech Republic!
GROUP A
Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador
GROUP B
England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden
GROUP C
Argentina
Ivory Coast
Serbia & Montenegro
Holland
GROUP D
Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal
GROUP E
Italy
Ghana
USA
Czech Republic
GROUP F
Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan
GROUP G
France
Switzerland
South Korea
Togo
GROUP H
Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia
-
Maria Schneider from Last Tango in Paris was hot.
And my wife is part German, and she's hot.
-
Yeah, looks like a tough road ahead for the US. England should make it through okay. Too bad I can't support T&T in all of their matches.
-
Looking forward to seeing the Dutch take on Argentina too!
-
Rhett, post a picture of your wife and let us decide.
Ghana can also beat the US. England might be out. My teams: Ghana and Togo.
-
weren't england and sweden paired up in 02?
-
Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
weren't england and sweden paired up in 02?
Yep.
A 1-1 draw. England hasn't beaten Sweden since the 60's - 11 straight matches (with only 7 goals scored in those matches).
-
Why do I need you to decide if she's hot? I've already decided for myself.
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Rhett, post a picture of your wife and let us decide.
Ghana can also beat the US. England might be out. My teams: Ghana and Togo.
-
Originally posted by stu47:
US beats Mexico to make the '02 quarters...
I call bullshit
How important is that now?
The US faces Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic.
Mexico faces Iran, Angola and Portugal.
Disappointing.
-
Originally posted by Etan de Balzac, Footie Ball Player:
Why do I need you to decide if she's hot? I've already decided for myself.
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Rhett, post a picture of your wife and let us decide.
Ghana can also beat the US. England might be out. My teams: Ghana and Togo.
[/b]
We all have seen pictures of Claudia Shiffer, Heidi Klum, and all of us have seen Run Lola Run and remember the actress.
-
Czech Republic on June 12 at Gelsenkirchen.
Italy on June 17 at Kaiserslautern
Ghana on June 22 at Nuremberg.
What the hell am I gonna do inthese cities when the games not on?
Thankfully, I should be surrounded by plenty of Italian and Czech women....
-
The US is obviously in a bit of trouble...
I think the team that should be the most pleased is Portugal...they should easily make the second round. I think they will be a sleeper in this Cup--that is, if you can ever call Portugal a sleeper.
I find this whole process to be a joke...a formula that takes the tournament from 8 years ago into consideration? The whole thing should be based on world rankings after the qualification stages. Or, at least create four pools based on the rankings and then randomly select.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Czech Republic on June 12 at Gelsenkirchen.
Italy on June 17 at Kaiserslautern
Ghana on June 22 at Nuremberg.
What the hell am I gonna do inthese cities when the games not on?
Thankfully, I should be surrounded by plenty of Italian and Czech women....
you going smackie? pretty cool...
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Czech Republic on June 12 at Gelsenkirchen.
Italy on June 17 at Kaiserslautern
Ghana on June 22 at Nuremberg.
What the hell am I gonna do inthese cities when the games not on?
Thankfully, I should be surrounded by plenty of Italian and Czech women....
Fortunately, Gelsenkirchen is close to Cologne and Nuremberg is somewhat close to Munich so you don't necessarily have to hang out in those cities. Kaiserslautern isn't far from Frankfurt, but I'm not sure if that's much of an improvement. Do you have tickets already? I tried and failed the last time around but I'll be making another attempt next week.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Yep.
thought so, i was in london for that match ... with the world cup and the queen's jubilee, it was a crazy week
-
I call double bullshit now...the mexican draw (which should of been the US) is a joke....the portugese probably will win the group, but angola and iran
instead, US is in the group of death (not a "traditional" group of death, but hell, you have at least one good team that wont go through in it)
-
I am. My brother-in-law and I have planning this for sometime. Should be a blast. We're hoping to get tickets for the US matches through the US distribution next week, but we also have corporate tickets for the some of the quarters and semi's locked up, but not knowing what teams, it's a crap shoot.
Good luck on getting tix pip - I hope you're able to get some.
-
<img src="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dirty.sanchez/carr.gif" alt=" - " />
-
Good Luck getting tickets. Iam going the same route (US Soccer), but unfortunately will only be able to attend the USA - Ghana match. BY then it, probably won't matter for the US
Originally posted by vansmack:
I am. My brother-in-law and I have planning this for sometime. Should be a blast. We're hoping to get tickets for the US matches through the US distribution next week, but we also have corporate tickets for the some of the quarters and semi's locked up, but not knowing what teams, it's a crap shoot.
Good luck on getting tix pip - I hope you're able to get some.
-
I got my application faxed in to US Soccer about an hour ago. I asked for a pair of tickets to US-Czech Republic and US-Italy. I'll be a little bit anxious until I hear back from them. They claim it's first come, first serve so I expect my chances are pretty good.
-
Originally posted by pip:
I got my application faxed in to US Soccer about an hour ago. I asked for a pair of tickets to US-Czech Republic and US-Italy. I'll be a little bit anxious until I hear back from them. They claim it's first come, first serve so I expect my chances are pretty good.
Thats impressive, my fax didn't go through until almost midnight PT.
I talked to my buddy at US Soccer, and he said that if you get your request in within the first week, you should get tickets.
-
Ghana plan Adu swoop
Piers Edwards
BBC Sport
Ghana are going to make a dramatic bid to lure teenage star Freddy Adu into representing them at next year's World Cup.
The 16-year-old currently plays for the United States at youth level but is Ghanaian by birth. Yet he can switch nationalities because Fifa allow a player to play for one team at youth level and another at senior level as long as he makes the change before the age of 21.
Now the Black Stars aim to convince the teenager to play for them at not only the World Cup but next month's Nations Cup as well.
"We have decided to contact Adu to ask him to decide whether he would like to play for Ghana or the United States," Black Stars coach Ratomir Dujkovic told BBC Sport.
"In the coming days, he will be contacted by the football association."
The Ghana Football Association is planning their raid despite the fact that Adu is reportedly unwilling to play for anyone other than the United States.
Earlier this year, the DC United star told the Washington Post newspaper that he would turn down a proposal from Ghana if they asked him to play at the World Cup.
"We have just over a month to persuade him to come," Dujkovic explained.
"I believe that if has sentiment for Ghana, he will play for the Black Stars."
"And playing at the World Cup would be a big opportunity for him to show the rest of the world, not just America, that he is a great footballer."
Ghana's bid to snatch Adu from America is audacious because the Americans are going to be one of their opponents at Germany 2006.
At last Friday's draw in Leipzig, the two teams were paired together in Group E along with Italy and the Czech Republic.
Adu's motherland will take on his adopted country on 22 June in Nuremberg.
The teenage prodigy was born in Ghana but left at the age of eight when his mother won an immigrant visa to America in the Green Card lottery.
Within a few years, he was playing for America's Under-17 team, helping them reach the quarter-finals of the World Championships in 2003.
Should Adu choose to play for Ghana at senior level, Fifa rules state that he would not be allowed to turn out for the U.S. ever again.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by pip:
I got my application faxed in to US Soccer about an hour ago. I asked for a pair of tickets to US-Czech Republic and US-Italy. I'll be a little bit anxious until I hear back from them. They claim it's first come, first serve so I expect my chances are pretty good.
Thats impressive, my fax didn't go through until almost midnight PT.
I talked to my buddy at US Soccer, and he said that if you get your request in within the first week, you should get tickets. [/b]
That's good news! Unfortunately, I can't get to Germany in time to see either the Italians or the Czechs, so it's Ghana for me.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Ghana plan Adu swoop
I think the chances of Freddy playing for Ghana are tiny. It would cost him way too much in endorsement money, and Nike would never allow it. Still, you can't blame Ghana for trying.
-
Matthaus denies World Cup draw conspiracy theory
December 12, 2005
BERLIN (AFP) - West Germany's 1990 World Cup winning captain Lothar Matthaus has hit back at a report in Italy that he manipulated Friday's 2006 World Cup draw.
Matthaus had the task of drawing teams from Pot Four and Italian television channel Sky Italia reportedly accused him of picking up a ball for Italy's group before putting it back into the bowl to pull out another instead.
The television channel claimed prepared hot and cold balls allowed Matthaus to know who he was picking, as he pulled out the United States, seventh in the FIFA rankings, for Italy's group.
"The Italians are mad if they think that," former Inter Milan star Matthaus informed Bild daily.
"I had no idea which ball corresponded to which team. That is utter nonsense."
Italy were handed a tough draw for the 2006 World Cup finals, running from June 9 until July 9, with the Czech Republic, Ghana and the United States their three opponents in Group E.
-
Originally posted by pip:
Originally posted by vansmack:
Ghana plan Adu swoop
I think the chances of Freddy playing for Ghana are tiny. It would cost him way too much in endorsement money, and Nike would never allow it. Still, you can't blame Ghana for trying. [/b]
You never know....Giggsy chose Wales when he could've played for England! ;)
-
Originally posted by pip:
Italy were handed a tough draw for the 2006 World Cup finals, running from June 9 until July 9, with the Czech Republic, Ghana and the United States their three opponents in Group E.
How far have we come if the Italians are considering drawing the US a tough draw?
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
You never know....Giggsy chose Wales when he could've played for England! ;)
Giggs said: `I'd rather go through my entire career without qualifying for a major championships than play for a country where I wasn't born and neither I or either of my parents had anything to do with. That's just stupid.'
`The problem came because I played for England Schoolboys. But that was because I went to school in England, no other reason, that was the criteria for selection, not where you were born.
`What has bugged me more than anything in my career is to keep on hearing people say I chose to play for Wales. I still hear it, people discussing it on the radio even now, it's very, very annoying for me.
`It's the question that has bugged me most for the last 10 years or so. I am Welsh, 100 percent. End of story. Both my parents and all my grandparents are Welsh. It's as simple as that, it's impossible for me to play for England.'
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
You never know....Giggsy chose Wales when he could've played for England! ;)
Giggs said: `I'd rather go through my entire career without qualifying for a major championships than play for a country where I wasn't born and neither I or either of my parents had anything to do with. That's just stupid.'
`The problem came because I played for England Schoolboys. But that was because I went to school in England, no other reason, that was the criteria for selection, not where you were born.
`What has bugged me more than anything in my career is to keep on hearing people say I chose to play for Wales. I still hear it, people discussing it on the radio even now, it's very, very annoying for me.
`It's the question that has bugged me most for the last 10 years or so. I am Welsh, 100 percent. End of story. Both my parents and all my grandparents are Welsh. It's as simple as that, it's impossible for me to play for England.' [/b]
err smackie...what do you think the ;) was for?
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
;)
I always assumed that meant that you were drinking while typing that message.
-
Keano signs for Celtic until June 2007!
I for one wish him well in the Mickey MacMouse league.
-
CHELSEA v Barcelona
Real Madrid v ARSENAL
Werder Bremen v Juventus
Bayern Munich v AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven v Lyon
Ajax v Inter Milan
Benfica v LIVERPOOL
RANGERS v Villarreal
Bye bye chelski...bye bye arseholes
I would like to see Ajax go all the way, but Barca deserve it being the best Europe has to offer. Liverscum will never repeat the fluke they did last year and Real Madrid are the only team in Europe more eff'd up as an organization than Man Utd.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
CHELSEA v Barcelona
Real Madrid v ARSENAL
Werder Bremen v Juventus
Bayern Munich v AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven v Lyon
Ajax v Inter Milan
Benfica v LIVERPOOL
RANGERS v Villarreal
Bye bye chelski...bye bye arseholes
I would like to see Ajax go all the way, but Barca deserve it being the best Europe has to offer. Liverscum will never repeat the fluke they did last year and Real Madrid are the only team in Europe more eff'd up as an organization than Man Utd.
You know as much about football as you do music. Liverpool is going for number 6!!!!!!
Happy Christmas anyway. :)
-
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
CHELSEA v Barcelona
Real Madrid v ARSENAL
Werder Bremen v Juventus
Bayern Munich v AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven v Lyon
Ajax v Inter Milan
Benfica v LIVERPOOL
RANGERS v Villarreal
Bye bye chelski...bye bye arseholes
I would like to see Ajax go all the way, but Barca deserve it being the best Europe has to offer. Liverscum will never repeat the fluke they did last year and Real Madrid are the only team in Europe more eff'd up as an organization than Man Utd.
You know as much about football as you do music. Liverpool is going for number 6!!!!!!
Happy Christmas anyway. :) [/b]
errr...well done in that world club thing! :p
Happy christmas to you and yours too!
-
Chuck Norris doesn't understand why you should consult your doctor if your erection lasts for more than 4 hours. His erections have been known to last for up to 15 days.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
CHELSEA v Barcelona
Real Madrid v ARSENAL
Werder Bremen v Juventus
Bayern Munich v AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven v Lyon
Ajax v Inter Milan
Benfica v LIVERPOOL
RANGERS v Villarreal
Bye bye chelski...bye bye arseholes
I would like to see Ajax go all the way, but Barca deserve it being the best Europe has to offer. Liverscum will never repeat the fluke they did last year and Real Madrid are the only team in Europe more eff'd up as an organization than Man Utd.
I am scared about Chelsea. Mankie, did you see the game yesterday against Arsenal? Were they that superior? As for Manchester, you seem the only ones close enough to have chances of winning the premiership, good luck there.
-
<img src="http://spadespader.com/images2/chuck%20card.JPG" alt=" - " />
Chuck Norris recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
CHELSEA v Barcelona
Real Madrid v ARSENAL
Werder Bremen v Juventus
Bayern Munich v AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven v Lyon
Ajax v Inter Milan
Benfica v LIVERPOOL
RANGERS v Villarreal
Bye bye chelski...bye bye arseholes
I would like to see Ajax go all the way, but Barca deserve it being the best Europe has to offer. Liverscum will never repeat the fluke they did last year and Real Madrid are the only team in Europe more eff'd up as an organization than Man Utd.
I am scared about Chelsea. Mankie, did you see the game yesterday against Arsenal? Were they that superior? As for Manchester, you seem the only ones close enough to have chances of winning the premiership, good luck there. [/b]
I didn't see the game yesterday, but it's very easy to beat Arseholes if you just play a more physical game because they are a bunch of french girlie-men. To beat chelski you simply give them no time on the ball or they'll kill you, not unlike the Spanish teams really. Tight man to man marking and chelski are f*ucked.
Barca will beat chelski, not easily, but they'll beat them. They can't go to a team like Barca and expect to win a low scoring game, which is their modus operandi in the premier league.
-
Someone sum up this thread for me: is soccer over yet?
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
CHELSEA v Barcelona
Real Madrid v ARSENAL
Werder Bremen v Juventus
Bayern Munich v AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven v Lyon
Ajax v Inter Milan
Benfica v LIVERPOOL
RANGERS v Villarreal
Bye bye chelski...bye bye arseholes
I would like to see Ajax go all the way, but Barca deserve it being the best Europe has to offer. Liverscum will never repeat the fluke they did last year and Real Madrid are the only team in Europe more eff'd up as an organization than Man Utd.
I am scared about Chelsea. Mankie, did you see the game yesterday against Arsenal? Were they that superior? As for Manchester, you seem the only ones close enough to have chances of winning the premiership, good luck there. [/b]
Mark my words, at the end of this season, Man B will be behind both Chelsea and Liverpool. Before the loss to Sao Paulo (if you saw the match, you know who the better team was on that day), Liverpool had 11 clean sheets in a row. Even a blind man can see that takes more than luck! Why do I think some of you on this board will be eating crow again? You must like the taste of it. :D
-
Hey boys, here's the perfect stocking stuffer for anyone that appreciates winning football teams! Maybe in 2007? :p
<img src="http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00081MWWA.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" alt=" - " />
-
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
[/b]
Before the loss to Sao Paulo (if you saw the match, you know who the better team was on that day), :D [/b]
Milan were by far the better team in the Champions League final....what's your point?
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
[/b]
Before the loss to Sao Paulo (if you saw the match, you know who the better team was on that day), :D [/b]
Milan were by far the better team in the Champions League final....what's your point? [/b]
My point is, that unlike those thuggish underachievers at Old Trafford who crashed and burned in November (this is becoming a habit), Liverpool is still playing Champions League football for 2006. How sweet is that, mate?
-
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
[/b]
Before the loss to Sao Paulo (if you saw the match, you know who the better team was on that day), :D [/b]
Milan were by far the better team in the Champions League final....what's your point? [/b]
My point is, that unlike those thuggish underachievers at Old Trafford who crashed and burned in November (this is becoming a habit), Liverpool is still playing Champions League football for 2006. How sweet is that, mate? [/b]
They bent the rules for scum to even be in the competition so I expect they will continue to bend the rules to keep them in it....and how is it a habit when MANCHESTER UNITED have missed the knock out stage of the competition for the first time in 10 years at least!
Answer me this...if scum are not exempt from playing teams from the same country, then what happens to the team that they are drawn against? Aren't they supposed to be exempt from playing teams from the same country???? Mind you, Arseholes and Chelski are hardly Engish so it's irrelevant now the only real English team are out. Looking at the scum squad and manager they should be exempt from playing spanish teams really.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
[/b]
Before the loss to Sao Paulo (if you saw the match, you know who the better team was on that day), :(
-
Merry christmas to you..Roy Keane is #1 in Ireland...have you heard it yet? pm me an email addie and I'll send it to you if not.....today if poss or you won't get it till next year. :D
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
I talked to my buddy at US Soccer, and he said that if you get your request in within the first week, you should get tickets.
The first few days should be still be ok, but, suprsingly, not every US Soccer registered fan is going to get tickets. The announcement will come before the 14th so you can still try for FIFA tickets (good luck with that).
Let me know how you do...
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by vansmack:
I talked to my buddy at US Soccer, and he said that if you get your request in within the first week, you should get tickets.
The first few days should be still be ok, but, suprsingly, not every US Soccer registered fan is going to get tickets. The announcement will come before the 14th so you can still try for FIFA tickets (good luck with that).
Let me know how you do... [/b]
I've been checking my email every 30 seconds all day waiting for some news. Today might be the least productive day at work ever.
-
Originally posted by pip:
I've been checking my email every 30 seconds all day waiting for some news. Today might be the least productive day at work ever.
Yep, Messenger dings and let me know when there is new mail. Everytime it dings, I look to see if it's US Soccer, but it hasn't been yet.
-
I got that previous email from US soccer about receiving an email today pretty late in the day, so I figure I'll have to be checking later tonight to see if I got tickets.
-
Originally posted by ChampionshipVinyl:
I got that previous email from US soccer about receiving an email today pretty late in the day, so I figure I'll have to be checking later tonight to see if I got tickets.
3:21 PM PT for me yesterday. That's less then 30 minutes away....not that I'm counting or anything.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by ChampionshipVinyl:
I got that previous email from US soccer about receiving an email today pretty late in the day, so I figure I'll have to be checking later tonight to see if I got tickets.
3:21 PM PT for me yesterday. That's less then 30 minutes away....not that I'm counting or anything. [/b]
I got the email at 5:54 PM EST yesterday. I just looked at it again. It doesn't actually say we'll be finding out today, just "on or before January 14th". This is aggravating. My credit card hasn't been charged yet either. I'm not sure if that's a bad sign or not.
-
Alright, I'm not waiting any longer. I'll post tomorrow morning if I get anything overnight.
-
Anyone hear anything yet? I checked at 4:30 and still had not heard one way or the other.
-
Originally posted by ChampionshipVinyl:
Anyone hear anything yet? I checked at 4:30 and still had not heard one way or the other.
Nope.
But I did see that the Holland/Argentina game is not oversold on Fifa.com so I put myself in the lottery over there.
I also started to create a Google Earth file for the tourney, but it was already done. (http://www.lastort.com/GoogleEarth/WorldCup2006Stadiums.kmz) It's sweet.
-
They're going out. I've only seen waiting list thus far.
I have not recieved an email yet, nor has my brother in law.
-
I saw the same thing on some soccer related message boards. I'm still waiting for my email too.
-
I have 2 tickets for all 3 US matches!!!!!!!
-
I'll see you in Germany! I've got 2 tickets for USA-Czech Republic and 2 for USA-Italy!!!
-
Originally posted by pip:
I'll see you in Germany! I've got 2 tickets for USA-Czech Republic and 2 for USA-Italy!!!
Right on!!! I'll share my intinerary as we get closer and get it all worked out. My brother in law hasn't heard yet, and his app was in much earlier then mine.
I also went over to fifa.com to see if I could score some lottery style tickets to other matches (England and Holland mostly). Just don't ask for more US tickets - you'll get bumped if you've already got tickets.
-
It's time to revive this thread. I watch the commercials over and over again - especially the FIFA commercial with U2 and Bono.
My tickets arrive tomorrow. I'm flying into Frankfurt for the England match on June 10. It's all I can think about really.
-
What do the England fans think about Sven's choices for the squad?
-
With Rooney being an injury concern, the inclusion of Walcott is shocking, to put it mildly. I guess Sven thinks Rooney will be alright.
I think Hargreaves was the right choice.
-
Originally posted by You go, Judge Alito:
What do the England fans think about Sven's choices for the squad?
There's always World Cup 2010!!!
-
Hopefully England will prove to be strong enough in the middle and at the back to compensate for the lack of depth up front.
I also think Hargreaves is an okay choice. It's too bad Sven didn't use the same logic elsewhere.
-
I actually think Crouch will have a huge WC. Few teams will have experience defending anyone with his freakish size.
Ignoring Bent is a horrible decision.
-
Okay....
Englands strike force
Owen - Recovering from foot injury. Does anybody remember Beckham in Japan/S. Korea?
Rooney - On crutches with 5 weeks to go.
Crouch - Crap! They use him for his height, Which is great if he's playing for Celtic....Boston Celtic that is. Let's see if Manut Bol has an English granny while we're at it huh?
Walcott - Who the fuck is he? (I know who he is, I'm being sarcastic) He might be the next big thing, but Sven hasn't even seen the kid play and he's put him in the squad. He hasn't even played a game for his club yet for crying out loud. (The reason Wenger hasn't started him is very simple...he's ENGLISH)
Out of those four I'd probably go with Rooney on crutches in my starting line up, just behind Owen in his walking cast.
Why in God's name is Kieran Richardson not in the squad? That kid is incredible and HAS played for his club team. (Man of the match at the weekend actually)
I can't help but think Sven is taking the piss seeing as he's out on his arse after the tournament. They should've hoofed him before the competition and given the job to McClaren a couple of months ago. He's already assistant so it would be very little disruption.
I predict one thing that will not be said from the commentators at England games.
"Gerrard is certainly playing with the same heart and enthusiasm as he does for his beloved Liverpool"
Right, back to Keano's testimonial...see ya!
-
This is an interesting article.
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-worldspain_world_cup_feature&prov=reuters&type=lgns (http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-worldspain_world_cup_feature&prov=reuters&type=lgns)
Spain still struggling to find national identity
By Simon Baskett
MADRID, May 4 (Reuters) - Spain is a country obsessed with soccer known as "el deporte rey" or the king of sports.
Four of the best-selling daily papers are dedicated almost exclusively to the sport, it dominates the television schedules and provides the leading topic of conversation in every bar from Bilbao to Barcelona.
Yet despite the almost insatiable appetite for the game, the Spain side has never been able to inspire the sort of excitement, emotion and loyalty that national teams enjoy in other countries.
In England, Brazil and Argentina life comes to a virtual standstill during the World Cup, in Spain it continues pretty much as normal.
A game involving "la seleccion" generates only a fraction of the interest of the twice yearly "clasico" between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
So why are the Spanish unmoved by their national team?
Part of the explanation is to be found in the powerful regional divisions within the country.
Many of its inhabitants see themselves as Basque or Catalan or even Galician rather than Spanish and practically every region has its own representative team that plays at least one international friendly a year.
When Catalunya play, the Nou Camp is filled to the brim in an emotive display of nationalist sentiment and it is the same when the Basque select are on display at San Mames.
But the Spanish national team has not dared play at the Barcelona stadium since 1987 and last visited the Basque country 20 years before that. It would simply be too much like playing an away match.
POLITICAL BAGGAGE
It is hard to imagine another country where a debate could occur about whether or not a footballer might want to play for the national team because of his political views, but that is the case with Barca defender Oleguer, a self-professed Catalan nationalist.
The Spanish flag carries so much political baggage with it that Chelsea's Basque defender Asier del Horno was reported to be concerned about being photographed next to it when he won his first call-up for the national side.
It is perhaps a blessing in disguise that the present Spanish national anthem has no words as singing it would be fraught with danger for some players.
"Because there is no consensus over the nature of the Spanish state, there is no consensus over the national team," says El Pais sports correspondent Diego Torres.
"Spanish players are not as proud as other national team players when they pull on the national shirt and that pride is a fundamental ingredient in the success of any national side."
Regional divisions are inextricably linked to the unchallenged supremacy of club over country in Spain with both Barca and Real drawing far more interest than the national team,
"In all countries there are strong clubs, but here the clubs also represent powerful political interests and that is the key," says Torres.
"Barca, for example, is more than a club, it represents Catalan identity. This sometimes prevents players from integrating fully into the national side.
"In other countries players belong to clubs, but not to a region or a way of life as many do here. It is very difficult to confront this matter, however, as it is a taboo in Spain."
MEDIA OBSESSION
The media obsession with the big two sides means that whenever the national team gives a news conference questions are about club matters rather than the international clash.
There is uproar whenever a Spain game takes place in the same week as the two teams meet as it disrupts preparations for "el clasico".
The announcement of the Spain squad rarely makes the front pages of the sports press and even during the World Cup, speculation about future signings will often take precedence over the national team's fortunes.
But regional divisions alone do not explain everything. Failure on the international stage is the other key ingredient that has prevented the national team from inspiring real enthusiasm from amongst the country's football fans.
Victory in the 1964 European Championship and a runners-up spot in the same tournament 20 years later are the country's only two significant achievements, while they have not got past the quarter-finals of the World Cup since 1950.
A string of disappointments have eroded loyalty to the national side.
Fans and commentators talk of a quarter-final jinx and have even tried to find comfort in conspiracy theories in a bid to explain why one of the traditional powerhouses of European football has failed to make its mark at an international tournament.
Triumph at the World Cup would almost certainly break the shackles that have restricted the national side for so long.
"Success could be the catalyst for change," says Torres. "If Spain achieves something important it will infect the people and help create an identity for the national team. It will also affect the clubs as say it did in France or Italy.
"Spain and Italy are similar in many ways, but in Italy the success of the national team has made it a unifying factor, in Spain its failure has helped maintain the divisions."
Updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 9:00 pm EDT
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
This is an interesting article.
very interesting, lends more credence to the football as global politics angle that so many like to talk about ... although i'm always a bit wary of "impartial" journalism that looks like the conclusion of the article was already in mind before researching/writing the piece, comes off more like an editorial
-
I think the exact same situation would happen in the UK if there was a "Britain" rather than England, Scotland...Wales...N. Ireland.
I for one could not support a team that had some stinking jock playing for it.
On the other hand, if there was a "Britain" at least the lesser countries might qualify for a tournament once in a while!
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
I for one could not support a team that had some stinking jock playing for it.
You wouldn't trade your identity for Giggsy to be your left wing in 1998, 2002 and 2006?
I highly doubt that.
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Spain still struggling to find national identity...
...and the Semi-final round.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
I watch the commercials over and over again - especially the FIFA commercial with U2 and Bono.
The One Goal Commercials are on the web. Well 3 of 4 of them anyway.
http://soccernet.com/onegame/ (http://soccernet.com/onegame/)
Click enter. Move the links at the bottom to see the different spots.
The first one is fairly popular during sporting event on ESPN and ABC.
The second one is touching, about the Ivory Coast calling a truce to their civil war until after the world cup.
The third one, Scotland as described by Adam Clayton), Mankie will truly appreciate.
The fourth one is not up yet.
And by the way ?? 28 days, 7 hours.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
I for one could not support a team that had some stinking jock playing for it.
You wouldn't trade your identity for Giggsy to be your left wing in 1998, 2002 and 2006?
I highly doubt that. [/b]
Giggsy is Welsh, not a stinking jock!
-
Anyone around here know who won the FA Cup yesterday? Just another trophy for the Reds. How are things in Manchester?
-
Liverpool won on penalties
-
Originally posted by stu47:
Liverpool won on penalties
Ah Liverpool....that has a nice ring to it.
-
Gerrard tied it up in stoppage time.
It made Sportscenter's Top 10. It must've been a slow day stateside with the soccer highlights making the show.
-
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
How are things in Manchester?
You tell me:
1 Chelsea 91
2 Man Utd 83
3 Liverpool 82
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
How are things in Manchester?
You tell me:
1 Chelsea 91
2 Man Utd 83
3 Liverpool 82 [/b]
Yeah, if it weren't for that Scouser playing for Man B, they would have been behind Everton (the pride of Merseyside) in the Primiership.
-
Originally posted by stu47:
Liverpool won on penalties
they won a trophy on penalties. Oh, how surprising and Liverscum-like....
:roll:
I hope scum enjoy their trip to a country ending in 'stan' to 'qualify' for the Champs league.
At least we have a real scouser on our team...from the blue side of the town.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Originally posted by stu47:
Liverpool won on penalties
they won a trophy on penalties. Oh, how surprising and Liverscum-like....
:roll:
I hope scum enjoy their trip to a country ending in 'stan' to 'qualify' for the Champs league.
At least we have a real scouser on our team...from the blue side of the town. [/b]
How many trophies did the Bucs win this year? Was it the same as last year? You'll never walk alone in Liverpool...matie!
-
Originally posted by PsuedoScouseWannabe:
How many trophies did the Bucs win this year?
the NFC South Division Title ... we'll share it with ManU
-
American Soccer Fans Prepare For World Cup By Pushing Each Other Through Chain-Link Fences
May 18, 2006
CHICAGO??Nineteen soccer fans have been killed and 73 injured in a series of practice soccer riots conducted to prepare for the June 9 opening of the World Cup, in which Chicago-area fans took turns crushing each other against chain-link fences in local parks, soccer fields, and vacant lots.
"Too many Americans think of 'European football' as an endless series of passes, an arbitrary and unfathomable penalty system, and little if any scoring," said 28-year-old hooligan-in-training Alec Murrow. "While those are important traditions, there's much more to the way the rest of the world celebrates the Beautiful Game, such as rushing the field if your team is losing, grunting like apes when a black player has the ball, and beating supporters of other clubs half to death in the streets."
The rioters, all of whom follow European soccer teams such as Millwall, AC Milan, and Juventus, claimed that casualties would have been higher if not for the difficulty of maiming people without using one's hands.
Linkage (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/48679)
-
Err....runny-catchy anyone?
"Too many Americans think of 'European football' as an endless series of passes, an arbitrary and unfathomable penalty system,
How about hitty-runny?
"very little if any scoring"
As for hooligans, can someone let the morons in Chicago know that is so 1970's...Europe moved on (for the most part)
-
err, mankie.....its the onion...
-
Originally posted by ChampionshipVinyl:
It made Sportscenter's Top 10. It must've been a slow day stateside with the soccer highlights making the show.
Obviously a very, very, very, very slow day.
-
John Cleese: "Don't Mention the War" (http://thefirsteleven.co.uk/)
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Originally posted by ChampionshipVinyl:
It made Sportscenter's Top 10. It must've been a slow day stateside with the soccer highlights making the show.
Obviously a very, very, very, very slow day. [/b]
it doesn't take a genius to see that ESPN is trying to promote their broadcast of the world cup by spoon-feeding some elite european soccer (featuring world cup players) to the states in advance of this summer's games
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
it doesn't take a genius to see that ESPN is trying to promote their broadcast of the world cup by spoon-feeding some elite european soccer (featuring world cup players) to the states in advance of this summer's games [/b]
That's probably when I change the channel.
-
Originally posted by brennser:
err, mankie.....its the onion...
oh, okay....don't get it over here, and even if we did I wouldn't pay the rip-off prices for magazines in this wonderful little Island. "Cycling" has a price of 2quid sterling or something, but by the time it crosses the Irish sea it somehow ends up as 5.90 euro!!! :eek:
BTW, Beckham is going to be the new face of the "Got Milk" campaign over there? I'd say 90% of doodles have no idea who the hell he is.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
BTW, Beckham is going to be the new face of the "Got Milk" campaign over there? I'd say 90% of doodles have no idea who the hell he is. [/QB]
Yes we do, he's married to the hottest spice girl.
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Originally posted by ChampionshipVinyl:
It made Sportscenter's Top 10. It must've been a slow day stateside with the soccer highlights making the show.
Obviously a very, very, very, very slow day. [/b]
it doesn't take a genius to see that ESPN is trying to promote their broadcast of the world cup by spoon-feeding some elite european soccer (featuring world cup players) to the states in advance of this summer's games [/b]
To be fair to ESPN, they have regularly show Champions League games for the past few years.
-
May 30, 2006
England's Soccer Fans Expect the Best but Await the Worst (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/sports/soccer/30soccer.html)
By SARAH LYALL
LONDON, May 29 ?? Will Wayne Rooney's broken foot heal in time for the second round? Can Sven-Goran Eriksson, the laconic Swedish coach, pull his nervous, egotistical players together? Will Melanie Slade, the 17-year-old girlfriend of the 17-year-old forward Theo Walcott, crumble under the pressure of having her figure and her fashion sense dissected daily by the tabloids?
Such are the questions consuming England's soccer team before the World Cup, which begins June 9 in Germany and the outcome of which will lift, or destroy, a nation's fragile sense of self-worth. But amid the soap opera that is soccer here ?? the large personalities, the even larger paychecks, the outfits, the injuries, the tantrums, the expectations ?? lies a hard, sobering truth: England, for all its bluster, has won the tournament only once, in 1966.
That was 40 years ago, when Harold Wilson was prime minister and shillings were a legitimate form of currency. Since that great, shining day, English fans have been forced to hedge their expectations, approaching every World Cup with the brittle hopefulness of the chronically disappointed.
<img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/05/30/sports/30soccer.2_600x354.jpg" alt=" - " />
England hasn't advanced past the quarterfinals of the World Cup since 1990.
"They always invent new arguments to persuade themselves that this time they can do it, when form and logic show that it's highly unlikely," said John Carlin, a British soccer writer and the author of "White Angels: Beckham, Real Madrid and the New Football." Describing the importance of soccer, Carlin quoted Bill Shankly, the former Liverpool coach: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
Soccer here is a three-ring circus, a zoo, a metaphor, a way of life. As a result, England's indifferent record in the sport's showcase event requires its supporters to perform an emotional high-wire act every four years, simultaneously holding two competing notions in their heads.
One: This will be the year their team finally realizes its massive potential and wins.
Two: Their team never wins.
This year, England's chronic angst is compounded by two facts. The first is that the tournament is being played in Germany, home of its bitterest rival and agent of some of its biggest defeats. In 1990, England lost a heartbreaking match to Germany in a penalty-kick shootout in the World Cup semifinals. In fact, after England's greatest victory over Germany ?? its 4-2 extra-time victory in the 1966 final ?? 24 years passed before the English beat the Germans again in a major competition.
The second problem is Rooney's foot. Rooney, a prodigy who rose from the rough streets of Liverpool to become a star at Manchester United, is England's most talented scorer and its greatest hope. But last month he broke a metatarsal bone in his right foot, and on Friday he was ruled out for the first round of matches.
Every day there have been conflicting reports, anguished speculation, hope on the heels of despair. Rooney's coach in Manchester, Sir Alex Ferguson, described it as "folly" and a "wild dream" to expect Rooney to be available, while Eriksson, the England manager, said he was "very positive" that Rooney would play at some point. But Rooney's teammate Gary Neville, who took 21 weeks to recover from a similar injury, said this month that "as it stands, we have to plan for Wayne not being available."
On Monday, The Associated Press reported that Eriksson requested a scan of Rooney's injured foot be moved up one week, to June 7, presumably to give him the opportunity to replace Rooney on England's roster if he will be unable to play. Teams are allowed to replace injured players up to 24 hours before their first game, which in England's case is against Paraguay on June 10.
Meanwhile, Eriksson is to leave his post after the World Cup, throwing the team into further instability. A seemingly inoffensive, even dull, Swede, Eriksson is known as much for his vigorous love life ?? his curious relationship with Nancy Dell'Olio, his indeterminately aged, perma-tanned, tight-outfit-wearing girlfriend, as well as his affairs with various other women, all of whom have been happy to discuss them publicly ?? as he is for the serene blandness of his public remarks and for his managing skills, or lack thereof.
The search for a replacement has been embarrassing. The top choice, the Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, coach of the Portuguese national team, abruptly withdrew his candidacy in April. Scolari had been unnerved, he said, by the 20 British reporters who camped outside his house and rang his doorbell while he was having dinner with his family.
"If that is part of another culture, it's not part of my culture," he said. "I don't like this pressure, so I will definitely not be coach of England."
It was unclear whether that was the whole story ?? and in any case, "the press hadn't even begun to hound him," Simon Hattenstone wrote in The Guardian ?? but Scolari was right to be nervous. British newspapers, and glossy gossip magazines with names like Hello!, Ok!, Heat, More, and Now are obsessed with the team's private lives.
No detail is too small, too mundane or too prurient, from the supposed affair between the team's handsome captain, David Beckham, and his former personal assistant (she sold the story, for hundreds of thousands of dollars); to the relative stylishness and cellulite levels of the players' wives and girlfriends; to the party Beckham and his wife, the former Posh Spice, gave a week ago Sunday night in their country mansion, known as Beckingham Palace.
Despite months of planning and the hiring of a band of Gurkha guards to keep gatecrashers away, the party "barely sputtered into life after a catalogue of disasters," The Daily Mail reported with some glee. "With her dreams crashing around her, Victoria Beckham reportedly flew into a screaming fit."
Meanwhile, the paper said, "injury-hit Rooney appeared sullen and refused to wave at autograph-hunters."
Trying to control the news-media madness, Steve McClaren, hired as Eriksson's replacement after Scolari fell through, told a newspaper that he had had a brief affair with a former secretary ?? placing the story himself so as to avoid its being ferreted out by reporters digging for dirt.
Because whatever dirt there is, English reporters will find it. It was big news several years ago when a birthday party Rooney held for his girlfriend, Coleen McLoughlin, descended into an inebriated brawl, with the couple's relatives openly slugging each other on the dance floor. It was big news, at least in the photographic sense, when defender Rio Ferdinand recently unbraided the manly cornrows he usually wears, unveiling an unruly cloud of cotton-candyesque hair.
The most recent excitement was Eriksson's decision to include on the World Cup roster Walcott, a forward of endless promise who was signed by Arsenal but has yet to play in a Premier League match.
"It's a big gamble, I know it is," Eriksson said, with characteristic understatement. "I am excited to see him. He's a big talent."
As the team prepares for its final few weeks of training, it is trying to put on its happiest face. "I think we will win it," Eriksson said recently.
Evoking a hopeful parallel, The Observer of London described the prediction as "echoing the optimism of Sir Alf Ramsey, who forecast England's 1966 World Cup win from the day he was appointed to manage the team three years earlier."
And Michael Owen, an English striker, beseeched the fans not to treat the team as "glorious losers."
"If you keep drilling that into everyone, that we're perennial losers and all that," he said, "you're not doing any favors for us, that's for certain."
-
Facts of English football.
1) The tabloids will always try to destroy the English football team.
2) With Rooney they are serious contenders for the world cup, without him they have a slim chance, but a chance.
3) If any England games are decided on penalties, discard comment 2! (Lampard missed one tonight against Hungary)
-
Britain's Goal: Hooligans Don't Get Past the Local Pub (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/30/AR2006053001213.html)
Police Collect Passports to Keep Unruly Soccer Fans From the World Cup in Germany
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 31, 2006; Page A14
LONDON, May 30 -- They drink until they vomit, rage bare-chested and pick fistfights with rival fans. Three thousand three hundred of these British soccer "hooligans" were forced to turn in their passports by Tuesday to keep them from causing disruptions at the World Cup tournament, which starts next week in Germany.
In addition to barring Britain's most aggressive fans from traveling abroad, police are also keeping an eye on them at home by demanding that they register at a local police station every day England has a game.
"Ultimately, it's about England's reputation," said a spokeswoman for the British Home Office, who by tradition is not identified by name. "We don't want to export a problem."
Last season, British police arrested 3,600 people for "football-related offenses," typically disorderly behavior while watching a match. Soccer is known as football in most countries outside the United States.
Hooliganism has been a major social problem in England since the 1970s, but after a particularly ugly melee in 2000 in Belgium, laws were passed to ground the increasingly mobile troublemakers.
In that incident, British fans hurled bottles and chairs at German supporters before and after defeating Germany in a match. More than 900 were arrested, and police resorted to a water cannon for crowd control. At the time, Prime Minister Tony Blair called it "mindless thuggery that has brought such shame to the country."
Steven Powell, a spokesman for the Football Supporters' Federation, said his group's motto is "Passion yes, violence no." He said the group in principle supports the "banning orders" that bar disorderly fans from matches for up to 10 years. But he said he was concerned that in a few cases, people are being banned from games because they were drunk, not violent.
"You can be merry and boisterous and no danger to anybody," Powell said. He said he had no problem with the law coming down hard on someone "who bashed someone with a broken bottle." But he said he thought there should be more flexibility in dealing with a fan guilty of little more than "being a bit stupid."
Relatively few die-hard English fans flew to Japan and South Korea for the previous World Cup, in 2002, but 100,000 British fans are expected to make the shorter, cheaper trip to Germany for the games that begin June 9. Those without tickets can watch the matches on huge public screens near the stadiums. British and German fans have an intense rivalry, and that makes English officials, who have seen a recent decline in the violence problem, nervous that it could flare again.
"There is potential for a lot of trouble," said James Bandy, deputy editor of Match, England's biggest soccer weekly. He said he believes most law-abiding fans applaud "anything to stop it."
Stadiums throughout Europe are increasingly well policed, as other countries have seen matches marred by aggressive fans who throw punches and shout racist epithets and other abuse. In England, both uniformed officers and undercover "football intelligence officers" with video cameras routinely scan crowds looking for sparks.
British police also maintain a computerized database of known hooligans, and officers patrol departure lounges of British airports before overseas matches, checking passenger lists against their records. Dozens of British uniformed officers and undercover "hooligan spotters" will fly to Germany to help make sure hyped-up fans stick to singing national anthems and waving flags to show their spirit.
-
8 days and counting....
-
Not what you'll see on Sportscenter, not what you'll read on ESPN.COM, not what you'll read in the New York Times Travel Section.
6 people RVing around Germany going match to match through the first round of the World Cup.
The only web site you'll need to see what's really happening at the World Cup:
http://spaces.msn.com/vansmack (http://spaces.msn.com/vansmack)
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Not what you'll see on Sportscenter, not what you'll read on ESPN.COM, not what you'll read in the New York Times Travel Section.
6 people RVing around Germany going match to match through the first round of the World Cup.
The only web site you'll need to see what's really happening at the World Cup:
http://spaces.msn.com/vansmack (http://spaces.msn.com/vansmack)
Will check it during the world cup.
as for the
"But once every four years, that simple thing drastically changes the world.
It closes the schools.
It closes the shops.
It closes a city.
It stops a war."
I was reading the other day that part of the riots in Sao Paulo were started by the demand in prisons to see the world cup games on tv?
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
I was reading the other day that part of the riots in Sao Paulo were started by the demand in prisons to see the world cup games on tv?
Nice. I had jury duty yesterday and I told a judge that if she scheduled me for a six-week trial starting next week that I??d skip the country and gladly spend as much time in jail as she??d like when I got back from the World Cup. Thankfully, she laughed and deferred me until July 24th.
-
very funny......
What Sven could learn from me
http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/comment/story/0,,1790557,00.html (http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/comment/story/0,,1790557,00.html)
Mark E Smith
Monday June 5, 2006
The Guardian
Running the national football team is very much like running my group,
the Fall. As a manager, you've got to maintain a certain detachment from
your players, and it's the same with my musicians. When we're on tour, I
sit at the back of the bus. We're friendly but the secret of it is never
get too ally-pally. You can have a pint or two together now and again
but you don't want to be going round their houses.
You don't want people to get too comfortable, because if they do,
there's no way they'll be on top of their game. It's not a job for life.
I see the Fall being like a football team with a two- or three-year
cycle. There's always going to be a period where I'll need a new
centre-forward.
I always like to keep a strong subs' bench of people who can step into
the breach, cos you never know when you might need them in an emergency.
[Smith is currently touring the US with pickup musicians, after a
guitarist, drummer and bassist became the latest of around 50
"ex-players" who have sadly and suddenly departed from the Fall.]
You want a manager that's hard but not stupid. I met Manchester City
manager Stuart Pearce on the transfer bus on the way to Amsterdam. He's
a hard case. Some lads were going up to say hello, but he had this air
of "That's all you're gonna get". I like Pearce but I couldn't stand
Kevin Keegan. I saw him on telly once when City were playing Newcastle
and he went up to the Newcastle fans, shaking their hands. The City
players were looking at him, appalled. No surprise he never won a game
against Newcastle or Liverpool.
The way the England team is now is ridiculous. A team of superstars is
like a supergroup. It's like picking the best guitarist in Britain, the
best drummer and the best singer, and expecting them to produce
something that isn't prog-rock mush. It doesn't work: this England team
will never work at the highest level. I know that. See, Sir Alf Ramsey
[who managed England's 1966 World Cup win] - people never liked him for
it, but he'd always have the full-backs from the second division. He
took players and moulded them, like I do with musicians. Gordon Banks,
the goalkeeper, was from Stoke City, who were bottom of the first
division. They'd conceded more goals that World Cup season than anybody
else. But it works. You want a goalie who gets bloody shot at every
week! You don't want the Arsenal or Spurs goalie or whoever in any
national team, because he's never got anything to do! He might pull off
the occasional beautiful save, but he's never gonna be any good against
a gang of Poles or whoever who know full well they're going to face the
firing squad if they don't score.
Mind you, I shouldn't be talking about England. My wife's Greek, and
when Greece won their first game in the [2004] European championships, I
said, "Put a bet on now." We didn't put the bet on, but I know these
things. Two of my mates put £500 on at 250-1. When Greece won the
tournament the wife went crazy, absolutely mad. We even ran a Greek flag
up in the front garden. We were very popular that week"
· Mark E Smith was talking to Dave Simpson.
-
June 4, 2006
Surge in Racist Mood Raises Concerns on Eve of World Cup (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/sports/soccer/04racism.html)
By JERE LONGMAN
HAMBURG, Germany, June 3 ?? As he left the soccer field after a club match in the eastern German city of Halle on March 25, the Nigerian forward Adebowale Ogungbure was spit upon, jeered with racial remarks and mocked with monkey noises. In rebuke, he placed two fingers under his nose to simulate a Hitler mustache and thrust his arm in a Nazi salute.
In April, the American defender Oguchi Onyewu, playing for his professional club team in Belgium, dismissively gestured toward fans who were making simian chants at him. Then, as he went to throw the ball inbounds, Onyewu said a fan of the opposing team reached over a barrier and punched him in the face.
International soccer has been plagued for years by violence among fans, including racial incidents. But FIFA, soccer's Zurich-based world governing body, said there has been a recent surge in discriminatory behavior toward blacks by fans and other players, an escalation that has dovetailed with the signing of more players from Africa and Latin America by elite European clubs.
This "deplorable trend," as FIFA has called it, now threatens to embarrass the sport on its grandest stage, the World Cup, which opens June 9 for a monthlong run in 12 cities around Germany. More than 30 billion cumulative television viewers are expected to watch part of the competition and Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA's president, has vowed to crack down on racist behavior during the tournament.
Underlining FIFA's concerns, the issue has been included on the agenda at its biannual Congress, scheduled to be held this week in Munich. A campaign against bigotry includes "Say No to Racism" stadium banners, television commercials, and team captains making pregame speeches during the quarterfinals of the 32-team tournament.
Players, coaches and officials have been threatened with sanctions. But FIFA has said it would not be practical to use the harshest penalties available to punish misbehaving fans ?? halting matches, holding games in empty stadiums and deducting points that teams receive for victories and ties.
Players and antiracism experts said they expected offensive behavior during the tournament, including monkey-like chanting; derisive singing; the hanging of banners that reflect neofascist and racist beliefs; and perhaps the tossing of bananas or banana peels, all familiar occurrences during matches in Spain, Italy, eastern Germany and eastern Europe.
"For us it's quite clear this is a reflection of underlying tensions that exist in European societies," said Piara Powar, director of the London-based antiracist soccer organization Kick It Out. He said of Eastern Europe: "Poverty, unemployment, is a problem. Indigenous people are looking for easy answers to blame. Often newcomers bear the brunt of the blame."
Yet experts and players also said they believed the racist behavior would be more constrained at the World Cup than it was during play in various domestic leagues around Europe, because of increased security, the international makeup of the crowds, higher ticket prices and a sense that spectators would be generally well behaved on soccer's grandest stage.
"We have to differentiate inside and outside the stadium," said Kurt Wachter, project coordinator for the Vienna-based Football Against Racism in Europe, a network of organizations that seeks to fight bigotry and xenophobia in 35 countries.
"Racism is a feature of many football leagues inside and outside Europe," said Wachter, who expects most problems to occur outside stadiums where crowds are less controlled. "We're sure we will see some things we're used to seeing. It won't stop because of the World Cup."
Particularly worrisome are the possibilities of attacks by extremist groups on spectators and visitors in train stations, bars, restaurants and open areas near the stadiums, Wachter and other experts said. To promote tolerance, he said his organization would organize street soccer matches outside World Cup stadiums.
Recent attacks in the eastern Germany city of Potsdam on an Ethiopian-born engineer and in eastern Berlin on a state lawmaker of Turkish descent, along with a government report showing an increase in right-wing violence, have ignited fears that even sporadic hate crimes and other intolerant behavior could mar the World Cup, whose embracing motto is A Time to Make Friends.
Far-right extremism is isolated on the fringe of German society, and the German government has intended to confront its Nazi past while preaching openness and tolerance. Germany has one of the world's lowest rates of violent crime. Still, an immigrant group called the Africa Council said it would publish a "No Go" guide for nonwhites during the World Cup, particularly for some areas of eastern Berlin and for surrounding towns of the state of Brandenburg.
In mid-May, a former government spokesman, Uwe-Karsten Heye, caused a furor when he tried to assist visitors by advising that anyone "with a different skin color" avoid visiting small and midsize towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere in eastern Germany, or they "may not leave with their lives."
These remarks received blunt criticism from high-ranking German officials. Wolfgang Schäuble, the minister of the interior, said there were no areas in which World Cup visitors should feel threatened, calling Germany "one of the safest places in the world."
Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, has warned that "anybody who threatens, attacks or, worse, kills anybody because of the color of his skin or because he comes from another country will face the full force of the law."
The Bundesliga in Germany is one of the world's top professional soccer leagues, and has not experienced widespread racism. Incidents involving racial abuse of black players are more prevalent in semiprofessional and amateur leagues in eastern Germany. One of the cities playing host to the World Cup, Leipzig, is in the former East Germany. Another, Berlin, was partly in East Germany.
After making a Nazi salute, which is illegal in Germany, Ogungbure of Nigeria was investigated by the authorities. But a charge of unconstitutional behavior against him was soon dropped because his gesture had been meant to renounce extremist activity.
"I regret what I did," Ogungbure said in a telephone interview from Leipzig. "I should have walked away. I'm a professional, but I'm a human, too. They don't spit on dogs. Why should they spit on me? I felt like a nobody."
Gerald Asamoah, a forward on Germany's World Cup team and a native of Ghana, has been recounting an incident in the 1990's when he was pelted with bananas before a club match in Cottbus. "I'll never forget that," he said in a television interview. "It's like we're not people." He has expressed anger and sadness over a banner distributed by a right-wing group that admonished, "No Gerald, You Are Not Germany."
Cory Gibbs, an American defender who formerly played professionally in Germany, said there were restaurants and nightclubs in eastern Germany ?? and even around Hamburg in the west ?? where he was told "You're not welcome" because he was black.
"I think racism is everywhere," said Gibbs, who will miss the World Cup because of a knee injury. "But I feel in Germany racism is a lot more direct."
Racist behavior at soccer matches is primarily displayed by men and is fueled by several factors, according to experts: alcohol; the perceived "us versus them" threat of multiculturalism in societies that were once more ethnically homogenous; the difficult economic transition of eastern European nations since the fall of the Berlin Wall; and crude attempts to unnerve opposing players during bitter, consuming rivalries.
Other observers say that the soccer stadium in Europe has become a communal soapbox, one of the few remaining public spaces where spectators can be outrageous and where political correctness does not exist and is even discouraged.
"Nowhere else other than football do people meet someplace and have a stage for shouting things as an anonymous mass," said Gerd Dembowski, director of a Berlin-based antiracist organization called Floodlight. "You can shout things you would never say in your normal life, let out your frustrations."
Not all the misbehavior can be traced to fans or to Europe. Players and coaches have also been transgressors.
Luis Aragonés, Spain's World Cup coach, was fined in 2004 after making racial remarks about the French star Thierry Henry. In March, in the Brazilian league, the defender Antonio Carlos was suspended for 120 days, and 4 additional matches, after an incident in which he shouted "monkey" at an opposing player who was black. But it was an incident in Spain on Feb. 25 that galvanized antiracist sentiment and prodded FIFA into taking a tougher stand against bigoted behavior. That match, in Zaragoza, was temporarily halted in the 77th minute by the referee, who threatened to cancel the remaining 13 minutes after Samuel Eto'o, the star forward for Barcelona, was subjected to a chorus of racial taunts. Eto'o threatened to leave the field. His coach and teammates eventually persuaded him to continue, and last month Barcelona won the European Champions Cup.
Eto'o has become one of the sport's most outspoken players on the subject of racism. "I'll continue to play," Eto'o, whose national team, Cameroon, did not qualify for the World Cup, said this week through his agent. "I'm not going to give up and hide and put my head down. I'll score goals against the teams whose fans are making rude noises."
Under pressure to curb what it acknowledged was an increase in racist incidents, FIFA in late March announced a stricter set of penalties that would apply for club and national team matches. The sanctions would include suspensions of five matches for players and officials who make discriminatory gestures, fines of $16,600 to $25,000 for each offense and two-year stadium bans for offending spectators. It also said teams, which receive 3 points in the standings for a victory, would have 3 points deducted on a first offense by misbehaving players, officials or fans.
Blatter, the FIFA president, told reporters that the 3-point deduction for abhorrent fan behavior would apply during the World Cup, then backed away from his comments in April. Blatter declined to comment for this article. And it remains unclear exactly what penalties will be levied against World Cup teams for offensive behavior by fans, coaches and players.
Nicolas Maingot, a FIFA spokesman, said World Cup sanctions would be made public later. But in an e-mail response to questions, he said: "Only racist abuses in the field of play will be punished. For fans, it will be impossible, due to the multinationality of the audience. In other words, it would be impossible to identify from which side would potential racist abusers come."
Critics counter that spectators are supposed to have their names on their tickets, so identifying offending fans should be relatively easy.
Onyewu, the American defender who was punched by an opposing fan in Belgium, said the man was identified through an anonymous tip and was barred from attending matches for two years. He said he did not retaliate because he believed that racist behavior reflected acts of a minority of fans.
"I'm anticipating a more professional environment in Germany because it's the World Cup," Onyewu said. Even so, he said, although antiracist efforts could restrict public behavior, "that's only helping the exterior."
He added, "The interior mind thinking, you can't really change that."
-
Originally posted by ggw?:
Blatter, the FIFA president, told reporters that the 3-point deduction for abhorrent fan behavior would apply during the World Cup, then backed away from his comments in April. Blatter declined to comment for this article. And it remains unclear exactly what penalties will be levied against World Cup teams for offensive behavior by fans, coaches and players.
Blatter seemed pretty clear in his interview with Jeremy Schapp on sportscenter this morning that racist acts by fans in the stands would halt any game
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
Originally posted by ggw?:
Blatter, the FIFA president, told reporters that the 3-point deduction for abhorrent fan behavior would apply during the World Cup, then backed away from his comments in April. Blatter declined to comment for this article. And it remains unclear exactly what penalties will be levied against World Cup teams for offensive behavior by fans, coaches and players.
Blatter seemed pretty clear in his interview with Jeremy Schapp on sportscenter this morning that racist acts by fans in the stands would halt any game [/b]
Jeremy Schapp should have got Blatter to explain how exactly he'd pull that off.
-
I anticipate that the US-Ghana game will be the most fun I have at any game. I've had good times in Ghana and I expect that it will be quite a party.
My whole end goal is to trade for as many flags and jerseys from the African Nations as I can. I can get a Man U/England/USA kit anywhere, but I would love to come back with a collection of African Nation kits in exchange for my kits.
It's quite sad that the Euro's don't share my excitement to party with the Africans. These opportunities don't come by that often.
-
<img src="http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/fifa//fi/up/20060606/1149598553.jpg" alt=" - " />
-
Today is judgement day for Roo!
Fingers crossed......
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Today is judgement day for Roo!
Fingers crossed......
He's flying back to Germany. No official word yet, but I can't imagine he's returning for the food...
-
And Djirbil Cisse broke his leg (again) in the friendly today with China and will be out of the Cup. May miss a large part of Liverpool's season as well, now that he can't be transferred.
-
not to totally hijack this thread, but if anyone works in the bethesda area and wants to head to flanagan's on cordellto watch a game (only place i know in bethesda that is showing all games), please pm me. i already told my bosses that i was taking leave in 2 hour spurts for the next 30 days.
-
Originally posted by lily1:
not to totally hijack this thread
That's not hijakcing, getting folks out to watch the games is encouraged.
So apparently the campground near Frnakfurt we're staying at is packed with Brits. One guy is a BBC reporter and my brother-in-law went to introduce himself:
Reporter: ??Hey, you??re American??
Brother: ??Yes, how are you.?
Reporter: ??Good. Here on vacation??
Brother: ??We??re here for the World Cup!?
Reporter: ??Football? I thought you said you were American.?
Should be a good time being an American at the World Cup.
-
although i am not a huge huge fan of the sport. There is an British Navy ship docked right in Fells Point, outside of my office, and me and the 2 english gentlemen i work with made plans to watch the game tomorrow morning at the pub down the street.
should be quite an interesting time!!!
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
although i am not a huge huge fan of the sport. There is an British Navy ship docked right in Fells Point, outside of my office, and me and the 2 english gentlemen i work with made plans to watch the game tomorrow morning at the pub down the street.
should be quite an interesting time!!!
Beware of Paraguay, tiny country no one knows much about, but good football players playing in very decent european clubs.
-
WOW.....what a great first game
-
Originally posted by brennser:
WOW.....what a great first game
The Germans were toying with Costa Rica. I think they could have scored at will. Both goals from Costa Rica were lucky and the second one shouldn't have even counted since they were clearly off sides.
But yes, this was a great way to open the Cup.
-
Originally posted by Shadrach:
Originally posted by brennser:
WOW.....what a great first game
The Germans were toying with Costa Rica. I think they could have scored at will. Both goals from Costa Rica were lucky and the second one shouldn't have even counted since they were clearly off sides.
But yes, this was a great way to open the Cup. [/b]
yeah, the scoreline makes iot appear closer than it really was, although I thought the first Costa Rican goal was more egregiously offside than the second
that fourth German goal was one of the best I have ever seen, and the first one wasn't too shabby either
I was just glad to see a high scoring game to stave off some of the american naysayign that would have gone on if it had been a scoreless draw
-
Cops take Rolex watches from Maradona (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2006/06/07/1618981-ap.html)
ROME (AP) - Diego Maradona had some time on his hands near Naples on Tuesday until Italy's tax police took two Rolex watches from the Argentine soccer legend to chip away at his $30 million euro ($42.75 million Cdn) bill in unpaid income taxes.
"We were surprised he was wearing them because he knows that when he comes to Italy he risks losing something," said Tax Police Maj. Geremia Guercia, speaking by phone from the Naples suburb of Giugliano In Campania.
Guercia said he went up to Maradona on Tuesday evening at the end of a news conference before a benefit appearance and asked him to come to the tax police station. Maradona was wearing a Rolex on each wrist, Guercia said.
"He was very polite, very gentle, very calm," Guercia said of Maradona, who led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title. "When he was leaving he was very nice about giving his autograph to those who asked."
Together the watches are worth about $10,000 euros ($14,250 Cdn), Guercia said, but when they are auctioned off by the tax police, Maradona's name could fetch far more.
Maradona recorded the huge tax debt while playing for Naples in the 1980s in Italy's top league.
When he was led away, Maradona was wearing earrings, which sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport described as diamonds that the tax police also wanted to confiscate.
But Guercia said that by the time Maradona arrived at the station, he wasn't wearing the earrings. "Maybe he had them in a bag, or in a pocket, but by law we couldn't search him," he said.
After a prior trip to Italy, money was confiscated from the pay Maradona received for an appearance on Italian state TV, Guercia said.
Maradona was in the area for a benefit aimed at raising funds to buy an ambulance, but the event was postponed because of heavy rain Tuesday night.
-
Originally posted by brennser:
Originally posted by Shadrach:
Originally posted by brennser:
WOW.....what a great first game
The Germans were toying with Costa Rica. I think they could have scored at will. Both goals from Costa Rica were lucky and the second one shouldn't have even counted since they were clearly off sides.
But yes, this was a great way to open the Cup. [/b]
yeah, the scoreline makes iot appear closer than it really was, although I thought the first Costa Rican goal was more egregiously offside than the second
that fourth German goal was one of the best I have ever seen, and the first one wasn't too shabby either
I was just glad to see a high scoring game to stave off some of the american naysayign that would have gone on if it had been a scoreless draw [/b]
when does Team Canada play?
-
Originally posted by brennser:
that fourth German goal was one of the best I have ever seen, and the first one wasn't too shabby either
yes! unbelievable shot-making ... that fourth goal was just absolutely nasty, noone could have stopped it
-
I'm sure there are some upset Poland fans right now. It's only a short drive across the border to watch their team lose 2-0 to Ecuador.
-
all and all, it was a promising first day.....getting up early tommorow to watch paraguay upset england, lol
-
Originally posted by stu47:
all and all, it was a promising first day.....getting up early tommorow to watch paraguay upset england, lol
Hope you weren't disappointed
-
england were crap - twas a lucky goal but they are lucky that paraguay were even crapper!
-
I agree England were crap, especially in the second half, but the goal was going in regardless of wether it clipped the defenders head or not. I'll give them a pass on the first game with nerves and the heat etc.....Trinidad will be tricky too if their draw with Sweden is anything to go by.
That ref was a nut-job.....some of his calls were just bizarre!!!I've NEVER seen an indirect free kick awarded for the goalie holding on to the ball too long, and the poor bloke had only just come on after the starting goalie got injured.
Many Irish have adopted Poland as their team seeing as their own didn't qualify :p and there's so many Poles living over here....I bet the Polish have a whip-round to place ads saying "Will the feck'n Irish please stop supporting our team, you're making us as crap as your own"
-
Paraguay 1 England 0 .....LOL
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Paraguay 1 England 0 .....LOL
drinking this morning, rob?
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Paraguay 1 England 0 .....LOL
drinking this morning, rob? [/b]
According to the stats, Paraguay's player got the only goal. ;)
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
I agree England were crap, especially in the second half, but the goal was going in regardless of wether it clipped the defenders head or not. I'll give them a pass on the first game with nerves and the heat etc.....Trinidad will be tricky too if their draw with Sweden is anything to go by.
That ref was a nut-job.....some of his calls were just bizarre!!!I've NEVER seen an indirect free kick awarded for the goalie holding on to the ball too long, and the poor bloke had only just come on after the starting goalie got injured.
Many Irish have adopted Poland as their team seeing as their own didn't qualify :p and there's so many Poles living over here....I bet the Polish have a whip-round to place ads saying "Will the feck'n Irish please stop supporting our team, you're making us as crap as your own"
so we're in agreement then....
England were crap, Ireland are crapper and the ref was a nut job
-
Australia got screwed good in the first half
-
Keano (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=370823&cc=5739) just retired....
-
Is anyone giving the US a chance against the Chechs?
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Is anyone giving the US a chance against the Chechs?
US 2 - Czechs 0
thats what i say!
-
Does anyone this the Heat can come back from a 2-0 deficit? The Germans must be very proud of their man Dirk.
-
what a game, Japan scores a goal which should not have been allowed in the first
australia scores in the 83rd minute (first world cup goal ever for Australia)
Refs should have awarded Japan a penalty kick but didnt
australia, same player, scores again in the 88th minute
2-1 Australia
-
well, you just cant choke much worse than Japan just did.
-
and another in extra time 3-1 australia
-
that was awesome ... like a bolt of lightning from down under ... the espn2 play-by-play man might have been the worst i've ever seen/heard, he just had no sense of urgency and it seemed like he was watching the match on tape-delay
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
that was awesome ... like a bolt of lightning from down under ... the espn2 play-by-play man might have been the worst i've ever seen/heard, he just had no sense of urgency and it seemed like he was watching the match on tape-delay
Or, he probably fell asleep.
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
that was awesome ... like a bolt of lightning from down under ... the espn2 play-by-play man might have been the worst i've ever seen/heard, he just had no sense of urgency and it seemed like he was watching the match on tape-delay
I've been watching on Univision. I don't understand a word of what they are saying, but the emotion is definitely there - right down to screaming "GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL" when somebody scores.
-
Originally posted by ggw?:
I don't understand a word of what they are saying, but the emotion is definitely there - right down to screaming "GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL" when somebody scores. [/QB]
Which was zero times in the Sweden/Trinidad Tobago game. :confused:
-
WOW, that was fast, Chechs already up 1-0. :(
-
Chechs
Czechs
-
Originally posted by ggw?:
Chechs
Czechs [/b]
Nerd.
-
2-0, this is gonna hurt. But with zero goals, we've still tied with as many goals as what England actually got.
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Nerd.
<img src="http://www.luminomagazine.com/2004.10/spotlight/nerds/images/ogre/ogre1.jpg" alt=" - " />
-
well, at least we took koller out!
-
3-0
-
Originally posted by brennser:
3-0
OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!
-
i cant tell if the us is really playing bad or if the czech republic is playing really well, i think it is both, I think the czech republic is the most impressive team I have seen so far, completely dominating today
-
Originally posted by pdx pollard:
i cant tell if the us is really playing bad or if the czech republic is playing really well, i think it is both, I think the czech republic is the most impressive team I have seen so far, completely dominating today
Even better than Mexico? I guess Mexico really dominated the last twenty minutes of that game, it was pretty close before that. They did look pretty darn good though.
-
Originally posted by pdx pollard:
i cant tell if the us is really playing bad or if the czech republic is playing really well, i think it is both, I think the czech republic is the most impressive team I have seen so far, completely dominating today
we looked really bad, so many lethargic passes and zero rhythm ... and the czechs looked very good as well, so put those two together and you get a really ugly game ... pretty embarrassing
-
i took a 2 hour lunch for THAT????
sheesh. maybe they should be running more in practice!
or maybe they should be playing Canada.
-
pretty much what Hoya said - Czechs are a good team - technically they were miles ahead of the americans
you guys still have a ways to go internationally, #5 world ranking notwithstanding...
-
It won't be totally embarrassing unless we lose to Ghana. I see another Sweden/Trinidad Tobago outcome coming. It was pretty funny seeing T&T celebrating like they did after a 0-0 tie.
-
too bad, that about it does it for the US, unless by some miracle they can upset Italy.....
-
Originally posted by tinygee:
too bad, that about it does it for the US, unless by some miracle they can upset Italy.....
I'm not sure but....Someone at work here said that Italy was a little banged up right now, which could help us. I'm sure someone else on here knows if this is true or not.
-
Originally posted by brennser:
#5 world ranking notwithstanding...
"one game changes everything" (c) espn2 ad
that #5 ranking has me baffled too.
anyone know the song/artist on the adidas commercial with the two hispanic kids picking their team full of pros?
-
I would think Ghana just gained millions of fans over the course of the afternoon....
-
Originally posted by SalParadise:
anyone know the song/artist on the adidas commercial with the two hispanic kids picking their team full of pros? [/QB]
I remember the commercial, can't remember any music. I'll give it a listen next time. I'm sure someone on here knows.
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Originally posted by SalParadise:
anyone know the song/artist on the adidas commercial with the two hispanic kids picking their team full of pros? [/b]
I remember the commercial, can't remember any music. I'll give it a listen next time. I'm sure someone on here knows. [/QB]
thanks for the informative reply rob, i dont know where i would be on this thread without you!
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
thanks for the informative reply rob, i dont know where i would be on this thread without you! [/QB]
Probably the same place you are now.
-
Originally posted by SalParadise:
anyone know the song/artist on the adidas commercial with the two hispanic kids picking their team full of pros?
"De l'Alouette" by RJD2
-
Italy/Ghana game is a fun one, fast paced, both teams would beat the US easily if the US didnt play much better than they did today
-
Originally posted by ggw?:
Originally posted by SalParadise:
anyone know the song/artist on the adidas commercial with the two hispanic kids picking their team full of pros?
"De l'Alouette" by RJD2 [/b]
merci
-
US is done.....
part of the argument of why we could at least draw with the Czechs were that they were pretty banged up and looked what happened.
Italy will beat the US, and I wouldnt be surprised if Ghana doesnt as well (unless they keep up the yellow card parade against the Czechs)
-
Originally posted by SalParadise:
anyone know the song/artist on the adidas commercial with the two hispanic kids picking their team full of pros?
great ad, by the way ... i've been very impressed with soccer ads in the last 5 years or so ... that one recurring one with the indoor game on the ship was really cool (nike?)
-
The U.S. did not play their game at all. The U.S. squad is one built on speed and finesse. They are best when playing an attacking style offense, especially the counter attack after defensive stops.
Today they tried to play a more controlled and slowed down game. The problem with that is they can't hang with bigger teams like the Czechs, they just get muscled off the ball.
Team USA looked lethargic and old, when in reality they are a pretty young squad that should have had many more shots on goal. They should be embarrassed, not for losing, but for their dreadful play today.
On a side note I think it's time for Bruce Arena to step down as the coach. If the U.S. wants to compete on the world stage they need to have as much international experience as possible, including inside the coaching ranks.
-
I'm afraid this is pretty much the end for Ghana and the USA, but would like to be wrong and see Italy out, still possible. This is the problem with the group stage at the World Cup, teams tend to play very defensively to avoid a defeat in the first game that would pretty much send them home, as a result the quality of the games is much worse than in the Champions League.
-
I'm sure there are folks out there somewhere who feel the probable lack of Totti for the Italians should give the US some hope, but I just don't see them beating the Italians.
It certainly looks loke they could go 0-3. Ghana certainly looked better against Italy.
-
I think the USA got some good assists and attempts on goal, and used their time-outs efficiently...your 'stopper' was your mvp.
*note to barcelona* Can you please tell me (if you know) what in God's name is a 'stopper'?....and it's not the goalie.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
I think the USA got some good assists and attempts on goal, and used their time-outs efficiently...your 'stopper' was your mvp.
*note to barcelona* Can you please tell me (if you know) what in God's name is a 'stopper'?....and it's not the goalie.
Can't help you here, I am watching the games in a former british colony in the Caribbean/South America and the games are either in English from the UK or in Spanish.
Here is pretty much cricket all day long, West Indies against India, didn't know a game could last up to 5 full days.
-
so answer me this, football fans.
once the round of 16 begins, you can't have a draw can you? so what are the OT rules? shootout? overtime period?
its been a while since 2002! :)
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
so answer me this, football fans.
once the round of 16 begins, you can't have a draw can you? so what are the OT rules? shootout? overtime period?
its been a while since 2002! :)
30 mins of extra time
best of 5 penalties for each team
if teams still tied after this you move on to sudden death penalties
-
and i thought the sweden game was boring....
-
wow, based on the 30 minutes that I saw the swiss will be kicking themselves for not beating the french....they missed several chances where it seemed more difficult to miss
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
and i thought the sweden game was boring....
How can you possibly say another 0-0 tie is boring. :roll:
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Originally posted by the sonick:
and i thought the sweden game was boring....
How can you possibly say another 0-0 tie is boring. :roll: [/b]
Or how a 'no hitter' in hitty-runny is extremely exciting. :roll: :roll:
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Or how a 'no hitter' in hitty-runny is extremely exciting. :roll: :roll: [/QB]
Nice try Spankie, I know there are alot more 0-0 and 1-0 games in SOCCER than there are no hitters in baseball.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Originally posted by the sonick:
and i thought the sweden game was boring....
How can you possibly say another 0-0 tie is boring. :roll: [/b]
Or how a 'no hitter' in hitty-runny is extremely exciting. :roll: :roll: [/b]
well, yeah, exactly. but what i meant was, man that France Switzerland match was BOOOORING. not just 0-0 tie boring, but it was boring.
not bashing the sport. (of course, i know Rob is and thats who you were replying to)
-
i am totally rooting for Spain now! :
<img src="http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/fifa//fi/up/20060614/1150290068.jpg" alt=" - " />
-
that 4th goal by spain was DISGUSTING ... looked like a hockey play with all the tic-tac-toe passing
-
Finally.....Some scoring.
-
GO TUNISIA!!!!
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
GO TUNISIA!!!!
35 minutes after the first goal....still 1-0
-
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL.......The Saudi's.
-
2-1 Saudi arabia
-
Tunisia tied it up in injury time
all in all, this was the most entertaining match of the first round (so far)
-
Originally posted by stu47:
all in all, this was the most entertaining match of the first round (so far)
germany v. poland was pretty entertaining just now
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
that 4th goal by spain was DISGUSTING ... looked like a hockey play with all the tic-tac-toe passing
based on what I have seen until now, this might be the best goal of the World Cup so far.
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Finally.....Some scoring.
The Bud commercials are spot on.....doodles really do know absolutely diddly-squat about football.
A 4-0 scoreline usually means a boring one sided affair.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
A 4-0 scoreline usually means a boring one sided affair. [/QB]
Boring to the fans of the team that scored 0 maybe.
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
that 4th goal by spain was DISGUSTING ... looked like a hockey play with all the tic-tac-toe passing
based on what I have seen until now, this might be the best goal of the World Cup so far. [/b]
was a great, great goal.....nice to see Spain finally living up to their potential
-
Ecuador trying to go 2-0, up 1-0 on mighty Costa Rica.
-
I just saw a chart of the first half shots on goal in the England game. It seems like there are alot of missed shots from pretty close, is this true or am I just reading the chart wrong. Probably is making for an exciting game if true.....But still 0-0 after 47 minutes.
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
I just saw a chart of the first half shots on goal in the England game. It seems like there are alot of missed shots from pretty close, is this true or am I just reading the chart wrong. Probably is making for an exciting game if true.....But still 0-0 after 47 minutes.
yes, england keeps knocking on the door
-
Originally posted by brennser:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
that 4th goal by spain was DISGUSTING ... looked like a hockey play with all the tic-tac-toe passing
based on what I have seen until now, this might be the best goal of the World Cup so far. [/b]
was a great, great goal.....nice to see Spain finally living up to their potential [/b]
yep. i wish i had a Fortuna to celebrate yesterday..
-
FINALLY!
-
yeah, maybe this will be the kick up the arse england need - they were 9 minutes away from complete humiliation.....scoreline does not do T&T justice
-
maybe england was believing the we need to blow this team out hype...there were at least a couple balls if crouch had settled before shooting they would have scored on
-
Well, England have 6 points from a possible 6......Sure, they aren't playing to their full potential, but they should start to get in the swing of things in the next round, (they'd better!!) and I don't hear you lot bitching about 'wonderful Brasil' and their lethargic first outing, and what's going on with chubby ronaldo?
As for T&T, they were playing the 10 man defence system, and it's always going to be hard to score the 20 goals Rob Gee is looking for against that.
-
Just got this from the bbc website.
Tesco said sales of Caribbean food and drink had soared north of the border as Scots prepared to cheer on Trinidad & Tobago. Buyer Simon Dunn said: "We've seen huge increases in the sale of rum in Scotland by nearly 15% and the sale of mangoes has increased by a staggering 47% in the past two weeks alone."
I suppose sales of fondue sets, cheese and meatballs will soar on tuesday....sad, sad twats in skirts is all they are.
Oh well, I suppose they need to adopt some team seeing as their own is so shite they never qualify to participate in anything.
-
nice piece - sums up the england situation well
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/2006/06/16/rooney_is_not_ready_but_erikss.html (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/2006/06/16/rooney_is_not_ready_but_erikss.html)
-
Argentina up 5-0, thats what I'm talking about. No doubt who the better team is there.
-
6-0
-
(slurping and spitting through his orthadontal braces)
That was awsome duuude. 6-0 What a game! Best game of the tournament so far duuude. I love the goals duuuude!!!
*reality check*
Now, had Serbia/Montenegro actually shown up for the game instead standing around on the pitch like training cones, the scoreline may have been a little different. I admit that the second goal was a sight to see, but again, if S/M tried to make a tackle or actually marked their men, Arg would probably not have been able to string the 847 passes (or however many it was) together before scoring the goal.
Argentina are serious contenders to win the world cup, but yesterdays game was the worst a team has played in S/M rather than the best in Arg.
-
Originally posted by brennser:
nice piece - sums up the england situation well
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/2006/06/16/rooney_is_not_ready_but_erikss.html (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/2006/06/16/rooney_is_not_ready_but_erikss.html)
Englands weakest link is most definately the manager....why in God's name would you have your team play the long ball system...a system that worked brilliantly for Ireland under Jack Charlton I might add, because they didn't have the talent for any other system, but England have probably the strongest midfield in the competition and Sven's tactic is to use the defenders to lob the ball over his midfield, into the box and hope the 6'7" dope latches onto it.
Again, it's just another story of England under-achieving, but it's not too late yet. I'm ever the optimist.
-
Originally posted by Barcelona:
I'm afraid this is pretty much the end for Ghana and the USA, but would like to be wrong and see Italy out, still possible.
Halfway there, just 45 minutes of being completely wrong. Great score in Ghana vs. Czech Rep. 2-0. Now, with one more player the US has the chance of beating Italy, and who knows, the last game, Italy - Czech Rep., might give the us the chance of seeing Italy out of the World Cup.
-
what a load of horseshit that game was ... we ran circles around italy with 9 players, should have come out of there with 3 points ... someone needs to investigate that ref, unreal calls
-
I love make-up red cards for deserved cheap shots....mastroeni's one was utter bullshit.
US played good, I would have loved the 3 points, but the 1 point will work...at the very least, it means the italians and czechs cant be happy with a "let's pretend we're really playing" tie, since a ghana win would knock one of them out
-
Originally posted by stu47:
I love make-up red cards for deserved cheap shots....mastroeni's one was utter bullshit.
nah, i think it was legit. guy could've fucked up an ankle the way he went in for that.
the 2nd yellow on pope was bullshit though.
either way, i wish some drunk, belligerent american fans would catch that ref outside the stadium..
oh yeah, what's up with the italians giving the stretcher/medic people such a workout? pussies.
-
Originally posted by SalParadise:
Originally posted by stu47:
mastroeni's one was utter bullshit.
nah, i think it was legit.[/b]
are you crazy?? a red card for that tackle??
-
If the referee didn't want the US to win the game, then he wouldn't have sent off the Italian player, he would have made as if he hadn't seen anything, which happens a lot. I think the first american who got the red card deserved it. As for the second one, the one who got the red card in the second half, I think he didn't deserve it, that was a mistake, but I don't think the referee was trying to help the Italians, just a mistake.
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
Originally posted by SalParadise:
Originally posted by stu47:
mastroeni's one was utter bullshit.
nah, i think it was legit.[/b]
are you crazy?? a red card for that tackle?? [/b]
we were up 11 players to their 10 in a tie game.. a great chance to rack up 3 points in our group... and dude decides he wants to slide and dig all his cleats into paisan's ankle (well behind the play too). i think it was a dumb move on his part, especially knowing how finicky the ref's were calling the match.
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
GO TUNISIA!!!!
fuck!!! major upset brewing in the spain - tunisia game.......or maybe not that major when you consider the spaniards penchant for choking
-
Originally posted by brennser:
fuck!!! major upset brewing in the spain - tunisia game.......or maybe not that major when you consider the spaniards penchant for choking [/QB]
Darnit, Spain scored twice.
-
Originally posted by SalParadise:
Originally posted by stu47:
oh yeah, what's up with the italians giving the stretcher/medic people such a workout? pussies. [/b]
From that comment I can assume you haven't seen the Italians play much then!!!! Doesn't it make you laugh that they're rolling in sheer agony like they've just had their foot completely crushed, then within a minute of being stretchered off they're sprinting up the sidelines.
I didn't see the USA v Italy game myself, but from hearing the comments from the tv pundits over here, it seems the US blew a great chance of achieving one of the greatest upsets in the competition.....you go a player up early on then go all George Bush by turning the pitch into Baghdad, and get two of your own sent off!
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
From that comment I can assume you haven't seen the Italians play much then!!!! Doesn't it make you laugh that they're rolling in sheer agony like they've just had their foot completely crushed, then within a minute of being stretchered off they're sprinting up the sidelines.
I didn't see the USA v Italy game myself, but from hearing the comments from the tv pundits over here, it seems the US blew a great chance of achieving one of the greatest upsets in the competition.....you go a player up early on then go all George Bush by turning the pitch into Baghdad, and get two of your own sent off!
GREATEST US GAME EVER?
I would have to think so. I purposely waited a few days before posting about the Italy game because I felt I was too emotionally involved in the game to write a fair piece about it. Three days later, I feel the same way - this was the greatest US Soccer game in Men's National Team history.
There is a great chapter by Tim Parks in Matt Weiland??s Collection "The Thinking Fans Guide to the World Cup" about Italian Soccer, what it stands for and why they play the way they do. And no matter how many times I try to explain to people about the lack of class and sportsmanship they display on the field, I can never do a good enough job as to just watch them play a tough team. The wheels came off the bus for them, and their response? To panic. They have ten times the talent of the US team, but the US team displayed the kind of heart that got the 6 of us over here to watch them in the World Cup. The Italian team will never play with that kind of heart, which makes them a difficult team to root for. Add the constant diving, player and referee scandals, and the politics interwoven throughout Italian soccer, and it's a recipe for disaster. Nothing beautiful about their game. There's a lot of beauty in their individual talent, but not as a team.
There's a little history required to fully explain this. When soccer first took over the continent in the late 1800's and early 1900's, the Italians were a strong team, but were falling quickly behind England and France. Then the continent was introduced to the South American game - then dominated by Uruguay and Argentina. The French, so impressed by the Uruguayans, began to model their game after them. The Italians on the other hand, so impressed with the Argentineans, bought the Argentinean players and brought them back to Italy to play in their pro leagues, eventually trying to make them Italian citizens to play for Italy. Italy won two World Cups back then. The ruling bodies quickly put a stop to that, so after the war and well into the late 60's the Italian team went into a period of isolationism - only Italians could play in Italian professional leagues, and if you wanted to play for Italy, you had better play in Italy professionally. The results were disastrous - 4 consecutive first round knockouts and one failure to qualify. By the late 70's, the game reopened to other countries in Italy, but by then the game had changed. The players were talented, but played dirty and the dive had become an art form. You can see it today in the players that succeed in the Italian professional league, Serie A, regardless of what country - if there is contact, you fall "for your team."
So here comes the US MNT in 2006. We're often asked what chance we thought the US team to win the world cup and the answer is the same - "Not much, but you will be surprised with how fit and how hard they will play for the full 90 minutes. If they can rattle a European team or two early, they can give themselves a chance to win late and just maybe...."
There's usually a chuckle by the person that asked the question, 9 times out of 10 an Englishman or a German on this trip.
Much to our surprise, the US team was both out talented and out hustled against the Czech's. The fans knew we didn't have the talent to beat the Czech's, but surely we could out hustle them? Then a crowd of US fans gathered to watch the Czech-Ghana game, and so the results of Ghana's hustle. "Damn it, that should have been us" was the thought for the moment. 1-0. Then, on the way to the US match, 2-0. You know what, maybe the boys saw this result too. Maybe they believe they can beat Italy too.
And sure enough, up entering the overwhelmingly pro US crowd at Kaiserslautern Stadium (formerly known as Adolph Hitler Stadium, oh the irony), the atmosphere as electric. It was the loudest national anthem I had ever heard. The chants and the cheers were ringing throughout the rafters. There was a feeling that this was our time.
As soon as the match started, you could see the US players agreed. Pablo Mastroeni opened with a huge tackle on the best Italian scorer, Totti, and our presence was announced with authority. What an amazing performance, but the shots couldn't find the net (oddly, the back or the front). The Italians were playing their typical ball control, fall over at any chance you get to get whistle and a set play. Then they scored and there was a collective groan - here it is the Czech game all over again. I'll admit it, I sunk my head between my knees and thought it was over. But the players didn't, and one in particular - Claudio Reyna. He never let up, and this time he wouldn't let anybody else let up either. They kept attacking the net and finally, with a little help from the Italian defender, the US had their first goal in the 2006 World Cup. Our crowd went nuts, and the wheels began to fall off for the Italians.
Faced with adversity, the Italian answer was to throw a brutal elbow to Brian McBride, earning a red card. Why they can't rely on their talent, only they will ever know, but this is exactly what we had hoped for. With Totti removed, it was going to be an Italian defensive stand like none other. While many calls didn't go our way, the attitude was unbroken - we can win. Then the unthinkable - 70 yards away from our goal, Pablo Mastroeni tackles the Italian defender and earns a red card. Now, I have yet to watch the replay of the game, but I can tell you this, and it's just like hockey - when you have the advantage, do NOT, under any circumstances give the official any opportunity to even the playing field, especially 70 yards away from our net! His aggressiveness that set the tone early had now severely damaged the US hopes of winning. Shame.
But here's the odd part - the crowd got louder, and the players played harder. This was not the team that was embarrassed by the Czech's - this was the team the fans had traveled thousands and thousands of miles to see. A gritty, gutsy team that might lack talent, but certainly does not lack heart. And never tires.
After Eddie Pope's second yellow earning him a red card (again, I haven't seen the replay, but the officiating was consistently poor so why take chances) , the crowd started chanting "bullshit" and I saw something I had never seen before. Kasey Keller, the American keeper, turned to the crowd and egged us on. Wait a minute, you could hear us? And better yet, all sportsmanship aside, you agreed? The crowd went nuts. And just to further the matter, when Keller got the ball, he kicked right at the faking Italian on the sidelines some 60 yards away (for the record he missed by about 5 feet and struck a poor innocent medic on the sidelines, causing no harm). The crowd went ballistic and didn't stop cheering for the entire match.
Did we have an impact? I think so:
"The fan support today really motivated us and really lifted us up," said defender Oguchi Onyewu. "It didn't feel like we were a man down, and I think if you watched the game, it didn't look like we were a man down."
We wouldn't let them be a man down. They played too hard for us for us to let that happen. Sports fans say "we" all the time when referring to their team, but for once in my life, I feel we is appropriate. Granted, towards the end when some fans were chanting "Eddie Johnson" for coach Bruce Arena to make an attacking substitution somehow forgetting we were a man down, they were a little misguided, but we helped them put up a 47 minute defense to the Italians that would have made Patton proud.
After the match, the Italians were relatively quiet in the streets, but the US fans were getting congratulated by folks of all nations. I am proud to be a fan and supporter of US Soccer. Never more so then after watching the greatest US game in the history of the men??s national team.
http://spaces.msn.com/vansmack (http://spaces.msn.com/vansmack)
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
And just to further the matter, when Keller got the ball, he kicked right at the faking Italian on the sidelines some 60 yards away (for the record he missed by about 5 feet and struck a poor innocent medic on the sidelines, causing no harm). The crowd went ballistic and didn't stop cheering for the entire match. [/b]
haha. that's so great.
i would've loved to have been at that game.
-
nice choke job England
-
Heja Sverige!
-
Joe Cole with the goal of the tourney, but Sweden continue their dominance over England. Undefeated since what, 1968 or something?
-
38 years smackie....well I suppose it's 39 now!!
I just have a feeling England will keep grinding out the results to go quite far, but who knows...it's England after all, and an England that is now alarmingly short of strikers!!
As for the USA v Italy....just think, had they sent Mia and the girls over instead they just might have squeaked out a win!!!!
BTW..There was a fancy dress party at the England camp in Baden Baden (evidently so great they named it twice!)....Sven went dressed as a pumpkin, but unfortunately when midnight came around he didn't turn into a coach.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
As for the USA v Italy....just think, had they sent Mia and the girls over instead they just might have squeaked out a win!!!!
Only if they were in Englands bracket, that would be one automatic win, Mia would kick bitchboy Beckhams lilly ass.
-
Owen ruled out of tournament (http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060621/1/7zf7.html)
-
that was some bullshit right there.
-
Originally posted by BookerT:
that was some bullshit right there.
I think the US is just not welcome in the World Cup...
-
Originally posted by amnesiac:
I think the US is just not welcome in the World Cup... [/QB]
It's Bushs fault.
-
well it doesnt matter now, cause even without the penalty kick, 1-1 wouldnt have done them any good.
US needs to work on their corners....
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
well it doesnt matter now, cause even without the penalty kick, 1-1 wouldnt have done them any good.
Yup, good point. Italy did their job, U.S. just didn't do theirs.
-
There is only one person I know that needs to take over Team USA soccer. He's a proven winner in american football and Nascar. This person is JOE GIBBS!
-
Originally posted by Rupert Pupkin:
There is only one person I know that needs to take over Team USA soccer. He's a proven winner in american football and Nascar. This person is JOE GIBBS!
Nah. This man:
<img src="http://mchalepac.lcsc.k12.in.us/ditka.jpg" alt=" - " />
-
Bill Swerski: Now, gentlemen, let me ask you this: What if Da Bears were all 14 inches tall, you know, about so high? Now, what's your score of today's game?
Carl Wollarski: Against Da Giants?
Bill Swerski: Yes, give 'em a handicap.
Carl Wollarski: Bears 18, Giants 10. And that would finally be a good game.
Pat Arnold: Yeah, it would be a good game. Mini Bears 24, Giants 14.
Todd O'Conner: What about Ditka? Would he be mini, too?
Bill Swerski: No, he would be full-grown.
Todd O'Conner: Oh, then, uh.. Mini Bears 31, Giants 7.
Carl Wollarski: Oh, hold on. Then I change mine, too. I thought it was Mini Ditka.
Bill Swerski: Okay, gentlemen, another scenario: Da Bears, they don't make it, the plane is delayed.. and the only one who shows up is Ditka. Ditka vs. Da Giants. Okay, score, gentlemen.
Pat Arnold: Alright, after da heart attack, I gotta say Ditka 17, Giants 14. He just barely gets by.
Bill Swerski: Alright, that sounds exciting. Perhaps, you know, a late Ditka field goal.
-
<img src="http://www.sun2surf.com/images/sun2surf/articles/3166/Levitra-Challenge.jpg" alt=" - " />
-
Bob Swerski: Now what if Da Bears were to enter the Indianapolis 500? Uhhh, what would you predict would be the outcome, huh?
Todd O'Conner: How would they compete?
Bob Swerski: Well, let's say they rode together in a big bus.
Carl Wollarski: Is Ditka driving?
Bob Swerski: Of course.
Carl Wollarski: Then I like Da Bears!
Bob Swerski: Sure.
Todd O'Conner: Yeah, I gotta go with Da Bear Bus!
Superfans: Da Bear Bus!
Carl Wollarski: Bus full of Bears!
Pat Arnold: See, I don't know, you know, I may still have to go with Mears, you know? But you guys figure it out.
Bob Swerski: That's all right Pat. There are no easy questions in this life my friend. Except for one, that of couse being the triumphant party at next year's Super Bowl.
-
Cheating wops (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060622/sp_wl_afp/fblitajusticescandal_060622182510)
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
well it doesnt matter now, cause even without the penalty kick, 1-1 wouldnt have done them any good.
US needs to work on their corners....
...and free kicks, and deadballs, and throw-ins, tackling, passing, running off the ball, attacking, defending...etc etc etc.
-
someone tell Ghana that yellow cards are bad.
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
someone tell Ghana that yellow cards are bad.
"Hey Ghana, yellow cards are bad, M'kay"
-
Originally posted by ggw?:
Cheating wops (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060622/sp_wl_afp/fblitajusticescandal_060622182510)
Grahame Jones sums up cheating italians nicely. (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-soccer27jun27,1,270198.story?coll=la-headlines-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true)
-
If the fix was in for Italy, why were they forced to play a man down for most of the second half on a very questionable red card?
The Aussie defender sprawled in front of the Italian, not really going for the ball, and appeared to lean into him as he fell over him. It seems unfair that a PK would be called on the last play, but the defender made a mistake.
-
Originally posted by Mobius:
The Aussie defender sprawled in front of the Italian, not really going for the ball, and appeared to lean into him as he fell over him. It seems unfair that a PK would be called on the last play, but the defender made a mistake.
Thanks for the insight Beppe. Or is it Antonio? Only an Italian would think that was a penalty kick.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by Mobius:
The Aussie defender sprawled in front of the Italian, not really going for the ball, and appeared to lean into him as he fell over him. It seems unfair that a PK would be called on the last play, but the defender made a mistake.
Thanks for the insight Beppe. Or is it Antonio? Only an Italian would think that was a penalty kick. [/b]
was it or not? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TGmaGPLFSU&search=Italy%20australia)
actually, I am not sure whether it was penalty or not. I'll watch it with more time at home. I don't think the referee tried to help Italy, the red card for the Italian defender was way too much.
-
Shouldn't you be watching Spain?
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Shouldn't you be watching Spain?
It's 0-0 after 25 minutes, so not much to watch right now.
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
It's 0-0 after 25 minutes, so not much to watch right now.
What you're not watching is a great match thus far...
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Shouldn't you be watching Spain?
F.C. Barcelona, that is pretty much it for me. Would like to see Spain beat France though, but can't watch it now.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
What you're not watching is a great match thus far... [/QB]
Well, it's 1-1 at the half now, so you are right.
-
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Well, it's 1-1 at the half now, so you are right.
Do you only watch the innings where the Yankees score, or do you watch the scoreless innings as well?
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by Barcelona:
Spain still struggling to find national identity...
...and the Semi-final round. [/b]
And again.
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Do you only watch the innings where the Yankees score, or do you watch the scoreless innings as well? [/QB]
Good one.
-
If I was a betting man I would've put money on Spain.....good job I'm not a betting man.
France v Brasil should be interesting...Brasil haven't really been tested yet, and it looks like France have got their act together.
Germany v Argentina 'should' be the match of the tournament.
Ronaldo (not the fat one) has evidently stated he wants away from Man Utd and go to Real Madrid.....like I've been saying for the last year, lets cash in on the little twat and get a productive player instead. He's got more steps than Riverdance but that's it, his crossing is pathetic and his passing (when he does pass) isn't much better. We should get Carrick (which it looks like we are anyway) and maybe Duffer who's sick of warming the bench, or maybe even Ribery who's been in Fergies sights for quite a while now.
-
for the record, that was the most exciting match i have watched in the 2nd round.
though, i was rooting for France, so perhaps thats why.
-
When does America play? We could beat France, fer sure.
-
Originally posted by the sonick:
for the record, that was the most exciting match i have watched in the 2nd round.
Couldn't agree more. I don't care for either team, but the ball movement was spectacular, the officiating wasn't half bad and both teams played with (shockingly) class. France deserved the win, but it was a tough loss for Spain.
My favorite part was Vieira telling Aragones to shut his yapper with the finger over his lips. Hilarious, especially after the replays showed the Spanish player making the most of it. Aragones went ballistic and I just kept laughing...
-
Originally posted by V.Vishnu A.Harry Chestwig:
When does America play? We could beat France, fer sure.
If France attacked like that during the two world wars they would have been over much faster and perhaps without our assistance.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Ronaldo (not the fat one) has evidently stated he wants away from Man Utd and go to Real Madrid.....like I've been saying for the last year, lets cash in on the little twat and get a productive player instead. He's got more steps than Riverdance but that's it, his crossing is pathetic and his passing (when he does pass) isn't much better. We should get Carrick (which it looks like we are anyway) and maybe Duffer who's sick of warming the bench, or maybe even Ribery who's been in Fergies sights for quite a while now.
Spot on as usual Mank. United needs a controlling midfielder and C. Ronaldo's game has never been suited to England, let alone United. Get as much as we can now and go back to what worked in the late 90's and early 2000. Carrick, Duff and Ribery would all be a better fit.
What do you make of Ruud? Does he miss Beck's that much or have the wheels simply come off for him?
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
[qb]
What do you make of Ruud? Does he miss Beck's that much or have the wheels simply come off for him? [/b]
He, or United for that matter, have never been the same since Fergie got shot of Beck's...he's not the most talented player in the world, but he's the best in the world at what he does and that's give service to the strikers. RVN is a little too one dimensional for my liking, scoring from close range only, and if he's not getting the ball in the box then he's lost. Did you know he's NEVER scored from outside the 18 yard box???
I think the wheels have come off, but only in his head. There's definately something going on because he even had issues with his national coach. If Saha can keep out of the physio room he's a much better partner for Rooney up front.
I hope chelski sign a few more prima-donnas before the season starts, the more egos they have in that melting pot, the sooner it will all implode in that arrogant Portugese wankers smug little face.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
Did you know he's NEVER scored from outside the 18 yard box???
There's definately something going on because he even had issues with his national coach.
I was shocked that Marco van Basten didn't sub Ruud in when Kuyt was basically a waste up front for most of the game. In a one goal game? That's what prompted me to ask you about him. There's clearly something going on with him. And no, I had no idea that he has never scored outside of the 18 yard box. Makes perfect sense though as I couldn't recall a single goal from outside.
-
go Germany. good to see the Euro teams doing so well. Italy should take Ukraine today and it will be all Brazil vs. Europe (til France takes em out!)
-
Oh my God, this game Germany vs. Argentinia was soooo exciting.. it is the first time since 1990 that Germany won against Argentinia and I think the little fight between Germany and Argentinia afterwards showed that Argentinia didn't expect that at all. Well, the german team was kind of bad during the first halftime, they constantly missed passes and had trouble to ward off the opposite team, but it turned out pretty well during the penalty kicks, especially Lehmann, the goalkeeper. *thumbs up*
-
Nooooo, we're out!!!! :( :( :( :(
-
I was really hoping for Germany to win.
Tut mir leid homesickalien.
-
Damned Kraut pussweeds! You should blame Klinsmann.
-
Is this thing still going on?
-
I was hoping for a German win as well! But, Italian food will be easier to cook on Friday for the final.
-
Elton: England's World Cup 'a disgrace' (http://www.soundgenerator.com/news/showarticle.cfm?articleid=7954&CFID=8866596&CFTOKEN=13514679)
Unimpressed with penalty kick exit
England's 2006 World Cup campaign was a 'disgrace', according to Elton John.
After losing - again - on penalties to Portugal in the World Cup quarter final round on Saturday, the football mad star couldn't hold back his feelings during a concert after the match.
Playing Saturday evening in Bournemouth, he said "There has not been an outstanding player at this World Cup. I do not even want to talk about that fucking Sven Goran Abba-dabba."
"As always the England fans have been fantastic," he added. "They have been let down by the team and let down by people earning £125,000 a week. "It's a disgrace."
-
Originally posted by Rakim Indie Balzac:
Elton: England's World Cup 'a disgrace' (http://www.soundgenerator.com/news/showarticle.cfm?articleid=7954&CFID=8866596&CFTOKEN=13514679)
Unimpressed with penalty kick exit
England's 2006 World Cup campaign was a 'disgrace', according to Elton John.
After losing - again - on penalties to Portugal in the World Cup quarter final round on Saturday, the football mad star couldn't hold back his feelings during a concert after the match.
Playing Saturday evening in Bournemouth, he said "There has not been an outstanding player at this World Cup. I do not even want to talk about that fucking Sven Goran Abba-dabba."
"As always the England fans have been fantastic," he added. "They have been let down by the team and let down by people earning £125,000 a week. "It's a disgrace."
:D Shocking, truly shocking!
Looking forward to today's game. Great world cup so far!
-
Originally posted by HomesickAlien:
Nooooo, we're out!!!! :( :( :( :(
Valiant effort. I wouldn't want to be grouped with Germany in Euro 2008 or in South Africa in 2010....
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by HomesickAlien:
Nooooo, we're out!!!! :( :( :( :(
Valiant effort. I wouldn't want to be grouped with Germany in Euro 2008 or in South Africa in 2010.... [/b]
guess who has to play em in early sept in Stuttgart for Euro qualifying
:(
-
Originally posted by brennser:
guess who has to play em in early sept in Stuttgart for Euro qualifying
:(
The Republic should really focus on beating a depleted Czech squad.
-
You should watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QSHB-AQZ1E&feature=Views&page=3&t=t&f=b (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QSHB-AQZ1E&feature=Views&page=3&t=t&f=b)
Then read this:
Bitter Ronaldo slams referee's performance
A heartbroken Cristiano Ronaldo launched a stinging attack on referee Jorge Larrionda after Portugal crashed out of the World Cup semi-finals courtesy of a 1-0 defeat by France.
<img src="http://soccernet-att.espn.go.com/design05/DJ/20060701/ron_br205.jpg" alt=" - " />
Cristiano Ronaldo is in tears at the end of the match
Zinedine Zidane netted the game's only goal in the 33rd minute when he neatly stroked a penalty past Ricardo.
Larrionda's decision to point to the spot after Ricardo Carvalho had felled Thierry Henry in the penalty area was not hotly contested. But Ronaldo slammed the referee for not paying Portugal enough respect.
'We played well and did our best but the referee didn't help us,' the 21-year-old Manchester United forward said. 'Everyone who saw the match could see that the referee wasn't fair.
'He should have shown yellow cards but he did not because Portugal is a small country. We just have to carry on working and then we will be a big country.'
Ronaldo impressed the sell-out crowd of 66,000 fans with a flurry of energetic runs as well as several superb passes.
He almost set up a late equaliser when Fabien Barthez failed to control a powerful 25-yard free-kick - only for Luis Figo to nod over the rebound from point-blank range.
'Portugal showed that they can play good football,' he moaned. 'France were no better than we were. They got a penalty but not much else.
'We are disappointed not to reach the final after such a match. We really wanted to go through but didn't make it. It is the end of our dream. But we have to congratulate France.'
Ronaldo was greeted by a thunderstorm of catcalls every time he touched the ball but he insisted the harassment only made him stronger.
'I was pleased about being booed,' he said. 'I am a dangerous player. And maybe the French fans were upset to see a dangerous player. I am not worried at all.'
With France moving on to play Italy in Berlin on Sunday, Portugal now clash with tournament hosts Germany in the third-place match in Stuttgart on Saturday.
And Ronaldo hopes to close out the tournament on a positive note.
'We think of the next game now and hopefully we can win it,' a tearful Ronaldo concluded.
THEN FOLLOW MANKIE'S ADVICE AND SELL HIM TO REAL!!!!!
-
man u's side is just full of wankers
-
"the English media are scapegoating Cristiano Ronaldo in order to cover up for Wayne Rooney" (http://home.skysports.com/worldcup/maninavan.aspx?SD=2006-07-06&hlid=401192&lid=7936)
Supporters hijack Ronaldo vote
Ronaldo has been linked with Real Madrid
A concerted email campaign by England fans could rob Ronaldo of the World Cup's best young player award.
The Portuguese winger, pilloried for his part in the sending off of Wayne Rooney, was leading the Fifa website vote by a huge margin.
But an email urging fans to vote for Ecuador's Luis Valencia instead led to an incredible 24-hour turnaround.
Ronaldo went from 210,290 to 241,775 votes, but Valencia soared from 195,377 to 331,087. Fifa has the final say.
AWARD NOMINEES
Tranquilo Barnetta
Cesc Fabregas
Lionel Messi
Lukas Podolski
Cristiano Ronaldo
Luis Valencia
As well as Ronaldo and Valencia, the other player nominated by fans is Argentina's Lionel Messi.
The other three candidates, chosen by Fifa's technical study group, are Germany's Lukas Podolski, Switzerland's Tranquilo Barnetta and Spain's Cesc Fabregas.
The original email sent to fans read: "There is a very real danger that Cristiano Ronaldo will be voted the fans' best young player at the World Cup despite his pouting, diving, pretty boy antics - designed mainly to get himself a lucrative transfer to Real Madrid.
"He is currently first in the Fifa voting, ahead of Luis Valencia of Ecuador. Do the decent thing by voting for Valencia.
I live in Scotland and I can confirm that there's been a massive campaign here to vote for Ronaldo - he's been lauded by some sections of the country as a hero for his part in Rooney's sending off
"It doesn't matter who you support or if you haven't seen them play, just stop Ronaldo. Send this on to any caring conscientious true football lover."
The winner of the award will be announced on Friday, when a shortlist of six players - three chosen by the public and three by Fifa - will be whittled down to one by a 14-man panel.
If they go with the popular vote it will cap a miserable few days for Ronaldo, who left the field in tears after Portugal's defeat by France in the World Cup semi-final.
He was roundly booed every time he touched the ball, with a sizeable contingent of England fans in the crowd leading the way.
Rooney was sent off against Portugal
The hate campaign started after the quarter-final between England and Portugal in Gelsenkirchen, when Ronaldo was pushed by Manchester United team-mate Rooney, just before the England striker received a red card.
Ronaldo was caught on camera apparently winking at the bench after Rooney's dismissal, infuriating England fans.
In a final twist to the email saga, the Daily Record reported that it was in fact Scotland fans who had helped propel Ronaldo to the number one spot with a viral campaign of their own designed to heap further misery on England fans.
The paper said: "Tartan Army internet message boards have been urging fans to pluck for Ronaldo on the official World Cup website - and so far things are working a treat."
-
Originally posted by Rakim Indie Balzac:
The paper said: "Tartan Army internet message boards have been urging fans to pluck for Ronaldo on the official World Cup website - and so far things are working a treat."
Haha. The Tartan Army never quits!!
-
this whole blame ronaldo for england going out is just bullshit
THERE were two ways for England to react to the pitiful performance of its team in the 18th World Cup.
One was for the players, the public and the English FA to take a look at themselves and perhaps benefit from a rare bout of self-examination. The other was to brand as a cheat Luiz Felipe Scolari, the man who had the temerity to turn down the mother country of football - and then beat them for a third straight time.
For not much longer than a nanosecond did we have to make the no-brainer guess on which option would be taken. Big Phil, everyone now seems to be saying, is not one of the most remarkably successful coaches working today. He is a peddler of foul practice - one England were lucky to miss.
His star Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo - the best talent on the field in this week's semi-final when the great French trio of Zidane, Henry and Vieira, for practical purposes, might have taken the night off - is booed every time he touches the ball by the English fans who went to Munich with the risible idea that Wayne Rooney is a martyr. Furthermore, Scolari's Portugal hold the ultimate franchise on diving and cynical manipulation of referees.
If all this didn't say such tragic things about the English football psyche, if it didn't reveal double standards of breathtaking proportions, it would be a matter for uncontrollable laughter. But it would be mirth locked in the darkest of self-deception.
There is no doubt that against France on Wednesday night Ronaldo punctuated an otherwise impressive performance with a series of dives. So did some of his team-mates, and not least the returning playmaker Deco.
But did this truly reflect a cynical policy by Scolari, whose record in major tournaments is something English football could only dream about at the end of the Eriksson era? Did it make him, despite his four-year record of one World Cup win, one semi-final place, and one final appearance in the European Championship too dubious a character to be put into the place of Eriksson's big zero? Not in moral terms - the English tendency to judge others in a way that they would not want for themselves, has been rampant.
Blatant
Is it, for example, not true that one of the most blatant dives in the current epidemic came shortly before the opening of this World Cup when the English hero Steven Gerrard won a penalty against Hungary without being touched? When Peter Crouch scored a potentially life-saving goal against Trinidad & Tobago, how many Englishmen were concerned that he had plainly yanked at the hair of a defender as he rose to head in the ball?
This takes us to the malevolent heart of the anti-Scolari campaign. Everyone agrees that his most frequently diving player is Ronaldo. But then for whom does he play his football week-by-week? Not for Scolari but Alex Ferguson.
Who committed the most outrageous piece of "simulation" in this World Cup? Few would argue that it was the generally hugely respected Thierry Henry, the creation of Arsene Wenger. Under whom did Deco, one of the most notorious divers in the game, develop his competitive edge? Jose Mourinho, the master of Chelsea.
But then there is a wider charge against Scolari. It is that cheating is a systematic part of his approach to winning football games. His players dive as a matter of course, unlike Michael Owen, Rooney, Joe Cole and Gerrard. When Crouch fouled to win, and Gerrard dived to gain a penalty, did Eriksson issue a pained disclaimer about the methods of his players?
How did the endlessly lauded Wenger react when Robert Pires committed what some pros believe was the most flagrant dive of them all when he went out of his way to collide with a Portsmouth defender? He said it was a matter for the referee.
No doubt there are reasons to believe that Scolari and England could well have ended in tears. A winner, and certainly ruthless, self-obsessed operator, he would have had a permanently smoking hairdryer directed at some of England's marquee players and their mores. The 'Wags' wouldn't have made it to the airport executive suite. He wouldn't have toed the FA diplomatic line for more than a week. But would he have ruined the "golden generation" in the way that Eriksson did with his serial sins of omission?
Would he have frittered away the best of Owen and Gerrard and the prime youth of Rooney? Would he have picked Theo Walcott - or uttered not a murmur of public protest had he been Eriksson's assistant, Steve McClaren, who now takes over the moribund empire?
Really, these are questions we should not need to ask. We know the answers. One Brazilian close to the current national squad offered a fairly equivocal view of his countryman last week.
He said that Scolari was a disturber, a fanatic, someone who saw everything from his own perspective - and also a man who because of his nature was probably a better coach in the short, intense burst of a major tournament than over the years of preparation.
Scolari feeds off his available diet. No doubt he would not have been England's best choice.
Brilliant
Belatedly, the view has hardened that it would have been, by a mile, the brilliant Guus Hiddink.
But this surely doesn't justify the demonising of Scolari. Briefing against him, as the FA has been so keen to do ever since he turned it down in the most embarrassing of circumstances, is simply another example of the English failure to face the world as it is, rather than how they would like it to be.
Scolari isn't perfect - who is in 21st-century football? It means that in our frustration we can assail Big Phil however much we like, but it will not alter the poverty - and far from unflawed morality - of the English game. There is another problem: what will be left to say at the coming of the Antichrist?
-
looks like Podolski won anyway.
-
That was good brennser. Totally true. I'm not an expert on English football, but I know enough to recognize that England was both bad and boring. Its pathetic, but funny, to blame C. Ronaldo, rather than just owning up to fact that the team sucked. This England team were essentially the U.S. team (dull, outclassed, impotent, etc.) but with bigger names. Considering England's stature in the world of football, its obviously a total embarrassment. I guess a good analogy would be the useless U.S. basketball team under Larry Brown at the last Olympics. U.S. hoops has appeared to take steps to learn from its foreign counterparts, as the NBA game is opening up, and teams are embracing a more open, team oriented style (like Phoenix, which plays a very Euro-inspired brand of hoops). English soccer would probably be wise to try do the same and try to embrace a more fluid, "beautiful" game.
-
Originally posted by Mobius:
I guess a good analogy would be the useless U.S. basketball team under Larry Brown at the last Olympics. U.S. hoops has appeared to take steps to learn from its foreign counterparts, as the NBA game is opening up, and teams are embracing a more open, team oriented style (like Phoenix, which plays a very Euro-inspired brand of hoops). English soccer would probably be wise to try do the same and try to embrace a more fluid, "beautiful" game.
that would be a good analogy if this were the 60s or something and people were just realizing that the south americans had an interesting football style that they should mimic ... but it's 2006! they've had enough time to embrace this "fluid" game!
-
'54, '74, '90, 2010... (http://80.237.250.38/Sportfreunde_Stiller-54_74_90_2010.mp3)
;) ;)
-
another site to watch the game if you're in dc. and you're rootin' for italy!
casa italiana
on 3rd street, at f st, nw. its next to the italian church, holy rosary. the priest is showing the game in the main room. no need to be italian or catholic, just that you want italy to win!
i'll be there. if you want to watch the game there, come say hi. i'm in a white top and blue and white skirt.
-
Originally posted by lily1:
i'll be there. if you want to watch the game there, come say hi. i'm in a white top and blue and white skirt.
i'll be there too. if you want to watch the game there, come say hi. i'm in a white top and blue and white skirt also...what a coincidence
-
phooey.
-
i'll second that. but since italy won, my dad's letting me see camera obscura tonight... so it's not too bad.
-
and every italian-american i know just got 3 generations closer to actually being BORN in Italy....apparently.
-
We're having ravioli with italian sausage and marinara for dinner tonight.
-
i'm so disappointed in zidane. so so so disappointed.
-
how much do you really think that head butt hurt the other player? you would think it would hurt
zidane's neck more than the other players chest.
-
Originally posted by lily1:
i'm so disappointed in zidane. so so so disappointed.
That was such poor sportsmanship, I could hardly believe it. In his last game too. He's regretting that right now, what a stupid, stupid move.
-
yeah, dont play dirty football with Italy, they INVENTED it!
-
not to justify what zizou did, but dude's usually a class act... materazzi must've told him something pretty fucked up to provoke him to do that.
-
Originally posted by SalParadise:
materazzi must've told him something pretty fucked up to provoke him to do that.
Yeah, that's what I think.. they knew how he would react and they knew that France would be much more vulnerable without him, especially in the penalty.
-
one rumor from the guardian is that materazzi called Zidane a terrorist
not to excuse it but here is a video of how dirty a player materazzi is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKGcUr0S-FU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKGcUr0S-FU)
-
Originally posted by lily1:
i'm so disappointed in zidane. so so so disappointed.
I thought it was great, plus it had no affect on the outcome of the game. After the brilliant save from Buffon on his header, he knew it was going to go to penalties (might as well flip a coin) and he did what many a player have wanted to do to Materazzi and many other Italians for some time. Trezeguet was still going to kick a penalty and miss, but at least Zizou got to take out his frustrations on a deserving party.
The truth about Materazzi will come out...
-
Originally posted by vansmack:
Originally posted by lily1:
i'm so disappointed in zidane. so so so disappointed.
I thought it was great, plus it had no affect on the outcome of the game. After the brilliant save from Buffon on his header, he knew it was going to go to penalties (might as well flip a coin) and he did what many a player have wanted to do to Materazzi and many other Italians for some time. Trezeguet was still going to kick a penalty and miss, but at least Zizou got to take out his frustrations on a deserving party.
The truth about Materazzi will come out... [/b]
yep.
and the more i watch this angle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc)
the more i'm kinda glad he did it.
i read on another website that the exchange went something like this:
z: "get off of me"
m: "what are you talking about?"
z: "i don't like men to be on me like you're doing"
m: "whatever, i thought all you arabs were gay anyways"
*headbutt*
-
Zidane wins Golden Ball (http://tsn.ca/tsn/news_story.asp?id=171002)
Zidane wins Golden Ball as top player
Zinedine Zidane
Associated Press
7/10/2006 9:09:45 AM
BERLIN (AP) - France captain Zinedine Zidane, sent off for head-butting Marco Materazzi late in Sunday's World Cup final loss to Italy, won the Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player.
The results were released Monday morning in Berlin.
Zidane received 2,012 points in the vote by journalists covering the tournament, beating Italians Fabio Cannavaro (1,977 points) and Andrea Pirlo (715 points) in the ballot.
Zidane, who put France ahead with a penalty kick in the opening minutes, was given a red card after slamming his head into Materazzi's chest during the tense second period of extra time.
It was his last act as a professional player and one that was widely criticized in France and abroad.
With the score tied 1-1 after 120 minutes the French missed Zidane's prowess in the penalty shootout, which Italy calmly won 5-3 to collect its fourth World Cup title.
Zidane, 34, a former international player of the year and 1998 World Cup champion, announced last month that he was retiring from soccer after the tournament.
He wasn't particularly outstanding in France's opening draws with Switzerland and South Korea and missed the last group match against Togo due to suspension. But Zidane produced some vintage performances in the wins over Spain, Brazil and Portugal in the knockout phase.
Voting for the 2006 Golden Ball closed at midnight Sunday. In previous tournaments, the ballot has closed at halftime in the final and the winner announced soon after the match.
Italian captain Cannavaro could be considered unlucky in the voting.
He led an Italian defence that conceded only two goals in the tournament: an own goal against the United States and Zidane's penalty.
The final was his 100th cap for Italy.
"I got my award, that's it right there," Cannavaro said, gesturing toward the World Cup trophy sitting on the table in front of him. "I'm extremely pleased with what I have."
With fellow central defender Alessandro Nesta injured, Cannavaro played every minute of Italy's seven games.
Many pundits tipped Cannavaro as the winner, including 1986 winner Diego Maradona.
"Fabio Cannavaro was the best player of this World Cup," the Argentine great said. "Yes, it was a tournament without one dominant player, but Fabio was huge."
Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn won the Golden Ball in 2002. Other previous winners were Brazilians Ronaldo (1998) and Romario ('94) and Italy's Salvatore Schillaci ('90).
Germany striker Miroslav Klose was the Golden Shoe winner for the tournament's leading scorer. He won with five goals. Ronaldo won the award in 2002 with eight goals.
-
Originally posted by pdx pollard:
one rumor from the guardian is that materazzi called Zidane a terrorist
Now I know he did it. Anybody who claims to not know what the word terrorist means is definitely hiding something.
Materazzi denies calling Zidane 'terrorist'
ROME, July 10 (Reuters) - Italy defender Marco Materazzi on Monday denied a report that he had called Zinedine Zidane a 'dirty terrorist' seconds before the French captain head-butted him in Sunday's World Cup final.
'It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means,' the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Materazzi as saying after the Italian team returned to Rome.
'The whole world saw what happened on live TV,' he added.
The Paris-based anti-racism group SOS Racism had earlier quoted well informed sources as saying Materazzi had apparently used the phrase.
'According to several very well informed sources from the world of football, it would seem that the Italian player Marco Materazzi called Zinedine Zidane a 'dirty terrorist',' SOS Racism said in a statement.
Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, was shown a red card after the incident and Italy went on to win on penalties after the match was tied 1-1 following extra time.
SOS Racism called for an inquiry and said world soccer's governing body FIFA had recently toughened sanctions against racism.
'It's for this reason that SOS Racism asks in a determined fashion for FIFA to shed light on this altercation and that sanctions laid out in the official rules be applied should this be the case,' SOS Racism said.
French television reported that Zidane would talk about the incident 'in the coming days'.
-
http://tonaz.altervista.org/zidane.html (http://tonaz.altervista.org/zidane.html)
-
Brennser - I can't be arsed reading your post, the first sentence was enough. No English person that I'm aware of is blaming Ronaldo for putting England out of the world cup...everyone is blaming England (namely that useless pile of feces that was the manager, but that's for another topic on another day) They underperformed and as usual can't kick a penalty if their lives depended on it, the only player who scored is Germany based. No, the bad feeling towards the little portugese twat is that he not only got another professional sent off, he got his club team mate sent off. The *wink* to his bench after the fact confirmed his intentions....not only that, but the simple fact that both the French and German fans booed the little wanker everytime he touched the ball during the matches that followed the incident should tell you something, because neither the Germans or French would have any sympathy for England.
The ref should have his badges taken from him, because there was absolutely no way he was giving a card of any colour before Ronaldo put his nose in it, he was most definately persuaded after the fact...he called a direct free kick and that was it. If you can't see that then watch it in slow motion!!!!!!
I've seen the video of the incident quite a few times and I'm still convinced that there was absolutely no intent on Rooney's part to stamp on the blokes nuts.....I don't even see a *stamp*... he lost his balance plain and simple...besides, why was there no foul called while Rooney was getting kicked to shit just before that? I'll tell you why, because unlike some (or is that most?) players he refuses to go down, let alone dive in a way that would make Greg Leganus (sp?) proud.
If this diving shit isn't cut out of football then I'm going to have to start watching GAA or something, and that thought is just scary.
And for the record...the French penalty last night was not a penalty. The fullback was pulling out of the tackle, the Frog tripped over his own feet.... and the Italian goal that was disallowed was not offside, the player who was in an offside position was not the player who headed the ball in the net, so was not interfering with play, and so it was not an offside....in the new rule anyway. The score should have been 2-0 for Italy after 90 minutes, so justice was served during the penalty shoot-out.
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
If this diving shit isn't cut out of football then I'm going to have to start watching GAA or something, and that thought is just scary.
and the italians are the biggest offenders of diving...
-
Originally posted by Roadbike Mankie:
And for the record...the French penalty last night was not a penalty. The fullback was pulling out of the tackle, the Frog tripped over his own feet....
Poetic justice in my eyes...what goes around comes around.
In fairness though, Malouda didn't get a call the rest of the game, including the one time he was taken down in the box and should have been awarded a penalty.
-
The whole truth:
<img src="http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/748/5402a6fb6901674307fcbc5e44a908.gif" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2098/56go0pw.gif" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4176/43uy5sa.gif" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5693/440a4a26c091a599b292f4ad0e389b.gif" alt=" - " />
-
that last one is great
-
the third is highly unlikley
-
i like the first one the best.
-
Materazzi is a complete tool: "I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is."
And what's even funnier, Zidane, while of Algerian descent, is actually Christian, and not Muslim, if I'm not mistaken.
*********************************************
Materazzi admits insulting Zidane By ANDREW ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer
Marco Materazzi admits he insulted Zinedine Zidane before the France captain head-butted him in the World Cup final. Materazzi denies calling him a "terrorist."
"I did insult him, it's true," Materazzi said in Tuesday's Gazzetta dello Sport. "But I categorically did not call him a terrorist. I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is."
Zidane and Materazzi exchanged words after Italy broke up a French attack in extra-time of Sunday's final in Berlin. Seconds later, Zidane lowered his head and rammed Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
Zidane was sent off, reducing France to 10 men. Italy won the game in a penalty shootout.
"I held his shirt for a few seconds only, then he turned round and spoke to me, sneering," the Italian defender said. "He looked me up and down, arrogantly and said: 'If you really want my shirt, I'll give it to you afterwards.'"
The 32-year-old Inter Milan player did not elaborate exactly on what he said to Zidane.
"It was one of those insults you're told tens of times and that always fly around the pitch," he said.
Media reports, based on interpretations by lip-readers, have suggested that Materazzi called Zidane a terrorist or insulted his mother or sister. Materazzi denies these claims, too.
"For me, the mother is sacred, you know that," Materazzi told the newspaper.
Materazzi is no stranger to controversy. He was suspended for two months for punching Siena defender Bruno Cirillo after a Serie A game in February 2004, and earned condemnation following a brutal tackle on Sweden and Juventus striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in October 2005.
Materazzi was also sent off three times while playing for Everton in the 1998-99 season.
One Italian senator even suggested that Materazzi ?? also sent off three times while playing for Everton in the 1998-99 season ?? didn't merit selection for the Italian team because of his physical style.
Zidane also is known for having a temper. He was sent off for stomping on a Saudi Arabian opponent at the 1998 World Cup, while at Germany 2006 he was banned for France's group match against Togo.
Five years ago with Juventus, Zidane head-butted an opponent in a Champions League match against Hamburger SV after being tackled from behind.
Meanwhile, Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni accused FIFA of double standards, noting that soccer's governing body named Zidane as the tournament's best player after his head-butt, while Italy forward Francesco Totti was kicked out of the 2004 European Championship for spitting in an opponent's face.
"I notice a difference in the way in which Totti was treated after the spit and the way in which Zinedine Zidane has been lauded as a champion of soccer, even though he is held responsible for such a violent blow that it could even have had devastating effects," Veltroni said.
FIFA announced Tuesday it will open a disciplinary investigation into Zidane's conduct.
FIFA also said that the ballot box for the tournament's top player ?? voted by journalists ?? was open until after the final had ended, making it impossible to know how many ballots were cast before the match and during it.
___
-
Originally posted by lily1:
Materazzi is a complete tool: "I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is."
"But I categorically did not call him a terrorist. I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is."
Maseratti also claimed not to know that "...that big ball of fire in the sky" was called Sol, and claimed that to make instant H²O all one needed to do was "...just add tomato paste".
-
Insults provoked Zidane to head butt Italian
Associated Press
French soccer star Zinedine Zidane apologized for head-butting an Italian opponent during the World Cup final, saying Wednesday that he was provoked by harsh insults about his mother and sister
"I apologize, to all the children" who watched the match Sunday, Zidane said in his first, highly-awaited comments about the brutal act of violence that marked the end of his career.
The 34-year-old midfielder, soft-spoken and relaxed in the interview with Canal-Plus, did not specify exactly what Italian defender Marco Materazzi said that enraged him, but he said it was about his family.
"I would rather have taken a punch in the jaw than have heard that," Zidane said, stressing that Materazzi's language was "very harsh," and that he repeated the insults several times.
Zidane and Materazzi exchanged words after Italy broke up a French attack in extra-time. Seconds later, Zidane lowered his head and rammed Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Zidane was sent off, reducing France to 10 men. Italy went on to win in a penalty shootout.
The abrupt act of aggression marred the end of the World Cup, with many warning it would tarnish Zidane's formidable legacy.
The France captain said, however, that he felt no regret for his act, "because that would mean (Materazzi) was right to say all that."
"There was a serious provocation," said Zidane, who said he had never had tensions with Materazzi before.
"My act is not forgivable," Zidane said. "But they must also punish the true guilty party, and the guilty party is the one who provokes."
"I tell myself that if things happened this way, it's because somewhere up there it was decided that way," he said in a later interview on TF1 television. "And I don't regret anything that happened, I accept it."
For days, sports fans around the world have been riveted by the question: What could Materazzi have said to set Zidane off? Media from Brazil to Britain hired lip readers to try to figure it out, then came up with different answers.
Materazzi has acknowledged he insulted Zidane, without giving specifics. At nearly the same moment Zidane was on TV, excerpts from an interview that Materazzi gave were posted on an Italian paper's Web site. He denied insulting Zidane's mother.
"I didn't say anything to him about racism, religion or politics," Materazzi told the Gazzetta dello Sport. "I didn't talk about his mother either. I lost my mother when I was 15 and even now I still get emotional talking about her."
Zidane "has always been my hero," Materazzi said. "I admire him a lot."
Despite the head-butt, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball award for best player at the World Cup - though FIFA president Sepp Blatter has suggested Zidane could be stripped of the honor.
"The winner of the award is not decided by FIFA, but by an international commission of journalists," Blatter said in Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "That said, FIFA's executive committee has the right, and the duty, to intervene when faced with behavior contrary to the ethics of the sport."
In France, many have already pardoned Zidane, even without his explanation. A poll published Tuesday in Le Parisien newspaper showed that 61 percent of the 802 people questioned forgave Zidane.
Zidane said many people have asked him not to retire, but he said he would not change his mind.
"I won't go back on it, at least I hope so ... (the decision) it's definitive," he said.
In a later interview with TF1 television, Zidane said he was "going to rest, and then move on to something else."
-
Are people actually still caring about this?
-
Check out the new Zizou Video Game! (http://www.ocarina.ws/zidan/)
-
Originally posted by lbcardoni:
"I would rather have taken a punch in the jaw than have heard that," Zidane said, stressing that Materazzi's language was "very harsh," and that he repeated the insults several times.
Must have called them cocksuckers.
-
Originally posted by Buck Satan:
Are people actually still caring about this?
Nope!
-
Originally posted by Buck Satan:
Are people actually still caring about this?
No one but 0930 hipsters gives a hoot anymore.
-
you know, if soccer wasnt such a damn pussy sport we wouldnt have to be still talking about this.
you know how long we'd be talking about this if a hockey player headbutted another player? not 30 seconds after it happened.
-
Originally posted by corporal clegg:
you know how long we'd be talking about this if a hockey player headbutted another player? not 30 seconds after it happened.
If this were mark messier (hey, they're both bald) and he got a 10 minute major for instigating in OT of game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, then his team lost and he retired the next day ... Yes, we'd still be talking about this
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
If this were mark messier (hey, they're both bald) and he got a 10 minute major for instigating in OT of game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, then his team lost and he retired the next day ... Yes, we'd still be talking about this [/b]
Sonick would, I'm not sure if anyone else would.
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
Originally posted by corporal clegg:
you know how long we'd be talking about this if a hockey player headbutted another player? not 30 seconds after it happened.
If this were mark messier (hey, they're both bald) and he got a 10 minute major for instigating in OT of game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, then his team lost and he retired the next day ... Yes, we'd still be talking about this [/b]
no way a penalty would have been called in a game 7. :)
-
thats my point. not that its unimportant, but headbutting another player like that in hockey wouldnt warrant such a penalty.
so no, we wouldnt be talking about it.
Messier would have to cut off a hand to get a 10min misconduct in OT of Game 7!
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
Originally posted by corporal clegg:
you know how long we'd be talking about this if a hockey player headbutted another player? not 30 seconds after it happened.
If this were mark messier (hey, they're both bald) and he got a 10 minute major for instigating in OT of game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, then his team lost and he retired the next day ... Yes, we'd still be talking about this [/b]
Don't try to debate Hoya. He has all of the pertinent facts at hand. And, just like Star Jones...he IS a lawyer.
-
Originally posted by corporal clegg:
thats my point. not that its unimportant, but headbutting another player like that in hockey wouldnt warrant such a penalty.
so no, we wouldnt be talking about it.
Messier would have to cut off a hand to get a 10min misconduct in OT of Game 7!
agreed 100%, it would be next to impossible to pick up a game misconduct in OT of game 7
-
Originally posted by corporal clegg:
you know, if soccer wasnt such a damn pussy sport we wouldnt have to be still talking about this.
i forgot about one thing: these last two days may have been the worst sports days in the year (at least in the US), absolutely nothing of consequence has happened (played-out baseball all-star game is about it) ... did anyone watch sportscenter today? they showed the AAA all-star game highlights!
with a vacuum like this, things just keep getting re-chewed over and over and over
-
The focus on Zidane has completely taken the focus off the French coach who substituted out Henry and Ribery . . . who I would think would be pretty good at PKs (but don't know for sure) . . .and substituted in Trezeguet late. The game was inevetibly going to PKs . . . why take out scorers who have each played fantastically?? If Trezeguet wasn't good enough to start, why put him in to take a game deciding PK?? Of course all this(including the Zidane red card) is probably moot b/c Barthez wouldn't have stopped a PK if the shootout went on all night.
-
Arena out as U.S. national coach at end of year
Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati announced Friday that U.S. Men's National Team coach Bruce Arena, the longest-tenured national team coach at the World Cup, will not return to the U.S. team after his contract expires at the end of the year.
Arena met with Gulati and U.S. Soccer Secretary General Dan Flynn for five hours Thursday at LaGuardia Airport, and a decision was finalized Friday morning.
Gulati said a worldwide search to find a replacement will begin immediately. Speculation will center on Jürgen Klinsmann, who coached the German national team to a third-place finish in this month's World Cup. Klinsmann, who lives in California with his family, stepped down from the German post earlier this week, saying he felt, "burnt out."
Arena, hired in October 1998, will leave the national team as the winningest coach in its history. He coached the 2002 U.S. men's team to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, the best World Cup showing in U.S. Soccer history. But Arena's squad disappointed at this year's World Cup, failing to advance out of group play as it lost to the Czech Republic and Ghana and tied eventual World Cup champion Italy.
"It comes down primarily to eight years being a long period," Gulati said. "I'm not going to say we felt the need to change directions. The direction Bruce has set is very, very positive.
We didn't get the results we wanted in the World Cup, but Bruce didn't become a bad coach in three games with a few bad bounces of the ball."
"It's tough to see a good coach leave, especially wth what he's done for the sport of soccer in this country," Clint Dempsey, the only U.S. player to score during the 2006 World Cup, told ESPN.com. "The way I see it, if it's not broke, don't fix it. But I guess the federation was disappointed in our performance in the last World Cup and decided to go in another direction."
Dempsey felt it was unfair for critics to solely blame Arena for the Americans' World Cup disappointment, which included a 3-0 tournament-opening loss to the Czech Republic. After tying eventual Cup champion Italy 1-1, the Americans could have advanced to Group Play with a victory over Ghana, but lost that match 2-1 after a controversial penalty call late in the first half.
"You can't put that entirely on a coach," Dempsey said. "It's on the players as well. We didn't do what we needed to do. He put us in the position to be successful and we came up short. Both parties should be blamed, but that's not the way it works. And it's tough that he gets the blame."
Arena compiled a 71-30-29 record during his eight years, including records for consecutive games unbeaten (16 in 2003-04) and most wins in a calendar year (13 in 2005), as well as for best winning percentage in a calendar year (.750 in 2005). In addition to his team's performances in the World Cup, he coached the U.S. team to two CONCACAF Gold Cup championships (in 2002 and 2005) and a third-place finish at the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup.
His 71 victories and .658 winning percentage are U.S. soccer records.
"I would like to thank the players, coaches and staff who have been with the program over the last eight years," Arena said in a statement. "Their tireless effort has helped transform the national team program into something we can all be proud of, and I am extremely grateful for their commitment. I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and I would like to thank U.S. Soccer for the opportunity and their support throughout my tenure. I am proud of how far the organization has come over the last eight years, and I am extremely optimistic about the future of the sport in our country."
On Friday, Gulati said he hadn't talked to Klinsmann in six months, but acknowledged the former German star could be a potential candidate.
"He's a very inquisitive guy," Gulati said. "He comes to coaches conventions, he'll ask Anson Dorrance how he motivated his North Carolina teams. All those sorts of things. He's intelligent, multi-lingual. He has a lot of positive qualities."
Arena, on the other hand, said he plans to take some time off before weighing future coaching opportunities both here and abroad.
Sing it with me...
Jur-gen Klins-man
Clap, clap...clap,clap,clap
Repeat
-
Originally posted by Mobius:
The focus on Zidane has completely taken the focus off the French coach who substituted out Henry and Ribery . . . who I would think would be pretty good at PKs (but don't know for sure) . . .and substituted in Trezeguet late. The game was inevetibly going to PKs . . . why take out scorers who have each played fantastically?? If Trezeguet wasn't good enough to start, why put him in to take a game deciding PK?? Of course all this(including the Zidane red card) is probably moot b/c Barthez wouldn't have stopped a PK if the shootout went on all night.
i figured they would put in Trezeguet at the end, so that didnt surprise me, but it DID surprise me that Henry and Ribery were taken out. especially Ribery who seemed to be having the tournament of his life.
and you are correct Barthez wasnt going to stop shit. but that Trezeguet miss really fucked the French, i mean, you would have hoped the Italians would've missed sooner or later.
Italy's goalie didnt stop any PK's either though, did he? just the Trezeguet miss?
-
uh, the only person to blame for france's loss was barthez. period. the materazzi goal shouldve never been one. granted it was a good corner kick and header, but there was no reason why barthez shouldnt have gone out of the box to contend it instead of waiting for the ball to come to him...which it did, and he botched the save.
-
Let the signing period begin....
Juve, Lazio and Fiorentina relegated
Juventus, Lazio, and Fiorentina have been relegated from Serie A as a result of the match-fixing scandal.
AC Milan have avoided relegation, but will start next season with a 15-point deficit, and have had 44 points taken from their tally for the 2005-06 season.
Juventus have been stripped of their Serie A titles for each of the last two seasons. They will start next campaign with a 30-point deficit.
Fiorentina will start in Serie B with a 12-point deficit and Lazio a seven-point deficit.
The rulings mean that none of the four clubs will be allowed to play in Europe next season.
In addition to the punishments handed to the clubs, a number of the individual directors were suspended.
Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi has been suspended from all football for five years.
Adriano Galliani, who was AC Milan vice-president, has been suspended for one year.
The four clubs will have up to three days to appeal to the Federal Court but a final verdict has to be announced before July 25, when the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) must give UEFA, Europe's football governing body, the list of teams that will compete in the continental club competitions in the 2006/07 campaign.
The scandal was uncovered as a result of a criminal investigation that was launched before the start of the 2004/05 campaign by the Naples prosecutors' office.
Telephone conversations between Moggi and a referees supremo in charge of the appointments of officials during the 2004/05 season were tapped.
Prosecutors based their probe on hundreds of bugged telephone calls between referee selectors, game officials and Moggi.
At the close of trading on Milan's stock exchange on Friday, Lazio shares had dropped 9.68% to 0.28 euros while Juventus went down to 1.45 euros - a fall of 1.15%.
An estimated 500 Lazio fans protested outside Rome's Parco dei Principi hotel as Federal Appeal Commission president Cesare Ruperto read out the verdicts inside.
More than 300 Fiorentina fans met up outside the Artemio Franchi stadium as a sign of protest but it was a different story in Turin with few Juventus supporters turning up at the club's headquarters in Via Galileo Ferraris.
-
yeah, the only kick the italian "saved" was treziguet's, but I would have bet a fortune that he would have stopped one before barthez did
-
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
Originally posted by corporal clegg:
you know how long we'd be talking about this if a hockey player headbutted another player? not 30 seconds after it happened.
If this were mark messier (hey, they're both bald) and he got a 10 minute major for instigating in OT of game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, then his team lost and he retired the next day ... Yes, we'd still be talking about this [/b]
Messier would have to be a total moron to headbutt another player in the chest with all that padding!!!
No, gloves off, BAP! BAP! BAP! Steve Peet style is the only way for me!!!!
Instead of water bottles lined up on the touchline, they should have handbags so footie players can sort it out once and for all.
-
<img src="http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/javimoya/pics/zidane/zidane17.gif" alt=" - " />
For those who haven't gotten enough Zissou (http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/zidane.htm) already...