World Cup Footie Seedings

Elton: England's World Cup 'a disgrace'
 
  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."

[andyrichter]

Originally posted by Rakim Indie Balzac:
  Elton: England's World Cup 'a disgrace'
 
  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."

  Shocking, truly shocking!  
 
 Looking forward to today's game.  Great world cup so far!

[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....

[brennser]

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
   

[vansmack]

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.

[vansmack]

You should watch this:
 
 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!!!!!

[godsshoeshine]

man u's side is just full of wankers

"the English media are scapegoating Cristiano Ronaldo in order to cover up for Wayne Rooney"
 
 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."

[vansmack]

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!!

[brennser]

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?

[sonickteam2]

looks like Podolski won anyway.

[Mobius]

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.

[HoyaSaxa03]

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!

[HomesickAlien]

'54, '74, '90, 2010...
 
         

[lily1]

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.