World Cup South Africa, 2010 Thread

[North East Goon]

Originally Posted by Locke

Wont be fun Sunday afternoon for you. After Sunday you'll be begging for the EPL to start up again!

Then we'll be on the same side again.

Sunday afternoon should be great, shutting that blow hard Beckenbauer up!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

Sunday afternoon should be great, shutting that blow hard Beckenbauer up!

That we can agree on. I'd much rather Beckenbauer shut up.

[Jagger]

Originally Posted by Locke

Wont be fun Sunday afternoon for you. After Sunday you'll be begging for the EPL to start up again!

Then we'll be on the same side again.

Too funny actually. Losing to the Germans is ingrained in any case. If it happens, it happens.

Stupid joke of the day (from another World cup board)

This world cup is like WW2. The French bow out early, the Americans come in late, and England end up having to defeat the Germans on their own. Urgh!

Whatever happens on Sunday Locke, we'll always be redmen!

[Jagger]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

Sunday afternoon should be great, shutting that blow hard Beckenbauer up!

He is giving the England team some material to work with, that's for sure. He would do much better keeping his trap shut.

[North East Goon]

All the pressure is on the Germans now, no one REALLY thinks England can win. Although those black holes that Germans carry around called there soul's do not seem to know the meaning of pressure!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Jagger

Too funny actually. Losing to the Germans is ingrained in any case. If it happens, it happens.

Stupid joke of the day (from another World cup board)

This world cup is like WW2. The French bow out early, the Americans come in late, and England end up having to defeat the Germans on their own. Urgh!

Whatever happens on Sunday Locke, we'll always be redmen!

Have the Italians switched sides?

[PIMking]

funny think it was a serbian team that fired the first shot and killed Germany's perfect record.

[vennegoor of hesselink]

great strike by robben there too bad it hit the post for klaas jan huntelaar to put in the rebound

and nice dive by agger to win the pk for denmark

[Hades]

Originally Posted by vennegoor of hesselink

great strike by robben there too bad it hit the post for klaas jan huntelaar to put in the rebound

Yeah, Robben looked really good in those 20 minutes; great shot there, plus a few really good cross attempts. Not a lot of rust there

[vennegoor of hesselink]

Originally Posted by Hades

Yeah, Robben looked really good in those 20 minutes; great shot there, plus a few really good cross attempts. Not a lot of rust there

as i dutch fan im still not all that impressed, i'd still rather see elia on the right than van der vaart . especially after vdv stupidly put his hand up for that penalty

[Hades]

Originally Posted by vennegoor of hesselink

as i dutch fan im still not all that impressed, i'd still rather see elia on the right than van der vaart . especially after vdv stupidly put his hand up for that penalty

With Robben in I don't think Van der Vaart will play anymore; they'll go with Kuyt and Robben on the wings. Like Kuyt's game so far, simple but determined and very defensibly responsible which will help when Brazil/Portugal come.

[d_phaneuf]

ya I think Vdv is out

they need Kuyt in because he is the only one who will track back hard, and I think he is just as good as Vdv going forward. Gives more pace on the wing as well

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by rubecube

The Portuguese have ruined British Columbia.

Then leave. The Portuguese run British Columbia!

[Ark2]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Looked onside since the defenders foot was actually ahead of Quagliarella, but when you play like garbage for 95% of the tournament, you don't deserve a break. But I guess other angles looked more convincing that it was offside. Maybe another case for instant replay/coach challenge?

Lippi stacked the deck against Italy to the extent that it was really pick your poison, a narrow loss to Slovakia and a depressing early exit that will prompt radical change, or a demolition job by Holland, the gloating of annoying Oranje fans, and the regressive thinking we had a chance, got beat by a top opponent, and that things aren't so gloomy, with many of this dysfunctional cast of characters getting a second swansong in Euro 2012.

As bad as this tournament was for the Azzurri, I'm not really all that concerned for the future. The Italians have several creative players that should have made this squad but were left off because Lippi preferred to go with what he already knew. The defense was quite poor, but I think this has everything to do with Cannavaro no longer having what it takes. I expect to see a much stronger Italian side in 2012.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Ark2

As bad as this tournament was for the Azzurri, I'm not really all that concerned for the future. The Italians have several creative players that should have made this squad but were left off because Lippi preferred to go with what he already knew. The defense was quite poor, but I think this has everything to do with Cannavaro no longer having what it takes. I expect to see a much stronger Italian side in 2012.

But how are the young guys? Are they any good? Montolivo was there, he did nothing. One young guy that Lippi did choose over an old guy was Criscito over Grosso and he was utter crap. Italy has famously been strong at left back, he might have been one of the worst ever.

It'll be a dry spell to Italian football for a while.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Oh and Locke, a couple pages back you were commenting on Portugal and how they shouldn't be named in the elite teams in Europe. The original post was talking about what they have done in the last 10 years and how they have had some great results. Of course you ignore that and just look for the negatives. Yes, they were brutal in qualifying, yes, they have struggled the last couple of years, but let the end results do the talking.

Euro 2000-Semi Final loss in Extra Time to eventual winners France
WC 2002-Out in Group Stage, debacle
Euro 2004-Lose in Final
WC 2006-Lose in Semi Final to France
Euro 2008-Loss in Qtr Final to Germany
WC 2010-Will get thru to at least Round of 16 in a very tough group.

Yes, they haven't won a title in those ten years, I get that, but if you are going to put Holland, England and Germany at tag them with "powerhouse"(I realize you didn't give them that title, the other poster did, but you certainly didn't disagree with him) you have to put Portugal in there because they have just as good and in some cases better results than those teams. Once again, in the last 10 years. They at the very least HAVE to be in the discussion, but you quickly throw them aside as usual.

Put your hate aside and recognize what they have done over the last ten years as a small country with a history that doesn't come close to the other countries is nothing short of impressive.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Ark2

As bad as this tournament was for the Azzurri, I'm not really all that concerned for the future. The Italians have several creative players that should have made this squad but were left off because Lippi preferred to go with what he already knew. The defense was quite poor, but I think this has everything to do with Cannavaro no longer having what it takes. I expect to see a much stronger Italian side in 2012.

People have known this for the better part of 2 years, and yet he was the man at the back doing all the heavy lifting. Did they have no one else that could do the job?

They took a guy who was well past his prime and expected him to live up to standard set 4 years ago, effectively asking him to play over his head? That is absolutely asinine. What kind of coach/manager would make a decision like that?

[rubecube]

Just realized that, barring a massive collapse by Chile, every CONMEBOL to make the World Cup will reach the KO stage. Pretty impressive.

[NBC]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Have the Italians switched sides?

No, they were just useless!

[Ark2]

Originally Posted by Locke

People have known this for the better part of 2 years, and yet he was the man at the back doing all the heavy lifting. Did they have no one else that could do the job?

They took a guy who was well past his prime and expected him to live up to standard set 4 years ago, effectively asking him to play over his head? That is absolutely asinine. What kind of coach/manager would make a decision like that?

I think it has something to do with the curse of winning. Italy had 9 players returning from the 2006 squad, and had they not been named, there would have been huge criticism. Had the Italians been embarrassed in the Euro 2008 tournament, we might have seen some rather noticible changes, but instead, they lost on penalty kicks to the eventual winners of that tournament and the thinking was that bringing back Lippi was enough to get this same group back on track.

Finishing was a problem for this team, as was providing decent service for the strikers. Part of that can be blamed on Pirlo's injury as he really is the man that controls the engine room. I think another issue is that these guys have already won a championship before. That's fine if you are still young and the legs are willing, but if you are an aging superstar, I think the desire to deny the body tends to disappear. We've seen this with teams in the past. The 2006 squad had some older players as well, but having never won the holy grail of sports at that time, they were willing to put it all on the line. This squad simply was not willing to do the same thing and it showed.