OFFICIAL FIFA World Cup 2006 Thread - Page 14 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

sadora · 06-28-2006, 12:20 AM

So as the month draws to a close so does the World Cup. It's quarter-finals time and six previous World Cup winners (Germany, Argentina, Italy, England, France and Brasil) are still in with a chance while two (Ukraine and Portugal) will hope to be the surprise team of the tournament.

Germany vs. Argentina.
Prediction: The winner of this game IMO will be in the Finals...hopefully it's Argentina but I think that Germany will win by a small margin and perhaps in extra time.

Italy vs. Ukraine
Ukraine has been the cinderella team of the tournament and while they took out another cinderalla team (Switzerland) to get a spot into the quarter finals I don't think they have enough depth to get by Italy.
Prediction: Italy wins 2:0

England vs. Portugal
This one is a little tough to predict because England can easily win this game if they control the midfield and connect with their young star Wayne Rooney. If England play a tired game like they did against Ecuador then they'll be in for a very tough game.
Prediction: England wins 3:0 (If they show up to play)

Brasil vs. France
France will be Brasil's first real challenging game in this tournament and unless they bring their game up I think that the current defending Champions will be getting an early ticket home.
Prediction: Brasil win 4:1
------
Semi-Final predictions

Germany vs. Italy. winner: Germany
England vs. Brasil. winner: Brasil

Final

Germany vs. Brasil. winner: Brasil

Brasil are man for man the strongest team in the tournament. This is their tournament to lose. I think their biggest enemy at the moment are themselves and unless the Brasilians improve their play I think that it could just as easily be either England or Germany who win this one.

FurnaceFace · 06-28-2006, 08:19 AM

Don't know if FATA, but some good press for Hargreaves:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/oliverholt/

troutman · 06-28-2006, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

It is refreshing to watch a well reffed game today (France v Spain). Great performance by the Italian (?) ref. And wow, what a finish to that game. Great effort by Zidane.

I don't know about that. Henry took quite a dive to set up the winning free kick. Henry, of course denies it:

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5737250

Henry crumpled to the ground, holding his head, after being barged to the ground by Puyol. The Barcelona defender was shown a yellow card, but replays suggested he had only struck the Arsenal captain in the chest.

From the ensuing free kick, Patrick Vieira scored to put France ahead 2-1.

Scrambler · 06-28-2006, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by octothorp

I missed the original comment... what was said?

Go to google and type in 'Luis Aragones comments on Thierry Henry'. You'll see lots of different news articles on it. None of them go into the complete detail, as it was pretty disgusting what he said.

Scrambler · 06-28-2006, 04:04 PM

Oh yeah, almost forgot to give me picks for quarterfinal winners, well here they are!

England
Ukraine
Argentina
France

KevanGuy · 06-28-2006, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrambler

Go to google and type in 'Luis Aragones comments on Thierry Henry'. You'll see lots of different news articles on it. None of them go into the complete detail, as it was pretty disgusting what he said.

Didn't he just call him a black ****? Or was there more to it?

KevanGuy · 06-28-2006, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

I don't know about that. Henry took quite a dive to set up the winning free kick. Henry, of course denies it:

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5737250

Henry crumpled to the ground, holding his head, after being barged to the ground by Puyol. The Barcelona defender was shown a yellow card, but replays suggested he had only struck the Arsenal captain in the chest.

From the ensuing free kick, Patrick Vieira scored to put France ahead 2-1.

Yeah I think when I typed that it was before that free kick. I added the Zidane part later. Overall I think it was a good reffing performace. And I agree that was a dive.

JayP · 06-28-2006, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrambler

Go to google and type in 'Luis Aragones comments on Thierry Henry'. You'll see lots of different news articles on it. None of them go into the complete detail, as it was pretty disgusting what he said.

TSN showed a video of the incident randomly during their coverage one day.

What he said wasn't particularily bad per say (all he did was call him black), but the fact that he was using it as motivation for his players is pretty sick. Basically he was going around to various players as they were practicing and telling them that wasn't good enough if they wanted to beat the black guy. Then telling them they were better than those people or something similar.

He wasn't dropping n-bombs or anything, but the fact that he uses race supremacy as a motivation tactic is pretty sick and should've been grounds for firing.

Winsor_Pilates · 06-28-2006, 08:04 PM

I believe the exact words were "black piece of ****"

sadora · 06-30-2006, 11:54 AM

So the hosts are in the semi-finals, which shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone. I'm disappointed that Argentina has been eliminated but Germany proved to be stronger mentally. With two teams that have such a long history in the World Cup it was very fitting that this game was decided in penalty shots.

I'm still predicting Germany vs. Brasil in the final

Hakan · 06-30-2006, 12:11 PM

Quote:

it was very fitting that this game was decided in penalty shots.

Yeah that was just what I was thinking. It's great that a international tournament playoff game was decided by penalty shots. What a great thing it was settled that way instead of on the field.

Soccer...

I was really excited for the World Cup this year as I never get to watch alot of soccer. Now I'm just sick of all the garbage that comes along with this sport.

Oh well, go Portugal.

habernac · 06-30-2006, 12:20 PM

a lousy way of deciding a game. But it's the way they've decided it for years, so....

josef · 06-30-2006, 03:25 PM

bla bla bla...
germany really deserved to win, argentina´s coach lost the game, his substitutions really made the difference, in the wrong way for argentina

VANFLAMESFAN · 06-30-2006, 05:27 PM

uggggg......italy wins, im going to be sick. Not guys who have 1/16th of
Italian blood in them will claim today's win and jump on the bandwagon. That is the only thing I hate about world cup or euro cup time, the guys who deem in apporpriate to cheer for a country they otherwise have zero allegiance for except every June every 2 years.

sadora · 06-30-2006, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hakan

Yeah that was just what I was thinking. It's great that a international tournament playoff game was decided by penalty shots. What a great thing it was settled that way instead of on the field.

Soccer...

I was really excited for the World Cup this year as I never get to watch alot of soccer. Now I'm just sick of all the garbage that comes along with this sport.

Oh well, go Portugal.

Perhaps you completely misunderstood what I was trying to get at. Like I was trying to say, Germany and Argentina have a long history in the World Cup and have gone to penalties before, last time they faced each other in fact (Italy '90) so therefore...it was "fitting" that they decide this game in a penalty shootout. "Fitting" is not the same as saying "Right"

Personally though, I don't mind the penalty shootout, I find it exciting. Football is not like hockey where the players have 30 second shifts, these guys play 90 minutes +, and that's not including if they have to go to extra time, oh that's not to mention that the teams are only allowed three substitutions.

VANFLAMESFAN · 07-01-2006, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadora

Perhaps you completely misunderstood what I was trying to get at. Like I was trying to say, Germany and Argentina have a long history in the World Cup and have gone to penalties before, last time they faced each other in fact (Italy '90) so therefore...it was "fitting" that they decide this game in a penalty shootout. "Fitting" is not the same as saying "Right"

.

I'm pretty sure that one didnt go to penalties, Germany scored on a penalty shot in regulation time. I'm alsmost certain of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup_1990

Yep, go to the bottom of the page, Germany were awarded a penalty in the last few minutes which was put away.

henriksedin33 · 07-01-2006, 02:07 AM

I better get to sleep.....England game in 7 hours

Neeper · 07-01-2006, 03:26 AM

This tournament is so damned exciting!

4X4 · 07-01-2006, 04:46 AM

Roma was a big party last night... Great game. That is all.

And VFF: What's wrong with picking a country to cheer for?

Footscray · 07-01-2006, 08:49 AM

Couple good ones today, I had to miss the games yesterday so I will be glued to the TV/internet this morning for the quarters and the free agency derby - hopefully there will be more goals than shots of spice girls and shirtless fat guys in the first game.