OT: World Cup thread 7-1

[Seacrest]

bye bye Brazil.

[pRON aHOLIC]

[quote Webster J. Duck]England has looked pretty lethargic the entire Cup. I know a lot of ex-Pats that will be impossible to live with if France advances.
You might want to invest in some earplugs.

[Silencio]

France deserved that win. Nicely done.

[pRON aHOLIC]

That was some superb defense by france today and in germany of all places ;-)

[davester]

Zidane was brilliant. That combined with the french defense completely shutting down any brazilian attempts to get into the penalty box made a brazilian win impossible.

Hey pRon, I thought you said soccer was boring.

[macone]

[quote Silencio]Portugal's football team is probably second in theatrics to Italy. They play dirty and try to provoke the opponent into doing something flagrant. Worked great against England (at least Rooney went out in style after stomping on that guy's huevos) and the Netherlands.

And England came up so small in the penalties. You could see the fear in Lampard and Gerrard's eyes as they stepped up to the spot. Weak penalty shots combined with Portugal's vastly superior goalie equals bye-bye Ingerland. A nauseating but well-earned end.
Silencio you make the same claims against all the opponents you do not like. I do not know if we watched the same game, however it did seem the calls and the playing abilities of England/Portugal were fair and even. I would say Portugal looked slightly better.

For theatrics and playing dirty, I have always thought it was a Latin American speciality.

Also, France did an excellent job today. We now have an European final. I think the rest of the matches are going to be exciting. Right now, I would say Germany is the favorite.

[RgrF]

[quote pRON aHOLIC]That was some superb defense by france today and in germany of all places ;-)
It's only when playing in France they have difficulty with defence.

[ka jowct]

Listening to the US commentary makes me wish I understood Spanish. One of them has at least twice used the term "unchartered territory". The first time I thought maybe I misunderstood him, but he did it again today.

[davester]

[quote macone]I do not know if we watched the same game, however it did seem the calls and the playing abilities of England/Portugal were fair and even. I would say Portugal looked slightly better.
I don't think so (but I may be biased). England had a number of good attacks and chances inside the Portugal penalty box. Portugal never really made it into England's box. Their attack was pathetic. Rooney ought to be lynched...there is a very good chance his streetfighter antics cost england the match. With Rooney, Beckham and Owen all sidelined their chances dropped dramatically.

I also agree with ka jowct's comment on the american commentary. They are HORRIBLE!! The one guy (on ABC I think) goes on and on about what the teams "should" be doing as though he is an ubercoach. Idiot!

[Silencio]

[quote davester]I don't think so (but I may be biased). England had a number of good attacks and chances inside the Portugal penalty box. Portugal never really made it into England's box. Their attack was pathetic. Rooney ought to be lynched...there is a very good chance his streetfighter antics cost england the match. With Rooney, Beckham and Owen all sidelined their chances dropped dramatically.

I also agree with ka jowct's comment on the american commentary. They are HORRIBLE!! The one guy (on ABC I think) goes on and on about what the teams "should" be doing as though he is an ubercoach. Idiot!
Agree 100% with everything above. It didn't help that Sven-Goren didn't take any other useful strikes along to Germany with him: Walcott didn't even make it into a match. S-G's tactics guaranteed that Rooney would get frustrated and lose his cool.

There was some dumb American commentator that said something along the lines of "A soccer coach can't win or lose a match for his team; it's all decided on the field." But I think it's pretty obvious that Sven-Goren's stewardship of England has held them back, even if I don't think their talent is as good as some of their hardcore partisans would claim. See also the Argentina/Germany match, where Argentina's loss can be squarely blamed on Pekarman's bad substitutions and misguided notion of pulling back into defensive mode after they scored a goal.

I dread the thought of a Portugal/Italy final. Germany/France would be well worth watching, though.

I'm not a particular partisan of any country: I just want to see good football. And I'm sorry, but Italy and Portugal have not been playing it. Historically I'd lump Germany in with them, but Klinsmann has done a wonderful job.