FIFA World Cup 2006 [R]

if torn...yes...if not torn...they can be a nuisance.

We stayed up and watched the soccerwho's last night. It was pretty impressive, eventually.

I thought the Egyptian ref had a really cute moment when after the first Cahill goal (Australia's first ever goal in the WC finals) the celebrations went insane and the ref was blowing his whistle madly to get them restarted - but he had the cutest little smile on his face - like he understood and was going to give them a little bit of leeway (you can get carded for 'overexuberant' celebrations).

As good as Cahill was I have bouquets for:

Aloisi (that last goal was class - and he took it with his weaker foot, which is what left the last defender stranded as he aniticipated a step to the left that never came.)

Josh Kennedy (who I think upped the Japanese anxiety level - just by being tall)

Viduka (who always seems to carry two players on his back)

Kewell (his first full game for ages - worked tirelessly, at one point he'd tracked back and cleared the ball the six yard box - defusing a dangerous attack from the Samurai.)

On the negative side for us I don't think Wilkshire is there yet. I don't think Emerton is much chop (his long passing, shooting, and dribbling were painful at times) even though I think he made a good fist of left back after the substitutions, once he knew there was no onus on him being involved in the attack. Similarly Scott Chipperfield is solid if he plays within his limitations.

If one ever doubted the value of a good coach Hiddink, for me, is proof of how valuable a good one is, he gets amazing things out of his teams.

So, listen, I'm really enjoying all this, and I'm not even watching the matches. I may break down and accept the lend of dys/diane's old telly, if it turns out the basic tv sans cable has espn, which I hope has soccer matches routinely. (I gave my Sony tv-vcr to my garden helper when I moved.)

Today was a good day for me, even if my strikers keep getting no goals...
Viva Italia! or Forza Azzuri! or whatever.

Avanti! A la battaglia!!

aparently the Egyption ref went up to schwartzer after the game and said "God has saved me"

Not too far wrong there ref except that cahill is not spelled GOD...........yet.

Great showing by Oz...I believe they had never scored a goal in Cup play.
The substitution that brought Cahill in was inspired...I believe I posted that earlier..at halftime. Way to go Ozzies...proud of you.

I grabbed [R] from BigSoccer though I've seen it in other sports forums as well.

If a thread has the [R] in the title it means that you know beforehand that you can find the results of the game inside the thread. This is to warn a fan that if he wants to find out the result some other way, most likely watching it, to stay away from the thread.

More or less like the spoiler alert for movies.

Regarding today's matches... great game by the Czechs. Hopefully they'll continue playing at this level, right where they left off in Euro 2004.

Saw the 2nd half of the Italy - Ghana game and I think the US still has real possibilities of making it out of it's group. The italians looked like they lacked something and Gilardino still doesn't convince me.

Though break for the African teams so far, missing the final touch.

Great games so far... I'm happy.

[size=7]Specially because the US lost it's match. Sport's rivalry, eh?[/size]

Display those tiny letters, Pantalones! Have some!

I, of course, am happy for the US humiliating defeat.
Not because of the fans. I admire US soccer fans: they want, somehow, to be citizens of the world by loving this sport in a country with huge sport isolationist tendencies. They deserve a better team.
Not because most of the players. American footballers are good, have the American competitive mentality and are also disciplined (even if breaking the cage and displaying some talent would be welcome).

It's because the conceited couple of Gringo big-mouths, Bruce Arena and Landon Donovan.
Arena looks all the time as if he's smelling a fart. Looks down on everyone, and declares crap.
Young Landon thinks he's a star or something, even if he failed TWICE in the Bundesliga. And he also declares crap.

I believe most Mexicans sympathized with US soccer until 2 things happened:
-We were beaten in Korea.
-Arena and Donovan tried to create a "classic" with snotty nationalistic remarks. They succeded.

---

On an aside, Italy-Ghana was a great game. 4-2 instead of 2-0 would have been fairer.
And Pantalones boy, I thought the US would get 3 points in this tough group. Now I doubt they'll get even 1 measly point.

I think the demographics indicate soccer will grow in popularity in the U.S. Many recent immigrants have a strong interest in soccer.

Gosh! We have some issues here!!

It's ok to yell Yankee go home!! :wink:

I agree with fbaezer's take on Donovan and Arena. And you're damn right we deserve a better team.

In regard to revelations, I reckon it's this championship (for me... but I'm notoriously slow on the uptake, especially concerning sports) that has finally alerted me to the fact that African countries are not just fielding decent teams, but some even have dangerous ones, and several of them (ok, not Ghana) show great class. I am most curious to see where this will end. Go Africa go!

A lot of the best players in France (current world champions) in recent years have come out of Africa.
Just a matter of time.....

Everything is a matter of time.

Yesterday the Americans played as if they were waiting for a bus for ninety minutes. Didn't anyone tell them that there would be another team on the field and they would get in the way considerably?

Joe(and stop with the long balls already!)Nation

That was true for previous waves of immigrants as well though..

I recently had it pointed out to me, that "soccer" will probably never get on to mainstream American TV in a serious way, as they would not be prepared to screen an entire 45 minutes of the game without an advert break.
I never thought about that before, and don't really know if it's true, but I can possibly see a major network having a problem with it.

Football ("soccer") seems to be taking off in a big way among the American youth. If they carry on playing this into their twenties, I can see some great talent coming out of the USA.
Whether they will ever get to be great, just playing within the confines of the USA is another matter. They need to actively encourage their teams to travel and play teams from South America and Europe, to get the vital experience necessary to start competing with the rest of the world.

Still, when all is said and done, I still reckon that they will show great improvement over the next 5 - 10 years.

Yes, even my daughter has been playing soccer for 4 years now,
and she´s loving it.

Okay, USA was losing big time yesterday, but 4 years ago, they
held their own against Germany. Italy-Ghana was downright boring.

Watching soccer on one of the Mexican channels is fun though, the
commentators scream and yell like hell.

Well I'm really enjoying this WC at the moment, almost scary to think we're only halfway through the 1st set of group games. I really enjoyed the Czech - USA game yesterday, I can understand US fans might not have but the Czechs play such lovely football, they're a joy to watch. I guess for the good of the premiership I hope Rosicky can both adapt to the new style and show that kind of form on some kind of consistent basis. Nedved just oozes class, you can tell after watching just a minute of play, the control of the ball, the running, I think it's a great sense of balance or low centre of gravity that some of them have, moving with both grace and lightning purpose, great stuff anyway.

At this level, barring a few exceptions, you have to expect to come up against a tight, well drilled defence, the Czechs had players to unlock this, the US team seemed far too 1 dimensional, a case of I get the ball, OK, what next, passes it, now I've got the ball, well I see that player is in a decent position, pass etc. The Czechs get the ball and they're already thinking a few moves ahead, you see it in their movement and passing, there's an air of great familiarity about it as well, players break and everyone already has an idea of where their teammates are heading.

(Koller looks set to be OK which is good news for the tournament but my god, his international record is scary, makes you think hard about international footballing statistics anyway)

Looking forward to the Brazilians today...

No dammit I missed it. Was so exhausted with the heat the football and the ....did i say beer? that went to bed really early and forgot to tape it.

Dont tell me someone in FIFA has been helping himself to big dollops of largess? I would be shocked to hear that...