Hey folks, World Football Cup started

MacCaulay said:
The groups are not necessarily a good indication of a team's quality. Serbia and Montenegro gave Argentina too much space in midfield - a common tactic of defensively-oriented teams. They should have pressed the ball-carrier harder. I agree Argentina were superb, though.
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I'm a bit late with this comment (work :() but you make a good point, although Belgium should really have done better in their qualifying group.

I think the midfield issue in the game was more the shape of the teams, Argentina were using a 3-5-2 and S&M were playing 4-4-2. If you have 5 against 4 in the midfield and those 5 are all technically better than your 4 then you are going to be overrun. That second goal was a perfect example of the lazy tempo of the triangles in the midfield suddenly changing into fast one touch in the last third and Argentina essentially passed the ball into the net. Poor S&M had no clue what was going on. It is difficult to press when you are outmanned and your coach isn't particularly perceptive.

What will be really interesting to see is how Argentina will fare if they put a full squad out against the Dutch...

 
peter_n said:
Belgium should really have done better in their qualifying group.
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We're just a small country and we played at pretty much every post-WWII world cup, so we decided to let this one go and rest a bit, to win the cup in 2010, y'know?

peter_n said:
What will be really interesting to see is how Argentina will fare if they put a full squad out against the Dutch...
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Not sure if they will, I think they'll leave their carded players on the bench and perhaps some others as well. First or second in that group, it doesn't really matter that much I think, they won't know who'll end second and first in the other group anyway. Plus, group D doesn't really look too impressive - Portugal, Iran, Angola or Mexico, none should be a problem for Argentine if they can keep up their play...


ps. from what I saw so far, I think Brazil are good candidates to take the cup. History teaches us that cup-winners traditionally never play good in the first round ;)
 
World Cup Fever is everywhere in Canada too.

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The Toronto area has an international population and when the Great Soccer Event starts even third-generation Canadians suddenly become fiercely Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Tunisian, French, German, Czech, Mexican, or Australian. Come to think of it, Australians never really become Canadians no matter how long they've lived here :D

Gene
 
Oh and I feel kinda sorry for France: they were about to equal the Bolivian world-record of not scoring in five consecutive WC games, and look what happened now! They already scored twice in one game (ok, the referee missed the second goal so it doesn't count, but the first one does).

Pretty stupid of that Korean keeper to stand half a meter behind the goal line... He's lucky nobody noticed. Well, the camera crew did...
 
Yes, I was surprised the ref didn't notice, and the commentators at Univision thought so too right away. The Korean goalie was lucky. It's been replayed over and over.

There was a discussion right away about the proposal of putting sensors on the frame, and one of the commentators said that he'd rather not see that happen, for it would take part of the humanity out of the game; I'm sure he meant serendipity. I agree.

Nice picture, btw, Gene.
 
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This is stupid, he was pretty lagged there, and i donno what was the ref lookign at, or the lines man?? They have to ruin the fun, eh??

I've the Korea+refs complex!!
 
jvx said:
We're just a small country and we played at pretty much every post-WWII world cup, so we decided to let this one go and rest a bit, to win the cup in 2010, y'know?
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Perfectly understandable! ;)

jvx said:
from what I saw so far, I think Brazil are good candidates to take the cup. History teaches us that cup-winners traditionally never play good in the first round ;)
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Indeed. Look at Italy when the World Cup was in Spain. I'm hoping that's going to happen to England. You may be right but I saw the second half of the game today and I thought Australia were unlucky. But I also thought that Brazil had their weaknesses, poor central defenders and they can't get the ball accurately into the center from wide in the last third. Also why are they wasting a man by playing Ronaldo? What a lump of lard... So far they haven't looked convincing and its a long tournament but I think they can be beaten. Whether someone will do it is another matter...

 
Now, that's what I'm talking about. That was a World Cup match. France had it, but the Koreans came back. Berthez à fait des conneries, but I think he really should quit smoking. The team's age is dragging them.

I'm sure Korea is going to keep giving the other teams a big headache.
 
It's a typical scenario, a elading goal, another disallowed, the koreans score the equalizer and maybe also the winner, whistle.End

Damn it!
 
I planned to skip the France vs Korea game after getting very bored watching Brazil. The Brazil game reminded me of everything that is wrong about soccer from an audience point of view, "best team in the world" and you want to fall asleep during the game.

Thank heavens I caught the second half of France vs. Korea, the crowd was going crazy, the tempo was so frenetic, beautiful to watch! Can't wait to see Ghana vs. U.S., I'm American but wouldnt mind one bit if Ghana crushes my team.
 
RicardoD said:
I planned to skip the France vs Korea game after getting very bored watching Brazil. The Brazil game reminded me of everything that is wrong about soccer from an audience point of view, "best team in the world" and you want to fall asleep during the game.
hana
Thank heavens I caught the second half of France vs. Korea, the crowd was going crazy, the tempo was so frenetic, beautiful to watch! Can't wait to see Ghana vs. U.S., I'm American but wouldnt mind one bit if Ghana crushes my team.
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I would love to see Ghana go all the way! :D
 
Socke said:
Nothing beats watching the games in a brazilian bar :) ...
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The funny thing is my wife is Brazilian, and she prefers watching the games on Univision (Spanish language) rather than O Globo (the Brazilian network broadcasting in Portuguese). We get both networks via cable, but she says the Univision announcers are "more exciting."
 
Yeah well i've 6 swiss channels, 3 of them broadcast the games in 3 different languages, i'm good with frencha nd italian, but i rather french, the commentator is mroe interesting...
 
This is fun.... Univision is OK, but sometimes those mexican dudes talk so much bull**** that they drive me nuts....
Now here in Ecuador 3 of the networks have gotten together to afford the cost of broadcasting live! so you can watch all soccer all the time :D :D

Oldprof said:
I'm watching all the games on Univision ... it's a lot more exciting than the broadcasts in English. But Spanish is my second language ... monolingual English speakers may not feel the same way. ;)
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Now bring on the Sauerkraut!
 
titrisol said:
Now bring on the Sauerkraut!
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Not Sauerkraut this time of the year! Now is the time for asparagus, new potatos and veal cutlet or ham with a large amount of molten butter. White vine or beer to your liking.

Tastes great, good for your hips and improves your bloodpresure, too!
 
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