Hey folks, World Football Cup started

Andy K said:
I never thought I'd say this but it looks like I'll be rooting for Germany from now on.

There are no other teams left in the tournament who have not dived and cheated their way through.

England are out, but we went out with pride and without cheating. Something which sadly I cannot say for C Ronaldo and his team mates.
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I haven't seen France do any flagrant cheating like kicking somebody on the groin, or pulling somebody's hair in order to score a goal. If that's not cheating, I don't know what is. And what about Mr. 6ft x-in tall flail-my-arms-about what's-his-name? I'm surprised the ref. didn't call him on his butterfly stroke plays.

Portugal...I'm impressed, but concerned too. Not the cleanest game in the lot either. It comes down to the Reds vs. the Blues. Sounds very 1776... at least on this side of the pond, the ones wearing blue have won the important battles and wars. Uh-oh...l'Azzuri...

The Italians really think they'll beat Germany, and the Germans know everybody is saying "oh, but Italy whipped your butt not long ago".

Everybody thought Brazil was going to the final...so... :angel:

Germany vs. France, that'll be quite a historical match.
 
peter_n said:
Germany will not beat Italy. Trust me! 😉
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You must have a Gillooly to be so certain, Peter! 🙂🙂 I'm already in it deep enough, so I won't bite. My wife has a Tottie screensaver, and has been flying the Italian flag from the front porch since the WC started. Not a pretty scene in my house when the US played Italy. I made her watch France and Zidane. She'd never seen him play, until today. She was impressed, but he's "not as cute as Tottie." Italy gets the "cute factor" in her book. That's the team she's backing all the way. She agrees with you.

🙂
 
RayPA said:
I've already offended the Italian and Portugese members here. So, I'll go no further. (he said, bowing and backing away 😉 ) Go Europe!
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Why?

Last time I checked supporting one nation or another did not mean offending anyone.😀
 
fgianni said:
Why?

Last time I checked supporting one nation or another did not mean offending anyone.😀
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So true....

What a few too busy days for me. I have caught what I could of the games, it helps that I can listen to them on the radio at lunch, a long lunch in a parking lot listening to Germany v Argentina. Germany will have another great game against Italy, I will have to do all that I can to watch that one.

Brazil finally ran into an opponent of quality who was able to take advantage of their spiritless play.

And Portugal, a team with a lot of talent and low expectations from this point forward. That can be a dangerous combination.
 
RayPA said:
You must have a Gillooly to be so certain, Peter! 🙂🙂 I'm already in it deep enough, so I won't bite. My wife has a Tottie screensaver, and has been flying the Italian flag from the front porch since the WC started. Not a pretty scene in my house when the US played Italy. I made her watch France and Zidane. She'd never seen him play, until today. She was impressed, but he's "not as cute as Tottie." Italy gets the "cute factor" in her book. That's the team she's backing all the way. She agrees with you.

🙂
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yah, I'm a little worried because Nesta probably won't play but Materazzi (an ex Everton player) has been doing well. I think overall Italy have more talent than Germany but then Argentina had more talent than Germany too. They do play the games to decide them...

It was interesting that the last 8 contained all 6 of the teams who have previously won a World Cup along with Ukraine and Portugal. Since England and the two South American teams I wanted to see in the final are gone I think I'd like to see Portugal win the tournament. Time to spread the glory a little wider. 🙂
 
All these penalty kicks!!!

International soccer should be like the NHL finals, where outcomes to important games are not decided by a bunch of ridiculous penalty kicks... sigh..
 
I gave this game a chance, but.....
I was lambasted pretty thoroughly earlier when I questioned the integrity of soccer, yet you guys have proved my point by complaining about diving and bad acting for the last 500 responses.
It's just pathetic, and the main reason why soccer will never catch on in North America. Don't you guys prize toughness?
Anybody who's ever seen a hockey player crawl off the ice (while play continues) after blocking a slapshot, or getting stitched up and not missing a shift knows what I mean. American football players get knocked cold and come back into the game after a few plays....even baseball players who are often considered prima donnas struggle to 1st base after taking a 95mph fast ball in the back. North American athletes would rather eat crushed glass than fake an injury.....it's schoolyard crap that stops at about age 10 here.
The only thing I can think of to stop this bulls**t is that once a player goes down and stays down for any length of time he MUST come off the field for 5 minutes....it's my guess there'll be alot less of this embarrassing phoney writhing and fake agonized facial expressions. Shameful!
Your game is badly broken and needs to be fixed.
 
I can only agree with you.
20 years ago, when the world cup was played in Mexico, they came up with a good way to end the false suffering. As soon as a player went down, in came two guys with a stretcher. I don't know if anyone remembers this, but it sure made players spring to their feet. Even those who were in "real" pain.
 
dadsm3 said:
It's just pathetic, and the main reason why soccer will never catch on in North America. Don't you guys prize toughness?
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I will disagree with this statement again. Although the majority of US soccer viewers see this on the international stage by some teams, it largely not a part of MLS soccer and for the most part not part of the English Leagues which I also watch on occasion. Combine the "North American Toughness" which is part of the MLS play with the quality of play and talent of the international players and soccer would be more attractive to a wider audience.
 
Nuno said:
I can only agree with you.
20 years ago, when the world cup was played in Mexico, they came up with a good way to end the false suffering. As soon as a player went down, in came two guys with a stretcher. I don't know if anyone remembers this, but it sure made players spring to their feet. Even those who were in "real" pain.
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They should require any player who is injured to the point where they cannot get back up to be taken out of the game and their team should be forced to play short handed for 5 minutes. If the team does not want to play short handed they should be forced to sub out the offened/offensive player.
 
Every sport is different. In rugby union if a player is injured the game carries on around him even though there may be medics in attendance. Diving has been part of football for as long as I can remember. I'm not defending it but it happens to be quite common in certain countries. You get used to it and its only when tournaments like the World Cup come around that people (especially in the northern hemisphere) get upset about it.

The comment about American athletes preferring to eat crushed glass rather than fake an injury is an interesting and I think accurate one. My perception of American sport is that it is quite macho in nature. When I saw lacrosse here for the first time I didn't recognise the game. I had to ask the spectators whether it was lacrosse or not. It is played so aggressively that I just didn't recognise the sport I grew up in England with. There are a lot of socio-cultural differences in attitudes to competition that are accentuated in true world-wide tounaments like the World Cup. They don't show up in North American sports because most major North American sporting competitions are for North American teams only. This is not a criticism of American sport, just an observation.
 
rover said:
They should require any player who is injured to the point where they cannot get back up to be taken out of the game and their team should be forced to play short handed for 5 minutes. If the team does not want to play short handed they should be forced to sub out the offened/offensive player.
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But hey, that leaves some of the comedy out of the sport. I can't recall specifically what this was for, but there's this British commercial (UK lads, help me out here) which showcases this: they show this football team training; what they're doing is training how to fall over in pain, exaggerate the slightest touch or appearance of a foul; it's hilarious. Like they say about some comedy: "it's funny, because it's true".
 
fgianni said:
So going down with a scream of agony, holding your face in your hands, while the opponent barely brushed your chest is ok?
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No, it isn't. Neither is. Just because one is wrong it doesn't mean that the other one isn't.
 
Andy K said:
I never thought I'd say this but it looks like I'll be rooting for Germany from now on.

There are no other teams left in the tournament who have not dived and cheated their way through.

England are out, but we went out with pride and without cheating. Something which sadly I cannot say for C Ronaldo and his team mates.
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So we cheated?
Dont realy know since i didnt saw the game, but...
🙂
 
gabrielma said:
No, it isn't. Neither is. Just because one is wrong it doesn't mean that the other one isn't.
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Oh I definitely do agree, I made that remark to remind you of Henry's behavior since you stated that you have not seen France do any blatant cheating.

Nowhere in my post I implied that they have been the only guilty part; just that you your post seemed to imply that they never indulged in this kind of behavior.
 
peter_n said:
Germany will not beat Italy. Trust me! 😉
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Ok I'll trust you 😀 😀 😀
Italy neve lost with Germany in the world cup, and has not been beaten in the last 23 games, but you know ,records are made to be broken, just let's hope it's not this time around😉 .
 
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