Football: Fifa World Cup 2006 Thread

Originally posted by TRD
Root for where you was born, not some distant connection...

Ah, but the connection aint' that far removed (my grandfather was born in Italy) Of course, the other half of my heritage is German, so I have 3 chances of winnng this thing...

As I said in an earlier post, my brother in law is in Germany to watch some of the games, he flew out Thursday. What I didn't know was that he was doing a blog on his time over there, so here is the link -

World Cup Blog Link

I'll try to keep ya'll up to date when he makes more entries.

In the meantime, here's some pics he has posted in the blog:

Pregame ritual preparations




EDIT - pic didnt' come up

[Edited on 6/18/2006 by Gibbs Baby!!!]

Fan zone

Well England top the group after their 2-2 draw with Sweden. I though we had them after Gerrard scored in the 85th min, but it was the same ol England. Joe Cole had another great game and he score one of the best goals of the tournament so far.

One blow is that Owen went off, well a blow to who? England? I would say after his performances so far we wont miss him too much.

So we have Equador in the next stage, who have played pretty well so far and were going to have to step it up again if we are to beat them. But i would say the first half against Sweden was our best performance so far and if we can play like that we should beat them..

So who is going to win tonight....

Argentina or Holland?

Originally posted by TRD
So who is going to win tonight....

Argentina or Holland?

I think Argentina will win this one. Fair enough Holland have a few good players but they aint as good a team as Argetina plus i think Argentina have more players who can score and are all round more dangerous

Not long to go until kick off!

Argentina have never beaten Holland in a World Cup game in the 90 mins.

25mins gone and its pretty even, but Argentina had a couple of good chances to score. I cant see it staying 0-0...

Originally posted by TRD
Argentina have never beaten Holland in a World Cup game in the 90 mins.

25mins gone and its pretty even, but Argentina had a couple of good chances to score. I cant see it staying 0-0...

hopefully that means you turned the telly off, and haven't lost your eyesight, lol!

With only one shot on goal for the tournament, the American team better pick it up tomorrow!

In other news, my brother-in-law has made a new post in his blog since last I wrote in here:

New Entry Link

Today we have some good games, Germany-Sweden and Argentina- Mexico.

I'm a little bit dissapointed that France is playing Spain so early, and that Ivory Coast didn't make it through.

Originally posted by TRD
Argentina have never beaten Holland in a World Cup game in the 90 mins.

25mins gone and its pretty even, but Argentina had a couple of good chances to score. I cant see it staying 0-0...

Well after the first 10 mins of watching that game I knew it was going to end up 0-0. Because none of the two teams they weren't giving 100% effort. And they were both missing passes and shots like crazy. But Holland was missing a lot more passes than Argentina though. This Dutch team is weaker than that of 2004 and much weaker than that of 2000, not to think of 1988!!

Originally posted by Bandit795
Today we have some good games, Germany-Sweden and Argentina- Mexico.

I'm a little bit dissapointed that France is playing Spain so early, and that Ivory Coast didn't make it through.

Not long until the games kick off, think its the Germany one at 4pm and the Argentina at night. I think they both will be good games though i think both Germany and Argentina will progress.

This year i think although Germany look like they will concede goals, they look quite good attacking and for a change they are not playing a 6' 12" striker for once. I don't think Sweden are as good as they were a few years back, its the same team but the players are just getting older

I think Sweden are good enough to score against the germans, they were unlucky not to score 3 or 4 against England but when it comes to the crunch i think Germany will up their game and put at least 2 by the Swedes.

Argentina and Mexico, who will know each other very well but i think Argentina have much more class in every area, the only way i can see Mexico winning is if the Argies concede an early goal and get 2 players sent off

Sweden wasnt even at the races for the game today. Germany had an easy ride and did deserve to win.

Argentina v Mexico was a great game.

The way Mexico started off the game i thought they was going to beat them and Argentina got lucky not to have Heinze sent off. It was a blatant sending off and i dont know what the referee was thinking. He said he wasnt the last defender, well someone needs to go over the rules with him, get him a pair of glasses and explain to him that the other defender couldnt and wouldnt have made up over 15 yrds to get near the player plus the distance the ball travelled, it would have been physically impossible..

But Argentina did play well and have some great players. Messi did well when he came on and i think he will feature more in the next game.

England scraped through another game, although we started off slow, we came on stronger as the game went on and just did enough. Rooney looked much sharper but there was still some not very good performances on the pitch. Lampard seems to have lost his shooting boots and looks like he is getting annoyed with himself over it, he needs to relax and the goals will come...

Did you see Beckham spewing his guts up on the pitch lol?

I've been following this tourny and I have NEVER seen more diving outside of a diving event. They really have to get a handle on this. Card em for diving imo.

Just watched Port. vs Neth. and there was an incredible dive by the Port. player about the 65th minute that got a Neth. player red carded and he didn't barelt touch the other player. This is a disgrace to the sport. Port. was diving all game. Neth. did a couple of times too.

I have no affiliation to any team here, no team Canada. I don't root for England or Germany either just because these are my roots. I really liked what I saw from the Ivory Coast on Thurs. Battled back and won.

Soccer was the only sport I played all through school, I'm just looking for a good game. I came to one conclusion today, I HATE Portugal.

Edit to add: Sorry I haven't been around, I'm on vacation right now.

[Edited on 6/25/06 by truenorth]

Truenorth i have to agree on quite a bit with you there..

It was billed to be a great game and it turned into a farce. Mostly was due to the referee and the players diving. The players are always doing it and we see it in the Premier League in the UK every week, but i would say its mainly the foreign players that do it. The World Cup is no exception and it is pretty bad.

That was a record number of yellow cards in any one World Cup match, 20 i think it ended up. Also its the second game of this tournament that at least 3 players have been sent off and it was lucky there wasnt more.

So England have Portugal in the quarter-finals, and they have lost one of their best players (deco) due to him being sent off for the next game. We have to fancy our chances against them..

Originally posted by TRD
So England have Portugal in the quarter-finals, and they have lost one of their best players (deco) due to him being sent off for the next game. We have to fancy our chances against them..

I don't, if it is officiated as poorly as this game. Port. will continue to dive and even if England wins, they will be without players for the next game due to cards.

It's a sad day for the game when your key strength is diving.

I hear what your saying..

The other referees will have seen the game and hopefully we will get a strong referee who will actually book the players for the dive. England have a good temperament so that should be a big plus for us. Holland was one of the fancied teams to go through so its the biggest casualty so far in the World Cup.

How lucky was the Italians to go through?

A bit of a dubious penalty right in the last seconds of the game..

Dubious to say the least.

Alot of heat is coming down on the reffs for this World Cup. As deserving as it maybe, it is a tough job to do in a spotlight second to none.