South Africa Soccer world cup thread!

[Griffin]

After a long long time, I was attracted to checking out some of this football again. I like the sport but some things just haven't changed. Yesterday I checked the second half of the Slovakia - Italy match. At best it was great to watch, all the tactics and accurate passes and the great excitement towards the end.

But this sport is really ruined by some things.

Faking! Arrgghh! Really makes me appreciate hockey more, even though I'm not a huge hockey fan either. If you are tackled, get up you wuss and tackle harder!

Consuming time to the extreme is allowed in football. After 90 mins, Slovakia does two (maybe not totally correct but right in the end anyway) player changes! Why? Because they can!

In hockey, the whole field is changed on the fly, Finnish hockey rings were even made smaller a few years back to create more action.

"Overpaid f*****g primadonnas!" - Canadian aircraft mechanic, Ice Pilots NWT, 2008.

Oh, drama drama drama!

 

Today I thought, Brazil vs Portugal, that just has to be a great game. Then I miss the whole thing and tune into the channel 5 mins before the end. NILL NILL! Phew, I think I'll stop trying to waste my afternoons with football from now on. Except for playing it in a good company of course. Now that's fun!

[Pilotasso]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/matches/match_45/default.stm

Brazil and Portugal played out an extremely uneventful goalless draw which saw both sides qualify for the last 16.

 

What was perceived as arguably the potential standout game of the group stages failed to deliver on its promise as Portugal's desire to secure the point that would definitely seal what was already likely qualification from Group G limited any free-flowing football from either side.

 

Unsurprisingly, the already qualified Brazil were the more positive of the two sides but were only able to fashion a handful of chances, the best of which fell to striker Nilmar but was superbly saved by goalkeeper Eduardo.

 

The draw means the South Americans finish top of the group and will look forward to the second phase with confidence, even though this could present them with an earlier-than-expected clash with the closest rivals for their world number one status, Spain.

 

Portugal's 7-0 thrashing of North Korea in their previous match ensured that despite this defeat, and the Ivory Coast's 3-0 victory over the North Koreans in the group's other game, they progressed to the knockout stages in South Africa as runners-up.

 

Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz made four changes to the team from Monday with Pepe and Ricardo Costa coming into defence, and Danny and Duda in midfield.

 

Having overwhelmed their opponents four days ago, Queiroz's men reverted to a more conservative style designed to stifle their opponents and its efficiency resulted in an anti-climactic and fractious game where the number of bookings outweighed clear-cut chances.

 

Portugal defender Pepe and Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo were both booked during a running battle, which resulted in the latter being substituted just before half-time, seemingly for his own protection.

 

Brazil defender Juan was one of five other players booked but it could have been worse when he handled 40 yards from goal from a long ball seeking to release Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo clear down the right.

 

Ronaldo, operating in a lone attacking role was Portugal's chief threat but this primarily constituted a series of long-range efforts from 40 yards-plus which even for a player of Ronaldo's quality were wildly optimistic.

 

When the Real Madrid man was allowed to run at goal he twice met with strong challenges from Lucio, the first of which was a superb block from a shot on the left, but the second, from a similarly aggressive run on the right, inadvertently deflected the ball across goal to Raul Meireles only for the midfielder to shoot wide.

 

Ironically, the last time Portugal had been beaten prior to this match was a 6-2 thumping by Brazil in November 2008 but a repeat of that scoreline was never on the cards between two sides with one eye already on the next round.

 

To this end, Brazil rested Robinho, bringing in Nilmar up front to partner Luis Fabiano, who scored a hat-trick in that 6-2 win and bagged a brace in their previous group game against the Ivory Coast.

 

The attacking duo were central to all of Brazil's best attacking play.

 

They combined on the half hour with Fabiano crossing for Nilmar at the back post, who looked certain to score only for Eduardo to produce a superb point blank save to push the ball on to the post and deny him.

 

Shortly after, Fabiano found space at the back post by headed wide from a deep right-wing cross from the marauding Maicon.

 

With the game seemingly petering out to provide a satisfactory share of the spoils for each side, Brazil substitute Ramires broke from the script and struck a shot from 25 yards in injury-time which took a deflection and was goalbound until Eduardo intervened with a good one-handed save to preserve Portugal's 100% clean-sheet record in the tournament.

 

LOL, what a Joke...they obviously had pre written the text and didn't correct it before publishing it....

 

You Guys should have seen the coments before "worst game of the tournament".

 

The game was average, but not terrible, the pressure simply wasnt there. what miserable sods...

 

Anyway, glad it turned out this way. BTW I hope for A Portugal VS Spain, which again is being overrated in this same article. A Game with the swiss will be a mud hole. Nobody seems to be getting that.

[Lucas_From_Hell]

Pilotasso, I hope you face Spain as well :P

 

And the British press, well... When The Sun is a popular newspaper, you can't ask for much, can you? :music_whistling:

 

Now, this is funny:D

 

"...rampant unemployment, your dollar is basically valueless, you own billions to other countries, you can't win a war for ****, and once more, you've dominated a game of football... and you deserve to win it!"

 

Well done America, welcome to the third world :megalol:

 

(full video: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-june-23-2010-connie-mariano)

[Pilotasso]

Trust me, Spain will drop out the first real challenge they face. They won 1 game and lost another, hardly impressive specially considering they made attacks after attacks but their shots mostly weak and ineffective.

 

The media is over rating them massively. They will sweat bullets today. Youll see.

[Frostie]

LOL, what a Joke...they obviously had pre written the text and didn't correct it before publishing it....

 

Im sure it was just a rushed mistake, putting defeat instead of draw.

 

With both teams as good as through before kickoff this game was always going to fail on what it promised.

 

Looking forward for England VS Germany this weekend. That will be interesting to watch as the media is saying they will win the WC after 1 (and only so far) goal against slovenia... :D

You should stop reading the British press, it seems to rub you up the wrong way. Be careful of chinese whispers there is a big difference between saying 'we will win' and 'we can win', without optimism whats the point in being there? ;)

[Pilotasso]

Humans can be such tards sometimes. It pisses me. Just an hour ago people caused riots over here. Shots being fired and cars being busted over the game, where both sides had what they wanted. Its sad and incomprehensible.

 

 

EDIT: After clearing the mess up, it seems the riots were the deed of just a few. The Police Charged with rubber bullets and gained control fairly quickly. Fans are partying together and it all seems more peaceful now. :lookaround:

Edited June 25, 2010 by Pilotasso

[Pilotasso]

Wow. Chileans really made a mess of it and Spain thanked...They are trying to get the result back with 10 men...2-1 now..amazing.

[Pilotasso]

Incredible luck for spain. Smels like Euro 2008 again. In a twist of events, the chileans were their own worst enemies by giving away 2 goals to Spain and gave up after reducing the disadvantage with 10 men when they saw it wasn't worth the effort after all they were (are) qualified.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen this coincided in such a way that Portugal will face Spain next.

 

I cannot express or explain how this is going to be HUUUUUUUUUGE game.

 

Given Historic rivalry of both countries this will be just as good as the world cup final itself. I'm am not joking. Think North Korea VS South, think England VS France at their best.

 

Lots of potential drama here. Ironically the biggest adversary of Portugal is it self. Like we've been shown today, lost heads will equate to goals on the other side. Portugal's players were undisciplined today, but fortunately not enough to hurt us that much.

 

This is going to be Paramount versus Spain. Guys don't miss this! This Game will finaly show whos overrated and whos the rightful dark horse in the world cup.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Pilotasso

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

LOL, what a Joke...etc etc

The game was average, but not terrible, etc etc

 

I have been looking forward to this game for the whole World Cup but had wondered for several days whether it would be as I hoped becuase of other results. I stayed indoors and watched it all (even though the weather is lovely today in the UK).

 

Mate, I have to say I was quite dissapointed and IMHO that media report pretty much sums up what I thought of the game. Sadly for the neutral spectator, a 0-0 meant they both qualified and so both teams were happy with that.

 

The last 15 minutes of Chile - Spain was similar. They knew that both teams would qualify so they settled for the result.

 

A rather dull day - I guess the thrills of Italy-v-Slovakia were not to be repeated today.

[Lucas_From_Hell]

Good luck for both sides. I'm looking forward to it - well, anything different from today's match is an improvement, I guess.

 

Fúria is famous for 'yellowing' (one hell of an expression to translate :P), but I wouldn't be surprised if they've learned with their past mistakes.

 

Meanwhile, we'll face our rivals from just across the street. As they've shown, they can easily ruin one's day - overconfidence is the main evil to be fought for the next match. I'm not very worried about this match, though. The real challenge lies next door. The winner will play with the winner of Netherlands vs. Slovakia, and that will be a great game.

 

Both Brazil and NL, if allowed to do so, go for very open and offensive playing. While they couldn't sport their style very often against some countries, they've shown that, if you leave the smallest gap, you'll find the ball in the back of your net. Betting (but not knowing) on a Brazilian victory against Chile and a Dutch triumph over Slovakia, the next game will probably be the most interesting match of the competition.

 

I'd really like to see how two very offensive and easy-playing teams behave when put in opposite sides - how will the defenders work it out, how's the midfield going to play, how the forwards will find their way to the goal, how the counter-attacks will work...

 

Yes, I know it's too early and self-confident to say so, but hell, I can't wait for that game to happen :D - if it does, I'm sure it'll be epic!

 

P.S.: I'll go a bit further on that - the winner of this crossing will surely to be in the final. On the other side there are South Korea, United States, Ghana and Uruguay. Although they are dangerous (specially the last two), I'd say it's highly unlikely that we'll see any of them beating NL or Brazil and making it to the final - specially considering they have had similar campaigns on the last World Cups, always getting their asses whipped by a big team sooner or later. Yes, anything can happen, but honestly, it'd be much of a surprise to me to see any of those four in a World Cup final.

 

The other leg, on the other hand, has far more exciting names. The winner of Argentina x Mexico will face the winner of England x Germany, so we can be sure about three good matches (in theory). I'd say Paraguay or Japan won't be a big issue to either Portugal or Spain. If we take names and history as "truth" (not a very smart decision, as French and Italian fans just found out :music_whistling:), we have Portugal/Spain against one of the four (alright, I'm totally expecting Argentina to kick Mexico's ass, so it's the three of them :P), and that's already another good game.

 

My bet is Brazil/Netherlands vs. [someone] :)

Edited June 25, 2010 by Lucas_From_Hell
Cleaning the text and adding some speculation :P

[Pilotasso]

Brit radar, maybe your expectations were too high considering that neither team was interested to burn up its players more than they needed.

My main focus of the BBC quote was the part in BOLD. They pretty much made their own prediction of the game then they made small corrections to it when they publish minus that part. :) Funny :D

 

 

LUCAS, I think Brazil is the most likely to win as long as they respect the adversary. There are much tougher adversaries out there. Germany and Argentina. Paraguay is also more dangerous than Chile.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Pilotasso

[Pilotasso]

Just saw this GIF:

 

:huh:

Edited June 26, 2010 by Pilotasso

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

Brit radar, maybe your expectations were too high considering that neither team was interested to burn up its players more than they needed.

Fair point.....

 

 

Paraguay is also more dangerous than Chile.

Only really familiar with Santa Cruz who has had a successful few years playing in England, but I've been impressed with Paraguay.

[X-man]

I cannot express or explain how this is going to be HUUUUUUUUUGE game.

That and England vs Germany will be the most interesting games of the Round of 16! :thumbup:

[Groove]

Just saw this GIF:

 

:huh:

 

 

Okay, i was right when i thought he is faking.

[MoGas]

Just saw this GIF:

 

:huh:

 

I guess some of you have to watch closer on the vid, what happens with the "heel" from Torres when hit by the RED players "knee".

 

This move from Torres leg shows you that he got hit by the knee from the RED player. Iàm not a fan from Spain, but I still believe he got hit by the other player on that. I didn't watched the game on TV, and I only saw this little clip, from the scene.

 

cheers

[Groove]

I saw the game and they showed the scene from two angles. Strange enough they didn't showed the scene after the player got the red card...

[Frostie]

The red card was ludricous, it was an unintentional foul. Probably only worthy of an indirect freekick, but it was part of the build up to the second goal... play on, then red card after goal, nuts. But theres always a group of crazy refs in the World cup.

[amalahama]

The red card was ludricous, it was an unintentional foul. Probably only worthy of an indirect freekick, but it was part of the build up to the second goal... play on, then red card after goal, nuts. But theres always a group of crazy refs in the World cup.

 

It was not the only "unintentional foul" from Estrada. He had already one yellow card and the referee had forgiven some more. Maybe the isolate action didn't deserve the red card but inside the context he was playing dirty all the match.

 

Regards!!

Edited June 26, 2010 by amalahama

[Pilotasso]

US is loosing 1-0, can they turn arround in the last minute again? :D

[topol-m]

No they can`t :P

[Pilotasso]

Ghana Won, but it was tense down there. The Americans forced extra time. Topol...almost

[topol-m]

Ghana played better. After their second goal I knew what was about to happen. At best penalties... Uruguay will be difficult to overcome though :)

[Pilotasso]

Tomorrow Germany will exchange love gestures with England. Wont miss it! :)

[Feuerfalke]

Pitty USA lost the game. I liked their teamwork, even in todays game, and how they manage to mobilize their last strengths to the point. Given they have virtually no soccer-stars in the European Leagues, they did very good.

 

On the other hand, I'm happy to see an African Nation is still in the race for the title. That's really positive not only in Ghana, but for all Africa. I hope they win the next game as well.