World Cup 2006

[StefanS]

Referee overlooked a penalty for Japan, but hey what goes around comes around

Anyway, as I said Guus Hiddink is a really good trainer, two of his jokers scored. Awesome

 

[bloodbob]

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oi Oi Oi

Clearly australia was the better team we had a much large percentage of the ball. A far better result then I expected though.

 

[Simon F]

yes!!!!!

 

[Deepak]

Go Kangaroos Go! Never seen SimonF so happy.

 

[Simon F]

Unfortunately, I forgot that I've injured my shoulder and the "punch in the air" was not pleasant.

 

[Deepak]

Oh, sorry about that but now if Aussies draw against Brazil and Croatia then...

 

[Mariner]

Not too bad from the Aussies although 3-1 is perhaps a little bit flattering.

The Japs were very accomplished in midfield and defensively they weren't bad but just like the last World Cup they have no capable strikers. Despite umpteen chances to counter-attack throughout the game they barely had a shot!

Australia have some decent strikers but I'm afraid I can't see their midfield/defence holding up too well against the Brazilians!

 

[dantruon]

Australia beat the European Champion (Greece), the Asian Champion (Japan), up next is the World Champion.....Brazil. This sound like street fighter.

 

[_xxx_]

Australia beat the European Champion (Greece), the Asian Champion (Japan), up next is the World Champion.....Brazil. This sound like street fighter.

Heh, Greece was a once-in-a-thousand-years thing and Asian champion in football is as much of a title as some local county champion in Europe (no offense please, the sport is just not that popular and well-financed in Asia).

 

[Diplo]

Heh, Greece was a once-in-a-thousand-years thing....

What, you mean like when Denmark won the European Championship in 1992, after only getting into the competition because Yugolsavia had to withdraw (because of certain "hostilities" that errupted there then)?

 

[fbomber]

Yeah, The Argentinians are so far the most balanced team. However, it remains to be seen how good they can play if Ricquelme (sp?) is kept in check. It seems their game depends a lot on him having a free hand.

We have Messi and Aimar to get into the game

 

[_xxx_]

What, you mean like when Denmark won the European Championship in 1992, after only getting into the competition because Yugolsavia had to withdraw (because of certain "hostilities" that errupted there then)?

Why the quotation marks, these were hostilities. I missed that WM completely, having lived in the very middle of the aforementioned hostilities unfortunately.

But I never heard much about danish football at all, so I guess it was a bit alike.

 

[Diplo]

Why the quotation marks, these were hostilities.

I used quotation marks as "hostilities" was a rather euphemistic term for what was a horrible conflict. But I didn't want to digress too much from the subject at hand...

 

[Deepak]

Czechs beat US 3-0. I am really impressed with Czechs, I remember liking them in the last Euro Championship.

 

[Diplo]

Czechs beat US 3-0. I am really impressed with Czechs, I remember liking them in the last Euro Championship.

Yeah, they are always a very good unit and look very good going forward. They were my outside bet for the tourney. I remember going to see them play in Euro'96 (when it was in England) and from then on I've always been fond of the team.

 

[Mariner]

Looks like Koller may be out for some time which will surely hurt the Czechs against the stronger teams.

I'll bet Arsenal fans are quite pleased with their new signing on that performance!

 

[StefanS]

The US boys were flattened by the Czechs i.e. the real budweisers beat the fake ones. The Czechs have really good team, but a lot of the players are rather past their zenith. Moreover, remember in the last EC they lost against a Greece, who played it rough.

 

[rashly]

The Czechs came out strong, but the US just played like garbage. We got beat everywhere on the pitch and especially couldn;t make anything happen on offense. Every time we'd get it down to the 18 the Czechs would break it up. We had no plays and terrible teamwork.

Let's hope this was just a one time deal and the US can do better against Italy. We aren't out of it yet.

 

[epicstruggle]

Wow, ghana is really playing aggressive. I wonder if italy can keep up.

edit: Damn ghana is letting me down. Italy 1-0

 

[Mariner]

We had no plays and terrible teamwork.

You see, talking about 'plays' is why we British take the Mickey of Americans and footy! What the hell is a play in football anyway? Anything like the patented English, 'have Beckham whip the ball into the box and hope the opposition concede an own-goal' technique?

The Czechs are a very good team so I wouldn't be too disheartened by the defeat even though the US performance wasn't very dynamic. Good luck against the Italians although they looked pretty good against Ghana.

The main factor I've noticed from the games so far is that the weaker teams tend to have very poor strikers in comparison to their more illustrious counterparts. Most of the smaller teams have been very good technically especially in midfield but none of them have a decent striker to turn good possession into goals. Japan was a prime example today with plenty of good possession but an inability to create opportunities and Ghana were also lacking up front. The Australians on the other hand have some dangerous strikers not to mention a midfield goal-getter like Cahill and duly got the winning goals.

All 3 games today have been won by the teams with the best strikers. Pretty obvious, I suppose despite many of the goals coming from midfield players but I'm very surprised that so many of the smaller countries carry so little threat up front when they are pretty good in other areas of the field.