[football] FIFA's Southafrica 2010 World Cup

[Ulises]

Arrogant? Do you know who Palermo is? He's one of the more modest players I ever saw

[Alan]

I really wish i understood strategies etc.. its fun to watch anyway although i know very little about the rules and what is going on.
why in the world do they have ONE REFEREE?

that is the most ridiculous thing of all time.

just a quick one, on stratagies.

USA tend to play counter attacking most of the time, defend really well then when the other team have men commited hit back with pace on the counter attack, works really well against the more flair teams like spain and brazil who commit lots of men forward.

will be interesting to see how they play against Algeria who like the USA are a more defensive minded team who like to play on the counter.

Spain seem to play a little more like Barca/Arsenal, alot of good passing to try and open up space to create chances, the only thing with Spain is they don't seem to have a plan B as seen against the Swiss.

The Swiss like many other small teams tend to play just all out defence to stop the bigger teams being able to score, they just kinda play spoiler. i guess you could compare them to a team who plays "trap" style in the NHL. very solid on D but not much from the forwards, yet if they do get a lead they are hard to break down.

this is just from the bits and pieces i've seen at this world cup. and last years confederations cup.

anyone want to go into more detail feel free, i've been working for most of the games so can't go into crazy detail on this world cup.

[Genesis]

why in the world do they have ONE REFEREE?

that is the most ridiculous thing of all time.

There are actually four referees. One main match referee, two assistant referees on the side lines (indicate fouls, goal kicks, corners, offsides and the like) and a fourth official in charge of various duties including substitutions (holding up the number board for instance) and time added on.

[Ignacio]

I think I've never screamed a goal as I did on Palermo's one.

Most of you don't know the story of Palermo. Otherwise, you would understand me.

PALERMO IS THERE BECAUSE OF ONE PERSON: DIEGO ARMANDO MARADONA.   

It was just too many emotions over that goal. Great victory yesterday! Secured by that never ending optimism of the greatest Boca's scorer 

[D]

tell me we just didn't get ripped off AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

[Genesis]

Awesome job by the USA to top their group. Switching channels between the two matches was crazy. A pitiful performance by England again. There's no use for them qualifying with the way they play, they're just going to get KO'd in the next match.

[One.In.A.Million]

I think England played much better than the last 2 matches.

It could have easily been 3-0, Rooney hit the post, and we had a goal disallowed. It will be interesting to see who wins against Ghana and Germany as we have to face them.

[Jim]

A pitiful performance by England again.

... Just look at the score again, did you? Get a clue!

[GeorgeSteele]

US wins its Group!  Best of a weak bunch, but I'll take it. 

[Lady Ashba]

I think USA deserves to be first, they got ripped off two times at least for what I saw, and putting that aside the other countries didn't have that much. England is there by luck, I feel bad for Slovenia. I was expecting far more from Rooney & co.

[Alan]

Awesome job by the USA to top their group. Switching channels between the two matches was crazy. A pitiful performance by England again. There's no use for them qualifying with the way they play, they're just going to get KO'd in the next match.

i'd take that performance again in the next round, controlled the game pretty much all the way through, created alot of chances, and kept Slovenia to the outside, they had one little flurry where they could have scored but the defence stopped the shots getting through.


as for the England being there by luck comment. England USA game, Rob Green. USA tied by luck 

[Marion68]

yeah

USA:Ghana


and Germany against England...

[Jim]

Awesome job by the USA to top their group. Switching channels between the two matches was crazy. A pitiful performance by England again. There's no use for them qualifying with the way they play, they're just going to get KO'd in the next match.

i'd take that performance again in the next round, controlled the game pretty much all the way through, created alot of chances, and kept Slovenia to the outside, they had one little flurry where they could have scored but the defence stopped the shots getting through.


as for the England being there by luck comment. England USA game, Rob Green. USA tied by luck 

All day long!

England have bored me to tears in recent years (even when we're winning), but this afternoon I genuinely thought that we played very inventively; on another day it could have been a cricket score. There was some lovely stuff. Cracking cross from Milner, but I wasn't overly impressed with his all round play (even if he did have his moments) at all. He gave away posession far too easily and his touch was terrible, as was Rooneys. I'd say that Rooney's substitution was six of one and half a dozen of the other with regards injury and his performance.
Again, though he showed flashes, he never really looked comfortable on the ball, his first touch was atrocious at times.

I think that I read somewhere Milner being touted as man of the match, but Johnson would probably get my vote.

I'm in two minds about us not topping the group. Finishing first would have presented us with a lovely route to the semis, but...

... I'm seeing They Might be Giants on Saturday evening!, so had we finished top then I would have missed it... Instead, we'll face Germany at 3 on Sunday. And you've got to get riled up by the prospect of facing the Germans at the World Cup, right?

[estebanf]

I think I've never screamed a goal as I did on Palermo's one.

Most of you don't know the story of Palermo. Otherwise, you would understand me.

PALERMO IS THERE BECAUSE OF ONE PERSON: DIEGO ARMANDO MARADONA.   

i like Argentina but in my opinion Palermo is so fucking arrogant, i will be pretty angry if he scores against Mexico.

Palermo is the most humble and down to earth player in the world cup, trust me.

And its also argentina's biggest hope when the bad times appear.

Great to see USA won the group. Its a real placer to see Landon Donovan in action.

Germany Vs. England. What a blockbuster match in the beginning of the second round. The winner will play against the winner of Mexico - Argentina.

if Uruguay defeats Korea (highly likely), they'll play against the winner of USA - Ghana, so believe it or not, Uruguay is the biggestv favourite to reach semifinals nowadays. 

[Genesis]

I think England played much better than the last 2 matches.

It could have easily been 3-0, Rooney hit the post, and we had a goal disallowed. It will be interesting to see who wins against Ghana and Germany as we have to face them.

Awesome job by the USA to top their group. Switching channels between the two matches was crazy. A pitiful performance by England again. There's no use for them qualifying with the way they play, they're just going to get KO'd in the next match.

i'd take that performance again in the next round, controlled the game pretty much all the way through, created alot of chances, and kept Slovenia to the outside, they had one little flurry where they could have scored but the defence stopped the shots getting through.


as for the England being there by luck comment. England USA game, Rob Green. USA tied by luck 

A pitiful performance by England again.

... Just look at the score again, did you? Get a clue!

They did play better than their previous matches, but that's not saying much is it? Just to put England's performance in perspective, they have scored two goals in the ENTIRE tournament so far, which is what Argentina scored in their last match, that too after qualifying with half their players rested. If England are struggling to score against teams like Algeria and Slovenia, it won't be a pretty sight in the later stages. You would expect a lot more from a star studded team of EPL players, most of whom are signed on for more than 100K pounds a week. However, in their defence most of the European teams have played sub par including Spain and Germany. It's only the South Americans that at the moment seem unstoppable.

[nekomex]

Arrogant? Do you know who Palermo is? He's one of the more modest players I ever saw

mm thats wierd for me to hear, i dislike him because i remember him playing against some Mexican team on the Copa Libertadores and he was pretty childish in the game, he was angry because they lost in their home, but he was picking fights with all the players. profesional players should not act that way.

[One.In.A.Million]

The last thing we needed was facing the germans, but saying that, they can't fancy playing us either. England have not lost a match yet in this tournament, Germany have.

I'd say it's not impossible that England will win Germany on Sunday. With Germany losing to Serbia, I'm liking our chances.

[Genesis]

What a match between Italy and Slovakia. The best one yet. This is what World Cup dreams are made of!

[Voodoochild]

What a match between Italy and Slovakia. The best one yet. This is what World Cup dreams are made of!

I think only the last 20 minutes were really good. The first half was kinda boring to watch...

[Mandy.]

Another giant fell... Wow...


No wonder the best Italian team and current best European team (Internazionale) has no Italian players.