[football] FIFA's Southafrica 2010 World Cup

[Genesis]

This is the fourth game that Spain has won by the scoreline 1 - 0. I hope they score some more goals in the final.
A rather boring match, nothing like yesterday's thriller.

Although, impressive defence. So far, they have conceded only one goal in the tournament.

[Ulises]

Unbelievable. Germany looked so ordinary today, was Muller their lucky charm? Not a single attack on the Spanish goal.
That's what you get for not taking Paul The Psychic Octopus seriously.

They did, isn't? I'm still surprised! Ok, the refferee didn't give a valid goal to England (that could changed the match) and they had the luck to score at the minute 2 against Argentina but they were like a machine in those matches. I don't know what happened to Germany today.

I think it was the best game from Spain!

[Mandy.]

Amazing game, Spain is awesome. Totally clean match, very tactical, few fouls.

This Barcelona's defense (I mean, Spain's ) is the best in the world. Say what you will, this Spanish team is a machine. Most Brazilians hate them for some reason, but I love it. Judging by today's game, I think that Spain deserved to win, but judging by the whole World Cup campaign, Germany did.

This is what I love about the Spanish team: we're not talking about a team with 3 or 4 great players. We're talking about a whole team of warriors.



I felt really sorry for the Germany coach though. For me, he was the best in this World Cup. Despite today's results, Germany was, for me, the biggest surprise in the World Cup. They came with a bunch of young players, with 5 players being cut down due to injuries and yet, they managed to score 4 goals in 3 different games.



Congratulations, Spain! Well deserved!! This Cup is yours.

[Ulises]

I have this sympathy (i'm not fan or supporter...I'm just a fan of Boca Juniors and Argentina) for Barcelona and was cool seeing Puyol scoring!

Now...I think it's impossible to predict what happen on sunday!

[Genesis]

Spanish passing ... Watching the match, it looked like they had 90% of the possession.

[Mandy.]

Also, before I forget, I'd like to dedicate a little song to Spain and Germany:

"I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus' garden in the shade."


 

[Mysteron]

It was good to see Germany beaten. Spain are a good side, but they never shoot at goal as often as the should.

I think Spain will win a boring final, but I am supporting The Netherlands. 

[One.In.A.Million]

As you can see by my earlier posts, I thought Germany was a certainty in this one.

I was wrong, but I thought it was quite a boring match. The thing is, spain are so tight in midfield that Germany couldn't do what they have been doing on the counter.

But I will be honest that Spain never played as good as they can, but they always seem to do just enough. Let's hope the final will be exciting, and I am rooting for the Nertherlands simply because of how they turned around the Brazilian match.

[freedom78]

Good for Spain!  They were clearly the better team today.  The way Germany had been playing, I"m still surprised to see them actually lose a match.

[estebanf]

I'm very happy of seeing Carles Puyol scoring. Puyol is a gladiator, a football warrior, the kind of defender every team needs to reach the top. There was one Passarella, one Beckenbauer, one Franco Baresi, one Matthaus, one Laurent Blanc. Puyol's the next on that list.

I wanted Germany in the final, but Spain played like a champ today and they showed the best football of all the world cup. The way Iniesta, Hern?ndez and Villa play ''a un toque'', with the ball on the grass, how they permanently show themselves as a passing option, how easily they handle the ball in the last 20 meters is just amazing. It seems Jogo bonito has moved to Spain 

Spain showed they have the names, the football, and the needed luck to win the cup. Now they need to show they got the needed blood to be a world champion, something they historically miserably failed at.

There will be a new world champion. Lets see who's less scared, who has less ghosts to defeat, and who gives the final step into the big football history, a proud of only 7 nations (Brazil  Italy, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, France and England)

All my heart, wishes, hopes, guts and blood go to Holland. I want to see the world cup surrounded by orange 

[Jim]

This is the fourth game that Spain has won by the scoreline 1 - 0. I hope they score some more goals in the final.
A rather boring match, nothing like yesterday's thriller.

Although, impressive defence. So far, they have conceded only one goal in the tournament.

My man!, a calculator is winging its way to you as todays star prize !!

Spain 0-1 Switzerland
Spain 2-0 Hondorus
Chile 1-2 Spain
Spain 1-0 Portugal
Paraguay 0-1 Spain
Germany 0-1 Spain

[Jim]

Sorry, I should really pop a comment on the end of that. For all the analytical bullshit, Spain have been a painfully boring team to watch so far; this match asside the Germans were incredible!, never have I seen an international team break with so many players commited forward so regularly.

I have no interest in a Spain/Holland final (what absolute maniac (without any concept of football history...) was not rooting for a Germany/Holland final?!), well, sweepstake asside...

The vast majority of football analysis does tend to be absolute bullshit (especially on a fucking Guns N' Roses forum!, don't you count me out of that...), and I am not going to lie that I was absolutely desperate for Spain to fail so that these armchair coin flip pundits could be shown the coin toss that is international football (don't play too badly and it's anybodys game, hey?, France/Italy anybody?), but, hey.... I still have my sweepstake.

[Genesis]

This is the fourth game that Spain has won by the scoreline 1 - 0. I hope they score some more goals in the final.
A rather boring match, nothing like yesterday's thriller.

Although, impressive defence. So far, they have conceded only one goal in the tournament.

My man!, a calculator is winging its way to you as todays star prize !!

Spain 0-1 Switzerland
Spain 2-0 Hondorus
Chile 1-2 Spain
Spain 1-0 Portugal
Paraguay 0-1 Spain
Germany 0-1 Spain

Right, two goals. I forgot about the Switzerland match.

[nekomex]

Spain is a better team than Germany, Germany scored goals early on his matches and thats why they were able to counter attack, the only two times they were losing a game in this world cup they ended up losing the game. 

but i also have to agree that Spain is a little boring to watch because they keep passing the ball side to side (like barcelona) instead of taking the advantage of going forward, they touch and touch the ball and make just a few shots to goal , some people find this kind of game to be superior, i think its just boring.

[estebanf]

Spain is a better team than Germany, Germany scored goals early on his matches and thats why they were able to counter attack, the only two times they were losing a game in this world cup they ended up losing the game. 

but i also have to agree that Spain is a little boring to watch because they keep passing the ball side to side (like barcelona) instead of taking the advantage of going forward, they touch and touch the ball and make just a few shots to goal , some people find this kind of game to be superior, i think its just boring.

i completely disagree with you in everything you said

I dont think Spain is a better team than Germany (even though its very easy to say that after the match and by only looking at the result), and at the same time, i think Spain's way of playing football is probably the one that delights me most and surely the most entertaining to watch.

Spain is not a vertical team. Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, Fabregas, Villa... none of them are as vertical as the germans, but they do magic with the ball in midfield. And, in football, patience is a decisive virtue.

Spain only lacks a player like Messi, Ronaldo, or Kak?: a vertical one-against-one man to break defenses in a matter of seconds. They would got no opponents if they had one.

[Ignatius]

Awesome match what can I say! We dominated the entire game from start to finish. Xavi and Iniesta gave a midfield lecture last night.

Villa didnt score, but tibur?n Puyol did. What a determination to get that header! Torres could've scored as well had Pedro passed jim the ball in one of the last fast breaks, but PeEdro wanted his pieace of glory and lost a great opportunity.

Thank you all who congrutalated. That's fair game - especially Voodoo, he's by far my favorite southamerican on this board.

As for the sunday final, Jarmo you better get ready! We are going to make Orange Juice out of Robben, Sneider and co. 

[nekomex]

Spain is a better team than Germany, Germany scored goals early on his matches and thats why they were able to counter attack, the only two times they were losing a game in this world cup they ended up losing the game. 

but i also have to agree that Spain is a little boring to watch because they keep passing the ball side to side (like barcelona) instead of taking the advantage of going forward, they touch and touch the ball and make just a few shots to goal , some people find this kind of game to be superior, i think its just boring.

i completely disagree with you in everything you said

I dont think Spain is a better team than Germany (even though its very easy to say that after the match and by only looking at the result), and at the same time, i think Spain's way of playing football is probably the one that delights me most and surely the most entertaining to watch.

Spain is not a vertical team. Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, Fabregas, Villa... none of them are as vertical as the germans, but they do magic with the ball in midfield. And, in football, patience is a decisive virtue.

Spain only lacks a player like Messi, Ronaldo, or Kak?: a vertical one-against-one man to break defenses in a matter of seconds. They would got no opponents if they had one.

well i didnt write here that my feeling was that Spain was going to win, so i cant prove it. but like i said i think Germany is strong in counter-attacks, and they were going to have problems if the other team scored before them. i think that was Germany bet, to wait for a mistake and score a goal, Spain had the ability to score first and that was it, in fact they could have score more goals if not for Pedro.

and for the other point its a way of perception, if you like how Spain plays well its ok, i prefer the way England and Argentina in that case play(not Germany , they dont play to attack its just that they are pretty fast and use the counter attack pretty well), they are vertical almost all the time, i would like to have seen Fabregas and Torres playing, because Fabregas gives good passes to the front and tries to play more vertical.  Iniesta and Xavi obviously are great players, but they retain the ball to much time and are used to wait and wait (again i know thats Spain strategy so its ok for them, its just that i dont like it that much)

[Ignatius]

and for the other point its a way of perception, if you like how Spain plays well its ok, i prefer the way England and Argentina in that case play(not Germany , they dont play to attack its just that they are pretty fast and use the counter attack pretty well), they are vertical almost all the time, i would like to have seen Fabregas and Torres playing, because Fabregas gives good passes to the front and tries to play more vertical.  Iniesta and Xavi obviously are great players, but they retain the ball to much time and are used to wait and wait (again i know thats Spain strategy so its ok for them, its just that i dont like it that much)

Yeah, it's either like it or hate it. My dad (spanish) likes the way english teams play cause it's a more direct, agressive and vertical attack. You normally play like that when you have big defense guys and two guys at the midfield that do not care about the ball too much. Then, all players move foward and you see long vertical passes more than short and controlled ball handling. To me I rather have the ball as much as I can for two reasons; The defensive team gets more tired running around trying to get the ball and also they can't create goal opportunities since they don't have the ball possesion.

It's all a matter of personal taste anyway. Spain has had this particular style for 3-4 years and it's paying good dividends so far. But then again, you gotta have the right players to play like Spain does, not every nation can pull that off.

[Genesis]

It may work for Spain, but it's boring. I hope the final is also not a 1 - 0 affair, especially since the match will be aired here at 12 midnight on a Monday morning.

[Alan]

What a suprise, Spain win because they control the game, keep the ball and don't commit too many men forward.

Defend well early stop the early goal and again the Germans struggled, in the same way they did against Ghana and Serbia. The people who say the Germans looked ordinary, it's because they are. They have plan A, score early then counter attack. But after that nothing. Spain bossed the game and if Pedro wasn't so greedy it would have been 2-0 and game over.

I was also impressed with the referee for keeping his cards in his pocket, even though he missed a couple of trips here and there over all he had a good game.


-----------------------

I dont think Spain is a better team than Germany (even though its very easy to say that after the match and by only looking at the result), and at the same time, i think Spain's way of playing football is probably the one that delights me most and surely the most entertaining to watch.

Spain is not a vertical team. Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, Fabregas, Villa... none of them are as vertical as the germans, but they do magic with the ball in midfield. And, in football, patience is a decisive virtue.

Spain only lacks a player like Messi, Ronaldo, or Kak?: a vertical one-against-one man to break defenses in a matter of seconds. They would got no opponents if they had one.

Messi, Ronaldo or Kaka? did any of them turn up to this world cup?

Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Torres all in the same class as those mentioned above. Alonso & Fabregas just behind.

Spain are the best team in the world, and it's not even a close run race. they've dominated football at international level for the past 4 years losing only 2 games, one to the USA and one to the Swiss.

I could sit and watch the Spanish play their passing game all day long it's amazing.