The Official World Cup 2010 Thread

[Kowalczyk]

Just thought I'd tip my hat to the All Whites. For a country with about 25 full time professional players to go through the world cup unbeaten is pretty damn amazing. I know a lot of people will criticize them for being overly defensive but who cares? Against Italy they brought on a player who has a day job at a bank and still they manage to hold those diving w*nkers to a draw.

I was at the game in Wellington when they beat Bahrain to qualify and 35000 people went absolutely nuts - I thought it couldn't get any better. Then NZ held Slovakia in their first game and people really started to take notice. The last two games had hundreds of thousands of people getting up at 2am to watch the games. Football has been leading the news every night.

Anyway, it's been fun seeing the country take an interest... Hopefully the sport keeps growing here. All that's left is for Holland to win the cup

I hear you.

New Zealand were fantastic. Thoroughly enjoyed watching them. So much heart, it's amazing. Loved it.

Cult heroes.

K.

[SPL]

NZ proves there are no small teams in this WC .

Another gritty effort from Oranje last night , but the class of Robben was shown with the 2nd goal . Great that KJH was on hand to bury the ball in the net. KJH will score the winning goal in the final.

[AsgAarD_xxx]

Yea, NZ played really good. They haven't lost any game in quite tough group and they finished over Italy in the table!

As for the rest of the games - in my opinion, Denmark vs Cameroon was the only really great game at this WC. I hope that the next rounds will be more attractive.

[aveslacker]

Donovan's late goal was such a devastating moment for us as we were hoping to go through. Congrats to all of USA fans, our team is a little to inexperienced for this kind of tournament. Considering that population of Slovenia is around 2 million they did well and made us all proud. Now the only team left for me to cheer for is Holland, so hope they go all the way.
Goodbye from Slovenia

That must have been an unbelievably tough way to go out of the tournament. You have my sympathies. Slovenia were a very good team and could easily have gone through. You have every right to be proud of them.

[Orange14]

Our Captain just netted his second for Uruguay.

[Orange14]

Our Captain just netted his second for Uruguay.

...and he just increased his value by about €10 M with a vicious strike into the net to give his team the lead with 9 minutes left. While I don't want to lose him, we should now hold out for €35 M!!!

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

I'm joining the Yanks today !!! USA !!!!! USA !!!! USA !!!!!

[SPL]

A great goal . Was watching at my son's cricket club and everyone was going on about what agoal .
I just said he plays for my team Ajax and I have seen him scoring a few times like that . And then I thought oh dear now the world really knows he can play . 40m euros min but apart from maybe Barca who else will afford him ! Man U cannot and I am not sure Chelsea will buy him .Maybe we will be lucky.

[Dubbel]

USA out vs Ghana! Could have gone either way though. With a bit of luck USA would have been through. Tip: next tournament, let's not wait until falling behind before playing good football.

[martinkohout]

A great goal . Was watching at my son's cricket club and everyone was going on about what agoal .
I just said he plays for my team Ajax and I have seen him scoring a few times like that . And then I thought oh dear now the world really knows he can play . 40m euros min but apart from maybe Barca who else will afford him ! Man U cannot and I am not sure Chelsea will buy him .Maybe we will be lucky.

Agreed. He definitely showed his class, but I'm hoping that in doing so he's priced himself out of reach. And surely with Villa and (perhaps?) Fabregas coming aboard, even Barca will take a pass... or am I just being naive?

[martinkohout]

Just thought I'd tip my hat to the All Whites. For a country with about 25 full time professional players to go through the world cup unbeaten is pretty damn amazing. I know a lot of people will criticize them for being overly defensive but who cares? Against Italy they brought on a player who has a day job at a bank and still they manage to hold those diving w*nkers to a draw.

I was at the game in Wellington when they beat Bahrain to qualify and 35000 people went absolutely nuts - I thought it couldn't get any better. Then NZ held Slovakia in their first game and people really started to take notice. The last two games had hundreds of thousands of people getting up at 2am to watch the games. Football has been leading the news every night.

Anyway, it's been fun seeing the country take an interest... Hopefully the sport keeps growing here. All that's left is for Holland to win the cup

I hear you.

New Zealand were fantastic. Thoroughly enjoyed watching them. So much heart, it's amazing. Loved it.

Cult heroes.

K.

Absolutely. Hats off to the Kiwis; a wonderful showing, and I can't imagine anyone seriously criticizing their style - I thought they played with heart and conviction and gallantry throughout.

[SPL]

I too was thinking that Suarez's price will go up and maybe price any buyer out the market.

[Philippe]

Seems very likely that Uruguay will reach the semi-final, and that Suarez will compete for the WC best scorer : this will not help us to keep him with Ajax I'm afraid.

[Philippe]

Klose's goal reminds me of Karl-Heinz Rummenige.

[aveslacker]

What a horrible call on England's would-be second goal. Having said that, however, England were still very, very poor. Shocking.

[Orange14]

What a horrible call on England's would-be second goal. Having said that, however, England were still very, very poor. Shocking.

Not really, I think they were rated way beyond their ability. They had a weak backline and a midfield that seemed to have no clue at all. They were never any threat on offense and Capello now joins Lippi as a failed Italian manager.

[souras84]

those referee's are the worst!!!! i just hate argentina. i hope the germans crush them

[Over Pasanens Head]

What a horrible call on England's would-be second goal. Having said that, however, England were still very, very poor. Shocking.

Not really, I think they were rated way beyond their ability. They had a weak backline and a midfield that seemed to have no clue at all. They were never any threat on offense and Capello now joins Lippi as a failed Italian manager.

Don't totally agree on that one as individually they were up there with the best. As a team they were down there with the worst and funnily enough its the team side that normally wins you tournies

[SPL]

It may have been better if the second goal stood but we should have been 4 down at that stage . Even my wife couldn't understand how Germany did not score 7or 8 goals . The worst WC by an English side in my lifetime ie 1966 onwards .

This England side is overrated and overpaid , trouble is apart from Rooney ( was he actually at the WC )
they are all coming up for 30 plus and England does not have much talent coming through . The big clubs just pay lip service to english kids. Someone needs to stop this and make the clubs play say 6 english per game .

Anyway now the country can return to normal and I will just keep cheering on Holland and also Suarez .

[aveslacker]

It may have been better if the second goal stood but we should have been 4 down at that stage . Even my wife couldn't understand how Germany did not score 7or 8 goals . The worst WC by an English side in my lifetime ie 1966 onwards .

This England side is overrated and overpaid , trouble is apart from Rooney ( was he actually at the WC )
they are all coming up for 30 plus and England does not have much talent coming through . The big clubs just pay lip service to english kids. Someone needs to stop this and make the clubs play say 6 english per game .

Anyway now the country can return to normal and I will just keep cheering on Holland and also Suarez .

Well, at least you guys crushed the Aussies at cricket!

I think a large part of the problem is that there is no break for English players. Germany has a one-month winter break. I think that makes a big difference.

Wayne Rooney is a hugely talented player, but he has precisely zero World Cup goals. I think it is because he is burnt out after such a long and stressful club season.

Also, I wonder about the number of foreigners in the English league. If there were English players good enough to play in the EPL, then they would be playing there instead of foreigners. The problem simply is that there aren't that many good English players anymore.

[Orange14]

There is a brilliant book by Simon Kuper and an economist whose name I forget called "Soccernomics." Real good chapter on why England is always just an average side and the expectations of the English are always way higher than the team's performance.

[Purple Cow's Ghost]

Gentlemen, I’m not one to blow my own trumpet (or vuvuzela, even) however I would like to draw attention to two lines from my post on page 2 of this thread – posted May 26th.

So England to just scrape second in their group table, and loose to Germany in the round of last 16.

...and...

The aging cripple Ferdinand only started 13 games last season, and the molasses-slow John Terry had already lost his positioning sense long before his sexual activities took precedent over his football.

So Ferdinand didn’t make it past the first two games, and his replacements only seemed to have been picked because they made Terry look fast in comparison. The Germans ruthlessly exposed Terry’s positional shortcomings using Miroslav Klose to drag him out of position (as I predicted), and it worked beautifully.

My Irony Meter blew up when Lampaard’s goal was not given.

It remains to be seen how my prediction of who wins the entire tournament stands up...

My head says Germany, my heart says Brazil.

Dark Horses - Uruguay.

[Philippe]

Very disappointing game for Holland today.

[rjf1]

Very disappointing game for Holland today.

Did Holland play? I saw a bunch of guys running around in orange shirts, but they didn't look anything like the Holland I know.

[Van basten]

Job's done. Next Cile
P.S. Steks was good today.