Ajaxtalk

Another "Time to make friends" history...

Young players from Ghana and Nigeria won't come to the Germany to play in youth tournament, which will be played in the begining of July. They didn't get visas.

Teams Search and Groom (Nigeria) and Play Soccer (Ghana) wanted to play in one of the youth tournaments which are organise at the same time as World Cup finals, but they couldn't get permission from the German embassys in their countries.

According to the german newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, German government refused giving the visas because is afraid of a fact that some of the young players will want to stay (illegaly) in Germany, because they are from pathological families. It could be one of the reasons, but - as the newspaper noticed - this tournament is organise only for that kind of children...

Its 3:15am here...all I will say at this stage is: Dive! X'C - every f*^king tournament the same. Where is your conspiracy now Italy?!?

Bad luck to Lucas Neill - imo one of the defenders of the WC.

Hold your heads up boys - you did this country and more importantly yourselves proud. :aai:

DanK schreef:Its 3:15am here...all I will say at this stage is: Dive! X'C - every f*^king tournament the same. Where is your conspiracy now Italy?!?

Bad luck to Lucas Neill - imo one of the defenders of the WC.

Hold your heads up boys - you did this country and more importantly yourselves proud. :aai:

Tough way to go out. As if the world needs another reason to hate Italian football. Well, now they have another one.

Sad to see the Aussies go out, especially that way to a diving fucking deigo. Some things never change though. It was funny, and I actuallu couldn't believe what I was reading when Gattuso and some other spaghetti bender were accusing Nedved of being a diver before their meeting with the Checks!!! Imagine an Italian accusing someone of being a diver!!! I think I've heard it all now. Sad to see a tough hard working honest team going out because of a little girl getting inside the box and diving.

Hi Australia. Meet Italy. Classic way to lose to them. A late undeserved penalty. Sorry for the Australians. On the bright side, at least Hiddink is gone from the tournament.

The only country that has no divers is England due to the fact that we have seldom been in the opposition area.

What a shit way for the Aussies to go out. Diving does seem to be worse these days. It has always gone on just worse now.

Dear Aussies,

Welcome to the World Cup, hurts like a bitch eh?.
Given today's events we can now over you the following opportunity:

Membership to;
The "We all hate the Italians because they're diving little sh!ts" club

Membership is FREE and is valid for a LIFETIME so don't delay!

Come on join up now, we have millions of members!

Priviliges and benefits;
At any major football event where Italians are playing you can scan the room/stadium/living room and look for a fellow member. Upon making eye contact with a simple wink or nod you will have indicated a globally understood message.....indicating "there you go another diving little Italian turd...they're all the same", without all the usual hassle and fights.

Hurry up...sign up now....

Hold on guys. I realize that Italian soccer and, in general, Italian teams, are terrible, negative and a blight on soccer, but let's remember that the Italian people are generally pretty good (in my experience).

I'm all for dogging the Azzuri and a crap squad like Roma, but we should be careful about calling out Italians in general.

There is at least one Italian on this forum, and he seems like a good person, based on his postings here. I mean, he likes Ajax, he's got to be pretty cool.

You can rip my head off all you want, but I think it is wrong to take out our frustrations with Italian soccer on all Italians.

There is no problem with talking smack about Italian soccer, though -- it deserves all the criticism and harsh invective that it gets, and then some.

This just has too be the worst world cup in the referee's department i have ever seen, i mean come on Heinze(Argentina) should have been given a direct card after tackling a mexican player who would have had a free pasage, that would have changed the game, yesterday the ref could not control the Portugal-Holland the result was a freaking Circus. Today in the Aussie- italy match Materazzi's red card was undeserved a yellow would have been enough but whats worst the the damn penalty in the last minute wich was a clear dive, for a ref to call a penalty in the dying minutes off a match he must be a 100 percent sure of the call, the freaking ref wasnt even close to the play.

Pierluigi Colina should come out of retirement.....

DanK schreef:Its 3:15am here...all I will say at this stage is: Dive! X'C - every f*^king tournament the same. Where is your conspiracy now Italy?!?

Bad luck to Lucas Neill - imo one of the defenders of the WC.

Hold your heads up boys - you did this country and more importantly yourselves proud. :aai:

Tough luck for the Aussies i was rooting for them but i must say they had it coming, after Materazzi was tossed i expected Australia to dominate the game, and beat them italians but instead they kept calmed and fell into the Italian trap.

This was the oportunity of a lifetime to maybe reach the semifinals( given the current bracketing) Italy was never dangerous with ten men but neither were Australia,they just werent brave enough too seize the chance god gave them.That i believe was the reason they lost this game. The dive was off course a dive but too sit back play it safe waiting for a penalty shoot out against the best keeper in the world was not correct thinking by their part and they paid dearly for this although undeserved off course.

Well the country has woken up this morning in mourning (well everyone but the huge Italian community that is). The call back radio's were going crazy with the utter shock of the way we lost and the clear dive of the Italian player. I think part of this reason is that a huge percentage of people 'jumped on the bandwagon' for the WC. That is, people who haven't really paid attention to football before suddenly became attracted to the beautiful game for the past 2 or so weeks. Mostly attacking football, with great goals and an Australian team that were showing the world that they COULD play football. These same people then see the ugly side of the game. You can dominate the game for 90% of the time, and then be shot down in flames by a poor referee decision.

My take. It comes with the sports highs and lows. Welcome to the world of football Australia. It covers every emotion possible.

While I was watching the game, I was bought back to Euro 2000 semis, Holland - Italy. Again, one team pretty much dominated, but it was Italy who became victorious. I have seen it all before (as we all have). I just had this feeling about 2 or 3 minutes out from the whistle that now is the time Italy will pull something out, and of course they did (and not for the first time).

While the referee decision obviously cost us the game and a place possibly in the last 8, looking back we should have put Italy away in the 2nd half and we didn't. We had a few shots here and there, but really we never troubled the keeper and as we all know if you don't take your chances against the Italians, you lose - simple. Italy to their credit are the best in the world at containing, its what they do best. its up to the other team to find a way through and we didn't do this.

I am sure most of the country over the next few days will come to realise what the boys achieved. Beat Japan, played as well as Brazil, dito against Croatia and had the chance to kick Italy out. Not only that, but imo - it was the way the guys played that impressed me (and a fair few others from what I can tell). Tough, but mostly fair, attacking, reasonably entertaining football and a never say die attitude.

In the end experience probably got us (and maybe lack of depth). Missing Kewell and Emerton was a big loss, but also giving Italy a sniff that late in the game, by not getting cover was the issue, not so much the Italian guy taking the Oscar award for diving.

I hold no anger towards any Italians I know btw (and I know a fair few - although it was interesting to hear that the Italian guy next to me at work say it was a deserved penalty!!!). Sure I am disappointed that 1 player in their squad basically cheated, but hey you win some, you lose some and down the track things will even out. It was a real shame for me though that our best player of the tournament has to carry the guilt of doing the "foul". IMO - Lucas Neill has been one of the best defenders of the tournament.

Anyway - I am disappointed (esp that in 3 days, my 3 fav teams all got kicked out!), but am entirely happy with the boys. To their credit they kept their heads held high, even after the ref made the decision (although maybe that was out of shock) and showed what some skill mixed with a true team spirit can bring. These guys bought real football to a country that ignored (or even worse ridiculed) the sport for years. They have set the standard that hopefully will only get better from here.

My hat goes off to them...they have given me plenty of great memories.

Venezuelan Ajacied schreef:Today in the Aussie- italy match Materazzi's red card was undeserved a yellow would have been enough but whats worst the the damn penalty in the last minute wich was a clear dive, for a ref to call a penalty in the dying minutes off a match he must be a 100 percent sure of the call, the freaking ref wasnt even close to the play.

I agree with you that it was no penalty. The Australian defender did in my opinion move his upper body towards Grosso, but it was a clear dive, no doubt.

Re: "the freaking ref wasnt even close to the play" - he was just a few meters behind, and was obviously very confident that he did the right thing, pointing straight at the penaly area without any doubts.

Still not saying he was right, but it was very clear that he thought he was right.

If only the referees watched the video of the game and debriefed all that. They could issue yellow cards after the game, or even red cards. That way players wouldn't be so willing to dive in the box because they would know that the punishment would fit the cheating.

It was all very simple. The defender was lying on the ground and the Italian guy thought: "Ah, cool. Thanks for that. I'm gonna lie down."

And there you go.

The weird thing is: technically it might actually have been a correct call... The Italian bloke had the ball and he stumbled over the Oz guy's body inside the penalty area. There was contact, so maybe technically it wasn't even a dive. But it was crystal clear that the striker had no other option than to bump into the Oz defender's body - and fall over.

For that reason: not a penalty. Very, very bitter to crash out of the tourney that way.

What to do now? Holland are out and so are the countries I would normally root for: Sweden, U.S. and Australia. Some other countries I normally feel sympathy for (Scotland, Ireland, Denmark) didn't qualify in the first place. So, er, I think I'll support England from now on... :D Also, in this particular tournament I like Spain.

K.

Right. World Cup is over. Just read this on NOS Teletekst...

If you want to bet on tonight's game between Spain and France, you better put your money on a win for Spain. One of the most famous Frenchman of all time has predicted a Spanish triumph, namely the one and only Nostradamus, who wrote in his famous book The Prophecies:

"And the King of Spain will cross the Pyrenees in the sixth month of 2006. In Central Europe he will defeat his enemies in terrible fashion and he will conquer the holy grail and take it back to Spain."

There you have it. France are f*cked. :D

K.

Kowalczyk schreef:France are f*cked. :D

K.

Nope. The king of Spain is Zidane and he will bring back his trophy in Madrid ! :D

(that's a joke, but I'm sure thousands of frenchies wouldn't think so )

Nostradamus? I think the only thing he and Spain have in common is that Spain may have won a national sporting trophy of importance during his lifetime. :D

Kowalczyk schreef:It was all very simple. The defender was lying on the ground and the Italian guy thought: "Ah, cool. Thanks for that. I'm gonna lie down."

And there you go.

The weird thing is: technically it might actually have been a correct call... The Italian bloke had the ball and he stumbled over the Oz guy's body inside the penalty area. There was contact, so maybe technically it wasn't even a dive. But it was crystal clear that the striker had no other option than to bump into the Oz defender's body - and fall over.

Because Neil was already on the ground, in the way, and not actively going for the Italian player... then at worst it was "obstruction" and not a "foul." An obstruction call would have brought an indirect free kick, not a penalty.

I know Ronaldinho is Brazilian, but isn't he the de facto king ? Especially after leading Barca to the league & CL double.

It's half-time between France and Spain (1-1), and France is playing surprisingly well imho. I wouldn't have bet on that, but they seem to be able to beat Spain... To be continued.

Kowalczyk schreef:Right. World Cup is over. Just read this on NOS Teletekst...

If you want to bet on tonight's game between Spain and France, you better put your money on a win for Spain. One of the most famous Frenchman of all time has predicted a Spanish triumph, namely the one and only Nostradamus, who wrote in his famous book The Prophecies:

"And the King of Spain will cross the Pyrenees in the sixth month of 2006. In Central Europe he will defeat his enemies in terrible fashion and he will conquer the holy grail and take it back to Spain."

There you have it. France are f*cked. :D

K.

LOL as usual poor wee Nostro got his dates wrong. He actually meant May, WC finishes in July.

"At the end of the sixth month of 2006, the King of Spain will cross the Pyrenees with his army. The legions of Beelzebub await the battle on the central European plains. Destruction and defeat will fall on the evil-doers. The Holy Grail will be returned to Spain by the triumphant King."

The King of Spain refers to Barca FC, the reigning Spanish Champs and therefore Kings of Spain. Crossing the Pyrenees will take you into France and where the CL Final was played last month. The Legions of Beelzebub of course refers to the English :D and their representatives known as Arsenal FC. The Holy Grail is what Culios (Barca fans) always refer to the European Cup as. So therefore, Nostro nearly got it right.

FFS Nostrodamus I told you to buy yourself a new calendar, ya auld git :D :D

And France have just went 2 1 up as well, so totally buggered Nosto me auld mucker

Well, they were able to win : 3-1... :shock:
I'm REALLY surprised, but I must say I was impressed :worshippy: (and Henry is shit and a fu**ing actor, just like Figo :pukey: ).

Somewhere, the Dubois Larzalere side of my family tree is smiling. Great effort by France. Leave it to new Ajacied, YEAH RIGHT, Vieira(with help from Ramos) and old man Zi Zu to get it done. France and Brazil in the 1/8 finale, right? As for Spain, Same S*** , Different year.

BEST OF LUCK FRANCE AND ENGLAND!!!

this are going to be the best quarter finals in a looong time. In my opinion we are going to see 2 anticipated finals: Argentina-Germany and Brasil-France. The Italy Ukraine one will be interesting because we'll see Shevchenko against the italians and the Portugal England one is really difficult to predict who will win.
Good game by France today. this is just the perfect moment for them to play against Brasil.