The World Cup!

[gouldy]

yeah, it's a signature of international tournaments though it seems to me, bad defending that is, because for a defence to work, it has to be a tightly moulded group that understands each other and everything. The only way to achieve that, is by training, and playing alongside each other, week in week out, which happens at club level. But the international teams get chucked together a month before the tournament and as a result... yeah. Whereas other positions on the pitch require less cohesion than defence, so it's not as aparent.

Isn't Steven Gerrard an injury doubt though too? I heard he might not start tomorrow either. I agree that they shouldn't start Rooney yet, having only been passed as fit to play on wednesday, it is just a little soon . I hope they do get him back in the squad soon though, because, well... it's Wayne Rooney!

The world What???

lol, I dont watch soccer, but apparently this is a big deal.

[gouldy]

Football, please. It is a big deal, it is the largest event of any kind, in the world, ever, every single major country has a national football team. Although I do agree with you, The rebranded American version of the game, known over there as "Soccer" (although what the hell does that word have to do with anything), is very boring and gay. Football on the other hand (as played everywhere else in the world) is a beautiful game, that unites entire nations, and once every 4 years, stops the world dead, as most people gather round in pubs, bars and in front of their tv's to watch what is the greatest show on earth!.... apart from the Poland game earlier, that was poop, but, yeah, forget that!

i agree with gouldy on the soccer thing, tyhe americans are always reinventing our games but in a crapper version such as baseball = roundus with a larger bat and american football = rugby for wimps.

the world cup is the biggest event in the world and is one of the only events which pulls the whole world together in celebration and dispare, ahh the beautiful game

[gouldy]

The England v Paraguay game is as boring as hell

it's currently half time, but England are winning 1-0 through an own goal by Gamarra, in the 4th minute. Really quite boring game though, although I guess that's to be expected from the first few matches of any tournament like this, no ones commiting to anything yet.

Hope the second half is better, England to win 3-0 I reckon.

1 - 0 TO ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by gouldy

Football, please. It is a big deal, it is the largest event of any kind, in the world, ever, every single major country has a national football team. Although I do agree with you, The rebranded American version of the game, known over there as "Soccer" (although what the hell does that word have to do with anything), is very boring and gay. Football on the other hand (as played everywhere else in the world) is a beautiful game, that unites entire nations, and once every 4 years, stops the world dead, as most people gather round in pubs, bars and in front of their tv's to watch what is the greatest show on earth!.... apart from the Poland game earlier, that was poop, but, yeah, forget that!

Last time I checked, the only difference between soccer in the US and Football elsewhere is the name. It's not like we play with different rules or equipment or anything, we just gave it a different name for some stupid reason. And seeing as US is ranked ahead of England, you better not say we're worse at it. [;)] But I must say, the last half of that post would make an excellent World Cup promotion commercial.

[Oscar]

yeah paraguay had to give it up, had he been Columbian it would have been his death sentence like that one guy 4 years ago killed when he arrived back to Columbia, stupidity of these people.

[gouldy]

The USA may be ranked ahead of England in the FIFA world ranking, but that my friend, is because that is a load of total bullshit The USA has to play teams like cuba in qualifiers and such, whereas we have to play teams like France, Italy, Spain, Germany etc etc... Lets not forget that we beat you the last time we played you [;)]

And there is more of a difference than just the name, between US soccer and English football. Just as there is a difference between the English Premier league and say, Serie A, in Italy. In US Soccer, it's all played at a very slow pace, there is little or no passion invovled at all, in any quarter, especially where the fans are concerned, which translates onto the pitch in a really bad way. Trust me, US Soccer is just shite in comparison to what the rest of the world watches. And Americans watch tournaments such as the world cup and think that that is real football, well it's not, the matches tend to be slow and boring, much like US Soccer, it is NOT how the sport is played in England, or many of the European countries.



England beat Paraguay 1-0, typical World cup game, slow and not in the slightest exciting! It gets better towards the latter stages, the knockout stages make for some very exciting football. but the Group phase, generally sucks ass.

Trinidad vs. Sweden.. I hope Trinidad wins, their coach is Dutch [:D]

Originally posted by gouldy

The USA may be ranked ahead of England in the FIFA world ranking, but that my friend, is because that is a load of total bullshit The USA has to play teams like cuba in qualifiers and such, whereas we have to play teams like France, Italy, Spain, Germany etc etc... Lets not forget that we beat you the last time we played you [;)]

And there is more of a difference than just the name, between US soccer and English football. Just as there is a difference between the English Premier league and say, Serie A, in Italy. In US Soccer, it's all played at a very slow pace, there is little or no passion invovled at all, in any quarter, especially where the fans are concerned, which translates onto the pitch in a really bad way. Trust me, US Soccer is just shite in comparison to what the rest of the world watches. And Americans watch tournaments such as the world cup and think that that is real football, well it's not, the matches tend to be slow and boring, much like US Soccer, it is NOT how the sport is played in England, or many of the European countries.

I think the ranking is justified, especially after seeing the game between England and Paraguay. I was pretty dissapointed by England, and they were very lucky to come out with the win. And, US did have pretty strong prelims despite their lack of international powerhouses. They showed that they can in fact reliably win over solid but not extremely strong opponents. But whether they can beat a powerhouse like the Czechs is still yet to be seen.

It's played at a different pace, sure, but that's just the style of play. Just as how many of the Latin American teams tend to do a lot of dribbling and playing in the middle of the field, whereas European teams (Especially your beloved England [:)]) tend to dribble very little, and rely much more on playing the ball to the wings and then sending crosses in. Doesn't mean it's a different sport, just a different style of playing the same sport. But I will agree that US has much less passion when compared to leagues such as the EPL overall, but the players and fans of MLS don't lack passion. It's just that the MLS isn't nearly as big of a deal to Americans as the EPL is to the English, the Eredivisie is to the Dutch, the Serie A to Italians, etc.

[Oscar]

Trinidad tied Sweden with 1 men ejected from trinidad and then one man out due to injury which was 9 men to 11, I'd say that is an embarrasment for Sweden.

Originally posted by e-man

Originally posted by gouldy

The USA may be ranked ahead of England in the FIFA world ranking, but that my friend, is because that is a load of total bullshit The USA has to play teams like cuba in qualifiers and such, whereas we have to play teams like France, Italy, Spain, Germany etc etc... Lets not forget that we beat you the last time we played you [;)]

And there is more of a difference than just the name, between US soccer and English football. Just as there is a difference between the English Premier league and say, Serie A, in Italy. In US Soccer, it's all played at a very slow pace, there is little or no passion invovled at all, in any quarter, especially where the fans are concerned, which translates onto the pitch in a really bad way. Trust me, US Soccer is just shite in comparison to what the rest of the world watches. And Americans watch tournaments such as the world cup and think that that is real football, well it's not, the matches tend to be slow and boring, much like US Soccer, it is NOT how the sport is played in England, or many of the European countries.

I think the ranking is justified, especially after seeing the game between England and Paraguay. I was pretty dissapointed by England, and they were very lucky to come out with the win. And, US did have pretty strong prelims despite their lack of international powerhouses. They showed that they can in fact reliably win over solid but not extremely strong opponents. But whether they can beat a powerhouse like the Czechs is still yet to be seen.

It's played at a different pace, sure, but that's just the style of play. Just as how many of the Latin American teams tend to do a lot of dribbling and playing in the middle of the field, whereas European teams (Especially your beloved England [:)]) tend to dribble very little, and rely much more on playing the ball to the wings and then sending crosses in. Doesn't mean it's a different sport, just a different style of playing the same sport. But I will agree that US has much less passion when compared to leagues such as the EPL overall, but the players and fans of MLS don't lack passion. It's just that the MLS isn't nearly as big of a deal to Americans as the EPL is to the English, the Eredivisie is to the Dutch, the Serie A to Italians, etc.

Sorry, but are you totally stupid? Of course England are better than USA, theres no question about it. We last played you, beat you, and played like non of our major players..... LOL [;)]

And as for the game today, England played well in th 1st half, 2nd half was total crap and one of the worst games ive seen England play. BUT i have to say when Owen and Crouch play up front together, IMO they can be great! And Beckham is really on form at the moment, you see his little heel thing today [:)] Im still mad they didnt bring Defoe though!

the game was great untill owen got sub'ed, then it was just crap because we had no one up to support crouch. beckham was really on form today and deserves alot of praise for his game, he still is the top captin weve ever had IMO.

the only criasism ive got is that everybody plays to the right, we need to learn to switch and be able to play on the left as well as we do right.

[Oscar]

Argentina wins over Ivory Coast at a score 2-1
Clearly 2 penalty shots should have been awarded to Ivory coast and it was clear that the ref was on the Argentinian side. While the scoring of the argentinian was done by being offsides but they should have probably been awarded the first goal that was pulled out.

Serbia and Montenegro - Netherlands
0-1

Yay, we won thanks to the great Arjen Robben!

I was pretty dissapointed by Netherlands play. If they keep that up I doubt they'll be a threat this year.

they always play bad in there first game...
after that they get better...

[mkingy]

Originally posted by e-man

I was pretty dissapointed by Netherlands play. If they keep that up I doubt they'll be a threat this year.

I thought Arjan Robben was amazing, certainly in the first half, caused so much trouble with his pace.

I still don't understand why Sven went to 4-5-1 when it's obvious Crouch is most (and only) effective when he's got someone with pace (ie. Walcott) to play off him. 3 points though, can't complain too much!

Robben played very well....but Netherlands counts on him playing very well, and they need support which in this game they did not have. It had just as well have been Robben vs. the entire Serbian defense on the attack, since noone else did much of anything.

[Oscar]

Mexico wins over Iran at 3-1 yay time for stret celebration and cruisin her ein Cali [pshades]

Time will tell who's the best team .

[coolbeans326]

Soccor is so boring to watch. It's anti-climactic and hardly anything happens... not to mention they get hurt for no reason. But none the less, I still find myself watching it.

^Which means your statement holds no value.

BTW, whats soccer?

[Oscar]

well it is midnight here in Cali and the street celebrations are still going on, we are fanatics!