FIFA World Cup 2010
Great result for Ghana. I thought USA were controlling the game for the most part. Michael Bradley had couple of good chances as did a few others. Ghana made the most of their chances and scored two awesome goals. It’s good to see an African team in the quarter finals. I can’t help but wonder where the Socceroos would be right now if it wasn’t for two harsh red cards.
Two big games tonight - England vs Germany is huge, can’t wait to see what the UK press says about the team if England lose. Argentina vs Mexico should be an absolute cracker! I think Argentina will win, but a win for Mexico certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
In other news, FIFA admit problems with the balls. Read below.
After months of denying that the ball being used in the 2010 World Cup was anything but perfect, FIFA, have finally bowed to the torrent of criticism aimed at the erratic sphere and material.
“We’re not deaf,” said Jerome Valcke, the organization’s general secretary, said in Johannesburg. “FIFA is not unreceptive about what has been said about the ball.”
No changes will be made during the World Cup, but after it ends on July 11 FIFA will meet with coaches and players and discuss their complaints with the ball’s manufacturer, Adidas. The ball which travels too fast, is wobbly and unpredictable in flight, and has been blamed for everything from goalkeeper errors to missed free kicks.
Brazil’s coach Dunga got into a verbal spat with Valcke over the Jabulani before the tournament, challenging him to come out onto the pitch and attempt to control it.
Denmark defender Daniel Agger said the ball made some outfielders look like “drunken sailors.”
It cannot be coincidence the number of off-target shots witnessed by the best players and nations this tournament. The World Cup should be the best players, best teams, best officials, best stadiums and the best equipment. To introduce such a major technological change in a ball’s make up for the World’s premier sporting competition without sufficient testing is a decision football’s governing body FIFA must ask a lot of questions about after the conclusion of South Africa 2010, as it cannot be denied has had a detrimental effect to the quality of games at the finals.
The us v ghana game was indeed exciting.
US giving up a goal in about 5 mins of game time - one of the team’s weaknesses, giving up early goals, I had read about even before the Algeria game…
I thought Ghana was tramplling all over the US for the first half… and then the US showed up. We scored our only point from a penalty kick, very well executed too btw by Donovan.
The second half of the game it really seemed that the US was a different team tan the first half. and we had figured something out about Ghana. able to really play against them.
So, it went into extra time. 2 15 min periods. ghana got the best of us and scored a goal with a well timed pass. The US just couldnt ever find an equalizer.
I’m glad that Ghana gets to carry the torch for the country now. They would have been high on my list of favorites had they not been playing the US. I hadent seen them play, but just looking at their stats before that game, I thought the US should have them for sure. but I think they were the better team. They played a full 2 hours. The US waited until the half to show up.
I’d like to see England win, but I think Germany will come out the better team, we’ll see.
Well as expected, Germany over England, but 4:1?? wow.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/index.html
Here’s a link to the brackets that I’m reading. The times of the matches on that page may be US times.
I watched the tail end of Argentina beating Mexico, not enough to really appreciate the game and the way that the teams played though.
I think I’d like to see the Netherlands and Brazil win their games tomorrow.
I’d like to see Ghana win one more too, they will have to beat Uruguay…
I don’t think england and australia have all that much in common these days but having germany bang 4 past us both has provided a bond of sorts. I got up at 2am this morning not exactly full of optimism. I caught the first two of englands games in which we were woeful. I missed the 3rd on the plane. So i see in the press that england have got hammered. I actually thought that we played a lot better than we had to date. Agreed the defending was pretty disasterous with the defenders all getting drawn towards the bar in a style reminiscent of my childhood in primary school games. Still the passing was a lot better and frank lampard actually turned up!
I thought the aussies would do a bit better but losing cahill in the first game was tough. Also playing germany first up isn’t the start any country needs to a world cup.
Ah well we’d kill them at cricket eh. I’m going to become spanish for the remainder of the tournament i think.
Germany played well, but more importantly, England played pretty badly. And yes, that disallowed goal made a MASSIVE difference as it would have been 2-2 and the game would have been played differently by both teams.
HOWEVER - we were beaten in the cricket one dayers by the Poms so let’s bask in the fact that they will ALWAYS fail at sports they have invented (basically), even if one out of their many international teams is succeeding
Oh man that was a smashing by Germany. You just had that feeling after Germany scored their first goal that things were about to get a lot worse for England. I was actually quite impressed by the way they came back (well almost, if not for the disastrous mistake by the referees, again). After their goal was disallowed, you would have to think it mentally took its toll on England. It would have felt horrible to claw you way back into that game against all odds, only to be screwed over by the officials. As expected the English press ripped into the team. You have to feel sorry for the players.
Argentina beat Mexico in an interesting game. It starts with a goal by Tevez, in which he was a mile offside. Crazy, super soft second goal after a complete defending blunder. Makes you wonder if this lack of focus had anything to do with the first goal? I guess you can’t use that as an excuse, but you could tell it affected the players. Amazing third goal for Argentina and nice reply by Mexico. I think this game could have been a lot closer, but Argentina just seem to be having so much fun out there, watching them play, and even Maradonna on the sidelines, is a spectacle.
2 hours until Netherlands and Slov play.
I’m hoping for the Netherlands.
Looking forward to it. I’m hoping they start Robben.
1-0 half time. Robben was the difference, great call to start him.
What a great result for the dutch, c’mon boys!!!
I would crack out some comments but I don’t think you guys would understand dutch LOL!
VIVA BRASIL!
WOoooohooo!
Great game.
I am thinking Brazil v Argentina Final!
What is everyone’s thoughts on the final?
considering my money is on brazil, i’m certainly hoping they get to the final!
That was a pretty convincing win by Brazil. Chile are a good team and they got beaten rather easily. Solid win for the Dutch too. They probably deserved to put more than one goal away. How priceless was Van Persie’s face when he got subbed!
Spain vs Portugal, this is the one I’ve been waiting for. Should be an absolute cracker! I hope Torres can get back into scoring form, it’s been really disappointing for him, you can tell by how frustrated he looks. I hope they give Fabregas more of a run. I think Spain is too classy overall, and should beat Portugal, but you never know.
Looking at the chart and remaining games, I think we are going to see Argentina vs Spain in one semi-final, and Brazil vs Uruguay in the other. I would then expect Brazil vs Argentina, but that’s a tough call. Spain could very easily go the whole way too. I would like to see Brazil or Argentina win the World Cup. South America have dominated the tournament so far and I think they deserve to win.
I watched most of the Paraguay win against Japan.
I liked the idea of Japan winning. but PAraguay dominated what they could during the game.
it ended in a PK-off.
5-3 Paraguay. It was cool to see a game get down to that, but really, how can you say who the better team is?