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World Cup: Discussion

Ice said:
Oh no - I know that England aren't the worst by far (though they obviously have their moments - Owen seems to have trouble staying on his feet against Argentina. The dive he took in 98' was utterley disgraceful and then another 4 years ago :( ). The Italians have several such 'moments' and I love watching them play - it just irritates me that you can't watch a game of football without someone trying to deceive.
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I agree, diving and all this acting is ruining football. But watching it, I thought the Paraguay players were worse than ours. If i remember rightly, Valdez, or whoever it was, went down in our box after a perfectly good tackle by Gerrard, went to get back up once he realized we still hadn't cleared it and then went back down like he'd been shot upon realizing the chance had gone .

The ref was a strange one, rather card-happy. He kept giving shockingly bad decisions against Crouch. We were pretty strong first half, but came out for the second half with the intention of defending the next 45 mins :rolleyes: We couldn't even create anything, what with the pointless subsitution of Owen which left Crouch up there on his own.

We won't be getting far if we're going to be playing like that.
 
Zolipara said:
England were lucky to win. I dont think england will go far, but i had expected more than this from the team. Santa Cruz has just returned from a long term injury i think, and looked unfit or at least uninterested. If england continues like this they will struggle against most teams.
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I thought we easily deserved the 3 points, Paraguay dominated us for the second half as much as we had, first half. Yet they rarely troubled Robinson like we did with thier keepers.

But I agree we will struggle if we're to perform as averagely as that.
 
Things are going well so far. T&T put in a great performance yesterday, and created the best possible result for England who are looking very likley to go through to the quarters.

England's second half performance wasn't much on their first, but I felt that quite a bit of that was down to the substitutions. Giving Downing a bit of a run out is fine, but to take Owen off for him, and then shove Cole just behind Crouch was never going to work. Crouch works best alongside another striker who he can lay the ball off to. Cole was then put in a position that restricts him when there was the likes of Walcott sitting on the bench.

I didn't watch the Argentina game, but am looking forward to seeing them in action the next time they play.

It's great to see the likes of Ecuador and T&T doing so well. :d
 
kirsty said:
England's second half performance wasn't much on their first, but I felt that quite a bit of that was down to the substitutions. Giving Downing a bit of a run out is fine, but to take Owen off for him, and then shove Cole just behind Crouch was never going to work. Crouch works best alongside another striker who he can lay the ball off to. Cole was then put in a position that restricts him when there was the likes of Walcott sitting on the bench.
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Tbh Owen wasnt doing much at that time, so i can understand why Sven took him off. And the 4-5-1 formation could have worked if the midfield had done what they are supposed to in this formation. Quite frankly the entire english midfield was content to stay put in the center and if they dont make an effort the formation (or any other) dont work. I think the tactic failed because of the lack of effort from gerard/lampard more than anything Sven did.

Gerard and Lampard are seen as key members of their clubs yet they never seem to play well together on the national team(at least not in the matches i've seen). Perhaps it would be best to put one of them on the bench.
 
Portugal played a very nice game. There team seems promising and definitely I'll be enjoying watching their games...
 
Zolipara said:
Hopefully you will see one tonight when argentina plays.
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They're probably the best side we've seen so far, and looked excellent on the break. The defence was well organised, but seemed to depend as much on quantity as quality at times; that didn't stop Brazil four years ago, whether Argentina can do the same thing this time we'll have to wait and see.
 
Zolipara said:
Tbh Owen wasnt doing much at that time, so i can understand why Sven took him off.
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Owen is a player who needs to be fully match fit to be effective, when he's not he can look pretty ordinary.
 
Kenny Shovel said:
They're probably the best side we've seen so far, and looked excellent on the break. The defence was well organised, but seemed to depend as much on quantity as quality at times; that didn't stop Brazil four years ago, whether Argentina can do the same thing this time we'll have to wait and see.
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Yes argentina is the only team that has looked likely to win so far, though they seemed to get a bit too arrogant in the 2nd half. But maradona certainly looked pleased with their effort.

Holland also looked good in attack, but their defense was weak.

I feel a bit sorry for ivory coast as they have a number of really quality players in their team. If they had not got in that group i think they could have easily progressed to the 2nd round as this years "african hope". But i doubt they manage to get past argentina and holland.
 
kirsty said:
T&T put in a great performance yesterday, and created the best possible result for England who are looking very likley to go through to the quarters.
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The quarters? What if they meet Germany in the Second Round first?
 
Although Ecuador did very well the other night, it's still (highly) likley that Germany will top their group. England are in a better position than Germany to top their group, so as yet there are few suggestions that England will play Germany in the second round. Still, it's early days, but an odd scenario to bring up based on the current positions.
 
Don't write Sweden off winning that group yet. ;)

When was the last time England beat Sweden anyway? It must be over thirty years now.
 
Great games today. Czechoslovakia and Italy played a very nice and energetic games and they had a clean win. Since I’m an Italian fan, I would be waiting for Italy to play against Czech, because as you know the second of this group is going to face the first of the group that includes Brazil and it’s highly probable that Brazil is going to be the top of its team.

Anyone have seen the game Australia won Japan? I was completely surprized to hear the result. I was expecting Japan to do more than that. What happened? Anyone has seen it all?

The world cup this year is soooo good, plus today my summer vacation starts, meaning I can watch and enjoy all the games ;) .
 
I was looking forward to checking USA today, as its a team i dont really know much about. I dont put too much trust in the rankings but USA is nr 5 on the fifa rankings so i thought they would have something to show for it. But today they were totally outclassed by the Czechs. It looks good for the czechs, but i think they will miss Jan Koller when they meet better teams. I doubt USA has any chance of getting past the group stages.

Anyone have seen the game Australia won Japan? I was completely surprized to hear the result. I was expecting Japan to do more than that. What happened? Anyone has seen it all?
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The result was perhaps a bit flattering for the aussies but all in all a well deserved win. Japan had some chances but looked very ineffective infront of the goal. They need a goalmachine. Going to be interesting to see what Guus Hiddink can do with the Australian team.
 
Zolipara said:
I dont put too much trust in the rankings but USA is nr 5 on the fifa rankings so i thought they would have something to show for it.
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The FIFA rankings have always been dodgy. Mexico is another example of a country that are much higher than they should be, in thier case this has happened for years.

I agree that the Czechs looked impressive btw.
 
Scotland look incorrectly high on that list. I suppose most of the wins there were from the 19th Century. :D
 
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