germany 2006 begins in a few weeks. time to get a thread going for anyone's thoughts and opinions.

all the latest world cup news




ah ......the beautiful game!! joga bonita!!

tables and results

bos
Whats happening in Germany

the greatest show on earth, driver.

time to put your colours up.



forza azzurri !!!

Oh the footy.

I DONT LIKE YOUR ONE.

woody57
I take it you are referring to boss

I really don't fancy mine......

future footballers wives

alan, not even when you've seen his tackle ??

Blimey bos - your header's a bit laaarge ;)

I just got interested in football bos (after seeing your picture) ,does she take her top off after the game ?

http://www.ave-it.net/becks.jpg

Wonder what Posh thinks?

oops, so how do you get the pics to post rather than the url?

ah, that's how!!

Getting the hang of this now :-)
Think Becks will take any penalties?

Jimmy, They always exchange shirts once the match is over - it's World Cup tradition, after all! Anyway check this out, guys...

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/calendar.html

Thanks for confirming that mark ,i;ll be watching the world cup now ,the womans tournament that is .

chocolat, is having laaarge header a problem for you ? ;)

latest odds for the tournament. usual suspects at the top but serbia and montenegro look a good each way bet at 80/1. they conceded very few goals during qualification and finished top of their group which included spain!!
usa also look a decent price. most of their players play in the major leagues, ( premiership, bundesliga), and they were very unfortunate in the last world cup to come up against a very lucky german team in the quarter finals.

Brazil 9/4
Argentina 7/1
Germany 7/1
England 8/1
Italy 8/1
France 12/1
Holland 12/1
Spain 14/1
Portugal 22/1
Czech Republic 33/1
Sweden 33/1
Mexico 40/1
Croatia 50/1
Ivory Coast 66/1
Ukraine 66/1
Serbia and Montenegro 80/1
USA 80/1
Paraguay 100/1
Poland 100/1
Switzerland 100/1
Australia 125/1
Ecuador 125/1
Japan 150/1
Korea Republic 150/1
Tunisia 200/1
Ghana 250/1
Iran 250/1
Costa Rica 350/1
Togo 350/1
Angola 500/1
Saudi Arabia 500/1
Trinidad and Tobago 750/1

I'm gonna appeal to FIFA. Its not fair. Most countries have to play on their own but Serbia get to team up with Montenegro while Trinidad get a hand from Tobago!!! Fouls says I.
Its like watching the Scottish cup when Celtic get drawn against Keith! What chance has Keith got all on his own against 11 blokes for Celtic. Bloody favouritism.

latest odds for tournament top goal scorer. not surprisingly ronaldo and adriano are favourites . luca toni is quite nicely priced at 18/1, top goal scorer in italy this season. but michael ballack stands out for me as having a good chance at 40/1, (funnily enough , same odds as crouch!!!!!)

Ronaldo 9/1
Adriano 10/1
Thierry Henry 10/1
Ronaldinho 12/1
Hernan Crespo 14/1
Michael Owen 14/1
Ruud van Nistelrooy 14/1
Andriy Shevchenko 16/1
Luca Toni 18/1
Alberto Gillardino 20/1
David Trezeguet 20/1
David Villa 25/1
Miroslav Klose 25/1
Fernando Torres 33/1
Jermain Defoe 33/1
Kevin Kuranyi 33/1
Lionel Messi 33/1
Lukas Podolski 33/1
Robinho 33/1
Vincenzo Iaquinta 33/1
Carlos Tevez 33/1
Didier Drogba 33/1
Filippo Inzaghi 40/1
Henrik Larsson 40/1
Michael Ballack 40/1
Pauleta 40/1
Peter Crouch 40/1
Raul 40/1
Zlatan Ibrahimovic 40/1
Christian Vieri 50/1
Djibril Cisse 50/1
Frank Lampard 50/1
Huntelaar 50/1
Kaka 50/1
Milan Baros 50/1
Dirk Kuijt 66/1
Fernando Morientes 66/1
Fonseca 66/1
Jared Borgetti 66/1
Jose Antonio Reyes 66/1
Julio Cesar Baptista 66/1
Theo Walcott 66/1
Zinedine Zidane 66/1
Dado Prso 80/1
Francesco Totti 80/1
Alessandro Del Piero 100/1
Arjen Robben 100/1
Cristiano Ronaldo 100/1
David Beckham 100/1
Maciej Zurawski 100/1
Steven Gerrard 100/1
Marc Viduka 150/1
Emmanuel Adebayor 200/1

David Villa would be a good bet at 25 / 1. Ronaldo is too fat and old, Adriano is completely off form, France have an awful team so Thierry will have to do it all on his own while the rest will simply get four or five, ( Except R.Van who will be lucky to get 1). Bet On D.Villa.

A friend sent me this video link yesterday along with the message
Snowfight in the city centre - no light left...official song for the england world cup announcement!! single out soon x

Snowfight In The City Centre - No Light left

Oops I can feel a plug coming on :)

oi!!! madam!!! wtf has that got to do with the world cup??? i shall be complaining to the relevant authorities about this . ;)

Err ... well England's in the World Cup innit :P

Hey look what I found



... with cream ;)

mmmm, that looks so tempting!!!! discovered asda sell them, 3 packs for 1. keeps me going til the corner shop gets stocked up again :))

g d potts, fully agree with what you say apart from d villa. spain, (every tv pundit's dark horse), generally don't stay too long in tournaments. is it going to be different this time?

I think so, they've got a really strong team with the likes of Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Villa, Casillas, Puyol etc and so I do believe this could finally be Spain's time to shine.

i have 100 quid at 1000/1 on ivory coast to win it.
Shame they got such a tough group, but they can get thru it and if they do they will be 25/1

as much as it pains me to say this, well done to the scousers. at least it's another trophy for the north !!! also, i think stevie gerrard showed that, if he is played in his best position for england, it will soften the blow of losing rooney. it also solves eriksson's dilema of how best to play his big three of lampard , beckham and gerrard.
harry kewill now a big doubt for australia. what a pity. the poor lad has suffered so much in his carreer......

blimey, has eriksson been reading this thread?? just read in the paper that he may consider playing gerrard in his best position, unshackle him from his midfield duties and play him further forward!!
i can't believe france haven't got room for guily!! what a player!!

world cup news

a great page for latest developments

Bos i'm just interested in that girls team that all wear different colours ,i'd like to see them playing ,i'm sure those shirts don't stay folded exactly where they are .

jimmy, they run in slow motion , too, just like they did in baywatch !! :))

Guily! he should not be in the Barcelona team, Xavi is far better as is Messi and when they are both back and fit guily will struggle to play. And although france are so bad, with a team of ageing former superstars Guily still doesnt merit a place.

jimmy b - it's amazing what you can do with a bit of velcro.
But you have to be very careful ;)

you mean when it's time to peel the velcro off?? ooooouch!!!!

the usual lull going on now , between the end of club matches and the start of friendlies. only a couple of weeks to go and heaven begins :)))))

not the best of starts to england's world cup campaign but at least owen came through unscathed and we all got to see the new wonderkid. i have to say, what these new players lack in experience they do make up for in pace.

considering this is an investors bb , there must be some stocks that will directly benefit from the world cup. this is one that might be worth a look.

possible?

also, some of the breweries might be worth a punt, especially if england do well.

better tackle than peter beardsley's

england v rest of the world tonight at old trafford for soccer aid. i really wasn't interested until i found out maradona was playing. now i'm absolutely gutted as i turned down tickets a few times. oohhhhh what i would give now just to see the great man play !!!!

The following squads have just been announced for the 2006 World Cup:

BRAZILIAN SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

Pinnochio

Libero

Vimto , Memento, Borneo , Tango

Cheerio, Subbuteo

Scenario , Fellatio

Portfolio

SUBS: Placebo, Porno, Polio, Banjo, Brasso, Stereo (L), Stereo (R), Hydrochlorofluoro, Aristotle, Computersezno

YUGOSLAVIAN SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

Itch

Annoyingitch , Hardtoreachitch, Scratchanitch

Hic , Sic , Spic, Pric

Digaditch , Fallinaditch

Horseraditch

SUBS: Mowapitch, Letsgetrich, Shagabitch

RUSSIAN SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

Whodyanicabolicov

Ticlycov , Chesticov , Nasticov

Slalomsky , Downhillsky

Risky, Swedishshev , Mastershev

Fuckov , Ufuckov

SUBS: Rubitov, Gechakitov, Sodov, Pastryshev, Najinsky, Ivorripabollockov, Taykitov

ROMANIAN SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

Chatanoogaciouciou

Atishiou, Blessiou , Thankyiou

Busqueue, Snookercu

Pennyciou , Twoapennyciou , Fourapennyciou

I'llgetciou , Youandwhosarmi

SUBS: U, NonU, ManU, Stuffyiou, Lee Kwan Yu

DANISH SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

Toomanigoalssen

Tryandstopussen , Crapdefenssen, Haveagossen

Firstsson , Seccondsson

Thirdsson

Legshurtssen , Notroubleseeingussen
,
Wherestheballssen , Getthebeerssen

SUBS: Howmanygoalsisthatssen, Finallygaveupcountinssen, Hurryupandblowthewhistlessen, Yourelatedtoalexfergusonssen

ITALIAN SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

Baloni

Potbelli, Beerbelli, Giveitsumwelli

Wotsontelli , Yrarseissmelli , Onetoomani

Legslikejelli , Havabenni

Wobblijelli , Spendapenni

SUBS: Cantthinkofani!!!, Buggermi

MEXICAN SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

San Francisco

Costa Brava, Hopelez Juan , Andonly

Manuel , Gearbox

Don Criformi-Argentina , Skrewdigalz , Luis Canon , Sombrero

Chihuahua , Jose

SUBS: Jesus Maria Don Key, Burrito, Speedy Gonzalez, Tequila, Caramba

DUTCH SQUAD FOR WORLD CUP 2006

Kenning van Hire

Van Diemansland , Van der Valk , Van Gard , Van Erealdizeez

Ad van Tagus , Hertz van Rental , Transit van Dors

Van Coova , Van Sprokendown , Aye van Hoe

SUBS: Van Iller, Van Ishincreme, Van Morrison

On a slightly different note.
Did anyone see Peter CROUCH's dance last night after he scored?
The phrase ' what a cock' sprung to mind. He should have been yellow carded for the sheer embarrassment factor/.

Sven should invest in some dancing lessons.

C'MON ENGLAND!!!!!!! lots of goals, just no dancing please.

lol@tweenie!!! you read my mind!! speaking of the game last night, what a joy it was to watch the good ,old, solid , honest english footballers who never, ever, ever dive. not like those dirty, cheating bastard continentals. i mean , english players neeeeeeeeeeeever dive. they merely fall over when there's no contact. but that's not diving.........

CALM DowN , CAlm DOWN (approriate accent)....... INGERLAND!!!! makes you proud.

Maybe amend above to dance&diving?

for tweenie and any other england fans ...... guessing there might be one or two ......

and for gd potts who seems to fancy spain. can't say i blame him ......

speaking of last night's game was anybody else amazed to hear the esteemed panel criticise jamie carragher for keeping possession? i shook my head in disbelief!!! i mean, what possible good can come from keeping possession?

That Spanish bird bos has a nose and a half on her, third in from title picture.... Maybe her promoters thought the event was cricket!!

You're looking at HER NOSE????????

Still debateing if it really is a born her Alan.....

Spot the velcro ;)

explosive, nowt wrong with big noses.
chocolat, i've taken a long, hard look at the pics but i can't see any velcro ;)

I think it's more a case of 'spot the spray on tans' and 'no I can't do upsy's for you as my tits would fall out.'
Would also look for the velcro but I'm afraid I might go blind.

Former Manchester United star Cantona appears in US ad



LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Former Manchester United star Eric Cantona is appearing in a commercial on American television supportive of the United States team in this month's World Cup football showdown.
The advertisment by Nike stresses that the US "boys" have a chance against the best in the world, with some of the best players among the millions on the planet who play the sport.
The 40-year-old French star speaks about solidarity between supporters and players and among the stars of the US squad.


He's still scrummy for a frog ;)

Cheers for the Spain pic Bosley, Eng 4 - 0 nil up!

Evening all! Did British telly show any of the World Cup opening celebrations from Frankfurt (11 p.m. Saturday)? They had music all over town and projections of football scenes on the skyscrapers.

Never mind if not; it wasn't a patch on the Olympics but pretty all the same.

Can't see those, Barclay. would you mind posting the link?

That spanish bird is a he, that's why she has a funny looking nose!
Look closer.

Not a bad Ing-er-land World Cup song for once:

Wreckless Eric Video: (Go The) Whole Wide World 4 England

(give it a few secs to get going)

from: Wreckless News

England 1 - Paraquay 3. A good bet - get on.

very bad news coming from my boys. gattuso, zambrotta definately out for the opening game against ghana and nesta looks doubtful. ghana wont be an easy team to beat with players like essien and kuffour. gattuso v essien would have been great to watch :))

The latest on the Rooney injury is that he has been told he will only be able to play if he gets a cortizone injection. Beckham and Ferdinand have threatened strike action unless they get a new car as well.

The press are saying that the scan results for Rooney are the best possible news for England on the injury front. I disagree. The best news would be if Hargreaves had broken both his legs, making certain the swede was unable to pick him.

Alan

alan, i have similar feelings about totti (or twatti as he known to us). i was very annoyed that he he didn't lose his race against time. i was hoping time would have put up more of a fight and kept him injured !!!

Still think that Spanish bird in the picture above is a bloke.....

Bloody good figure for a bloke !!

yeah, i would , too, jimmy ;)

ttt

only a few hours to kick-off ........ i'm soooooo excited i think i might make a mess in me pants !!!

Would you believe it? I will miss Ing-ur-lands opener tomorrow!!!
Life just aint fair.

Got lotsa beers riding on Costa Rica and Ecuador winning tonight. Please....!

greystone...i fancy costa rica to win 2-1...that german team is unterhose

windsorgolf - I'll be happy to settle for that but it would be great if Paolo Wanchope could score - a hat-trick preferably - :-)

Greystone, Paolo scored 2/3 - not bad - ex-Rams centreforward - seen him play umpteen matches - he can frustrate you one minute - and then tantalise you the next - a true enigma!!

a very tasty start to the tournament. the germans looked fairly strong although it was against weak opposition. anyone who has klose as tournament top scorer must be very happy.
ecuador and poland both looked useless but i think the polish manager picked the wrong team for the game. the poles looked a better outfit with the team that finished the match and i expect a better performance from them in the next game.

Yep, they might manage a draw.

With a favourable ref, of course. :-)))

We have a big Ecuadorian population here and they were partying into the early hours... Its only the second game they ever won in world cup finals.

Predictions for today please.
I'll go 3-1 to Ing-ur-land.
Goals from Owen, Crouch and Terry.
Next!

Four - nil England.... ;-)

Owen, Owen, Lampard and Owen.

i'll have the draw. good luck .

Stupid ref not allowing the players to grab a quick squirt of water.

Cracking game between Argentina and Ivory Coast (2-1) ... Glad we're not in that group. ;-)

excellent. Top of group and we did'nt even score a goal.
IN_GHERRR LAND
makes you proud
LOL

i find it incredible that the bbc panel were so critical of england's performance yesterday. i thought it was a very good performance for a first game, they got the 3 points and didn't really look threatened. no team in this tournament will dominate for the full 90. there will be times when teams are pushed back, forced to defend and i thought england defended well. did robinson have to make a save? to blame the second half on eriksson's time in italy is ludicrous. every team is hoping to stay in the tournament to the end which means it isn't wise to try to play 90 minutes at full pelt if you dont have to. if italy get a scabby goal and win 1-0 on monday i will be more than happy.

Bos

Accepting first game nerves, I still thought the England performance was far from good. Ball distribution was awful particularly by Neville and had we been up against a more accomplished side I think we would have struggled to draw nevermind a win. I thought the studio panel made some pretty good points re the replacement of Owen, why play a midfielder in a striking role? (despite J Cole having a good game) when he took Theo Walcott. I wouldn't be surprised if the omission of Defoe may come back to haunt us, particularly if he won't give Walcott a run and Owen remains listless. We reverted to playing Div 2 footy in the second half, lumping a long ball up to Crouch in the hope he could hold it up. Problem was he didn't have anyone to lay it off to and that sort of tactic will be food and drink to the better sides. However, that's the first game out of the way and TNT have done us a massive favour by drawing with the Swedes, hopefully we can stroll into the knock out stages and play the sort of football they are capable of playing.

Having seen all that's on offer so far, I can't say I've seen any team (England excepted) that looks as good going back as going forward.

Germany, Holland and Argentina certainly look great going for goal but look a bit vulnerable at the back.

Guys, I am sure the 3 Lions are just "jockeying for position" atm... Let us qualify first, avoid the Germans (not that they are any good but [1] they are at home and [2] they always plan their way towards the final stages) and take it from there...

just a thought. has anyone got one of those excel spreadsheet type things of all the fixtures? one of those where you can fill the scores and it does all the calculations? i think it would be good to have something like that on here , see how things are progressing. very impressed by argentina and portugal over the weekend.

the best team so far were Ivory Coast.
If Dogbag dod his job in the other teams area instead of getting in the way of his own defenders they would gone close to getting a draw if not winning. Not a bad feat for a team in their first world cup against one of the favs!!

The non-alllowed goal for the argies was balanced off by the offside goal that was given.
Im sick and tired of this stupid offside rule.

As someone said "If your not inteferring with play, what are you doing on the field"

for an .xls co to http://office.microsoft.com

I was hoping, for the sake of my American cousins, that the US soccer team might repair some of the damage caused by those excrutiatingly embarrassing Budweiser ads, but sadly not enough gas in the tanks...

Budweiser have done more to hurt the US image in Europe over the last six days than Dubbya has managed in six years... ;-)

Bos, good luck tonight. Would do me a favour as well, little bit of money on Italy.

Think he'll be on his knees again ;)

:)

Italy won although if Ghana had one clinical striker then it would have been different, England will turn it on in the latter stages when the ROON is back.

Bosley,

Check this out, amigo...

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/group/index.html

I was actually contemplating creating my own Excel spreadsheet but the above is more than adequate and is updated: 'real-time'.

very pleased with the performance tonight. italy won without having to get out of 3rd gear, very comfortable, buffon only having to make one save, the defenders dealing with most things. one or two scary moments , as mr potts says, a half decent striker and maybe ghana might have scored a goal , but i never felt this was a game italy was going to lose. it's a shame the panel and commentators didn't comment on some of the elbows and lunging tackles from the ghanaians. never mind, 3 points in the bag, look forward to the next game.

cheers pete, hope you put more than a little on :))
markus. cheers . i'll put the link up but i was thinking of something permanent in the first post.
chocolat, nice candles and ta very much:)) not sure i can blow out all four candles, might manage three though. would you like to blow my other candle ? ;)

Boz,
I too am of Italian extraction.
Well I'm wanted by Interpol for blackmailing Berlusconi if thats the same thing.
Alan

Good to see the czech`s bouncing along,england slumber on [god its to hot for football],mexico swagger on,argentina cruise on,and with spain & el nino at the helm,things are looking good,

Argentina all the way.

ARGENTINA! they have no chance, if Messi doesnt make a come back then all they can only be heading out. By El nino are you referring to Torres? I'd prefer Torres and Villa upfront over Raul and then Spain could really do things.
Watch out for Ecuador! No joke.

France have just won the prize for being the worst World Cup side thus far. Zidane, Viera, Thurham all well past their best; Despite his Premiership performances, Henry is totally unable to produce the same form on the International stage and Wiltord was a complete waste of space. Can't see them progressing past the group stages. :-) Happy days

pth

Extremely happy days, Henry needs a good team behind him to play like the Wolrd Class Striker he is. Looking forward to watching Dinio, Adriano and Kaka tonight.

Not overly impressed with Brazil, but as the commentators said, you just never know when they will up a gear when they have to. Quite impressed with Croatia, created some very good opportunities which on another day might have resulted in a goal.

pth

i've just come upstairs to take a piss and i'm pretty certain i moved more than ronaldo did tonight. what a disgrace!! brazil did what good teams do in tournaments, just enough to get the result needed. croatia looked quite useful, almost as good as in the days of suker and boksic. france looked just like a lucky team that isn't lucky anymore. henry, trezequet, cisse, wiltord, saha, zidane and they still haven't scored since '98 in a world cup!!!!
mr potts, ecuador???? perrrleeeese .....

I remember when Rai started the penultimate World Cup as Brazil's captain. But was subbed twice and ultimately dropped as Dunga emerged as their captain.

I think Ronaldo is beginning to appear like that. He has more of a paunch on him than I do! Mgr is not afraid to make tough decisions when the time comes...

Latest odds...

Brazil 9/4
Argentina 6/1
England 6/1
Germany 8/1
Italy 8/1
Holland 12/1
France 14/1
Spain 14/1
Portugal 22/1
Czech Republic 25/1
Mexico 40/1
Sweden 40/1
Croatia 66/1
Ukraine 66/1
Australia 80/1
Switzerland 100/1
Ivory Coast 125/1
South Korea 150/1
Ecuador 200/1
Serbia & Montenegro 200/1
Paraguay 250/1
Poland 250/1
USA 250/1
Tunisia 400/1
Ghana 500/1
Iran 750/1
Japan 750/1
Angola 1000/1
Saudi Arabia 1000/1
Togo 1500/1
Trinidad & Tobago 2000/1
Costa Rica 2500/1

Any country from the top-5 + Spain, IMO?

Amities / Whereas England only managed to look pretty dire in one half , France looked absolutely effing dreadful from begining to end. The worst French side i have EVER seen. How we managed to win all our 8 qualifying games is a enigma in itself . Only interesting episode was Zidanne berating Gallas and defence employing every swear word known . While Croatia looked handy against a Brazil side playing its usual formation of 10 strikers and a g/k. Ronaldo Arbuckle is past it and l trust he wil be given a course 0f laxatives and amphetamines by team Dr.....Czechs look tricky customers while Holland have a balanced cordnated side but like England droop in the heat and after an hour players are begging to be subbed i .Spain NEVER perform as a team and have never done well in World cup to my memory ...Germany are as inspiring as watching paint dry but as hosts will reach the finals against Brazil to whom they will lose . lts Brazil for me but without Fatty . @+ J

Lee, check this out - I think this is what you were after (it does calcs. for you, as well)...

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/e/predictor.html

Bosley, I can't defend Ecuador by stating players as they have no huge stars but Honestly watch them and see... And if you have a will hill account put a quid on them at 200-1, they are better than everyone thinks just wait.

Spain all the way for me along with argentina,and of course the czechs,all at good prices,did have milan baros & villa as top scorers,

Dont look good for milan doubt if he will play now.

BAROS!? He is an absolute joke. A big stupid donkey who can't score to save his life, he must be one of the most overrated players in the wolrd. Villa is good bet though as it seems Raul has been told he will not start.
I got a bet on Roon at 45 - 1 golden boot.

Heavy punt on more than 3 goals in the Germany-Poland match.
Two really dodgy defences.
Should be a safe bet !!!!

Ian

OUCH!!!!!

Baros Joke you having a laugh,he`s 1 of the best goal scorers at international level,proven quality

He made a mistake joining aston villa,,now they are a joke,,baros to a spanish club i hear 8 million plus if he has a handy WC,,other wise he could be heading down the toilet.

David villa to the might reds,,now that looks on the cards as well forsure.

Mighty England crush Paraguay
World Cup in the bag
by Janus Motsonius
The England football juggernaut thundered to a stunning victory on Saturday, in the process crushing a hapless Paraguay who could do nothing but stand and stare in wae and wonder at Sven's merciless sporting elite.

The 1-0 scoreline courtesy of a virtuoso sixth-minute header by Carlos Gamarra left few in any doubt of the World Cup's final outcome. "I'm going home now," admitted one shaken Brazil fan, his maracas hanging silently at his side. "I can't honestly see us finding a way through a team of such international class."

His sentiments were echoed by a visibly-shocked Argentinian. "Eriksson's plan was simply brilliant," he gasped. "Let the opposition score for you, then pull everyone back behind the half-way line for 80 minutes. Genius."

Football pundits were mostly united in similar praise for England's masterplan. "The way we totally dominated the match by knocking the ball around the midfield and then passing it back to the goalkeeper if things got a bit hairy was the best single team performance I've ever seen," one admitted.

Another, however, advised caution. "We need a back-up plan in the unlikely event that another team gets lucky. Obviously, there's no point taking the ball and attacking the opposition defence head-on: nobody ever scores by dribbling his way into the box and slamming the ball in the net. I'd suggest we rely entirely on David Beckham's ability to put the ball into the air where, in the confusion, someone's head might make advantageous contact. It's always worked in the past."

In Dortmund, meanwhile, plucky Sweden were celebrating a historic 0-0 draw against much-fancied Trinidad and Tobago. "It's brilliant, this is what footballing dreams are all about," said a tearful Freddie Ljungberg.

The Rockall Times

I do hope that Baros plays so he can show everyone what a donkey he is, villa won't move this year maybe next when he is worth twice as much after becoming golden boot. I feel sorry for you dazzlers, that is money well lost.

New to this thread took a gamble on T&T to stuff england my local highstreet bookie was offering 20.1 ,england win easy i say but if the lose quids in.

first teams to qualify so far.

I'm not keen on her bos , and which team is the one at the bottom.

HT 0/0

Come on t & t.

Not keen on her?.... T & T are pretty lucky that England are such an un inventive boring side without the Roon. MY THEORY - Stevie G Frankie and Becksi Central with Lennon and Ashley wing Backs, ferdi and terry center backs with roon and JC upfront. We would beat anyone.

Its in the bag for a big upset.

England are so full of themselves they talk a good game,

but play like a pub team..

carragher up front well potts i like your style

I see the pool reds come to englands rescue



again.

Ecuador 3 nil. Told you im not joking. They are going all the way.

Bloody hell! I thought T & T were going to do the business tonight, it's not over for them yet: I really want them to win the World Cup, ever since Wales did their usual I have rooted for T & T, Lawrence plays for my local team, hell, Lawrence IS my local team (Wrexham) so T & T just HAVE to win. Who's Rooney by the way?
kim

next team to qualify

england didn't win 6-0 so the papers are having a right good moan and groan. one day these idiots will wake up and realise that an organised team playing 11 men back behind the ball is extremely difficult to break down and requires patience more than skill. england showed patience and also an ability to change tactics and up the pace; something they have been accused of not being able to do in the past. i have to say that things are looking pretty good for england at the moment. it will be interesting to see how they perform when they play with the big boys.

Bosley, the papers would still have a go if England HAD won 6-0! Sven should stick that young lady just to the right (or left) behind the England goal.
kim

Hi all
two games in and two poor wins but wins they are. We may have qualified for the K/O stages but based the the last two performances for how long.
Im very pround of my country and long to see the team parade around london with the world cup hoisted above the double decker.
Will my dreams be shot down in flames or will we witness one of the best sporting moments in britsh history.

Probably unless the mighty Ecuador can stop us.

Don't know what you are all getting so worked up about.
When all is said and done the world cup is just a kind of second rate warm up act for the real show, which is Leeds Utd's charge on the Championship.

;-)
Alan

Good one Al, Ecuador really, well i suppose someones got to have faith. England done enough last night to ensure were in the main event. As for the lady above well Kims got the right idea!!

Easy win for argentina today,better be !!

6-0 to the Argies - breathtaking "pass & move" football - they will take some stopping. Let's beat Sweden next week so we can avoid them till the Final!!

Just seen the winners play and win 6/0,england got know hope,sad but true.

How did L.Messi play? I have him in my Sun Dream Team.

Came on as a sub and scored GD.

Holland playing pretty well, fortunately they are likely to meet Argentina if they win today, so one of two very good teams will be making an exit.

I think you will find that Holland and Argentina are in the same group, PTH! Providing they hold out against The Ivory Coast then they will both qualify to the next stage (they play each other in 4 days' time).

Quite correct, misheard the commentators, pity though.

Mexico for the treble tonight for me ,shame the ivory coast are gone all the same.

Mexico,good till they get near the goal .

next 2 teams to go through

Mmm, Sven should arrange for both those young ladies to be placed in the middle, behind Sweden's goalposts.
kim

Czech arent doing great.

Ghana's win is what makes the world cup exiting, if they carry on playing like that they have just as good a chance as anybody.

I thought the czechs would be one of the favorites to win, it just goes to show.
I think i'll put a small bet on an outsider this year.

I think i'll put a small bet on an outsider this year.

England perhaps ?

;o)

De Rossi - what a loon!! Clearly not blessed with too many grey cells.

Barclay go for Ecuador!! De rossi a bit wild i agree. hopefully the us can win now, easier to beat in latter stages than italy.

Oops and then Mastroni has a rush of blood to the head! 10 v 10 both sending offs totally correct. What next?

what a very strange and weird game that was!! all the red cards totally justified, de rossi should be sent home in disgrace. pirlo should be sent home for being shit and for playing an unbelieveable amount of hospital balls. the yanks should be sent home for not grasping fifa's latest directive that lunging tackles are a no-no. the linesmen should be sent home for not understanding that level is now ONSIDE. very disappointing performance from italy, we now need to beat the czechs to stay in the tournament and to avoid meeting brazil in the next round.

Bosley not looking good for you. However, for anyone who managed to get a bet on David Villa when I said then its a certain thing (Golden Boot).
Roon back on the mend and Stevie G on superb form, Its Englands year. First Rugby, then the ashes, probably not Wimbledon but definately the World Cup.

another one to qualify

Was it Torres who scored two last night?

I believe so, GD.

this game has got "draw" written all over it.

Well done bos ,keep them coming ,(the birds i mean) .

Gerraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddd

Larsooooooooooooooooooonn

Thank you Jinky Joe! ;-)

the swedes do love these, don't they !!! second time they've got through with one.

Only one England starting eleven for me now, if Owen is out for the tournament.
Robinson in goal, Beckham right back, Cole at left back, Terry and Ferdinand (if fit - Campbell if not) at centre backs. A midfield (left to right) of Cole, Gerrard, Lampard and Lennon. Rooney and Crouch up front.
Walcott ready to get involved when Rooney tires or Crouch looks to be not good enough.
With a question mark over Crouch, that team still looks good enough to go a long way. Pace on the right, trickery on the left, proven goalscorers in front and in midfield and an apparantly solid defence (though you wouldn't think it from last night).
Alan

Well gerrard must be thinking what a bunch of retards the defenders are,beckham out of his depth now a days,,lennon & theo,,give them a game sven.

Your winning but not playing well,could be a lot worse.

Come on argentina do me proud.

Portugal doing well also.

When do England play again ??

Rick...

sunday 5 pm

Thanks.

its 4pm actually, 5pm where i am!!

hewittalan6 - Beckham at right back????

R U COMPLETELY STUPID??

Don`t answer that, I know you are.

If I'm Stupid so is his club manager.
Thats where he plays for Madrid, and where he has played for England in the past, including the last 20 mins against paraguay (or was it T&T). You know. The bit where we started to look good as a team.
Are you completely certifiable?
Don't answer that. I already know you are.

BTW.
In answer to the question am I stupid. I am as barking as a tree full of monkeys, but even I wouldn't have taken Hargreaves in my squad.

alan, i don't know how you can be so scathing about hargreaves, i thought he had a storming game against sweden. there's a lot to be said for playing people in their best positions to get the best out of them. maybe sven has finally twigged that simple idea. i beckham will be happier when neville gets fit again and playing. the two combine well on the right flank. anyway, stop feckin' complaining ....at least you're through.

another qualifier.

your girl again , mr potts. another qualifier.

Think you need Kayak to settle the argument ;)

How about this one ,i don't know the team are they in ? ,i'm not really bothered.

This ones the one ,i think she plays for Nordic or somewhere.

great ball control ;)

Yes bos she seems to be able to play in any position ,i think she'd be good at mid right back left center wing.

That must have taken some passing (pun intended).

BTW Bos.
I don't have a mega downer on Hargreaves. I just don't think hes any good. I don't like the holding midfielder formation at the best of times but if we must play it why not take Ledley King?
I am sure Hargreaves is a very good player in German football, but he is out of his depth here. i would be so much happier seeing the 4-4-2 formation I posted last night.
Imagine facing a team on tha attack that had the 2 coles down the left, becks and Lennon down the right, Rooney and the jolly green giant through the middle and if you could cope with that lot, Gerard and Lampard walloping them from 30 yards just to keep the keepers fingers warm.
Terry could muscle around in the area for set pieces and Robinson could take the night off. That just leaves Ferdinand at the back doing camel impressions and wondering where he left that urine sample.
Result is 4 easy victories and a big party in Trafalgar square. Whats difficult about that?
Alan

hewittalan6
LIKE YOUR STYLE

As do I Hewitt even though you like SEO.
Becksi too old for running nowadays, not that he ever has been but he used to have youth, right back would suit him but will Sven ever do it? I say no. Re- Him playing right back for Madrid, its has been for a while cichino and slagado at right back not becks.
I think crouch taking long balls, knocking them down to stevie G and roon should create a few rooooonnneeeyyysss and gerrrraaarrrrdssss. But Theo is better than crouchie.
And for anyone who likes hargreaves and isnt English I beg you to ask the FA to consider if he could play for Germany INSTEAD OF US . Carrick is English and not to mention five times the player hargreaves will ever be.
To all his lovers Im afraid after Goran leaves the post he will not be seen wearing an England shirt in a While.

oh it gives me so much pleasure to put this up again. THROUGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

jimmy, i thought you said you didn't like football?? your pic shows that you are indeed a fan of the continental game of nice , tight ball control in and around the box ;) even better when you shoot :))

well, italy are through. not really much more that i can add to that. they played really well in the first game but then failed to get going in the next two matches. still, shouldn't complain really ... 7 points 6 goals for , 0 against ;)
for those complaining about hargreaves, be grateful. we've got totti !!! he's playing like a man possessed ............. by the spirit of a sunday league player!!! we prayed all match that he would be struck down, owen-like, and have to miss the rest of the tournament. what a piece of shit!!!! and don't get me started on the pony-tailed wondertit, camoranesi.......

superpippo !!!!!

he can't believe he scored .......... and neither can anyone else !!!!

next qualifier

LOL ,i am now bos ,especially if i could get tangled up with Nordic ,i'd definitely be taking a dive .

Braz showing a bit of quality.
Unlucky Bos, I feel for you. Totti is quite possibly the most overrated player in the world. And many may argue but I had a smirk when Owen went down, he was playing so poorly he deserved it. Lets just hope that hargreaves and Totti can do the same.

no arguement form me about totti, mr potts. bring on the aussies!!!

New nickname for hargreaves. Slinky spring. Useless and pointless but great fun to watch it falling down stairs.

Ooops

Top Italy teams charged in scandal Thursday June 22, 10:13 PM

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's football prosecutor on Thursday ordered four top teams, Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, to stand trial in a match-fixing scandal that could see them thrown out of Serie A if found guilty.

The Football Federation (FIGC) said its prosecutor, Stefano Palazzi, had charged a total of 30 "subjects" - the four clubs and 26 individuals -- for sporting fraud and violating fairness and probity, offences that can be punished by fines, bans and relegations. FIGC chose not to identify any of the individuals who will face a sports tribunal next week, but leaks to the press showed officials from all four clubs, top referees and the former head of FIGC itself would stand trial.

Juventus issued a statement saying Luciano Moggi -- the club's former general manager sometimes called "Lucky Luciano" who is at the centre of many of the allegations -- and former CEO Antonio Giraudo had been charged.

AC Milan said on its website that CEO Adriano Galliani -- who on Thursday resigned as head of Italy's soccer league -- had not violated the principle of fairness, an implicit acknowledgement that he had been charged.

ANSA news agency issued a list of all 26 of the individuals charged, including former FIGC president Franco Carraro, Lazio president Claudio Lotito, Fiorentina president Andrea Della Valle and his brother Diego, the Tod's luxury footwear brand tycoon who owns the club.

All involved have denied any wrongdoing in Italy's biggest sports scandal in a quarter of a century. The trial will be held in Rome's Olympic Stadium and broadcast by closed-circuit television to journalists from the world's media.

PLACE SECURED

The FIGC statement was issued after Italy secured a place in the second round of the World Cup by beating the Czech Republic 2-0 -- timed to avoid hitting morale in a game that could have seen the national side ousted from the tournament.

Fourteen players in Italy's squad play for the four teams that face trial, with eight of them, including captain Fabio Cannavaro and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, in Thursday's opening lineup.

Ironically the first player to comment on the news was Juventus midfielder and Czech playmaker Pavel Nedved.

"Whoever did wrong must pay and must go down to Serie B or even Serie C," Nedved said after his national side was bounced out of the World Cup after losing to Italy.

The scandal erupted last month when newspapers published intercepted telephone conversations between Juventus's Moggi and senior FIGC officials discussing refereeing appointments during the 2004/05 season.

MEDIA SPECULATION

Media have speculated that league champions Juve could be demoted to Serie C1 -- Italy's third division -- and be stripped of the Serie A titles they won in the last two seasons.

Milan also risk sanctions after phone taps showed one of its officials discussing referee appointments with FIGC staff.

The club's owner, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said he was sure Milan would not be penalised "because the accusations are based on phrases that might be said in any conversation".

In an affair that bridges sport, politics and finance, FIGC was asked not to release the news during market hours to prevent disorderly trading in Juventus and Lazio.

Since the scandal broke in early May, Juventus shares have lost half their value.

Juve shares closed up 5.9 percent on the day at 1.329 euros while Lazio shares, which only price once a day, added 4.32 percent to 29 cents, according to data on the Bourse website.

Any club or individual who is convicted can ask for an appeals trial which FIGC has promised will end by July 27, in time for FIGC to tell UEFA which teams will compete in next season's Champions League and UEFA Cup competitions.

When you think about it, the England team must be being run by a loony left council, hell bent on "embracing diversity".
The team manager and coach are Swedes. An injury to a Welshman has forced the Swedes to consider playing a Canadian from Germany, much to the amusement of ITV's chief analyst, a Croatian called Adrian.
Meanwhile, the Welshman coming off after a minute led to an apparant half gorilla missing link creature by the name of Rooney being partnered by a Pole.
At the back we are playing a camel with a drugs problem.
Amazing that we got this far.
;-)
Alan

- - - - - WORLD CUP PROBLEM PAGE - - - - -

Dear Deirdre,

A young German lady who I am keen to impress has invited me to accompany her to watch Germany vs Sweden on the big screen on Saturday. Being a true Brit, stranded in World Cup Land for the foreseeable future, should I

a.) excuse myself by pleading a prior commitment?

b.) go, and support Germany for the sake of making a good impression with said young lady, whilst inwardly unable to live with my treachery?

c.) go, and support Sweden on the basis that 1) I'm a tourist in this country and therefore not obliged to support the home team and 2.) somebody has to, in the hope that the young lady might find this very foreign and sophisticated and endearing?

d.) turn up draped in the St. George flag and fuelled with copious quantities of John Smith's, boo any goals regardless of whom they benefit, cheer all fouls and sendings-off and take whatever comes to me by way of physical violence (FYI the young lady is about to complete a doctorate in medicine and would therefore be excellently placed to take care of any resultant injuries)?

Other suggestions welcome.

Yours in the spirit of promoting international relations,
Soul Traders.

Go dressed as a Swiss (you know, lederhosen, chocolate, cuckoo clock etc.) and tell her you are trying to preserve your neutrality.

alan, i wish you hadn't put chocolat and lederhosen in the same sentence ........



best get the plasters ready ......

soul traders, to put it bluntly, a knock is a knock. do whatever you need to do :))

chocolat, with all this going on in the background it does make the italian team's performances more impressive. the pressure they must have been under in yesterday's game would have been incredible. it was probably a relief for them to get out on the pitch and play football. forza azzurri !!!!

Er.......wheres the clock and the knife with the special attatchment for extracting the kernel of truth from a philosophical debate??
Can't really be Swiss.

next two qualifiers

ha

LOL - Great advice, "Deirdre"; thanks to all contributors!

Tonights next 2 qualifiers.................



Thats right, isn't it Jimmy??

Looks like Owens little brother has stepped up as the new forward!!

Oh Kylie , its enough to make the city rumble !!

last two

knockout stages begin today. i just hope we don't start getting cagey games. it's understandable if teams do play cagey but it's been such a fantastic, open tournament up to now it would be a shame if it didn't continue to excite.

ooops!!! forgot about these two.

first teams to qualify for the quarters.

well nothing cagey so far. two absolutely cracking games, especially the argentina v mexico match. what a superb, highly entertaining game of football. what a goal by maxi rodriguez !!!!

Couldnt agree more bos excellent game got a bit of a sore arse watching all this footy though I never watch it normally more of a snooker and boxing man myself.

Argentina were made to look ordinary by Mexico who just didn't have the finishing touches, but if they meet Germany or Brazil they will have to step up a gear,
especially now Ronaldo has woken up from his sedentary mode.

oh dear!! i thought that was england's worst performance of the tournament!! they're very fortunate it was against piss poor opposition. big plus point was rooney getting through the game and getting stronger but there's now a bit of a question mark over robinson who doesn't look confidant. england need a big improvement if they are going to get past either holland or portugal.

Although they didn't set the world on fire Bos, I actually thought that was a better performance than the Group matches. England are not playing well, but they are doing just enough. Quite a few passes that would have been defence splitting, suffered from a marginal lack of accuracy, that on another day would have resulted in a much more comfortable scoreline. Robinson is a concern, he seems to be having a confidence crisis at the worst possible time. Rooney looked much better and I will be surprsied if he doesn't score in the next match. Personally, when Becks was sick I would have taken him off straight away. Although he had a better game, he will be significantly more dehydrated now and will take longer to recover. Seems Sven just won't take him off, even when the obvious is staring him in the face. However, England are gonna thump someone soon, they have too many class players not to click sooner or later. I would be quite happy for them to limp through the next two matches and then win the final in style. I can dream.

pth

I refer the right honourable gentlemen to the team I posted some days ago.
I think the performance was only just enough, and almost any other team in the last 16 would have whipped our arses.
4-5-1 is just too easy to defend against for world class opposition, and Rooneys great strength is not his ability to hold and wait.
In truth, world class striker that he is, Rooney would play better in that formation as the man running on rather than the lone striker!!
Joe Cole was a little disappointing, as he was over cocky given the way the team was playing, but I thought Lennon showed his class again for the few minutes he was on. Carrick had a good game and even Hargreaves was a little better, though I thought he was a bit ordinary and gave up possession too easily on a couple of occassions.
Lampard seems short on confidence and Terry had a nightmare by his own high standards.
It doesn't look very good for the next round, but please Sven, play the 4-4-2 that we always look comfortable with. The players will play with more confidence and we will look a threat going forward. The 3 teams we are likely to face from here on in are not going to be cowed by a 5 man midfield, and are certainly not vunerable to a counter attack.

I fell a sleep six times I'm going of this footy stuff.

alan, i don't think the system was to blame. if individual players don't perform then it doesn't really matter what the system is. england performed poorly and should be grateful it was against ecuador. if england play like that against portugal ..........then again , do the portugese have any players left after that shambolic refereeing tonight!!! glad to see the back of the dutch, another very much over-rated team although i feel for marco van basten. now, he was a great player!!

portugal through but handicapped by a shit ref!!

Undoubtadly England have on paper a midfield among the best in the competition but you dont win world cups without a pair of mustard hot strikers/goal poachers/predators in the class of a Linakar of the 80s, or a Shearer of the 90s, or as now Michael Owen who defences were so weary about they man or double man marked them thus allowing the midfield to play deeper into the opponents half . Now OWEN is out of the tournament and Rooney who looks as if he has been on the "Gascoigne diet " since his injury is not match fit . .Even Beckham looks jaded .What threat do an England side who cant play 90 minutes in the heat pose to even the like of a very aggresive physical yet both deft and fast flowing Portugal side. ? . Where are the goals coming from . Even @ club level Rooney plays slightly off the main strikers not unlike Scholes..............Naah England will have had it relitively easy thus far. and l am shocked at their lack of depth with pure out and out goal machines - pure strikers ..Fuc**d it up there Sven . @+ J ..,,,,

Amities mes potes / Obviously since i earn my monies here i felit only right to support England after France which is much against my inclination .Believe me . .But France look totally effing clueless. Very little team spirit and a battle of egos .As strong as England look on paper France look weak and totally out of their depth . France need a manager like Van Basten who left out most of Hollands usual "names " like Klivert and Davids and Sedorf all who were way past thier sell by date .As are most the French side playing on reputations rather than performance . Only with Henry, who entertains,and dazzles, the Gunners week in and week out, and with Vierra , Zidanne and Co playing @ 101% can i see France progressing beyond the next round . ..but there again....You juste never know. Thats the beauty of it all . You juste never know . A little bit of weaving magical play by Zidanne ......et qui sait ....Amusez-vous bien -b/amicalment @+ J

France havent got a chance, they are a bunch of old historical superstars and thierry never seems to have his va va voom for fance.
Wayne Rooney is quite possibly the best player in the world around stevie G and Dinio so how can you say that we have no goalscorers? Rooney and Gerrard score plenty not to mention the additions provided by JC/JT and Becksi. With A Lennon starting we could beat nay team in the world. Oh, and send LAMPARD home sven, he is a disgrace and so is that fat tw*t in goal.

G.D.Mr rooney looks like he`s a bit fat to me having seen the pictures of him in the papers.

Agree about tubby robinson but he has lost a bit of weight,fat frank could do with a bowl of cabbage soup,i bet he could run then.

Aussies to win today

You heard it here first.

Italy were sooooooooooo lucky there! Really bad luck on the Aussies. Nice to see Italy in the quarters though.

Azzuri attacker definitely left his trailing foot there deliberately, IMHO. Pity as I would've fancied the super-fit Ozzies to give it a right go against 10-men in extra-time. It would've been very interesting to the neutral observer but now we will never know!

Looking more and more like: Argentina beating Italy in the semis to face the winners of Brazil and England in the Final.....

So, Argentina v Brazil for final then?!!

piss off!!!! if you deliberately stop an opponent advancing in the penalty area it's a penalty !!! neill lay down across grosso's path. it was a penalty. end of !! italy were shite though, but the aussies were just a little bit more shite. lucky to get through , but, through we are. totti showing a bit more movement and invention and that he has big bollocks. should be a better display from him , (and italy) in the next game. our strikers do need to start putting the chances away, they cannot keep on squandering golden opportunities like the ones they had in the first half.

ah well. once again , it gives me great pleasure to show this again :)))))

get in you beauty !!!!!

England vs Argentina Final.

what about the handball at the other end Bos?

Lei un poco italiano bellezza Bosley, appena come pena obiettivo!

Oh the pitfalls of literal translation. Anyone for a hovercraft?

fundie, what handball? ;) anyway , happy to be meeting the ukraine .

kim, not quite sure what you are trying to say ..........no offence , like, but i should tell you i'm straight !!

What a load of shite that was , they should all have been given a red card , it was a bit like the Audley Harrison of football , we dont want to play (he doesn't want to fight ) ,pathetic.

it wasn't pretty , jimmy, but i was happy to see it go into extra time. the game was played at quite a pace and both teams will be knackered after 120 minutes of that.

:o) Bosley, I was referring to the picture and what I was trying to say was "She is a little Italian beauty, just like the penalty goal". Sadly my Italian is somewhat shaky these days so perhaps I should stick to Welsh, there again, maybe not, my Welsh is even shakier!!
kim

just been reflecting on last night's games while having my morning constitutional. switzerland deservedly out for me. 3 spot kicks, 3 misses/saves. very poor. ukraine looked quite solid defensively and could pose italy a problem on the break. the italians don't need telling just how effective shevcenko can be.
also, this quote from guus hiddink made me piss, "luca neill is very low. you feel bad enough if you're responsible for a penalty, but when you know you haven't committed a foul it's doubly hard to take." lucas neill was indeed very low. infact he was sliding-along-the-ground low as grosso ran into the area. it was a penalty. stop moaning. the ref was a poor one. he sent off matterazzi for the same offence of sliding in infront of someone running with the ball.
there certainly does need to be a huge improvement from the officials as they seem determined to spoil a fantastic tournament. the referee of the swiss/ukraine game was as poor as the russian ref in the portugal/holland game. portugal are without key players and have many players on yellow cards for the quarter-final game against england. this will affect the way they play. many fouls were committed in the swiss/ukraine game that deserved yellows, but the ref chose to keep his cards in his pocket. absolutely no consistency from the officials.

Graham Poll was consistent. 3 yellow cards to the same player in the same game. How much consistency do you want?
It's not really the refs faults (sounds of boos and hisses from the audience). It's FIFA. If they really want a non contact sport, let them preside over basketball. They are hell bent on trying to be consistent at the expense of consistency. A tackle from behind will be a yellow. No room for the ref to use common sense. I understand their motives but surely they would be better served allowing the ref to judge whether a foul was dangerous / deliberate / with malice.
Stop protecting goalkeepers and prima donnas, come down hard on gamesmanship and tearing the shirt off peoples backs at corners and let the ref decide what is bookable and what isn't.
The gamesmanship that has crept into the game is the real culprit. It has forced FIFA into draconian actions, but I believe the extreme regimentation of the laws and referees can be relaxed if gamesmanship can be removed. if it continues, then refs stop being judges and start being wardens, simply applying the rules blindly.
Rant over. Just hang Sepp Blatter.
Alan

i agree with your point , alan. players do make life difficult for the ref. they claim for everything, go down at the slightlest of touches, the whole idea being to put pressure on the referee to make the wrong decision. so really, managers and players shouldn't complain when the ref does get it wrong. it's all technical cheating. players kick a ball out and claim the throw. the dutch players in the portugal game didn't respond the way they should have to the russian ref's early yellow cards. the ref wanted to impose his authority and clamp down on foul play. the dutch players responded by trying to get as many portugese players booked as possible. the portugese players responded by playing the same way as the dutch and the game slowly descended in farce. hopefully , this game will serve as a deterrent, that players will look at deco, knowing he misses the quarter-final and realise that this could happen to them.

btw, graham poll gave a very good interview the day before his "consistent" performance. in it he said he fancied his chances of reffing the final and he thought people should look at him as the new "collina" !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Salmonella, anyone?

I suggest anyone who wants to bet on the world cup reads this book.
A stunning insite into how FIFA worked back then and of course now.

Blatter and mates own shares in media companies.
The world cup is massive advertising billboard the bigger the name stars they get to play the bigger the audiences. The more controvosy they create the bigger the audiences. The bigger the audiences the bigger the advertising revenue etc etc...

http://www.yallop.co.uk/read_more.htm

PROLOGUE.

During the first week of December 1997 the court of the Sun King came to Marseilles.

The court acolytes, the secretaries, assistants, press attach, security officers, scurried everywhere. There was always among members of the court an underlying anxiety when "Le Grand Monarque" was near, particularly when he was giving a public audience. On this occasion the worlds Press media who had gathered were even more deferential than usual. None of them wanted to risk being denied access to the tournament the Sun King had planned for the following summer.

He saw himself as the most powerful man in the world. He was in charge of the worlds greatest religion and the coming summers ceremonies would be watched on television by a cumulative audience of forty billion people. More than six times the population of the world.

An aide hurried forward and muttered in the ear of His Majesty. The aide had to reach on tiptoe to reach the royal ear. In his eighty-second year, the Sun King still stood six feet tall. The athletic muscle tone of his youth had softened slightly but though his weight was now some ten kilos more than in his prime, he remained an imposing figure. His face, which usually resembled a well-kept grave, hovered on a smile, then reverted to a baleful stare, but it was still obvious that he was savouring the moment.

"Do excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. I have to take a phone call from President Chirac."

Presidents. Kings and Queens. Heads of State. Prime Ministers. He has met every world leader. His Holiness the Pope has been granted a number of audiences. The Sun King has a very clear view of his place in the world order.

"Do you consider yourself the most powerful man in the world?"

Most men asked such a question would demur. Would dismiss it with a laugh. Dr Jo Havelange, President of Fation Internationale de Football Association FIFA did not demur and he certainly did not laugh.

"Ive been to Russia twice, invited by President Yeltsin. Ive been to Poland with their President. In the 1990 World Cup in Italy I saw Pope John Paul II three times. When I go to Saudi Arabia, King Fahd welcomes me in splendid fashion. In Belgium I had a one and a half hour meeting with King Albert. Do you think a Head of State will spare that much time to just anyone? Thats respect. Thats the strength of FIFA. I can talk to any President, but theyll be talking to a President too on an equal basis. Theyve got their power, and Ive got mine: the power of football, which is the greatest power there is."

Thats the Havelange version of "yes".

On face value it is an outrageous claim, but the latter day Sun King offers an array of facts and figures to justify his opinion of himself. The Pope may well preside over one of the worlds major faiths, but Havelange rules over a religion that is devoutly followed by more than one fifth of the planet.

"The World Cup 94 in the United States was watched by a cumulative audience of thirty-one billion people. More than five times the population of Earth. The annual turnover of football is $255 billion. It offers direct and indirect employment to more than four hundred and fifty million people. There are national associations affiliated to FIFA in one hundred and ninety-eight countries. More countries are affiliated to my organisation than are members of the United Nations."

Not so much a case of "I am the State" as "I am the world". Jo Havelange, like many a ruler throughout history, has strengthened his grasp on his throne by relentlessly increasingly his empire. On July 11th, 1974 when he came to power after plotting and conspiring over the previous three years, the number of affiliates was one hundred and thirty-eight. That same year in Germany only sixteen countries contested the final stages of the World Cup. This year in France there were thirty-two countries. This may or may not be for the "good of the game". It most certainly was for the good of Dr Havelange, ensuring as it had six continuous terms of office. The increase in the number of international competitions from two to eight has also been a vote winner among the delegates. The FIFA Coca-Cola Cup. The FIFA Futsal World Championship. The FIFA World Championship for women. The Under-17 World Championship for the FIFA/JVC Cup. As British sports writer Brian Glanville remarked to me:

"Havelange has only two ambitions left to fulfil. The first is to become the first posthumous President of FIFA. The second to organise a World Cup tournament for embryos."

In less than three minutes, hardly time to boil an egg, the Sun King had returned from his conversation with the President of France. Cordial regrets from Chirac that he would not be able to attend the junketing in Marseilles. The relationship had not always been so cordial.

In 1985 during an International Olympic Committee meeting in Berlin Chirac, who was then leading the bid from Paris, became enraged as he watched Havelange wheeling and dealing to ensure that the Olympic Games for 1992 went to Barcelona.

The French team had gone to Berlin prepared to rest their case on the merits and virtues of Paris. Havelange, wearing his Olympic Committee member hat, was busily organising the Spanish-speaking members of the Committee behind the Barcelona campaign. The Havelange style of organising such an exercise involves lavish receptions, all expenses paid trips for committee members, gifts that began with Rolexes and ended with whatever value the committee member puts on his or her vote. Just to make sure the vote stayed committed to Barcelonas cause, members were wined and dined by Prime Minister Gonzalez and key members of his Cabinet and then entertained by the King and Queen of Spain. Chirac exploded.

"If you dont stop this bribery Dr Havelange, Ill start using my influence in Africa. Not to get the Olympic Games but to stop you getting re-elected as President of FIFA."

It made no difference. Barcelona got the Games and Havelange has continued unopposed, presiding over the worlds most popular religion.

During his brief absence from the Press Conference, Sepp Blatter, the General Secretary of FIFA, had unwisely allowed questions from the Press. The Sun King does not like the Press, even less does he like questions from reporters. He turned a basilisk glance in the direction of one questioner.

"Why hasnt Pelbeen invited to take part in the draw?"

Mute messages passed between the two men. Blatter, small, rotund, one half of a very curious double act. Havelange, tall and even now in his eighties, still exhibiting the physique of an Olympic swimmer. Blatter responded.

"We do not have a problem with Mr Pel"

There was muffled laughter. Everyone in the room knew that they did indeed have a problem with Pel

"So why has he not been invited to take part in the draw along with the other great footballers?"

"We have no problem with Mr Pel" Blatter responded.

"But"

"We have no problem with Mr Pel" Blatter said yet again but this time with a note of finality. The General Secretary had been very well trained over the years by the latter day Sun King and the modern Cardinal Richelieu Horst Dassler of adidas. The ladies and gentlemen of the Press came a great deal cheaper than an Olympic Committee member. If their potential accreditation to World Cup 98 did not fully concentrate their collective minds, there were always the freebies. The one thousand one hundred and eight-one journalists milled around for their handouts. Chocolate bars from Snickers, razors from Gillette, filofaxes from Canon. They collected their caps, badges and watches. They slipped on a jacket, put a free football in a bag, took handfuls of stickers, key rings and pens and notebooks, put out their hands for free calculators that obligingly converted a range of foreign currencies automatically.

Small wonder that the tickets to attend this affair were every bit as hot as the tickets for the actual football matches. The scene for the main festivities was the massively and expensively refurbished Stade Velodrome. It was quite a party.

There were the thirty-eight thousand ordinary guests. There were the one thousand five hundred special guests. If the former contained many children and teenagers, the latter represented the really major players of the game. Not the football stars, though they too were in attendance, but the power brokers, the wheelers and dealers, FIFA delegates who might carry many a vote in their back pockets. Sponsors whose millions paid for much more than the five days of junketing at Marseilles. At a cost of five millions that represented just a little petty cash. The financial commitment of the sponsors since the mid-1970s had dramatically contributed to the financial feeding frenzy that football has become.

The location might be Marseilles, but a stranger would have been excused for thinking that they had wandered into a rehearsal for a modern dress play about Louis the Fourteenth. The subjects being discussed by small groups huddling conspiratorially had such timeless themes. Money, power, possessions.

One group was preoccupied with the coming struggle for the throne. Would Blatter announce that he was going to run? Would Beckenbauer make a late challenge? What of Platini? Or Grondona or?

Another group was deep in discussion on marketing and television rights for 2002 and 2006. Talking telephone numbers had been updated. These people talked "one point four" or "two point six". Billions, of course.

In one corner Graham Kelly and Sir Bert Millichip were arguing the merits of pay-TV. "Just move all the games to Saturday night or Sunday. Revenues in the first year? Oh, on top of the one hundred and sixty million already being paid by Sky, got to be an additional forty million. Growth potential is Sky High!" They exploded into laughter.

Moving like patrolling barracudas through the room are the players agents. Not many have managed to get in, just a favoured few with good connections in Zurich. They want a piece of the action. They lust after a share of the wealth that is washing through the game in the last years of the century. Eighteen-year-old Michael Owen on ten thousand a week currently sets the bench mark for teenage footballers. Half a million pounds a year. Some of the lads in their twenties and thirties are pulling in a bit more. David Beckham on 8.1 million this year just edges out Alan Shearer, but is still a long way below the top earner, Luiz Nazario de Lima of Brazil, better known as Ronaldo. He has a contract with Internazionale of Milan that brings in 100,000 per week, then there is his share of the two hundred million dollar sponsor deal with Nike that is paid to the Brazilian national squad for World Cup endorsements. Ronaldos earnings this year will be 20.5 million. Just under four hundred thousand pounds per week. Ronaldo is twenty-one years of age.

Looking after the needs of the guests were one thousand staff, a further five hundred security officers and two squadrons of gendarmes. Ensuring that the festivities ran smoothly were a further one thousand four hundred and fifty stage and television technicians. Fourteen articulated lorries had brought in various items of equipment.

But above all there were the sponsors. World Cup 98 is not primarily about football. It is first and foremost about product. The product varies depending who is making the pitch.

At Marseilles in early December 1997 there was so much to do. Always assuming you had the right accreditation, the right labels, the proper badges and four different kinds of ID.

One could breakfast with McDonalds and chat to Ronaldo or Beckenbauer or Carlos Alberto Parreira. Lunch with the incomparable Pel courtesy of MasterCard, take afternoon tea with foreign ambassadors who were being paid to be pleasant by adidas; have a glass of champagne with Newcastles Alan Shearer thanks to Umbro who produced the England captain as if he were an extremely large rabbit and had him sign a fifteen-year deal worth depending on his performance on the pitch rather than the cocktail bar between ten and twenty million pounds. Shearers health is market-sensitive. Five months before the gathering in Marseilles Shearer had sustained a serious injury to ankle ligaments. Overnight 11 million was knocked off Newcastles shares. If the Umbro campaign had given the guest the taste for more, one could move on to canap and more champagne, this time from Hewlett Packard. Finally, courtesy of FIFA there was a nine-course dinner with the Mayors of the ten cities where the various football matches would be played and of course yet more champagne, while five thousand children marched past the window of the restaurant in torch-light procession. All this and not one football kicked in earnest during the entire five days, the match between a Europe team versus the Rest of the World providing a perfect example of the great difficulty that trained athletes experience when attempting to run on a full wallet.

All of this to celebrate the draw for the first round of the World Cup 98. Picking thirty-two slips of paper from a glass bowl. God only knows what the Sun King had up his sleeve for when the going got serious and we actually had the matches in June. Resplendent throughout the entire proceedings was Dr Jo Havelange. Never less than immaculately attired. Heaven help any FIFA official who ever comes within his area of vision with a top shirt button undone or a tie loosened. An enduring image of the opening ceremony for the World Cup Finals in the United States in 1994 was the Sun King. On an afternoon in Chicago when the temperature was in the high eighties, with President Clinton perspiring freely, Havelange sat wearing his dark double-breasted suit buttoned up throughout the game. He never betrayed a moments distress, but then he never betrayed any other emotion either. Marseilles was the same. By comparison with the Sun King the Sphinx suffers from chronic hyperactivity.

There were moments, however, that gave possible indications that FIFAs President was perhaps reflecting on things past, on times remembered. A glance into middle distance, a failure to respond to a companions conversation, an aide telling him where to stand, moments where it seemed that perhaps for the first time he was accepting that his long reign was indeed drawing to a close. On June 8th 1998 in Paris the twenty-four-year reign of President Havelange would come to an end and the crown would pass to one of the pretenders for the throne.

If Havelange was indeed indulging in some nostalgic reflections during the events in Marseilles, there was much for him to meditate upon.

Dr Jo Havelange has swum a very long way since competing in the Olympic Pool in Berlin in 1936 and the water has not always been clean. This man who is very much the master of all he surveys within the world of football has had honours showered upon him.

Those honours include the Cavalier of the Legion dHonneur (France), the Order of Special Merit in Sports (Brazil), the Commander of the Orden Infante Dome Henrique (Portugal), the Cavalier of Vasa Orden (Sweden) and the Grand Cross of Elizabeth the Catholic (Spain). The full list of the honours awarded to the man totals over three hundred. In 1989 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

All of this and a great deal more besides reflects a man who should be held in the very highest esteem in any country where football is played. He told me that when he took over the FIFA presidency in 1974 the coffers were empty. Officials were at that time forced to live a hand-to-mouth existence, this at least is the view of Havelange. He bowed out in the summer of 1998 leaving FIFA with property assets worth in excess of one hundred million dollars and a guaranteed income over the next ten years of more than four billion dollars.

During his twenty-four-year reign football has been transformed. Spectators now sit in all-seater modern stadiums and in many countries have the opportunity to applaud twenty-two multimillionaires onto the pitch. Many leading clubs now have fewer paying spectators than investing shareholders. Performance on the pitch now matched by movement on the Stock Exchange. Promotion to the Premier from the First Division in England is worth a minimum of an extra five million pounds revenue to a club. The price of relegation? Financial oblivion. During those twenty-four years, despite the excess of commercialism that engulfs football, the game has strengthened its grip on mans imagination. A recent survey established that in Britain ninety-five per cent of men aged between twenty and thirty-four years of age would rather watch World Cup soccer than make love to the woman of their dreams. Michelle Pfeiffer, Claudia Schiffer and the others relegated to a waiting room until after the penalty shoot-out.

So go out and get your twelve-pack, a crate of Cloudy Bay and your World Cup baseball cap, your World Cup key ring and notepad plus your World Cup sunglasses, your World Cup adidas clothes and footwear, your World Cup 98 Coca-Cola, your World Cup Canon fax machine, pay for it all with your World Cup 98 MasterCard and settle down in front of your television set. Dont try to get a ticket for any of the matches, with a twenty per cent allocation to sponsors and corporate guests in contrast to eight per cent per team for their fans you will be unlucky, unless of course you happen to know one of the FIFA executives who are peddling them on the black market. Settle down and raise a can or a glass to the Sun King. More than any other person he is the one individual responsible for the happy state of affairs described above. Even more, he has promised each of the nearly two hundred federations a million dollar gift per year for the next four years. To each of the six International Confederations he has promised a massive annual gift of ten million dollars for the same period. All of this to "improve the sport in their regions."

According to the man himself, the world of football owes Havelange much. Why then is he so despised and reviled by so many people, both in and out of the game? Is there any truth in the allegations of corruption? Of illicit arms dealing? Of bribes given and received? Any validity in the allegations that among his friends are numbered some of the worst dregs of society, certainly people that no self-respecting Cavalier of the Legion dHonneur should be consorting with?

FIFA has as its motto the slogan "For the Good of the Game". What follows is an attempt to establish exactly how good for the game has been the life and times of Jo Havelange.

Football is not on its own. Rules for the sake of rules have permeated every sport. Soccer may lead the way with stupid directives, like the one about ball boys not able to enter the pitch. How many times have we seen a game held up by a player running 50 yards to kick a ball off the pitch when there is a ball boy 5 feet away?
Even my beloved cricket is not immune, though it is more steadfast in its tradition.
A few years ago a rule was introduced that any player under 19 batting, or within 15 yards of the batsman while fielding has to wear a helmet.
Result? You now see 18 year olds in village second teams batting against a 60 year old spinner and having to wear a helmet, with a kid behind the stumps in one too!!! Ridiculous. The bowler would have a coronary if he tried to get that much bounce froma local village green!!
The long term result is even more worrying. We are developing a generation of batsmen who are less mobile than ever before, because they have no need to learn the concentration and speed required to get out of the way of a 90mph ball aimed squarely at your head. Concentration and speed of movement are everything when batting.
It is about time the busy bodies, do-gooders and businessmen left sport well alone and allowed those who know it, love it and play it to rule it with sense and sportsmanship.
Nuff said.
Alan

To my mind, the worst rule ever invented in any sport was the offside rule in football. Oh, and being penalised for a foul!!
kim

they arn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but fifa do deserve a lot of credit for many of the rule changes that have made the game better. for instance, the backpass rule, the tackle from behind, and now the two-footed lunge. these rule changes have helped speed up the game and have allowed the more skillful players to play. all anyone need do is think back to pre 1990. how many games died a death because winning teams played 20 minutes of keeper to right back , then back to keeper then keeper to left back then back to keeper, and so on and so on. think back to the plethora of truly dull games world cups used to produce. think back to the treatment of truly great players like maradonna and baggio, how many times they got tackled two footed from behind before the refs gave the opponent a yellow. these rule changes allow players like rooney to shine and show their skill.

I would have done that but for 10mil a year less!!

Are you happy to know that someone already knows the result of World Cup games beforre you start watching them?

Im not, they are so currupt its not funny. Tickets should be a tenner and available to football fans not 100 euros and impossible to get!

kim, might i advise to go and watch bastetball!

mindless excitement non stop, but why do they bother to play for more than 3 mins, its only the last 3 mons thats exciting!!

Pommy, I'm inclined to write something contrary about conspiracy theories, but am not going to because the aliens who abducted me and implanted a camera behind my eyeball in order to observe our species more closely would be able to read it.

On the other hand, your longer post, almost made a good point about sport achieving more for world peace than politics, so I'll give you five out of ten.

PS if "someone already knows the result of World Cup games beforre (sic) you start watching them", would they be kind enough to post the scorres :o) on a thread on MoneyAM (EPIC: FIX) so we can avoid the tedium of watching ghastly matches like Argentina vs The Netherlands last week.

Could well be the best days football today,all 4 teams like to attack

Goal feast for sure.

big bad al, you know what's going to happen now you've said that!!!
pommy, i wont argue with you about the way fifa run the financial side of the game. it certainly does leave a sour tatste in the mouth, but footbal endures and survives the surrounding bullshit because , when all is said and done, it is still about what happens on the pitch that matters most. that is why we still watch and love the game. the rest of it could disappear tomorrow for all i care. the game would still go on.

brazil through . scoreline says 3-0 but i didn't think they were that convincing.

France through

come on , jimmy, do it properly, lad !!

as much as it pains me to say it, i have to say that france were fantastic tonight against a very good spannish side, probably the best spannish team since usa '94. these old guys just don't know when to quit!!!! having seen how many chances the ghanaians created this afternoon against the "mighty" brasil france definately have a good chance to make the semis.
superb line-up for the quarter finals. pretty much all the big boys are there,5 europeans. 2 south american and 1 eastern bloc. as fun as it was four years ago when teams like turkey , south korea and senegal did very well, this is a far more exciting line-up. what a cracking tournament !!!

Zz on top form,but why did spain take off there top scorer,,,,,again !!

feels like something is missing ..........

There's always Wimbledoom Bosley!
kim

Stupid Espana! That racist Aragones plays such poor tactics, how can you consider playing Raul!
Have you ever been so bored during the Swiss Ukraine game?

arrrrggggghhhhhhhhh this is hurting!!!! don't like cold turkey !!!

??????????????? i don't get it bos .

jimmy, i'm just saying that it's shit not having any matches on tv. it feels like someone has taken me toys away :( the big boys start playing each other tomorrow. now it gets serious!!!



gladiators, we salute you !!

Relax bos you'v got England on Saturday , watch Wimbledon it's getting good now ,if you don't like tennis ,there's always the girls grunting and screaming in short skirts ,what more do you want.

Come on the argies

Bosley is there any sort of definition for , in Italian definately not spelled correctly, Ma fung go? or thats how it sounds.

anyone think we can beat the argy bargies or the krauts?

Who's winning

Stupid italia. zambrotta , toni and some other , 3 nil up.

Thinking now I would have preffered argentina, podolski ballack are both incredible players and Klose is also very good. Add in the fact that they are the home nation then it will be a tough final.

mr potts, va fangulo. means f*ck off, (or , go f*ck yerself).

very comfortable game for italy, even better knowing the germans had 120 minutes and penalties to go through. fantasic performances from gattuso, cannavaro and zambrotta. very , very happy to see luca toni get off the mark. we just need pirlo and totti to get their feckin' acts together that'll be the end of the germans!!!

first semi-final of 2006 is

the germans



versus the azzurri

happy to be meeting the germans and not argentina. the germans look very beatable to me. it'll be the biggest test of the tournament for cannavaro and buffon keeping klose and podolski out but the italian goal looks pretty impenetrable at the moment. gattuso wil shackle ballack. you never know, totti and pirlo might actually play well for a change ........

It's looking more and more like an Anglo-Deutchland Final now. I've had this feeling, all along.......

dont worry , markus, that feeling will be gone tomorrow ;) good luck.

the germans arent beatable unless you really kill em 3-0 or 4-0.

It fixed, the ref was such a 2nd half homer. I know he cant really change the result, but he can do his best to influence it and today he did.
The Argies had a clearcut pen.

Mind you gve the way they were after, espceically that Manshite Heinze im glad they lost.

Maybe a greater medal awaits Lehman!!!!

Agree for once Pommy ... there was one instance where Argies should have had pen at a a corner , ref had a long look but but thought sod it.

Glad Gerries won , wanna see a repeat of 66 .... without the blind Russian linesman :-)

pommy, dil, in every tournament i have ever seen the host nation gets a few dodgy decisions. the germans have now had theirs. fifa are happy that the hosts are in the semis, it keeps interest alive, but we will beat them.

Come on England !!!

Have i got the right picture ,the trainers tracksuites look a bit dated.

Call those suites?
They look more like numb bum thingies to me.

Gordon Bennett! Still nil points :S

Well, if England survive the penalty shootout, the good news is that they will be without Looney in the Semis, what a wan***r!

So................is Andy Murray going to win Wimbledon?

Andy Murray was fantastic Kim ,he seemed a different player from the last match ,i didn't think he could beat Roddick but he out played him in every department ,if he plays like that he can go a lot further ,however Federer will be too good ,hope i'm wrong but i don't think so.
As for England my opinion is fairly worthless (i don't know enough about football) ,but Rooney was a plonker he stamped on the guy in front of the ref ,what did he expect??. It has looked to me though that they had one problem after another ,Owen gone ,Beckham off in this game and Rooney red carded ,you can't win like that.
This should now be the Wimbledon thread .

Understand Ronaldo is trying to sign for Barca, according to last week's papers. Following today's game, I think it might be a good idea, cos the first thing Rooney will do if Ronaldo goes back to Old Trafford is deck him.

Haven't seen the replays yet, but I was baffled to see Rooney get sent off, from my viewpoint he didn't appear to stamp on anyone deliberately?? As usual, had the ref blown for the fouls on Rooney prior to the rumpus the sending off would never have happened. In the final analysis Sven picked negative teams throughout and we didn't really deserve to go any further, although I wouldn't have complained much if we were rubbish throughout and won!!

Really impressed by France tonight, Zidane was superb.

Unfortunately my abiding memory of this World Cup is the constant cheating and conning of referees, players collapsing holding their hands to their faces / heads, when the replays confirm that no contact has been made. We also have the double bluff, where a defender commits a foul in the penalty area, only for goalie and defenders to attack the player for diving (see Argentina v Germany - last five minutes). Guess that's a product off all the diving gits in the first place.

The only way all this play acting will ever be stamped out is for the governing body, be it FIFA or EUFA, to use video evidence after the game to ban the cheating twats until they have stamped it out. France and Brazil seemed to get on with it tonight and it was all the much more enjoyable without the cheating.

It's getting to the point where I just can't be arsed to watch anymore.

pth

i'm not going to say anything. it's a horrible way to go out.

the other semi-final is

france



versus portugal

Well done bos ,i quite like France,,, keep em coming

One question being asked is should Wayne Rooney have been sent off at all?

Was the referee too harsh in giving him a red card?

Click HEREto watch the video of his tackle and subsequent reaction and judge for yourself.

Watch out for the knowing "We've got it done" wink from Ronaldo at the end of the video.

Cristiano Ronaldo's Manchester United career is now finished. He is a cheat. I don't think the fans will have him back easily, if at all.

england are out because they weren't good enough. it really is as simple as that. it doesn't matter what the formation or system was. not enough players performed. gerrard, lampard, beckham , rooney, did not do enough to warrant their stellar status. ferdinand, hargreaves and crouch can hold their heads high knowing they gave everything they could and more. as i said, it is a horrible way to go out, but if you can't score from 12 yards then you shouldn't be in the semi finals.
as for ronaldo, don't forget that they are not team mates. ronaldo plays for portugal , not england, and don't kid yourselves that if ronaldo had done the stamping , neville , ferdinand and rooney wouldn't have been the first in the queue to argue with the ref.
and as for alan shearer and his , "we english are just too honest " bollocks, well, the less said , the better!!!

Agree bosley except that some of the players didn't perform (Gerrard) for example because of the tactics.

On the bright side ... at least the penalty takers were on target this year.

... saying that , I reckon I could manage 1 out of 4 against any goalkeeper in the world .... with my eyes shut.

I undertsand that Rooney was sent off for pushing Ronaldo rather than any stamping that may have been deliberate or not; and having watched Doc Procs posted clip I certainly am not sure. So if that was the case, why on earth was it a sending off offence? Mind you, England played better with 10 men, so it probably helped the overall performance.

I do have some empathy with Shearer's comments, it is hard to think of any England games during the WC where players have cheated to either win a free kick or get another professional sent off. Rooney had every right to go down under those challenges leading to his sending off, but like most British players he tried to stay on his feet to win the ball. There is no doubt in my mind that most continental players would have collapsed, rolled over 10 times and screamed in mortal agony, winning both the free kick and probably ensuring a yellow card was issued to the offending player.

Cheating is rife in football (take Robbie Savage as a glowing example - mind you, he is Welsh). Thiery Henry is rightly being slaughtered for his antics against Spain and Mancini rolled around yesterday clutching his face when video replays proved that no contact had been made.

Players are told that they must stay on their feet in the penalty area, because an attacking player will make sure that he falls over some part of that player by leaving his own leg behind, when it would be just as easy to stay on his feet (Italy penalty against Australia, a case in point).

Glad that is all off my chest, football really does have significant problems and with the amount of money circulating in the game, it aint gonna get any better.

pth

i really don't know how anyone can empathise with shearer. shearer is a footballer who has tried to not just influence the ref , but, to actually referee every game in which he has played. also, let's not forget that he himself has been booked a few times for diving in the area. the main reason why this myth that english footballers behave differently to continentals is the media. when mr gerrad took a dive in the friendly against hungary , not a single pundit or newspaper columnist said " gerrard dived". not one !!! some said there was minimal or no contact, that the ref was right not to award a penalty, etc, but no one used the word "dive" !! this is just one case. it is a "thing" with me. i can give you many more examples but i think you get my point. all footballers have pushed the rules to the limit and beyond since the game became professional and money got involved. it's the nature of competitive people. all footballers are "cheats".
pete, please tell me what else someone is supposed to do when they are off balance due to a foul, running at full pelt and suddenly some dickhead decides to lie down infront of you.? matterazzi did exactly the same thing earlier in the game and got red carded yet, not a single person or pundit has said the aussie took a dive !! funny that , innit!!

dil, i agree that good tactics help, but, it still doesn't excuse bad performances from so called world-class players. the other point that needs a mention is , just how fit were the english players? the only one who still looked full of running in extra time was owen hargreaves. the argentinians, (twice), mexicans and germans all looked fit when they played extra time.
speaking of hargreaves, i'm very pleased he has had a good tournament. i've been banging on about ferguson getting him at united for a 4 years now. definately the man to replace keane and also , a future england/united captain, imo.

Bos

You are totally correct re Gerrard, he dived, or did he take avoiding action from a dreadful two footed tackle which if had made contact may have caused serious injury. Yes it looked like a dive and some of the media did berate him for it and rightly so.

Matterazzi's tackle was a cynical attempt to take out a player from advancing on goal, no attempt to take the ball, stop the player and in my view was worthy of a striaght red based on the cynical aspect alone. I would hold the same view were it an English player. As regards the penalty incident, the Aussie slid in to where he thought the ball was going to go, misjudging by about a yard and the attacker fell over his body, I don't think the Italian had to go down (can't remember his name) but saw his opportunity and took it. You see these incidents all the time, leave a leg behind and you have a good chance of getting a decision. Both Argentina and England (Owen) secured penalties in this manner during the 98 WC when Beckham was sent off, for instance.

I guess I am making two points:

1. I do believe that British players are less likely to con decisions than their continental brothers, (try watching La Liga - it's a joke).

2. I am heartily sick of teams gaining an advantage by basically cheating.

I am not picking on Italy or Portugal in particular, the whole thing is endemic in the game and although Ian Wright was slated for his comments re the Gerrard incident, why not? If it's the only way to gain parity? Reminds me of the athletics drug cheats in the 70s/80s/90s (and perhaps even now) the only way you can win is by cheating.

Quite frankly it makes me sick.

pth

Thanks for the definition Bosley, its in The Sopranos, thought it meant something like that but was just checking.
England what jokers. The FA are a disgrace, we ve lost the world cup and perhaps more importantly the future by fuc**ng up everything with Phil Scolari.
We have the best team in the world yet our managers will undoubtedly be the death of us.
I'm not too bothered with Wayne, he is a superb talent and still young and as an MCFC Fan I look forward to seeing either Rooney or Ronaldo make way from MUFC, seeing that greasy rat run up to the ref to get Roon sent off, what a tw*t.
France are looking special.

Hope you don't mind me joining in guys- not about the state of football but about my take on England/Beckham et al

First it has to be hats off to Beckham. I believe genuinely that he has led the team well and has been a great ambassador for England. He has been a popular and respected role model for many thousands of kids and we should pay tribute to him for that. He got the OBE in 2003 and its not hard to see why. Good luck to him- I expect somewhere along the line the FA or government will find something for him to do to continue his ambassadorial role for the country. A World Cup on the shelf might well have brought a knighthood- alas not now!

So far as the World Cup is concerned I firmly believe that although most of our players did not play to their usual high standards this was largely down to the selection in the first place in taking along a non playing forward, and then playing 4-5-1 with Rooney up front. Totally stupid. If anyone is to blame it is Eriksson, nobody else, though I have serious doubts about the future given that McClaren was his sidekick and presumably part of the decision taking process.

The positives were Crouch, Lennon and the shining light of Owen Hargreaves.I suppose we Uk based fans never get to see him other than for England so has not really felt like one of us. What a player in that holding role- fantastic. Well done the manager on that gem. The failures for me were Lampard and, less so, Gerrard and Cole. It might have been because of the 4-5-1 but anyway they were less than adequate.

coeliac1

Agree with many of your points, I have said my piece as regards the state of fottball and I don't propose to keep harping on, guess Bos and I will have to agree to disagree to a certain extent.

Personally I put England's failure to suceed down to Sven. We do have quality players, but rather than pick a balanced team he tried to pick a formation to suit the players at his disposal. A manager with guts would certainly have dropped Lampard who has had a dire competition and probably Beckham as well. Why he took Wallcott rather than Defoe or Bent is inexplicable.

I do fear for the future, McLaren as Sven's sidekick will perhaps have absorbed some of his tactics, I hope not the negative ones (although I cannot remember many postive Sven tactics). Teams should be picked on form, not on reputation, Lennon and Carrick should both have remained in the team. England looked so much better with Lennon causing problems on the wing. I have to admit I have never been a Hargreaves fan, but he was truly outstanding against Portugal, I am a convert.

pth

pete, i don't think we have to agree to disagree as i think we are both in agreement on most things.

"2. I am heartily sick of teams gaining an advantage by basically cheating."

"all footballers are "cheats". "

where we disagree is that you still believe english players are good as gold and have to resort to cheating to gain parity. my point is that all footballers cheat, always have done and always will. maybe some countries/clubs put more time and effort into it, but, essentially, they all cheat. they all commit fouls, they all claim the throw/corner/goalkick, they all fall over whenever there is contact, they all hold/grab, etc. the corinthian spirit died as soon as money got involved. this is why fifa issue directive after directive, to counter the way players push the boundaries until it becomes unacceptable. i found martin jol's piece in today's times appalling considering the way the dutch players behaved against portugal. the bottom line is that it is up to the players to change things. but we both know they wont.

Morning Lee
No, I don't believe for one moment that English (or British) players are good as gold, but I do believe, rightly or wrongly, that it is largely an imported disease into our game. Whatever I believe is immaterial really, FIFA/EUFA will never take the drastic steps required to eradicate the cheats, there is too much money involved.

morning pete. we agree on much, but, as you say, with the money that's involved in the modern game, the players will do whatever they believe they have to do to win.

If you back heal someone in the nackers you deserve to be red carded

Morning all,

Terrible pity about England going out. FWIW I think Sven's formation should bear a large part of the blame as how many times did somebody make a fantastic run up the wing and cross only to find that there was nobody to receive the ball? A waste of many golden opportunities, IMHO, and something that should have been changed after the Ecuador game as it was clearly causing us to miss out on opportunities to score at that point.

Here in World-Cup-Land the locals are convinced the Cup is theirs for the taking. Personally I think France are going to be lucky against Portugal and then go down 2-0 to Italy in the final.

soultraders, me too ;)

btw, how did your date go?

Hi Bos,

Errm, very nicely, thank you. :o)

ST.

I hope Ronaldos contract with Man U gets tawn up after that performance!! As for Lampard well what can I say, more attempts than onyone else on the WC.... Glad to see the back of Sven, with a bit of luck we'll McLarian actully knows how to pick a team. And finally hands up how many people would have selected Campbell, Lampard for the WC and how many would have played Willcotts????

Dont think it would be safe for Ronaldo on or off the pitch anywhere in England !!!..His reputation as a cheat is well covered by those who go to the match in the UK..So how can he even look his teamamates at Man U in the eyes after this ? Wish Vinny was still playing ! ..............................................But in the final analysis England were left bereft of strikers and what with such a congested midfield they played so deep in thier own half This dearth of strikers even with Owen and Roony looked fragile; but without them their formation looked defensive and not one the English employ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, . ........As for France i knew once we beat Spain 3-1 we would beat Brazil due to the number of chances they give you at the back ....... lts a France V Germany final . !!........and Z.Z.crowning an incredible career in carrying the WC back to Paris ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, . ......As for Mclaren ? Uninspiring at best ; and irrational at worst .........................Whats that clown ever done ?? More of the same. YOU need a YONGER El Tel !!! @+ J

first of the semis tonight. i'm feeling very nervous already!!! christ knows what state i'll be in by the time the game begins. absolutely loving how no one is giving italy a chance!!! reading some of the papers these last few days you'd think there were only 3 teams in the semi finals. portugal getting a lot of press because of the england game, germany getting a lot of press going on about the wave of optimism carrying the team, france getting a lot of press because the pundits think they are wonderful, the brazil of europe!!! no offence , tfc, but take zidane out of that team and it suddenly becomes very basic. i hope to meet france in the final, get revenge for euro 2000.

Got a gut feeling it won't be a great much tonight, looks like a 0-0 written all over it... Do hope i'm wrong and the Germans go at the Italians... Reading back I agree on most of the points you raise reference the cheating that goes on in all football... About time we had a fourth ref who can view TV coverage (like Rugby League), it's the only way forward to deal with these cheats... As for McLaren I have a feeling we won't improve, how can you have an International Manager that has not had International experience either as player at international level or at least managed a high profile club to some degree of success... Why or why did the FA set themselves up for having to appoint before the world cup... Big mistake in missing out on either Guus Hiddink or Scholari...

germany have yet to beat italy in a competitive game. past scores are either draws, or italy winning by 1 goal. goes without saying i want the later. if it goes to penalties i wont even bother to watch. germans + penalties = victory.
a couple of coincidences before tonight's match. last time italy won the world cup it was against a backdrop of scandal in italian football. also, in that year there were four european teams left in the semi finals. ooer!!!

i'm absolutely stunned that people on here actually want a foreign coach. maclaren may not be everyone's favourite but, he is the best english coach in the game today. for me he just shades it from big sam as maclaren has won a trophy and has a few years european experience.

I have to cut in here having read John's comment sorry. He didn't back heal him in the knackers. It makes me livid to hear people saying this. He stood up during a sandwich, didn't fall to the ground like the portuguese did and tried to play the ball after having fairly won it - which might I add is an honourable way to play. Unfortunately as he had beaten them both (being fouled in the process) one of them (on the floor- suprisingly!) got his legs tangled and as a consequence Rooney caught him in the knackers. Serves him bloody right, if he hadn't been playing for a foul in the first place he wouldn't have put himself in that predicament. Rooney got red carded for 'violent conduct' i.e pushing scum bag Ronaldo. Drives me mad people suggesting otherwise. It's a tragedy of circumstance but I am convinced that had Rooney fallen to the ground he would have doubtless won a free kick, because he played the way the game should be played we've effectively been eliminated. Fourth TV ref is definitely needed, I really can't be bothered with the game as it is at the moment, it's a joke.

Some good posts here, guys. Agree with most of the Rooney stuff. He did very little albeit technically he was at fault, yes, and should've been extra specially squeaky clean with an Argentine ref. I have been called "narrow minded!" by mates when I was totally opposed to Swedish-Sven being put in charge in the first place. But can you imagine the Germans or Brazilians with a foreign coach? Doubt this will ever happen in our lifetime! It is only fair that Mc.Claren gets his chance, for all the right reasons. But, if things go pear-shaped early on, then I think there will be huge public outcry for Big Sam. We shall see anyway...

Totally neutral tonight - but hope Les Frogs win tomorrow!

chiva, ref has confirmed today that he red carded rooney for the stamping, i.e. violent conduct. he also confirmed ronaldo played no part in rooney's sending off and that sven said rooney deserved to go off after the game. i think a few of you are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think the english players would have behaved differently if ronaldo, (or any other portugese player ), had done the stamping. rooney lost possession and then chased the ball down, committing fouls then being fouled in the process of trying to win it back. full credit to rooney for his tenacity and determination. i certainly hope he doesn't get the beckham treatment for his moment of madness and i think the media are helping avoid this by placing the focus on ronaldo. ]
people are saying scolari would be a great coach for england, far better than sven , yet he has only beaten sven once, and that was because of a moment of genius rather than tactical superiority. the two remaining games went to penalties and it could also be argued that england were the better team in both matches. so how would scolari be a better coach than sven? just a thought.......

I agree, Bos. Good post, mate

he couldnt be any worse Bos, but Hiddink would have been a huge improvement

My posts from Traders room:

It had been proven for at least 3 yrs that gerrard and lampard couldnt play together but still we persisted. Beckham has been past it for a long while yet started every game against a youngster (lennon) who had pace and the ability to make things happen. We picked the supposed best players not the best team which resulted in a midfield of very similar players with no pace and no one to make the runs into the box (remember like scholes used to). We played Rooney up front alone but didnt change anything when Portugla kept dropping deeper and deeper leaving him more and more isolated. When Rooney got sent off we took off our only creative midfielder to enable Lampard and Gerrard to cancel each other out and leave the left hand side exposed. We took more fit goalkeepers than strikers to the world cup. We took 6 central midfielders yet only 4 strikers (2 cripples, a beanpole and a yts lad). We took off an attacking midfielder for a defender to take a penalty.

At the end of the day we got knocked out by a poor side on penalties in the qtr finals, the sad thing is of the sides left in the world cup with the right structure and organisation we could beat any of them - with the approach we used we struggled to beat an egg!

At no stage did the manager know his best side - he tried 3 different players in the holding role from the last friendly through the group games - a position he never deemed viable to consider prior top that

As you guess my criticism is squarely pointed at an incompetent manager and also at some very big egos within the side. The preparation, use of friendlies etc was hit and miss and poorly planned, we didnt practise different situations for different scenarios we went in blindly with the assumption that we had the best midfield in the world (which was conclusively proved as bollox) and ultimately we relied on an unfit temperamental 20 yr old (who is heavily overrated) as the man to win thw world cup for us



McLaren will be same old im afraid, no personality and no inspiration. Never handled the big egos at club level and cant see him being brave enough to make the needed changes.

Look at his record with Boro, hardly inspiring, often struggled to get the best out of the players hes had. At highbury this yr, 4-0 at half time he didnt change anything just sat there watching his side getting humiliated until it ended 7-0 and then explained it as one of those days. In Europe they played poorly and got lucky coming from behind a few times.

Personally hope he doesnt last a yr in the job

To think we turned down Hiddink for the job - look at his record with Korea and Australia, has won the champs league yet the FA wanted to interview him 4 times to see if he was suitable!!! Instead weve got a yes man who will do as the eejits in charge of the FA tell him to


good luck to your lot later

Hear, hear, Fundy - spot on, amigo!

The first thing a referee does for violent conduct.... without hesitation is take the red card out.....This guy did not or attempt to until Rooney pushed Ronaldo... he was just going to give a free kick...Watch the video he is just standing there with his arm outstreched, not going for a red card as violent conduct would suggest.

fundie, my personal opinion is that sven should have been sacked the moment he named his squad. his brief when he took over was to prepare a side for this tournament. the previous two tournaments were part of the preparation. this was supposed to be the coming of age of beckham, scholes, neville, butt, owen, gerrard, lampard, ferdinand, etc. .yet when he announced his squad he gave three spots to players with just one cap between them. that's failure in my eyes. as you say in your post, the friendlies were indeed worthless. sven had failed to prepare.

Chiva20, think you only see what you want to see, i agree with ref violent conduct

Watching Italy v Germany and first half the referee seems to be the star of the show.....

I fancy Italy need an early goal second half if they are to make their better quality count.... ;-)

Eccellente!

ggggggooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

what a game!!!!!!!!!!!! buzzin off me tits.

Bos are you italian ?

I think he's portuguese! ;o)

Only playing - I clearly stand alone supporting Rooney here - still firmly believe we are a stronger side (on paper) than any other squad this year. Will be gutted for some time to come!

Easily stronger than any other team on PAPER, but our managers have and will hold us back from reaching our potential any time soon.
Hoping France beat Italy in the Final, it would be a credit to Zidane.

i fear it is zidane's last game tonight, one way or another. hoping france will win as euro 2000 stills bothers me when the french robbed italy of victory in the 93rd minute after being played off the park. revenge, and all that .........!
chiva, gd potts, i don't know how you both can say that. england have a very good 1st eleven. outside of that 11/12 the quality drops significantly.

and so the final is decided.

france



will play

italy

Lee, you must be chuffed to bits, I didn't see the Italy game but everyone was talking about what a great game it was yesterday, can't see them losing against France.

certainly hope not, pete. should be a cracker of a final. france, an ageing team, zidane's last game, henry with a point to prove, the team finding their confidence and form, against italy, a team playing against a backdrop of scandal and corruption, totti starting to play for the team and not for totti, rock solid at the back , del piero's last chance, the team playing with style and confidence and enjoying themselves. what a game it's building up to be ......... which means the teams will cancel each other out and it will be a dull, drab game !!!! :)
poor portugal, their lack of a striker told in the end. such good approach play but no one there to finish it all off. some disgraceful theatrics by both teams, hopefully, that's the last we'll see of that!!! and probably the last we'll see of figo, what a player!!

A disappointly dull match last night, I thought. I switched on just in time to see ZZ take his penalty shot (didn't I say France would get lucky against Portugal?) but then France's playing got steadily more uninspired as the second half went on and if there had been another 10 mins' play then it could have been a very different story. I think the French had better find some motivation quickly if they are to have a hope of dispatching the Italians.

Gut feeling is telling me the Portuguese may just sneak it in the fight for third place - in spite of the Germans looking to be much better at getting the ball near the white spindly objects at the ends of the pitch. In the games I've seen, Portugal always seem to spoil it for themselves by firing their shots from about 500 yards and either sending the ball into orbit or giving the goalie all day to react. Maybe they'll manage to find a way to keep the ball within the stadium come the weekend.

Germany 3rd, Italy 2nd, and France 1st.
Italy will fail at the last hurdle just like they did last time. The lack of strikers will be the end, Luca Toni is basically a brutal donkey who had a good season, rather like Darren Bent. Del Piero is an ageing old boy who got lucky and Totti is shameful.

mr potts, i'm very happy with your predictions considering you've got fcuk all else right in this tournament !! :) could've done with france having a tougher game than the gentle workout they got last night, but, i think italy will be too srong for them. the only thing that worries me about france is the pace they have up front. bvut, then gain, the way this defence has played this tournament i think the french will be more concerned in trying to figure out a way through.

They ll breeze through your defence, do you still have Zambezi ( or Gianluca Zambrotta ) at right back? I havent really followed Italy but I heard about an injury to him. He could be a good buy for Chelski this season when Juve begin their challenge of the Italian Division Two Title.

Post deleted by Moderator.

blimey, was his next prediction that bad ?

Tipped Italy to win :-))

What the hells a moderator?

I didnt even write anything bad!

The moderator is like the referee - he sends people off for bad behaviour! Although I'm sure that you wrote nothing to cause anyone any offence, GDP.

Here's a thought - what are we all going to do next week when it's all over?

By a quirk of rotten planning, the Wombles will also cease wimbling on Sunday, so there'll be no tennis. I only found out last week that Maria Sharapova is 6' 2" and am still recovering from the shock. It didn't help her beat Slugger Mauresmo though.

Which means that the only thing left that's worth watching (at least here in the land of Beer and Lukas Podolski, if you can't be bothered with all of that Satellite-and-Subscription jiggery-pokery) is the World Touring Car Championship. Which only stages races a minimum of eighteen months apart when Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn are in alignment and there's a double "z" in the month.

I fear I am about to be bereft of sport on TV.

Amities / ST ...So much for your predictions !! ,,, hehe ,,We have now beaten Spain , Brazil , Portugal ......and will beat ltaly who have a poor record V France . l feel we deserve it . And it would serve as a great accolade to the end of the career of one of the finest attacking midfielders to have graced the game. Namely ZZ ,,, ltaly are nothing special with ageing players and inflated ego's ......The WC is as good as in Paris !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ,,,,err again within years 8 years .....@+

Errm, TFC, the thing about my predictions is that so far they have been correct - Italy and France are in the final! I will grant you your right to laugh at me only if France win.

And "deserve" has nothing to do with it. Although I haven't consulted the FIFA regulations I believe that the final will, like all the previous matches, be decided according to which team scores the most goals :o)

Bonne chance quand-meme !!

whoaaaaaaaaa!! tfc, hold your feckin' horses!!! france have spluttered and stuttered through this tournament , only playing when zidane plays. italy will make zidane ineffective as they did in euro 2000. with better finishing than on that night and a wrong will be righted. the trophy will be in rome. cannavaro should be player of the tournament but zidane will win it because people are monkeys and think what the press tell them to think. italy will triumph because they are the better team and they need it more than france.

Thank you, Bosley. My round - what do you fancy?

I agree with your comment that Italy need it, Bos - at least they actually showed some will to win out there against Germany. France didn't convince me that they actually want to win.

E!Amities / Sorry ST. l confused your posting with that of someone else of which i cant be arsed scrolling back ........But lets face it when a tean can attain a result whilst playing poorly then surely when everything clicks they will be awesome !!! Of all the players plying their trade in t he English League the only one who has the guile,ballskills , and awareness and vision of ZZ is D. Berkamp...and he is Dutch Also both Steve McManaman { ex of Liverpool } and David Beckham were brought to Real Madrid as mere feeders to ZZ . Underestimate this man at your peril ! .He is mustard !.. Ello again BOS Why do you say ltalia NEED this cup ?? Why exactly ? Specially when FRANCE deserve it !!!! You know that -Dont stay in denial ,,lol

cannavaro small man but a giant in stature, he has tremendous vision and will snuff
zidane and henry out........1/0 to Italy.........

tfc, in what way , shape or form do france deserve it???? no one will be under estimating zidane, least not the italians. let's not forget that he made his worldwide reputation at juventus so i think italy will be fully aware of the great man and what he can do. my point was that italy nullified zidane in euro 2000 to the point where he was having to go back to the edge of his own area to get the ball. they've done it once and i feel they can do it again. hopefully , henri will ease up on the theatrics and it will be a great game. as i said before, i don't think the threat will come from zidane but from the pace france have up front.
btw, i'm not in denial ........ i'm in bolton :))

Wayne Rooney's hopes of escaping further punishment from FIFA for his sending-off against Portugal have dwindled still further after one of the most senior figures in football backed the match referee's decision.

Lennart Johansson, UEFA president and head of FIFA's World Cup organising committee, said Argentinian official Horacio Elizondo had been quite right to send the Manchester United striker off for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho's groin.

Johansson told PA Sport: "I was at the game and I had a different opinion when I first saw the incident from the stands and then later on television. But having seen the replay, in my opinion he was absolutely right to send him off."

He added: "I also saw this referee in the opening match and I did not notice him much, which is a very good thing - much better than if you see a referee who says 'here comes the king of the road'."

Elizondo once red-carded David Beckham when Manchester United were playing Mexican side Necaxa in the first game of the 2000 World Club Championship in Brazil.

Since then, Elizondo, 42, has officiated at the Olympic Games in 2004, and the opening match of this World Cup between Germany and Costa Rica.

He created some controversy during South Korea's game with Switzerland when he overruled his linesman's offside flag and allowed Alexander Frei to make it 2-0.

Elizondo correctly spotted the ball had come off the leg of a Korean defender but he was surrounded by angry players after allowing the goal.

Out on her Royal Yacht, HM The Queen was enjoying the sea air when she spied a man in the water off the port bow - clearly being menaced by a very large shark. Through her binoculars she could see it was Christian Ronaldo, struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 20 foot shark!

The Queen ordered the captain to change course to try and save the poor man, but she knew the yacht's top speed would never get them there in time.

At that exact moment a speedboat containing three men wearing white England shirts sped into view. One of the men took aim at the shark and fired a harpoon into its ribs, immobilising it instantly. The other two reached out and pulled Ronaldo from the water and, using long clubs, beat the shark to death. They bundled the bleeding, semi-conscious Ronaldo into the speedboat along with the dead shark and prepared for a hasty retreat, when they heard frantic calling .......

It was the Queen calling them to the yacht.

On reaching yacht the Queen went into raptures about the rescue and said to Beckham, Rooney and Gerrard (for it was they) "I will give you a knighthood for your brave actions. I thought the England team would hate Ronaldo after the world cup, but I see that my England team are true heroes and should serve as a model for sportsmanship to other countries."

She knighted them there and then, and proceeded to sail away.

As she departed, Rooney asked the others: "Who was that?!" "That," Beckham answered, "was our Queen. She rules the Commonwealth and knows everything an all that about our country."

"Well," Rooney replied, "she definitely knows f***-all about shark fishing. How's the bait holding up?"

As a neutral this is one of those rare occasions when I want both sides to win for differing reasons (as opposed to the norm when I dislike one of the sides so much that I cheer the other one on !!).

With France we have an ageing team many of whom will be giving their last performance for Les Bleus. Inspired by a quite magnificent Zidane and ably assisted by colleagues young and old this would be a fitting way for the best player of his generation to bow out in the most spectacular way possible.

With Italy we have a national side that has managed to put the troubles of their domestic game to one side for the last few weeks in a heroic effort to restore pride to a nation that has been shocked, disgusted, disillusioned and depressed by the sad truth behind recent scudetto victories. It will almost certainly result in the relegation of four of the biggest clubs and will require many of the current Italian heroes to seek employment elsewhere. It makes the performance of the side even more commendable.

My prediction:

the heart wants Zizou to go out on the highest sporting 'high' imaginable. The head says that the magnificent Italian defence will hold out for one last time and the weak link that is Fabien Barthez will give the Italian forwards one chance at least.

1-0 to Italy

some interesting stuff about tomorrow's game.


Italy defender Alessandro Nesta has been ruled out of the World Cup final in Berlin because of a groin injury.

The AC Milan centre-back has missed Italy's last three matches after aggravating a long-term injury in Italy's 2-0 win over Czech Republic.

Marco Materazzi continues in defence alongside skipper Fabio Cannavaro.

France's Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram will play their final games for Les Bleus after confirming their retirement from international football.

Italy (probable): Buffon; Zambrotta, Grosso, Cannavaro, Materazzi; Gattuso, Camoranesi, Pirlo, Perrotta; Totti; Toni.

France (probable): Barthez; Sagnol, Abidal, Thuram, Gallas; Makelele, Vieira, Malouda, Ribery, Zidane; Henry.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Italy's Nesta has suffered injury setbacks in all three of the World Cups in which he has played - he missed Italy's second round defeat to South Korea four years ago and was also injured for the quarter-final exit to France in 1998.

Former Everton defender Materazzi stood in against Czech Republic and Germany, while Palermo centre-back Andrea Barzagli covered in the quarter-final against Ukraine.

Midfielder Daniele De Rossi returns from a four-match ban for elbowing USA forward Brian McBride in the face during the first round, although he isn't expected to start.

Italy are the designated home team and will sport their familiar home blue colours, while France will play in white for the fourth match in a row.


BIG MATCH STATS
Head-to-heads

Italy have played France on 32 occasions winning 17, drawing eight and losing seven, outscoring France by 75 goals to 44. This will be the fifth World Cup meeting of the pair. The Squadra Azzurri won 3-1 in the 1938 Quarter-finals and 2-1 in the 1978 Group phase. France's sole win over Italy came in the 1986 second round (2-0). This was the last time Italy lost a World Cup knockout match within 90 minutes. In the 1998 Quarter-finals France beat the Italians 4-3 on penalties after a goalless draw.

The only previous final between Italy and France came at Euro 2000. France won 2-1 through a golden goal by David Trezeguet. Italy led 1-0 until the 90th minute. This match was also the last meeting between the two sides.

Team facts - Italy

Italy have won three World Cups (1934, 1938 and 1982) and one European Championship (1968). They can now become the second nation to win at least four World Cup trophies. Brazil are the only team to have won five World Cup titles.

Italy are unbeaten in 24 international matches, their longest unbeaten streak since 1939. Their 11 goals at the 2006 tournament have been scored by 10 different players. This equals the World Cup record for teams with most different scorers in a single finals. This record was set by France in 1982. If France fail to score, the Italians will equal the record for most successive World Cup clean sheets of five, and become the first nation ever to register six shut-outs in a World Cup campaign.

Team facts - France

The title secured on home soil in 1998 is France's most successful result in 11 previous appearances at the World Cup finals. They have not lost a World Cup knockout match since the 1986 semi-final against West Germany.

France have conceded only two goals in their six matches at this tournament. South Korea's Park-Ji-Sung and Spain's David Villa are the only players to have scored against Les Bleus so far. If they keep a clean sheet and Italy do not, France will equal their own World Cup record of only conceding two goals.

Player facts - Italy

Daniele De Rossi will be eligible to play for Italy in the final, after having served a four match suspension. Gianluca Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro are the only players to have figured in every minute of Italy's 2006 World Cup campaign.

Captain Fabio Cannavaro is set to collect his 100th cap and become the third Italian player to reach this milestone, joining Paolo Maldini (126) and Dino Zoff (112). Cannavaro made his international debut on 22 January 1997 in a 2-0 friendly victory over Northern Ireland.

Player facts - France

Louis Saha is suspended for the 2006 World Cup final. In 2002 Germany's Michael Ballack was the last player to be suspended for a World Cup final. Fabien Barthez, William Gallas, Claude Makelele, Willy Sagnol and Lilian Thuram have played every minute of every match for France so far.

Thierry Henry scored his sixth World Cup goal against Brazil, surpassing Platini on the World Cup top scorer list for France. Henry now only trails France's top scorer Just Fontaine, who netted 13 at the 1958 finals. If goalkeeper Fabien Barthez keeps a clean sheet against Italy he will break the World Cup record for most cleans sheets by a goalkeeper. He now shares this record with Peter Shilton, who kept 10 clean sheets between 1982 and 1990.

Miscellaneous Info

Italy have reached the World Cup final every 12 years since 1970. They lost the 1970 final, won in 1982 and lost in 1994. The 2006 World Cup final will be the first since 1978 without Germany or Brazil and the first final since 1938 without Germany or Brazil or the host nation. The 2006 final is also the first all-European World Cup final since 1982 when Italy beat West Germany 3-1.

Juventus is represented by eight players in the squads of Italy and France. Italy's Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Mauro Camoranesi and Alessandro Del Piero face their French team mates Liliam Thuram, Patrick Vieira and David Trezeguet.

So wot was interesting about all that then Bos?

:-))

well i found it interesting, pete . :))

3rd place goes to germany



another cracking game!! what tournament this has been!!

Anyway ...



Forza les froggies :)

ha, what would you know!! you're a woman !!!

some great videos .

so nervous and excited.

"I couldn't settle in Italy - it was like living in a foreign country."
Ian Rush

"I'd like to play for an Italian club, like Barcelona."
Mark Draper

"Sometimes in football you have to score goals."
Thierry Henry

chocolat :)). but just think of how much money these people make. incredible!!

3 1/2 hours to kick off. just about to set off and meet the rest of the crew to eat drink and make merry. i don't think i could be more nervous if i was playing in the damn thing !!!

And they say Rooney is nuts! Zidane - a disgrace to himself and his country

Well I'm only a girlie after all.
What brought that on, huh :(

4-3 and waiting

Forza Azzurre !!
Shame on Zidane.

Guess we'll see Bos in a few days' time :))

Waiting for the Italian girlie now, next week some time I should think :-)

:))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

a bitpissed so im off t0bed

2nd place goes to france

1st place goes to italy

world cup winners 2006.

absolutely delighted to have won last night. not the way i wanted to win but ........who cares!!!!
i'm still not sure what happened in the 2nd half, why lippi decided to change things at half time when italy were on top and dominating the game. i couldn't see any great change in tactics by the french apart from pressuring italy higher up the pitch. this forced error after error from the italians who seemed to forget how to pass and the french were the better team from the 2nd half onwards. unfortunately, despite having territorial advantage the french couldn't score. italy hit the bar and had one chalked off for offside but that was as good as it got for us until the penalties.
i have to say i didn't watch or cheer any penalties until the last one. usa '94 came back to me and all i could do was think, no, not again!!! so, tfc, commiserations to you. i know exactly how you feel.



superb!!!!!!!!!

Shame Zidane couldnt go out on as much of a high as he should have, even with theheadbutt he should have been man of the match over Pirlo.
Trezeguet is a shambolic striker as is Henry, for France, and so Italy deserved their win in the end, and it looked like the fans and players loved it.
But...
Cannavaro - to Zidane - Because he is algerian- your a terrorist. Cannavaro should have been sent.

Well Zidane did get man of the tournament!

makalele should have been man of the match. cannavaro should have man of the tournament........ but he is a defender and they never give it to defenders.

no he really shouldnt have it, however, the way the tournaments gone I wouldnt be suprised if another person profited from cheating.
I.e. Portugal, Italy's PK agaisnt Australia and Cannavaro's insult to one of the greatest players ever.

That Zidane headbutt was the high light of the tournament for me .

gd potts, i think you have your players mixed up.

enlighten me

firstly, the spat was between materrazzi and zidane. cannavaro wasn't involved. secondly, yes it should have been cannavaro as winner of player of the tournament. he has played every minute of every game and been outstanding in every minute of every game. he hasn't been booked which is an achievement in itself considering how card -happy the officials have been and the position he plays. he has shown class, skill, leadership and incredible ability. he has led the team through this period of intense pressure without ever once losing his cool . all this against a backdrop of wondering whether his club will be demoted 2 divisions and whether he will have 2 scudettos taken away from him.
zidane has been a glorious player over the years but the award is for player of the tournament. he was indifferent in france's first game, ok in the second, dropped for the third, brilliant against spain, brilliant against brazil, good against portugal, good against italy but then saw the red mist and let his head fly. whatever the provocation, there is no excuse for what he did. for his last act on the field alone , he shouldn't be given the award because of the wrong message that it sends out. unfortunately, the votes were collected before the final.

Materazzi should be arrested for grabbing Zidane`s tit.

That`s a sexual assault and justified Zidane`s head butt, never mind the verbal shite he was dishing out.

Italy, clubs and country, have been cheating, bribing and diving for at least 40 years. They should be kicked out of football for good.

Post edited by Moderator

:)

Yes, I also spotted that, Blueman - not too disimilar c.t. Vinnie Jones on Gazza!! Heard tonight something about ZZ's mother (who is terminally ill apparently) whom Sen. Materazzi joked about. If true, then FIFA should also consider stripping him of his Winner's Medal (plus an international ban, as well) perhaps?

are you guys for real ???

Of course he should not be stripped of his winners medal.

However if he is found guilty of racial abuse then he should be tried under German law and accept whatever penalty is subsequently given.

FIFA should also then give him the appropriate ban from international football and UEFA the appropriate one from European football.

Ian

a few things. firstly, i find it incredible that nobody has even raised the possibility that zidane said something provocative to materazzi. when all it comes out, if materazzi has said racist comments then he has to be punished. this trial by rumour and insinuation is nothing but a joke!! zidane is no angel. the other award he has won is the award for worst disciplinary record of the tournament. fifa are sending out very mixed messages.

Fifa investigates Zidane red card


Fifa is to investigate Zinedine Zidane's dramatic sending-off during Sunday's World Cup final in Berlin.
The Frenchman was dismissed in extra-time for a headbutt on Marco Materazzi which happened seconds after the Italian apparently insulted him.

Materazzi has denied calling Zidane a "terrorist" or insulting his mother.

Fifa will now launch an investigation into Zidane's conduct to enable it to clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident as exactly as possible.

Zidane and Materazzi exchanged words with 10 minutes left of extra-time before Zidane lowered his head and rammed Materazzi in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

Materazzi defended himself on Tuesday in the Italian newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport, when he said: "It was the kind of insult you will hear dozens of times and just slips out of the ground.

"I didn't call Zidane a terrorist and certainly didn't mention his mother."




Zidane, who was born and grew up in Marseille, is the son of Algerian immigrants and has suffered taunts about his heritage throughout his football career.

But Materazzi added: "I am ignorant, I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is; my only terrorist is her," he said pointing to his 10-month-old daughter.

"I did not bring up Zidane's mother; for me a mother is sacred."

Materazzi and Zidane became involved in a verbal spat with 10 minutes to go in extra-time with France and Italy drawing 1-1 in the World Cup final.

After Materazzi's insult Zidane shoved his head into the Italian's chest and was sent off, with Italy going on to win the match 5-3 on penalties.

"I held his shirt, for only a few seconds," said Materazzi, who had scored Italy's equaliser after Zidane put France ahead from the penalty spot.

"He turned towards me and scoffed at me, looking at me with super arrogance, up and down.

"He said 'if you really want my shirt, you can have it later.'

"It's true, I shot back with an insult."


Just what did Materazzi say to provoke this reaction from Zidane?

Media organisations across Europe have been trying to decipher what Materazzi said to provoke such an extreme reaction from Zidane.

But it remains unclear exactly what was said and the BBC has broadcast two different versions.

BBC Radio Five Live asked for help from a deaf lip reader, Jessica Rees, who read the words phonetically to an Italian translator.

She deciphered the insult as being "you're the son of a terrorist whore" - a translation also carried by many national newspapers in Britain on Tuesday.

The BBC's Ten O'Clock News also called in experts to study the television footage of the incident and determined the following:

Materazzi's first word to Zidane was "no" before he then told him to "calm down".

He then accused him of being a "liar" and wished "an ugly death to you and your family" on the day the Frenchman's mother had been taken to hospital ill. This was followed by "Go f*** yourself".

Zidane's agent, Alain Migliaccio, has hinted that Zidane will soon reveal exactly what was said by Materazzi.

Piara Powar, national co-ordinator for the anti-racism group Kick It Out told Five Live, said: "If there was a racial slur then Fifa needs to act."

Keith Hackett, head of referees in England, said that if it can be proved that Matterazzi racially abused the Frenchman, then Fifa should take retrospective action for "the good of the game."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBZ7HddZnLc&search=materazzi

Materazzi in action !!!!!

Ian

Personally I'm disgusted by the lot of them - can't believe that someone on 60,000 a week can't afford to learn some manners.

soultraders, i agree. the least he could have done was say "excuse me" before headbutting him !! ;)

Reminds me of the definition of a gentleman as being "a man who would doff his hat before hitting a lady".

incredible news, but understandable.


Marcello Lippi has resigned as coach of Italy after leading his country to a fourth World Cup title.
Despite widespread calls for him to stay at the helm after Italy's win over France he says the time is right to go.

"I believe that I have achieved what I set out to achieve as coach of the Italian team," Lippi declared.

The 58-year-old feels he and his son, Davide, were attacked personally in the match-fixing and corruption scandal tainting Italy's domestic game.

After two years and 17 days in charge, Lippi said his decision came at the end of "an extraordinary professional and personal experience", but he did not reveal his future plans.

"I want to thank the federation for the confidence it had in me during the last two years of work crowned by a result that will rest in the annals of Italian football and live on in the memory of our fans," he added.

Italian Federation vice president Giancarlo Abete said Lippi had told him during the second round of the World Cup that he intended to quit regardless of his team's performance.

In a statement, Abete praised Lippi for his "extraordinary professionalism and his ability leading the team."

Lippi turned down a new contract before the World Cup began and failed to attend a meeting with the Italian Federation on Tuesday.

He was said to be tired of hearing his name mentioned in connection with the match-fixing scandal involving four top Serie A clubs, including champions Juventus, with whom he won five Serie A titles and the 1996 Champions League in two stints as coach between 1994 and 2004.

While he is not under investigation, Lippi was questioned by prosecutors before the World Cup about alleged pressure he received to select certain players for Italy's national team.

Davide Lippi works at a player agency linked to the scandal and is under investigation for "illegal competition with threats and violence".

Lippi took over from Giovanni Trapattoni after Italy's poor performance at Euro 2004.

In two years in charge Lippi lost just two matches - a 2-0 defeat on his debut against Iceland and a 1-0 loss in World Cup qualifying against Slovenia.

But following that reverse Italy went 25 games unbeaten, a run, their longest since 1939, that culminated in a first world title since 1982 and a leap up the world rankings to second behind Brazil.

The World Cup final finished 1-1 before Italy won the shoot-out 5-3 and Lippi described the victory as "the most satisfying moment of my life".

He was recently linked with a move to Manchester United as a potential successor to Sir Alex Ferguson.

But the Italian was quick to reject the speculation - citing his lack of English as his reason for not moving to the Premiership - and United also denied the rumours.

Italy's next fixture is a Euro 2008 qualifier at home to Lithuania on 2 September before a re-match against France in Paris four days later.

They are in Group B which also includes Ukraine, Scotland, Georgia and Faroe Islands.

Claudio Gentile, Alberto Zaccheroni and Roberto Donadoni are the early front-runners to replace Lippi

UPDATE -Saddam Hussein has been found guilty!

BAGHDAD, July 04 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein has been found guilty of war crimes and has been sentenced to death by firing squad.

The Court has granted his last request which was to name his own firing squad.

Mr. Hussein chose Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher from 12 yards.

Good riddance to BAD rubbish.

So the end of the world cup signals 2 things.
A start to the euro 2008 campaign and the start of the bidding to host the 2014 world cup.
I have heard through the grapevine that Italy have already submitted a bid to Sepp Blatter to host the cup in 2014, and it is a very strong one. It includes 20 million euros in a Swiss bank account, unlimited weekend use of a castle in tuscany and 3 nights with a Playboy model of Sepps choice.
Meanwhile Zinadine Zidane has revealed that he only came back into football at the insistance of his sponsors, I can't believe its not butter.
The betting has started on Euro 2008, with England 4/6 to go out on penalties. A slightly more tempting bet is on England winning the handicapped version of the same competition with a line-up that includes Owen, with only one working leg, lampard, who officially has 2 left feet, Rooney under the mentally impaired rules and Ferdinand because all camels should have at least one hump. If the competition runs to form they may have trouble with a Portugese side if it goes to penalties because their blind goalkeeper does have one working arm.
In a strange quirk of the random draw for the Euro qualifiers, Italy have been drawn in a group that contains San Marino, Lichtenstein and The Faroe Islands, with all their games played at home. the referee in each match will be an official of the Italian FA.
Sepp Blatter was today unavailable for comment from the Yacht in Palermo, where he is staying as a guest of Mr Moggi.