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

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