The Official 2006 FIFA World Cup thread. (2 Viewers)

[_dhj_]

The concept of "best" is far too subjective anyway.

Imo part of it might be being able to perform when it matters.

For example the fact that Ronaldinho failed to perform at the World Cup has more weighting in assessing his worth as a player than him failing to perform in say, five matches in La Liga.

 

[sunjet]

first time i've come to BoS since final..

much badluck to France, <3 zizou 88-06 still a legend.

 

[HotShot]

seriously though, i dont care what he said. they're words. zidane is used to that on a football field, and should not have retaliated.

If you dont retaliate nothin will happen, nothing will change. ITs basiccally accpeting an insult. If I were Zidane, instead headbutting him( i mean wtf), i would punched the crap out of him. THen went straight to the ref, and ask for the red card and then walk off. -Its definetly worth it.

The world cup is every four years, zidane has already bean part of one and won the the final. so fuck it, bash the guy -that is a once a .lifetime oppurtinity since zidane was retiring chances are you wont meet that dude again and maybe if you chuck another punch in.

As a captain of team, you dont take shit, I would even gone as far, as to walk off the field. Just like tat, but you need guts to do that guts like gud old ranatunga..

 

[HotShot]

To explain them, I'll give you two examples. The second is probably more obvious than the first, but at least the first example is football.

In the A-League last season, Adelaide United were definitely the best team. I'm a big Sydney FC fan, but I will freely admit that over the course of the season, they were the best team. When it came to the Finals series, though, they crashed out and Sydney took the title. Our ability to hold firm in the crunch matches of the Finals made us the most deserving team, but not the best over the season. To parallel this to the World Cup, I would say that Germany or Argentina were probably the best teams in the tournament (who would have expected Germany before the Finals started?!). However, Argentina obviously lost on penalties to Germany. And then when Italy played Germany, the Germans just got too defensive in extra time. Italy played the more attacking football, and deservedly got the winning goal(s).

The second example is last season's NRL season. Parramatta Eels were the best team throughout the season, but they crashed out in the Preliminary Final. Wests Tigers played well during the Finals, and were the deserved winners in that context. However, they weren't the best team during the season, as both Parramatta and St George Illawarra (as well as Brisbane for the majority of the season) played better than them over the course of the season.

So yeah .. basically, Italy deserved it the most because they didn't play one "poor" game all tournament. They might have been unattractive for quite a few matches, but that's Italy's style. They kept providing and providing results. When the semi-final was at crunch-time, it was Italy who deservedly scored the winning goal. When Italy looked like they would exit at the hands of Australia in the Round of 16, they held us out with only 10 men. Obviously the winning play is contentious, but nobody can blame the Italians for what transpired.


Hope that explains it somewhat.

Basically what you outlined was not who was the best team rather who were in gud form. Essentially what you are saying then the eels werent in gud form compared to the tigers and as result they didnt take win preimerhsup.

But italians had no form virtually, and its very questionable as to whether they were the best in the finals or in the bes t over the world cup.

Rankings.
1. Argentina
2. FRance
3. Germany
4. Portugal
5. Brazil
6. England/Australia
7. Italy
8. Netherlands
9. Ghana

those would be rankings over the whole world cup, taking into all factors.
srs to win the world cup, series of fortunes, luck , dubioub decisions and viola u there.

 

[bazookajoe]

Dutchies at 8? I hope you're kidding. England at 6? You're having a laugh.

 

[_dhj_]

Italy did NOT play catenaccio. At times they played defensively (e.g. when they were at a numerical disadvantage against Australia), but I don't think they ever deployed the catenaccio system.

 

[bazookajoe]

Juergen Klinsmann, who led Germany to a surprise third-place finish in the World Cup, said on Wednesday he was stepping down and that assistant Joachim Loew would take his place.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=373772&cc=3436

What a shame, he did superb things for the team

 

[DRAGONZ]

Australia up nine places to 33rd in the world.

Top 20 are as follows .. first set of numbers is their total points, second set is how much they moved by.

1 Brazil ---------- 1630 --------- +0
2 Italy ---------- 1550 ---------- +11
3 Argentina ---------- 1472 ---------- +6
4 France ---------- 1462 ---------- +4
5 England ---------- 1434 ---------- +5
6 Netherlands ---------- 1322 ---------- -3
7 Spain ---------- 1309 ---------- -2
8 Portugal ---------- 1301 ---------- -1
9 Germany ---------- 1229 ---------- +10
10 Czech Republic ---------- 1223 ---------- -8
11 Nigeria ---------- 1149 ---------- +0
12 Cameroon ---------- 1109 ---------- +3
13 Switzerland ---------- 1028 ---------- +22
14 Uruguay ---------- 985 ---------- +8
15 Ukraine ---------- 961 ---------- +30
16 USA ---------- 933 ---------- -11
17 Denmark ---------- 927 ---------- -6
18 Mexico ---------- 924 ---------- -14
19 Paraguay ---------- 915 ---------- +14
20 Côte d'Ivoire ---------- 909 ---------- +12


Full table: http://fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,118178,00.html?articleid=118178

 

[LMF^^]

Totally unrelated news, but I fuckin saw Lucas Neill today. My friend got a pic wit him too. Too bad it wasn't my birthday, fuck, otherwise I would've got a pic wit him.

 

[Mc_Meaney]

US pwned. V 11. ahaha

 

[Sparcod]

Well.
At the topic on whether australia could've beaten italy or not. I say yes they could've in extra time. Who knows?

 

[YBK]

Australia up nine places to 33rd in the world.

Top 20 are as follows .. first set of numbers is their total points, second set is how much they moved by.

1 Brazil ---------- 1630 --------- +0
2 Italy ---------- 1550 ---------- +11
3 Argentina ---------- 1472 ---------- +6
4 France ---------- 1462 ---------- +4
5 England ---------- 1434 ---------- +5
6 Netherlands ---------- 1322 ---------- -3
7 Spain ---------- 1309 ---------- -2
8 Portugal ---------- 1301 ---------- -1
9 Germany ---------- 1229 ---------- +10
10 Czech Republic ---------- 1223 ---------- -8
11 Nigeria ---------- 1149 ---------- +0
12 Cameroon ---------- 1109 ---------- +3
13 Switzerland ---------- 1028 ---------- +22
14 Uruguay ---------- 985 ---------- +8
15 Ukraine ---------- 961 ---------- +30
16 USA ---------- 933 ---------- -11
17 Denmark ---------- 927 ---------- -6
18 Mexico ---------- 924 ---------- -14
19 Paraguay ---------- 915 ---------- +14
20 Côte d'Ivoire ---------- 909 ---------- +12


Full table: http://fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,118178,00.html?articleid=118178

errr.. how exactly did portugal lose a point by getting to the semis :S

 

[Mc_Meaney]

not pooints, its down that many ranks

 

[DRAGONZ]

Still, it's pretty relevant.

Hard to understand why England especially (Argentina would have got a lot from their 6-0 win over S&M perhaps..) have overtaken Portugal.

Especially considering England had less victories in the tournament than Portugal, and LOST TO PORTUGAL.


EDIT ---- The new rankings don't actually give bonus points for goal difference in a match.

 

[flamingphoenix]

australia is now the highest ranked team in asia asian cup, here we come. lol.

 

[_dhj_]

"Zidane: Materazzi insulted my mother and sister"

 

[copious]

I think this thread has had enough action, till next time in 2010 fellas!

edit : this thread is back due to more zidane and rankings talk, though it could also go in the football thread to make sure theres no overlapping convos.

 

[Bobness]

zidane was a champ and now they're thinking of stripping from him the golden boot.

italy didn't deserve it viva la france

 

[DRAGONZ]

I think it would be unfair to strip him of the Golden Ball.

It's not the Golden Boot, mate .. that goes to top-scorer, Miroslav Klose.

 

[millieforever]

in my opinion, italy didnt even dserve to get that far. they didnt play real soccer. they used that guy (too insignificant for me to even remmber his name) to manipulate the "star players" and push them ovr the dge... nfortunately for Zidane, that dude got to him... he got what he dsrved, but Zidane had to pay the price