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

[goan_crazy]

Aww
I was wanting Portugal to win :mad1:

 

[Mountain.Dew]

i thought portugal dominated possession in the 2nd half. they had some really good chances, but was unlucky they couldnt get the ball behind the net. there where so many brilliant crosses, but there was barely any portugese to deliver a header. portugese where outnumbered all the time in attack. i also felt that the ref was kinda biased towards france. particularly that controversial penalty decision with henry's dive.

figo played extremely well, and i give full credit to his excellent play and unwavering determination to pull out an equalizer. there was one chance that he had a perfect header, but it went over the bar. that was kinda heart-breakening.

imo i was a little disappointed in france. i was expecting something more spectacular and more magical with zidane around, but all i saw was zidane passing the ball around, the occasional long ball but nothing that makes me remark "brilliance!" for this, i have to agree with _dhj_, Generator, and king_of_boredom - italy has a better chance at winning the finals. but u never know, nething could happen.

 

[Jiga]

You see the thing is I spent a great deal of my life (half) in Europe, I've seen world cup standard teams play

So every European is a soccer expert? That means nothing.

Italy had a far superior team and were technically speaking, playing much better on the night. For example - a 10 man italy team managed 7 shots on target, as opposed to 11 man Australia's 4 - and the Australian ones were kicks pretty much any keeper in the cup couldve easily saved.

Defensively they weren’t to badly effected by being a man down….. a change of formations easily accommodates for this. Their counter attack was effected yes, they couldn’t go all out and expose themselves at the back.

You say that Australia was playing for extra time, well any team who plays for something as uncertain as extra time deserves to lose, especially against a 10 man team. But just for a second lets pretend Australia got into extra time, and plodded along with the same zero goal scoring abilities and scramble defence until the penalties, thats assuming that the Australian managed not to trip over themselves like Neill, what then? Ownage in the penalties, Buffon is arguably one of the best keepers in the cup and Shcwarzer is nothing special, certainly not a good chance to stop the kind of kicking we saw the Italians do against Germany, I believe Totti provided the preview of the potential Aus-Italy pen shootout.

No you don’t deserve to lose for using an intelligent strategy, which was 10secs away from indirectly putting us into the quarters. Australia played to a plan, which was to take it to extra time and finish them off. The lead up work to this involved running the Italian defenders around, which Australia did very well, and if you watch the game again you will notice that they were tiring very quickly towards the end of that match… while the Australians were still relatively solid. The plan also involved making very late substitutions compared to the Italians and to keep a man on the bench, and not any player, but Kennedy who had played an impact role coming off the bench in the Japanese and Croatian games (In the Japanese game in particular he attracted alot of attention due to his height). On top of all of this, we had superior fitness. This all would have came together to get us the win, or at the very least, would have given us a way better chance to get over the top of them. It wouldn’t have gone to penalty shootouts either I don’t think, I would imagine we would have went all out due to the facts that you highlighted above in relation to shootouts although Shwarzer isn’t to bad.

So in summary, Australia had a very good run, they certainly got further than expected given the general standard of play, definitely up there with Japan and Croatia, look forward to many more round of 16 defeats in the future.

A lot can chance in 4 years…. For better or worse, cant really make a comment like that.

And don’t get me wrong, Im not bitter and still cut by our loss….. but the facts need to be set straight, none of this bullsh*t that Italy would have still comfortably beat us in extra time. That penalty won it for them, simple as that.

 

[Komit]

You don't get it do you? If the Aussies didn't let Grosso in the box, the penalty would never have occured. The ref didn't decide the game - Australia let the ref decide the game.

 

[Jimmy_B]

definitely a penalty. henry made the most of it but there was huge contact from carvalho. all you moaners should be blaming figo for missing an open goal and the rest of the portugese team for diving whenver they got into the area instead of trying to score goals.

 

[sweet_as]

Twas a penalty, although Henry milked it for all it was worth.

oh well.....Viva La France

 

[Jiga]

You don't get it do you? If the Aussies didn't let Grosso in the box, the penalty would never have occured. The ref didn't decide the game - Australia let the ref decide the game.

Lol ref didnt decide the game but Australia let him decide it, contradiction anyone? He shouldnt have got that far, but who cares, the argument that we lost it because we let him get their is ridiculous, if the ref had made the CORRECT decision, nothing would have resulted, the ball was quickly cleared and with 10secs left it was into extra time.

I hope FIFA do something to rectify this problem though, some appauling decisions have been made, and any game which lets the ref signifcantly determine the outcome really is a poor one Im afraid, and I think thats partially why Australians find it hard to embrace a game where the better team doesnt always come out on top.

 

[Komit]

No, Australians find it hard to embrace a game where they aren't the best in the world - and I think you're one of those Australians.

You should seriously get over it. I'm proud that Australia even made it to the World Cup and anything from thereon was a bonus. Italy were by far the better team and deserved the win - even if it was in controversial circumstances.

 

[Komit]

France v Portugal:

Portugal looked much more dangerous in their build up with the runs of Ronaldo and Figo and those awesome long balls by Deco but I just got the feeling that they were never going to convert it into a serious threat on Barthez. Overall, France deserved to go through but with the way Italy has been playing, I think they will probably edge them out.

 

[Paragon]

I'm still a bit bitter at the moment, but France won this game due to a ridiculous penalty rewarded to a theatrical diving cunt. They then sat back and put 11 men behind the ball for the WHOLE second half. Such a boring tactic. Both of my teams (Australia + Portugal) have now been knocked out of this competition due to diving cunts (Grosso + Henry). If the World Cup is to be won by a team of diving cunts who emply tactics like putting 11 men behind the ball for a whole half once they get ahead...then this World Cup may as well be won by a team of cheating cunts like Italy. Go Italy!!!

That post just oozes bias mate. You're bitter, fair enough. Maybe at some point you'll see what pretty much everyone else did, Portugal were more at fault in terms of diving and theatrics. Definitely moreso than the French. The difference being, France got a penalty, you didn't. Postiga, Pauleta, Ronaldo were all-too-eager to go to ground with minimal contact. And any argument that they only did that because Henry milked a penalty at the other end is redundant. The Portugese are right up there when it comes to theatrics, with your Italians, and your Dutch. Even before the match, one or two French players, Gallas included, commented on how simulation-happy the Portugese are. Go back to Euro 2000, Euro 2004, the trend is there.

In many ways, they got a taste of their own medicine. Portugal were competitive throughout the match, it's just a shame that another piece of play-acting decided the outcome of the match. And generally speaking, the refs.' performances in the SFs have been commendable considering how many players were walking a suspension tightrope. Hopefully FIFA fixes that up soon enough, so that we don't get more Ballack/Nedved-like situations.


Zizou bien fait. Vous êtes tout * fait simplement magnifique. Pouvoir les mémoires durent * jamais. La bonne chance contre Italia.

 

[Jiga]

You should seriously get over it. I'm proud that Australia even made it to the World Cup and anything from thereon was a bonus. Italy were by far the better team and deserved the win - even if it was in controversial circumstances.

They werent the better team, , certainly not 'by far' but n e way

And I am over it, but most people cant accept people like yourself trying to say we were no hope in winning the game if the ref hadnt screwed up.... this is a sentiment reflected in the Socceroors themselves. Most of the things I have mentioned above are also what players like Cahill have mentioned in interviews themselves!

 

[Komit]

They werent the better team, , certainly not 'by far' but n e way

And I am over it, but most people cant accept people like yourself trying to say we were no hope in winning the game if the ref hadnt screwed up.... this is a sentiment reflected in the Socceroors themselves. Most of the things I have mentioned above are also what players like Cahill have mentioned in interviews themselves!

Mate, I've followed the Socceroos for as long as I remember and I have held faith in them when everyone turned their back on them and Australian football so don't give me that shit. I believed Australia could beat Italy but not with the way they played on the day and I never once said that Australia would not have won in extra time - I believe they would have. In the end, it was their mistake playing for extra-time and that's it.

 

[YBK]

Mate, I've followed the Socceroos for as long as I remember and I have held faith in them when everyone turned their back on them and Australian football so don't give me that shit. I believed Australia could beat Italy but not with the way they played on the day and I never once said that Australia would not have won in extra time - I believe they would have. In the end, it was their mistake playing for extra-time and that's it.

True, you can't play for something that's uncertain.

 

[Bobness]

i hate the finals. italy and france?

i prefer the thirs place play offs

germany and portugal seem more exciting and dynamic as teams

 

[sunjet]

France did not play as well that game, but then again they did play wonderful to knock out Spain and Brasil; and Portugal had an hour to put a goal in, which they failed to do.

 

[...]

figo needs a head


literally....

 

[Bobness]

aren't you the frenchie?

je vous en prie

 

[Paragon]

figo needs a head


literally....

That was a shocker from Barthez.

I think the commentator actually said 'good handling'.

 

[Bobness]

i go for france and portugal to win the finals games

 

[...]

That was a shocker from Barthez.

I think the commentator actually said 'good handling'.

lol, check the replay. I reckon it would have been another Barthez moment. His hands were like..digging, like that technique in volleyball..