Bullets 'n' Babes

Portugal lost to Spain - Ronaldo was poor apparently (he's been shite this tournament btw).
Good goal by Villa.

So many disappointing games and disappointing performances from "megastar" players.

Spain deserved the win, Portugal did bugger all for long periods. Ronaldo was playing??

grim_tales wrote:Yeah, England's defence/organisation was shite for lots of the game and those 2 breakaway goals, but that goal from Lampard deserved to stand as you say. I mean it wasnt even disallowed, the douche of a ref didnt see it (!)

You should change your sig to "we are the laughing stock of the world cup". We are truly shite,but one thing you can always rely on the England football team to do is that they always,always without fail let you down in the end.at that they are world beaters. It's one of the reasons i don't give the stuff about the National team but i feel sorry for patriots like you Grim whose football bread and butter seems to be the National side.

It's not just that Its club footy too.

Fecking Dutch... they just lost me £80.

I Have Holland in the works sweep...so guaranteed £20 at least now.

Uruguay through to the semis. Ghana should have won, however it was a penalty but not sure if the free kick leading to it should have been given.

Sad about Ghana going out. Relieved that Suarez won't be playing against Holland. Nice win today over Brazil. Bad first half by Holland, but nice 2nd half where we were much better, and Brazil just collapsed completely and were a mess after half-time. Lucky first goal, great 2nd goal. Van Persie absolutely worthless this tournament.

I know the dutch haven't exactly set this tournament on fire, but if ever a nation have ever deserved to win the World Cup time and time again it's them, so I'm hoping this year they can do it!

Shingster wrote:I know the dutch haven't exactly set this tournament on fire, but if ever a nation have ever deserved to win the World Cup time and time again it's them, so I'm hoping this year they can do it!

That's kinda the thing: there were times when we were really really good, and went out...

... and now we are shite, apart from the 2nd half against Brazil (which still wasn't great, but at least it showed some spirit), and we're in the semi's.

I'm not really sure if we should win. I still think Germany, Spain and Argentina are in much better form than us, so it will be very very difficult to win anyway, but unless we really REALLY show some great football in our last 2 matches, this isn't really a torunament to be 'proud' off, football-wise.

I would rather see us play gorgeous football for 5 matches orso, and then crash out and be remembered positively for having shown the world fantastic football, instead of winning it with these mediocre displays, and everything jst shrugging their shoulders and going 'it's about time'.

Sadly though, since the first option isn't available any longer, I'll settle for the 2nd one (obviously).

From the dutch perspective, at least if Arg, Germany and Spain are all in better form, only 1 of them can be an eventual problem for them.

To be honest, I think they will beat Uruguay. Yeah Holland have not played well, but at the end of the day what they will be remembered for is winning. 4 years time, if holland win this world cup, that is what will be remembered, not how mediocre they were playing. I do like holland, and of all the teams left, they are actually the ones I want to win, even though they knocked out my sweepstake team, who I thought I was odds on to win with.

I thought the Dutch were going to go thru this tournament without a good performance. Four for four mediocre performances... and then yesterday they finally stepped up a gear and beat Brazil. For the first time they looked like potential champions. About fucking time. I hope they crush U-r-gay. What a fucking disgrace. Ghana were CHEATED out of a last minute victory. Punching the ball off the line is about as low as you can get. No amount of penalty opportunities can make up for that. Suarez should be sent home in disgrace.

Suarez cheated and was rightly sent off (Ghana should have had the penalty too, thats fine) but I'm not sure it should have been a free kick.
Shame Ghana didnt score from it

Mark & Grim,what would you have done in Suarez' shoes?Stood aside and let the ball go in.?i doubt it.Correct outcome would've been to give the goal and send him off.unfortunately football's archaic rules don't allow for sensible options like that.

No not stand aside, but, ya know, maybe use a part of my body like my head to block the ball, he knowingly used his fist/hand which as you say, sending him off was right. Since the ball didnt cross the line a penalty kick was the only option.
Sadly it was a bad penalty.

grim_tales wrote:No not stand aside, but, ya know, maybe use a part of my body like my head to block the ball.

Well if he'd have that option he'd have done it.what utter bollocks.he took one for the team. A cheat-yes but show me a player who'd have done anything different in that situation.

Grim wouldn't have needed to use his hands to keep that ball out: his huge so-called 'mullet' (as Brad calls it) would have stopped any ball from going past him!

Anyway, it was an understandable action by Suarez, and many players would have done the same in that situation. 'Unfair'!? Sure. But hey, that's the rules I guess. Ball has to cross the line (and even then, you aren't sure it will count)

Germany ass-raped Argentina today!!! 4-0

As much as it was unfair and unfortunate for Ghana, I don't really blame Suarez. In a moment of desperation I doubt there would be many other players who wouldn't have done the same for their team.

If Scotland were in Uruguay's situation and a scotsman did that and got the team through, then all of scotland would be ecstatic, not saying "we shouldn't have done that. The other team should've gone through".

Joe Jordan's handball against Wales in a world cup qualifier in the late 70's was the "Maradona incident" of it's day. That was true,bona fide world class cheating at it's best.

http://sports.xin.msn.com/football-chan ... 599&page=9

it's here,watch it,the level of cheating displayed here is absolutely gobsmacking,especially what Jordan does after winning the penalty. it's around the 2:45 mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDWcuH5jacI

saltysam wrote:Mark & Grim,what would you have done in Suarez' shoes?Stood aside and let the ball go in.?i doubt it.Correct outcome would've been to give the goal and send him off.unfortunately football's archaic rules don't allow for sensible options like that.

I would have tried to head the ball off the line. Failing that I would not have used my hands. Suarez's reactions and post-match comments were outrageous.

degeneration wrote:If Scotland were in Uruguay's situation and a scotsman did that and got the team through, then all of scotland would be ecstatic, not saying "we shouldn't have done that. The other team should've gone through".

Not me. But then I never follow the crowd.

it's here,watch it,the level of cheating displayed here is absolutely gobsmacking,especially what Jordan does after winning the penalty. it's around the 2:45 mark

That was a bit before my time... but there certainly appeared to be cheating. It's hard to make out because of the poor image but it looks like the Scots player punches the ball - and gets a penalty. WTF?? Shameful reaction too.

So its Spain/Holland in the final then...

Deserved loss for Holland. We haven't been very good in this tournament and we weren't very good in this final. It's a shame Van Persie had so much credit, cause he was easily our worst player these last 7 matches. 2nd place is actually more than we deserved, if you look at how we played and the luck we've had until the final (and even in the final we still had our fair share of luck).

I think Germany was the best team of the tournament. I also think the final would have been better had they been in it.

Spain are overrated. In their last 210 mins of football they managed to score only two goals. Yawn.

True the Dutch weren't great but they weren't that much below Spain. If Robben had've taken his chances they'd be holding the trophy right now.

The ref made huge blunders by not giving key fouls to Holland and an obvious corner shortly before Spain scored.

Markgway wrote:I think Germany was the best team of the tournament. I also think the final would have been better had they been in it.

Spain are overrated. In their last 210 mins of football they managed to score only two goals. Yawn.

True the Dutch weren't great but they weren't that much below Spain. If Robben had've taken his chances they'd be holding the trophy right now.

The ref made huge blunders by not giving key fouls to Holland and an obvious corner shortly before Spain scored.

Ow yeah, obviously the ref made mistakes. it's Howard Webb. I've been surprised for years now everytime that guy gets big games. But some dutch fans were crying about the ref, and ofcourse you should cause it's a bad ref, but he's not why we lost the game. He was bad both bways. We deserved red for the de Jong sparta-kick, and also Van Bommel could have gotten a straight red for that challenge from behind and Robben could have gotten a 2nd yellow...

It's too bad, we COULD have won it, but truth be told, we just weren't very good this tournament. Yes, we were 'good' as in performing as a team, no conflicts, and just getting the points, but 'total footbal-wise', we were quite poor. And like I said, Van Persie shouldn't have been given this much trust by the manager, cause in the end, he just has never delivered.

I agree Germany played the best football of the tournament, although the game against Spain wasn't very good, and the game against Uruguay wasn't great either. But at least they played total football.

Yi-Long wrote:We deserved red for the de Jong sparta-kick, and also Van Bommel could have gotten a straight red for that challenge from behind and Robben could have gotten a 2nd yellow...

All true. Webb had a poor game. If he wasn't English the English media wouldn't be defending him.

I agree Germany played the best football of the tournament, although the game against Spain wasn't very good, and the game against Uruguay wasn't great either. But at least they played total football.

Germany were off when they played Spain. I was really disappointed. Disagree about the Uruguay game. I really enjoyed that. Would've made a nice final.