[jon boy]

i reckon france is gonna mess up and concede an early goal with no come back. you can never rule them out but they seem so unorganized.

[the ikara cult]

Originally Posted by Keeping It Simple

I don't want to rain on the England supporter's parade, but not one single Premiership manager said England will win it. Most of them said Brazil will win it, closely followed by Spain.

I knew I shouldnt have disagreed with every pundit, writer, bookie and fan who's been commentating on this for the last 6 months, id decided to dismiss them all and put my house on England until I read what you had to say. And gosh darn it, you might have just saved my life with this stark, sober, razor-sharp analysis. Thanks!

And also, 1 match, 1 correct prediction... I should probably quit while im ahead.

[demonrail666]

I felt like I was going against the majority of the world in wanting Mexico to win.

I've decided that, England aside, I'm gonna support countries based on my food preferences. So Mexico are now my 'second' team.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I felt like I was going against the majority of the world in wanting Mexico to win.

I've decided that, England aside, I'm gonna support countries based on my food preferences. So Mexico are now my 'second' team.

depends what part of the world you're talking about. in these time zones most people are for mexico.

so who do you go for in escargot vs uruguayan churrasco?

ribery is being effectively suppresed on the left by victorino, but forlan+suarez can't get their shit together (except for that 1 shot by forlan which was a lone effort)-- uruguay is playing too far back & letting france make all the plays. if something doesn't change, uruguay is going to get fucked eventually, like anelka almost did near the end. best player of the game so far is muslera, great job stopping that deadly free kick.

random note: uruguay+france = lautréamont

[!@#$%!]

nishimura: ASSHOLE!

way to fuck up evra's expulsion and give france a "free" free kick at the last minute. the game almost got out of hand due to his bad calls.

mothefuckers like this ruin the game, holy fuck.

ireland, i feel your pain.

well, uruguay showed a lot of balls defending. holy shit that was a tense end of the game.

/deep breaths

[o o o]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

random note: uruguay+france = lautréamont

...+ Jules Supervielle + Jules Laforgue... there is apparently a monument in Montevideo in honour of the three french(-uruguayan) poets born in Montevideo, but i've never seen it, as i've never been there... but yeah, i guess the "Count" is nowadays the more famous of the three (and the only one i've really read to be honest).

 

...also Uruguay + France = Elli Medeiros... from Elli et Jacno (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAGpvd9yK6s & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_7dbaQ4QA) and also the Stinky Toys (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HxcDY-ea4s & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz3ZCKBb2jo)

hmm... regarding the game, i guess it was result i would have predicted if i was forced to... 0-0 just like the last two Uruguay-France, if i'm not mistaken...

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

so who do you go for in escargot vs uruguayan churrasco?

ribery is being effectively suppresed on the left by victorino, but forlan+suarez can't get their shit together (except for that 1 shot by forlan which was a lone effort)-- uruguay is playing too far back & letting france make all the plays. if something doesn't change, uruguay is going to get fucked eventually, like anelka almost did near the end. best player of the game so far is muslera, great job stopping that deadly free kick.

random note: uruguay+france = lautréamont

It's weird, in the run up to the game I was tentatively backing France, but almost as soon as it actually started I found myself edging more and more towards Uraguay. I'm surprised Domenech hasn't been assasinated in France by now. He seems set on doing all he can to nullify whatever actual quality France has. Certainly no team that has Ribéry, Malouda and Anelka in it should ever be as bad as that.

Forlan was man of the match for me, by miles. Although that's probably because his only realistic competition was the referee who I honestly thought had a really good game.

Right now I'd heavily fancy S'th Africa and Mexico's chances against both Uraguay and France.

I'm so looking forward to tomorrow now. England Vs USA, the Maradona freakshow vs Nigeria. AWESOME!

Oh, and I'm ditching my food thing. I foresee far too many moral conflicts.

[o o o]

and the opening game... during the first few minutes, i had the impression this would be a long and hard game for South Africa and that they would suffer a lot to avoid defeat, but in the end they did quite well (erm, from what i've seen, i was at work, so did not pay 100% attention to the live streaming running on my computer)...

and i had tshabalala in my team! unfortunately the 5 points he got for scoring were offset against a minus 4 as "attacking bonus" (this is new, I believe?), apparently because he gave away too many balls to the opponents... also there is no more "man of the game" bonus, right?

[SonicBebs]

i thought the ref was really good too

and for the 1st time i found myself agreeing with Mark Lawrencunt, why oh why didn't Domenech put Ribery on one wing and Malouda on the other with Anelka and Henry up front? Unbelievable

After England i'm supporting Japan and Holland

[!@#$%!]

there was no foul for the final free kick! it was a totally gratuitous setup! and evra got away with murder, he should have gotten a 2nd yellow card circa min 65! i call bullshit!

[demonrail666]

Exactly. Both in terms of Lawrenson not being a prick and Domenech just being weird.

I'd have still started with Anelka over Henry but Malouda had to start, if only so he and Anelka could link up like they do at Chelsea. Apparently Malouda had a bit of a bust up with Domenech in training, so that might account for it. We need the French contingent here to shed some light on matters.

And Uraguay seem to be the dictionary definition of a one-man team. With Forlan, they're barely average. Without him, God knows.

Holland and Japan ah? Mine are probably Holland, Mexico and Argentina, although I'll probably start rooting for one of gthe aftican teams too, once I've seen them all play.

It's gonna be fascinating tomorrow, to see if the USA start winding up Rooney. I really do think that has all the makings of a great great match.

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

there was no foul for the final free kick! it was a totally gratuitous setup! and evra got away with murder, he should have gotten a 2nd yellow card circa min 65! i call bullshit!

I'll be honest, I didn't notice any controversy with those. Maybe your coverage picked it up better than ours. I'll have a look at the highlights. On the whole though, in both matches, I thought the referees did fine. Not that either game was particularly bad tempered. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with teams like Argentina or Italy, neither of whom, I think it's fair to say, are the most altruistic of sides.

[gualbert]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I'm surprised Domenech hasn't been assasinated in France by now. He seems set on doing all he can to nullify whatever actual quality France has.

Maybe he does it in purpose, to avenge from the way he is treated in the media (that is, like shit!).
It seems everyone here has forgotten that he has led France in final in 06.
Or, more likely, since 98, it's 'normal' that France win the world cup, and 06 is considered as a failure.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

And Uraguay seem to be the dictionary definition of a one-man team. With Forlan, they're barely average. Without him, God knows.

URUguay.

i disagree with this. they have a good defense-- they've always been a team that's strong on defense, and plays rough (as proven today). they are not an extraordinary team by all means, they qualified only in the... "repechaje", i don't know how you call this in english, but they didn't make it in the south american group and had to play costa rica from the shitty concacaf group in order to make it. but they are capable of playing well. it's their offense that hasn't gelled, hence forlan was the lone attacker. suarez disappointed. but i think they can beat mexico, as mexico has a better offensive midfield but is rather ineffectual when it's time to score. uruguay is the opposite (or should be, if their star strikers get their shit together). today their midfield really sucked on the attack but did ok on containing france, & their best player was the goalkeeper. let's see what develops though, south africa was way improved in the 2nd half and i now see some hope for them.

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I'll be honest, I didn't notice any controversy with those. Maybe your coverage picked it up better than ours. I'll have a look at the highlights. On the whole though, in both matches, I thought the referees did fine. Not that either game was particularly bad tempered. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with teams like Argentina or Italy, neither of whom, I think it's fair to say, are the most altruistic of sides.

it's not in most "highlights", but as soon as it's up on youtube i'll pin it down for you & you can judge. here they repeated it & showed closeups of the fouls & bad calls. this is not to forgive that hatchet job on sagna, by the way, which deserved a red card on its own.

ok, see here:

http://www.fifa.com/live/competition...453/index.html

go to "play by play" tab & see in min 64 "evra concedes a free kick"-- that was a yellow card offense and the ref "forgave" him. there were other fuckups, but i didn't record the video to point them out.

the first set of referees (from uzbekistan or krygistan, i forget) were impeccable, very nice job.

ok see you guys tomorrow for argentina nigeria. no offense to greece, but i'm not waking up at 5am to watch them play korea.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by gualbert

Maybe he does it in purpose, to avenge from the way he is treated in the media (that is, like shit!).
It seems everyone has forgotten that he has led France in final in 06.
Or, more likely, since 98, it's 'normal' that France win the world cup, and 06 is considered as a failure.

From what I understand, Zidane practically dragged that team to the final in 06, in spite of Domenech. That he lost the dressing room and that the players were basically following Zidane instead of him. I don't know if that's true but lgoing on today's performance it wouldn't surprise me if it was - and also that it might happen again, with someone like Henry effectively running the show.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

URUguay.

i disagree with this. they have a good defense-- they've always been a team that's strong on defense, and plays rough (as proven today). they are not an extraordinary team by all means, they qualified only in the... "repechaje", i don't know how you call this in english, but they didn't make it in the south american group and had to play costa rica from the shitty concacaf group in order to make it. but they are capable of playing well. it's their offense that hasn't gelled, hence forlan was the lone attacker. suarez disappointed. but i think they can beat mexico, as mexico has a better offensive midfield but is rather ineffectual when it's time to score. uruguay is the opposite (or should be, if their star strikers get their shit together).

I bow to you entirely there. I was only able to judge them on that game, during which, as you also say, their midfield had no attack. Although I don't know if France really took much containing today. I think you're absolutely spot on about Mexico though.

Sincere apologies on the UrUguay front.

ok, see here:

http://www.fifa.com/live/competition...453/index.html

go to "play by play" tab & see in min 64 "evra concedes a free kick"-- that was a yellow card offense and the ref "forgave" him. there were other fuckups, but i didn't record the video to point them out.

OK, fair enough, but you'd have to agree that overall the people most responsible for screwing things up in that game were the twenty-two/one players on the pitch and one coach. It was a deserved 0-0 for me.

[pokkeherrie]

I also think the refereeing has been very good so far. No incorrect offside decisions yet. If I had to think of any criticism at all, then it would be the referee from the first game (from Uzbekistan I think?) giving 1 or 2 easy free kicks to the host nation, but nothing serious. As an avid follower of the Uzbekistani league I certainly expected the refereeing to be a lot worse.

Perhaps the Japanese ref from the second match should've given Lodeiro a straight red instead of a second yellow, but I didn't spot any bad calls involving Evra. I might have missed it though, I'll admit to not paying full attention towards the end of the game... it was way too boring for that.

Suarez (35 goals in the Dutch league this season) was very disappointing indeed. France lacking creativity, but not as bad as I had expected them to be. And who knows, in 2006 they were godawful in the first few games as well, but then from the 2nd round on (game against Spain) it started to roll.

[Bertrand]

The Domenech thing:
The bust up with Malouda seemingly occured when RD asked him to play on one wing and Ribéry on the other. It is strange. Ribéry wants to play on the left flank. Malouda never played on the right.
Malouda said today that the altercation happened in training. He played too aggressively and that wasn't appreciated, by Evra and Domenech. Evra might be overacting as new captain. Too demanding.
Malouda added that the bust up was not one, and that Diaby being selected instead was no sanction.

Now, Diaby has been a good player since the warm ups. He was a sub and offered the assist on France's second goal against Costa Rica, 270 minutes ago.
So it could be the truth.

Anyhow, Domenech not sanctioning Malouda (by rushing him back to his homeland, like Ireland did to Roy Keane) can be seen as weakness.
Back in '06, he was deprived of his share of plaudits by former champions Dugarry, Lizarazu and others.

Domenech reckoned that he was focused on the tournament but alledged that the day after the final, no longer France coach, he will burn up immediately.

It seems the team as a team cannot cope with the pressure; everyone's dealing with his own load of responsibility. That ain't good.

I thought the result was OK. The team isn't as hopeless as it could have been. The game was not a shame - I remember France-Romania in '08, that was crap tactics.

I look forward to South Africa's next game.

[pokkeherrie]

^Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on the French squad, Bertrand! All I can find out about them from the Dutch newspapers usually involves prostitutes and hotels that are deemed too expensive.


About Fantasy football, work was just too busy yesterday, so sadly I didn't have the time anymore to optimise my initial squad. So now I'm stuck with the one I had quickly thrown together earlier without putting much thought into it.

Luckily I managed to take Nani out in time for the deadline, but I didn't even know that Bernard Parker is no longer first choice for South Africa... Oh well, that's what free transfers are for. All in all it's not a bad squad I think.

[!@#$%!]

awesome goal by heinze.
enyeama had a nice save or messi would have made it 2-0
jonas didnt deserve yellow card-- there was no contact
on the other hand odiah fouled messi he was attacking and should have received one-- which is why heinze almost lost his temper. taiwo seems to be everywhere. when argentina doesnt put pressure it becomes vulnerable-- i think it boils down to who gets tired first-- if it's argentina, nigeria could get deadly.

[!@#$%!]

shit, argentina should have scored more, but enyeama was really awesome

also think maradona should had made his changes earlier cuz with fresh players nigeria got dangerous. higuain was taken out but velez was kinda nowhere. jonas was rock solid, ran around all 90 minutes and was everywhere. his role will probably be underrated.

and a pity teiwa got injured-- they said it was the new ball, too light, that when he kicked didn't provide enough counterweight and he fucked his knee. his replacement uche really fucked up his chance to score.

these 2 teams qualify fo' sho'-- unless south korea surprises, but i don't really think so. fucking tae kwon do-- they could break someone's leg.