Where's the thread to predict World Cup winner?

[mr1303]

I'm pleased to say I didn't watch any of the match at all. I found myself a nice outdoor swimming pool, and there were hardly any men there at all, just lots and lots of bronzed women in bikinis.

 

Much a better idea.

[helene_t]

The bridge clubs have a skewed sex ratio these days, too.Not sure if it would be appreciated if I showed up in bikini, though.

[P_Marlowe]

Is this Neo Nazi stuff just a very few bored young drunk kids with time on their hands and overblown or is there real anger. If real anger, who is angry and anger at what?

No hope, no future.

There are areas in Eastern Germany with an

official unemployment rate of 25%, official means,

that lots of people dont get count in the statistics.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

[sceptic]

a lot of the hooligans in the UK are in their 30's and 40's which kind of dispells the thought it is bored drunk kids

[the saint]

As usual the World Cup is being spoiled by shocking refs who haven't got a clue and just want to be the star of the show. The only decent game of the tournament so far was Argentina-Ivory Coast (not Germany-Costa Rica a couple of long range strikes notwithstanding, the quality from both sides was lacking), no-one else has bothered to play any football yet. FIFA need to clamp down on players going down as if they are shot and then getting up 5 seconds later as fresh as a daisy. This is a man's game FFS. Cheating is the lowest form of behaviour and this along with the diving has to stop. Gerrard and Crouch's bookings were a total joke. England played OK in the first half, were shocking in the second (Sven substituting us back to the stone ages again - Hargreaves, what exactly is the point of him?), but I defy anyone to play a decent high-tempo game under those conditions.

 

Solution to improve it? Champions League only refs and play it in Spring or Autumn when players can run for 90 minutes without fear of dehydrating themselves into a coma just so FIFA can maximise on the TV ratings. People will watch if the show is good.

[mike777]

I am a bit perplexed, is Sir John French the general in charge of the English again?

[Walddk]

After 3 days of the World Cup it has been disappointment upon disappointment in my view. The most positive so far was the heroic fight of Trinidad & Tobago to earn a draw against Sweden.

 

... and then there was Arjen Robben!

 

As a whole: it can only get better and that also applies to the referees. Most of the 8 matches have been boring beyond belief. Ronaldinho, Ronaldo & Co., where are you? We miss you desperately!

 

Roland

[Aberlour10]

well done Aussie :ph34r:

[Deanrover]

That was a good game. Nice to see our younger brothers doign so well :ph34r:

[mike777]

To my novice eyes the USA seemed to be alseep today! This was the second most experienced team in the World Cup! This is the best we got?

 

I listen to the expert commentary and they seem to say nothing but root root for the home team....

 

Have they never heard of analyzing the play or overall plan of attack or defense?

Do they even have plays or do the just run up and down the field and play random football and shoot it into the 6'8"" guy? The commentary was terrible.

Geez bring in some baseball experts at least they talk about strategy.

 

It seemed like our guys just wanted to get off the field and hit the Geman Pubs. I thought the object was to put the ball in the net, yes? It seemed we kicked the ball back to our goal more than towards their goal? Did their goal keeper even have a tough stop today?

 

Perhaps the one commentary said it best...Just forget this game ever happened..., .eliminate it!!!!!!!!!!! as the Daleks would yell out.

[the saint]

As I predicted the USA's play was its usual one-dimensional self and the inventiveness of Rosicky and Nedved tore them apart and showed what a mockery the US's FIFA ranking is. The canny Italians utilise the sweet passing of Totti and Pirlo to do the same to Ghana.

 

The fact is, plain and simple, that all these super-fit athletic teams like the US and the Africans haven't got the slightest bit of genuine footballing nous that is required at this level. Examine the decent teams and you have a Riquelme, Ronaldinho, Robben, Totti, Pirlo, Rosicky, Beckham, Cole, Kaka, Zidane etc who can unpick the lock. All this honest huff and puff is useless against a well marshalled defence, and quite frankly its incredibly boring to watch too.

[mike777]

I am a bit at a loss this is the world cup and they are inventing stuff? Good grief what was invented, do our guys never watch film and see this stuff before?

This seems to like saying wow a finesse...never saw that play before..wow..

 

Again what the heck are the plays and what is the defensive play to counter it?

You seem to say the USA is just as fast and strong, I do not know.....

If the other players just have more natural talent so be it.....

but having no plays or defense or saying wow I never saw most of that before just seems to be incompetence on the part of the coaches.

[the saint]

For 90+% of the time, football is a dynamic moving game relying on natural inventiveness. There is a limit to what a coach can do in these situations. He may have a general attacking or defensive scheme - and have suggested areas or 'plays' that may have success, but beyond that it is up to his 11 men to play the game themselves. There is too much of a lag from the coach giving instructions relative to the movement of the players. Thus it relies on the individual instincts of the players to produce goalscoring chances. This has little to do with technique or fitness, but relies on vision or 'reading the game' to anticipate such events occuring before they do and acting on that supposition.

 

The remainder of the game - corners, free-kicks and the like where the game is static is akin to American Football and the teams will have a number of pre-planned plays they may try to execute, but within a few seconds, the play has become dynamic again.

 

Quite simply, the US team lacks inventiveness.

[mike777]

"Thus it relies on the individual instincts of the players to produce goalscoring chances. This has little to do with technique or fitness, but relies on vision or 'reading the game' to anticipate such events occuring before they do and acting on that supposition."

 

To my novice football ears this sounds like a huge area of improvement that could be brought to the game. It seems coaching and teaching 'reading the game' should be very possible in many of these dynamic situations. In addition I would think players relying on technique and fitness over players relying on natural instinct would win most of the time.

 

I guess I am arguing that coaching, teaching, fitness and technique should overcome/beat inventiveness in players at the World Cup Level.

 

Of course there is always room for the true and rare gifted superstar but I would think a team of 11 very good, well coached players on the field should beat the one gifted rare superstar everyday.

[the saint]

"Thus it relies on the individual instincts of the players to produce goalscoring chances. This has little to do with technique or fitness, but relies on vision or 'reading the game' to anticipate such events occuring before they do and acting on that supposition."

 

To my novice football ears this sounds like a huge area of improvement that could be brought to the game. It seems coaching and teaching 'reading the game' should be very possible in many of these dynamic situations. In addition I would think players relying on technique and fitness over players relying on natural instinct would win most of the time.

 

I guess I am arguing that coaching, teaching, fitness and technique should overcome/beat inventiveness in players at the World Cup Level.

 

Of course there is always room for the true and rare gifted superstar but I would think a team of 11 very good, well coached players on the field should beat the one gifted rare superstar everyday.

I think I could have phrased it better. All the players have very good fitness and technique, just that very few have that little bit extra-special - that is mostly uncoachable. Reading a game has little to do with technique insofar as it is a mental aptitude some players are better at than others, but it still requires sublime technique to exploit fully.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

 

do you remember who won the european championship 2004

in Portugal?

 

Was it Greece?

And did teams play, which clearly were more inventive

than Greece? E.g. there was a team with Nedved and Rosicky,

clearly the best team in Portugal, and there was the home team

Portugal, a team they describe in Portugal as the "Golden Generation".

 

You are right, teams with inventive players have an advantage,

but that can be matched by team spirit and the will to fight and

run and following laid out tacticts.

The Greek players used old fashioned methods to kill the

superstars of the opposite team, and it worked.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

 

PS: I know that Greece does not play in Germany, but that does not

negate the above made statements.

 

PSS: Soccer is about a whole team, and there are lots of inventive players,

but only a few know, that they also have to work hard sometimes.

A great example is Zidane, who is a great player and a great team player.

There are lots of teams out there, who play "nice", but they will never

win, because they dont know, how to fight.

[slothy]

didnt even know World Cup was on!

[GeeGee]

The bridge clubs have a skewed sex ratio these days, too.Not sure if it would be appreciated if I showed up in bikini, though.

Nor if I did. Though lots of the members at my club have a sense of humour

 

Geoff

 

As it happens, though it's been really dull so far, I reckon that for us English fans, it will get really exciting just up to the point where we lose out on the penalty shoot-out....

 

Also, I am very unhappy as a Middlesbrough supporter since the 1950's when Brian Clough was centre-forward (centre-forward, what's that?), that our best manager ever, Steve Mclaren, is being promoted to be the next Engand manager failure.

 

Perhaps I'm just disillusioned

[the saint]

Hi,

 

do you remember who won the european championship 2004

in Portugal?

 

Was it Greece?

And did teams play, which clearly were more inventive

than Greece? E.g. there was a team with Nedved and Rosicky,

clearly the best team in Portugal, and there was the home team

Portugal, a team they describe in Portugal as the "Golden Generation".

 

You are right, teams with inventive players have an advantage,

but that can be matched by team spirit and the will to fight and

run and following laid out tacticts.

The Greek players used old fashioned methods to kill the

superstars of the opposite team, and it worked.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

 

PS: I know that Greece does not play in Germany, but that does not

negate the above made statements.

 

PSS: Soccer is about a whole team, and there are lots of inventive players,

but only a few know, that they also have to work hard sometimes.

A great example is Zidane, who is a great player and a great team player.

There are lots of teams out there, who play "nice", but they will never

win, because they dont know, how to fight.

Yes I do remember Euro 2004. Greece did win by playing to their limits within a constrained system. The fact is also that Greece were outplayed throughout the whole of that tournament but the better sides simply failed to take their chances. Credit to Greece though for taking the one chance per match they did create.

[paulg]

Another poor game from England but at least they got the result ... in the end.

 

I do find it pretty incredible that we have two of the better midfield players in the world, Gerrard and Lampard, who appear to be completely emasculated by the system Eriksson plays. Actually I am more amazed that this is always been the case and it never seems to change unless one of them is injured. Gerrard showed what he can do when he's is allowed in the opposition's half and I'd much rather see him, or Lampard, playing with Carrick as the holding player.

 

And now we'll know what to do against Sweden (draw or lose, we never win) in order to avoid Germany in the next round.

 

Paul

[mike777]

I read where England does not have to be celibate anymore,,,,wow modern training techniques.

[the saint]

THe England WAGS (Wives and Girlfriends) lead by Queen Posh and her colleagues Cheryl 'Slapper (In A Guildford Nightclub, allegedly)' Tweedy and Coleen 'Empress Chavette in waiting' McCloughlin have got more press than the players.

 

As for the footy, we are playing total sh1te, but we are still winning. England are always atrocious in the group stages - usually prior to our heroic but ultimately doomed defeat at some point in the quarter-finals. Its a mark of good sides that they win even when playing badly. On the plus side, probably Sven's best game for England. He actually made some positive subs (hurray, no Hargreaves) and we looked better for it.

[Walddk]

Its a mark of good sides that they win even when playing badly.

You are winning needles and pins and no sympathy from the rest of the world. Hopefully this will collapse sooner rather than later and all your agony will be over. The performance until the 82nd minute was insultingly poor.

 

Each player should donate £50,000 to charity. By the way, who is Michael Owen? His name appeared in the line-up, but he wasn't on the pitch.

 

"I'll be the World Cup top scorer", he said to BBC yesterday. What a joke.

 

Roland

[GeeGee]

But again, as a Middlesbrough supporter, I was pleased that Stewart Downing had a chance to have his moments. I thought he did well in the short time he had.

[Gerardo]

Enjoying the day.