Zidane's Headbutt Discussion and also some stuff on that FIFA World Cup 2006 thing

[Doomie]

I don't know what to say about Totti though. He's got talent, but I just don't like him. And by the way Psy, Italy, like they've done so many times before, took out their best player (Toni) and replaced him with the aged DP. Much like WE9 likes to take out Ronaldinho and put in Diego.

[Psychotic]

Oh, I'm going to go on a Pro Evo tangent and I just can't help it.

He's always in my pro evo team and i always try to buy him on Football Manager, even it does mean i go in debt, i've only succeded in buying him once.

In my Master League, possibly the most interesting transfer I have ever seen was when Liverpool and AC Milan traded Kaka and Gerrard.

Much like WE9 likes to take out Ronaldinho and put in Diego.

I dropped Diego from the Brazil squad as soon as I could, purely because of his absolutely disturbing face on the game. Seriously, go into edit player mode and then Brazil, and then zoom in on the guy's face. Creepy.

Things went wild in Australia last night... couldnt believe the result, 3 goals in 8 minutes was crazily more than i expected. Now that we have the confidence, maybe we can cause brazil some problems!! HAHAHA im so happy!!!!

I actually thought of you when Australia won. Congrats, but you'll be lucky to beat Brazil in the same way, although I hope you can

[Russielloyd]

Also forgot to say, Kaka already has a World Cup medal, l0l. Thats some thing to have when your 20!

Have you got a patched version on Pro Evo, i got mine for the PS2. Every single correct kits, faces, chants, flags, logos, the lot, it's awesome.

[Psychotic]

Nah, I edited the entire thing myself. Took ages, but I enjoyed doing it.

But it looks extremely realistic so there we go.

[-N-]

I was simply stunned after watching the USA's horrific lackluster performance. I don't know how FIFA ranked them #5, and I don't know how those rankings work, but regardless of rank, that was simply the least energetic team I've ever seen. Jan Koller's 5 minute goal only succeeded because the man is huge, but Rocisky's brilliant strikes ensured the better team won. I still can't believe he made that shot from like 30 meters away. Simply astounding.

If the USA wants a decent crack at moving on, they need to pick up the pace of their game and consistently apply pressure. And maybe actually care about the game. And their first touches were absolutely terrible. The only reason they had ~60% possession was because they had to keep passing back to Keller because they couldn't even break past the Czech midfield half the time. The States had some good scoring moves in the late second half but the Czech defense was all too prepared.

I'm surprised there aren't that many posts slamming the States - the New Zealand commentator was over-critical of them (to the point of bias), in fact. I suppose it's to be expected, but hearing it defintely added insult to injury.

[tomamar04]

I was simply stunned after watching the USA's horrific lackluster performance. I don't know how FIFA ranked them #5, and I don't know how those rankings work, but regardless of rank, that was simply the least energetic team I've ever seen. Jan Koller's 5 minute goal only succeeded because the man is huge, but Rocisky's brilliant strikes ensured the better team won. I still can't believe he made that shot from like 30 meters away. Simply astounding.

If the USA wants a decent crack at moving on, they need to pick up the pace of their game and consistently apply pressure. And maybe actually care about the game. And their first touches were absolutely terrible. The only reason they had ~60% possession was because they had to keep passing back to Keller because they couldn't even break past the Czech midfield half the time. The States had some good scoring moves in the late second half but the Czech defense was all too prepared.

I'm surprised there aren't that many posts slamming the States - the New Zealand commentator was over-critical of them (to the point of bias), in fact. I suppose it's to be expected, but hearing it defintely added insult to injury.

They work the rankings out by how many matches a team wins, and how important that match is. USA is so highly ranked because the only decent side they play outside of the World Cup is Mexico.

Everything was poor about the USA performance yesterday, they had a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left! But a lot of credit has to go to Rosicky, two great goals.

There aren't that many posts slamming them because tbh, I think many European based fans never really thought they stood a chance in the first place.

[Resha]

South Korea 0 -- 1 Togo. This makes me glad; go tiny Togo! South Korea just didn't attack well the first half an hour at all, and they've only picked up a bit of pace after the Togolese goal. I think Togo have the potentially to be really dangerous is they sat back less and really drove forward in offence -- so far their free kicks and corners taken have been more threatening than that of South Korea's. But we'll see. It's a very physical game.

[Spatvark]

South Korea 2 : 1 Togo
A pretty poor game overall really, though what the hell the Togo coach thought he was doing with his tactics in the second half after the sending off. Togo had next to no midfield presence which made it a lot easier for S. Korea to get their equaliser, which was pretty good I'll admit. But still, neither side played particularly well, the passes and tackles were sloppy for both teams and the final distribution was poor too.

Still though, we should have two more interesting matches coming up today, France vs Switzerland followed by Brazil vs Croatia. I'm expecting a lot more goals =D~

[Doomie]

Go Klasnic.

[Croyles]

I want switzerland to win!

[Cz]

Right, here goes...

Australia Japan was perhaps the best contested game of the tournament so far. Japan's goal was iffy, but they were denied a clear penalty at the other end, so the decisions balanced out. Tim Cahill popped up with two well taken goals to seal it for the Aussies, but I think a 3-1 scoreline is somewhat unfair on the Japanese.

The Czechs were totally dominant from start to finish in their match against the USA. Anyone who wants to see why the USA are undeserving of their high ranking should look at their performance in this game. They were little more than a competent team unit, and were outclassed by the Czechs all over the field. I've always thought Rosicky was somewhat overrated, but he really impressed me here, and the Czechs as a whole put in the best performance of the copmpetition so far, for me. Losing Koller could be a huge blow, but if Baros is on his Euro 2004 form then it should stop them from going a long way. Let the records show that Jan Koller's 5th minute header was also the first goal I've missed of this tournament. School is mean.

Italy really didn't impress me in the first half, failing to really subdue the Ghanaians in midfield. Fortunately for them, Ghana suffer from the same difficulty as the other African nations in this tournament; they simply haven't got anyone who can reliably stick the ball in the back of the net. The contrast between Italy and Ghana in terms of finishing was astonishing, and meant that once Italy did go ahead the result was pretty secure. From that point onwards Itally controlled the game and were a much better side. Notoriously slow starters, I'd expect them to do a much better job against the USA, and realy get into their stride as the tournament progresses.

Togo turned the rule-book on its head by actually having someone who could strike a ball in their team, as exhibited by their superbly taken first goal. The Koreans were completely devoid of vision in the first half, and showed just how fortunate they were to make it to the semis last time. The sending-off (absolutely correct, by the way) was undoubtedly the turning point, and after that South Korea had the momentum. Sadly, I think that's Togo's hopes of qualification done for, but to be honest I can't see either of these teams going anywhere this year.

I'm very interested to see how the French perform against Switzerland. They're capable of just about anything at present, and this game will show us whether they'll be a force to be reckoned with, or crash and burn early on.

[Russielloyd]

Plus USA didn't have the mighty Friedel in goal, so they were bound to get stuffed! Thats what got them to the quarter finals four years ago.

[Spatvark]

France 0 : 0 Switzerland (HT)
Not a bad first half, though the Swiss are really unlucky to not be 1:0 up after the excellent free kick setting Fry up at the back post. France on the other hand, whilst looking dangerous up front, have lacked a decent final pass into the box. They've had a few good chances were Henry or Ribery could have scored, but have let their fans down so far. The second half promises to be good though.

[Resha]

Horrible heart-stopping shot that hit the post by Frei. France, too, have had a fair number of chances to score, and yet haven't done so. There's the one Viera muffed, and most of Henry's shot have (thus far) lacked conviction, so to speak, and so made easy saves for the goalie. Any critic of Zidane could be somewhat silenced, because he has put in some class passes and created some great chances for France around the box.

Is it me or is the French defence looking kinda messy at times? Once or twice they've managed to completely make a hash of things, clearing the ball with some difficulty, and one example of this is their reaction to the Frei shot.

[Russielloyd]

France 0
Switzeland 0

This match is the most boring match i've seen so far, deffinately not good!

They say Henry isn't as good for France as he is for Arsenal, that's because he has to play with these French moronic players, they do nothing to help him, no player can do it on his own, no matter how good he is.

Also people going on how Zidane is still great, he's way past it, along with Viera and Thuram.

The arguing between Zidane, Thuram and Gallas summed it all up really, France are useless, if anything Switzerland deserved to win!

Only thing good about this match was the final whistle.