FIFA World Cup Thread

[diop]

Just came across this thread now

After a slightly disappointing display from some of the 1st round of group matches, I must say the 2nd & 3rd round of group matches have really started to light up the tournament.

As a Greek-Australian, I have just got home from watching the Greece v Argentina game at the local Greek club. Great defensive performance for 76 minutes to keep out one of the big favourites in Argentina. All in all, the most successful World Cup for Greece to date having scored their first goal in a World Cup Finals & also winning their first game.

I cant tell the difference between the two, to be honest. I beleive it was N.Korea that beat Greece right? that for me was very unexpected.

Incorrect. It was South Korea (a.k.a. Republic of Korea).

[diop]

France are gone!

What a terrible tournament for France. Riddled with controversy ever since the Henry handball against Ireland in qualifying, and progressively getting worse with every game. Good thing for them Domenech was due to leave anyway and new coach Laurent Blanc can steer them back in the right direction.

[DubSteve]

Just came across this thread now

After a slightly disappointing display from some of the 1st round of group matches, I must say the 2nd & 3rd round of group matches have really started to light up the tournament.

As a Greek-Australian, I have just got home from watching the Greece v Argentina game at the local Greek club. Great defensive performance for 76 minutes to keep out one of the big favourites in Argentina. All in all, the most successful World Cup for Greece to date having scored their first goal in a World Cup Finals & also winning their first game.

Yep correct, I'm greek also and I knew that we had a small chance but I wasn't really holding my breath. Greece's last two games were 100% better than there first and had a massive improvement. Argentina were just way to strong against the Greeks, Messi ran rings around them. I can honestly say that Argentina look to be the favourites at the moment and have been the only country that looks decent when they get on the pitch!

Other than that all the other teams really can really go in any direction!!!

[GeorgeMK1]

Can't beleive Tim Cahill didnt get a red card for that hand ball in this mornings match. IMO Serbia should have won that much however they didnt take enough risks.

I was in the city from 12 to 7am just to watch the game, and yet Serbia looses, ahaha what a waste of time.

[diop]

I thought Australia thoroughly deserved their win! Came out fighting especially in the 2nd half and took their chances. Pity the other result didn't go our way.

And what a match between Slovakia & Italy tonight! Well done to Slovakia for taking the game to the Italians and coming away with a win. Great stuff.

[maca]

WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT! Italy played like ****ing children in a sand box. Kicking the ball to empty space? Lack of strategy as well as poor communication cost them any advancements and all I can say is that they deserved to lose. The World Cup is the real deal and you can't go in there expecting to win because you're the previous champions.

Slovakia truly surprised me tonight. They had good ball handling, good strategy therefore resulting in their win. If they keep playing like that, they've got a good chance at the Cup.

[diop]

I have to agree with you maca, despite my Italian friends thinking Italy were somehow robbed by the referee due to poor offside calls. Italy needed to play as they did in the last 10 minutes for at least the whole 2nd half to ensure they won. Having said that, an extra 5 or 10 minutes and Italy would have almost certainly scored another goal.

What I found quite odd was the possibility that if Slovakia-Italy ended 1-1, as well as the Paraguay-New Zealand game ending 1-1, Italy & New Zealand would have been equal on points, number or wins/draws, goals for & against, even on the head to head result...which according to FIFA rules the only way of deciding who progresses to the next round is via a coin toss. Surely this rule needs to be changed/looked at more closely to avoid any such future scenarios, when we came reasonably close to it tonight.

[maca]

I'll admit Italy was robbed from their first potential goal but you're right. They needed to play with turbo (as opposed to Vittek yo) but instead, they walked in with a big head and not a care in the world. To date we're still the world champions, but they certainly didn't deserve to win this game with the attiude they had.

[Bboy_Sparx]

They needed to play with turbo (as opposed to Vittek yo)

I must have made reference to this at least 5 times during the game... Haha

[maca]

I must have made reference to this at least 5 times during the game... Haha

I'm not sure if you're aware of the Dolce Vitq at Milton up here, but is basically Italia central especially around this time of the year. I had some stupid Aussie mates that kept screaming it out, I swear they were gonna get rolled