FIFA: Germany 2006

[Splash!]

Spain Clobbered Ukraine with a 4-0 win. This game was really fun to watch and you could tell from the beginning that it was a going to be a high scoring game. So much for the mighty Shevchenko, even he wasnt enough to stand in the way of Ukraine being bulldozed. Just goes to show that one really doesnt stand for anything if you dont have a good team to back it up.

Also Saudi Arabia tied 2-2 with Tunisia. A decent game with good play from both sides.

Finally, Germany beat Poland 1-0 with the goal scored in the 91st minute by Oliver Neuville, who came on in the second half. It was heartbreaking to watch Poland try to hang in there till the end with several wonderful saves made by the Polish goalkeeper and have their hopes of advancing shattered at the very end. But in the end Germany finally got one in.
I did not get the chance to watch Germany's first game and was consequently expecting them to show an amazing performance against poland after having heard so many people praise the Germans. However, i was not particularly overwhelmed by their performance. They played sloppy at best and were having real trouble getting past the Polish defence. The presence of Ballack did not make much of a difference either. Although the Germans have probably done enough by this point to have made it to the second round, i think they will have to perform much better than they did today to be able to live up to the hopes of the German fans.

[DB_Hunter]

The first game Germany played showed that Germany have a lot of work to do in defence... work that can't be done in the short timespan that they have in the world cup. Although I didn't see their match against Poland (except the injury time in the second when the goal came), the review of the match centered mainly on the many German attempts on the Polish goal, which shows Germany played well. It remains to be seen how they fare against better opposition.

The Saudi Arabia vs Tunisia match wasn't really a spectacular affair, as expected from the game. Jaziri's goal was very good though. He had to strike the ball in an awkward manner, and he did well to keep it down.

Tomorrow England play Trinadad and Tobago. T&T will no doubt play a very physical game, and it should give Eriksson some food for thought as to whether or not he should play Rooney in the second half or not. England should perform better, as the will now be playing in the late afternoon/early evening and the heat should have subsided by then.

[Xollence]

BE A RED! TE HA MING GOOK!

i actually thought korea was going to lose. i mean they were up against a very good team, but i guess they didn't put their all in it this year, but today were some seriously good matches. had fun and got drunk at the same time, so early in the morning, though..

Hehe we all watched it at work. My whole company went crazy when Korea won.

[Jadugar]

Spain vs Ukraine :

The match was one sided. Spain was really on top of their game.

Saudi Arabia vs Tunisia

This game was really exciting. Although they were both inexperienced teams but they both tried their best. The game was also fast paced but the attacks were not very planned. SA was going to win but the goal at the end ruined their victory. Oh well, a draw is not that bad.

Germany vs Poland :

One of the most exciting matches so far.

I don’t particularly like Germany but boy did they put a show on.

I watched Brazil play yesterday put they were lacking their usual magic but Germany excelled. They went for the goal till the end. I must commend them for their performance. Ballack really didn’t shine in this game. He was playing mostly in the midfield. The moral of the team didn’t go down the whole time. They were not going to settle down for a draw. The carried their fight till the end and finally broke through Poland’s defense. The last tries were really good and exciting to watch. I like an aggressive team who put their marks on the whole game and take it their way rather than waiting for something to happen.

Looking forward to England’s match tomorrow.

To be or not to be……..

Will he(Rooney) play?

[Psyke]

Rooney claims to be fit although I'm quite certain Eriksson's not gonna risk him, since England's pretty much comfortable with where they are at the moment. I'll be impressed if Trinidad & Tobago even gets a draw. That being said, England has proved that they're not as good as they look time and again.....

[DB_Hunter]

Well the match is about to start and Rooney has been declared fit by the medical experts today. I think Rooney will be brought on in the second half... he needs the match practice.

[FrogKing]

Good match between England and Trinidad...Lion fans got their wish, Rooney got some significant playing time in the second half. Although relatively uneffective, I think Rooney's presence helped boost England's moral. The first goal in the 80th minute was a beauty. Beckham's right cross to a towering Crouch...nice header to finish it off to the back of the net! Guess we'll be seeing England in the round of 16.

[Swallow Your Soul]

Personally I thought England were still pretty bad by the standards of the players we played. Rooney's introduction should be good to help him rebuild his match fitness. Good goals though. The pundits on ITV reckoned we should play with Carrick an anchor man behind Lampard and Gerrard against Sweden to try it out...which is a good idea imo, but Sven seems to hate Carrick.

I do think we will generally play much better against teams who don't just put everyone behind the ball, but the fact it took us so long to score against Trinidad was a bit worrying considering its a team full of lower level football players (if I remember right they had players from Gillingham, Wrexham and Port Vale playing for them), no matter how well organised they are.

As for Brazil, I think they'll improve as they go along, just because a team has a bad game/s doesn't really mean much at this stage.

[Psyke]

England played really really poorly in my opinion. As much as I wanted them to win, they barely justifield the tremendous amount of support they got from the fans. T&T looked better at times, even though they were largely defensive..... And again, if England remains playing this way, they can kiss their world cup dreams away pretty soon.

[DB_Hunter]

The thing is individually the players are good, with the likes of Gerrard, Terry, Lampard etc but they can't quite seem to gel as a team. I think Crouch played horribly throughout the match, and his goal does not make up for all the goof ups he did before. Every time I saw Crouch on the pitch I actually started to get physically agitiated... he is bloody useless, and again I don't know why Jermaine Defoe or Darren Brent are not there instead of Crouch and Walcott.

Beckham was not playing well... his set pieces and general long balls were not executed well, no where near his clinical best. I think though the introduction of Aaron Lennon gave England pace and width, something which they were lacking throughout the match. Rooney did not have a big impact, though that was expected since he is coming off the back of an injury.

Personally I think Rooney should have come on for Crouch, and Owen should have stayed on. Although Owen is obviously not on form this is going to dent his confidence, and he needs more games.

I think some fans have the wrong attitude when they say that all that matters at this stage are the points. They are denying reality and with it they are not addressing a problem that exists... England have not been playing to their usual high tempo. Why that is is up for discussion. I suppose as Rooney is now in the team he will provide the creativity and link play between the midfield and attack that has been missing, though this again seems to lend support to the argument that England lack depth in the squad, and are over reliant on certain players.

[Munsu]

Argentina is destroying Serbia and Monte Negro, they're looking awesome... Anyone knows how old is Batistuta and is he retired? I was hoping to see him this WC, but by the looks of it he's a dinosour in a country full of good young players.

Tomorrow Italy vs USA, Italy is going to destroy them.

[DB_Hunter]

Man... 6-0 to Argentina... I think we can see who is going far in this tournament...

I only saw the second half of the match and Argentina were devastating... they scored 3 goals in 10 minutes during a period of time when they were just passing to each other!

S&M looked demoralised at 4-0, and it was just embarrassing at 5-0... when the 6th one went in I think the FIFA officals probably decided 1 minute of extra time was long enough, any longer and S&M would probably walk off the pitch themselves.

Holland and Ivory Coast are playing a great game... I think its unfortunate that one of these three will get knocked out as they all deserve to go through. It's 2-1 now but I think more goals are likely.

[Ryllharu]

Caught the last 30 minutes or so of the Holland-Ivory Coast game. Kinda disappointing those first timers won't make it any farther in their first WC, but a great game. IC never gave up, and were pushing the Dutch just about every second I was watching. They got a tough group. That they managed to keep Argentina and Holland on their toes is quite a feat.

These two games today though...just made me a fan of soccer.

[Splash!]

Anyone knows how old is Batistuta and is he retired?

Batistuta is currently 37 years old and he retired a long time ago

Argentina definitely demolished Serbia Montenegro. Although honestly i dont quite understand it, Serbia Montenegro were not supposed to be a horrible team. I guess they just broke apart after a couple of goals were scored. Argentina were just beyond terrific today.

[DB_Hunter]

Born 1969, retired from International football in 2002 after the world cup, which would make Batistuta 33 years old at retirement.

[Munsu]

Ah man, I didn't think he would be that old, that's a shame then, I was really looking forward to seeing him play.

[gr3atfull]

anybody watch the Portugal VS Iran game? I wasnt able since I had to study for my exams. Portugal won, but how was the match in general?

[Munsu]

I thought it was a boring match in general. Iran is a really shitty team, they don't have any real skill and everytime it seemed like they'll put Portugal in danger, they would just stumble or something. Portugal is a really poor team player, lots of individual skilled players, but they don't know how to play well together, which is dissapointing. Someone should slap Ronaldo and tell him to stop doing all his fancy dances, he didn't accomplish anything with them.

I'm pissed in general with the yellow cards on this WC, there've been too many.

[Edort4]

Im with you on the Yellow card issue. There have been too many YC and lots of them are for stupid or trivial things. Like Moving the ball to prevent the other team to make a fast attack after a foul. Lossing time, answering to the referee and so.

And then when they do a terrible foul from behind (any foul from behind that doesnt hit the ball is yellow and sometimes red if the foul was aiming the player and not the ball) they dont get any card. The other day in the match between ivory coast and holland there where like 2 penalty and a few yellow or even red cards and the only cards he showed where because someone said something to him and to some random player because there where lots of fouls.

The referre arent bad in this WC (on the past WC they where a lot worse) but they punish trivial things and let players do harsh fouls.

[Splash!]

Ghana vs Czech Republic:
This game was really surprising. I did anticipate Ghana to play well, but i could never have forseen them playing at the extremely high level at which they did. They played good attacking football, and created plenty of oppurtunities for themselves. The Czech's simply did not perform to the best of their ability but Ghana was just something else and they clearly deserved their 2-0 win. Several more goals could have been scored by the Ghanians if they had paid attention to staying out of offside positions.

Italy vs United States:
This game was a complete mess. The first goal by Gilardinho off the fee kick of Pirlo was exquisite but after that the whole game just fell apart. That own goal by Zaccardo was pathetic. The U.S definitely performed better than their first game against the Czechs. But still, this game had little to do with goal scoring and everything to do with horrible challenges. A large number of fouls were committed with 3 players being sent off. The Italians tried hard to score a second one but they did not succeed and the game ended in a tie.1-1, the final score.