World Cup 2010

Aether13 said:

bowow said:

But we were robbed, if the ref allowed that goal it would of been a completely different game because all the England squad would of been saying to themselves that all we need is one more goal.

Imo you guys weren't robbed since it wasn't like the score was 3-4 and his goal didn't count, also if his goal would have counted it would have been 2-4, how would England need one more goal to tie it up? I'm confused by your math.

Well if the goal did count it doesn't mean that it would be 4-2 in the end result, it could of been anything, and the squads morale would of been high and they would have played there best and not sat around like little pussies the whole match. I'm confused by your logic.

So basically you are excusing your teams extremely poor play in the second half by saying there would have been a different mindset. Joachim Low could have given his team quite a talking-to at the half, and Germany still could have came out and blitzed England. You'll never know what would have happened if the goal was given, but you can't use that to deny the fact that England got flattened by a much better side.

I'm not denying we didn't lose, I'm saying Germany only won because our defense was poor and not enough players were scoring goals, most of the squad come from rival teams so when they play for England they're trying to outclass each other instead of working together. Basically you've just said to me what i've been trying to say to you.

It was what 2-1(?) 3-1(?)at half time and you don't think if you were on the England squad during that game you would of thought "Oh F*** it, I'm still getting paid at the end of the week"?

If Capello would of put some of the more rested younger players on the squad, instead of all these over rated old farts, we could of actually stood a chance.

All the German players come from rival squads too. There's no difference. England's just not as good as they think they really are. I mean look at the facts, they've only reached to finals once in the national squads existence and that was on home soil where they won the cup. Otherwise, they haven't made much of an impact. They've only played mediocre, not outstanding.
On another point you've made, not everyone on the English team can score goals and when you're down 2-1 you have to decide, would you rather risk your defense and strengthen the offensive or vice versa. England risked their defense to go all out on scoring and tying it up. Eventually Muller scored a double and the score was 4-1.

I can't wait for the Argentina-Germany match. Maradona's much to arrogant than all the other coaches. You can definitely see it when Argentina scores, how he cheers at the crowd and goes right to the press after matches. plus Idon't like him because of all the drug and prostitution scandals he's had.
To be honest, I don't see Argentina being that good. They have massive defensive flaws and everything is centralized on Messi who, by the way, is playing only for himself right now to score a goal. Prevent Messi from a danger and you've beaten Argentina.
Mexico was on top of the game until that rubbish offside goal by Tevez. The call demoralized them, which led Argentina to take advantage of a major concentration flaw in Mexico's defense. The only goal was the 3-0 by Tevez.
Argentina's had a fairly easy group, too. They're the only survivor of Group B. Whilst Group D, for example, still is fully intact even though both teams, Ghana and Germany, faced opponents fueled strongly by motivation in their group stages and their Round of 16 matches!

« Last edited by PhilXZ on Jun 28th 2010 »

PhilXZ said:

All the German players come from rival squads too. There's no difference. England's just not as good as they think they really are. I mean look at the facts, they've only reached to finals once in the national squads existence and that was on home soil where they won the cup. Otherwise, they haven't made much of an impact. They've only played mediocre, not outstanding.
On another point you've made, not everyone on the English team can score goals and when you're down 2-1 you have to decide, would you rather risk your defense and strengthen the offensive or vice versa. England risked their defense to go all out on scoring and tying it up. Eventually Muller scored a double and the score was 4-1.

I can't wait for the Argentina-Germany match. Maradona's much to arrogant than all the other coaches. You can definitely see it when Argentina scores, how he cheers at the crowd and goes right to the press after matches. plus Idon't like him because of all the drug and prostitution scandals he's had.
To be honest, I don't see Argentina being that good. They have massive defensive flaws and everything is centralized on Messi who, by the way, is playing only for himself right now to score a goal. Prevent Messi from a danger and you've beaten Argentina.
Mexico was on top of the game until that rubbish offside goal by Tevez. The call demoralized them, which led Argentina to take advantage of a major concentration flaw in Mexico's defense. The only goal was the 3-0 by Tevez.
Argentina's had a fairly easy group, too. They're the only survivor of Group B. Whilst Group D, for example, still is fully intact even though both teams, Ghana and Germany, faced opponents fueled strongly by motivation in their group stages and their Round of 16 matches!

Pretty much agree with you on all points there.

Another note- Earlier on in this World Cup, the goals were hard to come by. The average was less then 1.3 goals per game, and it was quite dull. Now, we have seen amazing games and scorelines. In the knockouts so far, no game has produced less than three goals.

I've yet the see a penalty shoot-out this world cup. It just might be the Brasil-Holland game!

PhilXZ said:

To be honest, I don't see Argentina being that good. They have massive defensive flaws and everything is centralized on Messi who, by the way, is playing only for himself right now to score a goal. Prevent Messi from a danger and you've beaten Argentina.

Defensive flaws? You're kidding, right? They've conceded twice in the entire tournament, and you're telling me they have defensive flaws? One of those being a defenders fault, also. The fault of one doesn't reflect on the overall effectiveness of that defensive line through this tournament, which for the record, has been good.

Messi? Sure, he's a great player. As with all great players, you're going to want to feed the ball into him, because he's got a great ability to put away any chances, and he creates even more chances for others. In case you hadn't realized, Messi is yet to score in this tournament, yet Argentina have scored 9 or 10 goals overall.

If you paid attention, you'd notice that teams playing Argentina have actually done a fairly good job of shutting him out of the game, yet look at their results. 4 wins from 4. They aren't a one man team, by any means. Tevez, Higuan, Di Maria.. they have strength going forward, real strength that is too much for the teams they've come up against thus far. Messi has been pivotal in these games in setting up these goals too. So, in response to what you said, Prevent Messi from danger and you've beaten Argentina? Well that's COMPLETELY incorrect. All teams have done so, and how many of those teams have beaten them?

PhilXZ said:

Argentina's had a fairly easy group, too. They're the only survivor of Group B. Whilst Group D, for example, still is fully intact even though both teams, Ghana and Germany, faced opponents fueled strongly by motivation in their group stages and their Round of 16 matches!

A fairly easy group? Hardly. By a simple bit of calculation, we can figure out what group really is the hardest, by figuring out their average ranking.

Group A: 31.25
Group B: 22
Group C: 19.25
Group D: 18.25
Group E: 26
Group F: 37
Group G: 34
Group H: 20.5
Bold is the group that Argentina are in. As you can see, that group is ranked 4 of 8, and not far behind the 3rd ranked group. The group they were in, whilst not the toughest, was definitely challenging.

I don't really agree with any of your points, to be honest :/

noo argentina is vsing germany my two teams in going for...nooo

I don't doubt for a second that, had that England goal counted, we would have had a completely different game in the second half. England came out and pushed hard to try and get the equaliser and that's where Germany's extra two goals in came from.

Spain v Portugal tomorrow should be a good game. Definitely gonna set the alarm for that one in the morning.

Regardless of whether or not Lampard's goal had counted, Germany were still the better side and deserved to win. Even if England had an increased morale, I think it would only have made it more difficult for the inevitable. The problem with the 'top' English players is that they are...

Over-rated
Over-payed
Over-egotistical

These reasons are why Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger doesn't buy any. The only two notable English players Arsenal have are 18-year old Jack Wilshere (definitely an up-and-comer, mind you) and Theo Walcott, the latter of which was not called up for the English World Cup squad in place of Heskey, a striker who doesn't score goals, and Lennon.

England are out. They simply weren't good enough to prove anything of a threat towards Germany for the majority of the game.

As for Argentina, well I can't judge on the first two games I saw, because I didn't watch them. However, there is definitely a weakness in their defense. The reason they've conceded only one goal in the last two matches is easy to spot. Firstly, they didn't concede any goals against Greece because Greece simply weren't interested in scoring goals, just stopping Argentina from doing so, meaning, for once, I actually wanted Argentina to win. Secondly, in the Mexico game, Mexico were easily the better side until Tevez' dirty cheating first goal was stupidly counted (thanks to a rubbish rule), which completely demoralized Mexico. Hopefully, Germany will notice Argentina's lack of defensive prowess and abuse it so that they thrash them. I don't like Argentina.

Japan and Paraguay should be interesting. Japan played some really nice football against Denmark, and hopefully they can repeat that. It would be nice to see an Asian team progress. Sadly, I won't be able to watch much of the game. I'll probably end up missing Spain vs Portgual tonight, too, another game I'd have liked to watch.

Paraguay wins on penalties.... Portugal and Spain tied at the half, I think Spain has the best chance to win.

Spain hasn't impressed me as much as the other teams have.

@Faites: The other teams haven't prevented Messi from being a danger because he clearly prepares most of the goals, even if he hasn't made any yet. If you'd prevent him from providing assists or scoring, Argentina wouldn't be as strong offensively. That's why there haven't been many goals, because they pull everyone back when their opponent is deep in their side of the field.
Just because you have a high ranking doesn't mean you're a great team in the moment. We've seen that from Italy (Ranked 5th) when they played against New Zealand (Ranked 78th), Slovakia (Ranked 34th), and Paraguay (Ranked 31st). And Spain (Ranked 2nd) losing to Switzerland (Ranked 24th).
Argentina's team has flaws, everyone does. But they have them in the defense. They play a game based on centerfield, if they play against a team that uses the wings then they'll have trouble.
Not to mention, favoritism is difficult to deal with. You can easily be overcome by it and then underestimate your opponent because of the praise you've received. I really don't think Argentina will win this game, I trust Paul the Octopus.

Spoiler:

My tips for the quarterfinals:
Holland -Brazil
Uruguay -Ghana
Argentina-Germany
Paraguay-Spain

Sorry to **** on everybodys rainbow here but philxz go it all wrong here maradona is a legend and not that bad of a coach he's put his drug-days behind him. I say this because when germany beat arg (they will) they'll all blame him which isn't really fair germany is just a better team. Unlike messi who is overrated in this world cup klose ,podolski and ozil deliver the goods when it is necesary when messi just hogs the spotlight. argentina is a good team but i don't believe they'll beat germany.

PhilXZ said:

Spain hasn't impressed me as much as the other teams have.

@Faites: The other teams haven't prevented Messi from being a danger because he clearly prepares most of the goals, even if he hasn't made any yet. If you'd prevent him from providing assists or scoring, Argentina wouldn't be as strong offensively. That's why there haven't been many goals, because they pull everyone back when their opponent is deep in their side of the field.
Just because you have a high ranking doesn't mean you're a great team in the moment. We've seen that from Italy (Ranked 5th) when they played against New Zealand (Ranked 78th), Slovakia (Ranked 34th), and Paraguay (Ranked 31st). And Spain (Ranked 2nd) losing to Switzerland (Ranked 24th).
Argentina's team has flaws, everyone does. But they have them in the defense. They play a game based on centerfield, if they play against a team that uses the wings then they'll have trouble.
Not to mention, favoritism is difficult to deal with. You can easily be overcome by it and then underestimate your opponent because of the praise you've received. I really don't think Argentina will win this game, I trust Paul the Octopus.

Spoiler:

Paul the Octopus is an English-born octopus living in a Germany Sealife Aquarium. Since the EURO 2008, at every upcoming, major match for Germany, Paul is given two boxes containing one mussel in each. On the boxes are the flag of Germany on one and on the other the opponent's national flag. Paul was 80 correct in choosing winners in Germany matches for the Euro '08. For the World Cup, he's a got 100 record currently. The timing of his pick was also decided who fast the game will be decided. After an hour of wait, Paul picked Germany over Argentina. I trust my eight-legged friend!

click to reveal

My tips for the quarterfinals:
Holland -Brazil
Uruguay -Ghana
Argentina-Germany
Paraguay-Spain

im gnna find that octopus and beat it up so it picks argentina.

PhilXZ said:

My tips for the quarterfinals:
Holland -Brazil
Uruguay -Ghana
Argentina-Germany
Paraguay-Spain

I'd probably bet on Brazil to beat Holland, but I think Holland have a good chance. I'm unsure about Uruguay beating Ghana, too.

Holland-Brazil and Uruguay-Ghana are two unpredictable matches, to be honest.

Unpredictable is to say the least yes, but to say the most Brazil has been great so far and so has the Oranje. Brazil are the favourites to win this match and probably will. Maybe Kaka wil score this time, not that he hasn't helped with setting up goals so far. After all, the superstars haven't really performed so far this wc. I'll just hope Ghana win. If Ghana weren't the last remaining Africans I would have wanted Uruguay to win it all because it would be good to know that we lost 3-0 to champions.

Whatever way you look at it English fans have to be honest with themselves and admit the current team is hugely overated and deserved to go home, Germany were a much better team and deserved to advance. Germany have a good chance against Argentina but I think the Argentines will win. Spain will beat Paraguay and Brazil will beat Holland, doesn't matter who wins out of Uruguay V Ghana, both teams are going home in their next match after that which I think is Brazil.

i see it as these teams adavancing

Argentina
Uruguay
Brazil
Spain

Holy crap Argentina got killed by Germany 4-0 scoreline, hopefully that will shut up Maradona for a couple years haha.