WORLD CUP

[red]

another horrible call today against kaka

biggest sotories from the world cup so far

1. annoying vuvuzela's
2. horrible reffing
3. France team meltdown
4. the games

[wootah]

Lo & behold, a belgian ref is chosen for USA - Algeria: Frank Debleeckere. He's pretty good, but still human off course. People who don't like soccer because of the mistakes a referee can make must hate watching the NFL. Soccer has 4 refs, no cameras. Football has 7, cameras and often they still screw up.

It must be said that the refs were at a very high level at the beginning of the tournament. The last couple of games they have been screwing up terribly. The card for Kaka is just a prime example of that.
Bad reffing in the early stages has been a constant in World Cup history. The FIFA wants to be politically correct and thus invites the best referees of each continent, but the best ref in Africa is not exactly of the same level as the best ref in Europe. It's a bit part of the folklore of a WC, but when the consequences are this severe, it should not happen. I'm all for having 'grizzled vets' with experience in the top competitions in the world as referee at the biggest sporting event in the world.

Now about the French team, that's completely insane. They arrived with a lot of controversy in South Africa (like I said, they needed a hands-goal to qualify) and a couple of weeks before the World Cup it was discovered that a few players took the concept of teamspirit to another level when they made use of the services of the same underage prostitute. When you look like Franck Ribéry, I guess your options are limited...


Now it seems like the whole team is on the verge of implosion. Incredible for a national team to behave like that.

[SkinBasket]

People who don't like soccer because of the mistakes a referee can make must hate watching the NFL. Soccer has 4 refs, no cameras. Football has 7, cameras and often they still screw up.

I think people here get pretty upset when a bad call in the NFL costs a team a game.

It's not about "not liking" soccer for me. It about feeling cheated out of 90 minutes of competition when the game isn't decided by the players, but rather by non-calls and/or bad calls on the sport's biggest stage.

[wootah]

It's not about "not liking" soccer for me. It about feeling cheated out of 90 minutes of competition when the game isn't decided by the players, but rather by non-calls and/or bad calls on the sport's biggest stage.

I understand and it sure sucks when it happens, but this is inherent to any form of competition where there's a human judge. There is pressure involved, interpretation, prejudices, ... It's not only in soccer that these mistakes happen at the biggest stage; remember Big Ben's rushing TD in the SuperBowl against the Seahawks?

[Tarlam!]

who's the bigger disappointment this year? England or France?

Australia. They only have 1 point - New Zealand has 2 points. Oh, the shame....

[red]

Lo & behold, a belgian ref is chosen for USA - Algeria: Frank Debleeckere. He's pretty good, but still human off course. People who don't like soccer because of the mistakes a referee can make must hate watching the NFL. Soccer has 4 refs, no cameras. Football has 7, cameras and often they still screw up.

It must be said that the refs were at a very high level at the beginning of the tournament. The last couple of games they have been screwing up terribly. The card for Kaka is just a prime example of that.
Bad reffing in the early stages has been a constant in World Cup history. The FIFA wants to be politically correct and thus invites the best referees of each continent, but the best ref in Africa is not exactly of the same level as the best ref in Europe. It's a bit part of the folklore of a WC, but when the consequences are this severe, it should not happen. I'm all for having 'grizzled vets' with experience in the top competitions in the world as referee at the biggest sporting event in the world.

Now about the French team, that's completely insane. They arrived with a lot of controversy in South Africa (like I said, they needed a hands-goal to qualify) and a couple of weeks before the World Cup it was discovered that a few players took the concept of teamspirit to another level when they made use of the services of the same underage prostitute. When you look like Franck Ribéry, I guess your options are limited...


Now it seems like the whole team is on the verge of implosion. Incredible for a national team to behave like that.

yup, he is one very handsome frenchman

[Joemailman]

Now about the French team, that's completely insane. They arrived with a lot of controversy in South Africa (like I said, they needed a hands-goal to qualify) and a couple of weeks before the World Cup it was discovered that a few players took the concept of teamspirit to another level when they made use of the services of the same underage prostitute. When you look like Franck Ribéry, I guess your options are limited...

Now it seems like the whole team is on the verge of implosion. Incredible for a national team to behave like that.

Alexi Lalas on ESPN today suggested they send the French team home and replace them with the Irish.

[red]

Now about the French team, that's completely insane. They arrived with a lot of controversy in South Africa (like I said, they needed a hands-goal to qualify) and a couple of weeks before the World Cup it was discovered that a few players took the concept of teamspirit to another level when they made use of the services of the same underage prostitute. When you look like Franck Ribéry, I guess your options are limited...

Now it seems like the whole team is on the verge of implosion. Incredible for a national team to behave like that.

Alexi Lalas on ESPN today suggested they send the French team home and replace them with the Irish.

its sad that god's country was knocked out of the cup by these french assholes and then they show up and act like they don't even want to be there.

there's talk that some of the frenchies might boycott the next game

that's just sad. ireland or any other country would have loved to be in their spot and they just throw it away

if i was the coach i would bench all the team leaders like evra and ribery and play the reserves instead. then i would clean house after the cup and find a whole new team (players, coaches, etc)

[Tony Oday]

Now about the French team, that's completely insane. They arrived with a lot of controversy in South Africa (like I said, they needed a hands-goal to qualify) and a couple of weeks before the World Cup it was discovered that a few players took the concept of teamspirit to another level when they made use of the services of the same underage prostitute. When you look like Franck Ribéry, I guess your options are limited...

Now it seems like the whole team is on the verge of implosion. Incredible for a national team to behave like that.

Alexi Lalas on ESPN today suggested they send the French team home and replace them with the Irish.

its sad that god's country was knocked out of the cup by these french assholes and then they show up and act like they don't even want to be there.

there's talk that some of the frenchies might boycott the next game

that's just sad. ireland or any other country would have loved to be in their spot and they just throw it away

if i was the coach i would bench all the team leaders like evra and ribery and play the reserves instead. then i would clean house after the cup and find a whole new team (players, coaches, etc)

France sucks

[red]

Now about the French team, that's completely insane. They arrived with a lot of controversy in South Africa (like I said, they needed a hands-goal to qualify) and a couple of weeks before the World Cup it was discovered that a few players took the concept of teamspirit to another level when they made use of the services of the same underage prostitute. When you look like Franck Ribéry, I guess your options are limited...

Now it seems like the whole team is on the verge of implosion. Incredible for a national team to behave like that.

Alexi Lalas on ESPN today suggested they send the French team home and replace them with the Irish.

its sad that god's country was knocked out of the cup by these french assholes and then they show up and act like they don't even want to be there.

there's talk that some of the frenchies might boycott the next game

that's just sad. ireland or any other country would have loved to be in their spot and they just throw it away

if i was the coach i would bench all the team leaders like evra and ribery and play the reserves instead. then i would clean house after the cup and find a whole new team (players, coaches, etc)

France sucks

+ 1 gazillion

[pbmax]

Found a blog about tactics that is a pretty good read. He did not cover the 2nd US game that I can find, but two articles do cover the US team.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/13/england-1-1-usa-tactic/#more-3503

This gentleman explains his theory about the early goal by England. That Oguchi Onyewu has a habit of being pulled out of the defensive line (very close to the explanation provided earlier by wootah). However, he faults Onyewu for this, saying he is too easily drawn from his position (he refers to it as dragged toward the ball), leaving too much open area for his partners to cover. The point of their preview article (link below) is that this was happening in the preliminary rounds as well, pointing to a serious problem in the US defense.

He has a few nice diagrammed photos showing this happening elsewhere in that match, though it did not cost them any goals in those cases. The second diagram shows wootah's point about covering for the middle field teammate, but also reveals the problem of needing your teammate to come into the middle to defend the zone that you just abandoned. It leaves the wide guy completely wide open.

Here they cover the US pre-tournament: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/...-2010-tactics/

[wootah]

Found a blog about tactics that is a pretty good read.

Very nice site, pb. I agree with the writer on the 2nd & 3rd example of Onyewu stepping up too soon, because in those cases the player with the ball was far away from the US goal and there was no immediate danger to shoot on goal. But in the 1st case, with the goal from England, he had to step up, if not Rooney had a free shot and you cannot let that happen with a player of this calibre.

It's funny that Onyewu is the one who is blamed for playing to high; if I'm not mistaken in the game against Slovenia he was the one who played too deep in his own half, eliminating the offside trap which caused the second goal for Slovenia.

Regarding your remarks on the French team, Red; some of them are already reality. It seems that some of the veterans have decided not to participate in the final match today. A true shame. Like I said before, the French arrived in South Africa under difficult circumstances. They have a crazy coach (who selects player based on their zodiac sign) who was not popular at all and before the WC it became public that after the tournament he would be replaced. That took away the little authority he still had and I believe that's also why Anelka thought he could insult him like that. The French Football Union also has its responsibility in this whole soap.

On a soccer related note, I thought Spain was very impressive yesterday. Fernando Torres, who's coming back from injury, will only grow during this tournament and I think their style of play will help them in the knockout stage when the opponents also try to attack instead of limiting the damage.

[Gunakor]

On a soccer related note, I thought Spain was very impressive yesterday.

Spain are fun to watch when they're on like they were yesterday.

[wootah]

Spain are fun to watch when they're on like they were yesterday.

I agree. They play a new variant of the old Dutch "Total Soccer" concept. Just keeping the ball in the team, quick short passes, a lot of movement around the ball. Very fun to watch, but oh so difficult to execute. You need players who are technically superior to their adversaries and a very good conditioning.

It must be hell to play against such a team. You saw that Honduras basically couldn't keep up; in the second half their midfield just could not run anymore.

[Gunakor]

Chile v Spain is gonna be a good match on Friday.

I feel for the Swiss. They are gonna beat Honduras on Friday, finish group play with 6 points and a win over Spain, and be eliminated from the tournament based on the tiebreakers. That's gotta be a tough pill for them to swallow.