[caladanbrood]

Seriously, roster? How painfully american/ignorant of football can you really be X-man?

It was by far the best game of the tournament, but the Italians didn't deserve to lose by that much. A two-goal margin at most would be fair - they could well have won it if the two goals had gone in for them instead of excellently cleared off the line and countered. But the dutch did look excellent, throughout the game.

[Optimus Prime]

Seriously, it's no wonder a lot of people are put off by Football fans like you Brood. I use a different word which you view as making a mistake and now I'm "ignorant"? Sheesh, get a grip, snob

I played the sport all my life competitively. I know the sport pretty well.

On to the game, I enjoyed it a lot. The Dutch keeper played great, a mix of bad luck and a few mistakes by Italy's keeper.

[polishgenius]

Ganymed;326507 said:

He came to Germany at the age of 2 because his parents are of the german minority in Poland.

I'd imagine they left because of communism, just saw Germany as a good place to settle for that reason? Could be wrong there. But yeah, both him and Klose are of German descent (though Klose's dad played for Poland and apparently considers the family Polish. Odd, since his is the comfortably more German surname- then again my surname is also of German origin).


I don't hold much real bitterness towards them anyway. I know people would dispute my claims of Polishness since I was born and always have lived in England. It's up to them. And I respect Podolski for not celebrating.


Anyway, having a gander round the 'net there was defo talk of him being picked for Poland and the manager at the time saying no, though history doesn't record whether anyone actually asked him his opinion on the matter. So the rumour's half-true. Sort of.

[polishgenius]

Anyway - the Holland game was class. They look really really good - but I think Portugal still look better despite winning by less against worse opposition. Italy's defence was unusually fragile and they were unlucky getting forward. Holland could crumble against real organisation, which Portugal have.

[Optimus Prime]

Ganymed;326507 said:

No, it wasn't. Because of the italian guy who lay besides the goal and behind the line. But I must honestly admit that I didn't know that rule.

Anyways: Nice! Go Oranje! The Italians deserved to lose, they didn't play very well. Truth to be told, it was horribly bad for a world-champion.

And for the rumor that Podolski wanted to play for the national team of Poland. I honestly don't know where it originates from, but it is simply false. He came to Germany at the age of 2 because his parents are of the german minority in Poland. He later played in german clubs was subsequently sponsored by the german football league and then played for the german U21 national team before he was chosen to play for the real one.

Ah yes, good point. I failed to notice that until after the game LOL. Even the announcers didn't notice it...strange.

[No-God]

I was surprised by the Netherlands/Italy game. I predicted Netherlands as a possible darkhorse of sorts (they have a good team), but I still thought Italy would squeeze passed. Evidently, I was wrong.

My team's playing tomorrow (Greece), so I have my fingers crossed. I'm hoping to see a solid team this year, but we'll see.

[Optimus Prime]

I guess my team is Greece in this race as well. My dad had a cousin who played on the national team years back. Which of course means nothing lol.

Gooooooo Greece! Whoop!

[Cougar]

Xander;326641 said:

I guess my team is Greece in this race as well. My dad had a cousin who played on the national team years back. Which of course means nothing lol.

Gooooooo Greece! Whoop!

Well they are the defending champions, however I expect them to fail miserably this time round.

Ouzo anyone?

[Sir Bob]

Ganymed;326507 said:

No, it wasn't. Because of the italian guy who lay besides the goal and behind the line. But I must honestly admit that I didn't know that rule.

the italian guy(panucci i think) was off the field of play so the goal was miles off side, is that the rule you mean?

i just hope we get more italy holland games as opposed to france romania!!!!

[Macros]

netherlands were impressive last night, I was happy to see Kuyt get the nod, his work rate was exemplary as usual.
The honestly didn't miss van persie or robben at all, when they're back to fitness Holand could be tough to stop.

[Thelomen Toblerone]

Sir Bob;326754 said:

the italian guy(panucci i think) was off the field of play so the goal was miles off side, is that the rule you mean?

No, apparently because it was the force of his attempted tackle that carried him off the field, as opposed to going off to be treated or whatever, he was still counted as in play.

Put it this way - if the ball had bobbled around for a bit, and he'd turned around and ran back in front of the goal in time to block a shot, would you have given him a card and Holland a penalty?

Leaving or re-entering the field of play without the referre's consent is a yellow card offence, and the only way he could have been ruled inactive. Compare it to Crespo for Chelsea against Arsenal a few years back. Similar thing, force of a tackle carried him off the pitch. Bent down to do up his shoelace for ages, noticed the keeper ignoring him and putting the ball down, came racing back onto the pitch to challenge for the ball, eventually led to a goal.

I was pissed off then, but apparently it was ok.

The Dutch TV channel showing the match had a top level referee on their panel who explained it was a perfectly legitimate goal. Although he's dutch, so he would say that.

In either case, the new offside rules are bloody stupid.

[Sir Bob]

what you say makes sense and i knew you had to have refs say so to come on the pitch but not leave it.
also i dont see how he can count as been in play when he clearly is not!!! thats just stupid!!! but seen as you got your source from a pro ref and im just getting mine from my head ill bow to you on this one!!

[Cougar]

It will only take a reasonable attacking side to expose Hollands ponderous not to mention paper thin defence. Oojier, Boularouz, Van Bronkhorst etc are very very average defenders at this level. The question is whether any side in the tournament has the attacking form to take advantage of it?

[Sir Bob]

if you look at all the favourites only really portugal have a decent defence so i dont think its going to hinder holland to much. plus they seem to play with 2 sitting mids so that should mop up any danger! plus boularouz was not that bad last night or oojier come to think of it or in general no i think hard!! what u got against the dutch?!?!

[Cougar]

I've nothing against the Dutch, chuckles. In fact I would be happy for them to win, but even Kevin Keegan could have seen the Italians had no discernable attack for the majority of the game. One good game doesn't convince anyone about Khalid the cannibal, he was terrible at Chelsea, poor in the last WC and can't get a game in spain.

Oojier is slower than Boxing Day with your grandparents and like I said Van Bronckhorst, whilst energetic and superb going forward has made a career of being exposed by quality attackers when he is played at full-back.

[Sir Bob]

ah oojier is slow in the prem but that a stupidly fast league!! khalid was kinda poor at chelski but has he not been injured in spain? yea i decided against arguing the van bronckorst point cause i kinda agree with you, not really a full back so defending not really his strong point!! who is up next for the dutch? cause if tis romania dont think they will get tested much, come to think of it they wont get tested much if its the french!!

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Gah we lost! we lost! Anyway Italy realy sucked and now all newspapers are saying it was offside and bla bla bla. That's no excuse! THe World champions ca't take 3 goals from a lousy team like Netherlands!

[Gothos]

you know that Zidane's headbutt was worthy of the World Cup. you should make a blood sacrifice of materazzi to please the awesomeness god. undeserved world championships are few and far between, however I could compare it to greece winning last Euro...

[Thelomen Toblerone]

World Cup Italy 1938.

Mussolini demands a win, there are some of the worst refereeing decisions in history in Italy's favour, made my refs with lovely new bulging wallets, and Italy win the World Cup. Fair and square.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Gothos;326795 said:

you should make a blood sacrifice of materazzi to please the awesomeness god. ..

You know that isn't a bad idea..I never liked Materazzi,he's a complete idiot.
Cannavaro why did you injury yourself:(