[Bucklund]

England through again but with Rooney not at his best and Robinson rapidly turning into a David James clone they wont be going much further.

But after tonights Portugal-Holland match Ill be amazed if the Portugese can still field a full team for saturday. Maybe we will have a Brazil showdown after all.

[Lister of Smeg]

What an insane day of football. First of all England bore their way through to the quarters, then Portugal foul and headbutt there way through. 4 reds, 16 yellows, Figo should have gone too ... What a match. It was interesting for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. It could have been a brilliant attacking display by both teams if the ref hadn't ruined it.

[Sir Thursday]

I thought there was still a brilliant attacking display...the Dutch really were throwing everything at Portugal by the end. It was a shame it was overshadowed by the referee though. It took all the attention away from what was, in the end, a decent game of football if you ignored the cards...

Vox

[Tsundoku]

Maybe the ref was trying to make up for the lack of fouls given in many previous matches, when they should have been? Trouble is, he went way too far, from one extreme to the other.

Australia-Italy tonight. Urgh, those butterflies are breeding ...

Cheers,

La Sombra, lepidopterist

[Mulch]

The ref spoilt what would have been a really good game. I've found all the refs at this world cup poor. They all seem to be after superstardom and Collina's crown as best ref, in doing so they aren't focusing on the flow of the games.

[Illuyankas]

Posted this somewhere else, but it fits here.



The crow is the ref, the food is the quarter finals, and guess who is Australia

[Sir Thursday]

Hehe, very fitting...mind you, you can't really say that the ref was against Australia in this match - he gave an Italian a straight red!

I thought the penalty was probably fair...I know the Italian player looked for it, but the defender shouldn't have placed his body in the way unless he was looking to prevent the Italian from getting through (as you may have noticed I can't remember the names at the moment).

Vox

[Satan]

Not a red card at all. If you look away from all the horrible bookings, though, I think the refree's this world cup is rather good. Far better than in the last one at least.

[Lord of Salvation]

I think the FIFA FA told the Refs to lay off on the bookings especially after that Russian refs fiasco dring the Portugal vs Netherlands match.

There were far less in the Italy match and so far there has only been one in the Ukraine match, but ther is 30 minutes left of regular time yet.

[Lister of Smeg]

This Ukraine-Switzerland match is boring me to tears. Please, let the penalties come soon!

[Sir Thursday]

After one penalty each I thought that maybe this would go on all night! In the end the better team (although it is marginal in such a dull game) went through - Switzerland never really looked like scoring to me, and they didn't, even when it went to penalties.

Vox

[RaZjInSaR]

*cough* the refs r absoloutely **** *cough* what a decision...aus vs italy in 95th minute...should have given the penalty to aus for diving grrr whatever stupid gay refs *

[Loki]

.....so bl**dy mad....can't even think of a suitable rant....no way was that a penalty!

[Tsundoku]

Bugger.

I didn't think the Italian deserved the red card, but then again this Cup has been riddled with appalling decisions, finally we had 1 go our way.

I hate to say it, but Italy were the better side. Their defence was awesome - even with 10 men. Although we were our own worst enemies. With such an advantage we should have wrapped it up ages beforehand. Top level strikers would have scored, and we didn't have them. Same problem we had versus Brazil.

But to go out with that piece of utter, utter bullsh*t was just very, very cruel. Viewing in real time I thought that was not a penalty - Lucas Neill made no deliberate attempt to get in the way. He slipped and was attempting to get up, and the Italian simply clipped him (if that). While he would have come down at that speed, he certainly added to it to draw the penalty - which is considered "diving", I believe. Checking the comments from other (non-Australian) sources around the net are pretty much in agreement, I consider we are vindicated, but it's small consolation. The referees' decision is final and that's that.

Top marks to Totti though for the strike - it was brilliant. Gave Schwartzer absolutely no chance.

I do think FIFA should send all their refs back to basic refereeing school after the tournament though. The overall standard was simply appalling, and it's not just Australia complaining. The big soccer nations benefitted from almost every contentious decision, and you can't tell me that's not some sort of indication of bias.

Still, it's over for us. If Italy continue to defend like that they will be a huge problem for the other top nations. Of course, as I said earlier, top strikers may have done better. We shall see in the coming matches.

After the 1994 Cup that poor Colombian defender got shot.
This time around, I hope it's the referees who are nervous. It's a bit rich to expect the players to lift their game and discipline if the men running the game display such poor standards.

Joga Bonita.

Cheers,

La Sombra, takes a brief moment to say "F**K! #%$&##@#@(*&%#$##% &$^$%()^%$^!!!!!!!!!"

[RaZjInSaR]

aye sombra...red card was deffinately a yellow card even though it was nice and they are meant to be the best team in the world at defending the buggers...anywhoo true we made it that far so theres the asian cup next! hope we get to vs italy again so we can dive in their box

[Cold Iron]

Sorry to say it, but I'm back to hating soccer. Cup fever had me for two glorious weeks and then that!

For a 90 minute game to come down to one bad decision by the one guy on the field who can't play the game is a crime. Back to ra-ra for me. Leave the pansy game to you pansy northerners. No red blooded adult male gets in front of a billion people and rolls around on the ground clutching his knee after receiving a tap on the foot!

[Illuyankas]

@Cold Iron - they're Italian, it's what you expect

And Spain versus France... What the hell happened there?