FIFA WORLD CUP 2010

[OZCUBAN]

Zorry, but ze ball waz not in - as you kan klearly zee from friendly japanese neutral sourze :

What a celebration in the village today - will have some pictures up tomorrow.

Today : All Out Party !!

Nino

A well deserved victory if england play like crap they have no one to blame except themselves (if i had to choose between Germany and Argentina ,its germany every time )

Cheers OZ

[OZCUBAN]

Such a waste of talent. Ah well, time for a clearout and start from scratch.

Here Here

[Ken Gargett]

AN EXTREMELY GOOD DAY FOR ENGLAND.

okay, the soccer might not have gone to plan but news has emerged that jana rawlinson or pittman or whatever the moron is calling herself this week has been in talks to swap to the english team for the commonwealth and olympic games. it seems those negotiations have broken down. all australia is devastated. collections are being taken to try and convince her to reconsider (she is so stupid she apparently thought she could just run for whatever team she wanted and didn't really think about things like qualifying or residency).

this woman is a blight on australia. she cannot stand to be out of the headlines for more than two minutes. has done bugger all and makes paris hilton look like stephen hawking - in terms of intelligence, at least.

some aussies will remember the drama that unfolded over 'brave jana' (seriously, shoot some of these journos, please), and her fight to be fit for some olympics because of a knee op just before it.

a good mate of mine who ran in those olympics assures me that "allegedly" the op was for nothing. simply because she needed an excuse when she didn't win anything. and that is about the kindest comment he had for her.

please england, take her.

[mazolaman]

Hey Ken,the dodgey decisions are not irrelevant in any way,any team would feel a degree of injustice.

As I say,Germany deserved their win.

The good sporting news for England is yet another victory in the 1 day internationals.Series won with the 3rd straight win over Australia.But at least you made a game of it.

[Ken Gargett]

Hey Ken,the dodgey decisions are not irrelevant in any way,any team would feel a degree of injustice.

As I say,Germany deserved their win.

The good sporting news for England is yet another victory in the 1 day internationals.Series won with the 3rd straight win over Australia.But at least you made a game of it.

you will have to keep us posted on the cricket because it has hardly made the news here, as far as i can see. currently ranking with with synchronised swimming or any other womens' sport. i actually tought we were supposed to be playing a test series against pakistan around now. perhaps this is instead of that??

dodgy decisions never irrelevant - if it wasn't for that {insert the most toxic thoughts you can in this space} that ref'd the glorious reds against the hated tahs, we'd have made the finals and they would not. i just meant that they hopefully tend to even out over time.

[El Presidente]

Hey Ken,the dodgey decisions are not irrelevant in any way,any team would feel a degree of injustice.

As I say,Germany deserved their win.

The good sporting news for England is yet another victory in the 1 day internationals.Series won with the 3rd straight win over Australia.But at least you made a game of it.

Agreed. That Controversial England "No goal" was the worst decision since the Henri hand ball against Ireland.

A team can be gutted by decisions such as that. However, as I tell my teams a game rarely comes down to the "one" poor decision. I tend to focus on how many tackles (rugby) were missed, how many opportunities blown by our own side. In the case of England v Germany there was a clearly superior team. Good luck to them in the remainder of the tournament.

Re Cricket...I long for the days when the international schedule was all over in 4 months. Now they play so often that outside of the Ashes and to a lesser extent the World Cup...does anyone actually care?

The concept of "World Cup" has also ruined Rugby to an extent. Each national team now focuses on that competition held every 4 years that all other "Internationals" are now devalued. Ireland came out here missing 10 of their best players. Australia takes the opportunity to "blood" new players looking for a better combination for the world cup. Intensity and passion is missing. We have devalued what was once great.

[Ken Gargett]

The concept of "World Cup" has also ruined Rugby to an extent. Each national team now focuses on that competition held every 4 years that all other "Internationals" are now devalued. Ireland came out here missing 10 of their best players. Australia takes the opportunity to "blood" new players looking for a better combination for the world cup. Intensity and passion is missing. We have devalued what was once great.

as we have discussed endlessly on the balcony, completely agreed. sadly, it has been this way now for 20 years. in the old days, a tour by a northern hemisphere power was something to excite, to treasure and it meant something. clearly, from the way we played in the 2nd test against the poms, it did not. shame on us.

four tests already this year (and the rugby calendar is as elongated as the cricket these days), and we are still talking about tinkering with the backline to get a combination. morons.

[khomeinist]

I truly hope FIFA has been scandalized enough by the shoddy referee work in this World Cup so that substantive changes will be made. The refs are wearing wireless communication devices. It would not be difficult to assign one extra ref on goal legality situations. Very odd.

Been so many crap calls. Cynics wonder if FIFA is trying to manipulate the results. I am not sure about that, but surely FIFA could take a few elementary moves to strengthen the legitimacy of the sport.

Offsides rule violations and goal-line verifications MUST be permitted in major tournaments. You can't assess every foul that will occur, but goals can be quickly viewed and reported to the match ref.

Off soapbox. Today was really bad though.

Chile/Brazil? Should be good.

[winelover]

I am still shell-shocked at just how shocking our defending was and general all-round performance. John Terry looked more like a lower-league player having a bad-day, and you could have probably landed a jumbo between the two centre backs at times. I thought we would rue the injury of Rio Ferdinand before the tournament as we looked distinctly weak in central defence throughout the tournament.

We had a poor group stages and were simply not playing the football that we had played in a long time. Also up-front we seemed impotent. Think back to past England teams and we had very good centre-forwards (Linekar won the golden boot in 1990) the SAS (Shearer and Sheringham in Euro 1996 and an in-form Owen in the 1998 World Cup). I think we lack real quality in the CF positions with the exception of Rooney (who was awful but is still our best player). Even so, we had a mid-field full of great players on paper and where did that get us?

Well done to Germany. Hope Nino enjoyed festivities at his local Hoff. I know it is a good feeling to beat Germany (remembering the 5-1) so I hope they are enjoying the moment of having convincingly beaten us (our second goal notwithstanding).

Oh - and almost forgot to also mention our 3-0 ODI series win over the Aussies. The Aussies are certinately a shadow of their former selves when you think of how dominant they used to be. Players like McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist just can't be replaced. Looking forward to an entertaining Ashes this winter and feeling optimistic.

[Nino]

Well done to Germany. Hope Nino enjoyed festivities at his local Hoff. I know it is a good feeling to beat Germany (remembering the 5-1) so I hope they are enjoying the moment of having convincingly beaten us (our second goal notwithstanding).

Thanks Graham,well commented.

I share your frustation as I had feared a loss against England due to their experince vs the youth of the German team but after watching ENGL's last matches I hoped for the best and it happened.

Highlight here in Germany was the poetic justice of having a "Wembley goal" re-loaded after 44 years - the Germans feel sweet justice has been served.

But we all saw the ball well inside - only a very blind ref would have disallowed it.

We all signed the England jersey marked "Revenge for Wembley".

The celebrations were really wild and beer, wine & sausages flowed freely.

As I have two national teams to cheer for, my suffering ( or enjoyment ) will continue tomorrow hoping Spain beats Portugal ( or Cristiano Ronaldo rather ) - we'll see.

At least I will watch it in good company during the smoke meet at the pharmacy.

Nino

See some pics of yesterday at Andy's Pub :

[gersonmorelli]

He was also arguably the most gifted footballer to ever walk onto a pitch. Such if flawed genius though, he did his fair share of the bad stuff.

Reckon England will beat Germany, but Argentina in the 1/4s..... I want to believe but if Messi has even a quite good game, nobody can stop him. Funnily enough I think the one team that could turn them over is Mexico. Otherwise I think they'll go all the way.

Uruguay, US or Ghana in the semi-final though - gotta be good for football. My money's on the Uruguayans.

Regarding Maradona being the best player, I respectfully disagree (if you were Argentinean I'd have to disrespectfully disagree! ). Pelé was a much better all-around player than Maradona ever dreamed to be.

1st - Pelé

2nd - Pelé

3rd - Pelé

4th - Maradona

[PADDYWHACK121272]

Thanks Graham,well commented.

I share your frustation as I had feared a loss against England due to their experince vs the youth of the German team but after watching ENGL's last matches I hoped for the best and it happened.

Highlight here in Germany was the poetic justice of having a "Wembley goal" re-loaded after 44 years - the Germans feel sweet justice has been served.

But we all saw the ball well inside - only a very blind ref would have disallowed it.

We all signed the England jersey marked "Revenge for Wembley".

The celebrations were really wild and beer, wine & sausages flowed freely.

As I have two national teams to cheer for, my suffering ( or enjoyment ) will continue tomorrow hoping Spain beats Portugal ( or Cristiano Ronaldo rather ) - we'll see.

At least I will watch it in good company during the smoke meet at the pharmacy.

Great photos Nino, that's what it's all about...

Nino

See some pics of yesterday at Andy's Pub :

[PADDYWHACK121272]

The celebrations were really wild and beer, wine & sausages flowed freely.

Great photos Nino, that's what it's all about..

[strayvector]

I'm wondering how much negative affect it has when your countries' top stars all play in the same league. England and Spain have historically done poorly in this tournament and those two countries tend to keep their superstars playing in their home leagues. I'm sure that the intense club rivalries that these players experience for four years would affect team cohesion negatively. England midfielders (Gerrard, Barry, Lampard, Cole, Milner, and Lennon) all play for different teams who intensely hate each other. I would think it would be hard for them to just let all the hostilities go for the short period of time that they are together.

One country that does not seem affected by this is Germany, but then again, Germans don't seem to get negatively affected by anything. They always up their games for the world cup. No matter how poorly their players do in club footbal, when they get together, their game goes up another level. England and Spain has been less than the sum of their parts, whereas Germany has always been greater than the sum of theirs. Spain still has a chance to make a difference this tournament, so maybe its just an English mentality.

[winelover]

Thanks for the pics Nino. It must have been great enjoying all of the beer, sausages and cigars.

I am really looking forward to Germany Argentina. I hope the Germans win, but the Argies play such sexy football and have immense talent. It will be a very difficult game. However I think it could be a spectacle for the neutrals with plenty of goals as both teams are very fluid and have great movement.

[Nino]

Thanks for the pics Nino. It must have been great enjoying all of the beer, sausages and cigars.

I am really looking forward to Germany Argentina. I hope the Germans win, but the Argies play such sexy football and have immense talent. It will be a very difficult game. However I think it could be a spectacle for the neutrals with plenty of goals as both teams are very fluid and have great movement.

My pleasure - it was great !

As for ARG-GER, uhm, the Argentines are strong but can be beaten like in 2006 by Germany, but - again - it will be tough.

As a previous poster remarked, Germany tends to get stronger and they have a superb run now. They are truly a tournament team.

I'd hate to see Messi out as I admire the guy, but he hasn't done much yet. Higuain & Tevez are stronger.

We'll see .... and prepare the Aspirins

[mazolaman]

I'll be rooting for Germany also,Nino.

I liked your pics,and would have been doing the same thing,as it was,the pub seemed to empty rather quickly.No surprise there.

The mouth watering match for the week is Brazil v Holland.....

Ken And Mr President..could,t agree more,these endless one dayers are meaningless...I loose track of who we are playing where.

Suspect the ICC are as greedy as FIFA and Sep Blatter...

[DrunkenMonkey]

Pure class from the Germans.

Know what would have been a really classy move? After going in at the half and realizing that the English had been screwed, they should have stepped aside and let one in to start the second half with the score as it should have been. How classy would that have been? Then maybe FIFA could be shamed into fixing the referee/judge problems. By the way, I did want the Fatherland to win, and I'm happy to see England lose, but I think Germany would have won a well-called match anyway. As it is, we'll never know.

[Nino]

I'll be rooting for Germany also,Nino.

The mouth watering match for the week is Brazil v Holland.....

Thanks, Mazolaman,

as for Brazil vs Holland, after just watching the Brazilians trash Chile's efforts, I suspect that they might be well rested to also send off the Orange team.

Brazil doesn't play "carioca" (Brazilian), it plays almost cold-blooded German style, effective, 90% control and 10% outburst of genius.

Dunga has sure implemented his regiment there, he is not loved, but he wins ..

Even with Kaka waiting for inspiration - I see Brazil marching on.

[gersonmorelli]

Thanks, Mazolaman,

as for Brazil vs Holland, after just watching the Brazilians trash Chile's efforts, I suspect that they might be well rested to also send off the Orange team.

Brazil doesn't play "carioca" (Brazilian), it plays almost cold-blooded German style, effective, 90% control and 10% outburst of genius.

Dunga has sure implemented his regiment there, he is not loved, but he wins ..

Even with Kaka waiting for inspiration - I see Brazil marching on.

Perfect analysis nino. Particularly I dislike Dunga's regiment. This is not how Brazil won 5 World Cups... And I'm a little skeptical about this World Cup.

Holland has always been a tough adversary. I just hope Kaka start playing well because the only midfielder that was actually doing something was Ramires who won't play, and the horrible Felipe Melo will come back.

PS: "Carioca" stands for someone from the city of Rio de Janeiro. If a person is from Rio (city) he is "carioca" if he or she is from the state of Rio de Janeiro but not from the city, he is "fluminense". I'm pretty sure who taught you that Brazilian soccer is "carioca" style is from Rio himself!

[Bartolomeo]

Nino's posts and Blog are the best!

Here is to FIFA getting with the program, I mean we are in the 21st Century are we not, technology is not such a bad thing

Bart

[First Lady]

Great photo's Nino

I can't wait for tomorrow's game Spain Vs Portugal.... hopefully it will be a good one.. I can see alot of tired days coming up as we get closer to the final

I have to go to a World Cup , I want to feel the atmosphere and the tension

[gersonmorelli]

Great photo's Nino

I can't wait for tomorrow's game Spain Vs Portugal.... hopefully it will be a good one.. I can see alot of tired days coming up as we get closer to the final

I have to go to a World Cup , I want to feel the atmosphere and the tension

I'll be glad to welcome everyone from FOH in 2014, the next World Cup, that will be held here in Brazil!

[Ken Gargett]

must say that brazil didn't look too bad this morning. if that is the new regime, i'd stick with it.

one thought, if you go back to the first minutes of the tournament, if the dud in the english goal doesn't make that monumental stuff up, england would have been up against ghana and then uruguay to get through to the semi's. by then, you'd have hoped that they had found some form. who knows what might have happened. just thought i'd mention it.

loved the commentator's mention of germany's record. "they've made the 1/4 finals every time, except once, when they might have other things on their mind".

apparently that once was 1938.

[DrunkenMonkey]

I'll be glad to welcome everyone from FOH in 2014, the next World Cup, that will be held here in Brazil!

Now that would be the place to see it all go down.