Beautiful goal from Didier Drogba.
Aside from the handball for Brazil’s second goal, this has been an impressive match.
What’s with the flurry of yellow cards?
Ridiculous overacting by the Ivory Coast player to get Kaka sent off.
Someone give that Ivory Coast player an Oscar :rolleyes:
No fucking kidding. That was disgraceful.
Can FIFA rescind that second caution? It’d be shame if Kaka missed a game because of that.
Also, Ivory Coast is being idiotic here. They need Brazil to beat Portugual if they’re to have any hope of advancing.
Brazil/Ivory Coast summary:
3 words.
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
I’m pretty sure there is no right of appeal for the automatic one match suspension. FIFA can review evidence and extend the ban if they deem necessary but I don’t think they can withdraw the suspension. In domestic football the local authority can do things differently but the appeals process usually takes weeks so it isn’t practical to apply it to a tournament like this.
It isn’t a big deal anyway, Brazil are comfortably going to get through and Kaka will reach the knockout stages with a clean sheet rather than a yellow hanging over his head.
Not only was the Ivory Coast player’s flop disgraceful, it was stupid. That late in the game, trailing by two, they’re not coming back. Brazil’s got the game won and is into the next round. Ivory Coast is tied with Portugal. Assuming that both Portugal and Ivory Coast beat North Korea, Ivory Coast needs Portugal to lose to Brazil to have a chance, and now Brazil’s been weakened by the loss of Kaka.
I’m unsure, but I very much doubt it. On the other hand, they can most certainly discipline the IC player for his little bout of acting.
Well, the US, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina are doing just fine… perhaps you meant Europe?
They can definitely discipline Luis Fabiano if he really lied to the referee – depends on his report about the game.
Anyway, another blind referee; he missed or misjudged so many important situations that I hope, we won’t see him again.
The game was another weak one: in contrast to their first game, Brazil rarely developed a well-suited tactical shape on the field, too many players massed in the middle and left the wings unmanned. They also showed a surprising number of technical imperfections and inadequate passing, really strange. But Côte d’Ivoire played timidly and slowly for a long time and threatened the Brazilian goal scarcely.
And Brazil can always count on a brilliant moment even when they play less than stellar.
The second goal was so obviously a handball that even Maradona couldn’t have done it much better. The third, however, was prepared excellently and highlighted the Ivorian defensive weaknesses when the ball gets close to the box.
A pity that the Africans started to move forward quickly only when it was already too late – but it still exposed gaps in the Brazilian defence. Other, more formidable teams will have observed them closely. The venom late in the game proved a last time how weak the referee was. Though I don’t like it when functionaries take over, some actions should have consequences.
Huh? Western Hemisphere == North & South America, basically. Plus technically part of England I guess, and maybe Nigeria, but really I meant the Americas (the ones you mentioned plus Mexico and Uruguay).
Huh? He said the Western Hemisphere is doing well. When I see Western Hemisphere it usually refers to the Americas. Is that not right?
Hope Elano is OK–his injury looked pretty bad, and might force him to miss the rest of the tournament. And he had been so happy after scoring the third goal for Brazil. 
The red card for Kaka was ridiculous. Can’t believe none of the officials saw Keita running into Kaka and then pulling a Rivaldo by collapsing and clutching his face. So now Kaka will have to sit out the final group game. But Brazil shouldn’t mind it too much, since they won’t need a full-strength side against Portugal, anyway.
I felt bad for the Ivory Coast after Luis Fabiano’s double-handball in the second goal, but after seeing them nearly breaking the legs of two Brazilians with terrible tackles, and getting Kaka sent off, I’m happy to see them knocked out at the group stage. And like Rysto and fachverwirrt point out, the IC will be counting on Brazil to beat Portugal if they have any hope of advancing, and that hope has been undermined by getting Kaka suspended for the last game. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
Just pointing out my awesome predicting skills…
Okay, I got the score wrong and due to New Zealan’d unexpected draw with Slovakia both NZ and Italy still have a chance to go through, but damn I was close…
Oh and as to the match itself, I thought Smeltz was offside, but also that the Italian penalty was a bad call too so it evened out I guess.
Another definition, not used in the U.S. for what I’ve seen, is Western Europe and the Americas.
Or west of the Greenwich meridian.
West of the Prime Meridian and East of 180 degrees is really the only reasonable definition.
The problem with that in this scenario is that it include at least parts of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast, so it doesn’t really work.
I’d just say “the Americas”.
Sorry. It was my mistake not yours: I read the post completely wrong.
Let’s go back to football. This won’t be remembered as France’s finest our. Not only their team is a disgrace. The referee in Brazil’s game early today was a disaster.
I apologize if this has already been posted:
I was going to describe the French team as being in chaos, but is there something more chaotic than chaos I can refer to?