Well, the 2006 team had Beckham and Michael Owen (who for my money is twice the striker Rooney is), and didn’t do a lot better.
Nice to see FIFA taking swift action regarding the horrendous officiating: they are blocking controversial replays during the game in the stadium. Bravo, gang. That should solve THAT.
It’s easier than getting better refs.
True, but I would just say it is a necessary condition not a sufficient condition for success.
**Paraguay vs Japan 10:00 A.M. EST
[size=6]España vs Portugal 2:30 A.M. EST**[/size]
Time to break open the Pepto Bismol – queasy as hell already.
But yeah, football’s a blast! :dubious:
I personally think you have nothing to worry about. Spain, 3-1.
I would worry if the Spanish show up at 2:00 AM EST 
LOL! As would I! Shows you what state I in already. :smack:
MD12, from your keyboard to God Blatter’s ears. 
You obviously don’t remember Argentina in 1998!
Well, nobody can say he lacks passion for the team he supports. I’d have been furious as well, if I’d had to watch that bag of shite performance up close like that.
Because we now play a similar idea of football but Spain ist still the master and we are the apprentices?
Ha. It’s often translated to German as “Bauernschläue” (or in less colourful English “native wit”) but that doesn’t cut it at all; it’s one of the words that are so interwoven with the porteños and even more with the character of the “vivos” that I don’t know how to separate it from them without losing its meaning.
And both players were bargains. But I am surprised that you are surprised about Holland’s new style; they have played this way every match so far: efficient and controlled football on a high level played by a talented team with enough genius in some of them to make a difference.
Their next match will put them against a similarly controlled but even more talented team with an advantage in defence. I fear, my dear neighbours will be in trouble.
He had a difficult year in Bayern partly because of injuries, partly because of difficulties with van Gaal’s system that worked very well with players like Thomas Müller and Ivica Olic, while the not totally fit Klose often looked like an underachiever in the extremely mobile offence. If Klose had been as fit as he is now, well, the Champions League final in Madrid might have played out differently (my turn for an “if only” wishful fantasy moment ;)).
But I think he benefits now from the months of training van Gaal’s positional play; our youngsters are used to something similar anyway but the “older” guard was adapted to a more rigid, less demanding system that is rarely played by now by the national team.
And he has always been an ambitious guy who can push himself hard and as fas as I’ve heard, he was extremely angry with himself after his lack of discipline in the match against Serbia and this might have added to his determination against England.
But the latest match is not a well-balanced indicator of Klose’s abilities; it mostly highlighted his strenghts since the English defence didn’t show the specific skills that render him useless.
His main weakness though is an inadequate conversion of chances due to a lack of coolness in the crucial moment; this was evident in the latest match too when he could have decided the outcome with little effort during the first half an hour but failed to wrap up his excellent preparation twice.
A better organized defence, that blocks his lanes of attack well, will show his limits more: he is not skilled enough with the ball at his feet to dribble into the box, nor has he Podolski’s shooting strenght or Özil’s technique to try it from the outside. He should be more of a threat following corner kicks and indirect kicks – but this harmlessness is far more a result of our woeful standards that have yet to find their mark. This is a bit strange, really. You could almost think that the players consider a goal uninteresting that isn’t the result of a one-two or other team-play.
Speaking of injuries, I think that Michael Owen’s performance was hampered by them substantially as well. I had the pleasure to watch his young self on site a couple of times and was fascinated by his skills and awareness of the game.
And I might be wrong here but I have the impression that Rooney is already showing signs of a body worn down by ailments.
Two wins, two draws, correct? What did you sacrifice to the mighty Norse gods?
Considering the referee’s performance, Capello stayed miraculously calm. Maradona would have managed to be banned from any stadium for a year at least.
Outstanding. Just when you think FIFA couldn’t get any more stupid they go and pull something like that out of the bag.
Not sure why this is such a shock, or even stupid.
I was under the impression that replays of contentious issues were ALWAYS prohibited from being shown on the big screens present in grounds (perhaps this is just a premier league thing), for the reason of preventing crowd discontent. If video replays are not allowed as part of the sport, then it is obvious that the large screens should not be immediately showing contentious issues. It would serve only to infuriate fans, with referees prohibited from using the information shown in their decisions. After all, would home grounds only show those contentious issues that affect the home team?
FIFA will not, and should not, change their rule book in the middle of the biggest tournament they have. Any changes made will be made after all dust has settled. It makes perfect sense in the interim to state that the large video screen operators should not be electing themselves de-facto video referees.
Sometimes what Beckham provided was a foot. And a red card.
How many goals were actually scored in the group stage? I can go add them up, but didn’t see a resource anywhere that show the total.
Here’s a more in depth breakdown of the goals scored: FIFA World Cup 2010 Group Matches: Goals Scored
But yes, 101.
Damn that was one hell of a knee to the face.
Nobody’s said anything about Paraguay-Japan. Not that there’s too much to say. Japan’s keeper has had a curate’s egg of a match, pulling off a couple of good saves but also KO-ing a teammate who got too close to him on what should have been a routine save. Still 0-0.
At this rate, I’ll go for the Japanese on penalties.
(That usually makes something happen to prove me wrong. )