We’ve had the word cup chit chat in MPSIMS, but naturally the only proper environment for discussing the Beautiful game is in a pub with all logic and evidence thrown to the wind.
I expect to see all the world cup fans to be in the thread.
the first pub football arguement shall be thus.
Pele was shit. no, he was. He missed WAAY too many shots and wasted the ball too much. He didn’t know how to do the simple things. Give me John Giles any day. now there was a player. A bit cheekey on the ball, but would stand on your toe while shaking your hand before the match. He could leave his mark on the game. But you dont see any kids running around wearing John Giles name on their back, do ya!
Bobby Moore was shit as well. Give me Norman Hunter anyday!
Those new balls should be banned, unless we’re scoring.
I don’t mind tinkering with the game to make it more exciting, so long as the fundamentals remain the same. A faster ball is fine IMHO.
No opinion on Pele, really. I’ve only ever seen snippets of what he did. However, in a similar vein, Gheorghe Hagi was as good a player as Diego Maradona ever was, but got less publicity.
I’m tired of the shameless worship by announcers of Brazil’s “Samba soccer”. Half the shit they do is to no effect whatsoever except to add to their personal highlight video. If the goal the US scored against Korea had been scored by Brazil we’d still be hearing about how beautiful it was.
The Nigerian soccer federation should sue Nike for shaming the nation by outfitting them in those godawful lime green uniforms.
The Senegal jerseys were originally sleeveless but FIFA wouldn’t let them play without sleeves. They sewed on sleeves with holes in the armpits.
Because Senegal’s ugly uniforms were the product of strange circumstances I stand by my Nigeria nomination. Nike spent a long time making sure the uniforms looked exactly the way the wanted them.
Most embarrassing moment goes to the Croatian player who took his shirt off to celebrate a goal then couldn’t get it back on. He had to go to the sidelines as play resumed and have a trainer cut off part of the jersey so he could get it back on. That was during the Croatia vs. Team We’re Going to Screw Out of Two Goals game.
Twisty: couple of matches you and Ruadh might be interested in – Scotland v Ireland, 30 April 2003 (probably Hampden Park), and potentially Scotland vs USA, 15 October 2002 (venue TBC, Edinburgh).
I’d go to the US game. The Ireland Scotland game will be rife for English And Scottish Hoolies to get together for some trouble. plenty of singing about “Up to our knees in Fenian blood” at that one .
I kinda like the Nigerian uniform. I could buy myself one if I had that much money to waste.
This cup will be remembered for a long time ! [sub] This is the most meaningless comment you can make about the world cup. Has any of the world cup finals ever been forgotten?[/sub]
You’re right, damnit. And now you’ve shot my chances of winning the argument. I was hoping to win due to the implied-superiority-of-my-beliefs-due-to-my-knowledge-of-unrelated-information. But now that you’ve pointed out a flaw in my information, my argument is doomed.
I’ll attempt to recover by taking a sip of my beer, nodding, and saying “Yes, I guess I’m confusing teams from former French colonies” with a knowing laugh.
Damn straight! He should be worshipped for the footballing god he was.
Not fair…Just because he was Romanian…Best left foot of any player ever…Grumble…Grumble…
I have a theory that the Senegal jerseys were bought as a job lot from a second-hand shop in Barnsley - they have a clapped-out Pub team look about them.
The Senegal jerseys did have holes in the armpits. Perhaps les Sénegalais like a bit of breeze about the old pits.
What was it with those Croatian shirts - some sort of two layer thing going on there. Very 80s, especially what with the red and white check of the Croatian flag. Hilarious to see that lad getting completely lost inside his.
and Zoff is once again right about the shameless arselicking of Brazil that goes on. Ian Wright said it well, speaking about England: “If that’d been Brazil, Al, you’d have been creaming”. And then Gary Lineker had to tell him off for making a reference to jism on daytime telly. Tee hee.
Honestly though, the way the pundits suck the cock of Brazil is really tiresome.
Yep, the Brazil-mania is tiresome. The worst is the buildup Roberto Carlos gets before any free kick. He’s been smashing free-kick after free-kick into innocent opponents in the wall for years now, and his free-kick goal was ‘inevitable’? Bleh!
Pele was overrated. Wouldn’t have scored half as many goals if he didn’t have amazing players around him doing all the hard creative work. Maradona was better.
This isn’t nearly bizarre enough to be a real pub football argument. - there’s not nearly enough yeast logic going on. What you need is something like
see that Dayglo Madonna - he was in my school team. Seriously - he went to a school down the road from here for two years. I was a much better player than him too, would have been a pro if it hadn’t been for a dirty tackle that broke my leg in 15 places. Ended my footballing days, that did…(etc, ad closing time)
I can try … I have ended the promising career of a footballer. At school one day, playing knockout (you know - last person to score is out) my mate and I were the last remaining players. He was having professional trials at the time, and could dribble rings round me. He paused with his foot on the ball, and I slid it away from him - no contact with him at all. Unfortunately, when he fell he landed badly and severed every tendon holding his kneecap in place. It ended up somewhere down his shin.
Maradona, Schmaradona. His non-cheating goal against England in 1986 was total shit compared to Saed Owairan’s goal against Belgium in the 1994 World Cup.
Maradona ran past a couple of guys from midfield. Owairan took the ball from his own 18 and smoked the entire Belgian team – twice. Owairan’s run took finesse, skill, and soccer knowledge. Maradona was just following his instinct of running towards a big white line.
These modern players have it all over those minnows of history. Why nowadays they can trap the ball further than players of yesteryear could kick it.
As to Johnny Foreigners, they are homogenising the game. The traditional battle between sides playing different styles is . Nowadays it’s the same stuff at both ends and only the shirts change.
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