Ya know, for a pub argument about football in the Pit, this thread is awfully nice.
: stand up and waves beer glass drunkenly at TV :
Somebody change the channel. “Newsnight” is on BBC2!
[sub]That should do it.[/sub]
That’s more like it.
Oh, and see whichever team you support - they’re shite, they are!
I could try to start an argument about who’s good and who’s bad in the England team, but I usually end up posting my opinions anyway so it’d hardly be novel.
Take a look at the Sun today. they rate Roberto Carlos a 7.
they also rate Danny Mills a 7.
journalistic integrity GTF. 
I don’t think that’s really too unfair (even if biased). Carlos has been playing to his abilities in a very good side. Mills, who nobody would class in the same league talent-wise, has been outstanding IMHO, and has performed consistently as well (except for that Swedish unpleasantness, which was as much bad luck as it was bad defending).
Please list them. I want to know who the US will expose in the Finals. England can’t handle the USA’s speed and there’s no way some ponytailed geezer will be able to block our shots.
DaMarcus Beasley will rate at least a full point higher than the overrated Beckham in midfield. Face it, your midfield is crap and Heskey couldn’t make it on an MLS team. The best he could do is win a hotdog eating contest.
How’s that?
Fucking wankers. 'Olland could have taken the lot of you.
Not true, my friend. The US will beat Spain in the semi-finals. Spain beat Ireland which beat the Dutch. So, by a simple mathematical principle, it’s clear that the US is better than Holland.
Anyway, failing to qualify saved the Netherlands from choking in the tournament. They’re like a cute little Spain.
Heh, Zoff, you’re on.
Seaman (8): as safe and consistent as ever. I’ve seen him make one mistake in this competition and he recovered that one. I’d rate him as alongside Kahn and Friedel in terms of goalkeepers I’d want behind me.
Mills (7.5): for an average player with a temperament problem he’s been a revelation. He’s no Cafu but plays the simple defensive game very, very well. Gets forward too, even if that’s not his strength.
Campbell (7): like Mills, he plays to his strengths (height and, er, strength) and doesn’t usually make silly errors. Easily the equal of a strong-man centre-forward, and where faster strikers might expose him for pace he has Ferdinand to clear up.
Ferdinand (9): on great form at the moment, quick-thinking, pacy and decisive.
Cole (6.5): I’m admittedly not his greatest fan. He’s such an effective attacking winger (with pace, trickery and a decent cross) that he often ends up exposing the left side of the defence.
Beckham (7): there’s no better striker of a dead ball in the world, IMHO, but his recent injury has left him obviously a little short on pace and stamina compared to his excellent qualifying form. Doesn’t make bad mistakes but isn’t quite as influential as I’d like at the moment.
Butt (8): I have no idea why he started playing so well, but he’s excelled in the defensive midfield role, and will break up many an attack before it gets close to the defence. Distribution is decent, too.
Scholes (8): has added decent passing and improved tackling to his main strength (making runs into the box). The new David Platt without a doubt.
Sinclair (7): reliable and competent. Does everything quite well.
Owen (7): hasn’t seen his best form yet due to some questionable tactics (playing two dwarves up front and bombarding them with high balls) and the obvious amount of marking attention he receives.
Heskey (5): sorry. I can’t argue on this one. Some news articles think he’s vastly underrated and is great and pulling defences apart with his strength. I understand why he’s in the team (cf. two dwarves above) but I just don’t see it.
Beckham…
Down here, any guy who had his wife send his bloody hairdresser to him in the middle of the tournament would never hear the end of it. What a wuss
And don’t get me started on the frickin’ arrogance of the “superpowers” of world soccer. Argentinia, France and Italy, bunch of whinging, self-centred, egotistical, pooncy rich bastards. Maybe you just weren’t good enough on the day, maybe your form was crap, and maybe, just maybe mind you, you couldn’t take the chances that were offered to you and were beaten by teams that did. But nooooo, it’s a fuckin’ conspiracy isn’t it! It’s FIFA’s fault, the referee was crap, we’re all too tired.
What a load of sweaty old BOLLOCKS! The rest of the world is catching up, try playing to win instead of sitting on a slender lead. Try taking some personal responsibility instead of laying blame, and above all:
Try losing with some dignity and grace, I take my hat off to Wilmots, at least the Belgians can do that.
Only Brazil to be eliminated and I’ll be happy, don’t get me started about Rivaldo.
Who’s shout is it?
Brazil - overrated. Sick & tired of Brazilian arse licking. They were lucky against Costa Rica and Belgium. They won’t be against England.
(Prepares hat for tomorrow’s lunch, just in case.)
I expect an England-Germany final, 4-2 after extra time. Where have I seen that before?
My favorite result - Korea Italy with the Italians whining about refereeing when they can’t score in an open goal - Vieri is crap.
Crusoe, who scored more from a dead ball situation last season, David Beckham or Ian Harte?
I tell you, the level of knowledge in this pub is appallingly low. The fact is, Italy was the target of a conspiracy. FIFA is incredibly corrupt (witness the voter intimidation in awarding the 2006 World Cup, and Blatter’s reign in general). Because of the financial pressures brought about by mismanagement soccer is looking to expand its market to increase revenues. How can they do this? Well, let me tell you how.
They (the FIFA cabal) are using this World Cup to open up the Asian market as well as appealing to those who are on the fence about whether to be fans. To do this, they decided they wanted to put on an offensive display. Italy, with it’s brilliant defending, was seen as an impediment and had to be eliminated. Unfortunately for the FIFA cabal, Italy played so well that they had to resort to blatant theft of goals to eliminate the Azzurri. When even that didn’t work in the group stage, they told Moreno to throw the Round of 16 game to the, no shock here, Asian team. Pretty simple, yet people want to blind themselves to the truth.
It’s one thing to be a casual fan and blithely root for team. It’s another entirely to have my level of knowledge and insight about what really goes on behind the scenes.
And Crusoe, all I have to say to your well-reasoned argumemt is that you have players named Butt and Seaman on your team.
No idea, can’'t find that information, but overall…
David Beckham: 11 goals, 8 assists
Dunno which were dead ball and which weren’t!
Everybody thinks what the Americans are doing now is a big shocker. It shouldn’t be.
The Americans would have made it to at least the final four in 1998, if they hadn’t been jobbed by the referees, who clearly had an anti-Yankee agenda.
And Brad Freidel? Please! Tony Meola should be starting in goal.
[sub]How’s that, Twist?[/sub]
Zoff: from a team with Coco (surely a clown, as well as a Badly Drawn Boy lookalike) and Buffo(o)n, I’m calling that a draw!
Isn’t that imposible these days, what with Golden Goals and all that?
Actually Milo, Kasey Keller should be in goal.
Tony Meola!! Only if he playes with pitch under his eyes.
Crusoe, I can almost guarentee that all Hartes goals came from Free Kicks. my reasoning is that he cant actually kick a moving ball.
I ought to get my SO to register just so he can tell you all about his theory that Brazil are actually all vampires and zombies, and Rivaldo is the Vampire King. It all descends into a fantasy of a BtVS style finale with Sven as Giles, Becks as Buffy, and probably Scholes as Willow, I shouldn’t wonder.
What happened in the 98 final is that the vampires did not have proper control over their zombie Ronaldo, possibly due to some ancient French magic curse.
Allegedly.
I just know that from now on, whenever I have any fantasies about the wonderful Ms.Hannigan, I’m going to picture Paul Scholes.
Thank you.