FIFA World Cup Thread

[Phantasee]

Ah, I'm just being a hater. All the girls think Ronaldo is God's gift to football and women, and I feel the green demon when I see his pretty face.

[Ryan Thunder]

1) Portugal

Viva Portugal!

They just totally thrashed the PRK. I know, that's more a reflection of how shitty the PRK team was than how awesome the Portuguese team is, but holy shit, 7-0?

[ray245]

1) Portugal

Viva Portugal!

They just totally thrashed the PRK. I know, that's more a reflection of how shitty the PRK team was than how awesome the Portuguese team is, but holy shit, 7-0?

Did North Korea perform as well as they did during the match against Brazil?

[Phantasee]

Oh boy, another draw-- GOAL FOR CHILE!

[Lief]

Did North Korea perform as well as they did during the match against Brazil?

They were ok in the first half and worked hard, they ran out of steam and totally fell apart after the second goal fairly soon after the second half kicked off.

So no, not really.

[Master of Ossus]

Oh boy, another draw-- GOAL FOR CHILE!

Latin America is completely dominating this tournament. So far, their only loss was in a Chile-Honduras game, and they've won all but 2 of their other matches.

[Thanas]

I think people are being generous to Kaka. Yeah it was hardly a violent act but he could see the player coming (and the Ivory Coast player wasn't looking) and raised the arm and braced himself for the impact. Why you would need to 'protect yourself' from someone hitting you at a slow jog remains a mystery.

That said, Ivory Coast player is a total tool and took an epic dive. But hey, diving isn't a problem in football am i rite? He was only making sure the ref knew he had been fouled.

Shhh. Ze Germans will hear you.

Sorry, too busy listening to aussies whine about how their team got shafted through absolutely no fault of their own.

A BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO.

[Steve]

So, have any border skirmishes - or outright wars - broken out over game results yet? It's not a proper World Cup until people start shooting each other, I say.

[Phantasee]

YELLOW CARD TO THANAS FOR UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT

No sore winners, bub.

The flare ups between Chile and Switzerland kinda ruined the game for me. As for Spain v Honduras, FINALLY a reason to believe Spain is a contender.

[Korgeta]

With all the news surrounding France i think they deserve their own topic thread because NOW some of the stars are planning to boycott their final game!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 752637.stm

[Thanas]

YELLOW CARD TO THANAS FOR UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT

THEY TOTALLY TOOK A DIVE. OUTRAGEOUS. I AM BEING PUNISHED FOR NO REASON.

[weemadando]

YELLOW CARD TO THANAS FOR UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT

THEY TOTALLY TOOK A DIVE. OUTRAGEOUS. I AM BEING PUNISHED FOR NO REASON.

AAARGH! REF! HE TOTALLY HIT ME! OW OW OW OW OW OW OW!

What, he's been giving a card? I'm fine. Oh wait, no! IT WAS REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD! ONLY A PENALTY SHOT CAN BALANCE OUT THIS INJUSTICE THAT HAS BEEN DELIVERED UNTO ME!

On checking wikipedia, this world cup is currently averaging 3.94 yellows per match. Which seems like a lot. Oh yeah - and none of them have been against the diver thus far.

[Thanas]

On checking wikipedia, this world cup is currently averaging 3.94 yellows per match. Which seems like a lot. Oh yeah - and none of them have been against the diver thus far.

Not true, Mezil got one for diving.

[Twigler]

So, have any border skirmishes - or outright wars - broken out over game results yet? It's not a proper World Cup until people start shooting each other, I say.

The Nigerian player Kaita received more than 1000 death threats after getting a red card. Poor guy, I really do hope they're just internet rage and nothing serious.

[weemadando]

Ah, my bad. But that still seems like a helluva lot more cards than I can remember in prior World Cups (or really any event/league).

[Thanas]

Ah, my bad. But that still seems like a helluva lot more cards than I can remember in prior World Cups (or really any event/league).

Yeah, for some reason every country sent their "toughest" referee to the cup. Maybe just a coincidence or maybe the refs do not want to take the same things they did at prior cups (Zedane's headbutt etc).

[Gil Hamilton]

Did North Korea perform as well as they did during the match against Brazil?

I think their entire team defected and they were left with any Chinese or Japanese national they could shove in a DPRK kit in time.

[Master of Ossus]

Yeah, for some reason every country sent their "toughest" referee to the cup. Maybe just a coincidence or maybe the refs do not want to take the same things they did at prior cups (Zedane's headbutt etc).

Some of the officials have been excellent, but I just don't get what FIFA's doing.

Graham Poll was immediately sent home in disgrace for failing to send off a Croatian for collecting his second caution of the match (which he later "rectified" minutes later when he booked him a third time). He was England's best referee, a veteran of about eighteen million EPL and Champions League matches, and so well respected by the players that he was still allowed to do EPL games afterwards.

WHY ISN'T FIFA SENDING COULIBALY HOME?

How the fuck can they be "very, very happy" with the officiating at the tournament, so far? They even went so fucking far as to refute claims that Coulibaly would (finally) be done for the tournament after he had already been given two matches too many.

SBNation had this to say.

Jose-Marcia Garcia-Aranda went on to say the federation is also satisfied with the way BP has responded to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the fairness of Iranian elections and the last season of Heroes.

All of it makes you wonder what would make FIFA dissatisfied with officiating. It's almost too frightening to consider.

As if this isn't enough bullshit, FIFA has begun pulling the video for copyright grounds from YouTube and other sites, even though they're allowing highlights from other matches and even goal compilation videos from the US vs. Slovenia to remain up!

This is also consistent with their official site's treatment of the match, which somehow manages to omit the play from their videos and mentions it only in passing from the match descriptions.

[Darth Fanboy]

Well as a sports fan this year who generally loathes watching soccer on TV I actually gave the World Cup a chance this year because it promised compelling matchups and surprisingly the 6:30 am start times work well for me to watch.

What i've gotten instead is a reinforcement of all the reasons I could care less about this sport. As soon as the US is eliminated i'll be ignoring all the coverage completely. Referees should never be the story, and it wouldn't be as big of a deal if FIFA didn't come of as the most arrogant bunch of jackasses possible. I'm not against the Vuvuzelas, but those horns are turning out to be a bigger story than the games on the field also. South Africa ran itself into massive debt for this?

[Lief]

Aside from a couple of games, the reffing on the whole has been pretty good imo, one that sticks out is the japanese ref from the spain game yesterday.

[weemadando]

Just two articles from TODAYS coverage of the World Cup in Australia. I really agree with the first one - it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend the sport in Australia, let alone promote it, due to the way that the diving (the biggest criticism of football in Australia) is being handled right now.

Game's credibility taking a dive

Angry Swiss Blast "Astonishing" Red Card

[Edward Yee]

Just to make the 7-0 blowout more damaging, it was broadcast LIVE...

s the 7-0 loss to Portugal concluded, the North Koreans quickly halted Monday's coverage. "The Portuguese won the game and now have four points," the Korean Central Broadcasting commentator said. "We are ending our live broadcast now."

It then cut to factory workers and engineers praising North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Potential (internal) political significance?

It is the first time in 44 years that North Korea has qualified for the World Cup, a rare point of pride for a nation increasingly at odds with the outside world.

North Korea's players were feted as heroes when they returned home last year after qualifying for the World Cup. The sport is North Korea's most popular and has one exceptionally important fan: leader Kim Jong Il.

Kim, 68, used North Korea's 1966 World Cup success as political capital in his campaign to take over leadership from his father, Kim Il Sung, according to Moon Ki-nam, a former national coach for North Korea who defected to South Korea in 2004.

[thejester]

Sorry, too busy listening to aussies whine about how their team got shafted through absolutely no fault of their own.

A BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO.

Is that code for 'my arguments suck balls'? The culture of diving is a blight on the game and has gone from mere to gamesmanship to systematic cheating. Watching Italy vs New Zealand the other night...had the Italians actually concentrated on the game rather than continually played for frees, they might have beaten a team with a fraction of the talent they possess. Note that I don't think Australia is immune, for the 20 something minutes Kewell played he was playing for frees and bleating to the ref to an embarrassing extent. But as it stands the yellow card is CLEARLY an insufficient deterrent to players and the problem seems to be getting worse.

PS: Writing 'a bloo bloo bloo' makes you look stupid.

[weemadando]

The funniest part to me is where someone pointed out that the entire NZ team, according to the current trade value estimates, is worth less than a single Italian player. And that there are even amateur players on the NZ team who got time in the Italy match.

[weemadando]

Sorry, too busy listening to aussies whine about how their team got shafted through absolutely no fault of their own.

A BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO.

Is that code for 'my arguments suck balls'? The culture of diving is a blight on the game and has gone from mere to gamesmanship to systematic cheating. Watching Italy vs New Zealand the other night...had the Italians actually concentrated on the game rather than continually played for frees, they might have beaten a team with a fraction of the talent they possess. Note that I don't think Australia is immune, for the 20 something minutes Kewell played he was playing for frees and bleating to the ref to an embarrassing extent. But as it stands the yellow card is CLEARLY an insufficient deterrent to players and the problem seems to be getting worse.

PS: Writing 'a bloo bloo bloo' makes you look stupid.

Silly little convict. Aren't you listening to the good continental folks who know best? Sepp Blatter has said that there is no problem. Therefore there is no problem. Stop your whining about accountability, the ability for technology to integrate and the fact that at the very least, if keeping it "human" and "personal" is that important, then FIFA should have brought in the five ref system for the World Cup and toe the party line.