World Cup anyone ?

[Seren]

I alwyas thought that football might become interesting if there was three teams and two balls.

I occasionally wondered if there should be three or two goals, but settled for the three as the game would become too defensive if there were only two.

Mind you the inclusion of motorbikes and spikes on body armour..........

[hdibrell]

Now, that would be fun to watch. That and full contact golf.   

[APK]

Big day for England coming up.
Be nice to see them hit good form like a number of other countries have recently.
Time to play Joe.

[Antdude]

Now, that would be fun to watch. That and full contact golf.   

Now, there was a missed opportunity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA97kzai-Ew

[judd stephens]

Too bad England couldn't have played France...  that might have helped them get back to winning form

[hdibrell]

Now, that would be fun to watch. That and full contact golf.   

Now, there was a missed opportunity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA97kzai-Ew

That's what I'm talking about!!

[APK]

That was better from England

And good to see the USA get through, they deserved it. Great game to watch.

[abasio]

I am so very ashamed to be English today.

Go Japan!!!! 

[Mikeyboy]

Haha, England were bloody abysmal! I'm now an honourary Ghanaian (sp?!) so bring on Uruguay...

[phobos]

Haha, England were bloody abysmal!

Abysmal with a capital A, absolute disgrace, its about time the overrated, overpaid, egotistical lot were sacked. These prats get thousands of pounds a week and all they can do is imitate a bunch of schoolboys kicking a ball around in the playground! There must be other players out there who would give "their all" for the honour to play for their country.
You have to feel sorry for the fans who spent thousands of pounds getting there to watch those 4 matches

[petekelly]

I've learned never to expect anything from England at the World Cup, so I'm not totally surprised by their pretty dreadful performances, nowadays I
just enjoy the event.

David, they could have played 'the Boro' instead of the England 11 and they probably wouldn't have been so ineffective

Pete

[APK]

Sad couple of weeks for English soccer indeed.
But yep, lots of other good footie to still watch.

[petekelly]

'Paul' was right - those octopi they do not lie !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/10521867.stm

[michael sandler]

And I'm loving the vuvuzelas!

Heh, me personally, that sound shreds my nerves so much I watch the matches with the sound muted.

As for favorite teams, I'm evaluating teams based on who has the coolest socks. The Swiss win there.

The other thing I like about football/soccer is the clock never stops. Even when a player is writhing on the ground in agony and the medics are coming to haul him off on the stretcher, the clock still runs. You must have cojones to play this game.

MS

[judd stephens]

maybe someone better acquainted with soccer can tell me:  how was that not offsides for the Spain player who scored the winning goal?  Looked like he was on 2 occasions, right before he received the pass, then right after he kicked the goal.  The Netherlands looked pretty ticked about it.

[APK]

On the replay you can see that there was in fact a dutch player between him and goal the moment the ball was passed to him (which is the only moment that counts). He looked offside shortly after, sure, but not the moment the ball was kicked. The dutch players won't see this until they see the replay ... so they went crazy at the linesman on the far side. But he was not offside. It was a fine goal.

Spain were the better team throughout. Good that it got settled in regular play.

[judd stephens]

I see what you're saying, but does the player have to actually touch the ball for an offside to occur, or can the ball be passed to him without his contacting it?

I ask because right before the assist, you see a pass that goes toward Iniesta, the Netherlands player sticks his leg out and intercepts it, and during that pass, Iniesta is clearly ahead of all the defenders... although he never touched the ball intended for him.   Again, just to clarify, I'm referring to the 1st pass attempt, not the one that led to the goal.

[Mikeyboy]

It is a bit confusing, yep. I believe the rule is that the player must be interfering with play to be counted offside. However, players are also not given offside until they've actually touched (or tried to touch) the ball, hence I guess why Iniesta wasn't offside in the first instance, although he may have been level with the defence anyway.

Actually, you have to have two men goal-side when the ball is played, not one - which is why Mexico had a goal given offside in the first game of the tournament when the goal keeper came off his line, even though there was still a defender between the attacker and the goal. Nothing's ever simple!

I wanted Holland to win last night before the game, but they were so dirty and cynical I'm glad Spain won. They're definitely the best team in the world and play the game the right way. And I'm happy Iniesta scored the winner, he's a great player.

[petekelly]

I'm glad that Spain won too, they looked like they always wanted to win the games they played - and with flair.
 
I enjoyed the World Cup very much, as a whole, but the amount of play-acting and 'gamesmanship' was lamentable.
I don't want to see players trying to pressurise the referee to get players booked / sent off, or lots of rolling around on the floor after a tackle
then getting up again once the ref was looking the other way. As well as the usual cynical fouling.

I'm not a great sports fan, but this event is a one off and even though there's a lot of it that is very 'corporate', I believe its for the 'people'
primarily.   

Who'd have thought that a psychic Octopus would play such a part in it all ?

[Scott M2]

Wow! Paul, the psychic Octopus, is more magical than a glittery Unicorn!