Just thought I’d start a thread for everyone who wants to discuss the results so far. The idea is that people don’t start posting results in the other World Cup threads - this is for the benefit of those who want to watch replays later in the day and who don’t want to see the results, then they know they can avoid this thread.
Also, a bit of thread discipline… please don’t post results on other World Cup threads nor start threads highlighting results. Mods, it would be really great if you could edit any spoiler threads…for example, “Yes!!! Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup” does tend to give the result away.
Anyway:
South Africa 1-1 Mexico
Sounds to me that South Africa are going to play in the stereotypical fashion for African football teams… basically attack a lot and forget about the defence. That will make for some very entertaining football but unfortunately will mean they won’t get very far.
Uruguay 0-0 France
By all accounts I’m glad I didn’t watch that one.
SA vs Mexico was fairly exciting, it’s a shame that Franco can’t do crap in front of goal. Shabalala (best player name in the tournament) had a great goal, Nkule had a great game, and a peach of a pass it seems. Too bad it all broke down when an awful defending gave Marquez the goal.
I only watched Uruguay vs France, and France was awful. They’re like the Arsenal of international football today. Dominated possession, no end results.
Looking forward to Argentina vs Nigeria and England vs USA tomorrow. S Korea vs Greece seems like it’s going to be a fairly crap game.
SA - Mexico
Actually one of the better opening games I ever saw, guess the preassure on all usually makes them really bad but than France and Uruguay did a great job to make the first game look good.
The scorers name is Siphiwe TSHABALALA, still great name and a really nice goal. SA looked really bad in the first half and Mexico could had good chances but the SA goaly did really well.
Mexico was technically and tactically better, still didn’t make much of it and their defence is a bit slow and aged which gave SA the chances for counter attacks. Blanco shouldnt be playing any more in my opinion but he just came on for 20 min anyway.
I hope SA shows a bit more during the next two games and they grow with having more games in the legs, more confidence and less preassure but than I guess half the country thinks already they are group winner now.
Uruguay - France
Bad, really bad. France mit not much, bad decissions from Domenech, Gouvu should have been replaced by Malouda in the first half and Anelka was hanging rather lonley up front and he isn’t the player who can rotate like Henry.
Uruguay way to, well tyipical for their usuall games, not using the creative potential the team actually has, more distroying than anything. The dream attack wasn’t really that, Suarez didnt show up at all and Forlan tried but that was it.
The stupid foul brought some interesting last minutes with a epic “throw your bodies in the shots” battle to hold the draw.
Well at least we got started, so now we go to the next low with seeing the Greeks playing till we finally go to see some good games hopefully…
[quote=“greenmark”]Just thought I’d start a thread for everyone who wants to discuss the results so far. The idea is that people don’t start posting results in the other World Cup threads - this is for the benefit of those who want to watch replays later in the day and who don’t want to see the results, then they know they can avoid this thread.
Also, a bit of thread discipline… please don’t post results on other World Cup threads nor start threads highlighting results. Mods, it would be really great if you could edit any spoiler threads…for example, “Yes!!! Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup” does tend to give the result away.
Anyway:
South Africa 1-1 Mexico
Sounds to me that South Africa are going to play in the stereotypical fashion for African football teams… basically attack a lot and forget about the defence. That will make for some very entertaining football but unfortunately will mean they won’t get very far.
Uruguay 0-0 France
By all accounts I’m glad I didn’t watch that one.[/quote]
[quote=“Vindurinn”]SA vs Mexico was fairly exciting, it’s a shame that Franco can’t do crap in front of goal. Shabalala (best player name in the tournament) had a great goal, Nkule had a great game, and a peach of a pass it seems. Too bad it all broke down when an awful defending gave Marquez the goal.
I only watched Uruguay vs France, and France was awful. They’re like the Arsenal of international football today. Dominated possession, no end results.
Looking forward to Argentina vs Nigeria and England vs USA tomorrow. S Korea vs Greece seems like it’s going to be a fairly crap game.[/quote]
France can’t do anything without Zidane. They will be lucky to progress out of the round, though the group is crap so anything can happen.
South Korea v. Greece turned out to be a pretty good match. South Korea once again show that their work-rate is second to none and the Greeks had spurts where they were dangerous.
Nigeria looked completely unorganized and listless. Argentina couldn’t finish.
USA-England was the best match of the night with both teams getting good scoring chances and England lucky to get out of it with a draw after Green saved the strike from Jozy Altidore into the post.
Where the heck are all the goals? No match with more than two goals thus far and only South Korea has scored two with no individual player with more than one… Over/under on the Golden Boot winner has got to be something like three at this point…
Yeah England vs USA was fairly exciting. I predicted a 1-0 and Green just had to spill the ball over the line.
Germany vs Aussie was class. Of course, in favor of Germany. Aussie was awful all around, offside traps not working, pressing not working, everything is going wrong. And Cahill’s red card was a bit of a joke decision, really.I feel bad more for Aussie than since Cahill is Aussie’s most important player, I think.
I wish the early games don’t start at 4:30am so I can actually watch Denmark vs Netherlands tomorrow.
Brazil v N Korea - watch for the goals, but really worth staying up till 4am?..I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a good Holland v Danemark game, any tips on which others not to miss?
SA - MEX
Fair result in the end, though I hoped South Africa won.
URU-FRA
Didn’t see much of it. I thought Suarez would come up big this tournament after scoring 40 something goals for Ajax this season. Well, maybe playing in Holland is not that difficult after all.
KOR-GRE
Never liked the Greek style of play, so Korea’s win is fine with me.
ARG-NIG
Nice passing game by the Argentinians. Wasted a lot chances, though. Nigeria had some really good chances as well. Same old story with African teams, look decent for stretches, but can’t finish.
ENG-USA
Didn’t see the game, only a replay of the goalie fumbling the ball. Must be tough to root for England, the way they always seem to underperform. Maybe too many foreigners in the Premiership?
ALG-SLO
Both teams were as awful as you would expect. Toward the end I thought the Algerians were a bit better, but then their striker was send off for being stupid and their goalie reacted the wrong way against a rather harmless shot. Maybe it’s the ball?
SER-GHA
Don’t like any of these two teams. Ghana’s bad boy Prince Boateng (the Germans will get a kick out of that) was part of the game-deciding moment when the Serbian defender touched the ball with his hand, giving away a penalty.
GER-AUS
The Australians looked a bit dangerous in the beginning, but that changed quickly after the first goal. Very good, even beautiful, game by the Germans. Very much in control and absolute marvelous passing. The red card for Cahill was a bit harsh, but considering how many times Australian players hacked at German legs it was justified overall.
I am by no means a football expert, but my compatriots are kinda known for falling very easily
Anyway, I was really feeling with the Aussies next to us Germans celebrating in Brass Monkey this morning… the referee seemed to be favoring the German team quite a bit, and unfairly so. Sure the Australian team was (at least after the first minutes) not playing as good as the German one, but I didn’t feel they deserved such a smack. Was lots of fun to watch either way, especially since I expected a very mediocre game.
That was a pretty frightening performance by ze Germans - Özil looks handy (apart from his justified yellow for diving) and both the passing and movement were excellent. With South Korea doing OK they are the only team so far to hit their stride.
England were shit, as usual. Luckily Algeria and Slovenia are bloody awful, so we should still get out of the group along with the Yanks, who played pretty well with a superb Paul McGrath-style performance from Onyewu. The first decent team we meet will thump us, though.
