FIFA World Cup

[Phobetor]

USA is pissing me off. Apparently, someone forgot to tell them that this wasn't a practice run but the REAL THING. >_<

Props to England, they're dominating. ...oh...and BTW: It's my firm belief that England gave that goal to the US. If not, we'd still be loosing. *nodnod*

EDIT: Man England did FANTASTIC. Their defensed pwned and they were ruthless. USA...they better pick up their balls from the field and use them next time.

The commentator said that USA works great as a Team and it's true...but they're too safe. England was wild. And they got REAAAAAAL close a hell of a lot of times! I think without HOWARD being on his toes, USA would have been slaughtered.

[Remiel]

Yeah, we got lucky.  I hate to say it, but it's true.  Green basically gave us the goal. 

The Gerrard goal aside, I think we played a pretty good first half though.  We brought it to England multiple times.

But the second half?  WTF, mate?!?  It's like we fell apart.  Kicking it out of bounds, kicking it to the wrong person, kicking it absolutely f--king nowhere.  If it wasn't for Howard's superhuman goalkeeping talents, I think we'd have lost this one.

Still, all things considered, I'm happy with the result.  I'll take it.  We should be able to beat Slovenia and Algeria and advance. 

[Heaven Sent Blossom]

I really wasn't too impressed with Argentina today. I expected a lot more from Milito and Messi.

Vincent Enyeama says hi. Frankly if it weren't for him Messi would've bagged his hat-trick and nobody would care about the problems at the back which Argentina are working with. Problems which will be eased when Burdisso is ready to start games.
Oh and it didn't help that Higuain forgot that his job was, you know, to score goals.

[Stan']

At 1-0, the U.S.A. were doing well.  I said to the mates in the pub that they looked like they would score, but that England would be 2-1 victors at the end of the night.  Oh dear.  English goalkeeping howlers.  To be fair, I feel sorry for the lad Green.  He must have felt like the worst, loneliest person in the world at that point.  It was a bad goal to let in, but then again, I've heard plenty of stories that this ball is basically an anti-goalkeeping nightmare.  There is absolutely no way to predict which way it is going to go, or safely anticipate it.

Rooney was absent, but I thought Heskey played well.  England had some killer passes, thanks to a bad U.S.A. defence.  But the lad got in to the right position, and he set up the goal.  I think he deserves to keep his place for the next game.  The wings, however.  Glen Johnson was putting in great crosses, but apart from him, where was everyone else?  Where was Joe Cole's spark?  Even though England are guaranteed to go through to the Last 16, something needs to be done.  Rooney was playing too deep, he was looking to run with the ball rather than run to the ball.  Too many balls went in to the box without him being there.  When the real competition comes, they're going to have to up their game big time.

Algeria are a good team.  The U.S. will have big problems trying to beat them.

[Nico]

I wanted to cry, seriously.

But, all in all we did okay. Okay. Not good. We can do way better, for gods sake!

Still, all things considered, I'm happy with the result.  I'll take it.  We should be able to beat Slovenia and Algeria and advance. 

I agree!

[TheWriter]

I'm going in optimistic; they never start well, they've lost Ballack, etc. etc.  But at the end of the day, I'm not expecting anything less than a trouncing tomorrow.

Germany 3 - 0 Australia.

[Ridcully]

Do you guys in England encourage your goalkeepers to do such things? "Hell mate, can't you be a bit more Seaman and a lot less like Bobby Shilton?"

Anyways, the US made a really good match, and England can be happy with the draw. Just reminding of the one shot that hit the post in the second half from the US.

[Nico]

I sure hope Germany will be the better team tonight. 

[Ridcully]

Since when does Germany need to be the better team to win? 

I feel strange. Because, see. 2002 and 2006, I really had such a bad feeling about the team, and we went far in the tournament. 2008, at the Euro, i even bat on Germany not making it to the second round. We made it to the finals.

In 2004, I thought Germany has a really good team. The soccer fans know what happened.

This time, I have an extremely good feeling, even without El Capitano. And this worries the hell out of me. I know. Soccer. Strange.

Here, Algeria vs Slovenia. Oh my god, how bad was this match? Torture.

Serbia - Kevin-Prince-Boateng + 10. I really like Ghana. I hope they win, and Kevin-Prince Boateng somehow loses still.

[Nico]

I seriously didn't think Germany would make it into the Final in 2008.

I have a good feeling as well, but, yeah, let's face it, Australia -is- a good team, too. I'm not really worries about Ballack not playing,t o be honest. There's more than enough other, just as great players in the team.

I didn't see Algeria - Slovenia, but I'm watching Ghana now. I like them, too.

[TheWriter]

I wouldn't go so far as to call our team good.  It's nearly exactly the same team we took to the World Cup in '06, only four years older.  And some of these players were already pretty old.  Sure enough, Germany's got an inexperienced team, but I'd rather be managing the nursery than the nursing home.  Germany have absolutely no excuse for not walking away with three points.

[Ridcully]

I wouldn't go so far as to call our team good.  It's nearly exactly the same team we took to the World Cup in '06, only four years older.  And some of these players were already pretty old. 

It's the youngest World Cup team since 1934 for Germany; much younger than 2006 too.

Who are the old players? Ballack, not playing. Klose, yes. Mertesacker isn't old. Friedrich, yes. Lahm? Schweini? Poldi?

It's a super young team. And in my opinion, better because of players like Özil and Müller. In 2006, Neuville and Odonkor (_the_ Odonkor) played for the team.

Btw: It sucks so bad to see this ******* PRINCE Boateng play at the World Cup, and Ballack won't play later. I used to be a very emotional person about soccer with lots of hate towards other teams - I lost that in the last years, because I realized I loved soccer too much to really hate anyone. Except, now, with PRINCE Boateng, it comes back.

Good game so far btw.

[TheWriter]

It's the youngest World Cup team since 1934 for Germany; much younger than 2006 too.

I was talking about the Australian team being old.  It's more or less the exact same team we fielded last time around, minus Viduka (retired) and Thompson (injured).  You know you're desperate for new talent when you're fielding the same team you did four years ago.

[Ridcully]

Ah, sorry, my fault 

I don't know many players of your team too well, except for Kewell, Cahill and Schwarzer. Is Viduka on the squad...?

Anyways, I just heard Klose will play tonight. Australians chances just got up way high. Germany will only play with 10 soccer players + Klose.

[Nico]

Ghana deserved the 1:0. Great second half.

[Ridcully]

Good match. Kuzmanovic  Stupid.

[Phobetor]

“I don’t know what it is about us,” Howard said. “We’re resilient— always after we get the punch in the face.”

Haha. Howard is my hero. Rumor has it he has a broken rib though =/

[TheWriter]

I don't know many players of your team too well, except for Kewell, Cahill and Schwarzer. Is Viduka on the squad...?

Uh...

... minus Viduka (retired)...

[Nico]

Just one hour until the game! YAY!

[Remiel]

Haha. Howard is my hero. Rumor has it he has a broken rib though =/

Oh God, I hope not.  He and Donovan are the real stars on the team.  Dempsey and Altidore too, I suppose.

Although Onyewu really stepped it up for this game.  I was pleasantly surprised by his performance, and disappointed with Altidore's.

But the real victory is that we didn't allow Wayne "Fuck You, Referee" Rooney to do anything substantial.  Take that, Rooney!

[Nico]

Holy shit!! 4:0 GO GERMANY!!!

[Remiel]

Yeah, you guys looked amazing.  If Germany keeps playing like that, whoever comes 2nd in group C will run right into the German freight train... 

[TheWriter]

Like I said, we never had a chance.  And to top it all off we lose our big playmaker Cahill on the back of a rubbish red card.  We better lift our game.

[Ridcully]

Germany.

Any questions?

How good was Özil? Everybody's talking about Messi, Rooney...but this Özil...*dreams*

And then Müller. 20 years young. Third match for the national team. Third match. Then this.

This was an awful good start. Jogi, if you go on like this, I'll buy you a whole set of new scarfs.

[Stan']

Removing the obvious 4-0 scoreline, that's the most convincing victory I've seen all world cup.  Tim Cahill was a very poor red card, shouldn't have been given.  However, Germany didn't let me down!  No doubt, they should get in to the Quarter Finals at least.