World Cup 2010 - discussions & random thoughts

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If a nations football team gets kicked out of the world cup does it still mean that the nation is entitled to a premier league?

 

...Is just about the silliest question i've ever heard.

 

I see no smilies. Was that serious?

Anyway. I'd love to see Netherlands - Germany final because in my opinion both countries played the best football thus far. I think Spain is but a shell of the team that won the EC2008 and Germany will demonstrate that on wednesday. The other game should go our way if we can keep the focus of all previous games. Perhaps this time we won't concede a goal so easily.

Personally I have no lingering hate towards the German football team. As most I wasn't even born. Besides Brazil and Portugal took Germany's place in that regard for our generation.

I just want to win it. It's something very special for a country that is our size. I also think we earned it with all the great matches we played over the last decades. Just once.

 

My thoughts exactly!
No hatred towards ze Germans. Just a healthy, but strong rivalry. The Portuguese top the list of football teams that we have little sympathy for, with Brazil as a close second. Perhaps our "hatred" for football teams is more language dependant nowadays.

 

With no national interest for me remaining in the WC, I'll probably pull for the underdogs, which is to say that I'll probably be rooting for the winner of today's match to win the whole thing.

 

I'm rooting for Uruguay!

 

I went to a (very fun) concert of an Uruguayan Ska band yesterday. The singer said approximately: "Uruguay will play football tomorrow! Uruguay is just small country but we have grande cojones!" What shall I say more?

 

I'll admit that Abreu definately has the biggest cojones. Doing a Panenka on the winning penalty. It's one of the reasons a keeper has to wait till the last possible moment to choose a corner. IMO at least 50% of all penalties are not taken perfectly, which is either high in the net or in the side of the net. The penalties that are within reach of the goalie can be saved if he waits.

It will also confuse the great players who always wait and react to the reaction of the keeper before touching the ball.

Furthermore a Panenka doesn't work and the player will look like a jack-ass

 

Spain! It definitely seems unlikely right now, but I gotta have faith haha

 

Actualy Abreu has sent a warning. In a commercial video about their participation in WC, Abreu, in an imaginary final against Brazil, does the last penalty shot. Too bad for Ghana that their goalkeeper had not watched this video.



BTW, I've read that the octapus chose Spain. Perhaps Germans should cook it before it's too late.

 

I just hope the final doesn't end in a shootout. That's the one thing that I find ridiculous about the WC. At the very least, the last game should be played until a team scores a goal. I can see that you cannot necessarily do that for games leading up to the final - the winning team could be exhausted by playing all that extra time, but the WC final should be decided on the field of play.

EDIT:

That is a surprising statistic given how many European nations have won the WC. Has a country from a continent other than Europe or South America ever won the WC? I cannot even think of one that made the finals.

 

Oh the risk of losing from Germany is so great. Please Spain for the love of...

 

Go Germany.

 

Harbourboy,
indeed!

I half watched the game Uruguay vs. Netherlands yesterday, and the Dutch played well and IMO deservedly won.

 

After so many years the old generation can finally experience a world cup final once again. The generation who weren't born in the seventies finally know what it is to win a semi. It's insane, my heart was racing the entire game. I'm not sure I'll survive sunday

Again it was quite the battle and Uruguay deserves respect for the way they played with many important player not playing or injured/ill (Forlan). Holland played well enough though but still we all know they can still do better. Hopefully all will explode in the final or maybe we are just unbeatable this tournament. 8 qualifiers and 7 finals matches all won one after the other. That cannot be all luck, that's teamwork, perserverence and willingness to give it all.

I can see this team winning it all. All our opponents so far were defensive teams. Denmark, Japan, Cameroon, Slovakia, Brazil and Uruguay all kept at least 6 and in some cases 8 or 9 players behind the ball. I wonder what will happen when we finally have to play an offensive team willing to take risks. Will we see the full potential of this team or will the discipline break down at the most important moment of all?

 

I'm no soccer expert at all, but Forlan was actually in the game. The player they missed was Suarez (sp?)

Cheers

Mark

 

You sir are indeed correct. But the football experts could see that Forlan either had an injury or was ill while playing. He was playing quite poorly. Scoring that goal, while in that condition, only magnified his form in this world cup. He was also subbed 10 minutes before the final whistle, which is quite telling.