World Cup Pros and Cons

[Kintamayama]

I think the Rooney sending off was a tricky one. etc..

With all due respect, Rooney, as a pro, should know better. Premeditated or not, provocation or not, he should be able to keep his cool. This is the WC, not a neighborhood game. This is exactly the equivalent of a henka, and we know where we stand on that, don't we.. Now that the whole world knows he can be manipulated, maybe he should go home for a while, mature, and maybe return some day.

The blame lies squarely on Ericsson's shoulders for picking such a mediocre team, with three forwards-one back from an injury and totally irresponsible, another injury prone and passed his prime, and a stork.

And, yes, I'm an England fan.

Rooney, as far as I know, didn't miss any of the penalties. One out of 4 made has nothing to do with Rooney's getting sent off. The English fans would do well to stop looking for excuses and get on with it. They simply played really bad.

Soon, you shall encounter your worst nightmare-the Israeli Squad in the Euro preliminaries.

Edited July 1, 2006 by Kintamayama

[Fujisan]

Whos making excuses Kintamayama?

I said Rooney would come a cropper and he did,the fact that Ericsson played him as the single striker in a 4-5-1 formation when he wasn't match fit was the worst team decision since Turkey played Peg-leg Pete in goal in the 1915 WC.

Why someone didn't just slap Sven hard and tell him to stop being so silly is anyones guess.

The fact is they played better without him anyway and would probably have lost before the penalties if he hadn't got sent off.

Edited July 2, 2006 by Fujisan

[Kotoku]

Stomped the guy right on the nuts! And he did it on purpose. Yeah England, the class act of football. Now if all of the Enlglish "fans" go home, we can watch a proper WC, without holligans on the field and in the streets. And no more tit shots of whats-his-name's wife in the stands.

Germany will beat France 2-zip...

[brewdude]

Did you guys watch the same game I did. played poorly. they were a man down for over an hour and still they managed to attack. Rooneys red was a farce. stomped the guy on purpose. you are kidding right. THe English aquitted themselves quite well up to and until the PSO.

[Jakusotsu]

Why someone didn't just slap Sven hard and tell him to stop being so silly is anyones guess.

Because he would even have cared less. Did You watch him? He had "when can I finally go home" written all over him. One more round to play would have been a pain in the ass for him. Edited July 2, 2006 by Jakusotsu

[Gernobono]

.... they were a man down for over an hour and still they managed to attack.

attack???.....did not see that....

Rooneys red was a farce.

.... stomped the guy on purpose. you are kidding right.

first i thought it was just happening in the action....after many replays i guess it was on purpose....i guess only rooney can answer that....

the quarterfinals had "BORING" written all over them.....it was just like in the round robin.....getting no goals was way ahead of scoring one.....

Germany - Argentina: Germany had 2 chances to score and managed to get a goal....argentina was just terrible....trying to get a 1:0 into the 90th minute was just a "strange" idea....argentina might even have scored again if they had a messy messi in their team and not a bored ans slow crespo......but that is just a guess.....i book german's win (although cheering for argentina) as justified.....

Italy - Ukraine: Italy just was one level better than the ukraine.....not much sweat

England - Portugal: England is playing without an offense....Rooney injury-struck....Owen out with injury and Crouch.....hmmmmmm.....so...a 0-0 seemed to be the obvious result as for me terry and ferdinand(!) were the best on the english team....portugal oviously missed deco a lot....and i am happy that portugal advanced (again rooting for the actual looser)....i think portugal will make a better opponent for france than more or less forwardless england would be....

France - Brazil: i am rooting for brazil sind the wc in 1974 and did so again yesterday.....my ex-tsukebito tsunamiko was singing "allez, allez, allez...allez les bleus, allez les bleus" the whole day long and i guess that made the french win this match......i am disappointed not to see brazil advance, but again i call it "justified".....i cannot remember a brazilian team with 3 defenders "juan, lucio and roberto carlos) being the best players of their team......france played better the whole game.....

trivia: lucio set a new record for a player without any fouls in world cups.....he had absolutely no foul commited in the first 4 games and the new record is at 386' .... i think that is a great achievement for a player at his position in the team and maybe that he plays for a german team is a hint for all the highly paid brazilian "stars"

Edited July 2, 2006 by Gernobono

[Doitsuyama]

Hmm, maybe the Bundesliga will follow this WC with a bit more success on European Cup level. Gilberto (Hertha BSC) was pretty servicable in several stints for Brazil, Owen Hargreaves (Bayern) was the best player in the England-Portugal match, and of course Klose (Werder Bremen) will win the scorer title bar some serious surprise.

The WC 2006 is dead, long live the EC 2006! We have Germany, Italy, France and Portugal in the semis, which is a higher profile than I can remember for most of the last few EC competitions (with Holland, Czech and Greece last time).

[Jakusotsu]

...long live the EC 2006! We have Germany, Italy, France and Portugal in the semis...

If England knew how to kick penalties, the final four would have even constituted a connected space.

(with a small body of water in between admittedly) (I am not worthy...)

[Kintamayama]

Rooneys red was a farce. stomped the guy on purpose.

Such a farce that the English Football Association has summoned him for an enquiry, from which he will emerge with a big fat fine and hopefully a long suspension. Farce my arse.

[Cammy]

Farce my arse.

(I am not worthy...) (Whatever above, it is funny...) (Whatever above, it is funny...) That was a good one (Sign of approval)

From what I saw about the Rooney red card, it looked like an accident, but hey who knows...all I know is that had to hurt.

[Cammy]

Stomped the guy right on the nuts! And he did it on purpose. Yeah England, the class act of football. Now if all of the Enlglish "fans" go home, we can watch a proper WC, without holligans on the field and in the streets. And no more tit shots of whats-his-name's wife in the stands.

Germany will beat France 2-zip...

If i'm not mistaken didn't some Germany fans get into some fights after one of there games a week ago?

[brewdude]

If rooney gets any fine or additional suspension I will garuntee that is is for pushing that A--hole Ronaldo and not the so called intentional groin stomp. Based on the descriptions I am rading here they must have broadcast a different match here in Japan.