World Cup - last 16 Day 4

[Jejima]

Leaderboard after day 3...

Sakana 11

Fay 11

Imumaru 9*

Taka 9

Oshirokita 9

Kintamayama 8

Gernobono 8

Itachi 7

Jejima 6

Sekihiryu 3

Nishinoshima 3

Cammy 2

[Jejima]

Brazil vs Ghana - Come on Ghana!!! But sadly, I don't think they will. They have achieved a lot by coming this far already.

I hope to watch this match over the Internet using a live-feed from ESPN (via some Chinese company.) I learnt a lot from the US commentary yesterday, such as 'It is important for midfielders to play-make.' Forwards need to 'up-press.' 'Viduka has cult status in England', and 'Viduka is one of the most feared forwards in the English premiership.' I also heard 6 or 7 times that one of the Italian forwards was 6 foot 4, a clear four inches bigger than the tallest Australian defender, which would make all the difference in the match. ESPN must think that Peter Crouch is a demi-god....

Anyways, let me say (as all sumo viewers over the Net would probably agree), I was VERY grateful to have the feed, and being in English, with replays were added bonuses.

Erm, 2-0 to Brazil in 90 mins.

France vs Spain - France have underpreformed thus far, and Spain have overperformed. I see this one going to penalties. 1-1 (90 mins), 1-1 (120 mins), 5-3 win to France.

Edited June 27, 2006 by Jejima

[Kintamayama]

Brazil- Ghana=3-0 (90)

Spain-France 1-1 , 1-1, Spain wins on penalties- 4-3

[Oshirokita]

Brazil 5 - 0 Ghana (90)

Spain 1 - 0 France (90)

[Gernobono]

Brazil - Ghana 2:0 i hope reports that robinho is injured are wrong (Dohyo-iri...)

spain - france 0:0 (90) 1:1 (120) france winning on penalties...

[Itachi]

Brazil 2-0 over Ghana in 90 minutes

Spain 1-0 over France in 90 minutes.

[Sakana]

Brazil - Ghana : 2-1 (90')

Spain - France : 0-1 (90')

Round of 16 (total) : 4-2 (2*)

Groups Round : 12-11-25 (3*)

Overall : 16-13-25 (5*)

[Fay]

Brazil - Ghana 0-1 (Dohyo-iri...)

Spain - France 0-2

[Imumaru]

Yesterday : 1-1*

Round of 16 : 4-2 **

Overall : 30-24 *********

Today :

Brazil 2-1 Ghana (90) : I hope a good match for Black Stars and why not beat Brazil?

Spain 1-1 France (90) ; 1-1 (120) ; 3-5 (penalties) : France wins thanks to Barthez " Fabulous Fab'" on penalties. I hope a beautiful match and a Brazil-France in quarterfinals!

Have a good day (Dohyo-iri...)

[Takamueda]

Brazil-Ghana 2:0 (90')

Spain-France 3:0 (90')

[Taka]

Brazil - Ghana - 2-0 90 minutes

Spain - France - 1-0 90 minutes

[Gusoyama]

I hope to watch this match over the Internet using a live-feed from ESPN (via some Chinese company.) I learnt a lot from the US commentary yesterday, such as 'It is important for midfielders to play-make.' Forwards need to 'up-press.' 'Viduka has cult status in England', and 'Viduka is one of the most feared forwards in the English premiership.' I also heard 6 or 7 times that one of the Italian forwards was 6 foot 4, a clear four inches bigger than the tallest Australian defender, which would make all the difference in the match. ESPN must think that Peter Crouch is a demi-god....

Anyways, let me say (as all sumo viewers over the Net would probably agree), I was VERY grateful to have the feed, and being in English, with replays were added bonuses.

The US commentators are morons. I'm a football novice, and even I know more than them. They were indeed going berzerk when England were not bringing in Crouch, because he was a full 7 inches taller than any of the Ecuadoran players. *sigh* They also were saying that Ecuador was going to win because many of their players play in hot weather.

[Zentoryu]

I hope to watch this match over the Internet using a live-feed from ESPN (via some Chinese company.) I learnt a lot from the US commentary yesterday, such as 'It is important for midfielders to play-make.....

The US commentators are morons. I'm a football novice, and even I know more than them. They were indeed going berzerk when England were not bringing in Crouch, because he was a full 7 inches taller than any of the Ecuadoran players. *sigh* They also were saying that Ecuador was going to win because many of their players play in hot weather.

What do you expect from a non-soccer country? I liken this to when ESPN was trying to show sumo a couple of years ago and were using announcers with no prior experience covering the sport. Soccer is such a distant last place on the list of popular sports in the USA that there are very few, if any, commentators and analysts available to ESPN who have a large amount of experience covering the sport. They tried using former American players as analysts, but those guys haven't been very good either.

They were using an English play-by-play guy and a commentator who sounded Scottish for a few first round games. Both of whom were actually pretty decent and much easier to listen to as they had a far better grasp of the game, but sadly they haven't been used since the opening round as ESPN has gone exclusively with their own announcers since then. It probably would have been a good idea for the quality of the broadcasts to stick with the English and Scottish guys instead.

[Imumaru]

1st match:

BRAZIL 3-0 GHANA

Goals:

De Silva "Ronaldo" for Brazil(5') 1-0

Adriano for Brazil (45+1') 2-0

Z

[Cammy]

Wow I actually have some points, I wasn't really going for points, more or less just having some fun, because well I don't watch that much soccer. If I would of gotten up soon enough I would of put Brazil at 4-0 over Ghana, but woke up right when the game started, so I didn't put my score in for them.

Spain vs France 0-1

Also I was very happy this morning to see Andre Agassi win his match today at Wimbledon. (Sign of approval)

[Fay]

Thought I read yesterday Agassi went intai (Shaking head...)

Wow I actually have some points, I wasn't really going for points, more or less just having some fun, because well I don't watch that much soccer. If I would of gotten up soon enough I would of put Brazil at 4-0 over Ghana, but woke up right when the game started, so I didn't put my score in for them.

Spain vs France 0-1

Also I was very happy this morning to see Andre Agassi win his match today at Wimbledon. (Sign of approval)

[Cammy]

Thought I read yesterday Agassi went intai :-S

Wow I actually have some points, I wasn't really going for points, more or less just having some fun, because well I don't watch that much soccer. If I would of gotten up soon enough I would of put Brazil at 4-0 over Ghana, but woke up right when the game started, so I didn't put my score in for them.

Spain vs France 0-1

Also I was very happy this morning to see Andre Agassi win his match today at Wimbledon. (Sign of approval)

That is what I thought I heard also, but I guess we both heard it wrong, this is going to be his last Wimbledon, and that the U.S. open is going to be his last tournament. At least that is what he says. Here is a link ESPN

Also sorry (Shaking head...)

[Sakana]

Ribery, Ribery, Riberyyyy ! (Shaking head...)

(nice match ^^)

[Imumaru]

700 th match of the history of World Cup!

2nd match :

SPAIN 1-3 FRANCE

Goals:

Villa for Spain (27') 1-0 (penalty)

Rib

Edited June 30, 2006 by Imumaru

[Sakana]

Incroyable ! (Shaking head...)

I have often said that if France win or lose, I don't really care, but... I was lying to myself (Clapping wildly...) This match was great, they played well ! ^^'''''

Prochaine

Edited June 27, 2006 by Sakana

[Taka]

That was a game on a very high level I thought.

In this whole tournament I don't think France have given more than 3 or 4 chances away and

only goals against have been from uncharacteristically somewhat flukey mistakes from Thuram, who generally is still an excellent defender though.

Today throughout the match I kept a special eye on Makelele and Viera and I gotta say they were amazing. Simply unbreakable. They've unlike the opening games begun to divide their work between them very well too. They're no longer doing the exact same things but working perfectly together. Best example is Vieras great deep runs. The first two games he didn't really do that.

Spain tried to get their normal possession play going the first 20 minutes or so but once again when upon an unbreakable french team it proved hopeless.

from 98 to 2002 France were unbeatable. Great attack and great defensively. Right now they're "only" very good. The defence is still great but mainly due to Zidane slowing down they're obviously not as good in attack. It seems they've finally adjusted though and are finally not trying to dominate like in the old days. Today they played to their strenghts with strong organization, frustrating the opponents, and a very direct attack, having Zidane not "warm the ball" and using the pace (Wiltord is finally out of the team) and runs from Henry, Ribery, Malouda and occasionaly the immense Viera.

Brazil needs to be at their absolute best to beat them.

Edited June 27, 2006 by Taka

[Kaiomitsuki]

That was a game on a very high level I thought.

from 98 to 2002 France were unbeatable. Great attack and great defensively. Right now they're "only" very good.

Brazil needs to be at their absolute best to beat them.

and don't forget that against Spain, Henry was the worst player of the french team...

so Saturday, I hope that Henry will be playing at his right level (Shaking head...)

Ici Boulogne(-sur-Mer)... je peux pas dormir y a trop de klaxons... je crois que Ribery a encore marqu

[Jejima]

Some great Quarter-finals to come (Shaking head...)

Germany vs Argentina deserves to be the final match. Brazil vs France (now that the French seem to have woken up) comes a close runner-up.

England vs Portugal would be a very nice Euro final (if England manage to wake up....)

Italy vs Ukraine is the only match which doesn't get me overly excited.

[Jakusotsu]

I don't want to spoil the feast for our French members, but You have to admit that the free kick which led to the deciding goal was based on a flagrant sham by Henry. I'd been curious how the match would have continued without that mistake.

[Kaiomitsuki]

I don't want to spoil the feast for our French members, but You have to admit that the free kick which led to the deciding goal was based on a flagrant sham by Henry. I'd been curious how the match would have continued without that mistake.

Yes of course if the score was 1-0 for Spain at the Half time, I'm sure that France will be in the airplane today... (Blushing...)

You are right Henry made a fault but the Ribery's goal was good for the referee... and the referee is always right (no video in Soccer = always referee error

It's the first time since the start of the World cup that a wrong decision is good for the french team : remember that against Suisse, Patrick Muller made a flagrant hand fault in the penatly surface and the Referee didn't see anything, so France should win this game if the referee's decision was right for France.... against South Korea the ball cross the line and the referee didn't see anything once again, so France should win this game too...

France since Start of the World Cup : Referee's wrong decision against France = 2 Referee's wrong decision for France = 1 Hope that the balance will be equal after the 9th july match against Germany (Clapping wildly...)