[MickyB]

Poor performance, yes, but they were a man down for the entire game.

Does that mean you would offer me 100-1, Roland?

[Walddk]

MickyB, on Jun 10 2006, 05:11 PM, said:

Poor performance, yes, but they were a man down for the entire game.

Does that mean you would offer me 100-1, Roland? 

1. If you are referring to Michael Owen, you are absolutely right. He was a stowaway for 55 full minutes. Oh, perhaps you mean Wayne Rooney. Leave the man alone; he doesn't deserve to be put among 9 hopeless team-mates (Robinson was ok).

2. Certainly. I just need you to turn up here and give me £1 in cash. Any other takers? I am pretty certain that at least 100 naive Englishmen could add to my (non-existent) fortune!

Roland

[paulg]

MickyB, on Jun 10 2006, 04:11 PM, said:

Poor performance, yes, but they were a man down for the entire game.

Perhaps, but it would have been nice if Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard (aside from 2 nice shots) had come out for the second half too.

Paul

[Walddk]

cardsharp, on Jun 10 2006, 05:22 PM, said:

MickyB, on Jun 10 2006, 04:11 PM, said:

Poor performance, yes, but they were a man down for the entire game.

Perhaps, but it would have been nice if Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard (aside from 2 nice shots) had come out for the second half too.

Paul

How much do these guys earn every single week of the year? £100,000 is it? What a shame theat they didn't show that they are worth just a tiny fraction of that amount.

Roland

[david_c]

cardsharp, on Jun 10 2006, 04:22 PM, said:

Perhaps, but it would have been nice if Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard (aside from 2 nice shots) had come out for the second half too.

Yeah, they just stopped playing didn't they? Hopefully this can be blamed partly on the hot weather, which shouldn't be so much of a factor for the rest of the tournament. But England showed in the first half that they can play, so I'd still be reasonably optimistic.

Anyway, 100-1 is silly odds. A quick search of internet betting exchanges shows that no-one is prepared to lay odds of better than about 7-1. If Roland wants to offer 100-1 he'll get an awful lot of takers.

[mr1303]

I'm pleased to say I didn't watch any of the match at all. I found myself a nice outdoor swimming pool, and there were hardly any men there at all, just lots and lots of bronzed women in bikinis.

Much a better idea.

[helene_t]

The bridge clubs have a skewed sex ratio these days, too.Not sure if it would be appreciated if I showed up in bikini, though.

[P_Marlowe]

mike777, on Jun 8 2006, 12:46 PM, said:

Is this Neo Nazi stuff just a very few bored young drunk kids with time on their hands and overblown or is there real anger. If real anger, who is angry and anger at what?

No hope, no future.
There are areas in Eastern Germany with an
official unemployment rate of 25%, official means,
that lots of people dont get count in the statistics.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[sceptic]

a lot of the hooligans in the UK are in their 30's and 40's which kind of dispells the thought it is bored drunk kids

[the saint]

As usual the World Cup is being spoiled by shocking refs who haven't got a clue and just want to be the star of the show. The only decent game of the tournament so far was Argentina-Ivory Coast (not Germany-Costa Rica a couple of long range strikes notwithstanding, the quality from both sides was lacking), no-one else has bothered to play any football yet. FIFA need to clamp down on players going down as if they are shot and then getting up 5 seconds later as fresh as a daisy. This is a man's game FFS. Cheating is the lowest form of behaviour and this along with the diving has to stop. Gerrard and Crouch's bookings were a total joke. England played OK in the first half, were shocking in the second (Sven substituting us back to the stone ages again - Hargreaves, what exactly is the point of him?), but I defy anyone to play a decent high-tempo game under those conditions.

Solution to improve it? Champions League only refs and play it in Spring or Autumn when players can run for 90 minutes without fear of dehydrating themselves into a coma just so FIFA can maximise on the TV ratings. People will watch if the show is good.

[mike777]

I am a bit perplexed, is Sir John French the general in charge of the English again?

[Walddk]

After 3 days of the World Cup it has been disappointment upon disappointment in my view. The most positive so far was the heroic fight of Trinidad & Tobago to earn a draw against Sweden.

... and then there was Arjen Robben!

As a whole: it can only get better and that also applies to the referees. Most of the 8 matches have been boring beyond belief. Ronaldinho, Ronaldo & Co., where are you? We miss you desperately!

Roland

[Aberlour10]

well done Aussie

[Deanrover]

That was a good game. Nice to see our younger brothers doign so well

[mike777]

To my novice eyes the USA seemed to be alseep today! This was the second most experienced team in the World Cup! This is the best we got?

I listen to the expert commentary and they seem to say nothing but root root for the home team....

Have they never heard of analyzing the play or overall plan of attack or defense?
Do they even have plays or do the just run up and down the field and play random football and shoot it into the 6'8"" guy? The commentary was terrible.
Geez bring in some baseball experts at least they talk about strategy.

It seemed like our guys just wanted to get off the field and hit the Geman Pubs. I thought the object was to put the ball in the net, yes? It seemed we kicked the ball back to our goal more than towards their goal? Did their goal keeper even have a tough stop today?

Perhaps the one commentary said it best...Just forget this game ever happened..., .eliminate it!!!!!!!!!!! as the Daleks would yell out.

[the saint]

As I predicted the USA's play was its usual one-dimensional self and the inventiveness of Rosicky and Nedved tore them apart and showed what a mockery the US's FIFA ranking is. The canny Italians utilise the sweet passing of Totti and Pirlo to do the same to Ghana.

The fact is, plain and simple, that all these super-fit athletic teams like the US and the Africans haven't got the slightest bit of genuine footballing nous that is required at this level. Examine the decent teams and you have a Riquelme, Ronaldinho, Robben, Totti, Pirlo, Rosicky, Beckham, Cole, Kaka, Zidane etc who can unpick the lock. All this honest huff and puff is useless against a well marshalled defence, and quite frankly its incredibly boring to watch too.

[mike777]

I am a bit at a loss this is the world cup and they are inventing stuff? Good grief what was invented, do our guys never watch film and see this stuff before?
This seems to like saying wow a finesse...never saw that play before..wow..

Again what the heck are the plays and what is the defensive play to counter it?
You seem to say the USA is just as fast and strong, I do not know.....
If the other players just have more natural talent so be it.....
but having no plays or defense or saying wow I never saw most of that before just seems to be incompetence on the part of the coaches.

[the saint]

For 90+% of the time, football is a dynamic moving game relying on natural inventiveness. There is a limit to what a coach can do in these situations. He may have a general attacking or defensive scheme - and have suggested areas or 'plays' that may have success, but beyond that it is up to his 11 men to play the game themselves. There is too much of a lag from the coach giving instructions relative to the movement of the players. Thus it relies on the individual instincts of the players to produce goalscoring chances. This has little to do with technique or fitness, but relies on vision or 'reading the game' to anticipate such events occuring before they do and acting on that supposition.

The remainder of the game - corners, free-kicks and the like where the game is static is akin to American Football and the teams will have a number of pre-planned plays they may try to execute, but within a few seconds, the play has become dynamic again.

Quite simply, the US team lacks inventiveness.

[mike777]

"Thus it relies on the individual instincts of the players to produce goalscoring chances. This has little to do with technique or fitness, but relies on vision or 'reading the game' to anticipate such events occuring before they do and acting on that supposition."

To my novice football ears this sounds like a huge area of improvement that could be brought to the game. It seems coaching and teaching 'reading the game' should be very possible in many of these dynamic situations. In addition I would think players relying on technique and fitness over players relying on natural instinct would win most of the time.

I guess I am arguing that coaching, teaching, fitness and technique should overcome/beat inventiveness in players at the World Cup Level.

Of course there is always room for the true and rare gifted superstar but I would think a team of 11 very good, well coached players on the field should beat the one gifted rare superstar everyday.

[the saint]

mike777, on Jun 13 2006, 06:54 PM, said:

"Thus it relies on the individual instincts of the players to produce goalscoring chances. This has little to do with technique or fitness, but relies on vision or 'reading the game' to anticipate such events occuring before they do and acting on that supposition."

To my novice football ears this sounds like a huge area of improvement that could be brought to the game. It seems coaching and teaching 'reading the game' should be very possible in many of these dynamic situations. In addition I would think players relying on technique and fitness over players relying on natural instinct would win most of the time.

I guess I am arguing that coaching, teaching, fitness and technique should overcome/beat inventiveness in players at the World Cup Level.

Of course there is always room for the true and rare gifted superstar but I would think a team of 11 very good, well coached players on the field should beat the one gifted rare superstar everyday.

I think I could have phrased it better. All the players have very good fitness and technique, just that very few have that little bit extra-special - that is mostly uncoachable. Reading a game has little to do with technique insofar as it is a mental aptitude some players are better at than others, but it still requires sublime technique to exploit fully.