Surely not, it must be the ball, the altitude, the vuvuzelas, the weather, the time difference, the time of day they're expected to play, the boredom in the 5 star resorts.......Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
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Surely not, it must be the ball, the altitude, the vuvuzelas, the weather, the time difference, the time of day they're expected to play, the boredom in the 5 star resorts.......Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
The English media crack me up.Quote:
Originally Posted by endabob1
Capello was God 6 weeks ago. Now he's just a Johny foreigner with poor English. He's also too hard on the players. Sven however was too lax. The Mirror has even published a day in the life of an English footballer at base camp South Africa.
Signed a new contract just before the WC. :D If only the FA had known they had a perfectly capable manager in 'JT'...Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
This is a quote from the BBC -
I'm assuming that the ways group positions are determined are:Quote:
Italy need to beat Slovakia on Thursday to guarantee their place in the second phase, but should they only manage a draw then New Zealand could deny them with victory over Paraguay in their final Group D match.
1. Points
2. Result agains the other team with the same points
3. Goal difference
4. Goals scored
Am I not right in saying that if both Italy and New Zealand drew by the same score, they'd have the same points, same result against each other (1-1 draw), same goal difference (0, obviously, as they'd have drawn all 3 games), but NZ would have scored 2 goals to Italy's 1, and would go through on that basis?
Can anybody enlighten / correct me on this?
Never mind, here it is from a pdf on the FIFA website (section 39.5, page 40): http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tour...s_en_14123.pdf
I still think that point C above would mean NZ could qualify with a draw, as long as it was by the same score as Italy's draw.Quote:
The ranking of each team in each group will be determined as follows:
a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
b) goal difference in all group matches;
c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.
If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria,
their rankings will be determined as follows:
d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between
the teams concerned;
e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the
teams concerned;
f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the
teams concerned;
g) drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.
If they draw with the same score, they draw lots, if NZ have a higher scoring draw, they go through.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
At the moment, they both have 2 points, goal difference of +/-0, but NZ have scored twice to Italy's once. So if they both had 0-0 draws in their final game, NZ would still have that 1 goal advantage which would be point 3 in the criteria.
I'd be very disappointed if a Spain win denies Chile, one of the most interesting teams of the WC so far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
Osarusan,Italy havse scored twice.
Oops! Yes they have! I was confusing their 1-1 draw with Paraguay with France's 0-0 draw with Uruguay.
Just like Spain tonight, messing against the worst team in the Wcup (IMHO) means that Switzerland will get through on goal differenceQuote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
That Navro fella was AWFUL
If Spain were to beat Chile 1-0, the Switzerland beat Honduras. They would all have six points and the head to head cancels each other out, so goal difference between the 3 teams will be the same, will the results over Honduras be then included ?
Spain winning 1-0 would give them a better goal difference than Chile.
If that happened, and Switzerland beat Honduras 1-0, Spain would finish top (+2 GD to the +1 of the other 2 teams) and Switzerland and Chile would have identical records in both GD and goals scored, so it would come down to the result between them, and Chile would go through.
If on the other hand the Swiss won 2-0, they'd match the Spanish on GD (+2) and goals scored (3), but go top because of the result between them. Spain would be second, and Chile would go out. If the Swiss won 3-1, they'd go top because of more goals scored (4 to Spain's 3), and Chile would be out.
All that's my understanding of it anyway.
Here.....................
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/standings/whatif.html
Also have to think of possible last 16 opponents - Brazil or Portugal?
I was getting very irritated with Spain last night, I want them to win their group so I can see them in the 2nd round, if I end up watching Switzerland because they couldn't be bothered to break sweat against Honduras I will not be best pleased.
2 more for South Africa (not impossible), Uruguay win 1-0 - the Bafana are through!
(or 1 more for S. Africa and a 2-0 win for Uruguay).
EDIT : Uruguay take the lead!!
SA had their chances to make it, but the best teams in taht group went through. Latin Americans are the teams on best form at the moment.
France Au revoir! Karma est une chienne!:D:nerd::D
Just watched highlights of Uruguay v Mexico. Both play lovely football, but both leave a lot of chances untaken, Mexico especially so. How did that guy miss that header in the second half?
Martin Palermo. :D A guy who misses three penalties in one game and breaks his leg celebrating a goal deserves one in the World Cup. Fair play to him.
I will not miss Greece.
Palermo has some CV alright. Destined for greatness.
There's been a lot of very good (but not entertaining) stifling play from many of the lesser teams so far. Switzerland, Honduras, Japan, Greece and others have played to stifle quality teams, to a fair degree of success, but I'm not sure any of these will qualify or at best get into the last 8. I think Argentina deserve credit for getting their due tonight. The teams that have qualified so far (Arg, SK, Mex, Uru, Holl..anyone else?) are all teams that give it a go. Could be a really interesting second half of the tournament. If England get through I reckon they'll struggle to contain the attacking intent of some of the other qualifiers. I doubt they're as well drilled in stifling opponents as those I've mentioned above.
Is there any good site where I can catch up on previous games?
(as in the games that were not shown yesterday - UrU V Mex, Korea V Nig)
FIFA.com has all the goals on their site.
Quote:
Originally Posted by superfrank
Yeah but they have only highlights, I wouldnt mind seeing the whole game...............
RTE had them live on the web, they might have them on the RTE player maybe.Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
No surprise. England get through. Surprise that the USA win the group. Germany vs England last 16? England win on penalties (for a change).
Can't complain with the England win, they were the better team by a mile. They were totally untested at the back, bar a few isolated scares. Slovenia's set pieces were truly shocking. I've no idea how good the German side is, so tonight will be interesting to see if they're up to it. I'd like to think they'll win convincingly but I think that England were lucky to avoid a winner of a stronger group.
I'm glad the USA prevailed. They've got some good players, and if Arsenal are looking to replace Fabregas with an overrated French tw@t when they could buy Landon Donovan they'd be stupid. He's been outstanding for me.
Germany vs England? Yes please.
Germany will probably be better with Klose back, but they would miss Schweinsteiger if injured. My guess is that with Oz 2-0 up at the time they took him off as a precaution.
Lahm is a truly brilliant full back in my opinion.
Eng v Ger: I think both teams will make chances, it's just a question of who takes them.
The winner of England and Germany likely to play the Argies in the quarter as well. Much tougher route to the final for England now as opposed to if they had won the group.
If anyone can beat the Argies, then they could well go all the way.
I would have liked to see the USA match, they will have a presumably easier route, they could get to the semi's.
As soon as the afterglow of blessed relief wears off...I would imagine they'll be reflecting on that fact themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by elroy
I wish I could have watched the USA-Algeria game. It looked a belter.
England were miles better than they were against Algeria but Germany won't be having sleepless nights about it.
Uruguay seem to have a clear run to the semis - you'd expect them to beat South Korea, and they've been playing at a much higher level so far than either America or Ghana. Brazil look to be favourites at the moment based on their side of the draw, but all depends on avoiding Spain in the last 16.
Ya Uruguay could be a good bet for a semi place alright, have looked very good so far.
Germany England and USA Ghana will be tough to call. Ghana qualified without scoring a goal from open play or even from any other method than a peno. If Schweinsteiger is out for Germany, you would prob just fancy England to pull through.
The thought did cross my mind when Oz were 2-0 on Serbia whether the Germans might consider conceding a "soft goal" and thus come second in the group and face the USA rather than England. It's not everyday a win is probably worse than a draw ;)
Any update on Schweinsteiger injury?
I watched the second half of the Italy vs Slovakia game in the UL bar today, and had one person comment to me that "Slovenia are only playing for penalties" and another that it was "karma after that headbutt on Zidane."
Italy...sad stuff really, very severe decline. New Zealand go unbeaten! Albeit on the way to their exit. Fair play to 'em, I'd have had them down for at least one hammering.
And in the case of the jabulani ball, the defense calls Yasuhito Endo to the stand. Well played.
Surprised by how impressive Japan were - they won't trouble the big guns, but extremely well organised at the back and Endo and Honda would slot into any major European side, so they could very well take Paraguay in the last 16. The jury's still out on Holland, won through handily enough, but will have to really up their game if they're going to pose any threat to Brazil (probably) in the last eight.