Spain should walk Group A.
Well, the mini-World Cup is starting again tomorrow. AFAIK, all the matches are live on RTÉ. The teams this year are: South Africa, Iraq, New Zealand & Spain in Group A and Brazil, Egypt, USA & Italy in Group B.
I'm backing Spain for this one.
Extratime.ie
Yo te quiero, mi querida. Sin tus besos, yo soy nada.
Abri o portão de ouro, da maquina do tempo.
Mi mamá me hizo guapo, listo y antimadridista.
Spain should walk Group A.
24 minutes in and Spain are four nil up. Even aside from their playing the reigning European champions -NZ look very, very poor and it looks like some of their lads would struggle to get into a San Marino/Liectenstein/Faroes calibre European national side.
" I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die?"
Dress rehearsal for the WC in South Africa next year. I watched bits of both games. A few observations, with the WC in mind:
- Not used to the WC being played in "Winter": sun setting in the afternoon, cooler temperatures etc.
- The pitch got a cut up a bit especially the first game.
- Horns. Loud and annoying. Sounded like a bee hive, constant droning.
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
The pitch was used for the Lions game the week before which didn't help, 6 tonnes of sand was used to try and firm it up, I can't see them making the same mistake next year.
NZ looked like a pub team, but they put 3 past Italy in a friendly during the week (admitedly the also let in 4)
They draw was rigged to give SA the best possible chance of progression and even so they still couldn't beat Iraq!!
Ya annoying enough alright.
Are you basing this on the fact that they're in by far the weaker group or is there anything else?
Torres goals were class in fairness. The second one was a class finish, didn't have much room for once. Should have been about 9-0 really. There were 4 wrong offside decisions in the second half when players were clean through (Torres twice and Villa). Also I think it was Silva who was blown for the last one when he was 6 or 7 yards onside.
Italy and USA could be interesting enough tonight. I remember the US being really dirty when they met at the last WC.
Tried to watch the Spain game last night. The bloody horns would drive you mental.
It's a crap atmosphere in my opinion. (Prefer the crowd shouting, singing songs etc i.e actually watching the game)
I hated all the shots of the crowd dancing around half of it looked like it was one big publicity stunt.
"Joe Jordan is off to watch Young Boys tomorrow" Ian Darke
USA had Pope and Mastroeni sent off and De Rossi for Italy for that head butt to McBride.
The US are like very much like us, some decent players but very deficient in other areas. Adu is in the squad and will probably be used as a sub in some games. Look out for Jozy Altidore, he used to play for Metrostars/Red Bulls, still young but a good player.
That being said, I can't see anything but an Italy win unless they start slowly as they are notoriously known for in tournaments.
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
They're called vuvuzela's & they are blown at every opportunity it creates a mental noise in a stadium, but it does your nut in after about 4 nano-seconds, mental note pack nurofen & lots of it for games.
http://www.southafrica.info/2010/vuvuzela.htm
DeLorean I'm not really basing it on any facts but there was an off the cuff remark by a member of FIFA regarding how kind they had been to the hosts with the draw. That said the make up of the draw meant that SA would avoid 2 from Italy, Brazil & Spain.
They always do that with the draws, the host country is assigned a first group seeding.
Extratime.ie
Yo te quiero, mi querida. Sin tus besos, yo soy nada.
Abri o portão de ouro, da maquina do tempo.
Mi mamá me hizo guapo, listo y antimadridista.
Brazil 2-1 Egypt after 11 minutes..
Egypt have just scored twice in a minute to make it 3-3.
Wow. Brazil got out of jail in that one. It was a pretty cracking game.
Extratime.ie
Yo te quiero, mi querida. Sin tus besos, yo soy nada.
Abri o portão de ouro, da maquina do tempo.
Mi mamá me hizo guapo, listo y antimadridista.
Watched about 4 minutes of USA Italy there. Got so sick of the noise I just switched it off.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Goodness Mr A Thought the Wall of sound at FP would have prepared your ear drums for anything.
Very dodgy red card in the Italy game, the US were in charge up to that point
True, but if you don't take the chances like the US had in the first half against good teams like Italy, it will come back to haunt you. Wasn't a red card and the US had a few other decisions go against them. But they fell apart in the second half when Rossi came on.
Speaking of Rossi, a lot of soccer fans are fuming in the US over him especially in the way he celebrated. Not a muted celebration like Klose/Podolski when they scored against Poland.
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_b...ing-rossi.html
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
This tournamen has produced some good games this time around. Just watching the Spain game at the moment and they seem to be taking it pretty seriously.
Always look on the bright side of life
Bookmarks