The Croats were ******* hosed by that horrible penalty kick call when it was clear that the Brazilian player flopped after being lightly touched on the shoulder. The Brazilian player probably will be drafted by the Miami Heat.
They probably saved his life, if he hadn't drawn the foul and they'd lost or tied he'd be dead by morining! :shock:
Probably true Terry and Brazil clearly was more talented than Croatia but it would be nice if soccer had a replay challange rule that would allow a team to challange the legitimacy of a foul called in the penalty area since the games tend to be low scoring and a penalty shot can often determine the outcome of a game.
re: Croatia 1. Yes. Croatia got hosed. 2. Croatia was much better than advertised. Knowing that they had much less talent than Brazil, they played very disciplined, hard-nosed football. With a better goalie they might have won anyway. re: Brazil 1.. If there's any doubt that Neymar should have been put on the national team 4 years ago, there's none now. His two goals have silenced all known critics. 2. The most sensational young player that has suited up for Brazil in many years is a 22 year-old kid named Oscar. He was the best player on the field today. He rifled several long passes on the diagonal right in front of the goal that should have been converted into easy points, but his forwards seemed shocked at the gifts that he presented to them. He also scored the final goal himself, when Croatia pushed forward near the end of the game and he beat their defenders one-on-four. Watch out for Oscar! 3. Brazil has a weakness. This is the worst Brazilian defense that I've ever seen. Their defensemen consistently failed to clear the ball, and often gave it away; Marcello scored an "own goal" against his own team; and the goalie is some clown from Toronto of the MLS (no kidding) who's on loan from the Queen's Park Rangers. In their entire soccer-crazed nation of 200 million they have to use a goalie from the MLS? Pathetic....
My nephew Brian says his daughter is "swooning" over Oscar. She's a pretty good "futbol" player herself.
The World Cup floppers make the NBA look amateurish. One minute a player is writhing on the ground in "excruciating" pain. The next minute he has made a miraculous recovery.
Oh, I like to watch soccer. I watched the Spain-Holland match. I just find humor in the flopping. I'm sure that there are times when the injury and the pain are real, but the flops are pretty obvious. How's that grass growing, Joel? :lol:
Speaking of taking a dive... Mexico 1 Cameroon 0 In today's action, the Mexican Cliff Divers squeaked out a 1-0 victory against a squad from Cameroon that doesn't even want to be there. I can't remember another national team that put forth a poorer effort than Cameroon did today. While they're investigating all these big shots for taking bribes for the next World Cup, they might want to investigate Cameroon while they're at it... Netherland 5 Spain 1 Never has a defending champion been blown out like this. These two teams played in the final game four years ago, with Spain winning by 4. The Dutch had four years to think about the rematch and they did a real Dirty Harry revenge job on the Spanish, who disgraced themselves by quitting on the field. This is the second time in history that Spain has been blown out. The last time was also in Brazil in 1950... Chile 3 Australia 1 This match was much closer than the score indicates. Chile scored twice in the first 13 minutes, then held on for dear life as the much larger/stronger Aussies wore them down. The Chileans got the final score near the end of the game when the Australian defenders pushed forward, leaving the back door open... Very curious to see how European teams fare in the next round of games. Traditionally, the Euros don't do well in South America, and Spain certainly did poop the bed today. This thing may very well come down to a Brazil-Argentina local bloodbath at the end...
Sorry for the late chime in. I thought Croatia outplayed Brazil. I thought they made a grand total of 5 mistakes in that game and Brazil scored on 2 of them. Side note, both Oscar and Neymar are 22 years old. Let that sink in. The officiating has been horse ****. I hate El Tri with a flying blue passion and with that in mind, even I have to admit that the officials took 2 goals away from them. I agree with JOCO that Cameroon just didn't want to be there at all. Costa Rica just slapped the taste out of the mouth of everyone in Uruguay. Holland's reaction to that horse **** PK call is legendary. The Dutch are always infinitely talented, yet struggle with motivation. FIFA threw them a bone there inadvertently. I'm watching Italy and England here anticipating a fist fight or at least 3 attempted murder charges.
Today's games: Colombia 3 Greece 0 1. Very boring game. Neither team looked good to me. How in thee hell did Greece get there? Wasn't Turkey in their area? Ivory Coast 2 Japan 1 The Japanese looked like they were going to run those Africans right out of the stadium. The Ivorians looked like a beer league team. They couldn't do anything right. Then with 25 minutes left in the game, they made the greatest substitution of this World Cup. They brought in their legendary player Didier Drogba and everything changed. The football fairy came down from the sky and sprinkled magic comeback dust over everything. The Ivory Coast players seemed electrified and pushed forward like madmen. They quickly scored two goals and could have had more. The stunned Japanese team appeared to be too tired or too shocked to respond as they turned back into pumpkins as the "Elephants" (as they call themselves) transformed into a real WC level soccer team... Speaking of getting shocked... Everybody in the world knew that the Costa Ricans were dead ducks. In Group "D" they were the only team that had never won a World Cup. Italy, England and Uruguay are traditional powers and Uruguay is right next door to Brazil, so the stadium would be filled with Uruguayan partisans... Costa Rica 3 Uruguay 1 This was an arse kicking. At game end, the furious and frustrated Uruguayans were trying to injure the Costa Rican players which caused one of them (Maxi Pereira) to be red carded in the final minute. Uruguay had been the HIGHEST ranked team in this group; ahead of Italy or England. Now everyone is wondering just how good the North Americans are... Italy 2 England 1 Two very talented teams, but the English are too young. Some of their starters are 19 and the substitutes only 20. Italy held the ball and dominated, which is what they always do. Wayne Rooney (England) is still the most overrated player in the world. I've never seen him perform to the superstar level that the English claim for him. Hang on to your opera glasses drama lovers. Next up today is Argentina...
Switzerland 2 Ecuador 1 The Swiss stole this one with 20 seconds left in stoppage time. Ecuador had their chance at the other end, but they couldn't pull the trigger. The Swiss then went the length of the field with almost no time left to steal the game at the other end. A very entertaining game...
France 3 Honduras 0 An ugly game with a red card and players on both sides assaulting one another. At least the French didn't disgrace themselves this time. Honduras hasn't scored a single World Cup goal in more than a decade... Argentina 2 Bosnia 1 With 200,000 in the stadium and another 200,000 out on the beaches the Argentines were ready for battle. A phony pope presented a phony World Cup last night and tens of thousands were strung out on the highways trying to hitch-hike to the game. The Argies played this one way too conservatively. They started five defenders and sat on a 1-0 lead after Lionel Messi lined one off a Bosnian defender into the goal. With 20 minutes left in the game, even the huge pro-Argentine crowd was silent with frustration when Messi struck again. It was a thunderbolt from beyond the box that bounced in off the post. A surprise Bosnian goal with 4 minutes left made things uncomfortable for the locals, but they finally ran out the clock... Uncle Sam's Army will be up tomorrow. Ghana has eliminated the Americans in the last two World Cups, so they're a thorn in our side. This is a MUST win for the Yanks. The other two teams in their group are Germany and Portugal...
The U.S. coach is a German who lives here in SoCal down at the beach. He got run out of Germany for doing and saying stupid things. Now he's here. First he cut our best player, then he said that we have no chance to win. It's interesting to note that all of his players think that he's full of crap. Hey. One sour Kraut can't stop the show...
1. You can't say our coach is a liar. I can't say that for Bruce Arena who is still throwing knives in the backs of US coaches. I don't mind the comment, he's right. We're getting there. We're making progress. We have this idiotic system that may well change, but is still a work in progress. As long as soccer remains the sport of the wealthy and the middle class, we won't be very good. 2. Klinsmann being the American coach really bothers some people. He did well as their national team coach. He was canned at Bayern for not giving into ownership or kissing the rings of today's star players. I don't think people like to talk about things that are truly reality based, but Klinsmann was right. The generation of players in question were great, but not 'German great' and on-field results showed that. He was also right that the younger generation coming up behind them (the kids at the WC now) are much better. I like this guy and I hope we don't let him go. He has the right idea. 3. I'm watching and hoping Die Mannschaft hammers Portugal today. Kicking their ass is a good thing for the US.
USA, USA....big win. I even watched the 2nd half. Seemed to me that the USA has a great defense but not much on offense. They couldn't keep possession of the ball.