World Cup 2006

[DanK]

It will be a good game tomorrow. One that we can as easily win or lose. My guess is that both teams will score at least two goals.

@ DanK, how many hours is the time dif between Melbourne and LA(GMT minus 8 hrs).

Melbourne is GMT +10. I think the current differernce with LA & Melb at the moment is 17 hours. Its currently 17:40 Friday here and the LA time on my Widget shows 0:40 Friday. Nearly a whole day ahead.

FYI - The games are shown live here at 11pm, 2am and 5am :sleepey:

The last WC in Japan/Korea was much better on my sleeping patterns thats for sure.

Its really crazy here at the moment though. When the Australia game was on Sunday night/Monday morning here, there where 6000 people in Melbourne watching outdoors on the big screen in the centre of town. Not bad at all considering the game didn't finish until 1am and its winter.

They are expecting as many if not more for the Brazil game Monday morning (local time 2am kick off). Needless to say, there will be a few people away "sick" from work Monday :D

[SE6Ajacied]

I think I just saw the goal of the World Cup. 24 passes before Cambiasso got the second for Argentina :worshippy: . I even cheered it (at home, by myself) and I'm certainly not an Argentina fan.

Holland should have kicked off now though (just for me), I have to go out at 5.00 :nooo:

[SE6Ajacied]

Looks like Argentina are the team to beat then, at least we are avoiding them in the second round.

(Not that I'm very supersticious but I had to post something as I noticed my total posts were 666 :eusa_pray: )

[Amol]

Holy crap. The Argies have now hit 6 against Serbia.

[ZoefdeHaas]

FUCK.


Holland HAS to beat Ivory Coast otherwise they'll have to overcome a strong Argentina side.

[aveslacker]

Wow. I only watched the second half of that game, but still. Argentina appears to be the team to beat. In my dreams I'm the coach of a team that can field Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi as second half substitutes.

Wow.

Holland must win tonight. I would not want Holland to have to go into their final match against Argentina needing a result.

Let's see if Holland can keep the pace. Holland - Ivory Coast 6-0 anyone? :xyxthumbs:

[ZoefdeHaas]

No, 7-0 :xyxthumbs:

[Amol]

This is some scary shit. I mean I know they were missing Vidic & also had squad troubles but this is crazy. Also they were down to 10 men.

Holland better pull up their socks for next wednesday.

[Dubbel]

1-0 and 2-0! Persie and Van

[acab]

2:0!!!!!!! hup holland, bulgaria is happy now :headbang:

[Dubbel]

Oops. 2-1.

[aveslacker]

An entertaining first half. Let's hope Holland gets a few more goals this half.

[aveslacker]

I think Holland wery lucky to get the victory here. Ivory Coast was, imo, clearly the better team today. Both Sneijder and VdV were ineffective.

It is a good thing Holland wrapped up qualification for the second round early, because if they play like that against Argentina, they will get annihilated.

[Blind3]

PHEW!!!! That was close. :xyxthumbs: Not a classic, but 3 points is three points. Hard to bash a defense that, according to the ESPN commentators here, has only conceded 1 goal in the last 10 competition matches(Qualifiers and WC) , but they do like to soak up pressure. Kudos to a guy I love to hate , RvP, for a beauty of a freebie . Robben can actually pass.

Is the 2nd round C-1 v. D-2 and C-2 v. D-1 ? That is, the next round would bring a date with Mexico or Portugal ? I think I'll end with a HUP HOLLAND and enjoy this one; because the Argies look scary good. The Oranje will really have to step up in class in the next match.

[ZoefdeHaas]

What an anxious ending! Holland were lucky to snag this one out, a little more effectiveness in defense and aggressivness all around should be worked on. I applaud Ivory Coast, and hope Holland do well in the latter game(s) :cheer:

[Cedric]

I think Holland wery lucky to get the victory here. Ivory Coast was, imo, clearly the better team today. Both Sneijder and VdV were ineffective.

It is a good thing Holland wrapped up qualification for the second round early, because if they play like that against Argentina, they will get annihilated.

:yes: I entirely agree... The dutch defense was scary, commiting a lot of fouls in the surface that could have been whistled. They really have to improve if they want to win the next game, which is not anymore needed, but still....

[SE6Ajacied]

Hard to bash a defense that, according to the ESPN commentators here, has only conceded 1 goal in the last 10 competition matches(Qualifiers and WC)

Well, you can totally tell that they do this thing called a "press pack" for the game. I had to go out so listened on Talksport Radio and that was exactly what their commentators were talking about as well. I caught the last 25 minutes of the game but am looking forward to watching the whole thing that I recorded (unlike the England game yesterday where I messed up with the timer record ).

Anyway, my portable digital radio has now paid for itself by allowing me to listen to that one on the move :xyxthumbs:

[dws]

Argentina's thrashing of S&M added to the difficulty of the CIV encounter for Oranje .... pretty much made it win or bust for Nederland.

Oranje need to cut out the sloppy errors in midfield and defence. Sometimes it is better to just hammer the ball up the pitch or out of play instead of looking for a footballing solution.

God, Oranje could do with a Bergkamp type ..... Ruud is just so isolated at times ..... result: not enough chances are created.

[AsgAarD_xxx]

I think Holland wery lucky to get the victory here. Ivory Coast was, imo, clearly the better team today. Both Sneijder and VdV were ineffective.

Rafael van der Vaart is just after injury. It was his first game and we all know that he wasn't as good as we expected. Sneijder didn't play a great game, but I think it's all because he doesn't have a ball. Robben, van Persie and Zokora & Drogba were extremely selfish. Anyway - Oranje have 3 points, and the rest is not important.

As for the earlier's game - I was shocked looking how Serbia & Montenegro were smashed by the Argentina. Geez, they had nothing to say today! In that form, the Argentina is able to win the cup.

And now some news from "polish" group - according to a few german websites, at least two of Ecuador players are suspected of taking some forbidden medicines. Even if it's true, the results of Ecuador's game won't be change...

[Stevie Super Samba Skillz]

The so-called 'Group of Death' turned out as I had expected - Holland's first two matches were the (relatively) easiest, and Argentina won both their games, and both are through. If we'd have had to play Argentina in the first two matches we'd have been screwed - they are ten times better than Holland at the moment.

This was a fucking embarrassing game, mainly because of the style rather than mistakes. Holland are like the new Italy or something. Diving, shirt-pulling, defensive, flukey, taking a fecking defensive midfielder on for the centre forward on 70 minutes. Deeply embarrassing. It goes against all my principles of how football should be played, and definitely against Van Basten's original intentions when he took the job (words like 'attractive' 'fresh' and 'attacking' football are now forgotten, it would seem).

And Van Bronckhorst was, yet again, absolutely atrocious. Portugal will totally fuck him up with Ronaldo/Simao. Mexico probably will too. And then...*groan* the replacement left back is Tim de Cler...oh woe...

[carcajou]

The so-called 'Group of Death' turned out as I had expected - Holland's first two matches were the (relatively) easiest, and Argentina won both their games, and both are through. If we'd have had to play Argentina in the first two matches we'd have been screwed - they are ten times better than Holland at the moment.

This was a fucking embarrassing game, mainly because of the style rather than mistakes. Holland are like the new Italy or something. Diving, shirt-pulling, defensive, flukey, taking a fecking defensive midfielder on for the centre forward on 70 minutes. Deeply embarrassing. It goes against all my principles of how football should be played, and definitely against Van Basten's original intentions when he took the job (words like 'attractive' 'fresh' and 'attacking' football are now forgotten, it would seem).

And Van Bronckhorst was, yet again, absolutely atrocious. Portugal will totally fuck him up with Ronaldo/Simao. Mexico probably will too. And then...*groan* the replacement left back is Tim de Cler...oh woe...

I'd post something but :

1) I'm ashamed of that victory
2) Stevie echoed my feelings so perfectly that adding something would make me sound like a parrot.[/list]

[AjaxPDX]

The TV commentators in the U.S. seemed to spend an excessive amount of time in the first half slamming Heitinga... "by far the biggest liability on the Dutch squad" was one quote.

[Manneken Pis]

The TV commentators in the U.S. seemed to spend an excessive amount of time in the first half slamming Heitinga... "by far the biggest liability on the Dutch squad" was one quote.

Well against S&M I think they would be right, against IC it was van Bronkhurst.

[ZoefdeHaas]

I really think we should play a 3-4-3, we really don't have the full-backs to make cover.

V.D Sar
Ooijer
Boulahrouz
Mathijsen
Cocu
V.Bommel
Sneijder
Van Der Vaart
V.Persie
Robben
V.Nistelrooy

[DanK]

I think I just saw the goal of the World Cup. 24 passes before Cambiasso got the second for Argentina :worshippy: . I even cheered it (at home, by myself) and I'm certainly not an Argentina fan...

Brilliant. Brilliant goal. Easily the best goal of the tournament. Nothing fluky about it, no deflection, no long lucky shot, just pure, amazing football. I could watch that over and over.

Onto Hollands game. Bloody hell. Lucky, lucky, lucky. What happened? We play pretty good football for 30min and then try to shut-up-shop. We were totally outplayed by a team that played fluid attacking football.

van Bommel should have been sent off for his persistant fouls, esp for his almost shin breaking "tackle" in the 2nd half. Nasty stuff.

I guess the important thing is we are through, plus we have Mexico or Portugal (maybe Angola) who based on how they have played shouldn't hurt us to much.

Thumbs up to van Persie. Great game from him today.

I still think this squad will find its peak come 2008 Euros and 2010 WC. Anywhere past the 2nd round here is a bonus.