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2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa


Farin

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Friend of mine says a sliding tackle from behind is a red card penalty. The only one in a sea of 'WTF?!?!?!'s.

Germany is ruthless. Obviously the better team but my GOD they're brutal. Deserve to win, but I'm totes not supporting them for lack of friendly vibes.

the red card was very harsh, we all thought a yellow one would have been enough...

and what do you mean ruthless, brutal? :confused: we barely fouled anyone... all in all it was actually a very fair match, from both sides

Martin, Is Germany that good, or was Australia, not very good?

both ;) we actually played very good, but the Australians didn't have their best day either...

today:

The Netherlands vs Denmark

Japan vs Cameroon

Italy vs Paraguay

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Brutal as in they showed no mercy. Obviously the better team, Australia was clearly terrified and out of its element. Germany totes earned the win, but my god they were like a huge, emotionless juggernaut.

Like I said though - the ref was in the right with the red card... Sliding tackle from behind equals an automatic red card (thank you, twitter)

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I didn't see the whole game, but enough to observe that Germany put in the most impressive performance I have seen so far. Disappointed, though, by their two blatant examples of diving (or "simulation" as it is called nowadays), which were rightly punished with yellow cards. It's one thing to go down when there has been some contact to try to win a free-kick, but to dive like they did - so theatrically, when there had been no physical contact - to try to earn free-kicks, yellow cards for the opposition, etc, is pretty disgraceful and should be universally condemned. Thankfully, the referee handled it very well.

It has to be said, the opposition was poor both technically and tactically. Australia, conscious of their technical inferiority were set up to defend, to play on the break but with no recognised striker up front, and had no Plan B once they went behind. While it remains 1-0, there's always a chance you might scrape an equaliser and get something from the game. But the moment it was 2-0, it was "Game Over", and everyone knew it.

I missed the sending off of Cahill in "real time", due to bedtime-story reading, but saw the replay, and I can't see what the dispute was about. It's clearly a bad foul, late and low, could easily have resulted in a serious injury. Again, the referee's decision was justified.

It's only my opinion, but I think that, had England not conceded the ridiculous equaliser against the USA, we may well have gone 2-0 up and gone on to win as comfortably as Germany did against the Aussies. We were in control of the game until that point, looking fairly comfortable, with no real cause to believe the USA could score. But the commission of such an embarrassing and costly error, in tandem with two enforced early substitutions, had a damaging psychological impact, creating doubt and impatience in England's players whilst boosting U.S. self-belief. Everything now hinges on England's ability to recover from this setback and turn things round in their second game against Algeria on Friday. I don't regard progression from the Group Stage as a "given" - even if we beat Algeria there will still be work to do - and am not keen on the idea of finishing #2 in the Group as it (probably) results in a meeting with Germany in trhe next round.

Germans shouldn't get too excited yet; there are countless examples of countries who came out of the starting blocks sharpish, but dwindled during the course of the tournament, and as many again of ones who started badly, took a while to get going but emerged victorious. Like sex, it's best not to peak too early.

Plenty of twists and turns lie ahead!

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Like I said though - the ref was in the right with the red card... Sliding tackle from behind equals an automatic red card

True, but it looked like he realized, though at the last second, that he wasn't going to get the ball so he tried to pull back and didn't stick his legs out. It was ill-timed and unlucky, but the intent wasn't there.

The noisemakers also really need to go, unless they manage to irritate the Netherlands and Denmark players enough to finally pick up the pace in this match. :sleepy: :P

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True, but it looked like he realized, though at the last second, that he wasn't going to get the ball so he tried to pull back and didn't stick his legs out. It was ill-timed and unlucky, but the intent wasn't there.

yep...

maybe it was just the shock because it came so out of the blue, as I said the rest of the match was very fair...

Disappointed, though, by their two blatant examples of diving (or "simulation" as it is called nowadays), which were rightly punished with yellow cards. It's one thing to go down when there has been some contact to try to win a free-kick, but to dive like they did - so theatrically, when there had been no physical contact - to try to earn free-kicks, yellow cards for the opposition, etc, is pretty disgraceful and should be universally condemned. Thankfully, the referee handled it very well.

I was so glad that they finally actually start to give yellow cards for dives (or "Schwalbe" = "Swallow (the Bird)" as they're known in German)! (but did they have to start with Germany? ;) )

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Didn't seem to hurt you any. ;) But yes it's good they're penalizing for that rubbish.

I thought Cameroon would do a bit better than that against Japan (lost 1-0), who played pretty well, quick and with smart defending, especially since they're probably considered the weakest team of Group E.

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I'll be sure to vote tomorrow. I'm guessing the 8000+ people who voted to keep it probably already have some sort of vuvuzela (or other noise)-induced hearing loss and therefore don't find it irritating. :P

Italy vs Paraguay 1-1

Good result and could have been a Paraguay victory if not for that great corner from Pepe.

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One of my favourites of the genre is "Ally's Tartan Army" - Andy Cameron in which Scots comic Cameron is ably assisted by members of Scotland's 1978 World Cup Squad. It reached #4 in the UK hit parade, spending 8 weeks inthe charts.

England failed to qualify for the 1978 World Cup Finals, a fact which does not go unremarked upon in this song. One thing I like about "Ally's Tartan Army" is its unshakeable conviction that Scotland were about to show the world what the beautiful game is all about, before emerging victorious with Ally McLeod - "our very own Muhammed Ali" - at the helm. Reality, of course, proved somewhat different, as Scotland exited without progressing beyond the group stage, with only Archie Gemmill's splendid goal against Holland for comfort. They still talk about it, because,in reality, at that time, simply scoring a goal against Holland was the realistic pinnacle of their achievement, and a cause for national celebration. Archie Gemmill's goal against Holland: a dissection of its cultural significance

Ordinarily, Scotland's ignominious exit from the 1978 might have seen this song dispatched to the annals of music history, (littered with crap football songs), but the song lives on, on the football terraces every week. This is largely thanks to its joyous but deluded optimism, which chimes with the experience of most football fans, whose teams generally fail to live up to fans' expectations of invincibility. It's chorus: "We're on the march with Ally's Army, We're going to the Argentine, And we'll really shake'em up when we win the World Cup, 'cos Scotland is the greatest football team!" can be adapted to fit any club whose manager's name has two syllables, and pretty much any cup competition. You have to stretch out "Wembley"* (Wemberleeee!) to sub it for "the Argentine", but who's fussy?

Hence:

"We're on the march with Grayson's Army,

We're all off to Wemberleeeee,

And we'll really shake'em up, when we win the FA Cup,

'Cos Leeds are the greatest football team!"

...when Leeds dumped The Scum (Man U) out of the FA Cup, by beating them on their own turf, earlier this year. :)

* Wembley is England's national football stadium, where all the big Cup Finals and international matches take place, in case you're wondering.

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Not much of a game between Portugal and Ivory Coast (ended drawn at 0-0), but it was good to see Didier Drogba in there if only as a substitute.

Hopefully Brazil will put on a better show against North Korea and the so-called Group of Death will live up to its name.

However New Zealand did quite well to save a point in the eleventh hour of the eleventh hour against Slovakia.

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