World Cup - who to you think will win??

**Legolas** · 26-06-2006, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by savage

Australia were robbed! But that is football as it is today. Players can fake all sorts of stuff and win crucial matches. I hope that Fifa really look at adding a video referee as other sports have adopted in order to make the gameplay fairer.

Well next one is Switzerland Vs Ukraine. I think the Swiss should take that one cause Ukraine were not very strong in the earlier rounds.

I don't think so

We played in 10 for an half because a red card given for an italian foul over another italian player :shock:
BTW Australia has played a very good match, lacking a bit on forward players (maybe because our defenders are very strong

)

**savage** · 26-06-2006, 07:51 PM

I agree that Italy has excellent defenders, they have always had excellent defenders. But at the same time Australia has poor strikers. Australia lacked the finishing touch. They had most of the possession of the ball ( check the stats on the game - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...06/5103890.stm ), but again, like in all their matches they did not know how to put it in the back of the net. They do all the hard work of getting the ball up there and then fail at the vital step. They failed to looked threatening, while Italy looked threatening the times they got the ball.

I think with the right coach and a change of mental attitude, Australia will be football force in years to come, and having reached this far, it will definatley get more kids/teenagers playing.

Btw, Christian VIERI ( though I don't think he plays for the national team anymore, though be played in the last world cup ) actually grew up in Australia, but his father saw that he had talent and moved back to Italy for him to develop his football talent, because at the time Australia did not take football seriously.

**czar** · 26-06-2006, 09:04 PM

Australia were robbed.

Guus did a fine job getting the Australian team to such a high level. You could see touches of classic Dutch football shining through. (Not like how the Dutch have recently been playing).

Australia were the better team on the day but that was not reflected in the score.

**Legolas** · 26-06-2006, 10:11 PM

I considered that thinking to be robbed for an unlucky defeat was an italian attitude

IMHO we were lucky because kewell (the jewel!) was injured...
About Vieri, he was injured too, so he wasn't called for world cup tournament.

Guus Hiddink is a great coach but this defeat is a revenge for the way we was eliminated 4 years ago by south corea: he said that referee (marvelous Byron Moreno, that after this match was struk off) is a man and he can get wrong (2 good goals canceled and a "strange" red card). Then i would like to say to Mr. Hiddink: "Referee is a man. Goodbye..." :mrgreen:

**czar** · 27-06-2006, 12:53 AM

Who knows we may see England stumble to victory.

I hope not though. I think Argentina are doing quite well. And I believe Germany may go a long way.

**cragwolf** · 27-06-2006, 07:29 AM

I didn't think it was a penalty, but I didn't think it was a red card either. Australia had nothing up front, but the Italians were impregnable at the back anyway. Possession isn't everything, Italy in the 1st half when they had 11 men looked more dangerous and more likely to score, even though Australia had 54% possession. It's a shame the game ended like it did, but that's football.

Ukraine vs Switzerland, zzzzzz. FIFA please replace Ukraine with a decent team like Holland, Mexico or Ivory Coast.

**savage** · 27-06-2006, 07:39 AM

Originally Posted by cragwolf

Ukraine vs Switzerland, zzzzzz. FIFA please replace Ukraine with a decent team like Holland, Mexico or Ivory Coast.

I was so bored after full time that I went to bed to avoid watching extra time. I heard that even the penalties were boring!! Apparently there was not even 1 offside!!

**grudzio** · 27-06-2006, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by savage

I was so bored after full time that I went to bed to avoid watching extra time. I heard that even the penalties were boring!! Apparently there was not even 1 offside!!

There was one somewhere around 80th minute.
Well the games are getting worse and worse. Next time I am going to watch a game I am taking a book with me.

**savage** · 28-06-2006, 07:49 AM

I expected more from Spain, but again it's another game where a fake foul ( Tierry Henry ) turned the game around. Last world cup we had Rivaldo faking being hit in the face, this time we have Henry.,and it clearly shows that cheating pays off.

**czar** · 28-06-2006, 09:12 AM

It is high time for a video ref.

A video referee is used in most other sports. In Rugby it seems to work well so I should think it would be a no brainer to have that ability to check the video footage in football.