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The Official World Cup 2006 Thread

XIII said:
Spain are looking strong...
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When every major tournament come around, I have a friend who always says the same thing and without fail, always places a £50-100 bet at Ladbrokes from them to be tournament winners. He hasn't collected yet.

I wouldn't say they're chokers or anything. No, not me.
 
Aussies went 1-1 against the Netherlands today without Kewell and down a man for the last half hour.

Some of the dives were awful - what a bunch of sooks some soccer players are, rolling around like a bunch of pansies. We need someone to just walk on and give the player a little kick and say "get up you sook."

I think the current practice of diving really cheapens one of the oldest and certainly the most popular sports on the planet. It makes me mad to see these overpayed pretty-boys not playing the game with the spirit it deserves. Now, I'm not saying the Aussies are a fantastic team but we're one of the toughest - physically - teams and I think it makes for a better experience. Fans pay lots of money to watch players play, not writhe around on the ground for five minutes pretending to be hurt with trainers all around only to get up and run off like nothing has happened.

It's time for FIFA to actually do what they're meant to do and get tough on players taking dives, refs need to be carding these guys for what I see as bringing the game into disrepute.

end rant, good on the aussies, bring on the World Cup.
 
Blue Velvet said:
...The only match that matters for me is ... Brazil v New Zealand.
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The Beeb said:
New Zealand's only real chances fell to Hibernian's Chris Killen in the first half and striker Vaughan Coveny, who saw his shot cleared off the line by Lucio when New Zealand were still only a goal down. It was the fourth match of a European tour for coach Ricki Herbert's team and followed a loss to Hungary, a draw against Estonia and victory over Georgia.
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4-0 to Brazil but a shot cleared off the line! Against Brazil! Excellent! Victory against Georgia. Outstanding!

I think New Zealand have a marginally better chance of beating Brazil in football than the Brazilian rugby team of beating the All Blacks. :D
 
I hate those dives too.
Robben and van Nistelrooy make it some kind of national sport....

Problem is that there is not enough to loose for these diving players, and everything to be gained (i.e. ultimately the penalty, but also getting the opponent a card).

They referees always should give a yellow card to the player who he thinks dived. I know that sometimes a player who really was fouled could get booked by accident, but IMHO this would at least make the diver think.

As the sport is turned into a business, where winning is über-important, all tactics are used. IIRC it started in the Mediterranean countries.
Nowadays all acting talents are used to influence the referee: players diving, crying on the pitch, and trainers shouting and screaming.
It is all part of the "game".
And I hate it.
:mad:

But if you don't use these tactics, you probably will lose.
 
MacsRgr8 said:
But if you don't use these tactics, you probably will loose.
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i agree, but only to a certain extent. Liverpool (correct me if i'm wrong) is consistently at the top, or near the top, of the fair play table every year, with very very players diving. i'm not saying it doesn't happen, it does, even by steven gerrard. my point is, they are doing pretty well considering that fact. however Robben did cost us heavily with his oscar winning performance not so long ago.
 
That's precisely what I mean.

You can do well, and play brilliantly, but you just simply have less chance of winning if you don't go cheating like players like Robben do.
Most very important games are won by a very small margin. Getting that penalty (or at least having 2 or 3 shouts at one), or having the defender booked early can make that tiny little difference between winning and losing. You can also get your opponent frustrated which does help too.

You see it everywhere. Not only in football. Even in a "gentleman's game" like tennis we see unsportsmanship. Players will do everything they can to win. Frustrating your opponent is just one more weapon you can use.

Edit:
Somehow people don't care. I was just watching Hewett play on Dutch TV, and the commentator was talking about Hewett's ability to frustrate the opponent. The comentator actually said that he liked that! He liked the idea of a sportsman trying to win by any means....

I don't. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I like a sportsman to win on ability.
 
Well, the referees have apparently been given an 'eight point hit-list' that they'll be expected to clamp down on this summer – diving is one of the key points.

They'll also be looking at stuff like time-wasting, elbowing and reckless displays of jewellery, and players can expect straight reds for blatant cheating. The problem is of course that the refs need to be consistent...
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Well, the referees have apparently been given an 'eight point hit-list' that they'll be expected to clamp down on this summer – diving is one of the key points.

They'll also be looking at stuff like time-wasting, elbowing and reckless displays of jewellery, and players can expect straight reds for blatant cheating. The problem is of course that the refs need to be consistent...
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Joga Bonito
 
BakedBeans said:
Joga Bonito
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boy do i hate those ads, enough to make me never buy another nike product again (not that i buy many anyway)

i mean come on, the fat idiot preaching to us about beautiful football and fair play? waht about his ridiculous lash out at a palace fan? yeah there's some great football in the clips, but ever brasil are guilty of disgusting cheating, Rivaldo was it a few years back?
 
dogbone said:
...and bad hair cuts.
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Fortunately, they're not clamping down on this. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a single player left on the pitch.

Still, if a bad haircut ban did come into effect there would at least be a reason for Andy Johnson to get an England call up.
 

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Jaffa Cake said:
Fortunately, they're not clamping down on this. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a single player left on the pitch.

Still, if a bad haircut ban did come into effect there would at least be a reason for Andy Johnson to get an England call up.
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Bad hair-do bans would negatively impact several good teams.
 

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quigleybc said:
Why does this turn into a sticky, and the NBA, NFL. MLB threads are just....threads....

just cuz it's "world" cup? NBA, and MLB have a ton of international players....

i smell a conspiracy...and I suspect I'm gonna get flamed bad for this too....:p
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Because it's once every four years, is the second-largest global sporting event after the Olympics and without it, a whole bunch of similar threads would have sprung up... and because I politely asked the mods to consider it just for the duration of the tournament. Besides, the number of football fans worldwide outweighs the number of NBA fans by a sizable margin.

If it's a problem, take it up with the mod who made it a sticky. Good luck.
 
quigleybc said:
Why does this turn into a sticky, and the NBA, NFL. MLB threads are just....threads....

just cuz it's "world" cup? NBA, and MLB have a ton of international players....

i smell a conspiracy...and I suspect I'm gonna get flamed bad for this too....:p
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premier league is treated the same as other seasons.

the world cup is the biggest sporting event in the world involving the worlds biggest sport...
 
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