Ha ha, that was a great game to watch - reminded me of English league football at times, with all of the physicality. Not entirely sporting, but entirely engrossing. Some unfair decisions by the ref and some justified ones too.

Great for USA to get that result. Kasey Keller was great, but a praise should also go to the new guy (Dempsey? I think that was his name, he didn't play in the first match). His presence gave the US a physical strength at the front that was lacking against the Czechs. The 22nd will be an interesting day, no question.

I marry a friend and games go berserk or what?
Anyway real life was great for me today.
The referee was right to kick out De Rossi; that asshole had done bad things during the first game. Sending out the first yankee was right too, he caught Pirlo's ankle on a tackle, and the ref was three feet away to see it all. Last red card was the result of a second yellow one.
Too bad for my virtual team, Toni was replaced quite early on.
Lots of cards, low credit for almost everyone 'xcept johnnywinterexpressway.
Deco scored for my team. Glad I've been number one, even for a day.

Now it didn't work as I had planned, I'm a bit confused with my transfers. I'm gonna rest on it & apply the Hannibal Smith method, since - in fact - I had had the feeling that it would be that way.

Today Croatia should overcome Japan and Brasil should overcome Australia, but given their respective first game performances, the France vs South Korea game is potentially the most intereting.

In the first game I couldn't quite decide if France just played badly or if they were settling for a point - neither team seemed to be making any great effort to get three points.

Mastroeni may have been a little late, but after watching a few replays he actually did get the ball first, and slightly knicked Pirol's ankle, BARELY! I would have understood a foul, or even a yellow card, but a red card?! For that?! You've got to be out of your mind if you're going to defend that call.

the first red for the u.s. was never a red card, at least not in the premiership

a brief explanation of penalty calls

offsides - This penalty is called when the ref notices the game is getting too exciting.

Yellow card - A cautionary warning usually issued when the official notices that a player has fallen to the ground; the referee, however, can not be troubled with such trifles as how the player got to the ground, since it is not a matter of any import or consequence.

Red card - When a transgression is committed by an already yellow-carded player, the subsequent red card results in suspension & immediate ejection from the game of a player by a ref who hasn't done much ejaculating lately.

Much rep for that!

That's just what I thought then when I saw it. The fact that I had not slept also explains why I called De Rossi an asshole, a thing I wouldn't have typed if I had taken the time for a nap. I didn't mean to bring any animosity out.

Red cards can be also been given straight away; or else players could willingly assault an opponent, hurt him and carry on (cf De Rossi?).

Bad draw for France tonight.
The team may have to say farewell to the Cup, for Korean & Swiss relief.

But the Togo situation is getting worse - even if they manage to play tomorrow vs the Swiss, maybe they'll refuse to play in the game against France! Would that mean France get credited with a 3 - 0 win?

Park Ji Sung scored for me tonight. A decent end to a not great weekend, ha ha.

Tuesday - Friday is FOUR games per day, so either points will come thick and fast, or teams will drop down the league! Who knows? Not me, but I can guess...

Yes, Togo's situation's keeps puzzling me too.
They threatened not to play tomorrow's game if the money their federation had promised them wasn't guaranteed. This kind of blackmail is really strange and might arrange a nation (the French) were their coach & staff wicked enough to discreetly send money to the players to play against Switzerland but give up their game against France (and what would happen then with Zidane & Abidal's suspensions?) (well time will tell & it looks a bit like a novel).

oops...
wrote the same thing twice, so, there, edited.

Korea is playing like they are out to prove something, I like it. Best fans in the world, the Koreans?

In 2002 I couldn't help but root for Korea throughout the tournament (except for their game against the United States).

I think Korea most certainly do have something to prove - whereas they had previously failed at World Cups, they made the semi-finals last time. Of course, that was with home advantage and a very bad decision for that goal against Spain. They have to show thee world that the 2002 showing was not a one-off, but a sign of real improvement. Four points from two games does just that, I tink. I like Korea too, I have to say.

Shevchenko (Ukraine) and Santos (Tunisia) get another chance for me today. Hopefully, they'll be thinking of my fantasy points when they play today.

Well well well,
With Abidal out for next game, I decided to make my second transfer and inject some Spanish touch to my team. I picked up Villa mostly for he ain't in any team yet and he'll probably shoot once or twice.

It's about time to think about what you've learned so far.
I transfered my 2 players earlier than I thought, and these players were not the ones I had planned to (I removed Campbell who won't probably play, seeing how Ferdinand & Terry behave, and Abidal, when I believed it would be Essien - who might carry on to the 8th and either Trabelsi or Magnin).
Plus : we've got to consider that we will lose players at a high rate from that moment on.
Even though I've been telling myself that I had formed a team knowing that at least 17 players wouldn't be on the field on July, 9, it's still hard to realize (a bit).

8th, 4th, semis... will provide every one of us with the loss of athletes, a excrutating moment when the choice of team captain points out...

I already prepare myself for a game opposing Portugal to the Netherlands (which would be good to see), knowing that once it's over, either Deco-Tiago-Miguel or Van der Vaart-Robben won't bring anything anymore home.

This cup is filled with masochism.

Good luck to you all, but don't stand so close to me, johnnywinternoshow, please, you're worrying me.

I went with a 3-4-3...with schevchenko, klose and ibrahimovic up top, hoping to get something out of old Andriy...perhaps Zlatan will put one or two in the net and Miroslav can find some more of his touch that he had against Costa Rica....Hope all your teams show well.

Well, England might not have much chance of being at the final, but our referee might be there. Graham Poll was superb during Ukraine vs Saudi Arabia, he got just about everything perfect.

Ukraine are great when they play like that. There are very few squads on earth with that much talent - harnessed properly it's a treat to watch. My two players, Shevchenko (capt.) and Rebrov both scored, and Shevchenko's assist for the fourth goal showed what a wonderful player he is; after that run, the temptation to shoot must have been enormous, but he saw his teammate and put the perfect ball across to him. A few more genuine contenders for goal of the tournament, especially Rebrov's.

Maksym Kalinichenko gave without doubt the performance of the competition so far, and was rewarded with the fourth goal.

Looking forward to Tunisia vs Spain now...

Rebrov's was a fine ball indeed. Hip Priest's faith in Ukraine is paying some nice dividends. & Yeah, that ref was with it.

I've royally screwed myself with too few forwards among my initial picks, with general mismanagement of not always insuring that eligible players are active & with choosing the wrong captain every single day.
I suck at this.

Whats everyones standing right now, as in points and such?

And Schevchenko killed today, Ukraine played some great great football.

I'm at around 112

160

Hip Priest & I kept going back & forth, but he blew way the fuck past me today with those Ukrainians.

I prefer haha to think of it as me being the leader of the pack of people that don't know what they're doing. hehe yanks that we are?

would it be prudent (at this juncture hehe) to just copy & paste the current scoreboard?

Perhaps, but maybe we should wait until the next round eh?

My undying hatred for Argentina has prevented me from having at least 50-60 more points.

You know, I was so keen to see Ukraine do well, and so dissappointed for them after the first game, that seeing achieve that level of performance today meant as much to me as a great England victory. I was getting all emotional for them. Which might be a bit sad, but, you know...

Tomorrow looks bleak for me, as Gerrard will probably not play (to save him from another yellow card).

BE AWARE that,according to Radio Five Live, Ibrahimovic is apparantly pretty uncertain to play for Sweden tomorrow due to some kind of injury. I think he's in a few of your teams.

Good comeback by Spain tonight - they stuck at the task well, I think they knew they were playing the better football and didn't give up. A 4 -0 win and a comeback to 3 - 1 is impressive.

I have a problem day on Wednesday: four strikers and only three places. Nuno Gomes, Kalou, Borgetti and van Persie all potential selections up front. What to do, what to do... either way I'll have EIGHT players that day, so most likely it's either gonna be a total f***in disaster or it's gonna help me out a lot.

The World Cup's been a great focus of discussion on the board so far. I've enjoyed all the related threads.

Well, Hipster, it will be a bit easier for you to decide who to play and who to bench: Borgetti is out for the Portugal game.

And I agree, this is the best thread on the board! Best part is, there are only five or six of us that are posting on a regular. Not BS fighting and all that jazz...REFRESHING! We've still got quite a few games to discuss at that!

Those Swiss strikes were quite nice today! And the Swiss fans with their cowbells, great stuff. Too bad for Togo, though they haven't played that bad considering all the off field fueding. Smashing result if they finish off France.

I'd rather see Tunisia through to the round of 16...

Ah ha, thanks for that. It was he or Nuno Gomes for final spot, so Nuno it is.

I wanted Ukraine and Tunisia to go through, but since Spain have grabbed a spot already, I'll go fo Ukraine.

Strike of the tournament thus far?! That was spectacular.

England 1 - 1 Sweden. England top the group, and we play Ecuador on Sunday. This is good because: we stand a good chance of avoiding Argentina until after the quarter finals (should we get that far) and also it frees my Saturday up! Hargreaves was excellent, and Gerrard's header was a nice goal.

I thought we played pretty well overall - Sweden had few chances, but punished us when twe made errors. On another day it would have been 2 - 0, I think. Our best performance so far, by some way.

Only three players active today, but fifty points or thereabouts for my team, which is a bit of a result - Klose bagged most of those as captian (with two goals). I see a couple of other teams scored well with Schweinsteiger as captain too.

Tomorrow sees Cote d'Ivoire's final game of the tournament. I have much sympathy for them; to come to your first ever World Cup looking good only to be placed with Argentina and the Netherlands is pretty tough look. Double tough luck, I suppose, for Serbia and Montenegro, who looked good but were placed with Argentina, the Netherlands and Cote d'Ivoire! Tough group.

Nice milestone last night:

Allback scores 2,000th goal
20 June 2006
by FIFAworldcup.com

A significant FIFA World Cup™ milestone was reached this evening when Sweden’s Marcus Allback headed home the tournament’s 2,000th goal in his team’s 2-2 draw with England.

It is now almost 76 years since Frenchman Lucien Laurent fired the first goal of the beautiful game’s greatest tournament in Montevideo on 13 July 1930, and in the years since we have all witnessed some magnificent, truly unforgettable goals en route to the reaching of new goalscoring landmarks.

In scoring goal number 2,000, Allback certainly succeeded in joining an exclusive club, one that also numbers among its members the illustrious likes of Angelo Schiavio (ITA, 100th in 1934), Gerd Muller (FRG, 800th in 1970), Gary Lineker (ENG, 1,300th in 1986) and Christian Vieri (Italy, 1,900th in 2002).

Oh, right. I'll just talk to myself then.

Netherland vs Argentina has just kicked off, and could be the best game of the tournament. You never know - two incredibly talented sides could turn it on.

They are both already through of course - the winner will play Mexico in the second round whilst the loser will face Portugal. Whoever Portugal play, it'll be a good game.

How I forgot about this thread today, I don't know. Probably because it wasn't on the front page, and I'm watching the game.

They look awfully tight so far...

Argentina need to get the defence solid - all of their team seem to be itching to go forward all of the time! Could leave gaps, or lose concentration.

Cote d'Ivoire are playing Serbia and Montenegro, too. I'd like to see Cote d'Ivoire get some points.

Classic Holland - Argentina

Lovely.

Rodriguez may not have scored just then, but he should have a special award for kicking the ball that hard!

I figured that game would result in a draw, both teams resting their booked players. I really think Netherlands is playing good football and has a good chance at beating Germany, because after all, the host advantage will only get you so far without a decent back line.

You called it right, mate. Tepid game - I can understand Argentina relaxing, to an extent, but the Netherlands could have pressed for first place in the group.


Well, the Netherlands need to beat Portugal first! Portugal have looked good in this tournament, maybe even a touch better than the Netherlands overall. It'll be interesting!

On the fantasy basis, Nuno Gomes and van Persie cost me -10 points between them, but I got 35 or thereabouts from elsewhere, so +25 or so on the day.

WHY?!?!?!







DISCLAIMER: The poster Пятхъдесят Шест in no way supports the hanging and/or harming of any referees for bad calls. It should be noted, however, that if a rather large meteoroid where to strike the head of the referee calling the US-Ghana match, he would applaud.

Japan 1 - Brazil 0.

FUCK ME!!!!!

(edit - there are still 55 minutes to go though)

is it just me or is it really boring when the same teams keep winning and the underdogs never get chance to bite?

I got Nakata as my captain, much against logical reasoning. I'm rooting for Japan here.

Although I also have another Japanese and 3 Brazilians, all Midfielders/Strikers, so this shoud be a good game for me. I pulled my Japanese defender out of fear.

so CZE loses to ITA...I'm not upset...just surprised at the mediocre play of the Czechs. I was predicting at the outset that CZE &/or ARG would give the Brasilians the most trouble.

I found this article today concerning an ea sports fifa videogame simulation that predicted CZE to win the cup hehe.
http://sports.aol.com/worldcup/story...05215409990001

I experienced dismay when Kaka missed that first wide-open shot on goal. You say tomato; in Japan, they say Tamada. Ronaldo finally gets one (to tie Pele?)...& then another to tie Gerhard Muller. Well, I guess I picked the wrong day to not make Ronaldo captain. I also missed out on 16 points by not playing Buffon as GK for ITA.
yep .,/,I could've gotten 78 points today instead of 42...groan....such is how it's been going...