holy mother of fuck this is awesome

the funniest thing is that Fabregas should've had one straight after!

i know-- fucking crazy.

paraguay is doing a nice job defending but their attacks are meh. did you know they had a star striker who was shot in the head in mexico some months ago? cabañas. he survived but he obviously can't play.

roque santa cruz is coming in to replace valdez-- that's good.

wow, this spanish goal was like a reflection of the whole game.

you can't win by just defending-- you get killed in the end no matter how much the ball bounces around.

I think spain has this in the bag.

you have to wonder how many times Spain can rely on Villa to get them out of jail.

mierda! good attack! could have been if he doesn't shoot that hard.

nice game.

--

& nice counterattack.

man, paraguay put up a nice fight but the game ended the way it should.

germany spain should be a really good game.

Yeah, Paraguay were easily the equal to Spain, really up until Villa's goal.

Germany-Spain is gonna be great. I can't see Spain coping with them on the strength of both teams' performances today, though. Surely they can't risk starting with Torres again. He's a brilliant player but he's clearly unfit. They need to start with Fabregas. Even then though, I have to wonder how they're gonna handle Muller, Klose and Schweinsteiger. Spain were average at best today and they'll need to play better than they have all through the tournament if Germany are on form - which they inevitably will be.

there's no way that ref should ever ref anywhere ever again. He needs high def super slow motion video replays on all calls. Awful ref

so much for the 'America's World Cup'!! Spain Dutch final (although Spain will have to be much better to beat Germany...)

both casillas and the spanish coach admitted in post-game interviews that paraguay played at times better, however i disagree with them having the winning plan, because in principle you can't win a game just by defending. a little bit more risk-taking could have benefited paraguay's game-- santa cruz could have started earlier with valdez instead of replacing him after he was hurt.


really? what did he fuck up that was so bad? the 2nd penalty on fabregas was a tough call to make, and the assistant refs didn't see it either. otherwise he did a very good job i thought. he curbed excessive rough play, he didn't become the center of the game, he didn't go card-crazy, he called evenly for both sides.

Yeah the ref seemed to have forgotten the rules about midway throiugh the second half. I can definitely see Holland making the final but I tend to think they'll be up against Germany rather than Spain who, Villa aside, haven't looked that great if you ask me. Germany look like they're getting better better and better while Spain still don't seem to have really hit any kind of rhythm.

I really thought the American teams were gonna dominate. I don't know what happened but they do seem to have imploded.

The big disappointments for me though have been the African nations. It's 'nice' to support them but they just seem incapable of taking that next step.

agreed on the ending, Paraguay was an interesting team, they haven't scored a goal in 309 minutes but they managed to block out Spain for most sooo long unexpectedly. Well not quite, as they hadn't let a team score on them in four consecutive matches...



serious, what a bunch of surprises.. first all the favored boojie Eurotrash teams who were expected in the Semi-finals were eliminated, then all the favored American teams who advanced and were expected in the finals were eliminated, and now all the under-dog European teams are in the Semi-Finals, and the most unexpected of the American teams survived! This is a definite Upsetters World Cup fi real!



lucky you I been up at 6am every day to catch matches for weeks.. during the group stage I was catching matches at 5am before leaving for work! it has literally been surreal to see sports so early in the morning, in LA the earliest we get is a Dodger game at 1-2pm sometimes.. aside from the Olympics I have never been up so early to catch sports..

did y'all see that pinball goal by Spain! Shit! one of the highlights of the Cup! The 3 highlight goals of this Cup, a) that wrongfully disqualified goal by South Africa b) the USA goal in injury time c) Spain's pinball goal against Paraguay..

who would have thought both Argentina and Brazil would be out? Upset 2010 left and right!

What a game again this is fun. I guess this summer I will be taking in my first Revolution's game down in Foxboro MA. Let's not forget it wasn't all that long ago that Germany beat Australia 4 nil then lost 1 nil to Serbia. So let's not crown them just yet. I still believe in Uruguay!:)

ohh I didn't think Germany would do it today in the first place, who thought they would out play Argentina so well? Both Spain and Argentina weren't allowed to use their finesse and style in the face of Germany's Berlin Wall defense and Paraguay's intense speed and ever eye on the ball.. Spain however managed to break through..

it looks like Germany vs Spain in the Finals, but nothing has been even remotely predictable so who knows anymore?

Spain had been joint favourites along with Brazil to win the tournament for months before the tournament started, with Holland not far behind them. Portugal were a bit of asn unknown quantity but I doubt many people were surprised they went out when they did. Germany are a bit of a surprise, but then everyone knows Germany do well in big tournaments. Meanwhile, everyone expected France to be a disaster and they weren't much more optimistic about Italy. The only 'big' European team that really surprised anyone with how bad they were was England.


Yeah, Brazil. No one gave Argentina a hope in hell of even getting as far as they did. They only barely managed to qualify for the tournament in the first place. Brazil going out was a surprise but certainly not Argentina.

Germany's gonna handle Spain easily. the only problem is Muller isn't playing... but I still think Germany will win confidently.

i really dont want germany to win. kuntz.

it was just the whole penalty fiasco. Paraguay's penalty there was about 4 Spanish defenders in the box but he let that go, then Alonso scored and he made them retake it (and on the replay at the time the ball is kicked (which is the important bit) you can see him watching the keeper, and not the palyers in the box), then he missed a blatant penalty on Fabregas which was blatant. I'm sorry but even through the crowd i could see it was a penalty so i'm sure he could. But maybe he didn't have the balls to give another one straight away?

Also, the foul on Villa leading to Spain's penalty should've also resulted in the player who fouled him getting a red card.

Where was the ref from? I can't remember a world cup that hasn't been marred by incompetant refs.

Guatemala

yes, especially when this Spain s not the Spain we all expected to have on this tournament (in the negative context), and mainly when this Germany is neither the Germany we all expected to have on this tournament (in the positive context).
I really want Spain to win but i'm afraid it ain't happening.

Yeah, without Villa Spain seem pretty ordinary. Germany seem more like a club side, with everyone knowing how to play together. They don't have the same individual talent as Spain but a far greater collective strength. It'll be interesting to see how Germany manage without Muller, though.

Plus, that Oezil dude is just fantastic.

He is. I just think that while a lot of teams have been relying on superstar players (mostly unsuccessfully) Germany seem more like a functioning unit. I get the feeling that a Spain without Villa would be in a far worse position than a Germany without Orzil - as good a player as he undoubtedly is.

i don't understand why they let in refs from countries whose team has never actually qualified to play in the world cup.

that's far too logical for FIFA to possibly consider it.

With Germany going in as heavy favourites I expect Villa to come out firing slot a few with Torres to close out the game. ;)

I'd be surprised if Torres even plays, tbh. They should start with Fabregas.

He's been average all tourno but I wouldn't give up on him just yet. I would if they lose.

I hope Netherlands face Germany in the finals.
Both teams have scored through 5 different players (and there should be more).
That makes them hard to cope with and fun to watch.
France '98 was that kind of a winner, Italy 2006, Spain two years ago (where are they now? Villa, Iniesta once, and noone else? makes their partners weigh in shooting or finding them).
I wished Netherlands win when the competition started and I can't say I'm sticking with it now.
Özil looked exhausted. In the last two games. Didn't stop him from delivering two assists.
Some team, Germany.
I wouldn't have said that openly had Ballack been in.

an uruguayan, an italian and a french ref fucked up and were sent home for bad performances. all 3 countries have been world champions.

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/wor...efs062910.html

"Also on the list of those axed was Uruguay’s Jorge Larrionda, who committed the most high-profile mistake of the event by denying England’s Frank Lampard a goal against Germany, even though his strike landed more than two feet over the goal line.

Another referee to be sent home was Stephane Lannoy of France, a leading European official who was originally expected to take charge of key matches late in the tournament. But Lannoy’s fate was sealed when he sent off Brazil’s Kaka against the Ivory Coast for an innocuous challenge. So too was that of Italian Roberto Rosetti, who allowed Argentina’s hotly disputed first goal against Mexico in the round of 16."

here more fuckups from all around the world:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/4...-so-far#page/1

Yes the pre-tourney rankings I saw 1. Brazil 2. Spain 3. Portugal 4. Holland
5. Italy 6. Germany 7. Argentina 8. England.

So Spain & Holland supposed to be here. Germany was a maybe and my boys from Uruguay no how no way. I believe they will beat the Dutch for Luis Surez. I don't know which way to go with Spain/Germany. My head say Germany but my heart says Spain as Ramos and David Villa have been carrying my Fantasy team. ;^)

I'd say its Germany, but who knows how it will be the way things have been going..

I don't necessarily agree with all the pressure that FIFA has put on Africa specifically in regards to political issues.. the US team is at unjust wars across continents and is immensely corrupt domestically and does FIFA put pressure on the US? What about Brazil? Germany? practically EVERY country on the earth and who participate with FIFA have the same kinds of problems, and yet Africa gets singled out time and time again.. THAT is why African countries don't have world class soccer and house world class international matches and why African teams are not well represented in international competition.. is is literally ridiculous and honestly persecution.

FIFA managed to get the Nigerian government to reverse the decision to ban the Nigerian football team for two years, isn't that a good thing?

From the semi finalists, Germany are my favourite and Netherlands my least favourite.

It's going to be a Holland vs Germany final.

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but what pressure has FIFA been putting on African nations? From what i can see, FIFA - for all its numerous faults - has made great efforts to 'internationalise' football, as demonstrated by its controversial decision to select S'th Africa as the host for the WC finals.

That'd only be fun if Holland win it.
Losing a 3rd World Cup final (against the Germans no less) would be the cruelest thing ever. ever.


I do not dare to look ahead of things though, Uruguay seems difficult enough.
Sure, they might not be a world class team, but together with Holland they're the only team who haven't lost yet and they've only conceded two goals in all games. Could be a very physical game.