World Cup and European leagues

[Mr. Ypsi]

Two more notes.

Towards the end of Spain/Portugal something happened to warm my heart.  Christian Ronaldo WAS clearly fouled, but paid the price for being such a flopper - no call.

One possible gaffe in officiating (though so late, it probably made no difference in the outcome) - the red card to Portugal appeared on replays to be unwarranted, but in the 89th minute they were probably not coming back anyway.  Overall I think the officiating in Spain/Portugal may have been the best I've seen all WC - I especially liked the way he intervened every time players seemed about to go at it.

[Ralph Turner]

Is there a championship trophy for the Iberian peninsula?      

[Ralph Turner]

ROTFLMAO...

The non-goal by England's Lampard in the 38th minute!  

The match is forever tainted!

I thought I remembered a real non-goal between Engalnd and Germany...in the 1966 Finals.

Youtube video from the 1966 BBC broadcast, including an instant replay.   

[sac]

Freddie Adu just turned 21.......his main problem is, he doesn't play wherever he goes.

Officially he's played in 32 first team matches since leaving Real Salt Lake 3 years ago.  He's still a product of Benfica, but has been loaned out to Monaco, Belenenses, and Aris Thesalonika.

This compares to the 98 matches he logged in the MLS over 4 seasons.


Freddie needs to come home maybe.  He needs to break out in the next couple of years to have any shot at making the 2014 squad.   But he's of the age you'd expect him to be apart of the next two world cups.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Freddie Adu just turned 21.......his main problem is, he doesn't play wherever he goes.

Officially he's played in 32 first team matches since leaving Real Salt Lake 3 years ago.  He's still a product of Benfica, but has been loaned out to Monaco, Belenenses, and Aris Thesalonika.

This compares to the 98 matches he logged in the MLS over 4 seasons.


Freddie needs to come home maybe.  He needs to break out in the next couple of years to have any shot at making the 2014 squad.   But he's of the age you'd expect him to be apart of the next two world cups.

Agreed.  He's obviously been the wrong places (for him).  Whether or not that is the wrong places or the wrong player, I don't know.  But he is still young enough to maintain hope, if not expectation.

Can anyone recall a phenom (in any sport) who has flamed out, then resurrected into a great player?  I can't - but perhaps Adu can still break the streak?  (Nearly all streaks end sometime.)

[Hoosier Titan]

Two more notes.

Towards the end of Spain/Portugal something happened to warm my heart.  Christian Ronaldo WAS clearly fouled, but paid the price for being such a flopper - no call.

One possible gaffe in officiating (though so late, it probably made no difference in the outcome) - the red card to Portugal appeared on replays to be unwarranted, but in the 89th minute they were probably not coming back anyway.  Overall I think the officiating in Spain/Portugal may have been the best I've seen all WC - I especially liked the way he intervened every time players seemed about to go at it.

Right about CR.  He spent most of the match waiting to get the ball, firing off long shots, and sitting on the ground and failing to track back after losing posession.  He's spent too much time reading his own press clippings.  I loved the commentator's remark, a few minutes from time, when Ronaldo made a cute little backpass that went nowhere, "Very impressive, but perhaps not what is really needed at this moment." 

I'm not convinced we saw the actual foul in the replays.  The Spanish player--was it Capdevila?--had clearly taken a strong shot to the side of the head.  He wasn't faking.  And Costa had been asking for a card all game.  Karma again.

Question for the non-convinced about soccer who watched Spain-Portugal:  was the game boring or intriguing?  For me, it was the equivalent of a pitchers' duel.  As a total Spain partisan I can't say it was exactly "fun", but I appreciated the sparring (and, of course, seeing the better side win).  I've been told that Paraguay looked dreadful and that Spain will have their way with them.  Having watched the US, England, and Chile all go down, I'd like to see the last of my teams have a good game.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I watched the entire second half of the Spain/Portugal match and found it enthralling.  I missed Paraguay/South Korea but read that it was dreadfully boring.  Low scoring games can be either horrible or fascinating - it's not the scoring, per se!

On the other hand, I'm not 'unconvinced about soccer' - I'm going through withdrawal pains until Friday!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yeah, this should really help Nigeria!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/30/nigeria-world-cup-team-su_n_630743.html

With support like this, the Super Eagles don't need enemies.  Unless this is overturned, they will miss the next Africa Cup and risk a ban by FIFA.  Of course, Nigeria IS one of the more corrupt governments on earth, so no big surprise.

[sac]

Freddie Adu just turned 21.......his main problem is, he doesn't play wherever he goes.

Officially he's played in 32 first team matches since leaving Real Salt Lake 3 years ago.  He's still a product of Benfica, but has been loaned out to Monaco, Belenenses, and Aris Thesalonika.

This compares to the 98 matches he logged in the MLS over 4 seasons.


Freddie needs to come home maybe.  He needs to break out in the next couple of years to have any shot at making the 2014 squad.   But he's of the age you'd expect him to be apart of the next two world cups.

Agreed.  He's obviously been the wrong places (for him).  Whether or not that is the wrong places or the wrong player, I don't know.  But he is still young enough to maintain hope, if not expectation.

Can anyone recall a phenom (in any sport) who has flamed out, then resurrected into a great player?  I can't - but perhaps Adu can still break the streak?  (Nearly all streaks end sometime.)

Not soccer, but Jennifer Capriati maybe

[Mr. Ypsi]

A very exciting game to open the quarters, with Netherlands knocking out Brazil, 2-1.  Brazil opened the scoring early as the Dutch defense fell asleep, allowing Robinho to get a long entry pass right up the middle and beat the keeper one-on-one.  The equalizer for Holland was officially scored an own-goal, as Melo got in Cesar's way, allowing a long shot the keeper would almost certainly have stopped to go in.  The Netherlands went ahead on a very nice, but kinda flukey goal - on a corner kick a Dutch player slightly deflected the ball, which went straight to Sneijder for an easy header into an empty part of the net.  If Melo had not already done enough damage, he got an extremely stupid red card with about 20 minutes left (after tripping a Dutch player, he then deliberately stomped on his thigh), making a Brazillian comeback that much harder.

Overall, I thought Brazil played the better game (they had far more near-scores), but a combination of bad breaks and Melo's stupidity sends them home much earlier than they would have wished.

[BoBo]

Stunning defeat for the Brazilians...the Orange are not nearly as flashy as the guys from South America, but they are very solid. I'm not surprised they took this one.

[sac]

.....that was cruel.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Who says cheaters never win?!   Win no time remaining in OT, Luis Suarez hand-balled away a sure game winner by Ghana, Gyan missed the PK (hitting the crossbar), then Uruguay won in PKs 4-2.  Poor Suarez really fell on his sword for the team, since he will now miss their semi against The Netherlands.

The first 45 minutes were as good a game as any in the WC, with Uruguay dominating for the first 25+ (but, despite several excellent chances, unable to score), then Ghana nearly scored on two counter-attacks a minute apart, and dominated the rest of the half, finally taking the lead with so little time in stoppage time that the ref didn't even restart the game afterward.  The next 65 minutes were kind of a snooze-fest (despite Uruguay getting the equalizer) with both teams together having fewer good chances than either had in the first half.  The final ten minutes made up for it, with both sides having excellent chances, culminating in the furious charge by Ghana at the very end (Suarez's handball was on the third shot on goal in a matter of seconds).

I wouldn't have thought Uruguay had much of a chance against the Dutch anyway, but without Suarez their chances look very bleak.

[Mr. Ypsi]

After seeing more replays of the Dutch goals, some modification of my earlier post.  Melo did indeed have a genuine own goal - it he was not there, the keeper had a fairly easy save, but Melo didn't just get in his way, he did deflect the ball past Cesar.  And the second goal was even flukier than I thought: the first Dutch player simply didn't get high enough on his attempted header, the ball glanced off the top of his head just enough to float over the Brazilian defenders and come down right to Sneijder!  Full credit to Sneijder though - that's some good reflexes!

[Ralph Turner]

After seeing more replays of the Dutch goals, some modification of my earlier post.  Melo did indeed have a genuine own goal - it he was not there, the keeper had a fairly easy save, but Melo didn't just get in his way, he did deflect the ball past Cesar.  And the second goal was even flukier than I thought: the first Dutch player simply didn't get high enough on his attempted header, the ball glanced off the top of his head just enough to float over the Brazilian defenders and come down right to Sneijder!  Full credit to Sneijder though - that's some good reflexes!

Or, the deflection centered the ball onto Sneijder's head perfectly for him to connect on the header.