"Official 2006 World Cup Thread"

[elsid13]

To tell the truth of all the game played so far I haven't been impressed with anyone. There has been a lot of sloppy ball handing. Maybe it just nerves.

[epicSocialism4tw]

I thought that Germany's offense was wonderful. Wanchope exploited their center backs though. He's a pretty heady striker...I was impressed by him. Ive seen him play in CONCACAF competition countless times and I've never seen him outsmart a backline like that. You have to wonder if Germany was prepared for him.

I was also impressed by Ecuador. Their speed and athleticism really kept the Poles off balance for the run of the game. I would expect them to get through to the next round. The have a couple of solid attacking players and maintain possession in the right spots of the midfield.

[clean]

Soccer hooligans going global

However, the face of English hooliganism has changed. Whether it is improved stadium conditions, tougher laws or improved economic standing, English hooliganism has gone from the scourge of world soccer to outsiders looking in. It has gone from hunter to the hunted.

"The No. 1 hooligans, the most dangerous today, are the East Europeans and the Balkans," Pennant says. "And the Russians. They all want it."

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_3906780#


Germans fear soccer hooligans

The incident documents what some hooliganism experts have warned of since several months: Hooliganism is becoming international -- the men, equipped with baseball bats, knives and even chain saws, meet up on a short-term basis via a cell phone short message. And the Eastern European hooligan scene appears to be more ruthless and better prepared than any other, because it hasn`t been met appropriately.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/e...ccer_hooligans


Security measures kick into high gear

Germany's own former government spokesman, Uwe-Karsten Heye, provoked a major controversy this month when he warned that parts of eastern Germany should be considered ``no go" zones for nonwhites visiting for the World Cup.

"They may not leave with their lives," he said, referring to the danger of attack by neo-Nazi skinheads.

German officials this week pledged that neo-Nazi groups would be closely watched.

http://www.boston.com/sports/article...h_gear/?page=1


German Police Brace for World Cup Violence by Polish Hooligans

The English, Dutch and German fans who have disrupted previous soccer events are less of a concern than the hoodlums from neighboring Poland, Dietmar Wolf, head of the German Federal Police, said in an interview.

Stringent penalties in the U.K. and the Netherlands have helped curb violence in those countries. Lax intelligence in eastern Europe may result in thugs there assuming the tag of the sport's menace, said Sepp Blatter, president of soccer's governing body, the Federation Internationale de Football Association.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...&refer=germany


British Soccer Superhooligans:
Emergence and Establishment:
1982-2000

Most of these superhooligan groups were led by forceful individuals who took responsibility for and directed the actions of the rest of the fellow hooligans. For example, the Chelsea Headhunters were led by Terry Last who was ultimately convicted and sent to prison for the 1984 knife attack on a Newcastle United fan (Keel, 1987). Most of these initial superhooligan leaders were extremely violent, and would be the first to initiate attacks on rival fans - leading the way for others to follow.

The size of these superhooligan groups can only be estimated from statements made by the hooligans and police intelligence reports. However, the size of some of the larger hooligan groups such at the Chelsea Headhunters was thought to be as high as five hundred. The majority of the larger superhooligan groups number in the one hundred and fifty to two hundred range, (Murphy et al., 1990). Some of the most notorious hooligan groups such as ‘Combat 18' are small in size, but make up for this lack of stature by their level of violence which included the killing of a West Ham fan by throwing him from a moving train.

http://www.thesportjournal.org/2001J...-hooligans.asp




http://www.sportingkicks.co.uk/shop.php3?teamid=324

[epicSocialism4tw]

Trinidad gets a point against Sweden!

The goalkeeper performance there was one of those games where a guy just cant be scored on. He was a step ahead on every shot. Great stuff. Any other keepers out there know what I'm talking about.

What a game. 10 men against a solid European opponent, and they still hold on for the point.

[Jens1893]

What a bunch of useless thugs.

[elsid13]

Great game. T&T showed that belong on world stage, best game so far.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by Jens

What a bunch of useless thugs.

Who, Sweden?

That guy #21 on Sweden works hard and makes sure that he gets more than his fair share of dives, rolls, and flails in.

T & T lost a guy to two questionable yellow cards. The ref didnt respect T & T one bit. I thought that T & T was the team that showed more sportsmanship.

[Jens1893]

Originally Posted by angryllama

Who, Sweden?

That guy #21 on Sweden works hard and makes sure that he gets more than his fair share of dives, rolls, and flails in.

T & T lost a guy to two questionable yellow cards. The ref didnt respect T & T one bit. I thought that T & T was the team that showed more sportsmanship.

Two questionable bookings? The first one could´ve been a straight red.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by Jens

Two questionable bookings? The first one could´ve been a straight red.

If the ref would have bought what #21 was selling while he was flailing on the rug. It was a hard tackle, but there were no exposed cleats and a play was made on the ball. On the second tackle, the player went through the ball into the player on a much less dangerous tackle.

What about Ibrahimovic's intentional elbow to Edwards' jaw? There wasnt even a foul called on that play. What about Ljeunberg running into the keeper?

I see some problems ahead for non-europe based teams as far as officiating is concerned.

[Jens1893]

best game so far by quite a bit

[eddie mac]

Argentina looking awesome at the moment 2-0 up already against a very exiting but poor defensive Ivory Coast side.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by eddie mac

Argentina looking awesome at the moment 2-0 up already against a very exiting but poor defensive Ivory Coast side.

They almost look like Brazil when they attack, but they really play lazy on defense.

[UKBronco]

Riquelme is a sick playmaker. His passing and touch is sublime.

[Jens1893]

Originally Posted by angryllama

If the ref would have bought what #21 was selling while he was flailing on the rug. It was a hard tackle, but there were no exposed cleats and a play was made on the ball. On the second tackle, the player went through the ball into the player on a much less dangerous tackle.

What about Ibrahimovic's intentional elbow to Edwards' jaw? There wasnt even a foul called on that play. What about Ljeunberg running into the keeper?

I see some problems ahead for non-europe based teams as far as officiating is concerned.

You can get booked for just making an attempt ... and when a player comes lunging for you with 2 feets stretched you have 2 choices ... a) stay put and risk having your leg broken b) somehow try getting out of the way. The 2 bookings were well deserved.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by Jens

You can get booked for just making an attempt ... and when a player comes lunging for you with 2 feets stretched you have 2 choices ... a) stay put and risk having your leg broken b) somehow try getting out of the way. The 2 bookings were well deserved.

I disagree. The first card was given on a play where the tackle was overexaggerated by Wilhelmsson to get the card. The replay is pretty clear.

The second tackle was all ball.

Regardless on whether or not you think that the cards were fairly given, I think that it's a little overreactionary to say that T & T was playing like "thugs". Ibrahimovic delivered the most blatant elbow I have seen since Tab Ramos got clocked in '94 because he couldnt shake the defender. Was that not the most "thuggish" play of the game?

Sweden couldnt score on Trinidad...even without an extra player. That's the story of the game. There were more thugs wearing Argentina unis than on the T & T team.

[UKBronco]

Ibrahimovic is one of the most overrated players at this tournament. Lazy, moody, me-first and a total jerk.

Coming off an absolutely abysmal season at Juve as well.

Every commentator i hear slobbers over the guy.


angryllama just ignore Jens, he's just bitter that T&T have made it easier for England to qualify and eventually paste his home country!

[Jens1893]

Originally Posted by UKBronco

angryllama just ignore Jens, he's just bitter that T&T have made it easier for England to qualify and eventually paste his home country!

Speaks volumes if you think you have to rely on help in that group.

[UKBronco]

Originally Posted by Jens

Speaks volumes if you think you have to rely on help in that group.

warning warning, sense of humour failure, warning warning, sense of humour failure.

Maybe the stereotypes are right??

I'm kidding of course, we won't or wouldn't have needed any help from progressing through our group.

[Jens1893]

Originally Posted by UKBronco

warning warning, sense of humour failure, warning warning, sense of humour failure.

Maybe the stereotypes are right??

Does the name Bill Shankly ring a bell?

And as we´re talking about stereotypes, the travelling England fans are trying their very best to prove all possible stereotypes about them right. But it seems they can´t even get along with each other when they´re in the UK.

Stumbled upon this .... nice read

World Cup game England always plays well
Published: June 2 2006 18:20 | Last updated: June 2 2006 18:20


When England get knocked out of this World Cup, an ancient ritual will unfold, writes Simon Kuper. Perfected over England’s previous 13 failures to win the World Cup away from home, it follows an all too familiar pattern:

Phase one: certainty that England will win the World Cup. Alf Ramsey, the only English manager to win the trophy, at home in 1966, forecast the victory. However, his prescience becomes less impressive when you realise that almost every England manager thinks he will win the trophy, including Ramsey in thetwo campaigns he didn’t. When his team were knocked out in 1970 he was stunned, and said: “We must now look ahead to the next World Cup in Munich where our chances of winning I would say are very good indeed.” England didn’t qualify for that one.

Glenn Hoddle, England’s manager in 1998, revealed only after his team had been knocked out “my innermost thought, which was that England would win the World Cup”.

The deluded manager is never alone. As England’s inside forward Johnny Haynes remarked after elimination in 1958: “Everyone in England thinks we have a God-given right to win the World Cup.” This belief in the face of all evidence is a hangover from empire: England is football’s mother country and should therefore be the best today. The sociologist Stephen Wagg notes: “In reality, England is a country like many others and the England football team is a football team like many others.” This truth has never sunk in.

Two: During the tournament England face a former wartime enemy. In five of their last six World Cups, they were knocked out by either Germany or Argentina. The matches fit seamlessly into the British tabloid view of history, except for the outcome.

Three: The English conclude that the game turned on one freakish piece of bad luck that could happen only to them. Joe Gaetjens, a dishwasher, scored America’s winner against England in 1950 when the ball seemed to hit his head accidentally. In 1970 England’s goalkeeper, Gordon Banks, had an upset tummy and his deputy, Peter Bonetti, let in three soft German goals. In 1990 and 1998 England lost on penalties. In 2002 everyone knew that the obscure bucktoothed Brazilian kid Ronaldinho must have mis-hit the free kick that sailed into England’s net, because he obviously wasn’t good enough to have hit it deliberately.

Four: Moreover, everyone else cheated. The Brazilian crowd in 1950 and the Mexican crowd in 1970 deliberately wasted time while England were losing, by keeping the ball in the stands. The CIA (some say) drugged Banks. Diego Maradona’s “hand of God” scored for Argentina in 1986. Diego Simeone play-acted for Argentina 12 years later to get David Beckham sent off.

Every referee opposes England. His decisions that support this thesis are analysed darkly and his nationality is mentioned to blacken him further. Thus Billy Wright, England’s captain in 1950, described “Mr Dattilo of Italy, who seemed determined to let nothing so negligible as the laws of the game come between America and victory”.

Five: England are knocked out without getting anywhere near lifting the cup. The only exception was 1990, when they reached the semi-final. Otherwise they have always gone out when still needing to defeat at least three excellent teams. England won only five of their 18 matches at World Cups outside England through 1970, and didn’t qualify for the next two, so at least they have been improving since.

Six: The day after elimination, normal life resumes. The one exception is 1970, when England’s elimination probably caused Labour’s surprise defeat in the general election four days later.

Seven: A scapegoat is selected. The scapegoat is never an outfield player who has “fought” all match. Even if he caused defeat by missing a penalty, he is a “hero”. Beckham was scapegoated for the defeat of 1998 only because he got himself sent off after 46 minutes. He took so much abuse, he recalled later, that “I’ve got a little book in which I’ve written down the names of those people who upset me the most. I don’t want to name them because I want it to be a surprise when I get them back.”

Often the scapegoat is a management figure: Wright as captain in 1950, Joe Mears as chief selector in 1958 and many managers since. Sometimes it is a keeper, who by virtue of his position just stood around in goal rather than fighting. Bonetti spent the rest of his career enduring chants of “You lost the World Cup.” Only after a defeat to Brazil is no scapegoat sought, because defeats to Brazil are considered acceptable.

Eight: England enter the next World Cup thinking they will win it. “I think we will win it,” their manager Sven-Göran Eriksson said last month. Given that England may well face Germany in the round of 16, and/or Argentina in the quarter-finals, they probably won’t.

The World Cup as ritual has a meaning beyond football. Usually the elimination is the most watched British TV programme of the year, educating the English in two contradictory narratives: one, that England has a manifest destiny to triumph, and two, that it never does. The genius of “Three Lions”, English football’s unofficial anthem, is that it combines both narratives: “Thirty years of hurt/Never stopped me dreaming.”

There is an alternative universe in which Beckham didn’t get sent off, Banks didn’t get ill, the referee spotted Maradona’s handball and so on. In that universe England have won about seven World Cups. The English think they would have preferred that. But it would have deprived them of a ritual that marks the passing of time much like Christmas or New Year, and that celebrates a certain idea of England: a land of unlucky heroes who no longer rule the world, although they should.

[eddie mac]

Originally Posted by Jens

Does the name Bill Shankly ring a bell?

And as we´re talking about stereotypes, the travelling England fans are trying their very best to prove all possible stereotypes about them right. But it seems they can´t even get along with each other when they´re in the UK.

Stumbled upon this .... nice read

Sven's a 10 carat prick. Everyone knows England wont win the World Cup again unless they've 3 Hammers in the team.

In 1966 it was Moore, Hurst and Peters

In 2006 it should've been 3 from Ashton (As good as Crouch), Harewood better than Walcott, Konchesky better than Bridge, Reo-Coker better than Jenas or Etherington (Far better than that tosser Downing).

[eddie mac]

Originally Posted by Jens

Does the name Bill Shankly ring a bell?

And as we´re talking about stereotypes, the travelling England fans are trying their very best to prove all possible stereotypes about them right. But it seems they can´t even get along with each other when they´re in the UK.

Stumbled upon this .... nice read

As for the trouble, I'd far rather it didn't happen but it always does where English fans/alcohol are involved. In this case though I reckon it's better it happens at home rather than in Germany but it's early yet. Just wait to see what happens if we face Germany, Holland or Italy.

[Jens1893]

Originally Posted by eddie mac

As for the trouble, I'd far rather it didn't happen but it always does where English fans/alcohol are involved. In this case though I reckon it's better it happens at home rather than in Germany but it's early yet. Just wait to see what happens if we face Germany, Holland or Italy.

From what I´ve heard and seen from Frankfurt I´m extremely surprised our cops or others didn´t intervene. Burning the host´s flags doesn´t go down too well anywhere and it usually doesn´t take long to get an answer in Frankfurt. If Germany play England here it´s gonna be ugly one way or the other ....

As far as the team is concerned, all it takes is a half decent coach that plays the players where they´re at their best and doesn´t try to outdo himself tactically all the time although every idiot sees that the midfield simply doesn´t work with Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard. Allardyce would drop one of them, put Carrick in at DM, let Gerrard roam free and reap the benefits.

There´re 3 West Ham kids in the squad, btw ... Joe Cole, Lampard and Ferdinand.

[leon_d]

There were two Norwich City "kids" until Rob Green destroyed his groin, Crouch being the other. Yeah, long bow, but I'll draw it.

[Mediator12]

Argentina has been the class of the tournament so far. Best team work in all phases and the keeping situation did not cost them as I feared it would.

The early game between Holland and Serbia/Montenegro is going to be interesting tomorrow. I really wonder how Van Basten is going to approach this game with his lineup. All out attack or balanced.

As for England, they played to win 1-0 today and it showed after a promising early goal. None of their phases looked impressive except Robinson. Joe Cole looked like he was the only player interested in scoring another goal for the rest of the game. Owen and Crouch had zero chemistry and no combination work.

Midfield was soft. Lampard and Gerrard were off today. Beckham did his job but little else. Joe Cole Player of the match in my book though. That guy really impresses me every time I see him and is severely underrated outside England. Much more solid defensively than the rest as well today.

Back line sturdy but inconsistent. Ashley Cole looked like he has had the long layoff, Neville was plain, Ferdinand and Terry were solid but made a few errors that could have resulted in an equalisizer.

[eddie mac]

Originally Posted by Jens

From what I´ve heard and seen from Frankfurt I´m extremely surprised our cops or others didn´t intervene. Burning the host´s flags doesn´t go down too well anywhere and it usually doesn´t take long to get an answer in Frankfurt. If Germany play England here it´s gonna be ugly one way or the other ....

As far as the team is concerned, all it takes is a half decent coach that plays the players where they´re at their best and doesn´t try to outdo himself tactically all the time although every idiot sees that the midfield simply doesn´t work with Beckham, Lampard and Gerrard. Allardyce would drop one of them, put Carrick in at DM, let Gerrard roam free and reap the benefits.

There´re 3 West Ham kids in the squad, btw ... Joe Cole, Lampard and Ferdinand.

5 Amigo.

You're forgetting Carrick and John Terry whom West Ham let go when he was 15. As well as Defoe who should've been there. If that club had 1/4 of the financial backing Chelsea have they'd have won the league by now.