OFFICIAL WORLD CUP 2010 THREAD

[ziz00_909]

^not to forget Gareth Barry that's Struggling to get back in shape after a long injury and King who has a weekly scenario with Injuries!


Arjen Robben sustained a hamstring injury in Netherlands 6-1 victory over Hungary..waiting test results..and can seriously miss the whole thing!

EDIT:NANI OUT..shoulder Injury!

[tarantula]

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

[Genesis]

Ah, fuck sake... half of the squads are injured... they're dropping like flies.

Footballers just get more and more fragile... I just don't get it: rugby men get smashed in, week in week out and are back running in the next game but footballers get sidelined for months on end if they take a wrong step in training... baffles me!

[ziz00_909]

Wanna See how the Argentinian Squad been Training?
check this out :

[TranceFusion]

^ ROFLMAO!!!

[Genesis]

Maradona gets shorter by the day...

[ziz00_909]

Nice Opening Ceremony..simple and lovely
Impressive First Match..Surprising Performance by the Africans..

now the French to be demolished..! hopefully

[Genesis]

Cracking goal for South Africa! No keeper could've kept that strike out of goal!!

[Night Stalker]

WTF was going on with AlJazeera sports?

they have been subject to a media terror attack or something, people that are scrambling their signal... i ended up missing more than half of the match due to that .... hope shit gets sorted soon

[Night Stalker]

Great Job..... INGERLAND!!

not even Capello can make u half as good as you think you are...

Other than 1 or 2 Liverpoooodlian players, most were absolute shiteee.

Here is my ratings of the players:

1) Heskey 7 (Did his job well of allowing people around him to shine better, but that not surprising miss made me take a mark or two).
2) Green 4 (Tough shit, but not like Ingerland got much better choices).
3) Johnson 9 (by far the MOM)
4) Gerrard 7 (sublime finish for the goal but went stale and average as the game went on)
5) Carra 5 (got penetrated like a twink in a crystal meth induced orgy, he hoofed the ball proper though, so i gave him a mark for that )
6) SWP 4 (what a waste of space that black midget is, should recall that other black midget gooner lad instead).
7) Lennon 7 (not too shabby a pretty decent effort).
Fattard a.k.a Lampard (a typical fattard performance of doing fuck nawt, most over rated Ingerland player in recent memory, and that's one hell of a title if you ask me).
9) Terry 7 (was solid at the back, didn't get tested much though tbh).
10) Rooney 5 (apart from loose his temper and do weird Shrek facial expressions at the Ref, he might as well stayed within Manure city limits).
11) Cole 7 (he did aight).
12) Crouchy 6 (he did what he was brought in to do, provide comedy to the game with his awkward run and make Ingerland revert to doing what they are known to do, HOOF THE BALL IN THE AIR!!)

overall.... i can't believe i got suckered into taking these overrated muppets seriously... YET AGAIN!!

[Fawzi]

Playing 2 central mids in the modern guarantees that you won't be able to string more than 3 passes together, and it showed with England. When Barry gets back and Capello reverts to his preferred formation, I hope they'll be able to play better. England just bypassed Gerrad and Lampard by thrown the ball over their heads to Heskey, ensuring Rooney got as little from the ball as possible.

And that Mesut Ozil is one HELL of a player!

[ziz00_909]

[ziz00_909]

Spain who got 33 victories out of their last 34 ..to lose their opening match to Switzerland.. WOW! #1 contenders u say? --LOL

Italy Stumbles against Paraguay.. strong performance by the World Champions..pfft

Brazil 2-1 Korea DPR -- Actually i thought they played well against a team who was playing with a 9-1 formation. even knw it's North Korea.. but they should do much better against Cote D'ivoire to pull it off cleanly!

Germany Great Performance.. tho Australia's Defensive lines were more like Open Highways!

Wt's Up with all those teams playing Strict Defensive Football.. C'MOOON we want some Action!

Great performance by Uruguay tonight..

[A-Cube]

It's easy to get sucked in meaningless score lines. And even though we've had some up and downs so far in this defensive world cup. Things will probably settle once the heat gets to big teams.

I have to agree that despite only edging North Korea narrowly, Brazil put in a solid performance. They controlled the ball well in the midfield and their full-backs have a license to roam forward and cause havoc in the opponents' defenses. Physically, they have one of the most solid midfields and a world class pair of center backs. And if Kaka fails to dictate the tempo of the game, Luis Fabiano and Robinho are more than capable performers. Brazil offered exactly what I expected from them and with the world cup going forward, they will be meshing even better.

Even though Argentina won against Nigeria, you could feel that they were not too comfortable with the ball in their legs. Higuain is far from being the most clinical striker in the world and if it weren't for a godlike Vincent Enyeama, the result would have been much heavier on the Africans. But Nigeria penetrated the Argentinean defense several times and if it weren't for poor finishing and poor decision-making, the outcome of this game would have been so much different. Argentina needs to kick it up a notch in matter of defense and finishing or they might face some very difficult times looking forward.

Spain played well. Extremely well. But the Swiss are known to be defensive stalwarts (except when playing Luxembourg in Zurich). And they proved yet again. They are yet to concede a goal in the last 2 world cups. The strategy was clear: let them come and we'll get them on the counter-attack. Worked just to perfection with Derdiyok desperately close to kill the game after Fernandes' goal. As for Spain, they will also have to improve on their poor finishing despite boasting two of the deadliest strikers in the world and one of the most technical midfields in the world as well. But talent is not everything, as the midfield was out-muscled by Inler and Fernandes. Alonso is marvelous, Busquets is rubbish and overrated. Del Bosque must be regretting omitting Marcos Senna for this one.

England were too average. Way too average for my liking. The USA did not put the most commendable of performances out there and yet matched the English in so many departments. Rooney failed to replicate his monster club form while Heskey missed out a couple of sitters. As for Rubbish Green, I shall not comment further we all know he was awful even though he pulled out a good save in the second half. Like Argentina, England still needs some fine tuning if they hope to go far in this one and prove the doubters wrong.

As for Germany, this is what I have to say: it's easy to look good when your opponent is playing shit. I expected so much more from the socceroos, but they were the worst opponent for a big side in the first phase. They could not cover spaces, and could not get a shot on goal to save their lives. But that won't take nothing from the German performance. I expected Ozil to step up big time for that team, and stepping up he did. A lot of credit also goes to Thomas Mueller for providing some wonderful touches in the game. Germany is a team to always look out for. 2010 won't be any different.

As for France, they clearly lack coherence. Many of the crosses in the game didn't find anyone on the other end, and several players were trying desperately to make the difference alone and failed miserably. 3 big competitions in a row where the French kick off their campaign with a 0-0 draw. I just hope it will be more like 2006 and much less like 2008. A lot of changes should take place before a capital game against Mexico.

Italy: a bunch of players good enough for retirement. Lippi was an idiot in not bringing any single creative attacking midfielder.

Netherlands: Very disappointing, but look out for Eljero Elia.

In a nutshell, that's what I though of the first round of games in this world cup.

Pleasant surprises: South Korea, Japan and Ghana

Massive disappointments: Slovakia, Denmark, Cameroon and South Africa.

[ziz00_909]