World cup 2006 - Germany - Page 6

its a public forum, if you are going to say something about a subject such as football then you should expect:

1) To hear other people's opinions
2) People who want to discuss what you have said
3) People who agree or disagree

If your hoping to just make a statement and not want any "i agree/i disagree/please explain" etc etc... to put it bluntly, you might as well talk to a brick wall.

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Anyway, the best defensive midfielders for me are Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira and Gennaro Gattuso. The ones who are up-and-coming stars are Essien and Mascherano, who both have proved themselves to be huge prospects!

Gilberto Silva is a good player but Arsenal can't replace the impact that Vieira had to the team. Fabregas is an absolute star, in time he will be one of the key midfielders for Arsenal but he won't be in the mould of Vieira.

England have a great chance to progress to the semi's, with Deco and Costinha both suspended, with Cristiano under a injury cloud and about 6 players in the first-team on a yellow card. England basically have a full squad; except for Owen of course.

Saturday's game between Germany and Argentina shapes up to be one of the best games of the tournament. I think the winner of that game will go on to win the World Cup. The two form teams of the comp, too bad they had to meet so early!

My dark horse to win is France. They haven't been playing well recently and were a bit fortunate to get through the group stages, but with Zidane and possibly Vieira's swansong, they would want to go out with a BANG! Both played extremely well against Spain.

Anyone who loves Zidane as much as me... you NEED to buy his dvd titled "Como Un Sueno".

Zidane zieht an(pulls it) but he sweats wayyy too much. I doubt that France is able to win against Brazil, though I would like it.

Ger vs. Arg will be HAMMER!!

Eng vs. Port should be pretty easy to win for England.

My father is going to watch the Ukr Italy game in Hamburg, quite unlucky but I think also this game is going to be a tough one. Ukraine may be going to win that match imo.

I really dont think getting scored by ghana would make much difference. Brasil is all out for the goal anyway, has always been, and because our strategic positioning, we wil always allow open spaces. That`s where I think parreira could do a better job. As for the two official defenders, yes, there are a lot more better players in their position (cannavaro and nesta being my favorite). I never wrote they were world class, but still, they can`t be denied doing a good job so far. You are right about meeting a stronger opponent, but again, my opinions were based on the 4 games so far, as I mentioned before. Let`s see how they behave now. I expect some crap from them, but I hope overall they can do a good job.

It`s so funny to see some opinions about some of these players. Take Gattuso for example. He is regarded by the brasilian press (i kid you not) as an awfull player. He is actually made fun of by. and you said he is highly regarded in europe. i dont doubt that, but from the many games I`ve seen, I take him as a clumsy, violent player. He lacks finesse and cant disarm and opponent and go out touching the ball. He can surely tackle, but thats about it. On that regard, on AC Milan, I prefer Seedorf any day of the week over Gattuso. And they play in the same position, stop-midfielders (I dont know the term in english).

As for Essien and Mascherano, well, I agree with Shads. They will become world class. Mascherano actulally play for Corinthians and he is great. But he lacks experience of, for example, Pirlo (same position), van bommel, Emerson, Vieira, to name a few. I dont know what you guys have agains Emerson. He played extremely well in the last Serie A seasons, where Juventus was champs. Personally, I also think he lacks the finnesse juninho has, but thats just me. I think mascherano in short time, will have both finnesse and awesome tackle skills. As for essien, i really dont know his game too much, I know he is up and coming in Chelsea.

Now, there is one trait I`ve constantly seen here.....there isnt much agreement because of what we call the European school and the south american school. Obviously, there is very different way ppl look at players and teams in general because of that trait.

With regards to Argentina, yes, they do look more balanced in the field. Good equilibrium among defense, midfield and offense. But then again, please remember that...
in 2004 brasil won Copa American (our Eurocup) with our TEAM 2 (without cafu, ronaldo, ronaldinho, roberto carlos, dida, etc) against a FULL argentinean squad.
in 2005 we finised first in the WC qualifying AND won the conferations cup agains them 4X1 in Germany. However, a Brasil vs Argentina match is one of the classics in the world, so I really wouldnt say brasil or Argentina is better, even now that the Arg. squad looks sharp. Anything can happen.

As for Germany, Italy and England, I really dislike the way they are playing. TRhey are more concerned in not getting scored than in scoring, IMO. No wonder the score cards for Italy and England were never more than 1, 2 goal difference. The last England-Ecuador game was boring. Each team had only one attacker (Rooney and Delgado). And the midfield was so uncreative that those guys rarely got the football. I just dont like football like that. I like offensive, creative football.

Germany and Argentina will be one of the best, I agree with shads. It will be a face match between the two football schools. And I also think that one of the finalists is there. I would go far to say that the WC winner is there. You are giving france and brasil way too little credit. Please note that bets are still on brasil`s side. I know we arent playing great and its undeniable that the team is progressing at each game, and so is ronaldo, the leading scorer in WC history. Yes he is fat, yes he doesnt do those awesome barcelona runs, but then again, he is making progress. And the same counts for France.

Talk, as a sign of how unbiased my POV is, I wrote long ago that I wouldnt pick a winner out of this game. I do think brasil has a better squad but I honestly cant pick a winner out of this game.

Anyway, I guess this is a good time for our guesses to the semi-finalists to be fully disclosed...so, lets see it:

Brasil vs France
Italy vs Ukraine
Argentina vs Germany
England vs Portugal

Lets see it all the way to the winner, what are your guesses?

Gattuso is Italy's Roy Keane.

Yes, I second that. I see AC Milan play in the Champions League and the big games in the Serie A. He is the one player in midfield that brakes up the opposition play and gives the ball to the more creative players like Pirlo and Kaka. I bet if you asked Kaka what Gattuso is like, I bet he will say he is the heartbeat of the team because he does the job that they won't and does it WELL.

BTW, Clarence Seedorf is an attacking player who plays on either wing or in the centre midfield. He has never been a holding midfield player like Davids, Van Bommel, Cocu.

And you can't say that if Ghana had not scored, Brazil would of won anyway. You can't because you never know what the outcome of that game would of been if Adriano's LUCKY decision was ruled correctly. You even said, because of the formation and the lack of work ethic from players like Kaka, Ronaldino, Brazil will leave spaces. A better, more accomplished team would of punished Brazil. But to say the outcome would of been the same is not true. Ghana were very unlucky not to get at least a single goal, and some of the chances were clear cut, which means they should of scored

I would say Kaka and Pirlo are the heartbeat of the team, because they are the players who connect from Seedorf and Gattuso to inzaghi/gilardino and shevchenko. Gattuso is just a stopage player. I do agree that he plays in high spirit, he really makes the effort. But for us here, thats about it.

Seedorf is a midfilder. "Attacking-midfielders" are Pirlo and Kaka. Of course, as Ze Roberto for brasil, Seedorf does make his runs sometimes to the upfield. But thats a complementary job and not his function. He helps gattuso a lot more that making runs upfront. He only scored once and had only two assists in the whole 2005/2006 champions league. Not a lot of numbers for a attacking players. You can also check his stats on faults commited and stolen balls to see that he is more of a stopage midfielder. And BTW, the wings are actually covered by cafu (right) and Serginho (left)

Talk, as much I cant say the outcome would be the same (brasil`s win over ghana), you also cant say it wouldnt. Its obviously guess work (from either side) but I believe we would still win. Why? We have played with the same formation (with the open spaces and all) against Germany (3-2), Argentina (4x1!!!!) and European Cup champions Greece (3-0!!) (which are supposed to be better teams) and beat them last year (confederations cup 2005). We scored 12 times and took 5 goals (argentina 10-10, germany 15-11 and greece 0-4). It is a very dangerous way to play, I know, but its being effective and can he improved if dumbass parreira would do some changes.

As for Adrianos offside goal (and he really was), a few minutes later ronaldo was called offsides (he wasnt) right in front of the goalie. And we know ronaldo wouldnt miss a chance like that. So I guess that even things out.

Now, as for ghanas chances, I really only counted two clear cut chances. One header on didas foot and one shot that got off because emerson blocked it. Ghana did have a LOT (16-5) more shots but they equaled Brasil`s shots on goal (7-7). Also, u know how many balls our players took (steals) from ghana? 17 compared to 6. Now, brasil`s clear cut chances were the 5 . And they were lost right in the goalie`s face during the game (4 of those after the 75th minute).

Brasil didnt play spetacular football, but seriously, which of the "big teams" is playing it now? I still think they are progressing each game and each time they meet stronger opponents.

talk_shows_on_mute: you have pm

do you have aim or messenger?

YAAAAAY Germany made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really thought Argentina would win this match. But once the game was heading towards PK`s, it would be a given that Germany would win. Lehman is a spetacular goalie. 100x better than Franco. It was a sure bet.

I am very, very eager for tomorrow matches...both actually, brasil vs france and england vs portugal. Rooting for Brasil (of course) and Portugal (well, of course again!)

IMO Lehman isn't even that good compared to Kahn but in fact his performance was awesome!

France is gonna kick Brazils ass like they did in WC 98 @poor

Im rooting for England!! Love the fans and the singing of them!!

Cheers Mate!!!,

Congratualtions on progressing to the semis!!, lets hope we meet in Berlin!!

The support that the England team gets is amazing and it always is, they are expecting 80,000 fans to travel to Gelschenkircen, probably half will get in the ground, it should be like a home game for the English......however that counts for nothing if the team does not perform!

There is no doubt the Portugese are a great football team, so I am hoping and praying that we get the good game from the players that they've been promising since arriving......

Come On England!!!!!!!!

Fuck!!

wow england lost in pk!! ricardo came up big! england played well thought w.o their 2 big stars!

gutted..........absolutely gutted, we just can't seem to win penalty shootouts!

We fought like lions after the sending off, but to be honest we did nothing before that!

I think Brasil or France will beat Portugal..........and its on the cards that Germany will win the tournament.

It`s funny. I never liked the way Italy and England played. But I got a pleasant surprise in this round. Italy played very well-balanced football. Good D, good midfield and offense. I never thought I would see Italy go out an attack the way they did. They totally deserved to win.

The same counts for England. They played really well too. Although I do not like the fact that Erikson isolated rooney up front, they did give portugal a lot of trouble and never locked themselves back in their field. Of couse after being donw by one, sometimes it was necessary to be cautios and have most players back. But they did not get intimidated and went on attacking as much as they could. I give them props. They lost two of the most important players (beckham and rooney) and played their heart out.

The result could`ve been either way. It would be deserved if England won. Portugal too, although I think they should`ve scored (having one more player)to fully deserve the win. In the end, Portugal`s goalie competence made the difference.

Now...lets wait and see brasil. I mentioned a few times in this forum that he should take out Adriano and put Juninho, take out cafu and put cicinho and take out roberto carlos and put in ze roberto in the left wing. Coach parreira decided on a few chances but I think they will be very good. He replaced Emerson with gilberto silva (more mobility but less tackling effectiveness), adriano for Juninho pernambucano and moved ronaldinho up front to play with ronaldo. This way, he`ll basically have the same job as in Barcelona. Now he is all out of excuses for his poor performances in this WC.

The general feeling here is that these changes will definitely make a huge difference. I`m a little more optimistic now. Now I`m off to take a shower and go watch the game....laters fellows....

@nonisa - Not this time they wont!!!

Poor England.. what a crappy way to get knocked out of the World Cup

Portugal deserved to win, they were the far better team, and actually played like a team, unlike a bunch of men running around playing for themselves and their superstar titles. IMO England didn't lose simply because they didn't have Beckham and Owen on the pitch, and the fact that Rooney was sent off.
I'm sick and tired of the English press hyping them up, hopefully this will now stop, of course only after giving as many excuses as possible tomorrow for England's loss

I am hoping for some surprises tonight, I would prefer France to win, and have a Deutschland-France final, but we'll see what happens.

Yes, I already knew it they would loose. England just sucks at penalty.
It always had been Nevertheless they still deserve a bit of luck as well.

@poor we'll see

I will agree with your judgement that we were playing like a team of individuals, but we did pull together after Rooney was sent off......but to say that Portugal were a far better team i don't think so, against 10 men they hardly created anything.......they will get completley destroyed against Brazil or France if they play like that.........

Even if we had won we would have lost against France or Brasil there is no doubt about it..............you are right the press do hype England up, but that is the press, the public know that we are at best 'okay'. But I guess this is how mad the press are over here, we are either 'the best team in the world' or 'the worst team in the world' there is no middle ground.

Still gutted though................

oooooooooo.... I actually thought the Ref was going to pull out a Red card for that challenge...

HENRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cmon! hope they hold out

Bombardment Yes!! Vive La France!!!


btw Rooney is evidently the most stupid british player and he's ugly as hell.
He is just hype nothing else, or at least nothing else @ WC. Nevertheless I really liked Backham very much indeed!

Rooney reminds me a Shrek

Brazil is P U L V E R I Z E D!!! YAAAAAY!!!!!