World Cup 2010

[haplesshobo]

This looks like this might be a wild and crazy World Cup, with a lot of big teams going down early.

There's a really good chance that the finalists for the WC 4 years ago, Italy and France, both get knocked out in the opening round.

Italy was lucky to salvage a tie with New Zealand, and needed a blown call by the ref where Italy was rewarded a penalty kick after an Italian player dived to get that call.

And, France, mon dieu... They are a freakin' train wreck right now. They've expelled one player, one of their directors has quit, and the team refused to practice in protest of that player getting expelled. Maybe, SOS Racism is going to release another press release blaming all of this on racism again?

[Zdrav]

Elite European teams seem to be fragile travellers. Plus, teams like France, Italy, and Germany are going through generational shifts. It makes them unpredictable and erratic.

I predicted this to be South America's tournament, and it looks like it's going to be just that. I have a Brazil v. Argentina final, which should be crazy. I also have Mexico and Spain in the semis.

[snailpoo]

Korea advances! It's an extremely lucky advance after the two Nigerian how-the-hell-did-he-miss-those shots, but Korea advances!

[snailpoo]

And the US is through too! 91st minute goal!

Am I the only one getting sucked into this fervor or am I turning into another Feger?

[Chooky]

^ I'm glad the US qualified - especially after the bad refereeing that cost them the win against Slovenia.

I've been nicely surprised by the relatively high standard of play of S.Korea, and Japan. I hope Japan get through to the next round as well, they play really entertaining football, although they seem to lack a good forward who can convert the good build-up play into goals. Okubo has especially stood out for Japan.

[kusojiji]

And Japan beats Denmark 3-1!

[snailpoo]

Originally Posted by Chooky

^ I'm glad the US qualified - especially after the bad refereeing that cost them the win against Slovenia.

I've been nicely surprised by the relatively high standard of play of S.Korea, and Japan. I hope Japan get through to the next round as well, they play really entertaining football, although they seem to lack a good forward who can convert the good build-up play into goals. Okubo has especially stood out for Japan.

I wasn't surprised by Korea's performance. 2002 proved that Korea could play. I was surprised by Japan, because wow, did they make Denmark look powerless. I mean, Korea is through because Nigeria missed an open goal from a few feet out, but Japan dominated.

Originally Posted by kusojiji

And Japan beats Denmark 3-1!

Did Honda kick a knuckleball?

[VV o n g B a]

quick recap
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=532...cc=5901&ver=us

i haven't watched enuf soccer to realize there were trick plays. japan's 2nd goal was genius. they threatened honda, who scored the 1st goal, on a penalty kick. but the smaller yasahito, who was hidden by the wall, instead made a quick short surprise kick and faked the goalie out.

[Chooky]

Urugay 2-1 S.Korea :(

Korea were by far the more creative team, but they lacked a strong forward who could finish the great build-up play. Park Chu Young and Lee Dong-gook both missed easy chances from from close range. In fact, every time Park Chu Young got the ball, he seemed to lose possession.

[snailpoo]

Originally Posted by Chooky

Urugay 2-1 S.Korea :(

Korea were by far the more creative team, but they lacked a strong forward who could finish the great build-up play. Park Chu Young and Lee Dong-gook both missed easy chances from from close range. In fact, every time Park Chu Young got the ball, he seemed to lose possession.

Korea was the better team. What was the coach thinking playing defense after equalizing at 1-1?

[snailpoo]

Well, there goes my interest in soccer.

[VV o n g B a]

hey, there's still japan!

[annabie]

Originally Posted by VV o n g B a

hey, there's still japan!

I like Japan :D

[BeTheReds]

Both Korea and the U.S. got eliminated on the same day, and I'm still bitter about it.

Yea, Japan's still alive, but I'm Korean... so..

[VV o n g B a]

ya, u never bought into any of that pan-asian stuff. i guess i still do.

but the big picture is that the way soccer is currently officiated is complete, total, utter shit. the number glaring errors made makes me wonder why these games are actually played rather than just flipping a coin. what does skill matter when the paltry number of refs on the field can't keep up w/ the players on a giant field and can't spot things that instant replay make starkly clear?

1. use hawk-eye tech from tennis or put line judges on the fucking goal so u know when a goal is scored.
2. put a few more refs at the ends whose job is solely to watch for offsides and handballs.
3. allow instant replay challenges that take away a substitution if incorrect.
4. use a goddamn wifi stopwatch so ppl can figure out how much time is actually left in the goddamn game and not have to guess. i can't for the life of me understand why in this day and age ppl have to guess at how much time is left on the game clock. that's beyond idiocy.

beyond getting the game actually officiated correctly, they need to do many more things to make it watchable.
1. make the goals bigger or disallow a goalie from using his hands. low score = meh.
2. allow more subs. football has specialized offense and defense teams. seems to me u'd see more skill in execution in specific roles if ppl were allowed to specialize instead of being jacks of all trades. if u're up by a few pts, sub in the defensive team and shut the game down. if u're down by a few, sub in the risk taker forwards. more skill would be seen on both sides.
3. screw this tie shit. it should be "one shall stand, one shall fall." no resolution in a game is such a cop out. why play 90 minutes of a game and then stop? play to win baby.
4. players need to stop taking obvious dives. it's peter from family guy on the ground holding his shin going, "ssss, ahhh, ssss, ahhh," for like 5 minutes. it's funny in a cartoon. in real life, it's pathetic. especially when instant replay shows the opposing player just barely breathed on u, u pansy fucking ass.

i seriously don't understand how an international audience can put up w/ this. i'm pretty happy the world cup comes along only so infrequently b/c it'll take a long time to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.