Posted on 07/03/2006 8:40:19 PM PDT by soccer_maniac
That's pretty funny and not a bad puma promo.
thought you would like it ...
...no matter what the outcome will be this evening - I will sail around costa smeralda end of august beeing a true Italy lover - we will have much more salty water in the mediterranian sea by then ;-)
chiao
He caught one of the Portuguese guys in the balls and whether that was intentional or not was debatable. Then the unpleasant cheat Ronaldo got involved and Rooney lightly pushed him away.
Hopefully, he will wink in front of John Terry when Chelsea play ManUre in the League and then spend an hour picking up his teeth from the pitch.
What swung it for me was watching two American fratboys singing "f*ck the French, f*ck the French" to impress two beautiful Brazilian girls during Saturday's match. It was such a crass and ignorant ploy that I decided then and there that the Froggies must win the WC!
Ronaldo may land up spitting out teeth when Terry merely leans on him.
He's one of the toughest guys on the pitch on any given day.
Absolutely love him.
Okay let's not too crazy. That bet must have had a little to do with it. :)
Should be a real cracker full of nerves throughout.
That is one thing I noticed about soccer, everytime someone slides in to steal the ball, the other player grabs their ankle like it is broken. Of couse, 30 seconds later they are running around like nothing happened.
I saw the close up - it looked intentional.
That's the rules - you get provoked - your out - it needs lots of discipline sometimes... and players know that...
... and england has earned players with discipline - the fans are fantastic - I get goose bumps listening to god safe the queen. They start singing once the team's in trouble not only when the guys are doing fine. Things to learn in germany.
Wayne should definetly have caught a breath and turn away - my opinion.
Otherwise the spirit of that team was great playing 10 vs 11. Penalties were bad perpared - players looked like they where beaten already.
Don't look for scapegoats - keep your stiff upper lip - and most important don't let the sun ruin englands image.
Please
In the grand scheme of things I think Portugese cheating had little effect on proceedings. I was in France of all places on the day of the England match and the French commentary didn’t alert me to a deliberate stamp (chiefly because I couldn’t understand it!) and having seen it since I still don’t think it was deliberate. I assumed the red was for the push on Ronaldo which was stupid on Rooney’s part.
The only blatant bit of cheating I saw was Maniche clutching his face but he didn’t get anywhere with that one.
We played well with 10 men and had the chance to win the game but the ball was blasted over the bar. Then of course we are rubbish at penalties, especially when we have to retake them. C’est la vie.
In other news:
Daily Telegraph is reporting that USA is in talks with Klinsman as a replacement for Bruce Arena.
Cheers.
I agree completely with your last post. Well, apart from the deliberate stamp bit but I haven’t seen too many replays, having been away, so I won’t get into an argument over that.
The fans showed the better side of English fans and stirred the team on after the s*** hit the fan, and the team responded. We put up a fight, unlike Brazil, and I can’t ask for more than that.
I have sympathy with the players if they looked a little downbeat going into the shootout. We had no strikers, our main penalty taker was on shocking form (Gerrard or Hargreaves should have been given the first attempt, I believe) and our record in shootouts is abysmal. Not exactly the circumstances to inspire confidence.
Now I just have to decide whether to back Germany to win the tournament or just cut my losses and watch the games as a neutral.
I think of Rooney had just walked away, he might have got away with a yellow. I wonder if the ref winked back at that little creep Ronaldo.
Frings can only blame himself for punching the Argentinian and the suspension. There is also misinformation as to who informed FIFA and provided it with the video showing the deed - it was the German press itself.
Forza Azzurri!
You're killing me. I can't believe it. Now I'll have to go read the Telegraph article.
I agree with you on misbehaving crowds.
It would have been better for the incident not to have happened at all, but please do not blame Italy.
To be honest with you, when I heard the news that he might have been suspended I had wished FIFA would not have done that, as I hate it to see a player suspended from a semifinal. He will, however be allowed to play the final, provided Germany wins tonight, which I doubt.
On we go Azzurri!
"Still can't stop feeling bad for England."
Same feelings here too.
I was rooting for England too, so much so I was singing along with the crowd God Save the Queen in my living room. I'm a great admirer of the Queen.
I also have a strong bias against refs interfering with a match. I felt everyone was too quick to get on the Spain bandwagon who were aided by the ref's nonsense destroying half the match against Ukraine.
People get very excited but you have to look at everything in total to get a real fix on a squad. And unfortunately England did not play well earlier and then with a chance to step up against Portugal with a big performance find themselves without their key striker for late bulk of the match.
I'm not blaming the ref on this, more frustration as I could see the call going either way.
Hope today finds the players in good form and the ref far from secondary in the outcome.
As much as I think we (USA) need an international coach, I think Klinsman would have be nuts to come here.
Shuttle Discovery launch in ~20 minutes
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