There were several calls that he did not make in favor of Croatia which were clear fouls in the box. I felt the second handball looked more intentional than the first one that he called a penalty on. The first one should have been let go. As far as the end of the game, the Aussie player shoved the Croatian defender to the ground before passing it off for the goal. The 3rd yellow card (it should have not gotten to a 3rd, he messed up on that end) was given because he ran to the ref and showed him up. I was rooting for Australia and hope they beat Italy but they did not play very smart. Why were they going all out in the last minutes of the game when they already clinched the 2nd round? Why were they trying to get quick restarts in the last minutes? Why did they switch keepers-he looked very shaky? Those kinds of mistakes will be punished by Italy. I really do hope they can beat Italy though.
wrong choice of words there...relax. Freddy is a grood player for his age. my point is that the kid is just over hyped/overrated…he may never even reach superstardom. By the way those clubs you are talking about are always there looking for talent…hell they even go to games of 9 to 10 year olds…if they could sign em they would… http://www.cbc.ca/story/sports/national/2005/03/15/Sports/chera-santos050315.html Brazilian soccer team Santos has edged out English powerhouse Manchester United for the right to train nine-year-old budding star Jean Carlos Chera. Chera's standout play as a midfielder in his native Brazil caused some of the finest soccer teams in the world to bid on the opportunity to train him. Santos, the Brazilian champion, is moving the nine-year-old Chera and his family to Santos – a coastal city of about 400 kilometres southwest of Rio. The team is paying the youth and his family an undisclosed amount of money. "Our soccer people say he's something special, that he has exceptional skills for his age," Santos spokesman Aldo Neto told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Chera is too young to sign a professional contract under Brazilian law. Santos must renew its agreement with Chera's family until the young soccer player turns 16, according to Aldo Neto. "Nothing prevents him from leaving. He has no professional sports link to the club," Aldo Neto said. Chera isn't the first young soccer talent Santos has helped discover. Pele debuted with the Brazilian team at age 17. Many years later, teenagers Diego and Robinho led Santos to the 2002 Brazilian championship. with files from Canadian Press
2nd ROUND of the WORLD CUP can there be a draw game? I thought there's 16 teams left to play 8 matches and winners advance/losers are out. but on my online betting site there's still a wager for DRAW ? example: Germany (-145) Draw (225) Sweden (425) Argentina (-250) Draw (280) Mexico (800) The draw was there for the 1st rd games because of pts and playing within the bracket. I just wanted to parley Argentina/Brazil/Germany to advance but notices the DRAW was still there. Could somebody example if I'm wrong? thanks
Yes its wrong, you cant draw on the 2nd round Well maybe they are betting only for the 90 minutes, the extra time and the penalty kicks doesnt count for the bet, I dont know
Yes, you are right. with bets you are able to bet on a draw, because bets are only for the 90 minutes. So what happens after that doesn't matter.
Might i ask with team is your home team, and wich couch is that? I think that some countries might have a lot of good coaches. Ofcourse every country has some Great coaches and some who are less good, Hiddink is an amazing coach.
Oh, arno_ed, just notice from your sig that you are from Holland. I don't mean to be offensive in my last sentence of that post and I guess you understand. The officials of our football association saw the success of Corean team in 2002 and believed that another Dutch coach could magically do the same thing to us at that time. And it took them 3 years to realize that they were wrong, sadly too late. Of course it was not because of Arie Haan is from Netherlands, it was because Arie Haan himself. Holland has many great soccer players and coaches, another great coach I know is Frank Rijkaard. Btw, your men are facing Portugese in second round, I think it will be a tough match to your team because these Portugese are really strong. Your thoughts?
I know you were not offensive. No problem. I'm not a big fan of Arie Haan, he didn't do well with my favorite club in the dutch competition(Feyenoord). We have some great coaches, but also some who are not as good(i'm also not a big fan of Dick Advocaat). I think we can beat portugal(altough we lost of them 2 years ago in the European championship. I really hope that Van Basten will bench van Nistelrooy and start Kuyt. It will be difficult, but we really have a good chance.
"Ronaldo is back," Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. "We believe he's special. We must have confidence in our football and today we played more like Brazilians, we kept the ball for longer periods." __________ link
DeRossi suspended for four matches after elbow to McBride's head that's what he gets, that dirty biznatch.
Don't blame the coach. Blame the players, who are basically a bunch of spoiled lazy assed and cocky frat boys. Blame the organization, which is run by the incompetent and corrupt officials. Last but not the least, blame the stupid self-fullfilling soccer media/culture in China.
Definitly well deserved...been a long time since i saw a dirty play like that in Soccer and he does not deserve to play.
Very very interesting situation in Group G. For the Switzerland-South Korea match: - a win by either Switzerland or South Korea in their match-up puts the winner into the 1st place of the group; - a draw guarantees only Switzerland to advance to the 2nd round; A win by France over Togo doesn't necessarily guarantee the French will advace to the next round: - if France wins by two goals or more, it advances out right; - if the goal difference is 1 and South Korea is also tied with Switzerland, then the tie-breaker determines the winner. The tie-breaker rule is as follows, which doesn't seem to help much (doesn't seem to make sense either): [from ESPN soccernet] Rankings in each group shall be determined as follows: (a) Greater number of points in group (b) Goal differential in group (c) Goals scored in group In case of a tie: (d) Head-to-head (e) Head-to-head goal differential (f) Goals scored head-to-head (g) Drawn lots Say France beats Togo 2-1 and South Korea ties with Switzerland 0-0. Now both France and South Korea are exactly the same in rules (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f). What the hell is "draw lots"? Anyone has any idea? Last but not the least, the loser of the Switzerland-South Korea match can still advance if France doesn't win.
This is what i like. To see 2 games that both have an effect on each other and they are not going to just play reserves. The 4 of them have to fight. I'm looking forward to the matchup of great strikers Henry and Adebayor go against each other on respective sides. Both are great strikers from the same team playing against each other....You know Togo wants to play spoiler.
i agree it is deserved. what provoked him to do such a stupid thing? i'll answer my own question: PASSION. i am not condoning violence, but i think the us team could use some players that are at least willing to mix it up. we are a bunch of pansies, i hate that.
Exactly, they were pissed at giving the US a goal by their own player. So they are pissed and make sure the other team knows about it. Same thing even in basketball we have been waiting for a guy to be on the Rockets that has passion and becomes an enforcer to show you can't bully us around and do things. The US team really lacked that...they didn't have anyone going around pushing them to be good. Arenas looks gay when he sits there and does his little "wave" at the official for bad calls. Get off your ass and make a stink about it. Run around show your team your fired up and they will too. Arenas just sat back and made these really pathetic gestures that would make me laugh if i played for him.
Just talked about the Group G situation with my office mates. It has never occurred in the World Cup history that a winner has to be decided by coin flipping. I can't wait to see the scorelines like these: Switzerland v South Korea n : n France v Togo n+2 : n+1 where n is any natural number.
wnes draw lots means, that the name of both teams will go into a bowl, and someone will take one card out, and the team who's name is on that card goes trough.(ok i'm not sure if it is this exactly, but i'm sure it is like a lotery who goes trough)
