2006 World Cup

"Argentina's Leandro Cufre, an unused substitute, got the red card after the penalty shootout, FIFA said in its official match report.

German team manager Oliver Bierhoff, caught in the middle of the melee which immediately followed the penalty shootout, said he had intervened after an Argentina substitute trod on German defender Per Mertesacker.

"Per was pretty angry about what was a very unsporting thing to do and the players started going at each other. I saw that and wanted to put myself between them so the players didn't do anything stupid," Bierhoff told reporters."

Reuters report

Then they started to belt the cr@p out of each other, and anyone else within reach

 

Thanx for the info on the Argentina-Germany incident after the penalties, No 9!

On Shev´s shirt I just wondered about that because some players already had changed shirts and they showed Shevi for a long time walking around with his yellow shirt still on.

Yes, great marking on Shevi. How many shots came back from the bar for Ukraine, btw? At least two, I recall. But like they say the goal posts are the goalies best friends...

 

hehehehehehehehehe!

 

"Is football coming home.…huh….huh.…huh?"
"No, only England.…except Rooney.…he’s going back to Jurassic Park"
"Yeah....yeah....cool"


No.9

ps. did you say $500 or €500 Erich?

 

England out ? ! what the ...........

go Germany ! looks like an early Octoberfest from the pics sent to me recently after the penalty shoot out with Argentina

 

Bye-Bye Brazil as well....

Zidane was excellent, as was the whole French team, but ZZ especially!

 

Brazil out. England out. Forza Italia!

 

"Ahh…card pretty.
Rooney want one."
(click pic)

No.9

 

That was ugly, stepping on the family jewels like that. France did well for themselves today, and now we have four European teams fighing for the title. France, Portugal, Germany and my favorite Italy, they are only 90 minutes away from the finals.

 

It's all so traditional - the big build-up, a couple of scrape-through victories hailed as genius, a lacklustre performance ( with a bit of thuggery thrown in ) leading to an inevitable shoot-out defeat, then an orgy of self-pity followed by an immediate search for scapegoats and a villain ( Ronaldo, this time.... ).

You can probably tell that football isn't my favourite stick-and-ball game !

 

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira admitted that he was psychologically unprepared for the World Cup elimination by France on Saturday....

"We weren't expecting this and are sorry about the result and now it's time to reflect and think about how we will go forward."

Asked about his future, Parreira said: "There is no rush, I will go back to Brazil and there will be time to reflect.

France coach Raymond Domenech again praised his team and reiterated what has been his mantra throughout the tournament - that only victory in the final on July 9 will satisfy him.

"To play Brazil you have to know how to defend because they know how to attack," said Domenech.

We can only really say we have succeeded if we win on July 9 so none of us are saying 'cockadoodle-doo'. But we are still in the tournament and that's a good thing.

"Maybe we started the tournament slowly but the teams who were playing well at the start of the tournament are now watching it on TV."

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,3033_1311731,00.html

 

This is to maintain a WW2 theme

I wonder who will come second, France, Italy or Germany?

 

so if I understand right, Portugal was disqualified and it is just the three teams left .......bummer

go Germany !

 

Hmm what’s this…..colours to the mast time? OK, on the nose all the way .


”Why Italy?
Cos they got the best ice cream, the coolest chicks, the best cars, the snappiest threads, the……
Yeah, yeah, the best ice cream......cool”

No.9

 

Sad news for Italy as Alex Nesta remains on the sick list for the Germany game. Other than De Rossi, still suspended for one more game, all other players are sited as ‘greased and ready to kick a***’. If, as he may, Sig. Lippi reads these posts , he no doubt needs no reminding that it is infinitely more dangerous to go into a semi-final with a Yellow Card than a final. Such players who then pick-up another Yellow during the semi will not be sent off (unless they get two in the same match), but they will be suspended for the next game. Players going into the final with one Yellow card might as well ignore it as there’s no more games to be suspended from .

However, IMHO, there should be a very big effort NOT to pick-up any Yellows against Germany. The reasons, other than as said above, Klinsmann has stated all along he has moulded Germany to major on football without the ‘Schumacher’ approach. Generally this appears to be the case and should be the expectation for the next game. There’s no advantage for Italy taking the clog-nasty initiative, and, even if they find themselves the recipients they should bite the bullet and refrain from retaliation. Portugal will try and kick France off the pitch, especially Zidane, so there won’t be much of France to deal with in the final.

Re the team, I would start with the same team as against Ukraine, but I just know Lippi will replace central defender Barzagli with Materazzi, and still needs Zambrotta on the right where the main German threat will come from . Ergo:

Buffon
Zambrotta – Cannavaro – Materazzi – Grosso
Camoranesi – Gattuso – Pirlo – Perrotta
Toni – Totti

No.9

 

Veni, Vidi, Vinci

What a great match, what great teams, what a great ref, what a great result.

No.9

 

who cares ! the TdF was more exciting today with the 3rd stage and the crashes. Germany's T-Mobil kicked butt getting 1 and 2, goodbye Ullrich who needs U now ?

yes Germany sucked against Italy, now all the German concessionaires will be going on strike and those poor tourists will have a jolly time finding a food chic gezebo to feed their fat faces or find a motel since everything will be closing on the morrow

basically the three teams left are crap, go watch or go to the TdF !

 

”yes Germany sucked against Italy”
Au contraire. I thought Germany played great and all credit to Klinsmann for doing what he said he would do and evolve German football to a higher level. The Dutch took this step years ago and England desperately need to. Like the Dutch, Germany has a great team base for the future and, providing they don’t revert or digress, the National team WILL win trophies .

A word of caution to Germany. You will only have Klinsmann for another two years at most, before he coaches the USA .

I think Sig. Lippi did a pretty great job, but I also think his bias for his old Juventus team-mates showed. The starting team was as expected, with very good reason. The three men he took off after 74, 90 and 104 minutes were very valid. Toni, on ‘Poacher’ assignment up front had run himself ragged, Camoranesi was frustrated by his limitations and had become a liability, and Perrotta, well, was the appropriate change IF you were going to leave Totti on the field. Lippi didn’t want to go to penalties, but, if it came to that Totti was a guaranteed goal – as was Del Piero . Gilardino was a good first sub being a strong and very clever Centre Forward who freely takes on defenders. When Iaquinta came on in the extra period, when risks for goals were in order, while he is very good, better would surely have been Gilardino’s AC team-mate Inzaghi. You would then have had a central AC spearhead of Gilardino, Inzaghi, Pirlo and Gattuso.
But Italy won anyway so Lippi must have been right

I hope the benched players get a run out in the Final.

No.9

 

Yes, excellent playing by the Italians, rather like non-typical Italian football..??! Trying to score in the extra time instead of playing 0-0? And what goals! Especially the Del Piero goal was fantastic!


We´ll see if ZZ can continue his excellent playing today. Portugal has played well and I´m sure it will be a great game tonight!

 

”rather like non-typical Italian football..??!”

I appreciate what you say Kai, and agree in respect of much past ’Italian International football’. Many times in Internationals, Italy has taken a one goal lead then hung on with a packed defence. However, I for one would not have been enthralled with Italian football, to the extent of abandoning English football, if this was how they normally played in Serie A.

In a post several moths ago I mentioned I saw the AC v Inter home derby this year. The Total Football aspect in that game was just like in the Italy v Germany match. Not all Serie A matches are that brilliant unfortunately, but Total Football is the ethos of Italian football which has benefited those who have embraced it, like Holland and hopefully now Germany.

Other than bits on Wimbledon, English media has been obsessed with Englands’ exit and moreover the reasons why this team of supposed ‘World Class Players’ were rubbish. The radio programmes have streams of general populous voicing their opinions, but more telling perhaps those of the so-called ‘professionals’. The bulk of the public view, predictably, is ignorant and/or moronic. Perhaps the closest to acknowledging that the English system is just outmoded was an accurate observation in reply to why Lampard has been outstanding at Chelsea but a zero for England. ”At Chelsea, Lampard plays along side Continental players!”.

As I believe is the case with alcoholics, you can’t make worthwhile progress with them until they themselves acknowledge they are alcoholic. England will never truly progress until they acknowledge they are playing ‘yesterdays’ football. It would be too much to expect however, that they will ever formally acknowledge their inferiority to Italian Total Football .

No.9