Official 2006 World Cup Thread...Italy wins 1-1 (5-3 PSO)

Eat shit Jugs that's what you get for rejecting your country of birth.

The refereeing was completely abysmal. Mark Viduka was tackled in the box but no penalty, that Croatian punches the ball out but no penalty yet Tim Cahill barely gets touched and it's a penalty. Fucking English people.

The refereeing was completely abysmal. Mark Viduka was tackled in the box but no penalty, that Croatian punches the ball out but no penalty yet Tim Cahill barely gets touched and it's a penalty. Fucking English people.

And let's not forget the off-side goal by Kewell...

It's poetic justice I think. Game tying offside = two dodgy non-penalties and Croatia having an extra man for 4 minutes when he should've been sent off. Virtually every major news outlet reporting on the game around the World has made some sort of comment about Simunic and his 3 yellow cards, the Australian/English commentator was quite funny about it.

"The last time around the easy games were China and Saudi Arabia," Arena was quoted on the Sports Illustrated website as saying.

"This time around you'd probably say Australia and Trinidad and Tobago are the weak ones."

At least now he has enough spare time to go and get his breast augmentation.

I wish Czech Republic would've won over Italy, oh well at least Ghana made it to the next round

Finally watched the Brazil match and was very pleased by what I saw.


...basically the starting lineup

Ronaldo's movement and passing has greatly improved. Looks like the Ronaldo I'm used to seeing. In his previous two games he never wasnt very crisp and whn he passed it always seemd a bit off. He could have easily had 4 goals in this match if not for a great save and a few inches. Surprised he had a couple attempts at goal with his head since that isnt his strong point. He was making runs more often and just looked dangerous overall.

In all honesty I prefer Cicinho and Gilberto over Cafu and R. Carlos. They just seem quicker and Cicinho was very impressive on the ball and made a few dangerous crosses. Both have excellent stamina and were up and down the pitch like wild rabbits. Gilberto I feel is stronger defensively than R' Carlos and doesnt let off wild attempts at goal as often as he does. If R. Carlos was scoring them I wouldnt mind but he doesnt very often. He and Cafu have that starting spot just by reputation, same can be said for Ronaldo but after the 2 goals at least he has done something to justify his selection.

Much as expected from Robinho. A goalscoring chance here and there but nothing out of the ordinary. It seemd he was trying a bit too hard to dazzle every time he got the ball. I felt he could have done better in a few occasion with a pass rather than a shot but oh well. He made a few instances harder than it seemed by trying to beat his man too often but overall he did well I suppose.

The only low iwas that Ronaldinho wasnt as assertive as I think he should be but the Brazilian camp must have noticed and I expect to see more in the next round.




I love BBC by the way (couldnt help myself). They actually talk about football. They didnt rant on and on about Ronaldo and his form. I could imagine that the espn presentation was filled with "I think he should be benched" and "he's carrying some extra weight" and "he's a shadow of himself". No real negative comments at all about anyone and that was good because I could concentrate on the match and not the commentators. Plus I didnt have to hear anything about the US being knocked out because the British couldnt care less.

Great game by Harry Kewell Fantastic efort all night. I also enjoyed watching Bresciano and Emerton before he got sent off. Which was ridiculous. The second yellow
was stupid, the croatian defender hand balled it twice in the box and he didn't get sent off. (Unless he was the guy that had 3 yellows..)

The Refereeing was rubbish as well. SBS showed Viduka being dragged to and held on to 3 times in the first half. Croatia's first goal was fantastic though. Australia's goalkeeper was rubbish as well, how come Schawarzer didn't play?

I watched the first 30 minutes of the Brazil game and Ronaldo looked excellent as well as Robinho and Ciscinho. Juninho also had a good shot in
the first half.

Overall, great games.

SBS showed Viduka being dragged to and held

SBS showed what australia wanted to see .

AND THAT GUY DIDN'T HAVE 3 YELLOW CARDS OMG.

He did, even the official FIFA website had him listed as having two when he was carded the third time.

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showt ... p?t=145152 that thread for details. It's also mentioned on Sky Sports, ESPN and BBC... so I doubt they got it wrong.

Watching the replay, there is absolutely no doubt he was issued 3 yellows. The first in the 63rd, the second in the 90th, and the 3rd as the game ended in the 93rd minute (along with a red).

Does anyone know why Schwarzer didn't play? I dont understand why they played the other scrub. Why didn't they start Bresciano either?

Can't wait until Italy.

STUTTGART, Germany -- English referee Graham Poll gave a Croatia player an extra chance Thursday night, showing him three yellow cards before finally sending him off after blowing the final whistle of a World Cup match against Australia.

Poll gave Croatia's Josep Simunic his first yellow in the 62nd minute in a bad-tempered match. In the 90th minute, with two other players having been sent off, Poll gave Simunic another yellow card for a foul, but did not show him a red card and send him off as he should.

Poll did not appear to be aware that he had already booked Simunic. Between the 80th and 90th minutes, Poll sent off Croatia's Dario Simic and Australia's Brett Emerton.

Three minutes later, Poll blew the final whistle -- the 2-2 draw putting Australia through and eliminating Croatia. Simunic spoke to Poll, who looked angry, pushed him away with one hand and showed the defender a yellow card for the third time and then the red card.

Referees are permitted to give players a red card after the final whistle if they commit a sending off offense.

Poll came under severe pressure from Croatia players during the match and was pushed at least twice.

. What a dumbass, showing three yellow cards to one player, not giving two clear penalties to Aussies, leting Croats to keep pushing him over and over again, second goal for Australia was an offside... Well deserved win for Aussies though. I would've rather seen Brazil and Japan going through from this group, but, it's good either way.

About Ghana-USA game, no, it wasn't a penalty. It's so obvious that USA player watched the ball all the time. Even without Essien, I think Ghana will easily beat Brasil .

Okay fine, the ref farked up, end of story.

Does anyone know why Schwarzer didn't play? I dont understand why they played the other scrub. Why didn't they start Bresciano either?

Can't wait until Italy.

Schwarzer didn't play because Kalac is like 6'7, and Croatia put alot of high balls into the box for guys like Prso who score alot of their goals from headers. Unfortunately, Guus didn't take into account that Kalac is complete garbage and was once refered to as "the most successful charlatan in Australian football". I nearly had a heart attack when he almost dropped that corner into his own net, and then with like 2 minutes left seeing him give the ball back to Croatia repeatedly. He won't play against Italy.

As far as Bresciano goes, he's sort of a liability defensively... Culina is like an extension of Vince Grella, he's a good defensive player but can attack when needed aswell. It seems Guus is keeping some spark plug guys as substitutes like Kennedy, Aloisi and Bresciano... they've made an impact in every match, so it seems like a good ploy.

We can't just start one striker against Italy though, they will eat him alive.

We can't just start one striker against Italy though, they will eat him alive.

I agree but theres a chance they will anyways.

Actually, other then Brazil, I'm rooting for Australia. Always interesting when watching your team play and I feel like they can pull off an upset or two before this tournament is over.

I can't beleive it, if anyone before WC asked me which team I'm going to root for, Australia would've probably been at the bottom. Now, I chher for them against Croatia, and, I swear to God, I'll do it against Italy. I'm so tierd of Italy teams/Italy U21/Italy regular last minute goals and such. I'm afraid that, they're going to do something like that now in last 16.

We can't just start one striker against Italy though, they will eat him alive.

We could eat alive even three strikers! I mean, Cannavaro, Nesta (even if he seems to be injured), Zambrotta and Materazzi (what a goal against the Czechs! Well done Marco!) are way too good to let some Aussie pass and score. And we have Buffon, so you have no chances, I'm sorry.
I just hope Lippi will let Toni and Camoranesi in the bench and start Inzaghi and Del Piero, I think they've done better than those two faggots.

We could eat alive even three strikers! I mean, Cannavaro, Nesta (even if he seems to be injured), Zambrotta and Materazzi (what a goal against the Czechs! Well done Marco!) are way too good to let some Aussie pass and score. And we have Buffon, so you have no chances, I'm sorry.

Italy 1
USA 1

They're not invincible

We didn't lose, we had a tie...and some of our players were not 100% (Nesta, Totti, etc).
Also, the goal wasn't made by the USA team, it was made by Zaccardo...

Quit with the excuses, a draw against an inferior side is a draw against an inferior side, no matter how much you want to twist it.

Yeeeeess!!! Ukraine wins 1-0 and advances, sometimes bad calls happen but Ukraine took advantage of it, nice penalty, Sheva!!!!

We didn't lose, we had a tie...and some of our players were not 100% (Nesta, Totti, etc).
Also, the goal wasn't made by the USA team, it was made by Zaccardo...

Jeez, you make more excuses than that douche Bruce Arena.

Quit with the excuses, a draw against an inferior side is a draw against an inferior side, no matter how much you want to twist it.

I admit we didn't play good football, but the USA team didn't play better than us. It was a sucky game for us, but we deserved to win more than the USA. We just didn't because Zaccardo made that auto-goal... The USA didn't have goal opportunities (other than the goal they made, but McBride was offside), and I'm 90% sure that they wouldn't be able to score, this is just my opinion though.
Also, I don't think that Australia is at our level, I'm not saying we're surely gonna win, but we have a better team, and on the paper we have already won.

Quit with the excuses, a draw against an inferior side is a draw against an inferior side, no matter how much you want to twist it.

It was a sucky game for us, but we deserved to win more than the USA.[quote]

Why? If I remember correctly (and I do), Italy failed to do shit with a 10 on 9 advantage.

Here in the US, we have a word for fans like you; "Homer."

Why? If I remember correctly (and I do), Italy failed to do shit with a 10 on 9 advantage.

USA failed to do shit with an 11 on 10 advantage

I'm not saying we're surely gonna win, but we have a better team, and on the paper we have already won.

That doesn't mean shit.This is the world cup,remember in 2002 Senegal and France,thats just one of the upsets and suprises of the world cup.Thats why great teams lose world cups,they don't belive that "worser"teams are going to beat them .You see what happend to Croatia,they thought the game was in the bag,but it wasn't and now there at home wondering what went wrong.I remember a few years,back when everybody thought Slovenia can't do shit,but they qualified for the world cup.Winning on paper doesn't mean nothing.The real game on the pitch is the thing that matters.