World Cup

[Kanonier Reichmann]

For anyone who would like to re-live some highlights of the last World Cup

Girls of the World Cup

And the hottest of them all is a Croatian bird, roughly half way down the list. Very nice!

Regards

KR

[Wicky]

It's not cricket....

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/north-korea-celebrates-flawless-8_0-win-201006162818/

NORTH Koreans were celebrating last night after their team's long-predicted 8-0 thrashing of decadent capitalist Brazil.

Glorious leader win 1966 Word Cup after beating Harold Wilson 195-0

Footage of Korea's nine-foot tall players scoring goal after goal past a weeping and unusually Oriental-looking Brazilian side was beamed across the country to over 35 million people, 11 million more than its actual population.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Ah, faking a match result to fool the populace. That would certainly explain Spain v Switzerland.

[dieseltaylor]

Great result for the Swiss team. Has the support of all the neutrals. : )

[dieseltaylor]

And in other news - Germany have been practicing with the new ball for 6 months.

Well done Uruguay.

[Affentitten]

Spain: The All Blacks of soccer.

[dieseltaylor]

: ) : ) : )

[Stalins Organ]

I'm pretty sure England have a better claim to that title....the AB's don't lose to rank outsiders in the first game of WC's....it tends to be in hte quarters and semis....and I'm pretty sure that's where England has usually ended up in soccer isn't it...since oh...say 1966??

[Affentitten]

But England never start as favourites. Whereas every World Cup I can remember hearing that "this is Spain's year".

Not to mention that the pool games in a rugby world cup are a one-sided joke.

[Stalins Organ]

As I thought they are supposed to be in Sth Africa too.......

[gautrek]

Just to make this thread even more authentic.

http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.battlefront.com/community/

[Wicky]

Works for Micron Race pipes as well!

Just to make this thread even more authentic.

http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.battlefront.com/community/

[dieseltaylor]

theengineer reports on the ball !

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/news-analysis/world-cup-ball-designers-respond-to-critics/1002930.article

[REVS]

Couldn't sleep properly last night, so at 4am here in Sydney I turned on the television to watch the England V Algeria game. I would like to report that I discovered a cure for insomnia but not quite. However, that was 90 still-sleepless minutes of my life down the gurgler. At least the Algerians were trying for their country.

I don't mind if Australia plays badly because we're not meant to be all that good at soccer. But for England fans I can only commisserate. Your lot are meant to be good at soccer. Not last night they weren't. Miserable performance from go to whoa.

[para]

Couldn't sleep properly last night, so at 4am here in Sydney I turned on the television to watch the England V Algeria game. I would like to report that I discovered a cure for insomnia but not quite. However, that was 90 still-sleepless minutes of my life down the gurgler. At least the Algerians were trying for their country.

I don't mind if Australia plays badly because we're not meant to be all that good at soccer. But for England fans I can only commisserate. Your lot are meant to be good at soccer. Not last night they weren't. Miserable performance from go to whoa.

I'm an England Rugby League fan too so i know all about misery

[dieseltaylor]

I have a theory that we are intentionally playing poorly to lull our opposition in the next round : )

[Michael Emrys]

I deplore the existence of such pseudo-sports as soccer (or football as it is more popularly misnomered in more backward regions), but here is a take on it that I think I could live with:

Michael

[dieseltaylor]

Nice video : )

At least the tournamanet is coming alive now with much better games.

And in the US

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/soc/wc/7062269.html

[dieseltaylor]

Well done NZ. Show the Aussies's how to deal with European teams : )

What I liked was the NZers sent on a full-time banker who plays semi-professionally. Now there's a story for his grandchildren.

[Pinetree]

1-1. Bloody hell, what a result. Awesome defence, We could have even won it. We've been lucky though, both Italy and slovakia have been pretty ordinary.

[dieseltaylor]

BBC Live Golf feed 2114: The England football team visited an orphanage in Soweto today. "It was great to be able to put a smile on the faces of people without hope," said Mbutto, aged six.

[Stalins Organ]

Well done NZ. Show the Aussies's how to deal with European teams : )

And of course the Aussies can take a lesson from the Italians about acting......WE WAS ROBBED!!

:D:D

[Webwing]

Today I went to the supermarket before the Brazilian match with Ivory Cost and saw people everywhere with the vuvuzelas! That´s scary. I sure hope this "thing" is forbidden for the next World Cup. If this is a South African tradition I sure hope it stays there.

Shock, horror… the vuvuzela goes global!

And what the hell is going on with the referees! This match today was another very bad performance of the referees. Either they throw cards like crazy or they forget all about it.

The game started very violent from both sides but the referee did nothing. Not a single yellow card.

Minutes after the match started a Brazilian player clearly hit Drogbar´s injured arm on purpose. That´s unacceptable and he should have been given a red card. But nothing happened and the game became a sequence of violent events. Only when things were becoming totally out of control the referee decided to start with the cards. Kaka totally lost control and got a red card.

The game could have been a lot better if the referee had shown some authority right from the start and we could have watched a much better game and saved some injuries to the players.

Then there was the Brazilian second goal in which Fabiano clearly used the arm to control the ball. The referee did nothing. It was a difficult one to call depending on the angle he watched it from though. But from the replay there was no doubt.

At the end of the game a reporter asked Fabiano if this was his version of the "hand of god"! He laughed and said it was totally involuntary and that nonetheless it was probably the most beautiful goal he scored in his career.

It was a great sequence leading up to goal but it will always be remembered like a dodgy goal, and rightly so.

At least it didn´t change the result of the match.

[Affentitten]

Well done to the All Whites. Reminds me of how close we came with Italy last time round. But at least this time the Italian penalty was a fair call. Not a good weekend for Aussie sport. I was at the rugby with us going down to England by a point. But at least I'll be able to tell my grand kids that I was there when Johnny Wilkinson missed a kick from right in front.

I still can't figure out with soccer why they still rely on this 19th century concept of not using any video evidence. It seems strange given how many decisions turn out to be poor ones upon review and how much acting goes on because of this loophole.

[Stalins Organ]

Only an Aussie would call that penalty a "fair call" - the guy gets his shirt lightly tipped...and 2 seconds later falls to the ground?

Even the Italians are embarrased by it!

Mind you the AW goal was from off side too....but the Kiwi's managed to fail to collapse against 11 mediocre Italian players and their well motivated ref!