2010 World Cup discussion

[sruon]

The Alton Towers Resort today announced that despite his blunder against the USA last week, on Friday 18th June the first 100 guests named Robert Green will be given free entry to the Theme Park.

http://www.sundaymercury.net/lifesty...6331-26665697/

[sruon]

Greece - Nigeria, whoever loses is eliminated pretty much.

[Slapper]

Dive to goal conversion

[sruon]

Good job Greek GK.

[sruon]

Fucking terrible.... he didn't even hit him, Keita's got owned by Greek :/

[Zoolander]

What a dive by the greek. Stupid as shit by the Nigerian, but jeese he really only tapped it, god damn i hate diving like that. Fucking scum bag. Changes the whole game now, blah.

[Drako]

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/3...6626560524.jpg

[Alvinho]

Colors/design royally fucked up, but rofl.

[sruon]

That fucking blows.

[Zoolander]

Bleh, Nigeria completely falling apart now. One man shouldnt make THIS much of a difference, they gotta get their heads back in the game.

[Not not Mattaru]

I don't know why, but that pic above got me lol'ing.

Also, lol Greece.

[Mayareira]

The dailymail has done a piece on why this cup is one of the worst ever for spectators:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/wor...ng-memory.html



WORLD CUP 2010: Six reasons why this tournament has had the dullest start in living memory

It only comes round every four years and the excitement about the World Cup reaches fever pitch. But not this time! It's been an unbelievably dull start to a tournament with so few goals, let alone ones to stick in the memory.

The superstars like Wayne Rooney, Kaka and Andres Iniesta have so far failed to turn on the magic. Blame the ball, the pitch , the defensive tactics - Sportsmail gives an assessment of where it's all gone wrong.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...12_468x314.jpg
Slow start: Rooney failed to capture the imagination against the United States

CONDITIONS

The first winter World Cup for 32 years has thrown up new tests. At the end of long domestic seasons, players have found themselves breathless from the altitude. Unprompted, Wayne Rooney raised the idea of a winter break again yesterday. Only Germany and perhaps Chile have played with a decent tempo.

England will be pleased to escape the altitude and head for Cape Town to play Algeria tomorrow but other pitfalls lurk on the coast, where the weather has been cold and wet and the pitches have caused a stir.

'It looked beautiful but was actually very slippery and very hard to control the ball,' said Marcelo Lippi after Italy's 1-1 draw with Paraguay in Cape Town, a game played in a deluge. Roy Hodgson has noted an absence of defence-splitting passes, saying the newly laid pitches are 'making the ball very lively and bounce very high'.

ATMOSPHERE

Blocks of empty seats never help, and then there's the vuvuzelas. Prominent South African sports writer Jon Qwelane once described the horns as the 'instrument from hell'. There certainly hasn't been a visual spectacular like the ticker tape showers of Argentina '78 or the Mexican waves of '86.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...93_468x286.jpg
The 'instrument from hell': vuvuzelas have attracted a lot of attention this World Cup

BALLS

Sven Goran Erik sson took the ball debate to a new level yesterday, demanding a summit meeting on the subject. All World Cups start with keepers grumbling about the unpredictability of a new ball but the adidas Jabulani controversy shows no sign of abating.

'You'll notice a drop in the quality of headed goals or goals from crosses,' said Matthew Upson. 'It's so hard to read.' Free-kick experts have yet to make an impact and the sight of Andres Iniesta launching passes wildly into touch will encourage those players wondering why their powers had suddenly vanished.

The dodgy ball has not resulted in a flood of goals - only 25 from the first 16 games, considerably down on 39 at the same stage four years ago. Thirteen of the 32 teams failed to score.
Enlarge Here why the world has nodded off

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...x193_popup.jpg

TENSION

No one wants to lose their first game. Clint Dempsey said England seemed under pressure against the United States and the Italians confessed to feeling the heat as they defend their title. Not that starting slowly is in itself a bad thing. Italy drew their first three games in 1982 and still won the World Cup. It took until the final game of the first round of group games for a shock to energise the competition.

Had Switzerland beaten Spain on the opening day, it might have different. In 1990, Cameroon beat Argentina on the opening day and, in 2002, France lost to Senegal. Here, in the first World Cup held on African soil, the African teams have looked just as inhibited as anyone else. Of five African teams, only Ghana won, thanks to a penalty against 10-man Serbia.

TACTICS

Fear invokes cautious tactical plans in the early stages. 'In the first round teams play more not to lose than to win,' said Arsene Wenger. 'The games are quite locked tactically with very few chances and very few have had a go. 'The pressure of the World Cup is so intense nobody wants to lose that first game. It harms the style a little bit. But it is a tournament that lasts one month. A slow start and being qualified is better than to start at 100 miles per hour.'

Even the traditional flair merchants have tightened up. African teams are no longer perceived as instinctive, expressive footballers blighted by disorganisation and very few teams get thrashed like El Salvador, who lost 10-1 to Hungary in 1982. Four of the five African teams are coached by Europeans, with Eriksson instilling a Scandinavian pragmatism in the Ivory Coast.'I was impressed with the Ivory Coast's discipline against Portugal,' said Rooney.

Brazil's natural flamboyance is stifled beneath the safety-first policy of Dunga, a coach educated in Italy, who probably boasts the best defensive unit in the competition.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...55_306x423.jpg
Eurozone: Sven-Goran Eriksson is one of four European coaches to manage an African side

FAMILIARITY

It has bred competition rather than contempt. The World Cup brings fewer surprises in the internet age. Modern broadcasting and communication means teams are studied in minute detail and plots hatched to stop the dangermen.

Rooney, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were all subdued in their opening fixtures and, for the armchair audience, Didier Drogba's awesome power and the mercurial talents of Kaka, no longer command the same novelty value.

The chance to see Johan Cruyff in '74 or Maradona in '86 was a rare thrill but with televised European football and heavy traffic of South American players to Europe, the stars are made in the Champions League, not the World Cup.

People should shut the fuck up with conditions in Africa already. Its a fucking world cup, and they are doing their best.

God I don't remember a single tournament that bitches didn't bitch about ball.

[Not not Mattaru]

UK is still just whiney about Green dropping the ball.

[Osede]

People should shut the fuck up with conditions in Africa already. Its a fucking world cup, and they are doing their best.

God I don't remember a single tournament that bitches didn't bitch about ball.

Every world all players do complain about the ball :D

But those players should have get used to the winter condition match, or else they all shouldnt play in any euro league anyway...

[Mayareira]

Seriously. Generally clear weather, 10-15 degrees celsius. You can't ask for better conditions for football. A typical European team generally travels from Meditarrenean heat to Scandinavian cold frequently in a European Cup, sometimes playing at pitches that resemble potato fields mostly in Eastern Europe, etc..

[Mugekuge]

Wow how can he miss a goal like that, and damm Nigeria GK is just awesome.

[sruon]

Holy shit.............................................. .......... He had it!!!!!!


Also Nigerian GK is owning pretty hard.

[Not not Mattaru]

How does it. I don't even. What.

[sruon]

Seriously, Enyama, All-Stars team.

Now, do it FIFA.

[Mayareira]

Yeah, all-star team with Green adsasgdsafgadsga