The Official Football Thread

@king sirro said:
Can anyone confirm exactly when the game is on againsy Ghana? I thought it was midnight on Sunday, but today i was today midnight saturday. Im hoping its saturday night, will be a big one.

Last time I checked it was on Sunday at midnight (10pm in Beijing for me). I am pretty sure that is correct.
 
@alien said:
Pim and Sheens must be related. Both play players out of position.

Quite true. :laughing:

However, in all seriousness the difference is that football players are usually less versatile than league players as there roles are more defined. In contrast, all NRL coaches regularly shift player's positions too suit their needs - how many positions has Inglis played over the years? Look at Jaryd Hayne in Origin. Its difficult to do this in football and you will nearly always go for a specialist forward, midfielder or defender.
 
@NZTiger said:
All whiiiiiiites!!! Wahoooooo! First Fifa WC point!! Bloody brilliant!! Kiwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!!!

Was a good effort by the Kiwis, I saw the last 30 minutes, dominated possession but never looked like scoring until they actually started to push forward with 5 to go.
Once they started doing that you could just smell a goal coming up.

NZ Football/Soccer has come a long way the last few years, it seems like the A-League has really lifted the sport and the profile over there and this NZ team has created a lot of historic results in the last year or so.
 
Yep, the A-league has certainly helped us grow players in a professional environment. Things are certainly looking up for football here. No one cares about the All Blacks ATM which is great!
 
I knew we were in strife while watching the friendly against the USA. Nothing being created, slow defence, all point to hidings against decent teams. I think he (Pim) conceded against Germany which pisses me off no end.

Good on the Kiwis though, I watched the whole game and even though they looked like an A League team for the most part they just kept going and going. A well deserved equaliser and funnily enough I cheered when they scored.

It's been a dire world cup to be honest, the noise of those horns is irritating and is it just me but the ball seems to be affecting the quality of the shooting. Has anyone scored from outside the box yet?
 
@coop said:
I knew we were in strife while watching the friendly against the USA. Nothing being created, slow defence, all point to hidings against decent teams. I think he (Pim) conceded against Germany which p**s me off no end.

Good on the Kiwis though, I watched the whole game and even though they looked like an A League team for the most part they just kept going and going. A well deserved equaliser and funnily enough I cheered when they scored.

It's been a dire world cup to be honest, the noise of those horns is irritating and is it just me but the ball seems to be affecting the quality of the shooting. Has anyone scored from outside the box yet?

Yeah I hate those horns. How can you hear chants with those horns? It's just annoying and it would be even worse for people that are there. I think the ball is curving too much EA. Things are looking Dim, or Grim, with Pim.
 
@coop said:
I knew we were in strife while watching the friendly against the USA. Nothing being created, slow defence, all point to hidings against decent teams. I think he (Pim) conceded against Germany which p**s me off no end.

Good on the Kiwis though, I watched the whole game and even though they looked like an A League team for the most part they just kept going and going. A well deserved equaliser and funnily enough I cheered when they scored.

It's been a dire world cup to be honest, the noise of those horns is irritating and is it just me but the ball seems to be affecting the quality of the shooting. Has anyone scored from outside the box yet?

This pretty much sums it up for me - I'm watching most games on mute.

My feeling is that the 'better' teams are taking it easy till the finals - and if so, Germany mustn't have gotten the memo.

Stoked for the All Whites too. They didn't look great, but for much of the game they still looked better than Slovakia.
 
The thing about the socceroos is that if we're on honest, we were doomed from the start. The squad Pim picked was horrendously conservative. It was based on having experience over quality. Better football nations would not have touched the likes of Grella, Moore and Chipperfield. There would be no need to because they already would've had the next generation developing and ready to step in. In Grella's spot i would've gone with Valeri, with Jedinak as the back up option with Culina and Wilkshere being the further back up.

In Moore's case well he got a stay of execution when Kisnorbo got injured. No doubts Bosnar and Ognenovski should've been given a chance to stake their claim for the squad because they appear to be far better options than Moore. The bottom line is we needed to blood younger players, guys with talent earlier.Spiranovic, Rukavytsya, Burns, Djite, Troisi, Kilkenny, Leijer all should've been in the system somewhere throughout. Even Jamieson, Bouzanis or David Williams should've been in the set up.

What Pim did though was go with the tried and trusted approach. Rarely did he stray from it. The majority of our squad does pick itself but only as we've never really seen if the younger guys can step in. A lot of them would not have made the final squad but it's about the long term, developing an international squad never takes a break, sadly Pim has neglected the younger guys. partly because of his conservative tactics, partly because his assistants have had too much to say (Graham Arnold's ego has prevented the likes of Burns, Djite and Kilkenny amongst others from being given a chance) and we're paying the price now.

For the FFA's part, Pim has achieved their goals. He was signed to steer us through Asia safely. He's done that, qualifying us for both this World Cup and next years Asian Cup. Other than that, Pim is far from a top manager and the writing was on the wall along time ago. Sadly for me, i'm not excited for this World Cup, to be honest i'm more excited at Pim's departure because only then will we begin to develop as a football nation once more.
 
Soccer/football whatever you want to call it is utter crap, i've tried to watch a few matches and apart from those horns making it painfull to listen to the game itself is just a total bore.
 
Does anyone remember the scene in an old episode of the Simpsons where they go to see a game of soccer? The players were just kicking the ball between each other, keeping possession but making no attempt to attack. It showed the American commentator being bored, describing what was happening. A passes to B… B passes to C... C passes back to A.....

Then it pans to a South American commentator who is on the edge of his seat. A passes to B! B passes to C. C passes back to A!!

Pretty much sums the game up for me. It could be an entertaining game, but the teams are just so afraid of losing that they forget they are supposed to be entertaining the audience.
 
@Juro said:
Does anyone remember the scene in an old episode of the Simpsons where they go to see a game of soccer? The players were just kicking the ball between each other, keeping possession but making no attempt to attack. It showed the American commentator being bored, describing what was happening. A passes to B… B passes to C... C passes back to A.....

Then it pans to a South American commentator who is on the edge of his seat. A passes to B! B passes to C. C passes back to A!!

Pretty much sums the game up for me. It could be an entertaining game, but the teams are just so afraid of losing that they forget they are supposed to be entertaining the audience.

The Simpsons rule!!! and they get it so right.
I think even Soccer fans think their game is boring but they won't admit it and suffer inside. That's why the crowd has to sing and blow stupid horns all game to keep them selves from falling asleep, because they're obviously not watching the game. the highlights on sports tonight even make me drowsy. :frowning:
 
Serbia beat Germany 1 - 0\. We now have to beat both Serbia and Ghana. Draws won't be enough.

If Germany beat Serbia and Germany beat Ghana and then we drew with Serbia and beat Ghana we would have went past the group stages. So Serbia beating Germany has made it a bit more difficult.

Actually if we beat Serbia and draw with Ghana and Ghana beat Germany then we go thru. But Germany will probably beat Ghana so…

You know what, it's too early to think about all this anyway. We need to win tonight at midnight. I'll be watching.
 
If you miss any of the World Cup matches you can watch the highlights of any game.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/highlights/video/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Also, I don't think some of these red cards should have been given. Some of the refs are way too strict.
 
haha watch this video
http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1072839" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Every time I change the channel to the soccer I hear a swarm of bees outside. I can't seem to see them though.
 

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