The World Cup Thread

[antonius]

A draw against Croatia and we're through. Boys played really well, and with an ounce of luck could've scored at least one goal. I'm confident we can get at least a draw against Croatia, in fact I think we'll beat them.

 

[astrogirl]

I've got to say I was very impressed with the performance. 2-0 certainly isn't a fair reflection of just how well Australia played - any other team would have been beaten by us tonight. It was just a lop-sided free kick count and some bad luck at the breakdown that cost us a valuable point there.

The draw between Japan & Croatia is a good result for us. A result against Croatia next Thursday will see us through to the round of sixteen for a likely showdown with Italy.

The penalty count seemed way in Brazil's favour IMO.

We played well! Bring on the next game!!!

 

[astrogirl]

Oh yeah, and I was particularly impressed with our defence! First Popovic was subbed off and we were solid, then Moore, and we still defended really well!

Go Lucas!!! :crazy:

 

[antonius]

On the free kick thing. It seemed to me that Brazil were getting free kicks on reputation, by that I mean a free kick was being awarded just about anytime a Brazilian went down, some of them were warranted, but some were very poor I thought, one example was Harry being brought down when he was on a bit of a break away, I'm sure had that have been a Brazilian a free kick would have been awarded. I think we left ourselves a bit exposed at the back when Moore was replaced by Alloisi (spelling) I'm sure the second goal came about because of that, we were thin at the back.

 

[Jobdog]

Great effort by the boys. The defence although letting in two goals was very good I thought. It might seem a little strange, but I thought our defence in this game was better than it was against Japan even tho Japan scored only one goal. After seeing 3/4's of Croatia's games and seeing our games, we are a very good chance of getting a result early Friday morning.

 

[Misanthrope]

Undoubtedly, JD. The first goal was a bit of an anomoly, and the second only came because we'd traded in defensive intensity for an extra attacking weapon and had been pushing up looking for an equaliser.

 

[The Devil]

We lack real speedsters in the team, i can think of at least 3 breaks where if we were able to get past the defenders it'll be 1 on 1 with the keeper. Kewell, Bresciano and Viduka were in that position

The Socceroos took way too many speculative shots at the beginning, trying to get a wonder goal. They should have just played possession football when they go to that end and try and work something there

 

[The_Joey_Show]

Anyone who will seriously tell me after today's performance that Lucas Neill is not a truly world class defender come dead set turn it up. He had a blinder.

 

[Parki]

He was marking a fat unfit overweight hack, who by all rights should never play for brazil again

that being said, yes he had a good game... I dont know much about soccer, but yeah, ronaldo in his current state (and playing weight) wasnt allowed to do much

 

[The Devil]

Neill has been anything but spectacular before Hiddink was done with him. Right now i'd say he's playing out of his skin, whether he can replicate this time and time again is another question. I'll reserve any accolades of being World Class of Neill to myself.

The tag of World Class really shouldn't be tossed around, i mean comparing Neill to other World Class defenders such as Fabio Cannavaro and Kolo Toure, it's just not right.

In no way am i putting down anyone, Neill is a solid defender who has really impressed me so far and i hope for Aussies sake he keeps this up.

 

[aqua_duck]

He was marking a fat unfit overweight hack, who by all rights should never play for brazil again

that being said, yes he had a good game... I dont know much about soccer, but yeah, ronaldo in his current state (and playing weight) wasnt allowed to do much

I agree Robert Kovac, a juventus bench warmer looked absolutely world class against ronaldo too. Neill is playing very well but yeah he hasn't faced a real litmus test yet, and byt that I mean come up against a striker like Fernando Torres, Thierry Henry or wayne rooney yet this tournament. Though is saying that the chances fat boy had yesterday, the ronaldo of yesteryear could've almost had a hattrick

 

[Alex28]

To be fair the "fat overweight hack" set up the first goal...

 

[Misanthrope]

He was marking a fat unfit overweight hack, who by all rights should never play for brazil again

Jeez, you spout some crap. Ronaldo being branded fat must make 90% of people I know morbidly obese. Sure, he's a little unfit, but he did enough to set up the Adriano goal and had some incisive runs against us. He wasn't on his game, but calling him a fat unfit hack is just stupid.

Lucas Neil did very well to defend against the best attacking lineup in the world.

 

[aqua_duck]

Jeez, you spout some crap. Ronaldo being branded fat must make 90% of people I know morbidly obese. Sure, he's a little unfit, but he did enough to set up the Adriano goal and had some incisive runs against us. He wasn't on his game, but calling him a fat unfit hack is just stupid.

Lucas Neil did very well to defend against the best attacking lineup in the world.

He is fat and unfit, the Ronaldo of old was a great dribbler, the new ronaldo can barly run, watch him against croatia, he stood in one spot practically the whole game. A few of those chances last night, god he looked awesome, the air swing from kaka's set up, the bad 1st touches, he's had a terrible season with Real Madrid and he set up the 1st goal but he's very static and is playing as a target man which is not his game. The old Ronaldo would get substituted only if he was injured.

 

[aqua_duck]

To be fair the "fat overweight hack" set up the first goal...

He did but what he did wasn't something no other decent player could have done, made a run got the ball, a stepover and a square ball, apart from that he looked very static, made no attempt to break to the left or right flank to receive the ball and i can't remember the last time he beat someone on the dribble.

 

[pennywisealfie]

Carles Puyol, Xavi & Iniesta are gonna carve tonight for spain, watch out yall. Puyol wont have much to do in defence so he will go up and score a hat trick in an 11-0 win for spain. lol

 

[aqua_duck]

Lol the Barca man speaks some sense. I hope France get knocked out as well because they didn't pick Ludovic Giuly in their squad.
But yeah I was very happy with the spain vs tunisia result because my man fernando torres got a double, got money on him for the golden boot at 29 bucks and he's leading at the moment with 3 goals in 2 games, hopefully he can get a few against the hopeless saudi defence

 

[pennywisealfie]

I couldnt believe Guily didnt get picked. Even when Cisse got injured, they called up Sonny Govou.

Im considering putting every cent i own on spain to beat the saudis, its the biggest sure thing in sports history

 

[aqua_duck]

I couldnt believe Guily didnt get picked. Even when Cisse got injured, they called up Sonny Govou

It was obviously a personal thing because Ludovic is a very experienced player and was back to his best after the Messiah got injured. I mean god they picked Vikash Dhorasoo FFS

 

[astrogirl]

Yay! Harry's free to play!

Just heard it in a Nine news update.