*World Cup Game Discussion Thread* (SPOILERS)

[TroyF]

Some chippy fouls here. Looks to be just a matter of time before England break them down and get the second.

[Crapshoot]

Okay, this Play by Play sucks - badly. This is what happens when you put a baseball guy because he's your "guy', instead of getting a proper football guy - his PBP is delayed, because that's how it works in baseball, and he doesn't seem to know what the hell he's doing.

[Crapshoot]

Gah - this is driving me nuts. Crouch is dribbling in the corner, and the idiot (Dave O Brien) is talking "excitedly" about the cross out to the wing, as if its a goal scoring opportunity - and he doesn't talk that away when they actually have a goal scoring chance. UGh.

[Passacaglia]

Musberger's pretty bad, too. Although, that's stating the obvious.

I'm a little bummed. Didn't set an alarm, because I'm always up before 7. Woke up at 8:15, so I missed a few minutes (and a goal), and am watching in my jammies. Ah, well.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Musberger's pretty bad, too. Although, that's stating the obvious.

I'm a little bummed. Didn't set an alarm, because I'm always up before 7. Woke up at 8:15, so I missed a few minutes (and a goal), and am watching in my jammies. Ah, well.

Roffle - my story, except I did set an alarm, and woke up at 9:15. I'm bummed as well, because O Brien is significantly affecting my enjoyment of the event - he has no clue what the hell he's talking about, and it shows. Why not let Tommy Smyth (who's mediocre, but at least knows the game) do it instead of O Brien; he doesn't know any of the terminology, he can't pronounce the names, and he doesn't know when to be excited (like someone just shot - he doesn't say something, waits 10 seconds, then starts describing what's happening- GAH!). I think I'm going to tear my hear out if I keep hearing this guy.

[Celeval]

That was a pretty bad dive by Pereires.

[Cringer]

DO what I am doing.

Watch the game on UniVision. I didn't even know the game was on ABC until right now, so I have had it on the spanish channel.

[Crapshoot]

HD mon...

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

HD mon...

blah.

[Ajaxab]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Okay, this Play by Play sucks - badly. This is what happens when you put a baseball guy because he's your "guy', instead of getting a proper football guy - his PBP is delayed, because that's how it works in baseball, and he doesn't seem to know what the hell he's doing.

Agreed. Dave Revsen (sp?) is horrible. I'm off to see if I can find BBC radio coverage of this game online and turning the sound off.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

HD mon...

Ah, the local idiots at ABC here forgot to turn on the HD feed until 20 minutes into the game.

Agree the annoucers sucks. Balboa drives me just as crazy.

1st half - thought Gerrard, Cole, Crouch, and Becks played well. Cole looked shaky in the back, disappointed in Lampard ... and Owen is non-existent.

They need some better crosses.

[ice4277]

Balboa sucks as usual. I actually think O'Brien is decent. *Shurg*

[Crapshoot]

O Brien's gotten a little better in the 2nd half - its almost as if someone showed him a broadcast of how to do it. Still, I would have preferred a football commentator - I don't see how taking an amateur who's never done it before is given a platform for the world's biggest stage.

[Crapshoot]

DOla, England don't look particularly inspiring - heck, it does seem like there's absolutely no offensive initiative.

[ice4277]

Yeah, the game has turned rather dull. I can see Paraguay coming back on a quick counter and equalizing.

[terpkristin]

That was an ABSURD foul call.

/tk

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

DOla, England don't look particularly inspiring - heck, it does seem like there's absolutely no offensive initiative.

Not at all. They are going to screw around and end up with a tie if they aren't careful. They should be attacking a lot more. No excuse to only have one at this point.

About time the official calls a dive on the guy from Paraguay, this is getting ridiculous.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Not at all. They are going to screw around and end up with a tie if they aren't careful. They should be attacking a lot more. No excuse to only have one at this point.

About time the official calls a dive on the guy from Paraguay, this is getting ridiculous.

Aye - what worries is this looks awfully like Lisbon, circa 2004 against France - Paraguay don't have a Thierry Henry, but Cruz and Valdez are both top notch strikers who can nip behind that line. They're playing so deep, in a virtual 4-4-1-1 right now - and I don't see much inspiration.

[Crapshoot]

What a save!

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Not at all. They are going to screw around and end up with a tie if they aren't careful. They should be attacking a lot more. No excuse to only have one at this point.

About time the official calls a dive on the guy from Paraguay, this is getting ridiculous.

Agreed on both points. Also, I agree on the earlier HD point. After watching one game in HD, I don't think I could ever willingly go back, no matter how much the announcers are annoying me.

[TroyF]

Beckham may be overrated by some people, but my God he's an incredible passer. It's amazing to watch what he can do with the ball sometimes.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Beckham may be overrated by some people, but my God he's an incredible passer. It's amazing to watch what he can do with the ball sometimes.

No doubt - as a right sided midfielder, he's one of the best in the world. Becks is one of the world's 40 best players - the problem is that the hype suggests he's top 5. IN the England squad, I would argue only Gerrard and Rooney are better.

[terpkristin]

Well that tackle was all shin, no ball.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Well that tackle was all shin, no ball.

While England is playing some poor football and I think they'd deserve a draw here, the ref has been terrible for much of the match. How he can call the foul against Crouch and then let the one on Downing go is beyond me.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by TroyF

While England is playing some poor football and I think they'd deserve a draw here, the ref has been terrible for much of the match. How he can call the foul against Crouch and then let the one on Downing go is beyond me.

I agree. I'm supporting England in their group, but after the first ten minutes or so,their playing as been somewhat uninspired. But the officiating has been ludicrous.

/tk

[Crapshoot]

The call against Downing was pretty absurd - the ref seems to have no clue. As long as there are no red cards, it should be okay.

[terpkristin]

Not a real surprise, Cole is coming out of the game.

Hargreaves in.

/tk

[TroyF]

OK, after watching the last call, the ref should be asked to leave Germany and move to the USA so he can ref the Finals.

Now I know where Stern gets his officials.

[terpkristin]

I wonder if these are the "replacement/substitute" or "part-time" refs that they talked about before the tournament started...

This was some horrific officiating.

/tk

[cthomer5000]

Question about the own goal decision... that looked like a pretty solid shot to me, so why wasn't Beckham credited with the goal?

Who makes the official call on that, the on-field ref or some sort of scorekeeper?

[Critch]

That was awful, glad it's over. England were pretty bad but never really looked in trouble either.

For the coverage, I gave up on ABC and watched the second half on Setanta with German commentary. I couldn't understand a word, but the screen wasn't covered in graphics and the picture quality was much better. I wonder if ABC intentionally toned down the picture quality to make their HD look better?

[moriarty]

Well that was a typical Sven lead peformance. No inventiveness on offense. Joe Cole made a few runs, otherwise the offense consisted of overplayed crosses, long balls to Crouch, and Lampard shooting from outside the box.

Blah, England isn't going too far beyond the group stage playing like that.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Question about the own goal decision... that looked like a pretty solid shot to me, so why wasn't Beckham credited with the goal?

Who makes the official call on that, the on-field ref or some sort of scorekeeper?

I'm not sure about who makes that call, but I would call it an own goal as well. He jumped and tried to head it wide of the goal. He miscalculated. I would have given Beckham the goal if it just inadvertently deflected off of a player who wasn't actively trying to head/direct the ball wide of goal.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Question about the own goal decision... that looked like a pretty solid shot to me, so why wasn't Beckham credited with the goal?

Who makes the official call on that, the on-field ref or some sort of scorekeeper?

Not sure who makes the call, but it was pretty clearly off the head of the defender, hence the own goal decision.

[AlexB]

3 points, decent start but awful 2nd half performance.

Thought Joe Cole played pretty well, Gerrard was good in the 1st, Becks and Crouch were OK too. Got nothing from either full back, and at times Terry and Ferdinand were less than convincing.

But the ref didn't help by penalising Peter Crouch every time he challenged for the ball (presumably for being too tall ), and they only had two moments where they looked slightly dangerous. Don't think they had a decent effort on target.

TV here was showering praise on the performance at half time, which puzzled me as I thought we were no better than average tbh, but the second half was terrible offensively. The lack of attacking options (in terms of both personnel and creativity) without Rooney showed itself - we had no-one who could replace Owen: either Cole or Gerrard had to be alongside Crouch rather than just behind him if we were going to hit it in the air to the big fella every time.

But, I guess winning the first game is what really matters.

[MJ4H]

I thought Crouch was pretty awful, myself.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Not sure who makes the call, but it was pretty clearly off the head of the defender, hence the own goal decision.

Well, contact alone isn't enough to cause that decision. I'm guessing the fact that it was clearly an intentional contact by the defender probably made it an own goal. I'm just curious on what exactly the thought process is when (whoever) makes the decision.

[AlexB]

After they took Owen off he (Crouch) wasn't great, as he had no support, and hasn;t got the pace to get away from the defence himself. His game is to be the first target of a ball played up, lay it off to a teammate to allow the support to help the attack, and then get in the middle to try and get on the end of crosses.

He did all of what he was supposed to do well, but there weren't really any good crosses for him (bar one where he allowed himself to be blocked off too easily)

[Oilers9911]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Roffle - my story, except I did set an alarm, and woke up at 9:15. I'm bummed as well, because O Brien is significantly affecting my enjoyment of the event - he has no clue what the hell he's talking about, and it shows. Why not let Tommy Smyth (who's mediocre, but at least knows the game) do it instead of O Brien; he doesn't know any of the terminology, he can't pronounce the names, and he doesn't know when to be excited (like someone just shot - he doesn't say something, waits 10 seconds, then starts describing what's happening- GAH!). I think I'm going to tear my hear out if I keep hearing this guy.

Shame you gents don't have access to Sportsnet from here in Canada. We get the British announcers for every game.

[MrBug708]

That was a bit more then 10 yards given...more like 13

[Jonathan Ezarik]

I like Peter Crouch. I really do. He's seems like a nice guy and he works hard. Having said that, there is no way he should be starting for England. England had no offense today because all they did was try to float the ball in for Crouch. For a guy that's 6'7" this should be no problem, but he never seems to win these balls because he doesn't have the strength to battle with defenders.

Of course, Sven has created this problem for himself. Who else plays up front with Owen? Walcott?

[GrantDawg]

I suck. I taped the the England match (on HD) and had every intention to watch the full match. About 15 minutes in I open the laptop on reflex, and of course the first thing I see is "England wins 1-nil on own goal." Nothing kills the excitement of watching a match like knowing the final score, and knowing the only score was less than two minutes in.

[Coffee Warlord]

Sweden is just having a helluva time finishing anything.

Go T&T! (Gotta root for the Carrib teams)

[GrantDawg]

Avery John hits the showers.

[RendeR]

Holy hell what a complete acting job by that swedish player. "OH god FOUL call a FOUL please, he tripped me!!"


Gah, get off the pitch you freak.

Go TT!

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I suck. I taped the the England match (on HD) and had every intention to watch the full match. About 15 minutes in I open the laptop on reflex, and of course the first thing I see is "England wins 1-nil on own goal." Nothing kills the excitement of watching a match like knowing the final score, and knowing the only score was less than two minutes in.

I actually made it through the work day and through all last night without finding out the score, and I watched yesterday's games early this morning.

[DaddyTorgo]

wow. the swedes are completely unimpressive here to me up a man.

[Cringer]

Way to go T&T. Hislop was damn good.

[DaddyTorgo]

Hislop had some AMAZING saves there just in the second half (which was all i saw getting in from work). Wow...T&T, even if they do nothing else, has done huge here to send a wakeup call to Sweden (who was a #1 seed going in don't forget)

[sovereignstar]

What an awesome performance by Trinidad and Tobago.