World Cup Football 2002

Alright Senegal.
Denmark will be champions!

 

denmark will be champions, and pigs will fly

 

YAY, SENEGAL!!! Brings back memories of the 1990 upset with Cameroon beating Argentina on opening day. And this is an even bigger shocker, since this is Senegal's first World Cup appearance ever

Now, my scores:

Opening ceremony: 10/10. It was breathtaking. The early evening atmosphere combined with the music and the costumes made it feel very otherworldly for this westerner. And as I said earlier, the two female singers in that Steps clone group were muy hot

The game: I give it a 10. It seems like the Senegalese players decided that if they were gonna go down (as everyone thought), they'd go down firing all blasters. And boy, did it pay off! Loved their celebration at the end of the match. You'd think they won the Cup

On the French side, Djorkaeff was the only bright spot. Hard to believe this is almost the same lineup that handed Brazil its own arse in '98. Barthez seemed rusty. Dugarry did what he does best: Run around looking like a refugee from Seattle, circa 1991.

Player of the Match: Papa Bouba Diop. Biggest shocker since Roger Milla in 1990.

The crowd wasn't too hot, but I didn't even notice. The game itself more than made up for it.

 

Man if u watch spanish, italian or English domestic football youd agree that the crowd was trash. and the match was boring.

 

I agreed with your assesment of the crowd. I just said I didn't care.

As for the match being boring... We just saw the defending champion humiloiated at the hands of a debuting underdog. If you think that's boring... Whatever.

 

The GoalKeeper, Sylva, was the player of the match. He shut out France and he made some extraordinary saves, especially in the last half of the match. I think whenever there is a shut out, the player of the game HAS to be the goalie...especially when he shuts out the defending champions.

Pele was on ESPN the other night giving his predictions. He believes the final four will be :Argentina, Brazil, England, and a team from Africa. He pretty much gave Cameroon the endorsement, because of their Olympic win 2 years ago. Still, with Senegal's win today.....African Football may be ready to run roughshod on the competition.

 

fair enough but theres a huge difference between being surprised (thats why there was a shock factor which i gave 10/10), and the match beinf entertaining to watch. that was one the least entertaining games ive seen in about a year

 

Yeah the crowd was real poodoo! But the game wasn't boring at all...if you call this boring, you ain't seen nothing yet...

 

Hahaha! Senegal beat the french! lozers!!

 

w00t!!

 

Woohoo! What a result for the first match.
After Euro2000 I was looking forward to seeing France loosing a bit of their invulnerability.

It wasn't boring at all.
But be truthful, Senegal didn't play that well - they couldn't pass right and lost balls in very dangerous places. The goalkeeper Sylva was probably the best on their side.

And France looked a bit lost. They couldn't attack right or defend. They just stuck close to Senegal's net and hoped that something good would happen.

And go PORTUGAL!

 

well IMHO i didnt find it to be a very high tempo match, hey maybe its because i goto about 100 matches a year, and my expectation boundries are waaay to high! I mean you couldnt compare this to the champions league final when Man Utd won

 

I enjoyed the match and it was nice seeing a Euro power get beaten by a side from Africa. That gives me hope for my Yanks . I think the French were a bit unlucky on a couple of their chances, a few inches either way and it would have been a different game. Senegal really didn't play a spectacular match, but they stopped the French when they needed to and were able to put their best chance in.

 

I'm cheering for England, but go Senegal!

 

Na the Yanks still havnt got a chance, the thing with senagal is that most of them are actually French immagrents, and play football in France. In other words they know the French game quite well. Even Patrick Viera was born in senegal and lived there until he was 8 years old!
Viera for king! Arsenal's finest. If Zidane wasnt injured, and Robert Pires (Arsenal's Finest) hadnt been injured before the cup, it would have been a different game

 

The USA won't get far. Neither will Belgium but I'm still confident that we can defeat teams like the USA (hey, we defeated France too about a week ago..w00t.)

 

anyone can beat France!

 

BTW, did anyone see when this happened during the game?

[image=http://www.cobbaut.be/sports/tackl.jpg]


and the real sad part, it was only a yellow.

 

Man thats gotta hurt!

 

As long as Zidan's out...yes! ;-)

 

Jorus: Is it wrong that I'm feeling enormous amounts of perverse joy at France's possible humiliation?

Ha! Same here. It's always fun, the unpredictability, like with Cameroon and Argentina in '90. France can't take too many risks now.

Senegal -- France 1 -- 0

And if Senegal can win -- go Costa Rica!

 

i have a feeling this world cup is going to be full of shooks

 

I hope there's a lot of unintentional humor in this World Cup

 

That was a suprising match.

 

This could mean that England can still come second in their pool and not have to face France in the next round... this is bright news indeed.

I thought the game was far from boring, because it was the first time I've seen an international team tackle opponents so aggressively but still cleanly.