World Cup 2006 - and it's called football, not soccer!

I am looking forward to todays match between England and Sweden

 

Me too Mike. I cannot wait to see how that match goes. It should be exciting! I'll be screaming for England the whole time!

Matt, there has been a lot of discussion about the new ball, hasn't there? Yes, I hope that Lampard gets used to it quick. He'll need to for tonight!
Germany-I'm excited about that match too and it seems Ballack might play after all? Dunno though coz different reports keep saying different things.

Argentina's game was definitely a showstopper. I feel sad for their opponents though, they are a new team and I saw some of them crying. Poor guys...but for qualifying it was great.

Spain is certainly causing a splash, it seems. Good-more great football to come,I'm sure. Also Portugal's win was superb.

Well a few hours to go. Am I right in assuming that Germany is due to play in an hour or so and England hours after that? Our times are all mixed up here in Sri Lanka.

 

[sings]54, 74, 90, 2006 ja so stimmen wir alle ein
mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein
werden wir Weltmeister sein[/sings]

I didn't expect Equador to play that weak. Even Podolski finaly scored!
Great game (mainly because we've won ), great atmosphere and brilliant weather. That's the world cup like I want it to be

Let me enjoy till I can
Swedens waiting in the next round

 

Sweden - England right now... ooooh, England had a great chance there! *a bit nervous*

Go Sweden!!!

 

A 2-2 draw was a fair result, although England rode their luck a bit with those pesky Swedish corners
We had a great first half (Stunning goal from Joe Cole) and first 5 mins of the second, but then it all went Pete Tong. A real shame about Owen too, I hope it isn't too bad an injury.
Why can we never beat the Swedes?? That late equaliser was soooo painful to watch, it's asif there's some kind of magical spell preventing us to beat them, lol.

Well done Germany too. Hard to tell how good the win was because Equador rested 5 first team players and played badly, but you're scoring goals which always helps and everyman is doing their job very well

Spain had a wee scare lastnight too, but showed good spirit in the end and Torres is looking very good.

Argies V Dutch tomorrow......ganna be good although I think both teams will play it safe.

 

I had a crazy day at work and I am going to try and watch a replay of the game later on.

 

lots of good and bad from England last night. We need to keep possesion better and be quicker with our passing too.
Can't wait for the match tonight, though it will probably end up being an anti-climax

 

Wow, the England-Sweden game was such a nail biter. Joe Cole and Steven Gerard did a fantstic job getting those goals, but Sweden always amanged to get the equaliser. I'm an England and Germany fan but I'll admit that Sweden were tough and they sure did very well under pressure.
Larson's last goal was a shocker...my mom and I were on the edge of our seats screaming for England.

Sadly our local channel did not show the Germany-Ecuador match so I have to try and catch highlights of it sometime. Maybe they'll show the clips tomorrow. *hopeful* The few clips I saw were fab though.

Phew the next round is gonna be a killer. I think Germany have a chance to beat Sweden and advance to the quarters. England should be able to beat Ecuador (please, ihope ) and also advance. Its the England-Germany encounter that scares me! I love both teams.


Yoo hoo, Matt...do you think that Owen's early departure changed the attack as much as the commentators said? Perhaps a bit more Owen/Cole like attack there would have secured another goal?
Sadly poor Michael Owen cannot play for a while. Hope he gets better soon. He's a great player but this time he's been having a bit of an off season or something.

 

Did anyone watch the Ivory Coast - Serbia-Montenegro game yesterday? Great game, I really wanted the Ivorians (is that the right word? Well, whatever) to win... and they did! It was much much more fun to watch than the Argentina-Netherlands game which was soo boring. Too bad it didn't really matter since none of the teams would qualify for the next round anyway.

 

I watched the Holland-Arg game. Both teams look very good even though it wasn't the best match ever. I'm thinking the Argies to win and Holland out in the semis

 

Yeah, I didn't think it was a boring game. No goal scored, but two impressive teams (especially considering several key players were rested). The Argentines looked very much in control. They pass the ball, they fight to keep it (Messi just never gives up) they never panic. Tough, tough team.

I'm sad the Czechs had to go though

 

With France and Switzerland qualified, we finally have the first round of the knock-out stages!

Germany - Sweden
Argentina - Mexico
England - Ecuador
Portugal - Holland
Italy - Australia
Switzerland - Ukraine
Brazil - Ghana
Spain - France

Is anybody expecting any shock result? Switzerland may have a chance to beat Ukraine, but otherwise I think the obvious teams (Germany, Argentina, England, Holland, Italy, Brazil, Spain) will go through. Brazil-Ghana should be very interesting.

 

I think that Australia has a genuine chance of beating Italy, although it isn't likely. In fact, I think we have a genuine chance of beating any team except for possibly Ghana.

 

Me too. I had hoped to see some of the action they showed in their match with the USA but I didn't. Perhaps a bad few days for them?


But Germany's win over Sweden! Whoo hoo! I'm totally thrilled with the result. I was screaming myself hoarse the whole time. The opening goals were definitely the way to go. It put pressure on the Swedes and unlike int heir game with England, they could get a goal. Larson missing his penalty kick was the writing on the wall, me thinks.
I wish Ballack could have got a goal-he sure did try so many times. Perhaps in the next games.

And Padowski and Klose-what an asset to the German team. Those 2 are terrific. I was very impressed by Klose's game the whole of this tournament. And "little" Lahm is so quick-incredible passing there.

Great defense and passing. Way to go Germany!

 

Suprise start by Mexico by scoring 1-0 against Argentina very quickly. But Argentina has answered very fast.

As for Sweden - Germany, the home nation was simply too good. I didn't expect Sweden to go any further once it was clear they
'd be facing Germany and not Ecuador.

 

Germany played well, while Sweden played very badly. Why can't they play like that against England?? I couldn't believe how static their defense was!!
But I like how the German front men are playing. They have good understanding and movement and they all work well as a unit. Even I'm beginning to think they could win it
I think the Larson penalty summed up Sweden today.

The Argie-Mexican game was WOW!!!! Great entertainment and Mexico played so well. They've shown that the Argies are more then beatable and that's why I feel Germany have a good chance now. But then again the Argies may be too much for the German defense which hasn't been tested much since the Costa Rica game.

I think England will have a real test tomorrow and personal I just feel our team is a mess at the moment. Injuries and constantly chaging tatics by Mr.Burns have really hampered us, but we shall see and I'll try and remain positive.

 

Maybe Sweden didn't play badly - maybe it's just Germany played better than England (cheap wind up here, I haven't seen any of the games )

Argentina didn't score 6 goals (Mexico really worked hard), but they still looked solid, and my goodness what a goal by Rodriguez. It's also a bit scary to think they have Tevez & Messi on the bench.

 

True Matt, I am wondering how England is gonna fair. I am hopeful that they will beat Ecuador. Well, they'd better give it their all coz Ecuador qualified pretty well.

I hope Rooney really will make a difference and I hope they can get more from Gerard and Joe Cole. Those 2 were great last time. They need to make sure they can defend the goals they get. Allowing goals (like they did in their game with Sweden) is just not gonna work at this stage.
Argh, I'd hate to see one of those golden goal shoot outs. Those things terrify me-they're beyond nail biting.

I haven't seen the Mexico-Argentina match coz our station showed us the Germany one only. However I'll catch the highlights this evening. Good stuff, even if Mexico is not in the running anymore. If they were able to keep Argenitina at bay like that then the other teams should take notice.

 

Another adequate performance by the lads, but heck, we're through and that's what counts
I think we played fairly well considering the new system and after we went 1-0 up we played a lot better, it gave us a lot of confidence. Therefore I suggest England should always have a 1-0 head start and unless you want to see David Beckham be sick again, play our games in the evening
I think Lampard has left his shooting boots at home too, I can't believe how many chances he's missing

The Holland-Portugal game was more like a boxing match then a game of football. The ref was a joke and I'm quite pleased Portugal won....they don't have any players left for the quater final because they're all suspended
But I thought the Dutch were the better team and looked good. Portugal had very little chances but made the most of them.

Really looking forward to the Aussie-Italy game. Go Aussie!!!!

 

The sounds from out tv room were hilarious yesterday. Mom and I were yelling everytimg the Ecuadorians got the ball and then groaning when England lost it...

But Becksy's goal-oh my goodness, fantastic beyond belief. They so needed that and he came through!
Their game with Portugal won't be easy and they had better think strategy.

I am worried with how their players were centered around midfield and there wasn't someone at the goal scoring end-except perhaps Rooney. Plus Ecuador managed to get a player in front of each England squad memeber. They played a tough game all right.

And re Lampard, Matt I'm wondering too. So far his shots have been all too high. To much force me thinks. Steven Gerard seems to have figured out the new ball...

I'm hoping to catch highlights of the Portugal-Netherlands game today, sometime in the morning/afternoon.

 

lol, watching England isn't good for the heart pressure,is it Pash?
Ecuador's main tactic was to prevent us from playing, and they did a pretty good job of that. I do feel that from now on, however, we'll be playing teams who want to play their own game rather then trying to prevent us from playing ours, so I think that'll suit us better.
I think Lampard really needs a goal, and I'm sure it'll come eventually. Stevie G needs to give him some tips perhaps??

Portugal will be tough but with no Deco and possibly no Figo and Ronaldo, it's a bit easier plus we are due to beat Big Phil Scolari. This will be the third time we've met his teams in four years, so third time luck perhaps

And try to catch lastnight's game Pash, it was so funny but maybe for the wrong reasons

 

Terribly boring game between Ukraine and Switzerland. Even the penalty shoot-out was excruciatingly bad. Hopefully Brazil-Ghana will be more exciting.

 

Sorry, I was still asleep from lastnight's game. No one deserved to win that one, and the Swiss clearly think the aim of the game is to avoid putting the ball into the net

The Aussies were very unlucky. I'll give the Italian player 8.2 pts for his dive to get the penalty, but it was an excellent penalty by Toti who must have been under so much pressure.

I'd love Ghana to do something special today against Brazil, and I think Spain will be too much for France but it could be a tight game.