The World Cup general discussion thread

[pennywisealfie]

I still don't have Argentina, but really I never expected much from Italy. They aren't even close to the 2006 side. I blame Lippi for a lot of it, taking Del Piero & Cassano wouldve helped.

 

[Black Philip]

Geez penny you change your country allegience more than you change your jocks :P I think it's a shame we didn't see good football from the Italians but I won't lose sleep over it. Same with France. Surely this the first world cup where the two previous finalists have failed to get out of their groups?

 

[pennywisealfie]

i think it happened in 66 as well

 

[pennywisealfie]

and I'm not changing allegiance, my pref is still aus then italy then arg but arg are the only ones left of my teams.

 

[pennywisealfie]

i think it happened in 66 as well

Im wrong, Czech never made it.

 

[Black Philip]

Out of curiosity, why Italy and Argentina?

 

[pennywisealfie]

back when I first got into football, we had 4 options of what to watch with football. NSL, which was a highlights package on monday night, Premier League which was a highlights package at about 11pm on a monday (past my bedtime when i was 11), World Soccer (which showed a weekly euro match of the week, plus quick highlights of the big teams in the big leagues) and of course Serie A which was on 10:30am on a sunday morning, it had the best players, and a great highlights show. My Grandpa was into Italian Football and my uncle gave me his Sampdoria jersey so I already knew of it and then I Fell in love with the league, Baggio, the Milan defense, the Juve & Sampdoria players etc. and in turn became a fan of Italy, coz the players were the ones I watched week to week and the ones I idolised.

As for Argentina, well i had a bit of a hiatus from watching football around 99 or so while i finished my education and also partying a lot haha, but got back into it in 2000 and I used to watch this 1 & a half highlights show of all the world leagues on foxtel and they always showed Argentina league and they always showed Boca who I took a liking to and I was intrigued by Martin Palermo who seemed to score like all the fkn time haha and i thought he was phenomenal and then i got really interested in Argentinian football and became a fan of the young guys in the league coming through at the time, Riquelme, Saviola, Aimar, Samuel and Cambiasso so I began to dig Argentina. Then theres the fact of my man crush on Maradona and Messi is my fave current player...

 

[ningnangnong]

My Argy team is Independiente.

 

[Astroboy]

HAHAHAHA suck it up SHITaly, that's what you get for being diving cheats [icon_razz1

Karma is 4 years late, but still sweet as! Best result in this WC without a doubt _woohoo_ _woohoo_ _woohoo_ [icon_lol1.

 

[The Brizz]

Italy were appalling last night (I just finished watching the Group F matches) they were completely outplayed by Slovakia just like Paraguay outplayed them for long periods earlier in the tournament. The side Lippi had at his disposal was ordinary, the defense is poor with Cannavaro well and truly past his best and the midfield and attack are terribly uncreative and predictable. On the match I am so glad they are out because the way they behaved last night and often in these type of matches was appalling. Cannavaro should have been sent off for a second clear yellow card challenge midway through the second half, Pepe should have got a straight red for a clear cynical hack into the back of a Slovak players legs where he had no intention but to hurt the player and Quaglirella is an absolute dog for his dive in the net after Di Natale made it 2-1. Italy have this appalling arrogance where they act like smug bastards until they are losing and then they act like spoilt babies. I am happy for Slovakia because they were excellent this morning and they and Paraguay were clearly the two best performed teams in the group stage.

 

[The Brizz]

Wathing Group E now holy crap Honda's free kick was awesome!!

 

[Jeba]

How good a tournament did Mark Paston have!!!! Only let in 2 goals and 1 of them was a dot shot, and saved plenty particularly against Italy and Paraguay, and some of them were saved when you were sure they'd go in. He will be the hero in NZ for sure! I hear he was instrumental in the qualifying stages against Bahrain as well!

 

[The Brizz]

Against Bahrain he made 2 or 3 world class saves and saved a penalty in the second leg, he basically got them to the world cup.

 

[Bannermania]

WHo does he play club with?

 

[The Brizz]

Wellington Phoenix I am pretty sure lol

 

[ningnangnong]

I reckon he'll be getting a move after such an impressive World Cup.

 

[Black Philip]

Wathing Group E now holy crap Honda's free kick was awesome!!

He'll be given a civic reception when he gets home :mrgreen:

 

[Bannermania]

I reckon he'll be getting a move after such an impressive World Cup.

Yeah thats what I was going to say.. super-impressive. He should be on the big bucks. Same with Smeltz. well.. even though he plays for GC United anyway.