2006 WORLD CUP - Quarterfinals - GERMANY-ARGENTINA/UKRAINE-ITALY

FIFAworldcup.com ^ | 6-30-06 | FIFAworldcup.com

[soccer_maniac]

The Elite Eight!! The quarterfinal round of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany gets underway Friday with a pair of highly-anticipated matches. The hosts kick things off against Argentina in Berlin (10:55 a.m. ET; ESPN). Italy will face Ukraine in the day's second game (2:55 p.m.; ESPN2).

Two of the quarterfinals are rematches of championship games: Brazil-France (1998) and Germany-Argentina (1986 and 1990).

[Brian_Baldwin]

Though I did feel bad for Australia. I was backing the Aussies, but bad luck there

[Cronos]

yup -- gotta admit, when Zizou hits his stride, nothing stops him. But there's Zizou, Vieira, Henri versus Cafu, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Juninho, etc. Brazil will win.. They're just too darn good.

[Cronos]

ah mein herr, the real Oktoberfest. Awesome. Beer's kinda flat, but the food is great!

[Cronos]

ah mein herr, the real Oktoberfest. Awesome. Beer's kinda flat (prefer Ales or Duvel anyhoo), but the food is great!

[Cronos]

Personally, I'm a fan of both American football and soccer.

Exactly -- I dont' like golf (flame suit on!), but I don't go about abusing folks who do like golf. Terribly childish....

[Theoden]

I bought some Guinness and Bass Ale for my family BBQ tomorrow, as I'm looking forward to a good Black & Tan, but alas, not as good as one off the tap. You Brits's have it good when it comes to beer!

[Cronos]

3 poles and I think 2 blacks -- Germanys getting to be a more inclusive society

[Cronos]

boy, mate, you must be a Benny Hill fan :-P

[Cronos]

aye, true, but T&T's goalie was good and they played with heart. Come on -- everyone's going to root for the underdog that plays with heart. No one's going to root for crummy underdogs like Saudia...

[Cronos]

heh, he, now the Falklands was a gerat opp for Maggie to revive the British spirit. Good thing it happened -- Cool Britannia has been heading up since then.

[Cronos]

talking about Aussie bouncers -- d'you remember the Aussie rugby team from '03/'04 who were knockd out by Johnny Wilkinson? big lads

[Cronos]

The krauts did pretty darn well dude, you can't take this win away from them.

[Cronos]

The same cannot be said for most Germans I have encountered.

Gotta give you that -- Jerry tourists have replaced the former "ugly american" (who seem to have died out, most American tourists are smashing folks now) - loud and boorish -- and what is it about Germans and wearing sandals with socks????????

[Cronos]

Aye, but Malaga is English territory..... :-)

[Cronos]

don't think France can pull it off agaisnt Brazil, it's near impossible...

[dfwgator]

England won the Cup in 1966, which went to extra time, by a score of 4-2 on the strength of three goals by Geoff Hurst.

I saw the highlights from the game, and there is no way that ball crossed the line.

[Cronos]

Aye, British beer -- mate, you gotta realy do a pub-hopping tour in East Sussex -- in brighton or Lewes, to know what real beer is all about.

[Eurotwit]

It did.

[romanesq]

Well the cinderella dance has to end sometime and today was the day.
I wouldn't call Italy's play atrocious. I would call it developing which is part of their successful tradition. Ukraine was improved from their match with the Swiss and also was on the path of improvement. So Italy gets credit for their discipline and improvement as well.

It's also useful to point out they wiped out Germany this year 4-1. If you don't think that's coming into play, you are not being logical.

All of these elements come into play including home field advantage.