Posted on 06/25/2006 11:30:31 PM PDT by soccer_maniac
In two more days, only 8 teams will remain in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
TODAY'S GAMES: Italy-Australia (11:00AM EST) followed by Swiss-Ukraine (3:00 PM EST).
(Excerpt) Read more at fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ...
VS.
Go Australia! Destroy the divers.
Cool. The first time I've been first. Yeah! Early (or actually really late) bird gets the worm.
Shame the Italy Australia game is on while I’m at work. I’d far prefer that to the joys of Switzerland Ukraine.
Anyone see that Portugal game yesterday? What a mess!
Only a couple of underdogs left, and how can you root against Australia and the Ukraine?
Referee was fatal but players behavior was simply irrational.
Blunderous refereeing. Yes the players were guilty of the cheating but the ref allowed that game to descend into chaos.
I chuckled to myself when the Netherlands refused to give the ball back after Portugal kicked it out. It was terrible sportsmanship but I just had a feeling that the Dutch were going to do that, it was that kind of game, and smiled to myself when they proved me right.
This should be one scrappy battle. I think the Aussies will bring out the better of the Italians. At least I hope they do.
The Aussies are likable, lovable and damn I like them.
Having said that it's Forza Italia.
And a fine mess it was. That was pure desire for victory on both sides, with a bout of real ugliness in-between.
You have to take at least one underdog. Aussies lose Kewel but on the other side Ukraine have lost most of the defense: four players out due to the insane yellow cards and also injury.
I've never seen a match at this level where the ball wasn't returned from injury.
It made Portugal go immediately mental.
The players were more to blame than the ref.
I think Paraguay did it against England too.
The whole situation when players go down is becoming silly. It’s encouraging players to break up attacks by rolling around and feigning injury. I’d say play should just continue unless the ref says otherwise, but it must be hard to judge how badly a player is injured and carry on watching the game at the same time.
Normally, I like the Italians, but today there is no choice.
Aussie Aussie Aussie!! :-)
I wanted Portugal to win from the beginning, but I was extremely pissed off with the Dutch on top of that.Yeah, me too. I have come to expect this sort of unfair behavior from Dutch players, that's why I always root against them from the start. Remember how Rijkaard spat Völler in the face in 1990? Just thinking about it still makes me angry.
From what I've seen this WC is the worst display of diving and attempted suicide from anyone even brushing against you.
It's also the first WC where I've seen yellow cards for diving. But there are so many yellow cards of such dubious quality that players feel it's worth the risk to draw one against the opponent.
It's because there hasn't been a standard of fouling with the yellow card.
FIFA deserves the blame entirely for pushing it.
They stink. The refs think they are doing their bidding and advancing their "rating" in doing so.
It's really going to cause some big problems and what happens if it ruins the final?
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