Yeah, it was by no means a magical performance. But I see this pretty black and white. The Rossi penalty was soft, but a penalty, and the NZ goal was offside.

Yeah, I dunno, it was a foul, but I don't think I would have given it (or the majority of refereers for that matter). The kiwi was pulling for a bit and then De Rossi was all too happy to take a dive. I gotta say, I found myself supporting New Zealand. For all their faults, the played with a lot of heart and even had a decent chance towards the end.

And Cannavaro, jeez, he needs to go. He's becoming a liability to this team. Put him on the bench for mental support and for his experience, sure, but he's clearly not the same player he used to be on the pitch. Crap season at Juve, and he's not doing much better here. Bad controls, losing one-on-one duels, slow...

Btw did everyone see Brazil's second goal yesterday?! LOOOL. What a farce...2 hands balls in a space of 5 seconds, resulting in a goal. That French ref won't be seeing much more action this tournament I'm sure. Not to mention the pretty soft double yellow for Kaka, and the 2-3 red card fouls he missed from Ivory Coast.

Hey Arathorn, Holland qualified already, congrats! That was a weird ass goal though.

And Satis, it's just how it's grown historically. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have always had a strong national identity (and were indeed seperate kingdoms in the past) and as such don't want to represent at international football level as "the UK". They even have their own parliaments (some with limited power, but still).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_parliament
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Parliament
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Irish_Parliament

The Brazil - Ivory Coast game was a shame to football. The ref was clueless, the 2-0 indeed a farce and the player that got Kaka sent off needs to be banned from international football. And that match was supposed to be one of the prettiest in the group stage.
Speaking of pretty, strangely the appalling football Holland plays makes me happy. It would be our total revenge against football, always playing beautifully and loose, but now boring but winning. If we could win the tournament that way, it'll make me laugh for weeks.

England game this afternoon. GO SLOVENIA!!

Awesome to see the French go out btw! What an absolute disgrace that team was. One goal, one point, tons of drama off the pitch...they absolutely imploded at the World Championship. Compare that to the Italian team which may have been struggling but is at least a TEAM with a proper atmosphere.

Hey Arathorn, how's the Dutch team spirit these days? Clearly not anywhere near as bad as in the past, but with all these egoes (Van Persie, Robben, Sneijder, Van der Vaart), I can't imagine there isn't at least a bit of strife.

Yeah wtf is up with France. They have no shred of national pride or duty? Turn and rout at the sign of danger? I mean for fuck sake, even if they have an utter gash manager, should they not try to entertain the many millions of French folk watching them on TV?

Yeah, come on Slovenia! I actually went to Slovenia once, adorable place. My interest in England losing is entirely related to my support of Italy. If England go out and Italy stay in, i'll have to start hanging more Italy flags around at work.

:D

Go USA and England! Though the US played a much better game than England did.

About bloody time England, great match to watch simply for the proof we can bloody play. Now they need to keep it up. Miffed that USA got through though, not because I didn't want them to but because it means I now have to rush out of work on Sunday to the nearest pub and try not to miss anything important in the 2nd half of our match!

Hehe, England wins one match and now already everyone in that country thinks they'll become the next world champion. And yes, the USA is playing a better tournament then England so far. They seem to be pretty good at coming back after conceding a goal and that's hard mentally.
The French government is launching an investigation into the failing of the national team. This soap opera just keeps getting better.
Ox, I think the atmosphere in the group is pretty good. I can't look into the minds of those players, but there don't seem to be any 1996-like internal trouble this time. I don't think there were any problems with this squad two years ago either.

lol, serious about the French? How hilarious.

oh...about them having sex with prostitutes? Who cares? I thought you meant it was wondering why they sucked so bad.

Who's having sex with prostitutes?

Germany vs England in the 1/8-finales, i'm gonna have to try to watch this!

Germany vs USA would have been just as interesting

And yes, I fully understand that Sarkozy wants to probe this affair. Such a fucking disgrace and i'm not even French.

I believe one of the prostitutes was under age. I think it's bullshit to go after the player. The prostitute was working in a brothel, so they should charge them. If you go to a brothel, you should be able to expect them to have checked that themselves.

Yeah, she was under 18 apparently

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lence.html

Still...look at those pics. If I were to end up before a judge over this, I'd just go "COME ON! Look at her!!!" Like this piece of fake titty human trash hasn't been getting fucked on a semi-daily basis ever since she was 13-14. Not to mention that she got a shitload of cash for their 'transaction'. It's not like he seduced a perfectly nice girl of 17, took her innocence and then dumped her the next day or something.

So yeah, it's total BS, but the popular press gets crazy over it of course.

eww...that's the first pics I've seen of the chick. She looks so fake. I prefer my women to look a little more human and a little less like a barbie. *shiver*

So....US and Germany? That should be interesting.