Italy 1 - 1 Paragay

We missed Pirlo frankly. Someone to hold it and play it in the middle.

The weather was pretty crap and slowed the game down alot, which therefore dulled Italy's plans.

Oh and the goal vs Italy, that freekick was a dive.

is it just me, or did that sound like a series of excuses?

Yes, entirely valid ones.

The best excuse is that your team simply isn't good enough. Absolutely zero creativity. Now Holland played poorly too yesterday, but we usually play great in the group stage then fumble in the quarter- or semi-finals. I just hope this time it's the other way around. It's all about winning you last game on the tournament.

Yeah, Italy and Paraguay were both pretty crap in that game. Probably one of the worst games I've seen so far, except for a spell of about 20 mins in the second half when the teams actually tried to play. Most of the game was just kicking or heading the ball back and forth between the two halves.

Wtf was Lippi thinking putting Iaquinta on the right flank? Once he and Gilardino both started playing centrally and Camoranesi was brought in Italy finally gained some momentum. Let's hope for their and our sake that Pirlo makes a swift recovery, because this team is so uninspirational it hurts. It's like a France without Ribéry.

Still, they're 5 times better than England.

Holland won pretty easily in the end, but wasn't very impressive. Maybe this is the turnaround Arathorn? Difficulties in the group stage and winning the cup?

That's what I'm sayin' (and hoping). Coming up: Ivory Coast - Portugal. Ivory Coast is without Drogba (but I hate that guy anyway), but I still hope they'll be able to make Ronaldo cry. Go Elephants!

If Ronaldo cries, i'm happy

All matches i've seen have been pretty crappy, if Germany is playing the best (technical) kind of football, you know you're doing something wrong!

Go Kiwis lol

T'was a good thing i watched the Ivory Coast game. They played the kind of football i haven't seen in a while. They played for the game and for the love of the game, unlike the Europeans. Their game had some of that magic thats been missing for some time now in Europe. Awesome team, I hope they advance.

http://coedmagazine.com/2010/06/10/sexy ... world-cup/

WARNING! Health hazards inside, blood deficiency in the brain IMMINENT (for males)

Seems none of the matches are playing out the way you'd expect this year, who'd have thought Spain would get beaten by the Swiss?

I'm not surprised at all. We always have some strange results.

Also, the talk about "slow start" to the WC is very annoying. I don't see it that way. The teams are adapting and warming up. Besides, every team is dangerous and organised.

I think the 'slow start' is pretty standard: no team wants to end up with 0 points after the first match. Most enjoyable match so far was Chili-Honduras yesterday.

Heh well so much for that 'slow start' with Higuain's hatrick! I completely agree, it's irritating that people go on about that; for a start there really shouldn't be very many huge wins, after all theoretically all the teams should be relatively even. Not only that but teams are gonna be looking ahead in the hopes they make it through the finals and aren't gonna want to play overly agressively; no good thrashing your group into the ground if you tire out/injure your key players and then fail miserably in the next stage because of it.

Bwaha France getting clobbered by Mexico tonight.

Yeah I'm gonna enjoy being over there at the start of July. Stupid France, mwahahaha. Just irritated that Germany are playing at 12.30 today; I'm working 10-2 and would have loved to watch both the German and English match. Oh well, never mind.