Hehe yeah, i'm hoping you didn't hang that flag out yet.

Guess derf's got to start flying some England flags now!

God damn it.

Well, I was 75% sure Italy would lose to Slovakia before they even started. I think psychologically Italy were non existent throughout the entire campaign (or warmup for that matter). They had the capability and players, the last 10 minutes against Slovakia proved that, but the hunger was zero. Pretty understandable since they won it last time, but for me it's still very displeasing, that football is still determined by anything other than tactical and physical ability.

On one side of the coin, they were cheated out by rubbish refereeing. The goal for Paraguay, there was no contact. The goal against NZ was offside. The goal disallowed vs Slovakia was on-side. On the other side of the coin, Italy played shit throughout.

It was not just lack of hunger. The defence is too old and lets its opponent too loose. Usually Italy can fall back to a solid organisation, but that organisation was non-existent.

I personally dont buy that "too old" shit. Defending isn't something that requires an immense amount of speed or physical power. It's about organisation and anticipation. They were loose because they didn't give a shit, not because they were old.

/me notices Derf going all out on those excuses again

[quote="Lippi"] "This time I failed to evoke the right motivation in my players. We played two average games against Paraguay and New Zealand, but if we'd managed to repeat that level of play with some more punch in attack, it might've been enough. Instead, it all imploded today. I had said to the players, "The World Cup is here at last, it's make or break tonight." I was obviously wrong to give this kind of pyschological message, because the team never got started, they never played, they didn't create, they did nothing.[/quote]

Italy just sucked, I hate to say it but it's true. They played at a level worthy to them for exactly 15 minutes in the entire tournament. Btw, the disallowed goal vs Slovakia was so close that I'm sure everyone in Italy will say it was onside, but I thought it was narrowly offside myself (and most people I spoke to as well). Hard to tell. Besides, Italy got an undeserved penalty vs. New Zealand too. I'm just saying, they just fucked it up themselves. It's pretty damning to end last in a group with Slovakia, Paraguay and New Zealand.

Germany more or less lucking out against Ghana too, England we already talked about, France imploded and Spain must watch out against Chili tonight. Not looking to be the tournament of the major European football nations!

Anyone see Japan yesterday? What a game from Honda!

Yea, Honda was dominating. Kawasaki and Toyota were sucking big time, though.

Well of course I saw the other match last night (which was awful, if we defend like that against Brazil (if we even make it there), we could just as well go home already). But it's surprising after seeing Japan's pre-world cup campaign (even having a match in three 45 minutes "halves" and still not scoring) doing so well now.

Lol, at satis.

Fuck off home England! You're shit! You always have been.

Go back to your shitty premiership and spank lower league retard teams until your ego inflates before the next world cup.

Fuck off!

You don't even have your own manager!

LOLOLOLOLL

I sense a disturbance in the force. Like a million jade called out in terror and were silenced.

lol - and this England side was supposed to be the "golden team".... bah!

I was actually pretty sad about Italy going out in the way they did, but England are priceless.

My joy has been restored.

Now, im gonna go out and start some fights!!!

Good to see England off. Though the 2-2 goal shows that we really have to get video refs. Fuck Blatter and the other fossils that are against it.
And I'm glad Ghana went through as well. Not because I dislike the USA team (I kinda like them), but it's good to see at least one country from the home continent getting far.