you gotta realize that the mapuches repelled the spanish conquerors for 300 years and were not overtaken until the 1880s when chile (already independent) had a shitload of modern guns. those fuckers have balls of steel. did you see medel come out playing out of his own penalty area? balls of steel man.

Never mind about balls of steel, David Villa's back in the centre, already starting to re-assert his European authority over the savages.

ha! all they asserted is how much spain's superstars suck. portugal will kick their asses.

and a pity-- brazil will play chile, and one south american team will be out.

Did Chile even touch the ball in the final twenty minutes, or was I just imagining a situation of utter Spanish dominance over the asado munchers? Ah?

Not real domination. Both teams knew they were in so they took the last twenty minutes off unfortunately. Ghana as a football team doesn't scare me concerning the USA's chances but Ghana representing a whole continent does. I expect the vuvuelas to reach about 135 dbs...

Portugal vs. Spain - the Gangsters vs. the Divas. If they run out of wax in South America do you think Christian will play? I don't think I've ever seen a guy with more wax on his eyebrows.

bullshit! that ref was fucking whack! bad calls! bad calls! fuck espania, those fuckers flopped more then Derek Fisher! that ref wasn't a mexican, he was a mexicant, worst officiating of the entire Cup thus far! fuck that, that whistle blew for nothing all the time at the benefit of Spain, but rarely called espania for shit they pulled against Chile. What could Chile do? That shit continually broke their momentum, every time they rallied the whistle would blow on a bunch of bullshit..

that shit felt exactly like an NBA game, clock running and bullshit calls all the way.

Needless to say, I was pissed..

even though Chile still easily qualified, that ref really really pissed me off.

I'll be cheering for the USA tonight in the pub. One of the Spanish players has said he can see the USA reaching the semi-finals!

Go USA! They're my last hope in my office pool (I drew US and Nigeria from the hat). Tough luck for me.

oh yeah, bitches!

1-0.
--

edit: plus the penalty kick that they didn't get charged with-- oh yeah, that was a fucking blatant intentional hand

--
2nd half edit: fuckit man. way to crush my hopes. SK has been in control all 2nd half and now this shit. good goal and all but come the fuck on, why let them do that. only now the change comes.

--

suárez! GOLAZO!!!!!!!!!!

--

URUGUAY IN QUARTERFINALS. oh yea. sweeetttt. only problem is if they play USA next! :(

ghana ghana ghana.

shit, that was fucking disappointing, but we gave it all and ghana was still the better team, they had better players and strategy, and won fair & square.

Yeah, I agree. Not a great performance by either team really, but knockout football's rarely about great performances. When Donovan equalised I thought the only team likely to score the winner was the USA. I don't know if Altidore was injured but I thought things started to drift away from them once he was replaced by Gomez. Either way, from a neutral's perspective it was a great game. USA can feel disappointed because I do think they could've gone further.

Good luck to Ghana though

demoño--- altidore was fouled early in the game (around 15'?) but the fucking ref didn't call it. you could see him limping around. they fixed him in half time i think but he was still slow, yet created a lot of good plays-- bradley could have scored if he had looked at the goalkeeper before shooting. when altidore was gone the usa line offense indeed lost its creativity, as there was nobody to hold the ball. gomez was nowhere (as he was in the previous game).

ghana's defense was very good and the counterattack was deadly. the match with uruguay should be great, but curiously, they both play a similar system-- solid defense, fast strikers on the counterattack. i don't know how that will play out but i'm not making bets on either side.

---

anyway, here's one for suchfriends, who i think might like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkU6YVwdfWw

ghana = ace usa = poo

Yeah, I'd also fear for the USA's defence against Uruguay far more than I do Ghana's. That game's impossible to call, although I think, with Suarez and Forlan, Uruguay have a far better strike-force. You're probably right about Altidore carrying a knock. It's a shame. He added a real physical threat up front.

I think the USA's defensive frailties ended up getting the better of them. Bradley, Donovan and Dempsey were clearly carrying the team, giving a sense that they could score at any time. Unfortunately their defence meant that the same could be said for their opposition. I still say the USA are no more than two tournaments away from becoming a genuine threat. Given the players they had, I think they did extremely well.

After a lame 1st half of fumbled dribbles, bad passes, terrible footwork and generally being dominated by Uruguay, the only thing which spared Korea in the first half was the ref..

Korea surprised us all by rallying hard in the second half to dominate over Uruguay , the complete opposite of their playing in the 1st half. They can leave with their heads held high, they never gave up for a minute and Uruguay had to earn their advancing to the next round with a hard, fast, aggressive match. Good game Korea, but Uruguay went on as we all expect...

my God, the US match!





Ghana proudly hails up the Ites Gold and Green in the Third Round for only the second time ever!! (making it a step farther than they did in the last World Cup and only the sixth time Africa has made it to the second round)

(cameroon 1990 1/4 finals 3rd round) (Nigeria 1994 1/8 finals 2nd round) (Nigeria 1998 1/8 Finals 2nd round) (Senegal 2002 1/4 Finals 3rd round) (Ghana 2006 1/8 Finals)

Great match!

Ghana had footwork, heart, speed and Kingson (with at least 11 crucial blocks!!)
USA had DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE..

US key players were predictably Donovan, Dempsey, Bornstein, and Jozy

(in fact, a major mistake was to replace Jozy with Gomez in the last 10 minutes, and as already pointed out by !@#$%! and demonrail Jozy was a key in the US defense and blocking out Ghana for so long)



. I was particularly glad to see the US take a not from the Netherlands and Argentina and stopped wildly lobbing the ball down pitch at each possession and instead opted to take it slowly, patiently down pitch to maintain more possession and ball control.

the first half the US was slow and lacked coordination with poor dribbling and passing, but the second half they were on fire, speed, shots, passing, ball control.. it was a great match.

Ghana siezed every opportunity, US had a very strong defense to keep them in well into the final minutes, very similar to the Korea match in this regard.

Ghana controlled the infield, US controlled the goal zone, but in a 130 minute match youth was the primary advantage, and Ghana came through in the clutch when it mattered most for all of Africa watching...


US can leave with a good match, and an undefeated record in the opening round, some great goals, it was fun to root for them, and I danced and cheered at all their goals, but who couldn't want it for Ghana? They even have a decent chance against Uruguay to be the first African team to advance to the semi-finals!!

I completely agree with you about the Korea Uruguay game. But it's become a bit of a cliche now for those hyper-energetic teams to look great for a while before finally being out-done by physically stronger teams. To be honest, I wonder just how well an Asian side could do in football purely because their lack of physical strength. I mean, have you seen Brazil's Lucio? The guy's a fucking hulk!

Regarding the USA Ghana game. I disagree that it was the USA's defence keeping them in the game. Well to a degree it obviously was, but I really think Ghana were deflated by that Donovan penalty and just seemed to take their foot off the pedal for almosat the entire second half. I rate Howard in goal but besides him, I think their real quality is up front: Donovan (one of my players of the tournament) Bradley, Altidore and Dempsey have been superb, effectively covering up cracks elsewhere in the squad.

You're right though, while I found myself wanting the USA to win, I'm absolutely delighted for Ghana. I think Uruguay may be a bit too much for them next week but so far I've been wrong about more matches than I've been right, so i sort of hope that carries on into their game.

Anyway, England v Germany tomorrow. It's such a massive game on so many levels that I'm not even sure I'm looking forward to it. There'll be no shame in England losing to a good German side but there was so much (arguably misguided) hope surrounding this England team that to go out before the semi-finals, never mind the quarters, will be seen as nothing but failure. From a neutral's perspective, it's sure to be an absolutely epic game.

suchfriends-- it wasn't good defense, it was that the whole team fell back, playing to its own weaknesses instead of strengths. we're best on the attack, like chile. we didn't have enough speed to play a fast counterattack-- not against ghana anyway. the defense in fact had many holes and that's how ghana scored both times. our passing game was utter and complete shit and we couldn't make it out of the midfield for a long time.

also, the initial lineup was wrong-- edu had earned his place as a starter in the last game, and yet bradley put in clark. feilhaber played a great game last time, as he did today, and should have started as well, but bradley put in findley who had proven ineffectual before he was suspended for yellow cards. all he had was speed, but he was outran by the ghanian defense. bonehead move and a waste of a two replacements. we could have started with them and then maybe put in buddle later.

and we didn't play the wings but attacked through the center, where we ran into a fucking wall of 7 or 8 ghanians.

switching to a 4-3-3 formation was better, as it put us on a more offensive footing, but we didn't have the defense to give confidence to our attackers who had to keep running back to save our asses. bronstein played a great game, but cherundolo was so-so and demerit and bocanegra were out of it-- bocanegra was totally caught with pants down in that 2nd goal. donovan and dempsey were totally out of gas by the end of the game, they had no legs, and no ideas with altidore gone.

when they put in gomez at last he was fresh, but we would have benefited more from someone like altidore to enable him to strike instead of being buried where he was. he did nothing the whole time he play in spite of being the sole american attacker with legs-- he was fallen back a bit for my taste, considering the circumstances of the game at that point. maybe putting in buddle might have helped, but we were out of subs with those 2 unnecessary changes (they were necessary in the game, but that whole shit could have been avoided as i said earlier).

anyway, it's done, we're fucked, and respect to ghana, best team won-- with a little help from the ref for sure but they were still better.

on diff subject-- south korea's domination of uruguay lasted maybe 5-10 minutes when even forlan was fallen back to defend, but they couldn't do shit with it and fell to suarez. uruguay traditionally plays counterattack, they suck you in and then kick you in the balls.

I can't give you enough rep for that.
Yeah, that was a wonderful match. I've never seen our guys play that good before, especially after those two disatrous matches against New Zealand and Netherlands

^I loved the Slovakia v Italy game! It was awesome!!! I actually have a similar shirt like that (not sure if I still have it), it was given to me when I was on a school exchange in Bratislava.

Hehe, but can you see into the future? Netherlands v Slovakia isn't until tomorrow... although I suppose you meant the disastrous match against Paraguay. Anyway, good luck tomorrow. May the best team win.


Can't wait for today's afternoon game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZaWe3elBmE

you sure have a better team and your guys look in a much better shape than the sorry-ass primadonas from Italy.
I sense a good match.

As !@#$%! pointed out this one falls to Bradley the guys didn't bail him out.
USA's biggest problem is the lack of world class striker. They had their chances yesterday but once inside the box they tend to panic and shoot quickly never setting the goalie up. Plus they never seem to lift the ball they always keep it along the ground giving the goalie the use of his entire body to block the shot. They also never try a cute little flip they always try to hit it as hard as they can. Howard was no help either he gets beat to easily. He makes the difficult and flashy stops but the easy one (the first goal) he comes up lame.

Congrats to Ghana who played to their strengths muscling the USA off of every 50-50 ball. Gyan used hos body to perfection on the second goal.

I was very happy with the officiating as it was a well called match, going in I though they might give Ghana the home field advantage but they didn't indeed even giving the USA a penalty kick. Oh well onto the blood bath
Germany vs. England.....

hot damn, klose equalizes pelé @ 12 goals

pelé skipped i think 1970 though, on advice of his witch doctor, ha ha ha (but back in those days games would often end 6-4)

edit: i checked, it was 1962 due to injury but i've seen a documentary that reported it was witch doctor advice that kept him out.

holy shit england was just fucking robbed! wow!! that's way too fucked.

hey fifa, 1965 called. they want their non-instant-replay-sport back.

fuck fifa. this just keeps getting worse.

why bother laying down lines, and let's just make the ref wear beer goggles. it'll be entertaining and the calls couldn't be any worse.

this game has always been full of fuck-ups man. still it has billions of followers. what we do is bitch, complain, curse the gods, make death threats to the ref, and smash cars on the way out of the stadium. it's a perfect game, and like life, often fucked up unfair, and most of the time you suffer until something good happens and you explode with joy. if you don't get this.

OH SHIT KLOSE MAN! golazo!

ok if you don't get this you never will. street games don't have cameras. gotta go watch seeya.

i know that. but they could always improve. other sports aren't perfect either. but they are trying. its stupid that the only person in the world who can't see the instant replay is the guy making the call.


don't matter in this instance though. Muller and Ozul goin off. making Barry look terrible.

finished! shit it was mueller not klose, that's what i get for making long posts mid-game. i was just saying that yes unfair calls are fucked but this doesn't turn this into a shit or meaningless sport not by a million miles & stop beating this dead horse.

anyway germany deserved to win regardless. i liked thim since day 1 (or 2, was it?) & missed their loss to serbia, so all i have of them is good impressions. ozli/podolski/klose are great and now mueller whom i hadn't noticed before turn this into a deadly team when on the attack.

the first english goal was in my eyes a fuckup by neuer, who came out with eyes closed flapping his hands like a fucking scarecrow on crack, he did the same in the invalidated goal (eyes closed, hands flapping, the fucktard). he redeemed himself later, but had a bad first half.

england did what they could for a while but as soon as they started running out of gas germany fucked them up. the sad part was that at that point england lost their heart & started doing whatever-- if you saw rooney shoot at the goal near the end, catching a corner kick, he had this look in his face like he didn't give a shit.

not sure if the annulled goal didn't matter, not sure it would have been at 4-2 as the psychological advantage of an early 2-2 would have been good for england. the germans knew it was a goal & were shocked for a while but came out of it with plenty cojones with the security of being 1 goal ahead-- who knows what might have turned out otherwise.

i favored germany from the start & didn't wanna rub it in mostly cuz i like mr. demoño. and if england placed 2nd in our group they deserved to die at the same stage we did. anyway, gotta go cook for the argentina-mexico which should be fun and about which i'm torn or "a neutral person".

It may be weird to not root for England with a last name like Benningfield,
but you can blame my German grandfather. Well, he's been dead
awhile now, so no, don't. That's a bit rude.

I get it and couldn't agree more. I hate it in all of the American sports as well. Good or bad the refs are there for a reason. Half the times in American football when they can see they have to overturn the call they come up with the inadvertent whistle stopped play so there's nothing they can do yet clearly the players never stopped playing. Instant replay is BS.

As for the game itself even if England knotted it at 2-2 You just knew Germany was going to open up England again as Terry and the other center back were thoroughly outclassed today.

Can't disagree with anything !@#$%! or Chicka has said. England were just outclassed in almost every area. Too many big-name players just didn't perform throughout the entirety of the tournament. Capello made too many bad decisions. Tactically, England are leagues behind a lot of teams that never even made it past the group stage. A defeat would have been one thing but that was an obliteration. By a team with a striker that looks like Robert Forster, ffs!

A singer in The Go-Betweens


A German Striker:


Anyway, I'm supporting Holland now. Come on the Oranges.

if Mexico wins....I will kill a man...

the streets in germany are overfilled with drunken people in tricots.
whats happening?
I feel alienated

Germany just kicked England's ass.

robbed, more like tossed up!

peace out Inglaterra! I knew Alemania would do it! I am so glad all the Eurotrash teams are out, peace out France (bitches) peace out Italy (fascists) peace out England (pricks)!
I'm sure Germany and Spain will get their asses knocked out soon nuff!
This is the Americas Cup all around! Even Africa has stuck it out!

I am rooting for Mexico all the way, but its a sure long shot..


so will like half of Los Angeles if they lose..

ball was almost a meter past the goal line but the stupid uruguayan assistant ref didn't see it cuz he was floating slowly instead of running. neuers only good move was to fake it like it was nothing grab it and play and the refs ate it up.

i'm putting my (monopoly) money on argentina, but you never know. to be frank, i have more faith in argentina being able to beat germany than mexico.

ok here we go

messi-tevez, what a play!

1-0

que la chupen!

wazzit really offside/???

do people here actually stop the internet and watch the matches?