French team news:
Anelka told Domenech "va te faire enculer sale fils de pute".
This means that he thought Domenech would need to be given some rear action, and that he suspected Raymond's mother to have prostituted herself at one point in her life.
He was then replaced by Gignac at half-time during the game against Mexico.
No journalist was present. So the story leaked from a player.
Domenech had told Anelka that he had not particularly played well. I watched the game: he was right. If only he had seen that 4 games ago...

Malouda did not play the first game.
The reason was not a bust up, it was a tactical decision. That's official. But there was a bust up. Official too. Not that strong apparently.

Gallas could have been pouting. When Domenech decided that Henry would no longer captain the team (that was last month, it was well organised), he named Evra. Gallas did not like it too much. He thought another defender would have been better for the part (someone who lost the captaincy in a London team).
Gossip (?): Domenech intended not to select Henry in the 23.

Ribéry's a joker.
It pisses some off (who? Gignac? Toulalan? Gourcuff - noone, apart from Toulalan, seems to stand by him).

Bring more news, British people! What's wrong in Gerrard's life? Why has he been so poor for Liverpool this year? Why doesn't anyone want Joe Cole to play for them? Will Milner ever recover from his 30 minute World Cup?

I'll forget these questions as soon as a new team, wherever it comes from, plays well and scores too.
Hopefully, it will happen today.

we're shit
we're shit

we're shit
we're shit
we're shit

shit
we're shit

we're shit
we're shit
we're shit

shit shit
shit shitty shitty shit
shit shitty shitty shit
shit shitty shitty shit

Google, "steven gerrard", "16 year old" and "pregnant". Then google "kris commons" and "alex Curran". all will be revealed ... allegedly.:eek:

Rooney obviously way over-rated. He gets the ball he can't pass it off fast enough. No creativity at all. You watch the other top players and even some of the lesser but all of the forwards are looking for the ball and trying to do something with it. He just wants somebody to set him score. English players are all afraid to screw up thanks to your merciless media. Thanks to Algeria, USA destiny is in it's own hands.

rooney was absolutely gash in both games, no control, hardly any pace, no creativety. the only players that have been half decent have been james, defoe and crouch. i echo ikara cults sentiments.

And now the update: Anelka officially excluded from the French team – he’s supposed to leave the team today and leave South Africa by plane tonight or tomorrow!

i was expecting the 3rd-world malnourished algerians to succumb to exhaustion before the english did, but it was the opposite. i was in shock. not enough roastbeef. maybe it was old age, maybe it was too much fucking your teammate's girlfriends, but england ran out of gas by about minute 30 of the 2nd half-- except for the substitutions of course. the algerians were tired too and kept running on the attack--poorly--but still going.

u.s. - algeria should be interesting because the u.s. team is as fucking tenacious and relentless as algeria-- as proven in the slovenia game. who'll win, i have no idea, really-- we have the players, but it's up to coach bradders to figure out a good system. findley won't be playing because that stupid fucking yellow card (for getting a ball on the face-- no teabagging-- go figure), but we should be alright.

the way they've been playing perhaps the whole team should get on that plane. Ribery and Malouda seem to be the only two giving some effort

the Algerian team can indeed be a tenacious one... i've heard that England goalie David James declared after the game something along the lines of "you have to blame Algeria for this dire performance tonight", which is unfair if he was suggesting that Algeria tried to close the game for a 0-0, because i feel it's not really like they played with 10 men behind - with their limited means, they continued to attack and actually went for the win (which would indeed have been good for better hopes to qualify)...

not too sure what their chances are against the USA, i'm rather pessimistic actually - but it would be fun for Algeria to qualify and meet Germany in the round of 16, as an opportunity to get revenge for Gijon 1982 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Ge...Austria_(1982))!

Apparently, the Algerian team prepared for the game by watching Pontecorvo's "Battle of Algiers" - can seem a strange choice in the context of a football game, but at least the team showed some motivation on the field...

Come on, you've seen him in the Premiership and Champions League, up against far stronger opposition than he's faced so far in the World Cup. His performances in those last two games in no way reflect what he's actually capable of. It's the same with Lampard. Clearly the problem isn't with the players, who've more than proved their worth many times over. The media's a fair shout but then I don't think they apply any pressure than the Brazilian or Argentinian media apply to their national teams, both of which seem to do ok. As with Domenech, I increasingly think there's been some kind of breakdown between Capello and the players. There's a very interesting post-match radio interview with David James [EDIT: a different one to the one o o o is talking about] where he's almost explicitely showing contempt for Capello. Rooney and Lampard are having an awful tournament but I think it's more a problem within the camp itself than one either with them as players or the pressure the media are putting them under.

[for o o o]

what james meant is probably that they looked bad cuz algeria kicked their asses. i mean, i get the feeling that some english fans will only consider "oh, we played so terribly" rather than admit that the little team from underdeveloped north africa played better. it's sort of like 100% of the responsibility for the game was in england's hands-- which it wasn't. so i read that declaration as quite fair, actually, if you read it like i do-- "they trumped us on every front". this of course doesn't mean that england played a great game.

battle of algiers is the perfect choice i think. and hot damn, next they will be facing the great satan!

ah, time to watch denmark-- i haven't seen them play yet.

yes, i actually hope he meant it that way. i have only seen this small bit of the interview in written form with a comment mocking him for saying that: i did not watch or hear the interview in which he made the declaration, so i am aware i should be cautious with how to interpret it (that's why i added a little "if" in my post above).

o o o - yes, i know you said if--- but look at the comments in this thread, the english fans put on the blame on their team and acknowledge little merit in algeria-- algeria actually played well and didn't let down (i know, i repeat myself)

---

and for "i haven't seen denmark yet", i meant "i haven't seen cameroon yet"!

danish goalkeeper fucked up and it was a nice goal.

Hum, players who eat red meat are better than the one who don't..?
Indeed Argentina is the best team so far, and the US is not bad either (they should be at the first place of their group).

Man, you're genius.

merguez FTW

--

ps- i grew up in two underdeveloped countries. malnutrition is no joke.

so why are you joking about the malnourished algerians?

it's like black people making black jokes.

-----

anyway, denmark/cameroon was nice, animated-- they didn't play great but both teams were fast & lively and either could have won-- both sides missed goals-- denmark missed better opportunities too but ended up winning.

do you really think algerians would be like "this guy is just like us, he can make fun of our people if he wants"? because i kind of doubt it

50/50 chance? i'm sure algerians make fun of other people.

Cameroon-Denmark was great!
The Danish goals were tremendous.
Rommedahl played extremely well, Cameroon never found a way to shake off the problem he caused. Did not look like they tried too much. They wanted to score, and put on a very good show.
The Danes were fortunate their second defensive mistake didn't lead to a goal - Eto'o hit the post.
And Sorensen later made a good save.
That was entertenaing as hell!

there's not a 50/50 chance, i don't know specifically about algeria but i know a few moroccans playing football in my country and my family lived in libya at one point and that's pretty close, if you implied in any way that their country is poor or otherwise not the greatest place in the world you're in trouble. i suspect if you told the algerians you're also starving they would probably cut off yr dick and offer it to you as a meal

the 2nd danish goal was awesome. the shot to the goalpost by cameroon-- sad.

(France update : Evra talked about a traitor within the team... Can you get more self-destroying than that?)

the last 3/4 days of the tournament have been completely fantastic bar England

the French situation is the only thing worse than England

If only there was a French word for Debacle

there is one, it's debacle, except there's funny lines above a couple of the letters

*monumental sighs*

is this english humour? never really got that stuff...

i'd say thats pretty universal.

i just don't get where the sigh is coming from,and quite frankly it hurt my feelings.

he made a lightspirited,and perhaps somewhat humorous remark about french words for debacle, i made a similar lighhearted remark on the same subject, what have i done wrong? :(

This joke is just one big misunderstanding isnt it?

If only there wss s French word for Debacle...

they'll have one now ; world cup 2010!

if only there was a canadian word for it

I simply can't believe that UK tied with Algeria, and 0-0 at that! That was truly the MIRACLE the US needed to not only stay in it, but some how advance to second in the group, which means that if they play well against algeria they just may advance, however that in itself is a miracle, and could we expect miracles twice?

I am upset with cameroon getting ousted, and well Nigeria just slumped. Big Up Ghana for sticking it in there, I was immensely surprised with them. Now to Cote d'Ivore, who is a damn fine team, but unfortunately they are playing Brazil, which pretty much leaves it up to Ghana to hold it down in the next round, unless somehow SA scores like SEVEN goals in their next game ;)

on the politics side, the south african stadium security workers are still protesting for a higher wage, and I believe the sympathy protest for Mexican mine workers went well.. there have been reports of riots and police brutality..

This upcoming week is Africa week, catch the last African games while you can, all but one of their teams appear to be out after this. Can the US hope for miracles? I'm rootin for Mexico, they are a home team to Angelinos ;)

Its not the UK, its England. An important distinction
We were absolute doggerel the other night, Algeria used the ball better than us, played as a team, for each other. England did not deserve to win, and I think they deserved to lose the game.

The African teams have been pretty bad except for Nigeria's keeper who is the man of the tournament so far, even with his massive error the other day. I hope Ghana get thru and have a decent run, an African nation needs to do well in this tournament, get to the 1/4 finals at least

Nothing really happened on a political level in France the last two months (apart from the majority being hammered down).
And all of a sudden, new measures regarding pensions/retirement pop up, while everyone's watching elsewhere or playing truant at work.
Tactically well played.
The measures are said to be crap. By those I listen to.

it's fair to say all sports are trivial at best, so no offense, but soccer is the most primitive and simplistic of all sports. I guess that's part of the charm and it's accessable because all countries participate with it being o generic and all... not saying any sport is better than the other, but soccer really is pretty basic. the better the athletes get, the less interesting it gets because the battle to advance the ball from the mid field clutter increases and all these great athletes can cover so much field at a time.

Missed all games except for Holland-Japan yesterday. Denmark vs Cameroon looked like a good one judging by the highlights. It's a shame Denmark didn't play a similar game against the dutch (playing to win rather than consolidating 0-0) but on the other hand I can't really hold it against them.

It's hard to put a finger on the Dutch performance so far. With 2 wins and 2 clean sheets the results are excellent, but it's not been very convincing at all. Of course the goals have proven to be very expensive in South-Africa and maybe the pre-tournament test matches (12 goals vs Mexico, Ghana and Hungary) had thrown dust in my eyes. Both the Japanese and the Danes were starting very defensively against Holland and barely had any intention to move forwards until they fell behind. But all that can't be a proper excuse for the lack of spark/creativitiy from Holland.

After the first-half of Holland-Japan, the stats said over 70% ball possession for Holland, yet the only Dutch shot on goal I remember was Van der Vaart's in injury time. Shocking! I can only hope it'll get better from here.


Now I'm going to read up on everything that happened in the French squad yesterday... Really looking forward to Brazil vs Ivory Coast tonight!

Domenech was the guest of this morning's football tv show, hosted, for once, by a guy I liked.

Domenech appeared shaky. I won't say I remember everything he said, I was focused on his behavior.
To sum it up it was: don't bring the bad news forward, it's useless and damages the team spirit.
To which Lizarazu (being extremely polite, considering what he said after France-Ireland) replied that everybody wanted to know why France was so poor, insisting on the fact keeping away the journalists was forcing them to investigate on the reasons of the catastrophy.

Then Ribéry came. He was not expected. He apologized to the nation. He nearly cried. He said playing for France had been hard since 2008. He added that the first thing they hear when they wake up is reports about qualms and fights and so on (last one a bust up between him and Gourcuff).
He had a beautiful expensive wristwatch.

Two weak ghosts, asking for 2-3 days of peace before being slaughtered.
Probably rightly so, as Ribéry did two odd things.
1) He said noone wanted Anelka to be flown back to Europe - saying that, with Domenech by his side!
2) He backed Evra and mentioned a traitor, and at the same time talking about being in a group where everybody liked everybody... Was everyone told that he'd be their spokeperson? Hard to believe... Interesting to see (his whole body language).

Lizarazu's eyes were lit with something close to rage at the end of the interview.

^Flashbacks to Oranje 1990...

Are there any allegations yet about who this "traitor" could be?

In order for the French squad to work again as a team who can trust each other it will be necessary to find out who's responsible for leaking to the press. But that revelation itself will surely bring another shit-storm, possibly bigger than everything we've seen so far... especially if it turns out to be another player.

Let's just hope it's all sorted out before the end of the summer, so that Laurent Blanc can make a fresh start for the Euro 2012 qualification games.