World Cup 2010

Scores on the Yahoo group just updated. I had Mexico winning 2-1, so I *nearly* got some points there

Neither team really impressed me and they often broke down defensively, but it was a good game. A shame Mphela couldn't score on that break near the end there.

Dimmerswitch wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

thank all the gods for Khune in goal

I'm really impressed with him - he looks super-young, but has pulled off some spectacular saves so far.

He was very impressive in the Confed Cup as well, I think he's 22 or 23.

Good game and I think the result was fair. Mexico looked totally rattled between our goal and theirs. My heart did sink a little with the equaliser, but I will take the result.

Have to say the reffing was excellent.

Good game, all in all. Sadly, I had RSA down for a 2:1 in the Yahoo group.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Have to say the reffing was excellent.

Did you see the botched offsides call that ruled out Mexico's goal in the first half?

Terrible. Not "Hand of God" terrible, but I don't think that lineman will be working any other matches this World Cup.

My prediction was for the Mexico win, but the tie was deserved.

Now for more predictions, I'll say France will have a tie with Uruguai. God, I hope France doesn't make it past the group. As a portuguese, this is a long grudge since 1984 and I just know that if the teams met again they would inevitably win... just like Portugal now kicks England's butt everytime.

Sparhawk wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:

Are those live streams working for you guys still? P2poo is blocked at work as well as zattoo. Espn3 just keeps bringing up errors.

There is a Dutch site that will broadcast 99% of the games www.nos.nl
If you can stand the Dutch commentary.....

If you've lived through years of korean Starcraft commentators, nothing can annoy you anymore...

Korean commentators are so awesome, i wish the news or the weather on my tv were like this...hmmm... "Saturday will be sunny but OOOOOH CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD INCOMING SUNDAY AAAAAH!"
mindset.threat wrote:

Are those live streams working for you guys still? P2poo is blocked at work as well as zattoo. Espn3 just keeps bringing up errors.

There is a Dutch site that will broadcast 99% of the games www.nos.nl
If you can stand the Dutch commentary.....

[edit]
Better link : http://nos.nl/wk2010/live/

Dimmerswitch wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Have to say the reffing was excellent.

Did you see the botched offsides call that ruled out Mexico's goal in the first half?

Terrible. Not "Hand of God" terrible, but I don't think that lineman will be working any other matches this World Cup.

I don't think so, on the replay the Mexican player was waaaayyy offside. There was a graphic showing the offside zone and everything.

Sparhawk wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:

Are those live streams working for you guys still? P2poo is blocked at work as well as zattoo. Espn3 just keeps bringing up errors.

There is a Dutch site that will broadcast 99% of the games www.nos.nl
If you can stand the Dutch commentary.....

[edit]
Better link : http://nos.nl/wk2010/live/

Thanks! For some reason I can access this site and watch the game at 2:30.

slazev wrote:

My prediction was for the Mexico win, but the tie was deserved.

Now for more predictions, I'll say France will have a tie with Uruguai. God, I hope France doesn't make it past the group. As a portuguese, this is a long grudge since 1984 and I just know that if the teams met again they would inevitably win... just like Portugal now kicks England's butt everytime. :P

I've got France to win, but it'll be close

Good game! Following as best I can on Gamecast.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
Dimmerswitch wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Have to say the reffing was excellent.

Did you see the botched offsides call that ruled out Mexico's goal in the first half?

Terrible. Not "Hand of God" terrible, but I don't think that lineman will be working any other matches this World Cup.

I don't think so, on the replay the Mexican player was waaaayyy offside. There was a graphic showing the offside zone and everything.

I stand corrected.

FIFA's 2010 rules wrote:

A player is in an offside position if:
* he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent

A player is not in an offside position if:
* he is in his own half of the field of play or
* he is level with the second-last opponent or
* he is level with the last two opponents

The rules I'd remembered were that offsides was governed by the rearmost defender who is not the goalie. I don't know if the rules have changed or if my recollection is faulty, but, given those rules, the Mexican goal in the first half was definitely offsides.

Dimmerswitch:

Always thought the exact same thing myself until that call tonight, when the commentators explained it and showed how it worked. Otherwise I would have agreed with you totally.

Yeah, same here. Always thought the goalkeeper was essential on an offside.

Wow, yeah, that being the case, that was an excellent defense by South Africa.

I don't think I can explain to you guys what an embarrassment our team has been for years now. Seeing them hold their own recently has been really great. In this country soccer is very much a 'Black' sport, now they are doing better everyone is getting behind them. Sport is really effective at crossing boundaries, when your team doesn't suck.

Events like this, in a wealthy traditionally white area, were unthinkable a year ago.

I just hope that once Pareirra moves on after the tournament we get a coach who can continue his good work. Just seeing how fit and well built the guys looked was impressive.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

The rules I'd remembered were that offsides was governed by the rearmost defender who is not the goalie. I don't know if the rules have changed or if my recollection is faulty, but, given those rules, the Mexican goal in the first half was definitely offsides.

The offside law has been like that for a long time, even back when you needed to have 3 players in front of you rather than the current 2. With the goalkeeper rarely advancing and putting someone offside, when it's explained it is often simplified as "the last defender" because it's so rare that the goalkeeper is out far enough to put a man offside. Even commentators refer to a player being past the "last man" when explaining an offside call, even though that's not entirely correct.

Basically, nobody actually explains the offside law properly, so it causes much confusion on the rare occurrence like the play before that non-goal.

Looking ahead to the late game today, I am compelled by the France-Uruguay matchup. The possibility of France imploding is a delicious possibility. They really should have rid themselves of Domenech before the tournament... or after Euro 2008. It should be interesting.

I'm hoping France implodes, they are the other big threat in our group.

In a totally unrelated comment, Ruud Gullit has one of the best porn actor names I've ever heard.

Well, I had France - Uruguay 0-0 just until this morning after the opening game, I changed it and I'm now seriously regretting it.

First red card. Ouch. Like the announcer said, France guy is lucky his leg isn't broken.

8 minutes for France to make something of the advantage.

Wow good hold. Think I picked that one right. Well, not the score, but the tie.

Ah well, I had France winning 3-2. No points for me on day 1, but I enjoyed both games!

France need to man up :/ That game should have been theirs, their possession was so high.
However, Forlan definitely had two shots where he should have been scoring. Considering he has scored 300 goals this season, I was expecting him to dominate slightly more. But still, in general, the game should have been France's: Uruguay were decidedly average.

Impressions from France v Uruguay.

Poor game, very few moves strung together.

Domenech is completely clueless, seems wedded to his system even if it means having peeps out of position.

If Govou and Gourcuff are the best the French league has to offer, then god help it. Thought the number 14 was good, though.

That noise you hear - Franz Beckenbauer celebrating as teams start to reconsider the idea of paying money for Ribery.

Here's my prediction - France out at the group stage.

I didn't bother with the second half anymore France vs Uruguay. The level was beneath standard.
Sometimes that makes for a fun game still and plenty of goals. Not this time. NEXT!

ps France showed it doesn't belong at the WC. They got in by a faulty call of a referee at the qualifications and Ireland paid the bill there.

Sparhawk wrote:

I didn't bother with the second half anymore France vs Uruguay. The level was beneath standard.
Sometimes that makes for a fun game still and plenty of goals. Not this time. NEXT!

ps France showed it doesn't belong at the WC. They got in by a faulty call of a referee at the qualifications and Ireland paid the bill there.

And frankly, the Irish would have beaten Uruguay.

davet010 wrote:

If Govou and Gourcuff are the best the French league has to offer, then god help it. Thought the number 14 was good, though.
That noise you hear - Franz Beckenbauer celebrating as teams start to reconsider the idea of paying money for Ribery.

Nah, they're all good players, they're just doing all they can to show they don't care one bit about international football (with exception of Abou Diaby who doesn't care for any type of football at all).

I still got them or Italians down for semi-final place, though I've got to say, if I had to pick one team, it would be Italians cause they're more consistent at being mediocre. Before World Cup ESPN ran short interview with Boniek (Platini's partner in that early 80s Juve attack and a guy who always has interesting views on Italian football) and he backed them up to go far by saying that everyone thinks they're crap and that's exactly what should propel them forward. Case in point: 2006.