"The Perfect Game"

[Bamilus]

That would be nice. Regardless, the damage is already done. It's a shame that the first world cup in Africa will most likely go down as one of the worst (if not the worst) world cups in history.

[andym]

If they used some of the rules they have in rugby then football would be far better.Such as the sin bin for a yellow card(10 mins off the pitch)Stop the clock when play is interrupted.I still wouldnt watch it though.LOL

[MajFrankBurns]

Soccer would be a better and more entertaining game to watch if they would add some elements of basketball to it. Eliminate goalies and bring in huge backboards with a goal net so many feet high. Play the game normally but instead of kicking it into a ground goal with a goalie kick it into a goal like a basketball goal only bigger and higher. I like to see scoring not rugrats running up and down the field to a 0-0 tie or 1-0 that is just so boring.

[Mac67]

ORIGINAL: koontz
Poor Green is he still alive? [;)]

Capello released a statement today to say that there was good news about Green. In training he has saved 300 on target shots. They are now considering letting him train with the rest of the team and not just with Emile Heskey...[;)]

[Neilster]

ORIGINAL: MajFrankBurns

Soccer would be a better and more entertaining game to watch if they would add some elements of basketball to it. Eliminate goalies and bring in huge backboards with a goal net so many feet high. Play the game normally but instead of kicking it into a ground goal with a goalie kick it into a goal like a basketball goal only bigger and higher. I like to see scoring not rugrats running up and down the field to a 0-0 tie or 1-0 that is just so boring.

That sounds a lot like Australian football. It's because it's fast, athletic, physical, high scoring and played in front of huge crowds with tremendous atmosphere that it's by far the most popular winter sport in Australia. Both forms of rugby and soccer are also very popular but if anything Australian football is increasing its stranglehold.

This is a pretty amazing highlight reel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIReSJhQor0

Cheers, Neilster

[koontz]

ORIGINAL: MajFrankBurns

Soccer would be a better and more entertaining game to watch if they would add some elements of basketball to it. Eliminate goalies and bring in huge backboards with a goal net so many feet high. Play the game normally but instead of kicking it into a ground goal with a goalie kick it into a goal like a basketball goal only bigger and higher. I like to see scoring not rugrats running up and down the field to a 0-0 tie or 1-0 that is just so boring.

Guess that England would like that [;)]
No but srsly that would kill the sport, and the matches
gonna improve alot im sure. First game of each group is
so important, and that reflects the game.

[:)]

Mac67
[:D] Heskey is an good teamplayer and as a target man.
But I would play "Shrek" alone with Gerrad as shadow forward.

Kind of important to win your group otherwise...

[MajFrankBurns]

ORIGINAL: Neilster

ORIGINAL: MajFrankBurns

Soccer would be a better and more entertaining game to watch if they would add some elements of basketball to it. Eliminate goalies and bring in huge backboards with a goal net so many feet high. Play the game normally but instead of kicking it into a ground goal with a goalie kick it into a goal like a basketball goal only bigger and higher. I like to see scoring not rugrats running up and down the field to a 0-0 tie or 1-0 that is just so boring.

That sounds a lot like Australian football. It's because it's fast, athletic, physical, high scoring and played in front of huge crowds with tremendous atmosphere that it's by far the most popular winter sport in Australia. Both forms of rugby and soccer are also very popular but if anything Australian football is increasing its stranglehold.

This is a pretty amazing highlight reel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIReSJhQor0

Cheers, Neilster

Yes I enjoy Austrialian rules football. Lots of action no pads now that is a gladiator sport.

I wish they would show it more here in the states. I'd watch it all the time.

[Bamilus]

Switzerland baby! Yea, I'm American but my ancestry is 3/8 Swiss so I'm pretty pumped. [:)]

[MajFrankBurns]

Switzerland? Switzerland couldn't beat a fly off of turkey shoot. [:'(]

[wodin]

I just don't get Heskey...scored five for his club all season...a joke...

I'm a spurs fan so I have had a good year...put lanky crouch on because the defenders don't know what to do when face with those lanky spagehtti legs...who knows which way they will go...Crouch doesn't but it works..

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: wodin

I'm a spurs fan so I have had a good year...

Warspite1

Except for the FA Cup Semi-Final....[:@] Still, I would take not getting to the cup final for a place in the champions league proper - just one two-legged qualifying match to get through....Please please god of draws be kind!!

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: MajFrankBurns

Switzerland? Switzerland couldn't beat a fly off of turkey shoot. [:'(]

mmm...me thinks you missed the game [:'(]

[Bamilus]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

ORIGINAL: MajFrankBurns

Switzerland? Switzerland couldn't beat a fly off of turkey shoot. [:'(]

mmm...me thinks you missed the game [:'(]

Yea, lol, he must have.

[Titanwarrior89]

They mention on the national news(ABC) that the horns were getting to some people. I myself don't like them. Its just never ending.[:(]

ORIGINAL: Punk Reaper

vuvuzelas

For me they are ruining this World Cup... hope they never go back to Africa if this is the background noise they tolerate. Fifa says it adds flavour... doh. The players can't hear each other, the crowd atmosphere is zero since there is no cheering as they are blowing the %$@ horns.

[Neilster]

I can take or leave soccer/football. I often enjoy watching a high quality game, mostly if there is a decent amount of scoring, especially from range. However, I think there's a fundamental problem with this type of tournament in that football's scoring works much better over a long season. There, the odd game where one team totally dominates but fails to score and loses to a lucky goal or something is rarely disastrous. In a World Cup it often is. Additionally, the defences seem to be ever more organised and efficient and the formally free-wheeling teams such as those from Africa now have European coaches and disciplined players, hardened by exposure to European and South American football, and don't seem to have the same scoring flair of yesteryear.

So perhaps the inevitable new ball will encourage scoring? Well, in this respect the Jubulani ball appears to be a bit ordinary. Every World Cup there is a new ball with fewer panels because that makes them swing more, supposedly leading to more scoring (especially from range and curling free kicks) but this one just seems to be extremely difficult to control in the air. I can hardly remember a long range goal in this tournament so far but there have definitely been a stack of wayward crosses and balls sailing high over the crossbar. Now, for the games played at altitude, there will be lower aerodynamic forces on the ball, reducing dip and curl but that also makes it travel faster, which you think would help scoring from range. Apparently the teams with experience of the Jubulani are keeping it on the ground more but whatever is the case, not all teams have had equal time to practise with this ball for a variety of reasons and it certainly doesn't seem to be promoting scoring.

Anyway, I'm glad I didn't have many expectations for Australia in this tournament. The whole thing just didn't feel right from the start. This wasn't the case last time when we had to beat Uruguay to qualify and it was held in a civilised country (Deutschland). We had a tough group then but under an excellent coach played extremely well to progress to the second round where we only lost 1-0 (through a slightly dodgy last minute penalty) to eventual winner Italy.

This time the team is older, it's not all that good, I don't like our coach, our group is one of the toughest and in our first game we came up against a Germany who has been practising with the tournament ball for months. It was a perfect storm and we got smashed. It's not all over yet but it probably will be after the Ghana game.

The vuvuzelas are terrible and their mindless cacophony makes the games pretty hard to watch. FIFA can say they're part of South African football all they like. I'll just switch off. They also appear to be injurious to one's hearing if attending the games so I hope they get a massive class action to wake them up. Incidently, I can remember Australia playing a game of cricket in my home city Devonport in Tasmania back in the late 80s before all the merchandise was so tightly controlled. Some canny local entrepreneur sold vuvuzelas and just about every d!ckhead bogan (redneck) there bought one and tunelessly blared them all day [:@] [8|]

Cheers, Neilster

[PunkReaper]

Chris Evans: retweeted joke about African football fans at World Cup

Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans has apologised for posting a joke about poverty in Africa and the World Cup on Twitter.


Evans retweeted a joke about African football fans and the noisy horns known as vuvuzelas that had been circulating on the micro-blogging site.


The 44-year-old Evans, who has more than 84,000 followers on Twitter, said "You give an African £2 a month and what do they do? Buy a bloody trumpet."

[JudgeDredd]

Well personally I'm more than a tad fed up with the whinging about the ball. If they were going to use a "different" ball then the coaches/footballing governing bodies should have made a case for giving them all the chance to use them for practice. Where does it stop though? You've already mentioned the differences in altitude and possible effects...so they play with the ball but get to do it at altitude? At even more expense? Personally I think they're paid enough to stop bloody whining about it and get on with adapting...man up and earn your pay.

One of the reasons I hate football is all the pathetic whinging...rolling around crying (case in point, the Uraguan (spelling) player who took a dive in the box last night, surrounding the refs, demanding yellow and red cards.

Give football a Sin Bin. Give the refs the ability to red card people who perform dangerous tackles and let him issue yellows to all those minor offences and give the team a 10 minute qo man play. That way, the ref won't be so objectionable to issuing that second yellow (which means a red in todays game).

Also, whilst we're here - give refs power. NO PLAYER should approach the ref except when summond or unless he's the captain. And NO PLAYER should question the refs decision (perhaps with the exception of the captain). In other words - make them play rugby! [;)]

Seriously though refs need to be given power back and respected - no questions and no exceptions!

As for the vuvuzelas, I really don't mind them (though I may change my mind if I was actually at a game). I can understand why some people may be affected by them as peoples hearing and ranges are different - but they don't bother me in the slightest.

[JudgeDredd]

oh - and vuvuzelas have been banned from Wimbledon [:D]

[Bamilus]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

oh - and vuvuzelas have been banned from Wimbledon [:D]

They need to ban football from vuvuzela concerts, not the other way around [:)]

[PunkReaper]

Great game with today but unfortunately USA was robbed ... Edu's goal should never have been disallowed...[:-]