2010 FIFA World Cup

[Xanatos]

Another brilliant performance coming from Germany, after all these years they still seize to amaze me with their top notch team work and steel mentality. Despite having one of the youngest and inexperienced teams on this Cup I think they showed what you can accomplish with good old teamwork, Maradona could learn something from this.

It was huge mistake from Maradona to lean such wight on just one player, no matter how good Messi is he can't stand alone against teams like Germany, though I must say Messi didn't fulfill my expectations, another good indication what it means to play alongside Xavi and Iniesta. In the end absence of Zaneti and Cambiaso, sort of player which every coach would love to have in their team (except for Maradona it seems), was hugely noticeable. Not giving Veron more time on the field was also a mistake in my book, and one thing I never really understood, is forcing a player by the name of Demichelis, he proved to be a huge hole in defense in both Argentina and Bayern but neither one wants to get rid of him.

Though I must say, I'm glad Argentina was humiliated in this manner, they were rather arrogant and obnoxious these past few days, this was a good lesson never to underestimate Germany, I think Maradona will think twice next time he speaks about Germany and it's players, after all the ball shagger Müller as he called him showed better performance than any of his players.

[smurphy]

My elation at the oranje beating Brazil and the sight of the obnoxious, bloated junkie being humiliated has been countered at my heartbreak for Ghana in losing a fully justified semi final place to the cheating scumbags of Uruguay. And to make it worse, they have been trying to defend the indefensibleWorld Cup 2010: The Hand of God belongs to me, says Luis Suárez | Football | guardian.co.uk.

Half time of the Spain match at the moment. I am still baffled that the plodding donkey Busquets is playing while Fabregas is on the bench.Shows that they cant beat Germany if they cant pick their best 11. A repeat of the 1974 final in this years final anyone?

[Alpha]

I cannot believe that Uruguayan handball. Honestly, does that man have a conscience? I read in my paper that people have defended him by saying that 'he didn't know Ghana would miss the penalty', and that 'he acted instinctively'. That's not what it is. It's a blatant disregard for rules, and unsportsperson-like behaviour. Sure, it may have been accidental in the sense that if your primary focus in the heat of the moment was to keep the ball from travelling over that line, and your hand was the last line of defence. But boasting about it, and seeing it as a legitimate victory is gob-smacking. If it were me, I would have demanded that Ghana be awarded a goal.

Here's to Uruguay getting thrashed in their next game.

[Zargabaath]

I'll have to defend Suarez a bit. Yes he committed a foul and the proper compensation for Ghana was a penalty kick which they were rewarded. There are no automatic goals given in soccer; Gyan took the PK and it was blocked. Let's be honest as well, while Suarez's handball wound up saving Uruguay, at the time the penalty kick was called, rewarding a PK to Ghana, most Uruguayans had thought the match lost. What makes matters a bit worse for Ghana is that Gyan successfully made is shootout kick which begs to ask why he couldn't make the goal during the PK at the end of OT?

It was a smart play by Suarez because that would have been a goal, but with the handball it gave Uruguay a chance, though slim since PK have a great success rate. Ghana still had the chance to win the shoot-out, however Mensah who is a veteran took a horrible shot; both blocked shots were on the ground and I guess Mensah & Adiyiah weren't comfortable putting the ball higher in the air. Adiyiah could have kept Ghana alive since Pereira launched his ball way over the net which I felt shifted momentum back to Ghana a bit.

[smurphy]

@Zarbareth. I cannot disagree more. What Suarez did ruins much of the little integrity that is left in the game. What he did was stop a certain goal and give away a penalty, which is always a lottery, at minimal cost to his team as it was the 120th minute. It wasnt clever, just very sly and this shows how little respect he has for the opposition and all the fans watching. And like the Henry incident, it cannot be defended as instinct as these players are professionals who have been conditioned since 4 or 5 years of age to just use their feet. It was just sickening to witness. Heres hoping for less leniency towards Suarez in future and a thrashing for the cheating, diving, cynical scumbags at the hands of Holland.

And heres an interesting fact. If Spain or Germany win the 500-1 outsider minnows New Zealand will be the only undefeated team at this World Cup. Who would have fancied that?

[Xanatos]

I'll have to agree with Smurphy on this one, what Suarez did was shameful and completely unprofessional, the worst thing is he's actually proud of it, many consider him a hero which sickens me to be honest. As for penalty given to Ghana, the penalty taker had less chance to score than usual, imagine all that pressure, billions people watching, the entire nation depending on one man, Gyan crumbled under the pressure like many before him. And what really pissed me of, the sentence for throwing nation out of the competition in dirty manner is one match of absence, that's shameful, even for FIFA.

[RagnaToad]

So yeah. Germany seems to be really good in this world cup.

I am hoping for a Netherlands-Germany final.

Uruguary-Netherlands will be interesting. Both teams have proven to be very strong.

[Zargabaath]

As for penalty given to Ghana, the penalty taker had less chance to score than usual, imagine all that pressure, billions people watching, the entire nation depending on one man, Gyan crumbled under the pressure like many before him.

I guess that seperates the good/great players from the average or poor. Yesterday I watched a documentary of players who scored a goal in the World Cup Finals. They had players from many, if not most, of the World Cup finals that have taken place. One of those players was Fabio Grosso from Italy's 2006 Championship team: he said while walking and just before taking the shot he was not aware of anything - he was totally focused on what he had to do; he said it felt as if he was in a void, unaware of the "outside" world. That is what Gyan, who as well is a veteran whom also made 2 PKs in other matches for Ghana in this World Cup, needed to do or something similiar. I'll also bring up the fact that he made he made his PK during the shoot-out and he had just as much pressure if not more because he had recently just had a PK blocked at the end of OT that would have sent Ghana to the semi-finals.

[Xanatos]

I don't think that really determinates the quality of player, in fact some of the best players in the world crumbled under huge pressure same as Gyan, Terry, Baggio, Donadoni, Platini just to name few, it's completely normal reaction. Not to mention that Gyan's penalty was a decisive one, as far as I remember that wasn't the case with Grosso, though in the end no matter how silly it seems penalty's are more or less a lottery.