Easily the best performance of the tournament so far from my lieblingsland. System was perfect. Itâs a poor Australian team but they were destroyed in the end. Looking good for us.
Australia = genocidal cunts.
I have a soft spot for the Germans as well. With any luck they may still knock out the English.
[size=â5â]Card Watch: Day 3[/size]
First things first. Let me say that the following men are most certainly alright sortsâŠ
âą Marco Antonio RodrĂguez Moreno
âą HĂ©ctor Walter Baldassi
âą Carlos Alberto Batres GonzĂĄlez
I had convinced myself that yesterday was just an aberration. An unfortunate combination of careful teams and sensible referees. That early games will have less cards then 3rd round group games and knockout games.
Today was different. Today was special.
3 games, three red cards, 18 yellow cards [in the context of the RCPGA and YCPGA. Red cards = 2 yellows. Max 2 cards per Red card i.e. a second yellow is not 3 cards, it is 2]
What the experts said:
- Kevin Keegan: âThe referees in this completion have been outstandingâ
- Patrick Vieira: âThe referee[Marco RodrĂguez] was perfectâ
I wholeheartedly agree, exactly the kind of overzealous box ticking I want to see. Keep up the good work lads.
Carlos Alberto Batres GonzĂĄlez set the ball rolling early in the day with his excellent second half production. After almost an hour there was but one yellow card on the board. Just over half an hour later and we had another 3 yellows[2 in garbage time] and a red to enjoy. Abdelkader Ghezzal also played his part with another act of supreme stupidity which is the hallmark of many red cards in this competition.
HĂ©ctor Baldassi, it must be said, has a tremendous name. With the help of Aleksandar Lukovic and Zdravko Kuzmanovic he outdid the previous game by a yellow card.
Marco Antonio RodrĂguez Moreno has a keen eye for a diver. I like him a lot. Heâs exactly the kind of guy I would like refereeing a Battle of Nuremberg type encounter in the knock out stages.
There is an argument that Cahillâs red card was merited. I wouldnât share it though. There is also an argument that the 2 cards for diving were correct decisions. Probably the first but I think the second was harsh. In fact I thought the free and the card were going in the opposite directions.
Officiating Preview:
- Stéphane Laurent Lannoy takes charge of the Dutch and Danes. Say it Frenchie, say chowder.
- Olegårio Manuel Bartolo Faustino Benquerença will officiate on Cameroon and Japan. On 25 January 2004, Benquerença was the referee who issued Miklós Fehér a yellow card shortly before he collapsed on the pitch and later died.
I like him already. - Benito Armando Archundia TĂ©llez will referee the match between Italy and Paraguay.
He is a veteran of the 2006 World Cup Finals. His final game was the semi-final between Germany and Italy. In general he was the most lenient referee at the 2006 World Cup, giving out an average of only 3 cards per game (the lowest of any referee at the competition) :mad:
Alright, alright, I have been teasing ye long enough, I know what you all want to see.
Everyone together now⊠#What has it done to the graph?
Great question lads.
After 8 games:
The required YCPGA has fallen from 4.53 to 4.50
The required RCPGA has fallen from 0.4375 to 0.428571
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_IjAotuegZ6o/TBVKoWS9fCI/AAAAAAAAARs/r8j3UmH5rIc/s800/rycd3.png
[size=â4â]Cards:[/size]
Algeria:
[color="#FFFF00"]Yellow:
Yebda
Ghezzal
[color="#FF0000"]Red:
Ghezzal
Slovenia:
[color="#FFFF00"]Yellow:
Radosavljevic
Komac
Ghana:
[color="#FFFF00"]Yellow:
Tagoe
Vorsah
Serbia:
[color="#FFFF00"]Yellow:
Zigic
Lukovic
Kuzmanovic
[color="#FF0000"]Red:
Lukovic
Germany:
[color="#FFFF00"]Yellow:
Ozil
Cacau
Australia:
[color="#FFFF00"]Yellow:
Moore
Neill
Valeri
[color="#FF0000"]Red:
Cahill
:rolleyes:
B)
I see the calling card of the dodgy goalkeeper was in evidence again in the Algeria-Slovenia match. Tracksuit bottoms.
Ledley King rumoured to be out of the tournament now. Englandâs defence looks very shaky now and thereâs an awful lot of question marks about the team even one game into the tournament.
about time they realised there was question marks over them. how they could have thought they had a decent side with an average back line, no wide midfielders and only one striker and no goalkeeper. caught up in the hype, once again.
I think itâs funny how they have identified left midfield as their âproblem positionâ for years and the pundits spend 2 years between championships trying to work out how to solve it by suggesting full backs pushing forward or central players pushing wide. Meanwhile they start Aaron Lennon on the right wing and for some reason thatâs not an issue? I donât know how he sneaked into the team as a starter.
Looks like a lot of people were caught up in hype over Serbia, again. Myself included.
I still think England will sneak into the semis owing to the draw opening up for them.
Ghana in round 2, followed by the winners of the France/Mexico group or South Korea.
You can never trust a goalkeeper that is a member of the rap community either, never ever.
definitely. I think the fact that Beckham was there for so long, it hid the fact there was no one there to take his spot. Milner? Lennon? Wright Philips? no way. and relying on Gareth Barry to be their saviour when he is fit is hardly inspiring either.
The best thing that happened to Germany was the injury to Rene Adler, Iâve no doubt Manuwl Neuer will be the best goalkeeper in the world within the next few years, some of his performances for Shalke have been outstanding.
+1
If I was Capello I would go with:
James
Johnson - Carragher - Terry - Cashley
Lampard - Barry
Wright-Phillips - Gerrard - Joe Cole
Rooney
Agree with the 4-5-1 but would go with Carrick sitting in beside Barry with Gerrard going wide and lampard given licence to get forwardâŠThe decision to leave Parker and Huddlestone looks foolish now as they could do with either of them in that engine room as Carrick is windy as fuck
I think Stevie G showed early doors the other night that heâs well up for this and I think heâs going to have a better tournament than Lamps.
A dutch/italian double at 7/4âŠFree money???
Started well, fell to shit like the rest of them later on though. You cant beat that strong USA resilience thats seen them return victoricous from so many battlefields in the past.
I think Capello should toss the sink at it, go with 3 at the back and wing backs to provide this much needed width that he cant get anywhere else, fuck Barry Carrick and Lampard into midfield and play Gerrard off Rooney and just take out a contract hit on Heskey. Also stick James in, when it goes wrong, at least people wont be surprised then. Green is muck.
Englandâs biggest problem and has been in every tournament I can remember is the lack of a midfielder that can play between the lines. They always line out with three straight lines 442. They have never produced a midfielder like Ozil who is comfortable moving across the park and not pre programmed into playing in one position only. The English side is extremely predictable and need a complete tactical and personnel overhaul to have any hope. English players pass but dont move. You rarely see off the ball running or decoy breaks to create space. They have no idea how to take the sting out of the opposition by putting a string of passes together.
Capello has also made serious errors in the picking of the squad and even the side the last day. Who cares what age Joe Hart is, he is the best keeper they have by miles and should be playing. Green is pretty shit to be honest. Ledley King should never have been brought to the WC either or Carragher. With Ferdinandâs injury problems Capello should have used the friendlies to have bedded in a new partner for Terry. Someone with pace like Gary Cahill. Dawson is slow too. Hargreaves is a huge loss, watch how inept a defensive midfielder Gareth Barry will be against any decent opposition. The treatment of Ashley Young is baffling too. Putting SWP on the left wing is Staunton esque. None of the midfielders can tackle so leaving out Parker was very strange.
what i would put out for the next day. Fairly scraping the barrel here to be honest. But against poor opposition Carrick and Barry should monopolise possession. England have two very good attacking full backs so they have to start using them.
Hart
Johnson, Dawson, Terry, Cole,
-----------Carrick, Barry-----------
-----------Lampard-----------------
âLennon-----------Gerrard
-------------Rooney--------------------