What a difference a day makes.....
- 23 Jun 06, 07:20 PM
BERLIN - When you´re constantly travelling, swotting up on players you´ve never seen before and simply thinking about the next game it´s difficult to assess the overall quality of the World Cup so far.
If, like me, you saw Brazil´s second-half exhibition against Japan you´d still be purring about the beautiful game but then sit through Ukraine´s laboured win over Tunisia (me again) and you´d wonder why people bother putting it on television.
Dortmund is a fantastic venue and made for Brazil at the World Cup. The whole city was buzzing all day and Japan´s sporting decision to make the holders angry by scoring first produced half an hour of breathtaking football from a team with five reserves playing - even Ronaldo broke into a trot now and again and still made the headlines for officially not having more chins than shots on target this time.
The night-train back to Berlin was certainly an experience. It was a relief the Brazilian fans samba-ed themselves to a standstill by about Bielefield so I could get some sleep before concluding my commentary stint at the Olympic Stadium for Ukraine v Tunisia.
It´s a real privilege to work in such great stadia. Sadly the players didn´t agree and plodded through a dreadful game which forced the 72,000 who´d had to pay for their seats to show their displeasure very quickly.
Shevchenko was the game-breaker and it was great to see the players and supporters united in a real nationalistic pride at the finish. The World Cup is there for moments like that and if they´d tried to entertain even remotely like the other team in yellow it would have been a perfect day.
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France VS Togo, Switzerland VS South Korea was a surprise.
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Well, France pulled off that miraculous winner...exactly the burden they had to shed with 2 goals, which were rather fun goals to watch... it was definately worth watching Togo make a valiant effort during the first half.
Perhaps S Korea had too much home grown support in that last world cup....somethign to ponder on
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To prepare his side, Oleg Blokhin has watched every National team EXCEPT GERMANY
Germany, Kings of Defense, the German Machine are now listening to samba and playing like Argentinians.
So in an attempt to make the Ukraine-Switzerland more entertaining, perhaps we could ask someone to play Barry Manilow's "COPACABANA" loudly in the Ukrainian camp, they won't complain about bees and hornets.
At least a step in the right direction.
Okay, off to the pub to work on my jokes....
VIVA MEXICO!
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I watched the Australia game instead of the Brazil game and am I glad. What a match that was.
Pity the Graham Poll didn't give a good account of himself!
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I think your comment on Ronaldo was VERY harsh - the guy has just gone and equalled the WORLD CUP SCORING RECORD - MAYBE WORTH MENTIONING!!!!!
ANYWAY - on the quality point it has been fairly good with a couple of iffy games - which one of the 2nd round matches do you see being the game of this round? I'll post the results later:
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Why did the ±«Óãtv have a preference for showing the Brazil-Japan game instead of the Australia - Croatia game? There was all to play for in the Australia game and as it turned out it was an exciting match, with qualification switching between the teams several times in the match. There were many incidents especially involving England's top referee.
I feel the ±«Óãtv has a Bias in favour of Brazil and a few other teams such as Ghana. The only Bias should be to the England team.
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For me the World Cup starts today. No more mismatches or meaningless games that end in 0-0 with second string teams on the pitch.
Some great games to look forward to. Sweden v Germany has the makings of a classic and I will be firmly with the many Swedish fans that are here in Bali at the moment.
Spain v France as well...happy days!
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Of course the ±«Óãtv is biased towards Brazil! EVERYBODY is biased towards Brazil!
They're heading for, as they call it, The Hexa (Sixth - it's Greek, not Portuguese, BTW).
They play The Beautiful Game. Who else plays like that? Argentina? Nope. Italy? Nope. Germany? Certainly not. Brzil has a looong tradition of skillful playing. Learn.
This is not to say other teams aren't able to do great things (Nederlands 1974 - Hallowed Be Thy Name)
Japan played bravely. They played fair, too. Only 14 or 15 fouls the whole match for both teams. If Brazil were playing Argentina, the albiceleste guys would be playing a much harsher game (I really hope FIFA shus this behaviour).
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RE Henry's comment about Brazil:
that's complete non-sense. when it comes to Brazil half the world looses any sense of objectivity!!!
if the Germans score a goal after a nice combination, it's immidiately called mechanical. if the Brazilians score exactly the same goal, it's 'uh ah beatiful'. so many people judge teams by their reputation rather than what they actually show. i remember (i think it was) the first Brazil game in this WC, when they took a corner the same way Italy did the day before (and the Italians scored from), but Ronaldinios shoot was saved, and the bbc commentator even saying that's exactly what the italians did, and from the resulting corner Roberto Carlos did what he does best, i.e. blasting the ball into the sky, and the bbc commentator said, 'you see, that's why we love watching them so much'... i just thought 'wt*????'. so they do the same thing as the Italians (replace with any good team of your choice) first, then blast the ball into the sky and i'm supposed to watch in awe??? give me a break!!!
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RE Henry's comment about Brazil:
that's complete non-sense. when it comes to Brazil half the world looses any sense of objectivity!!!
if the Germans score a goal after a nice combination, it's immidiately called mechanical. if the Brazilians score exactly the same goal, it's 'uh ah beatiful'. so many people judge teams by their reputation rather than what they actually show. i remember (i think it was) the first Brazil game in this WC, when they took a corner the same way Italy did the day before (and the Italians scored from), but Ronaldinios shoot was saved, and the bbc commentator even saying that's exactly what the italians did, and from the resulting corner Roberto Carlos did what he does best, i.e. blasting the ball into the sky, and the bbc commentator said, 'you see, that's why we love watching them so much'... i just thought 'wt*????'. so they do the same thing as the Italians (replace with any good team of your choice) first, then blast the ball into the sky and i'm supposed to watch in awe??? give me a break!!!
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Say it quietly - Brazil are bit a boring, and have been for a while. It’s the African nations that play without inhibition.
Has the Malandro been put out of business by football plc?
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My goodness ! What a fuss. If there is any sense of objectivity people can with ease understand why Brasil is and will be current favorites for this World Cup and many more to come.
Why do all the mayor teams in europe use brasilians among there ranks ? Guys as Lucio, Roberto Carlos, Cicinho, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo,
Robinho, Kaka ( i wont bore writting all the brasilian squad ) play in Europe ! In fact even managers are brasilians. Why oh why don't we see europeans stars and manegers in the americas ? At least some players from europe and oceania could give it a go playing and couching some first rate brasilian, argentinian and hispanic team. It would be interesting :) Please don't answer they don't because of the money ... Please ! :)
Brasil or Argentina will win this Cup simply because they are the best.
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Ukraine will reach the semi final. Why? Because they play good, if slightly old fashioned, football, in keeping with a great footballing tradition. Only an ignoramus would say otherwise.
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