World Cup 2010

[hucks]

Hmmm...I'm OK with Argentina but they are are dirty, dirty bastards. I like Italy, Uruguay have a cool flag and, yeah, Brazil annoy me a bit now, tho not to the same extent as they do D_Q, obv. There was a good line in a Guardian piece a while back about the greatest trick the devil ever pulled being to convince the world that joga bonito existed.

I have increasingly liked the Germans since they started showing their weakness in 94. Now even though they are good again I really like em. I am totally pro Kraut

 

[IdleRich]

I hear what you're saying DQ - wouldn't quite go that far myself but there is something annoying about the sycophancy. On the other hand they do keep winning the thing don't they?

 

[don_quixote]

yeah ive heard that. i was born in 86. ive got every respect if they had a good team in the past, but i have never seen a totally amazing brazilian team ever.
my favourite tournament teams ever:

czech 04, turkey 02 + 08, russia 08, senegal 02, holland 98, croatia 96

do you remember how exciting el hadj diouf seemed in 2002?

 

[don_quixote]

I hear what you're saying DQ - wouldn't quite go that far myself but there is something annoying about the sycophancy. On the other hand they do keep winning the thing don't they?

can't deny that but i do think they got lucky by being the only side not to fuck up completely in 2002.

germany and brazil are great tournament sides because they have a winning mentality, they aim high and expect to make finals. it's suddenly happened to france as well over the last 10 years.

it's also happened to the english rugby team that no matter how shit they have been in the four years in between they will turn up and do spectacularly well at world cups.

 

[grizzleb]

I fucking hate the way every game we're told "this is fucking boring", "you won't be missing anything if you can't see this" "this game is craaaap". Fuck off, I get dour sarcastic pessimism every day of my life, I'd like to avoid it during my infrequent sporting events. Cameroon Japan wasn't that bad anyway.

 

[don_quixote]

did you see shearer and lineker go "ooooh we'd love to be at royal ascot". well fuck off then, fuckity fuck right off you TWATS.

i couldn't agree with you more. if a game is boring it is the media's job to MAKE IT INTERESTING. that person who linked to zonal marking. that has made games loads more interesting for me, france-uruguay was actually a cracker in my mind.

 

[grizzleb]

Yeah I seen that...the twats. I don't ever remember any tournament having 12 goal thrillers, every game, in the first round. Most games I've watched have been pretty good entertainment, without expecting the world (!). Yeah, and talking it up, pulling out some stats or whatever shouldn't be that hard. It would certaintly be better than being told, every 30 seconds how fucking shitty it is. EVERY GAME. I mean, isn't that really any PR guys worst nightmare - continually talking down your own product??

 

[crackerjack]

I can't imagine ever liking the Germans at football. As people, yup, and been a pleasure to work for down the years (esp when the Euro was riding high) but at footy, fuck em where they breathe.

I love the Argies, who are dirty cheating bastards, whereas Italy are dirty, cheating, boring bastards, which is just unforgiveable.

I used to love France, but hate the current team.

Who else is there?

(this is great, we should've done this before, I've always wanted to be in a remake of that scene from the Likely Lads)

 

[don_quixote]

it's only bbc from what ive seen. itv have been talking things up from what i've seen. bbc just seem to be taking everything for granted. hansen has just looked pissed off about having to spend a couple of hours off the golf course.

i really miss martin o'neill. he is an awesome pundit.

 

[scottdisco]

I fucking hate the way every game we're told "this is fucking boring", "you won't be missing anything if you can't see this" "this game is craaaap". Fuck off, I get dour sarcastic pessimism every day of my life, I'd like to avoid it during my infrequent sporting events. Cameroon Japan wasn't that bad anyway.

well put.

i had to laugh at the almost hysterical reaction of what i felt was a mood of OTT gloom and lacerating self-flagellation from some England-supporting quarters (no one here, but when i logged on to my Facebook status feed after the match i got some then) after the recently-out-of-form England team drew their opening group match against decent opposition... ...as for British telly, the Beeb's only relative high points have been the lesser commentators and some of the int'l studio guests have been OK, the big boys (esp Hansen, more so than any one for me, his supposedly wittily sarcastic mock disgust about having to watch was it Algeria-Slovenia - i enjoyed Algeria quite a lot, and Slovenia toward the end showed something - was a mean-spirited disgrace) have been awful, Chiles & Co all the way.

that shot from Mbia toward the end that rattled the Japanese bar! actually, Shearer wasn't as bad at the end of that match as he has been, getting Adebayor into the convo a bit, who had some interesting things to say, but, yes, a bit of research can't be that hard.

they're spending the whole day in a gated community where i'd imagine their cooking and cleaning is being done for them, and they've presumably got free WiFi... ...c'mon Paraguay!

 

[don_quixote]

chiles actually shows genuine joy about being there. colin murray does too to a lesser extent. hansen, shearer, lineker are just the complacent fat pigs.

everything in the itv coverage is what's good here? what's to see? it's not great but it's better. their team has a good balance.

guardian's daily podcast is the best because they get actual experts on as well as people who are interesting to listen to. must be pretty hard to do.

 

[paolo]

Every time I hear or read Miroslav Klose's name this goes off in my head

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Also I agree with the people who say that the standard of football has generally been poor

 

[hucks]

Every time I hear or read Miroslav Klose's name this goes off in my head

Whenever he's out of position, I get this

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

Sorry. Actually, no, fuck it, I'm not.

 

[baboon2004]

chiles actually shows genuine joy about being there.

yeah, i like him. he is an undoubted 'everyman' figure, but i like him.

italy doign what they always do

 

[Damien]

I really enjoyed the England match in a standing-outside-screaming-random-shit-in-the-air-and-no-one-staring-at-you kind of way

Highly therapeutic

 

[paolo]

yeah ive heard that. i was born in 86. ive got every respect if they had a good team in the past, but i have never seen a totally amazing brazilian team ever.
my favourite tournament teams ever:

czech 04, turkey 02 + 08, russia 08, senegal 02, holland 98, croatia 96

do you remember how exciting el hadj diouf seemed in 2002?

I'd add Bulgaria and Romania from 1994

 

[baboon2004]

I can't imagine ever liking the Germans at football. As people, yup, and been a pleasure to work for down the years (esp when the Euro was riding high) but at footy, fuck em where they breathe.

I love the Argies, who are dirty cheating bastards, whereas Italy are dirty, cheating, boring bastards, which is just unforgiveable.

I agree in principle with the last paragraph, but Roberto Baggio redeems the entire Italian footballing race, by his virtually Maradona-esque displays in 1994.

As to the Germans, I used to hate the way they played football, but I'm really loving their verve these days.

Favourite torunament teams (from 1982 onwards, and agreeing with DQ on a lot of them): Brazil 1982 (all the hype is deserved), Denmark 1986, France 1986/2000 (missed 1984), Netherlands 1988/1998, Romania 1994, Turkey 2002, Rooney 2004, Germany 2006, Russia 2008, Egypt in the ACN every time I've seen them.

 

[grizzleb]

Thought it was a really good game last night. Paraguay could do well IMO, well organised coming up against a pretty solid Italian side. Just watched the Germany highlights after I missed it - woueft. Passing the ball about, getting into space, playing some amazing football. They'll be great to watch this tournament, I'm looking forward to Ghana v Germany a week on Wednesday.

 

[crackerjack]

Thought it was a really good game last night. Paraguay could do well IMO, well organised coming up against a pretty solid Italian side. Just watched the Germany highlights after I missed it - woueft. Passing the ball about, getting into space, playing some amazing football.

Conspiracy theory time: Germany have been playing with the 'new' WC football since January. Who was it who made it, again? Just asking questions.

 

[grizzleb]

I think there's got to be something to that. I've seen a lot of duff first touches and shit so far throughout the tournament, I think the amount of practise you get on a ball will improve your abilities on it, even if it's only marginally. I would have thought that it would be in most football associations interests to try and make sure their league was using it from as early as possible...And if Germany is anything to go by maybe it would have been better to watch so far...
Probably fuck all difference thought tbh.