England are slight favourites at the bookies so don't moan at me about the odds!

slight favorites... =P not to mention the fact that Portugal will be playing with 2 men down. Pfft England should have this in the bag.

Like they were supposed to with that giant footballing nation Ecuador ...

let's look back.. who won? oh yeah.

They won but that wasn't my point ;)
They should have beaten Ecuador hands down but struggled against them. The way England has been playing no match is a given thing ...

=] I understand your point. But I'm still suprised at how little credit people give to Ecuador. Considering what was expected out of them, I think they performed very well. And reading articles, their country agrees with me.
As for the matter of struggling to score, a team as good as Brazil offensively, was kept at 1:0 by Croatia. A strong defense and a good goal keeper is basically all you need to stop massive amount of goals.
Maybe I'm just argueing because I love Beckham's crosses and that is the only reason I want to keep seeing England advance. =P

portugal will still beat them

considering the game vs the Dutch.. =)

you mean even if England win, Portugal will still beat the crap out of them? :)

lol thats not really fair since holland started with all the tackles, but ok :D

England Ftw

Dutch support for England all of a sudden :).

=P

fuck portugal

what the fuck kind of game was that vs netherlands? most lame soccer i ever seen

a netherland guy got drop-kicked in midair inside the penalty area, and the ref didnt even give yellow

that was "lol"

russian ref too. so you KNOW he took bribes. no such thing as a clean russian (I was born and raised there)

COMMUNIST!

yeah that drop-kick was by far the worst foul i've seen so far in this cup (besides the elbow to brian mcbride in the U.S. vs. italy match, and i'm not saying that because i'm blindly supporting america or something. the U.S. fucking blew) and i can't believe that kick wasn't called. the match was still kinda fun to watch though cuz i've never seen one get that insanely violent before (we don't get much football/soccer coverage in the states =/)

edit: off to watch ukraine vs. switzerland. i don't think it'll be nearly as bad because switzerland as a nation never gets too upset about anything =P

That high kick on Ronaldo's leg stinked quite as much, the fouls the Netherlands committed and the lack of punishment from the referee is obviously what got the Portugueses mad.. Van Bommel and Boulharouz, talk about butchers. :)

BTW Van Bommel obviously had been the worst player since the beginning of this WC if you combine his tackles and his simulations, I'm definitely glad he's out. Can't believe he's finished all his games, gg referees. :/

He got away with it every league/cup game he's ever played too :/ (Well mostly!)

:(

Fuck what?! Were you watching the same game I was?! Portugal commited 10 faults and got 11 cards! The first fault against Ronaldo should have been red! We'll see who is going to be fucked next saturday. Until then a little more respect for the country who should have won the Euro 2004... And by the way England hadn't win over Portugal for some years. Anyway it is good to know England smashed that superpower called Ecuador...

Should have... but lost to Greece, twice.

AHAHAHA

tissue?

And its good to know you smashed that superpower called Greece and in your own backyard too!

cry me a river, haha.

Until then a little more respect for the country who should have won the Euro 2004

so LOL

have to agree :) greece won fair and square






twice hihi

LAME GAME? WHAAAAT? Every game BUT this game has been lame. The game between nl and pt was awesome!

lol ur cute.

whine. Midair !! <3

england isn't a good team in this wc imho.
but portugal lost deco and maybe c. ronaldo in the last game vs netherland.
who knows...

Portugal will win this...
but then again they won't be able to field a full team in the semis because of yellow cards ;)

I have the same feeling.

The match vs Holand was a very weird game. Apart from the foul that caused the injury on Cristiano Ronaldo and the headbutt from Figo, the game wasn't all that violent. Emotional, yes. Yet, the referee showed 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards in a total of 25 fouls (?!!?).

If the Netherlands got the win vs Portugal their team would also be full of yellow cards and pretty much done for, for the next match. Having 8 to 9 players with yellow cards go on to face England knowing that if they see another card they would be out against Brasil (if they win) is a pretty bad situation to be in.

It all comes down to politics, anyone can remember how teams facing South Korea on the 2002 World Cup got completly ripped off, even Italy.

Oh, and P.S: I still like the Dutch as much as I did before this match, they've shown us for decades excellent fair play, 1 game shouldn't ruin that.

Maybe some yellow cards were not justified, but after all its the players' fault.
Both teams deserved at least one direct red card (Boulahrouz, and one of PT for Kung-Fu-Style, maybe Figo for that "Head-Butt")for rude attacks and multiple yellow cards for other fouls and stuff.
Deco for example deserved both of his yellow cards and especially the 2nd one was such a stupid move.
(Reminds me of Ballack 2002 receiving his 2nd yellow in the last minutes of the semi-final for a really unnecessary foul.)

They all knew that the refs hand out cards for wasting time, diving and tackling very quickly this WC (obviously instructed by the FIFA), so everyone should have tried to play a fair game.
The consequence early on was that whoever was to win that "battle" decreased its chances of proceeding further in the WC a lot, which seems quite ok with me, considering the amount of lame behaviour and rude attacks on both sides.

No doubt that all 4 of the sent-off's were rightly called. Deco's 2nd yellow card could of been spared, as i don't think he was trying to delay the game, but to discuss the play with the referee, when he caught the ball. Cocu grabed him and that delayed the game a lot more. Still, he delayed the game and it was a yellow card, end of story.

What i was refering to, is that besides 2 ou 3 more agressive moves from either team, the game wasn't all that rude to deserve 16 Yellow cards on 25 fouls. I think the referee had less control of the game than the players, and that resulted on the nervousness displayed by both teams the whole match.

I still think of the irony of the shot that the german television filmed, 2 Holand players and Deco that were sent off, talking and gerturing like friends about the incidents of the game, sitting near some steps, while their teams played.


Still, it's all past now. And i know that even if Portugal Looses with England, it will be a good, clean game from both teams. Like the great game they had on the Euro2004. (hopefully with the same outcome :p)

They are teammates, that's why they were sitting there chatting. I think the guys on the pitch really hated each other :).

I'm not speaking to you, YOU'RE ON THE OTHER SIDE NOW !1!!!11



;)

"Hate does not belong in the stadium. The people should live their emotions in their living room with their wifes"

My favorite quote by Berti Vogts

I think England have this, they haven't played their best yet so have everything to prove, Portugal will have to play a 'safe game' and have Ronaldo injured plus Lampard wants a goal and Rooney will want to prove he's back.....only bad omen for me is big Phil if anyone can get Portugal through it's him.

GO ENGLAND

Fuck portugal.

indeed =)

Don't be surpised when Portugal B team still beats England.

You mean when England beat Decodependance

Anyone else is worried for England because Deco won't be there? He misses like 90% of his plays then falls down and looks at the referee with his cry-baby face on... big threat.

I feel your pain.

yeah, it hurts going home ;( sorry

d:-)

:DGO PORTUGAL

are you suggesting that England has better team than Netherlands ? :P

A < B < C doesn't work in football.

if they lose it's back to the dogpound i guess.

(what izit with portugal and stray dogs?)

I hope England scores quickly, and that Beckham goes puke a few times, to delay the match as much as possible. Also, be sure that if the referee is in your back, pretent that you get an elbow in your face, so Figo will get yellow/red and will at least miss Brasil. And don't forget the keeper faking an injury a couple of times, the game won't continue when the keeper can't play on!.

*ohne Holland, fahrn wir nach Berlin!*

ich fahr zu Amsterdam daily, ohne you, german.

I don't want to get nationality involved, but these 4 weeks Berlin >> Amsterdam

750000 people on one mile with 10+ enormous videoscreens is just incredible. Definitely something I will remember for the rest of my life. And yes I've been to Amsterdam several times...

I just wanted to point out that he is german, and is happy that he can fahr zu his capital.

I know, and I wanted to point out that you should drive to the German capital this time ;)

amsterdam > berlin by far
I got more than enough of the football stuff in frankfurt right now :}

(disclaimer: i absolutelyfucking love football it's just that flagwaving bs + 'SCHLAND screaming getting on my nerves)

actually, I thought the same way before I went.
didn't buy any flag or anything (except beer of course). But after some time on the fanmile in the midst of alI the flags I borrowed a small flag from a friend, later I even wore his "flag cape".
Why? Because it wasn't anything about nationalism, and the only patriotic thing was cheering for our team. I talked to some Germans with people with Turkish ethnicity who said they were gonna buy German jerseys soon. And an Italian wore a Totti jersey, but was waving with a German flag all the same.

The evening before at the table next to us there were just 3 people, one Polish and two German fans, some Portuguese and English fans asked if they could sit with them, and they all got along well.

so, basically I think during these days (not after the WC ended, mind you) wearing a flag simply means, "Hey I'm a German who likes football and wants to have fun with everybody else". So, that's why I'm gonna buy a flag for friday and of course will be singing "'SCHLAND", "FINALE", "BERLIN, BERLIN" and "54, 74, 90, 2006" in public.

Try it for yourself ;)

no patriotism and flagwaving never mean 'wanting to have fun with everybody else' and your bierseelige tale is surely not getting me to do it either sorry :/

believe what you want, I know you're wrong


hell, 2 weeks ago I would have plussed your post


/edit: and as I said I wouldn't call it patriotism, because it was simply meant to support my team. Same as seeing a yellow block in Dortmund.

Yeah it is crazy here in Frankfurt, never realized how many idiots live in this place. :)

Oh well in a few more days it is back to normal.

And I just qouted, what the "neutral" crowd is chanting every game since holland dropped :)
For anyone who doesn't know, the WC Final is in Berlin.


I agree that Amsterdam>Berlin, luckily it's only about an 1.5 hours drive away from my parent's home, while it would take me roughly 4.5 hours to go to Berlin.

dat is vat ik leuk vind aun jou

LMAO@bad dutch losers

vamos Portugal!!!

vamos brasil :))))))) ronaldo ftw 14 golos so mais 1!

Brasil domina, espero ver-vos nas meias finais !! ;)

I just want the ref from Australia v Italy to die :(

Me too :-/

England doesn't really deserve a spot in the semi finals in my opinion, they haven't been playing too well up to now. On the other hand, I want Portugal to go home as soon as possible...

C'mon England!

so the dutch will have lost to a weak team that didn't even make the semis? :P

To be honest, the match was awful and either team could have won.

If only Van Persie had managed to finish his chance (One that he has scored quite a few similar to for Arsenal) :(

Dutch have too many hoggers, van persie being one of them. They need to play as a team more to do better next time.

Agreed.

Edit: Although Van Persie did some good things for the team in the group stage.. A few good passes etc.

Yeah, hes not as bad as say robben and he does do some good stuff and is a very good player but sometimes when he gets in the box he tries and takes it pass one too many players a lot. Or he takes a shot from a tight angle when the cut back is the better option.

To the tune of 'Rewind' by Artful Dodger:-

VAN!!! PER!!! SEE!!!
If the girl say's no, MOLEST HER!!

I agree, but then the dutch would still only be on par with a team that didn't make the semis

so sad ;( sorry

don't overdo it m8 :>

You might want to try thinking that through :-)

England deserve there place because they finished top of their group and won there knock out game, it's not up to us who we get to play.

I will admit is that the draw has been kind to us this world cup (unlike the last one) and there are teams that have played better football than us that have already been knocked out.

I'm sure this is the point you was trying to make?

My point is that I don't think England have played that well up to now.

England struggled against Trinidad & Tobago, it almost ended in a 0-0 draw which is pretty bad for a team with quality players like England.

The match against Paraguay wasn't a great performance either, but Paraguay do have quite a decent team. Same goes for Ecuador, although I'm guessing the heat was a factor as well.

I would agree with all of that :)

sir you are mean ;D hihi

Well, do you honestly think either team deserved to win Holland vs Portugal?

no, only the referee should have won a k1ck in the ass

All in on INGERLAND!

I hope Portugal wins, and Figo scores a goal.

When will the other quarter finals be added ?

Seriously who cares of england portugal except england and portugal. The real big game is France Brazioul

Its like Street Fighter, Figo = E.Honda Peter Crouch = Sagat
headbutt vs Tigerrrrr

Go sven go!

Open GER-ITA!!!
Hooray The Mannschaft ftw!

ger - ita... brown shirts vs black shirts. poo or pee.

more like white shirts vs blue shirts

Think you missed his point :(

..or I just don't think it is funny

...

and we all love vindaloo,
were eng ger land, and were gonna score one more than you

england!

I think as refree is argentinian and this conunry is against england may be england is worse condistion because of judge

BBC keep saying that England can't shoot penalties but I think it's Ricardo that's just too good at handling them. Anyway bad game and ez prey for Brazil/France.

All those penalties were poor tbh. Especially the one from Gerrard.

They were all easy to save penalties really. (England suck basically)

Still Ricardo chose the right corner EVERY time

Yeah because the penalties were so bad ;)

yes, thats why carras first attempt left him standing ;]

the penalties were poor and hit soft enough for ricardo to wait for the shot to make a decision on what way to dive :/

So he did it accidentaly in 2004 and repeated it in 2006 while at the same time England was practicing penalties every day (according to Eriksson). Give some credit to the man.

I still don't get how people can practice penalties. People like Gerrard and Lampard shouldn't have any problem shooting a perfect penalty under normal circumstances.

But how do you practice to do it with a full crowd and millions watching on tv and knowing that your country always loses when it comes to penalties?

Ask ze Germans. They've missed only 2 penalties in the last 30 years of international football.

and made 17 out of 18 shots in worldcups :)
But I actually think that ze Germans just know that they'll win the penalty shooting, while the English just know they'll lose.
Sure they should train it maybe once or twice, especially to see how good their goaly is and build their confidence from that.

But every day, I don't think so.

2004 is different, ive not metioned that so no idea why you are bring it up.

carra and gerrard know what to do when taking penalties, head over the ball, foot behind it, leather it into the back of the net. yet they decided to go soft :/

OMG england teh suckage lost all my money due to their inability to play good football :/

Ricardo > England

xD

true but england = 10 players during the half of the match
RECOVER MY DOLLARDS PORTUGAYZ :/

england fought very well! congratz! but ricardo was the matchwinner today.

this world cup is a joke.

Why?

holland didn't make the quarter finals, obviously :P

Unfair :P

england played bad most of the world cup, so they deserved to be sent home. but, they didn't deserve to get kicked out via penalty shoot-out (the same goes for argentina). it is just sad to see a team lose this way, doesn't matter which team it is

in all honesty, there hasnt been a single team that has set the WC on fire, all the big teams have been either inconsistent or just outright poor. england are in the latter group :/

well, germany and argentina have set the wc on fire for me. actually, argentina was my favourite to win the whole tournament. bad luck to end up in penalty shoot out against us :)

but you re right, this world cup has a lot of disappointments. czech republic, england, brazil, netherlands, italy, finally spain, who are still not consistent enough or have problems against bigger teams. too bad, that probably the two best teams uptil now already met in the quarter finals

germany will go on to win against france in the final imo

first we have to beat the italian 10-man defense ;)

including hinfall-pippo (inzaghi) :>

thank god he sits on the bench most of the time.

not against us I fear :(

the italianns would be stupid to replace luca toni with inzaghi. toni is clearly the better player and doesn't have to rely on blind referees

hey there's still france

I would say that both teams ( Argentina and England ) deserved to go home. Not because they played badly but rather because they entered a situation where they were severely out classed in. All teams know that if they want to get far in the WC they have to be able to win on penalties, England and Argentina both showed that they are not good enough it that department.

but the same could be said for all teams at that stage, but still teams will go out.

england werent outclassed, just like argentina were not outclassed.

he was talking about the penalties, and I think England was definately outclassed there.
Argentinia I can't say, but I guess Germany might be a class of it's own in penalties.

oh yeah, completely in that case. they took their penalties very well

how can you say a team is outclassed due a penalties, myself or anyone else on ESR who can kick a football can probably score 7/10 penalties vs a world class keeper. They're not that hard and partly due to luck and prediction anyway.

England need to sack Sven, send the sneaky bastard back to Sweden and get someone who cares about the team instead of trying to line his own pockets.

You really don't know alot about football do you?

Played it most my life and I know enough to know the only way to deal with them is to be put in the position where you've taken numerous ones under pressure matches.
Which is a pretty rare occurence.

Perhaps the England players know the punishment they'll get in british papaers if and when they miss.
Beckham gets death threats and more when he screws up on an international level. And I don't think Sven is capable of teaching his players how to deal with that stress inbetween trying to line his pockets by looking for new jobs and screwing his PA on the side.

You do know that Sven will actually leave the England side after the tournament and Steve McClaren will take over? No of course not.
And penalties are not about luck like you say. Le Tissier would laugh in your face if you said that to him. You would never score 7/10 against a world class keeper. I mean Michael Owen struggles to score 50% of his. You really think some amateur is going to score 7/10 against guys like Lehman and Reina? Even with no pressure you wouldn't even come close.

ahh le tiss, stunning player just lazy. one of the best penalty takes ever tho i would imagine :]

Yeah it was shame that he never was as fit as he could have been. Only missed one penalty in his career and scored 49.

yep. he was just one of those players tho, that could change a game, do something magical in the blink of an eye, completely unexpected.
loads of volleys from outside of area and stuff, wonder if there are any vids put together of his best bits online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-b01xfi1yI&search=tissier

nice find :D

he makes it look so damn easy, just shows how good he was really.

They both deserved to go home because they lost ;)

Doesn't make a difference the circumstance, you lose, you lose :)

England were not outclassed u fuckin idiot.

Maybe not, but they still showed that they are the nations that sucks most at penalties.

Well played Portugal. Roony = Figo of last game. disgrace. Anyway, either of these teams weren't going to get past Brasil/France anyways. The English big names just played pathetic. Ironically, the most criticized person on the team Beckham has been i.m.o the only decent player. And honestly Crouch just plain sucks.

http://futebolez.blogs.sapo.pt/57499.html

Crouch at his best!!

LOL!

Beckham was rubbish tbh. Hargreaves was easily England's best player.

not on just that one game. I mean he is basically the only reason they even made it to 1/4

I honestly can't agree with that. Sure he scored that freekick(mostly because of shite keeping) but most of the time he did absolutely nothing. When Lennon came on England looked like a different team.

http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1099105

:<

England has no better strikers than those in the national team.

there are no better than a crocked rooney and owen, no better than walcott?

England just lack talent in attack. All good attackers in premiership are foreigners.

rooney has no talent, please.

Rooney yes, but the whine is about Crouch/Walcott and it's hard to find better players.

there are better strikers in uk but crouch unforuntaely is best in that postion letting rooney play off of him.

i think it has nothing to do with the lack of talent. it was rather a poor decision of erickson to always play tooo defensively with only one striker.

I agree with you, dont know why we played with that formation.

There is plenty of fringe english players at a decent age who just need a chance to make it at the next level, Bent, Johnson, Defoe could all pitch in with goals, and dare I say it... can all take a pretty decent penalty :)

crouch is the worst football player ever!! how the hell did he manage to get in englands nationalteam? did he suck erikssons dick?

Plays for Liverpool. Usually enough to play for a big team to get in the squad. Just ask Phil Neville.

i asked phil. he agrees with me.

didn't phil play for man u. when he made it to the WC?

and what about heskey? he didn't play for liverpool ;)

oops. wrong reply

Crouch has passed the Anfield test, worked hard, scored goals & is now liked on Merseyside. If a player can do that........... then I an assure you he is not a bad football player.

wtf is crouch even doing on the team lanky fuck, it's hilarious every time someone passes to him. I always expect one of his legs to snap or something when he's tackled. YAH PORTUGAL!

Ricardo defended 3 penalties and touched the ball on the only one that was scored against him, wow. AND WITH HIS GLOVES ON !

And the one that scored plays for a German team. Go figure :P

hah