World Cup

[Stag]

Forza! Woohoo.

 

[Bradylama]

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2298/ffzidane2mc2nl.gif

 

[Briosafreak]

From all the italian players at least Zidane chose the one that deserves a beating, Materazzi is an ass, although the Dutch Canibal is even worse, of course. Materazzi's father is a sweet sweet man, very polite, a true gentleman, and his son comes out like this. Oh well.

Let's go to the final prizes then.

Best Player: Zidane (well he surely deserved it before the headbutt, but well it's not the best example for the kids FIFA could give is it?...)

Golden Shoe- Best scorer- Klose (this guy is going far, i'm a Klose fan)

Fair Play award- Brazil and Spain (don't think they care about the award though, they should have gone further than they went)

Best Young Player: Podolsky (i know my countrymen are pissed with FIFA because they changed the criteria one day before the decision in order not to give the award to Ronaldo, because of hodson and the FA president pressure, but for once this screw up from FIFA actually gave a better result, no matter if Ronaldo can do a Maradona style play like the italians say, and he is much more charismatic still it should be the player that makes a diference in the team to win, and Podolsky was overall much more important to Germany than Cristiano was to Portugal, so good choice)

Best Goalkeeper: Bouffon (yep, nothing to say here)

Best Goal: Maxi Rodriguez 2-1 to Mexico (the best, no doubt, a fantastic goal)

Most entertaining team: Portugal (Given the votes from China, Japan, Corea, Brazil, the Spanish speaking countries and the english speaking countries seems the world likes us more than you thought Sander )

And the final classification, diferent from what you'll find in the FIFA site, but this is the oficial and correct one:

1- Italy
2- France
3-Germany
4- Portugal
5- Brazil
6- Argentina
7- England
8- Ukraine
9- Spain
10- Switzerland
11- Holland
12- Equador
13- Ghana
14- Mexico
15- Sweden
16- Australia
17- South Korea
18- Paraguai
19- Ivory Coast
20- Check republic
21- Poland
22- Croatia
23- Angola
24- Tunisia
25- A tie between USA and Iran (funny )
27- Trinidad and Tobago
28- A tie between saudi Arabia and Japan
30- Togo
31- Costa Rica
32- Serbia and Montenegro

Next World Cup in South Africa (maybe...) in four years.

Finally my price for the weirdest World Cup stories, it goes ex aequo to:

- The deranged french postal worker that decided people were making too much noise and went literally postal, shooting at random on the streets, killing a portuguese that was celebrating the victory on England before getting shot by the police;
- and to the chinese dutch suporter, that had placed a lot of money on the ilegal betting systems convinced that Holland would beat Portugal, and when they lost he wrote a note asking for his organs to be given to medicine and that Holland was the best nacional team in the world, placed the note in his jacket and threw himself from the 12th floor of a building in a chinese metropolis.

Euro qualifications start in September, goody!

Edit: Where was Blatter anyway? Why didn't he showed up to give the cup?

 

[Sander]

From all the italian players at least Zidane chose the one that deserves a beating, Materazzi is an ass, although the Dutch Canibal is even worse, of course.

...
BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!
Sorry, Briosa, but that's really, really bullshit. Boulahrouz really hasn't injured anywhere near the number of players as Materazzi has, nor has he tried to. The only reason you hate him is because hurt poor little Ronaldo.

Materazzi's father is a sweet sweet man, very polite, a true gentleman, and his son comes out like this. Oh well.

Let's go to the final prizes then.

Best Player: Zidane (well he surely deserved it before the headbutt, but well it's not the best example for the kids FIFA could give is it?...)

Golden Shoe- Best scorer- Klose (this guy is going far, i'm a Klose fan)

Fair Play award- Brazil and Spain (don't think they care about the award though, they should have gone further than they went)

Best Young Player: Podolsky (i know my countrymen are pissed with FIFA because they changed the criteria one day before the decision in order not to give the award to Ronaldo, because of hodson and the FA president pressure, but for once this screw up from FIFA actually gave a better result, no matter if Ronaldo can do a Maradona style play like the italians say, and he is much more charismatic still it should be the player that makes a diference in the team to win, and Podolsky was overall much more important to Germany than Cristiano was to Portugal, so good choice)

You mean Podolski deserved it rather than Ronaldo because Ronaldo did....ehmmm...what did he do? He scored from a penalty? I don't think he did anything else at all. Other than the Rooney incident.

Most entertaining team: Portugal (Given the votes from China, Japan, Corea, Brazil, the Spanish speaking countries and the english speaking countries seems the world likes us more than you thought Sander )

I was really surprised by that, given that the English hate Portugal, the French hate them, the Dutch hate them, the Belgians hate them, the Germans hate them.
Hell, half the world seems to hate them.
Besides, objectively speaking, there's no way they were more entertaining to watch than Germany. Really.

 

[Brother None]

Briosa, dude, you know I love you, but do you ever have sand in your eyes. And in your vagina.

Your despising of Bouhlarouz is irrational, as is nicknaming him the cannibal. He's a high-quality peoplestopper defender, his biggest weakness is how impetuous he is. I sincerely doubt his kick on Ronaldo was intentional, nevertheless it was a bad foul, should have been an immediate red card and if FIFA found on review that it looks intentional, he should have been removed from one or two matches, like Rooney. But let's be honest here, except for van Bommel's nonsense there's no reason whatsoever to assume Holland went in for the kill. We had no particular reason to fear Portugal more than we did "The Group of Death", and have never played like that anyway, especially recently.

As for van Bommel's slow reaction to Figo's headbutt. Guess what...that doesn't matter, AT ALL. A headbutt in stopped time is actually an instant red card, guaranteed, as Zidane displayed. I don't know how much referee cock Figo sucked to turn an obviously deserved red card into a yellow card, but I am impressed by his amount of ass-lickery.

That said, I disagree with Sander, Portugal played good football for the most part. Not nearly on the level of great, attractive football that countries like Argentine, Spain, Germany and sporadically France, Brasil and Italy showed, but still good football. They just switched into stalling afterwards, I guess because winning is really important to them. It's no biggie, it happens a lot. I usually just avoid watching matches with those kind of Italian teams in them, and then all is fine. Still, for the most part Portuguese matches were quite a bit of fun.

You're not going to seriously suggest the "most entertaining team" award isn't at least as rigged as the Eurovision Songfestival, though, Briosa. Portugal and Italy raked in everything? Fantastic entertaining teams like Argentine and Germany get next to nothing? A sham of a joke, at best.

 

[Sander]

Briosa, dude, you know I love you, but do you ever have sand in your eyes. And in your vagina.

Your despising of Bouhlarouz is irrational, as is nicknaming him the cannibal.

Not really, since apparently his German nickname is Khalid der Canibal. Still, he doesn't have the reputation Materazzi has, it's more because of his intimidating looks and his qualities as a defender.

 

[Brother None]

Not really, since apparently his German nickname is Khalid der Canibal. Still, he doesn't have the reputation Materazzi has, it's more because of his intimidating looks and his qualities as a defender.

I know his nickname is the Cannibal, internationally. Not sure who started it, but it wasn't the Germans. I'm saying the nickname doesn't suit him any more than calling Arjen Robben "Shadow".

 

[victor]

Bah. Stolen victory by the Aye-talians. Also, they must've round up the best actors in Italy and started a football team. Too bad the fans don't realize what fuckpansies that team consists of.

 

[mandala]

Most latin teams have their own personal style and passion, I can't see that in teams such as holand, germany or england, although portugal gave no better show than italy, spain or argentina but I think that the fifa tries to distribute the awards in order to make everyone happy and also because portugal managed to be on the 4 best teams in the world. I think the portuguese stopped playing the nice football with lot's of goals because they realized that if they continued that way they wouldn't reach very far in the wc.
My country should learn from them, we need to get more tactical.
Also regarding diving, it's part of football, and for those that know the history of football it was a consequence of the period in which alot of players were seriousrly injured and no cards were given by the referee, the players started diving in order to the referee to see the fault itself and mark it or not. A good referee will know what is a fault and what is not.But in the overall diving is part of football, swearing at other people is also a big part of the psycology part of the game.

 

[victor]

No. It's part of the absolute lack of sportsmanship. Cheating is usually a sign of a lack in skills.

 

[Sander]

Most latin teams have their own personal style and passion, I can't see that in teams such as holand, germany or england, although portugal gave no better show than italy, spain or argentina but I think that the fifa tries to distribute the awards in order to make everyone happy and also because portugal managed to be on the 4 best teams in the world. I think the portuguese stopped playing the nice football with lot's of goals because they realized that if they continued that way they wouldn't reach very far in the wc.

..
Portugal hasn't played 'nice football' with 'lots of goals' in a long time. At least for 6 years.

My country should learn from them, we need to get more tactical.
Also regarding diving, it's part of football, and for those that know the history of football it was a consequence of the period in which alot of players were seriousrly injured and no cards were given by the referee, the players started diving in order to the referee to see the fault itself and mark it or not. A good referee will know what is a fault and what is not.But in the overall diving is part of football, swearing at other people is also a big part of the psycology part of the game.

It's a big part of the game currently, just like fouls are a big part of the game. There's a reason why no-one likes dives, though: they shouldn't be part of the game. Your argument basically comes down to 'it's part of the game because it is, and that's good', which is a rather ridiculous argument.
See, diving is an attempt to screw over other players and to deceive the referee. Neither of those goals are worthy of any sport, because it's supposed to be a game of skill, not one of acting.

 

[mandala]

Heh right now from what I remember I seem to recall most games Portugal played in 2000 and 2004 were pretty good, in the last world cup they sucked as well as other teams that shouldn't have, although a lot of strange shit surrounded the korea wc.
Regarding diving and fouls, not everyone hate diving with such passion as the english, in countries such as spain, france, italy, portugal, latin america, ( there are other countries but I can only recall these ones) diving is frowned uppon but it's taken like part of the game. A player can make a dangerous foul and get away with it, the same goes for diving.It's all a matter to the referee to decide.
It's kinda weird for me to see the english become more upset with cristiano ronaldo blinking his eyes or doing whatever he did rather than defending rooney over his obviously foul.
Some countries just seem to accept better a violent foul rather than a dive, it's just part of the countries football culture.

 

[Brother None]

My country should learn from them, we need to get more tactical.

Please, please don't. Right now I like the Spanish team, a lot, don't make me hate you guys too.

Also regarding diving, it's part of football, and for those that know the history of football it was a consequence of the period in which alot of players were seriousrly injured and no cards were given by the referee, the players started diving in order to the referee to see the fault itself and mark it or not. A good referee will know what is a fault and what is not.But in the overall diving is part of football, swearing at other people is also a big part of the psycology part of the game.

Forget the English tendancy to put the blame on someone else's shoulders here, they're pass-the-blame-gamers, what you're saying is complete and utter horseshit.

Diving did not become a part of the game due to exuberant faults coupled with referee incompetence, it became a part of the game when it was revealed as a way for weak play to lead to victories.

A good referee's first job is not just to distinguish between faults on players or not, a good referee also needs to be able to card a diving player. Christiano Ronaldo not getting a red card for his constant diving is probably one of the biggest shows of referee incompetence of this WC.

And I assure you, we're well aware and constantly sneer at the habit of Latin countries to accept dives as a part of the game. Your comparison to heavy fouls is ridiculous. We hate heavy fouls, we just consider a dive a foul as much as a penalty from behind or intentional hands is, and it should be punished as such.

Why? Because diving is not a part of football. It's not attractive, it's not fun, it's not in any way related to the sport. It's intentional abuse of the rules that leads to bad matches. I know Italy can celebrate when a diving player gets them a penalty, but I'll spit in the face of any Dutch player that does the same, Arjan Robben foremost.

We need to do all we can to remove this bad mark upon football as soon as we can. Diving and weak defensive football are jointly responsible for making this one of the weakest, most boring WCs ever. EVER.

 

[Sander]

Heh right now from what I remember I seem to recall most games Portugal played in 2000 and 2004 were pretty good, in the last world cup they sucked as well as other teams that shouldn't have, although a lot of strange shit surrounded the korea wc.
Regarding diving and fouls, not everyone hate diving with such passion as the english, in countries such as spain, france, italy, portugal, latin america, ( there are other countries but I can only recall these ones) diving is frowned uppon but it's taken like part of the game. A player can make a dangerous foul and get away with it, the same goes for diving.It's all a matter to the referee to decide.

Yes, we all realise that's a matter for the referee to decide. That's rather obvious.
What you forget, however, is that when a dirty foul is committed and missed by the referee, everyone hates that just as much. Because neither of those things should really be part of the game.

 

[welsh]

What they need is instant replay.

That and a policy that players that dive get tarred and feathered.

 

[Brother None]

There we go:

I'm sorry but no regrets - Zidane
Zinedine Zidane
Zidane has spoken about his sending-off for the first time
Zinedine Zidane has apologised for his headbutt on Italian defender Marco Materazzi in Sunday's World Cup final.

But the French legend does not regret his actions, alleging on television that Materazzi provoked him by insulting both his mother and sister.

"It was inexcusable. I apologise," said the 34-year-old Zidane. "But I can't regret what I did because it would mean that he was right to say all that."

Materazzi responded by denying he said anything about Zidane's mother.

"I didn't mention anything about religion, politics or racism," said the Italian on Wednesday.

"I didn't insult his mother. I lost my mother when I was 15 years old and still get emotional when I talk about it.

"Naturally, I didn't know that his mother was in hospital but I wish her all the best.

"Zidane is my hero and I have always admired him a lot."

Zidane was sent off for headbutting Materazzi in the chest in the second period of extra-time in the final in Berlin.

The Frenchman claimed he had been provoked by the Italian and appeared on French TV station Canal Plus on Wednesday to explain his actions.

"It was seen by two or three billion people on television and millions and millions of children were watching," he said.

"It was an inexcusable gesture and to them, and the people in education whose job it is to show children what they should and shouldn't do, I want to apologise."

Asked what had caused to react so violently, he said Materazzi had directed some "very hard words" at him.

"You hear them once and you try to move away. But then you hear them twice, and then a third time," said Zidane.

"I am a man and some words are harder to hear than actions. I would rather have taken a blow to the face than hear that."

WHAT WAS SAID?
BBC Radio Five Live asked a deaf lip reader to read Materazzi's words phonetically to an Italian translator:
She deciphered the insult as being "you're the son of a terrorist whore"
The BBC's Ten O'Clock News called in experts to study the television footage who said:
Materazzi told Zidane to "calm down" before accusing him of being a "liar" and wished "an ugly death to you and your family". This was followed by "Go f*** yourself"

Zidane, who retired from football after Sunday's final, also called for Materazzi to be punished for his part in the incident.

"We always talk about the reaction, and obviously it must be punished. But if there is no provocation, there is no need to react," said the former Real Madrid and Juventus player.

"Above all it was a very serious provocation. It was an inexcusable gesture but the real culprit is the person who provoked it.

"Do you imagine that in a World Cup final like that with just 10 minutes to go to the end of my career, I am going to do something like that because it gives me pleasure?"

Since the incident, rumours have run rife about what Materazzi said to get such a reaction from the Frenchman.

There were claims the Italian had called Zidane a "terrorist", but in Tuesday's edition of the Italian newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport, Materazzi said: "It was the kind of insult you will hear dozens of times and just slips out on the field.

"I didn't call Zidane a terrorist and certainly didn't mention his mother. I did not bring up Zidane's mother; for me a mother is sacred."

Zinedine Zidane was shown the red card during the World Cup final
Zinedine Zidane's last professional game ended with a red card
Zidane, who was born and grew up in Marseille, is the son of Algerian immigrants and has suffered taunts about his heritage throughout his football career.

The two players initially clashed in the Italian penalty area before words were exchanged.

Materazzi said: "I held his shirt, for only a few seconds. He turned towards me and scoffed at me, looking at me with super arrogance, up and down.

"He said 'if you really want my shirt, you can have it later'. It's true, I shot back with an insult."

Fifa is to investigate Zidane's sending-off and president Sepp Blatter has hinted the France star could be stripped of the Golden Ball award he won after being voted the best player in the World Cup by journalists.

Zidane said he planned to defend himself in the Fifa investigation into his sending off.

He also confirmed that he would not go back on his decision to quit the game.

"This is a decision I have made and I will not go back on it," he said. "This is definite. I will not play again."

Verbal provocation of fellow players has never been a thing to punish in football. Is Zidane right? Should Materazzi be punished?

And how about that Blatter? Is he right to want to strip Zidane of his Ball or is this another show of Blatter-assholism? How incompetent is this man? And how about him calling the lowest-scoring WC in history with the highest number of yellow cards in WC history "the best WC ever"? Is he incompetent AND idiotic?

 

[Per]

I think he and Juan Antonio Samaranch had a bet over who could get away with the most blatant assholery.

 

[victor]

I think that racist shit Materazzi should be penalized. Like, say, not allowed to play football anymore?

 

[Sander]

Verbal provocation of fellow players has never been a thing to punish in football. Is Zidane right? Should Materazzi be punished?

No. Mainly because no rule states that you can't insult other players. Punishing Materazzi for something well within the rules would be ridiculous.
Besides, insults get thrown around on the field. Players, especially at that level, should be above being provoked like that.

In any case, an act of physical violence on the pitch is never excusable, no matter what happened.

And how about that Blatter? Is he right to want to strip Zidane of his Ball or is this another show of Blatter-assholism? How incompetent is this man? And how about him calling the lowest-scoring WC in history with the highest number of yellow cards in WC history "the best WC ever"? Is he incompetent AND idiotic?

Blatter is an incompetent idiot trying to hold on to his rather lucrative place. He shakes up the football world every once in a while with weird remarks, but still remains in place as possibly the most powerful man in football.

As for his remarks on the World Cup, eh, what's he going to do, say the World Cup sucks while the tournament isn't even over? That'd scare away viewers. He more or less has to praise the current event.

 

[Ratty Sr.]

I think that racist shit Materazzi should be penalized. Like, say, not allowed to play football anymore?

I have a better suggestion - lock Materazzi in a stuffy room with Zidane for a few minutes. The effect will be the same, seeing as it's a bit difficult to sustain your football career when you no longer have feet.

An alternative solution is to ship Materazzi off to Gaza or a similar friendly place with Muslim majority. I bet the locals will be *thrilled* to exchange a few words with him. And by words I mean Kalashnykov rounds.