World Cup

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by madformac

Well apart from 1990 the host countries were all crap. Then again who was it that won in '90?

Oh yes it was the Germans. (After they beat England on penalites as usual in the semi)

Who were the biggest underperformers of the '90 World Cup? Yup, the 1988 European Champions (they played in orange )

The logic was crap, that's all I said.

that last remark doesnot hurt at all. At least we won a tournament. The brits did too. in 66 and against the rules. we won with that incredible van bastengoal. something else.

[madformac]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

The logic was crap, that's all I said.

that last remark doesnot hurt at all. At least we won a tournament. The brits did too. in 66 and against the rules. we won with that incredible van bastengoal. something else.

It wasn't supposed to hurt, its just true. I was amazed at what I thought was a pretty unbeatable team failing to live up to their skills. I wore a Holland 1988 shirt at school that year for sports and got the piss taken out of me during the world cup from my friends. I was gutted. Van Basten was an amazing striker and its a shame injuries really stopped him reaching his best. Gullit works for one of our TV stations and is no doubt commentating tonight. Bet he will be cheering for Italy.

[bretonbanquet]

Italy 2-0 Germany
Grosso 119"
Del Piero 120"

What a fantastic goal to win a fantastic game, and then comes another one!!

One of the most dramatic games I've seen in a long time. Italy had to avoid penalties, they knew they'd lose - and they had to wait till the very end to win it. Such a shame for Germany, they played incredibly well, especially Lehmann in goal. They've been great hosts, and it's a shame they're out, but Italy will make worthy finalists if they play like that in the final.

Maybe we'll get Italy-France in the final, like we should have had in '82...

[Für Elise]

I'll have to go for France now.

[tuigirl]

Good heavens Italy??? I just saw your post Breton! Who would have guessed that...hmmm...I'm revising my final then...Italy/France.

[Villavic]

I didn't see the end of the game but sure it was really exciting!!

[madformac]

Italy deserved the win. I thought they might be unlucky and lose on penalties after so many near misses but the right team won.

No doubt this backs up Gerald's opinion of my prediction as "crap"

How about this one then :

Germany won in Italy in 1990

Italy win in Germany in 2006

[Serrart]

Not bad for a not very intimidating team. Great game, and we've been fantastic. I'm very happy for Alex Del Piero he needed to score, after been very heavily criticized here. One of the best aspects of the game was how the two teams have been correct.

By the way, I didn't know it was possible to whistle so loudly for 120 minutes.

Our players are saying they've not preferences for the final, but I think they would prefer France, to forget 1998 defeat.

Romy

[Gailh]

what a great game!

Well done to both sides.

Italy were everything that England weren't

Gail

[Street Angel]

Originally Posted by Serrart

Not bad for a not very intimidating team.

Yes, this team looks quite promising, in a few more years these young talents could become a force to be reckoned with. That's enough, Romy - that's the second time my comment about "intimidating" teams is being referenced. I was talking about the psychological hurdle not about skills. So if we had played against Italy first and Argentina later then Italy would have been more intimidating. But nobody wants to understand that the way I meant it, of course! And don't tell me you didn't mean me with your comment!!

Originally Posted by Serrart

Great game, and we've been fantastic. I'm very happy for Alex Del Piero he needed to score, after been very heavily criticized here. One of the best aspects of the game was how the two teams have been correct.

Seriously, both teams were brilliant, and this was a great game to watch. And I agree, *this* is how you win/lose a game and finish it. So, congratulations Italy! However, it's time for a change of the rules, there's too much extra time. They should reduce it to 28 minutes - maximum

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by madformac

It wasn't supposed to hurt, its just true. I was amazed at what I thought was a pretty unbeatable team failing to live up to their skills.

Totally true. It was a devastating waste of talent. The players wanted Cruijff as a coach because there were too many strong characters inside of the team. They needed a coach that automatically would place everyone in order just by his appearance and legend. The dutch FA played a political game by pointing out Beenhakker for the job and the team fell apart. Small disaster, since that was the most talented group we ever had. Shameful. Van Basten still doesn't want to talk about that WorldCup. Sorry 'bout your orange shirt-story. Have you ever wore it again?

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by Street Angel

They should reduce it to 28 minutes - maximum

Well, reducing playtime would have not been good for the the legend of the team that statisticly scores the most in the last minutes of playtime. Germany.

OK. and Italy .

[madformac]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

Sorry 'bout your orange shirt-story. Have you ever wore it again?

I wore it now and again. I loved the team and the shirt design. I don't think it would fit now.. I was 15 at the time and infinitely smaller than I am now.

[DavidMn]

Although I was very dissapointed in the result yesterday, maybe the Germans good fortune had finally run out. I was very nervous after Italy missed those 2 chances early in overtime, and t turned out I was right. Congratulations to the Italians, you beat us fair and sqaure. I wish you luck in the final. I just noticed Zidane just scored on a penalty kick to put France up 1-0. I think a Italy/France final would be very interesting.

[bretonbanquet]

France 1-0 Portugal
Zidane 33 (pen.)

A tight game of pretty high quality, and I think the best team won. France sat back a lot in the second half, but they were able to hold on reasonably easily, not like when they played South Korea... Portugal had their chances right to the end - particularly a potentially huge mistake by Saha just before the final whistle - but nothing worked out for them. Also people were getting a bit hacked off with their perpetual diving. So, A France/Italy final - let's hope it's a good one