FIFA 2010 QF Poll

Do you know Paul, the psychic octopus?

Scrybe, the Spanish dirty words (or tacos) football-related always have the same target: the referee's mother.

That's absolutely fine! I'm familiar with the Italian expletive-added version of "are you blind?!?", and for pidgeon poop (apparently a major diss in those lands). So the mother references will do nicely. PM?

Tonight, Germany and Spain will be battling out to reach the World Cup Finals. The winner of this clash will be decided after a rigorous 90 minute war through the medium of interpretive dance...

lol at ^

España!!!!]

hell yeah I knew they would make it to the finals, they have proven to be the better team once again, experience and long hair (Puyolllll) beat Germany and their young guns, watching Spain play kinda sucks for a person who really doesn't understand football, not much excitement and goals, but they win again and thats the important part.

I was really cheering for Klose to score a goal, cause I wanted him to beat Ronaldo ( or atleast tie ) but I guess there is always next year ( or next 4 years xD ).

Hmm I was cheering for Spain but also for Klose, oh well, it was a nice game I was expecting Villa to score but no xD Puyol surprised me, and that Pedro guy whatever his last name is really choked when he was two one one against that German guy...

Woooo Spain 1-0 in the finals is my prediction, that or penalty kicks and lose because Torres will miss his penalty haha.

Congratulations to Spain - clearly the better team on the day. Pedro really caused massive problems there. Torres was dead when he came on - pointless substitution.

Here's hoping that ref doesn't get the Final though - some very dodgy calls on his part. Hope it goes to Howard Webb so the Netherlands and Spain can face off in a fair game.

Spain to shock Germany, Netherlands to beat Uruguay, and a Spanish win in the Final.

I see no reason to change my prediction.....

Here's hoping for a good final - but whoever wins, there'll be a new name on the trophy. Whoever wins, there'll be two Liverpool players (Torres and Reina for Spain; Kuyt and Babel for Netherlands.) going home with WC winner's medals. I'm actually torn between who to support; I promised I'd support Spain when England went out, but I've been an admirer of Dutch Football since the 60's when Ajax gave Liverpool a footballing lesson. I think I'll have to stick with Spain, seeing as there's no Cruyff, Rep, Rensenbrink, Krol, Guulitt, Van Basten etc in the Dutch squad......

:D :D :D

Vic

I was really cheering for Klose to score a goal, cause I wanted him to beat Ronaldo ( or atleast tie ) but I guess there is always next year ( or next 4 years xD ).

Klose will be 36 then. He wont be playing. Ronaldo's record will stand unchallenged.

Uno de enero,
Dos de febrero,
Tres de marzo,
Cuatro de abril,
Cinco de mayo,
Seis de junio,
Siete de julio,
¡San Fermín! :note2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vvh3Z-3A44

Congrats, Nuno!
For me, that was the most entertaining match so far.
Scrybe, why do you feel the game was poorly refereed? I'm an admitted neophyte, but that was the only match I've seen I thought was refereed properly. He basically established early that something pretty egregious was going to have to happen before he'd award a penalty. No cards and no penalties for the entire match, right? I thought it was great.

Thanks Boxboy! :D

It was a good match. Germany tried to play like Switzerland or Paraguay. I think they had too fear for the Spanish players. After the goal Germany tried to play in another way. But it is truth it is not easy to play against Spain.

Anyway, Germany was one of the best teams in the World Cup. Practically all the players are under 25 so they are a team for the future. They beat to great teams as well. Germany-Uruguay will be a good match.

Now, time for resting and preparing the next and last step: Netherlands.

Congrats, Nuno!
For me, that was the most entertaining match so far.
Scrybe, why do you feel the game was poorly refereed? I'm an admitted neophyte, but that was the only match I've seen I thought was refereed properly. He basically established early that something pretty egregious was going to have to happen before he'd award a penalty. No cards and no penalties for the entire match, right? I thought it was great.

I thought too many fouls went uncalled, and it usually wasn't a case were you can call "play on" because the team fouled still had possession and a break. Mostly, it was happening when the fouled against team lost possession. I also thought the Ramos challenge on Klose (iirc) at the start should have been a free kick on the edge of the box and a card for being the last outfield player. Had it been inside the box, it should have been a penalty and a straight red card - as per the rules of the game. Given how close to the box it was, a free kick and a yellow would have been fair. Ramos caught the player on the back of the legs and didn't touch the ball. There were quite a number of fouls like that throughout the game which didn't receive calls. In a way it's a testament to the fact that both teams play a quick passing game that there weren't too many serious challenges. Had there been more interaction between the two teams, it could easily have ended up with players sustaining injuries as a direct result of the ref's lax calls.

Similar thing happened on corners/goal kicks - there were a couple there where the ref's decision was just plain wrong. I recall one in particular giving a goal kick against Schweinsteiger when he didn't touch the ball and it should have been a corner. The Spain player dribbled the ball out. There were also a number of offside calls that were totally wrong too - I recall one in particular where I think it was Villa was clearly onside but got called offside. He was onside by a good couple of yards when the ball was played, and the ref blew before the linesman put his flag up, the linesman followed the ref.

Howard Webb has been pretty spot on in the games I've seen him referee. He's stern, but more than that, he gets his calls right. Whether a player gets carded for an offence or not isn't the key factor, but being consistent and calling decisions the right way are important to the game. Webb has a proven record there, and I don't think today's ref measured up. It wasn't as blatant as not spotting Lampard's "goal" or missing the fact that two Argentinian players were offside when they scored against Mexico, but the number of wrong calls was far too high for the top football competition, imo.

I hope whoever officiates the Final does a much better job than the guys tonight did.

Thanks for the reply, Scrybe.
Again, I'm a casual observer.
I did a search on google news using 'germany, spain, referee' as the criteria and there seemed to be no controversy re. the reffing.
The only article I could find that focussed on the referee started:

'In a World Cup where the missed calls and controversies fill the headlines as much as the play itself, the semifinal clash between Spain and Germany was a relatively quiet night for center referee Viktor Kassai. The Hungarian official rightfully let some early, but clean challenges slide without a whistle or booking in the first half. Fans supporting the players on the wrong end of tackles may say otherwise, but in such a high-profile game the referee was right to let players off with a warning for minimal challenges in the first half, rather than booking them on their first offense like many overly eager officials in the tournament have...'

That came from:www.goal.com/
No idea if that's a credible source.
:)

I actually thought the ref had a pretty decent game. There weren't many - in fact, I can't think of ANY - nasty tackles, but there were a lot of 50/50 balls which, for the most part, the ref got right. There were quite a few where I thought, that's no foul - he's got the ball. When they were replayed in slo-mo, the ref had called foul and the offending player had got the man before the ball...and he didn't have the benefit of slo-mo! Yes, there were a couple of dubious decisions....
the Ramos challenge on Klose (iirc) at the start should have been a free kick on the edge of the box and a card for being the last outfield player. Had it been inside the box, it should have been a penalty and a straight red card - as per the rules of the game. Given how close to the box it was, a free kick and a yellow would have been fair. Ramos caught the player on the back of the legs and didn't touch the ball.

Scrybe, you're absolutely right - but given the speed at which the incident happened, it was a tough call to make. Without a slo-mo replay, it looked as if they'd just got tangled together....just one incident that could have benefitted from the introduction of video technology. If it'd been a Rugby League game, the ref would have asked the video ref for a replay and based his decision on that - it would have taken about 10 seconds to call.

Anyway, it was the right result - unless you're [A] Scrybe and badly wanted a German victory...or German, and had gotten all excited because your team was playing well - console yourself with the memory of those victories over Argentina and England, and the fact that you'll be the team to beat in 4 years time....or [C] had money on Germany.

Vic

Oh my, I'll be glad when it's all over, and I can get back to watching Cricket and RL and talking about guitars and music.......
and maybe even playing a little music, my shoulder's almost better - I've been a good boy, done all the right exercises the physio gave me to do, and not even thought about playing guitar - I've got an appointment with said physio next Thursday (the 15th) and I'm hoping to get the all-clear to start playing again....

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Vic

It wasn't just the fouls where I thought the ref called wrong - I thought he called other decisions like throw ins, goal kicks, etc, wrong too. And he was calling them wrong for Spain as well as for Germany. The offside example I pointed to was a wrong decision against Villa. He was onside, but the ref blew for offside, and he did so before the linesman, where protocol is to wait for the linesman's flag.Both teams had some dodgy calls against them, I just think the ref was sloppy overall.

I don't envy the difficulty of the task, but I have seen many other matches where the same kind of calls get called the right way. So, for the top professionals in the world at what they do, I expect better.

Boxboy - the absence of controversy is probably because there were no 'big' calls aside from the penalty/free kick thing with Ramos (it was outside the box, so should have been a free kick not a pen). But I think that was due way more to the style of football and attitudes of the two teams involved than the ref's abilities in this game. Had it been two rougher teams (e.g. Brazil this year v Argentina any year), there would have been some major controversial decisions. And I don't trust this ref to call them the right way.

and maybe even playing a little music, my shoulder's almost better - I've been a good boy, done all the right exercises the physio gave me to do, and not even thought about playing guitar - I've got an appointment with said physio next Thursday (the 15th) and I'm hoping to get the all-clear to start playing again....

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Vic

you're n physio too?!? Is this contagious or something? I start next week. On anti-inflammatories as of today (working quite nicely, aside from the stomach side-effects) and painkillers (past month or so).