World Cup Preview!!Follow

I admit Portugal won and good luck to them, but i will never believe that Rooney deliberatly stamped on an opponent, no way, no how.

Do i believe that Ronaldo would try and get an Opponent sent off? you damn right i would, he does it for his club side all the time, and i'm a Man Utd fan!

I don't think anyone doubts the fact FIFA and their refs have serious issues. The whole thing is stupid.

The play-acting, the diving, the faking injury to put the ball out, the waving of imaginary card, the surrounding the ref, the rolling on the floor, all of that is funny, but mostly it's extremely sad.

I cannot wait for the day we get retroactive video, and the players that do that get banned for 1 game. It is cheating, plain and simple. And the only reason players do it, apart from being sissies, is that they know they will get away with it. So ***** this, give them a 1 match ban after watching the video after a game, and you'll notice the difference.

Blatter now wants to have 2 referees on the pitch. Whatever next... I sugegst 10 refs on the pitch, each wearing a mask and choosing a weapon. Then they can enter the field to "Eye of the tiger", and beat the **** out each other. Royal Ref Rumble.

Seriously though, in rugby they have a 5th ref that watches a video, and tells the ref on the pitch what he saw. I know it's unbelievably complicated, and the greatest minds in the world can barely comprehend such a system, but nevertheless, I think it's worth a try.

Apart from all this, well done Italy. Fully deserved victory. I can't belive I'm about to say this, but I feel sorry for the Germans. I really do. They were great hosts, very enthusiastic, and were unlucky.

As for tonight, I don't know. I am so freaking nervous it's untrue. I do get the feeling that this game will be decided by a red-card though. Fair or not, I very much doubt it will finish 11v11.

ALLEZ LES VIEUX!!!

So am I !!!!11

I will be /praying all day to the giant invisible pink unicorn in the sky.

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You say that like intentionally stepping on a Portugeses bag is a bad thing.

See, here too, you guys have it all wrong. Ronaldo couldn't have stomped on Rooney's balls since it is a well-known fact that soccer players, like FleaJo2, have no balls. If they did, they'd be playing something manly like rugby or Greco-Roman wrestling. QED.

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So who else has shaved their balls with the new Mach3 from Gillette Razors?

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You talk awfully big for a guy who uses Nair for a dipilatory.

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Best player as in a muppet who ran for Barthez' goal with blinders on, producing nothing but screamers that missed the target by a mile?

haha, you pundit.

Well deserved victory for France, though my money is on Italy.

Zidane, in contrast to Ronaldo, dictated France's pace, thereby making sure his team was always in control. This, by the way, without playing brilliantly.

If any team was backpeddling, it was portugal. If you keep your line of defense in front of Ricardo and your forwards on France's half, there is absolutely no way to beat such an experienced side.

I'm curous; what did you think was Portugal's best chance? Deco's low drive or Figo's header after Barthez fumbled?

RACK this take on the World Cup and soccer in general: Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy. He's one of my favorite sports writers over at ESPN. The guy is nails.

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ON EST EN FINALE!! ON EST EN FINALE!! ON EST, ON EST, ON EST En FINALE!!

But we need better songs.

Well, what can I say. I'd never ever thought we'd get this far after our crap performance against Switzerland and Korea. Even when we beat Spain, I couldn't see us going to the final.

This game against Portugal didn't have the brilliance we showed agaist Spain, nor was Zidane as majestic as against Brazil. But we fought hard, defended amazingly well, and took our chance.

I would sorry for the Portuguese, but nah. They once again triedf to have two penalties were there was 0 contact, and that is tiring. The whole pub I was in was booing every single one of Ronaldo's touches, it was brilliant.

The hardest is still to do. Italy are an amzing team, adn the final will be tight. It will be a game for the conoisseurs, and the amateurs of defesive tactics. Tight like a virgin's ****.

But hopefully just as sweet :D

Sorry, I'm still drunk/stoned/tired/euphoric, and intend to be until Sunday

In the first half, I thought it was pretty even. They never really threatened us, and we didn't penetrate their defense meanigfully.

In the second half, they had loads of posession, and were slightly more threatening. However, I fully agree with your assessment of Scolari. He took off Pauleta, their only real striker, to put Simao, a winger, thereby putting Ronaldo in the centre, where he is a lot less dangerous. Just as he did against England, except this time it was 11v11.

I also agree that Portugal were very strongn defensively, but lacked some bite in attack. Pauleta is decent, but he is not a world-class striker, a fact proven by the fact he plays for a small team in a small league ;-)

It will much harder against Italy. We have the psychological edge, but the Italians are on a mission to redeem themselves and their football.

If we win, it will be an extraordinary story for Zidane and french football, after the debacle of 2002-04.

If the Italians win, it will also be an extraordinary story for them.

All in all, this final will be tense, on a kife-edge, and hard to predict. Low-scoring, for sure. Strong defenses on both side, and a reluctance to commit too many men. I'm hoping Henry will have "his" moment of genius, or that Zidane will perform one final magic trick.

Either way, it's a million times better than what was expected of us. The same goes for the Italians.

I can't wait...

cant understand why he didnt put in simao with pauleta and figo and go all out. losing miguel didnt help either, as he can be an outside threat. with their injuries and suspensions, i dont think they ever got on track offensively. tough to build chemistry when you have to keep juggling the lineup.

pauleta was just invisible the whole tourny, and he plain sucked against germany. decent finishing would have changed that game completely. credit the germans, they finished where we couldnt. i expected them to win in front of the home crowd.

i guess nuno gomes should have gotten more playing time, lol.