THE 2010 WORLD CUP THREAD

[Digifiend]

I hope you're wrong, but I think you're probably right. We need fresh blood. The current team are a bunch of failures. Apparently Rooney's under-performance was due to him missing his baby son Kai. That's right, he simply didn't want to be there.

[chrissmillie]

Steele: 2014 yeah your right Scotland won't be there (& not being sarky I m not sure England will either unless they start giving more local talent chances in the top teams)

Starr England will probably sail throught the qualifiers again, but will fall short, it's to be expected now, I don't think any English player is up for a big occasion they're to rich to care.

England have the advantage of being seeded. Once you start dropping (cheers Burley!), it gets more and more difficult to qualify. Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Although the lack of talent coming up must be worrying for England (Scotland's there already). Jack Wilshire is about the only real class I can see. Of course it can all change in a season but I can't see much coming through.

[Jonny Whizz]

Jonny Whizz wrote:
Also, as a Liverpool fan, I think Fernando Torres is a lot more deserving of a World Cup winner's medal than Ryan Babel is.

Neither did anything that remotely resembled anything worthy of a winners' medal. At least Kuyt ran about a bit.

Fair point - neither shined at the World Cup, I was referring more to their performances at Liverpool. Torres is undoubtedly a top class striker, and has demonstrated his skill for us (and Spain) many times, I simply think he wasn't fully fit coming into the tournament. Babel on the other hand has had several chances to impress and has flattered to deceive for us, and has generally not been worth the money we paid for him.

Basically, what I'm saying is that Torres is the better player and that even though he didn't do well for Spain in South Africa, his talent is worthy of a winners' medal, which I wouldn't say Babel is. It reminds me of how some of our greatest players like John Barnes and Peter Beardsley never won the European Cup/Champions League but Djimi Traore did!

[alanultron5]

Chile V Italy World Cup match 1962 was incredible! Referee Ken Aston had to abandon it they were so intent on kicking chunks out of each other! In 1954 there was `The Battle of Berne` in Switzerland when Hungary and Brazil `slaughtered` each other!

[Phoenix]

Chile V Italy World Cup match 1962 was incredible! Referee Ken Aston had to abandon it they were so intent on kicking chunks out of each other! In 1954 there was `The Battle of Berne` in Switzerland when Hungary and Brazil `slaughtered` each other!

Sorry, Alan. the Chile v Italy game was not abandoned. Chile won 2-0, Ramirez scoring in the 75th minute, Toro in the 89th. Two players were dismissed by Ken Aston. There was quite a lot of on-pitch violence around in that competition. The Russian Dubinski got his leg broken by Mujic of Yugoslavia, who sent him home as a punishment, and Switzerland's Norbert Eschmann had his leg broken in a dreadfully violent tackle by the West German half back, Szymaniak. As a matter of interest, the Hungary v Brazil match was also refereed, in a deluge, by an Englishman, Arthur Ellis, who sent off Nilton Santos and Tozzi of Brazil and Hungary's Josef Bozcik. Ferenc Puskas was injured and didn't play, although there were rumours that he struck a Brazilian defender in the face with a bottle in the tunnel after the match! The fighting continued in the dressing rooms. I was watching the game on television but when the on-pitch kicking and hacking and punching was getting out of hand, the BBC cut the visual transmission, which I think was coming from Eurovision so, if I remember rightly, British viewers had to make do with a sound commentary on the rest of the match. So you see what happens when protectionist do-gooders wish to shield us all from violence!! Not only were we prevented from seeing the aggression, we were deprived of the delights of the outstanding football from probably the two greatest exponents of it in that era. Incidentally, the performances of Ellis and Aston rightly received high praise from the critics, as did Howard Webb for this year's final.

[alanultron5]

A Man's game were thay `un! Anyone recall the Southampton side of the 1970-71 season? They kicked everything above grass level bar the ball! Bill Shankley termed it "Ale House Football"

Their Brian O;' Neill recieved a record 13 week suspension that season! I belive they brought him onto the field in a cage and chucked raw meat inside it before letting him out!

`Ere! I got hold of Pic Sleeve copy 1966 "World Cup Willy" (Lonnie Donegan) It `IS` every bit as awful as I recalled! The Beatles obviously didn't lose much sleep over the competition from that effort from Lonnie then!

[Serai]

Holland was close, we were very close, for the third time >.>

[STARBOY]

I'm a big fan of the Dutch national team (picked them early on to get to the final, as my messages on here can testify) but they really had to resort to "tough armed tactic" to compete with Spain (which they did, but best team won ) if they had played the way the Dutch normally play ( skillful) I think the game would have been over at half time as Spain were in a different league IMHO - saying that over the 90mins, there were times you could have nicked it - your time will come your too good a football nation - and you were robbed in 74 & 78.

[Digifiend]

That was a dirty game, and the two nations rightly got fined.

[Serai]

The referee played a big role by handing out those yellow cards that were unnecassary so early in the game. I think it did influence the way Holland had to play as other guys had to cover the other's back, because he could barely do anything before getting his second card.

[Jonny Whizz]

The World Cup Final was a poor game, probably one of the worst in the tournament's history, along with the 1990 Final. I'm too young to remember that one but from what I've read it was much like this year's final - a dirty match ending in a 1-0 win. I'm glad the final didn't go to penalties though - I don't really like it when World Cup or FA Cup Finals go to penalties (for some reason I don't mind it so much in European finals).

I thought it was a poor World Cup overall though. The football as a whole wasn't great, many of the big teams and names underperformed but unlike in past tournaments where that has happened (think Euro 2004) few exciting, young or new teams or players really emerged. Germany, Ghana and Uruguay all exceeded expectations but that was about it - although the same could be said of the likes of Paraguay (reaching the quarters) or New Zealand (unbeaten), they didn't really excite anyone. And then there were the vuvuzelas at full blast every game, creating a rather alien and, personally, poor atmosphere to the matches.

Watching the Liverpool match last night, it seemed so easy to watch it compared to the games at the World Cup - they were often tedious and those stupid plastic horns were blaring throughout the match, which became really irritating, to me at least.

[Serai]

I have got to agree with you there. Let us hope 2014 in Brazil will bring us fun. And let's hope there are no more vuvuzela's.

[Digifiend]

Speaking of which, Hull City have banned them. Along with a dozen other clubs in the top two divisions.