Socceroos / Matildas / World Cup / Asian Cup

[letsgetiton!]

LOL. They're going to win the bloody thing now X.

we hope so! i know they beat australia, but if they win, at least australia can say they took it right up 2 the world champions!

imho, italy now deserve to win it, they have only conceded 1 goal in the tournament, and that was a freakish own goal v usa,  that rarely happens. italy have now been undeafeted 26 games in a row, thats pretty good form, and beating the germans on their home turf in a stadium they have never lost in is a fair effort.

terry should use that with the tigers at aami this w/e!!!! anyone can win away from home if they stick to the plan and have their heads switched on

[PuntRdRoar]

The Frogs will beat Italy I reckon, but if Portugal beats the frogs then Italy will beat Portugal.

[letsgetiton!]

The Frogs will beat Italy I reckon, but if Portugal beats the frogs then Italy will beat Portugal.

the frogs are in, but they reaklly have not been in flash form, if ppl think italy faked a dive to geta penalty v aust, u should see teh gr8 act france did to win one v portugal!!!

italy are in better form, have not lost a game in 26 str8 internationals, they just beat the host nation in a vebue that they have never been beaten in.

italy have the structure and players to win.  but if it goes penalty shoot out, the italians can kiss it goodbye.

i have a feeling italy will win, they will reep vengance v th efrogs who beat them in the euro final a few yrs ago by plucking a goal out of their clackers.

regardless who wins, the final 4 teams were european teams, which does suggest that europe is the king of soccer not sth america

[Fwoy3]

French round of 16 and qtr finals form was nothing short of scary. Semi Final was not good, so it depends on which French team turns up I think. ZiZu plays his last international in the final. Will be interesting to see how he influences the game. His last 3 games have been awesome to watch. If Henry gets his run timed right...or Ribery is let loose for 10 seconds, look out.

Should be a good game regardless...neither team holds feelings from me, but I hope it caps off a sleepless 4 weeks from me in style 

[mightytiges]

regardless who wins, the final 4 teams were european teams, which does suggest that europe is the king of soccer not sth america

No Sth American team has ever won the world cup when it's been held in mainland Europe and no European team has won it outside of Europe.

[letsgetiton!]

regardless who wins, the final 4 teams were european teams, which does suggest that europe is the king of soccer not sth america

No Sth American team has ever won the world cup when it's been held in mainland Europe and no European team has won it outside of Europe.

true but brazil only beat italy in  the usa cos of penalty shoot out. italy were the better team that game, deserved to win, baggio was on one leg , kneee stuffed and it was a shame everyone blamed him 4 the loss cos he got them there in the 1st place. italy should win, dont worry about zizu, pirlo is the man to watch, and gattuso will make life hard for the french champion captain,  zambrotta, is also a danger for the french and i hop edel piero gets a run at some stage as he is pure class

[cub]

From what I seen - It is up to who can put on the best diving display.

I was into it while Australia were playing, but now couldn't give a rats - It really is a Frawley game .... and soon it will dissappear from our media for another 4 years - 

[the_boy_jake]

Italy are a dour, boring defensive team who advocate a style that stifles individual expression. I hope they get beaten and beaten well. As a Tottenham fan I dislike some of the French players, but at least they try to play in the right spirit. Zidane is a maestro.

“Football is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom” - Danny Blanchflower.

[letsgetiton!]

about the diving, when bresciano dived beautifully and caused an italian to be red carded, no one whinges about that! this is what frustrates me about australians who have no idea about the game, an italian gets red carded (when he didnt even touch bresciano) and everyone says nothing. australians dive too! and lucas neill did fould on grosso, u watch the reverse angle footage and its very clear, neill slid right into grosso ankle and made contact! end of story. australia have become just a nation full of sooks and whingers.

italy have only conceded 1 goal all tournament, an own goal , a freak of nature, they have been the best team all tournament. australia beat a crap japan, lost to brazil when brazil were in 1st gear, and drew with croatia who arent that good, and australia believes they deserved to go further, pigs arse.

now italy dont play boring, they have a strong  and gr8 defensive game, but as we saw v germany , they have the skill, and talent to create gr8 results. seria A in italy is by far the best in teh league, the standard there is better and tougher than the premier league(no english player is good enough to make seria A) better than the spanish,german and sth amrican leagues.  why do all the best players want to play in italy, because its the best comp with the most money, the french team that won 8 yrs ago , was a team of players that at the time all played in italy. ZZ was a juventus player, italy makes all these players, even the gr8 maradonna played in italy.


another thing, italy is the only country in the world that only select players that play in their own country. once u leave to play in say the spanish league, u have no hope in being selected. another thing, the italian team , is made up of italian players, the french are mainly african players, the germans  half are polish etc. australia are the biggest bitser team around. its funny i grew up here, all my life i was called a f wog, greaseball, was told to go back to my own country, was told i wasnt welcome here, have been called a wop, dago, u effin name it, now because australians think its convenient they say u have to support australia cos ur australian!!! up until now i have been an effin wog, but all of a sudden im australian!!! i am proud that italy beat australia, i am proud italy made it to the final again, if any team over history has had bad luck it hasnt been australia its been italy. yes i live in australia, does not mean i have to support the socceroos. i live in geelong, so should i support the cats, or my beloved tigers??????  i have followed the italian team all my life and i wont stop now.  its really funy , i heard lucas neill on radio say he has not looked at the replay and wont, i tell u why he wont, because if he does he will realise he fouled and does not want to admit.   imagine how portugal feel, henry dived a beauty and france bluffed their way to the final.   australi akeep saying it could be us, they would not have beaten the ukraine nor germany. they were lucky to make it through with just 1 win

italy have a very structured game plan, and guys like pirlo,totti, del piero are in the best players in the world. italy are in better form than the french and should win, but anything can happen.  matthew lloyd is a diver, bartlett fell over many times to "win" free kicks. poo the flea was a genius and getting frees for "so called push in th ebacks" he knew how to fall fwd and win frees when he felt a soft touch behind him, it poos me to death how many ppl think its just the italians and friench, when the aussies do it , just not as good

[mightytiges]

X, the Italians couldn't beat the US (now's there's the most overrated team in the world). That's more embarassing than beating Japan or drawing with Croatia  . I didnt whinge about the fouls in the Aussie-Italian game either  X. About the only match in the whole WC where the refereeing was decent. Both fouls were there IMO although the outcomes from each were harsh. Socceroos failed to take their chances and didn't have the pace nor depth in their squad. That's why they are out of the WC.  They should have got a draw against Brazil (Kewell missed an open goal from 6 yards) and they should have had two more clear penalties against  Croatia (body tackle and handball) which would have won them the game easily. Kewell and Emerton didn't play against Italy and that lack of pace hurt them badly in the final 30 minutes when they played braindead soccer in the final attacking third of the pitch despite dominating possession. Guus also stuffed up bringing Aloisi instead of Kennedy on. Italy deserves to be in the WC final because they won fair and square but the Socceroos were not out of place with the world's elite.     

At club level, the Premiera Liga >>>> EPL, Serie A, Bundesliga, etc.....  You have more than just 2 to 4 clubs out of 20 challenging for the title and Barcelona was so far ahead of any other club outside Spain it wasn't funny. Serie A use to be the best league in the world when ZZ and before him Maradona played in Italy but it has gone downhill in the last 2-3 years. English players don't like playing in Italy because they don't like getting chopped lol and they won't get picked for England. The two styles are totally different too. Rarely does an Italian do well in th EPL. 95% of the best players in the EPL are foreigners anyway so the English side suffers. As for Italy, just like in 82, a side written off even by their own before the tournament started, looks like taking away the big prize. If they win it I bet ya Totti scores the winner. He'll become the new Rossi.

[letsgetiton!]

X, the Italians couldn't beat the US (now's there's the most overrated team in the world).

mt, the only reason that game was a draw, is because italy kicked an own goal, if italy didnt score for the usa, it woudl have been a 1-0 win. now , italy kicked to goals that game, one for italy, one for the usa, and only with 10 men, yes they were one man down just like the australian game.

i can assure you, is the usa played australia, the usa would have won. australia did well, they did very well, but they didnt do as well as the media here are suggesting. propaganda is a wonderful thing.

fifa have just announced their all star team

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Azzurri prominent in All Star Team
7 July 2006
by FIFAworldcup.com



Enlarge Photo
Photo Gallery
The Mastercard All Star Team featuring the 23 most impressive players at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ has been revealed - and Italy are the team best represented.
Seven members of the Italy squad that will contest Sunday's Final with France were included in the All Star team, while opponents France and the two beaten semi-finalists Germany and Portugal all contribute four players each. Argentina, Brazil and England - three sides who fell at the quarter-final stage - are also represented in the team.

The Mastercard All Star Team is as follows:

Goalkeepers
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Ricardo (Portugal)

Defenders
Roberto Ayala (Argentina), John Terry (England), Lilian Thuram (France), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy), Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal) 

Midfielders
Ze Roberto (Brazil), Patrick Vieira (France), Zinedine Zidane (France), Michael Ballack (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Francesco Totti (Italy), Luis Figo (Portugal), Maniche (Portugal)

Forwards
Hernan Crespo (Argentina), Thierry Henry (France), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Luca Toni (Italy)


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not one aussie in the team????  it would have been fantastic if an aussie player would make it. but they didnt.
now if u had  the australian media or paul wade list his all star team, he would have half teh aussie team in it and they only managed to beat a lowly rated japan team.

u say the usa are overrated , well they rated higher than australia for a reason, they earned it, if brazil had have played out of 1st gear v australia it woudl have been messy, if italy was on target v australia, it could have been a 5-0 thumping. many asutralian journos kept pumping up lucas neill suggesteing he should be in the all star team, how could he ?? the australian defence was exposed to many times. once again, the only goal kicked against italy thus far , was kicked by italy, defence is rock solid, midfield full of class and an attack that on its day can cause carnage.

we should all be proud of australia, but just like guus hiddink bluffed the media and the team, the team has bluffed the nation. i hope australia make it to the next world cup, but would not be surprised if they miss out. australia is an aging team and does not have the ability to quickly rebuild like a france, italy, brazil, argentina, germany etc, the cattle just isnt there

[PuntRdRoar]

The only thing that counts is winning. France for mine with Zizou and Henry doingthe business for the frogs.

[letsgetiton!]

The only thing that counts is winning. France for mine with Zizou and Henry doingthe business for the frogs.

they are the danger men for france and if they are held italy should win, just wondering who will hold pirlo, totti, zambrotta is an attacking defender  also. gattuso  im sure will tag zz

[julzqld]

I'm so over the World Cup.  Now that the Socceroos are out I couldn't care less who wins.  Same for Wimbledon.

[mightytiges]

u say the usa are overrated , well they rated higher than australia for a reason, they earned it, if brazil had have played out of 1st gear v australia it woudl have been messy, if italy was on target v australia, it could have been a 5-0 thumping. many asutralian journos kept pumping up lucas neill suggesteing he should be in the all star team, how could he ?? the australian defence was exposed to many times. once again, the only goal kicked against italy thus far , was kicked by italy, defence is rock solid, midfield full of class and an attack that on its day can cause carnage.

The US is overrated bigtime. Those FIFA rankings are crap. They had the Czechs at 2. Better than Italy, France Germany and Argentina. They are based on the number of games played which are mostly friendlies on home turf as far as the US go and who you play against. Hardly real tournament competition whose results you can rely on. The US were ranked in the top 10. I think they even got to 5th during the past 4 fours. Based on finishing first or second in the weakest confederation that gets 3 automatic qualification places plus another half. What a joke! The Socceroos have played the US before in Florida and won and they would have done it again. We made the final 16 at least. Saying we could have got thumped means nothing as we didn't. It could be easily argued that the Japan goal was a foul, Croatia's second wouldn't have gone in if Schwarzer was in goal and the second Brazilian goal only happened because the Socceroos had overcommitted players forward in search of a equalizer. Remember FIFA said after the match 16 of the 25 fouls paid against the Aussies (to just 9 against Brazil) were not there.   

Easily agree with the Italian inclusions except I don't see how Totti got in the All star team based on this WC (on ability yes, he is a champion for Roma). He's done well in the knock-out games but even the Italian media were out to get him during the group games. That's why he didn't start against the Socceroos. I wouldn't have an Aussie in there but not one Spaniard despite them cruising into the final 8.... hmmm!