Just because someone is a blimp, doesn't mean they can't score.

John "Welsh Rare-bit" Hartson. Tony "Choc-Ice" Yeboah. Thomas "Pie-monster" Brolin - and I'm allowed to say that because I watched him during his fat period at Leeds. Even Diego "Crackhead" Maradona. All fat. All scored.

I love the England team dont get me wrong but they need to play more like a team and christ after watching us play Sweden we need to practice our set pieces greatly. But must say when Joe Cole scored that amazing goal almost fell out of my seat dropping my dinner all over the place lol

I agree with the comment over T.Walcot. I reckon they should've given him a maybe the last 10-20 mins of the match (against sweden) why bring him if your not going to let him play. Never know what Sven may do because of Owens injury, maybe play crouch then bring Walcot on, bit risky when we go into the knockout rounds. Wonder if Svens regretting not bring Defo etc.

Anyway if England play to the best of their abilitys they can give a good match to anyone they play but currently im not seeing that, hopefully they will get their act together and not underestimate Ecuador.

All this flaming over England and Sweden i feel that both teams didnt play to the best of their abilitys and when England got 2-1 up, i reckon rubbish defending led to Sweden equlaising. Im not saying sweden may not have scored anyway but thats my opinion of why the result ended 2-2. And to be honest may opinion will be sweden loses to Germany andi guess the result may be around 2-1 or 3-1

I hope England start playing like champions if they wish to get further in this tournament But best of luck to all teams playing but CMON ENGLAND

Oh dear, Sweden are being well and truly outplayed here

Germany are looking very good though, but Sweden must be wondering which of the Gods they've annoyed. Lucic sent off, and now Larrson missed a penalty. Not their day.

Edit after full time:

Well, congrats to Germany, bad luck to Sweden. They were outclassed, though I thought Lucic's second yellow was really harsh. Pretty much ended any chance of them coming back that decision. Well done to Germany though, who continue to look good.

Yes! All the best to Germany who deserved their victory very much!I knew it all the time Sweden would be defeated so it didn´t come as a surprise, the swedish team has a bed defense, and if it hadn´t been for Andreas Isaksson, the goal-keeper the loss would have been even bigger!


GO GERMANY GO!!!

Big compliment for that man. The swedish goalie was phenomenal! Also, Lagerbäck should have brought Allbäck much much sooner, maybe from the start.

But well played, Sweden!

Edit: Yes. I have to agree about the yellow-red - it was too hard IMHO.

Right, no typo here - the Sverige defence all went to bed, allright Damn slacking, reminded me of SCG-ARG and our shameful defensive tactics... Minkey, all my condolence and love goes to the tragic figure of Hendric Larsson - may he have a better and not bitter retirement .

But anyway, I am just glad to see Mexico in fighting mood inspite shameful refereeing (please, Starge, you have to agree with me this time !) and suspicious decisions by that man in black... from which country is he, anyway ???

Argentina didn't get the goal, but they also didn't get the red card. Weak referee, but it's balanced

Hahaha.....freudian typo yes! hmmm well the sleeping beauties will soon go home now so let´s just hope that Germany goes the whole way.....

Argentina won (I think, they were the guys in blue, right?)
Funny thing is, I watched maybe 15 minutes and I still managed to lose count of how many times someone kissed the grass. (As in, fell flat on his face)

You mean Massimo Busacca? From Switzerland.


Normally, I don't follow football anymore. At all. This week I haven't really had much else to do so I've watched some of the matches every now and then, mostly just short sessions and never following the match all the way to the end.

Today, my interest in following the Cup got somewhat increased. With all the hype about the Swe - Ger game floating around (at least in here) I thought I'd watch the game for a while and see how they fare against each other (the fact that the rest of the guard took complete control of our TV had nothing to do with it, no sir). Anyway, I can honestly say I really hadn't followed any matches or the Cup in general up until three days ago so seeing Klinsmann on the coach's place was a bit surprising. I might have read about him being the team's coach before but if so I hadn't really paid any attention to it.

The last time I saw Jürgen Klinsmann was in the World Cup 1990 in Italy. As you might remember, Germany won that year, facing Argentina in the final. I don't know why exactly I remember that specific game, or why I even remember Klinsmann being in the team (I was four back then, why was I even watching football in the first place?) but these flashbacks have at least made me more prone to watch the end of this year's Cup.


Also, I saw most of the Arg - Mex game and I'd say it was an above average game. The last goal was, more or less, great.

That's quite an understatement It was a perfect goal. Taken volley with the breast, then directly to the foot, turning around 90 degrees and slamming it in a wide arc into the far goal corner. It was incredible.

Well, 2 games to comment on:

England beat Ecaudor 1-0. England were poor, Ecaudor were equally poor. Not much else to say.

Portugal have beaten Holland 1-0 in the worst display of refereeing I have EVER seen, in 25 years of watching football. Four sendings off, 15 (i think) yellow cards. Utterly, utterly hopeless.

And after all that, England play Portugal in the qauter finals. We lost to Brazil at this stage 4 years ago, to a Scolari managed Brazil. Lost to Scolari's Portugal 2 years ago at the European Finals. Surely we can't lost 3 times in a row. Portugal will be without Costinha, and more importantly Deco, and Christiano Ronaldo went off injured so may not be fit. But England have been poor so far. Make that very, very poor.

Getting quite exciting this now

POR-NED:

That was idiocy, confusion, circus, you name it. And the most hillarious refereeing (again, Starge, I can only wish the likes of Collina could be around Germania, to put down foolishnes in its place) that I've seen so far.

Why, perhaps we can clone him!

There has to be some of his DNA in my avvy!

*Ze runs to the nearest cloning facility in Germania with samples of Stargelihno's skin... and 40 years later* :

"Now you boys play nice or I'll make you yellow all over... like my Pimpin' T-Shirt !"

Ayyyyy....now then WHO the h*** is COLLINA??????

You must not have watched a lot of footy in the past. Pierluigi Collina was the most famous referee to ref any international game. He was famous for being respected by the players like no second with the exception perhaps of Markus Merk and Urs Meier. It may be the way he looks, his total consequence in his decisions, his humor or a combination of all of that. He is widely regarded as the best referee in terms of skill.

Here's a photo:

BTW, the way he looks is the result of a medical condition.

Oh...haha....so that´s him? I thought you had created some kind of monster, then naming that monster collina....I mean when you had him as an avatar!

Hmm..he might suffer from hyperactive thyroid gland!!!!

Edit:

Bad luck to the Germans, but they certainly contributed to the best, most tense game of the entire World Cup. It was a cracker. Both sides were absolutely fantastic. I just had a feeling about Italy before the competition started, but they had to be at their very, very best tonight.

It´s a sad day.....Germany´s out of the competition......

*runs off to start crying*