I was under the impression that rooney was red carded because he shoved the Portugal player in the middle of the whole mess

Nope it was for the "stamp" on the Portuguese player, according to FIFA.

I get the feeling Ronaldo will have an uncomfortable start to the season at Man U.

As was I.

Which wasn't a red card.

The Portugal player he shoved was Christiano Ronaldo, his Man Utd teammate, who ran straight to the ref and began appealing to him. When Rooney shoved him that's what the ref picked up on as far as I can tell. But a shoving's not a red card, it's a yellow at most and a quiet word.

i don't know...all is fair in love and war...and football. i mean, this is the world cup...and if you've got to get one of your club teammates tossed to help your national squad move through, then that's what you do. on the field, its all business. cheating / influencing the ref is pretty much a tradition in the game.

rooney has a rep as a rough player, and it really did look like a pretty deliberate shot at the guy's junk. i don't know that it warranted a red, but not like one of those calls that's just completely out of nowhere that the refs have been throwing.

i guess i can't see blaming ronaldo in this...he did what he had to do to help his team. i don't like the little punk ass mullet wearing bitch, but its not his fault the ref tossed rooney.

roach,

yeah, france whipped brazil's (potentially prosthetically enhanced?) ass. zidane...a whole other level. owned the field. i'm just afraid of what happens if he gets a yellow in the portugal match...possibly out for the final? i strongly dislike carrying the cards through the knockout rounds.

edit: clarificational purposes

FIFA are full of shit!
You can see clearly the ref just gives a free kick and is doing nothing.
Then as soon as he sees the shove he springs into action and shows the card.

unbelievable finish to germany/italy game.....thought the germans where going to win most of the game....came up short at the end...........xoxoxoo

For those who couldn't catch the game:

Italy - 2
Germany - 0

Italy scored twice in the last two minutes of overtime.

That was the best game of football I've ever watched..... which isn't saying much, I don't normally watch sports.

Pardon me but bull fucking shit that's the best game that anyone's ever seen. I'm not going to lie to you, the additional times were extraordinarily exciting, but the game before that was snooze-worthy. One team attacks, and the other defends. The defending team makes a cruddy counterattack which is foiled. Rince and repeat. I quite literally little fell to sleep twice.

But, like I said, the additional time was nail-biting. That's how soccer SHOULD be played. Bad luck on Germany's part, someone HAS to take down Italy. They did no deserve to beat Australia

I don't think it's such a bad thing if Italy wins the tournament. Granted the Aussies got screwed but what is done is done. Of the Aussies and the US, one really outplayed them in a 2nd round game and the other landed a draw in the 1st round. Saying you did that against the World Cup champion in the World Cup is an accomplishment. You have to think positive.

:(

I guess two overtimes in 4 days were just too much, Germany looked exhausted and failed to concentrate during the last 30min. Italy played the first really good match in this WC.

It's funny, a lot of people share your opinion, that it was a good game. And a lot thought it wasn't too great at all. I think the stakes, the pressure, etc really heightened the emotions about this match.

I'm not going to fault Ronaldo for being stupid. Even though he is a Man Utd kid, I can't stand his diving etc., but I do hope Rooney lets him know what's going on once they get back to camp. Rooney is one kid I wouldn't want to fuck with.

As far as the Italy/Germany match. *YAWN* I found it incredibly boring with not tactics or excitement.. until the overtime period. If France continues to play as the are now, I have a feeling they will be lifting the cup. *sigh*

I find France to be the least objectionable side left, now that the Germans are out.

Cannot stand either Portugal or Italy so Zidane, Henry, Ribery et al are my last hope!

Of note, the next the FIFA under 20 championships will be played here in Canada in 2007. The same tournament where Maradonna, Figo, Henry and many other big names first made an international splash. Hope you'll all follow the action next year and maybe a few will even come to Toronto, Montreal or any of the other cities where matches will be held and take in teh action first hand. It's a cheaper ticker than Germany, that's for sure!

well there we have it---france italy.
obviously, one should hope for a crushing of italy.
preferably with a more interesting/impressive second hald of play from france as well.

allez les bleus.....

I really don't want Italy to win, but at least they've somewhat started earning some respect from me. Against Germany they atleast attacked consistently, something they don't do against good teams...ever.

I don't want france to win, but i also don't want italy to win :D
Italy played their first good game against Germany.
France played boring during the whole tournament. Their defensive stile of play when they lead sucks big time. I like offensive football with lots of goals, football Klinsmann style :D
So I think that if Italy plays as good as against Germany they should and will win.
Otherwise it will be boring with a very lucky winner.

Yup, that about sums it up for me. I guess if I have to pick, I'd want Italy - but only because I just really don't like France (the team - the country itself is fine). I'm MUCH more excited about the 3rd place match than the finals. :lol:

i dont see italy defeating france--they simply do not play with as much intelligence as do the french. plus i hate them. i expect to see france in form parallel to what you saw against brazil--aggressive play in the middle and up front, lots of quick counters and a solid defense. all that plus zizou. italy is a good side (much as i dislike them--they are masters of the portugal whine and dive school) but i dont see them faring well sunday.

at least i hope not.
you never know.
it's only 90 minutes.

I was almost too disgusted to watch the rest of the game.... some of the dives in this sport make me wonder how these people can sleep at night. Sportsmanship does not include embellishing "injuries". Faking them long past their potential usefulness only hurts your team... when you have to be taken off the field in agony and then trot back on, finishing the match... gah... I just don't even know what to think.

/ rant

Anyway, I will be cheering for France, but I hold my nose doing so. I just despise them a tad less than Italy. Italy made me sick with their "simulation" (as the commentators refer to it as)

Always the best reason of all!

I don't have much to say but my sister and my mom are in France right now and they sent me this in an e-mail:

"P.S. Yes, it is a BLAST being in France during the World Cup. Viva la France! The night of the last game (July 5), we were in Avignon and there were car horns honking in the streets until 1 a.m. I slept through it (somehow?) but poor Mommy didnt. We were/are exhausted, needless to say, but we have France spirit!! :o) There was champagne galore that night! "

People really get into their soccer there... Up till 1 honking horns and all that? What time was the game? Surely it couldn't have been 9:00 when it started, was it? I know that's the time difference from here to there and it was on at 2:00 where I am, but was that a game repeat or was it really that late in Germany when the game was?

People do get into soccer there, for sure. I was in France about a week and a half ago - and the fans were up all night in Paris - honking horns, yelling, having a great time. I think the game that particular night started around 8 or 9 france time. So it makes sense that they were still rowdy late that night. I know the time difference is that they're 6 hours ahead of me and I'm on EST. so it's 1ish here and it's 7ish there right now. Hope that helps ya out Frostie. :)

Kickoff was at 9 CET so I guess 8 in Paris? They're on GMT I think. It's a pain in the six for me, because I have to get up at six or seven to get to work and the Germany-Portugal game for instance ended about half an hour before midnight. It's impossible to go to sleep at once after all that excitement, so I've been like a zombie at work lately. Red Bull is my friend.

I've a hard time deciding on who to root for in the final as well. I have a long-standing hatred for the French handball team, but the Italians were so horribly whiny in the Euro Cup... meh. The bronze game looks like it's going to be fun though. My money is on Germany!

Yeah!
cars with honking horns are driving through our city now :D
and we "only" won 3rd

14 Hours... Looks like this will be good. Not sleeping is taking it's toll on me though. Can't sleep. Can't sleep. Can't sleep.

Kick-off in the UK was 8:00 and France are an hour ahead of us, so it was 9:00 KO there.
I want France to win cos I have 20 quid on them!

And whats with all the overtime stuff?? It's EXTRA time! :)

Remember today's game starts an hour earlier than yesterday's.

I did not remember that. Luckily, I got home just in time for the second half to start... and a pretty boring half it's been so far.

Nice way for Zidane to end his career on a down note.

http://img436.imageshack.us/img436/5...eadbutt7mn.gif

Italy wins, and I'm glad. France has nice Arsenal representation, but I dislike their National team.

Quite the intelligent post there. Hopefully the mods will delete it and throw out a ban to boot?

what the hell was with that Zidane headbutt? That's just some crazy shit.

I was hoping for a France win, but oh well, let Italy have their fun.

What did he say to Zidane????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBV52...page=6&t=t&f=b

France was the better team 8[

Zidane! Sans blague!

I have to think the Italian player must have spewed some sort of racial slur towards Zizou to get him to respond so violently. You would hope at least. What a despicable act.

Funny, I saw a car parading around the parking lot of a shopping center honking and flying the Italian flag. Never thought I would see that here in Orange County, California.

The game overall was pretty boring. France was flat after their goal until the second half when they seemed to be revived. I was rooting for Italy, because I just hate the Arsenal players on France and I can't stand Barthez. Even though Zidane did an incredibly stupid thing, I think overall he ended his career on a great note. He's only one of 4 players to score a goal in the finals in 2 seperate WC's. That's pretty special. Who knows why he headbutted the guy. Maybe he was just frustrated because he felt he wasn't getting calls. (of course his diving didn't help a couple of times) Overall, it was a good tournament despite the few horrible displays by some players.

That was an odd moment for Zidane to channel the spirit of Wayne Rooney, that's all I gotta say.

Can't stand Italy (the football team, I like country) so it is too bad they won, IMHO.

france outplayed italy for the whole of the match, with the exception of a phase of the first half. they were the better team.
on the other hand, you have to give the italian defense credit for holding off the attack they came under in the second half and during the extra time.

like the rest of the planet, i am curious about what prompted zisou to flip out. i suspect we will never know.

i find it difficult to say anything nice about italy's team though: i thought they were awful in the final in general.

as usual, the officiating was a joke.

ah well.

France should never have had a chance at that penalty in the first half. That was a shitty call to make, especially in a final. I wasn't going for either team and I found myself screaming at the TV when the ref awarded a PK.

i wish Brazil won, but i'm definitely glad that it was Italy instead of France! It's players like Zidane who put a damper on that team..

yeah, that was a tough call...of course, the call the ref didn't make in the second half where the french player was obviously taken down in the box, no contact on the ball, sort of balanced it out.

huh? yeah, he dropped some serious head butt knowledge and it was stupid move...but zidane put a damper on the french team? he owned the tournament from the knock-out rounds on. it's just too bad he didn't drop that guy after the match :D

Looks like a dive to me. Watching his legs it looks like he kicks them out. He drops straight down too. I would expect an impact to the chest to push a guy back more, not drop him like a stone.