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Good on you Matt, thanks for all the effort.
Soccer wise France did us (England) a favour and eliminated portugal now lets hope they get the Italians for you guys, cause I certainly would not like them to win the WC, but hey guys thats football

Posted from  Japan

Oh dear marco, please grow up and lets keep this blog clean. I do not support Japan, I am English and support England, yes I was very keen to see Japan progress because as a nation they are so positive about football. Yes I admit I had bad feelings about the Aussie/Japan match but Marco that is history and as I believe “what goes around comes around”. So pathetic “hahaha” and negativity towards Japan is wasted on me. So how about taking a deep breath and coming back when you have something positive and creative about football to discuss. My opinion but I would not like to see Italy win I would prefer France to win, thats just my choice, so stop taking things so persaonlly. Have a nice day.

Posted from  Japan

italy will not always be a world super power in soccer. and to be honest they havent been a power for a long time. japan, south korea and australia will emerge as the new powers in soccer modernising the way soccer is played. they have the money to invest in all the latest technology and they are developing the players. so all the traditionalists welcome to the new era in soccer where there isnt just brazil, spain, france, england, germany, italy, argentina, netherlands, croatia, czec republic and the rest. the new era will see japan win a world cup, china will become a super power in soccer and so will south korea. i beleive more and more asian players will be recruited into the big leagues along with more and more australians.

the problem with the world cup is that not always does the best team win. mostly i notice the team that wins is the team that has the most luck. i think the world cup needs to be reformated to take the luck out of the equation.

in todays modern era unlike 20 years ago there are more domestic league games then ever before. players are getting more and more injury problems with demands of the leagues. the world wants to see the best players take the pitch and have enough time to find some form. 3 games and then finals is just not enough time to find form as a team. this world cup it looks like france only found form against brazil after struggling against all other opposition, italya just overcame australia with a contentious ref decision. they are finding form now but i must admit this finals series was boring with teams having no confidence to attack. i ask the world is this how you want to continue seeing the world cup.

my idea is have two leagues 16 teams in each and each team plays 4 games aginst top opposition and 4 games against lower ranked opposition. this will allow teams and players to find form. imagine when the finals come how many world class teams would be flying and be a jor to watch. i challenge fifa to survey all the nations and players to see if they want to continue playing under this format. i just want to see the best team win. and in my eyes spain and argentina were by far the 2 best teams this tornament and they arent playing in the final. thats saying something.

Posted from  Australia

Troy, I think you’re right. A lot of longtime football pundits in Europe are pointing out this WC is the one with the lowest amount of goals. They also point out how many world class strikers who are impressive in their professional careers (and in other international competitions), failed to score and failed to impress generally (and even if they did score once, their overall performance was not terribly impressive). Ronaldinho is the most obvious but others like van Niselrooy, Schevchenko, Lampard, Ballack, and some others I can’t think of at the moment are on the list too (Bobby McMahon over on ESPN made a long list of these big names who seriously underperformed in this WC). Some point out how tired these players come to the WC (having had little rest after the end of their club seasons), others point out how some of these guys had little time for preparation and training, etc. I often think these guys just play too damned much.

I don’t know what the solution is. I dream of seeing an Afrian, Asian or Latin American team (other than Brazil or Argentina) win the WC, preferably on European soil. The only time a non-European country managed to win the Cup on European soil was Brazil in 1958.

Posted from  United States

Troy, I concur with you that the football we’ve seen since the round of 16 at this world cup has been less free-flowing, high-scoring than in the group stage.

This is partly due to the knock-out nature of the competition, where the losing team has no second chance. It is also because of the evenness between the competing teams (naturally as only the best survive after the first round).

Another factor that contributes to this problem is that there is a gradual disappearance of teams with flair at recent world cups, such as the Brazil of 1982 or Argentina of 1986 etc.

Your suggestion of a change of format is impractical for the reason that the world cup as a spectacle would drag on for much longer than four weeks. Interest is best sustained in a short time frame like in the current format.

But Fifa certainly can improve the standard of refereeing and disciplinary actions by introducing the use of videos both during and after the game to stamp out the curse that is diving. Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo in particular are the perfect examples.

Posted from  Australia

what i’m trying to get accross is that we need to be able to rest probaly some of the stars at some point of the cup. they play too much and cant expect them to come and perform in so few games. if the pressure is off the stars are sure to shine. teams dont want to score goals in the round of 16 because they dont want to take chances ask any coach they just want to take the game to penalties because its the players fault then and not the coach. its boring boring boring. the only time the game opens up is in the last few minutes when both teams might go oh we need to kick a goal. italy spends small amount of time in attack. they defend and do gradual pissy build up after build up untill the final 5 minutes then they go all out attack. and what do you know, they kick goals.

i dont think you can say the compeittion would drag on too longunder the format i suggested. i mean a season goes from august till may. so why would 8 minor round games and then the round of 16 fade out. if anything i think it would make more money, give teams the opportunity to build up and play all their squad and play a settled side come finals. and the added bonus of having a round of 16 of teams that should be there. in my system i would dare say croatia, south korea and czech would make the top 16 teams in the cup replacing, ukraine, switzerland, and ghana who barely gave a yelp in the round of 16 and of that the ukraine switzerland game if they both could lose they both would have. that too me highlights the glaring problem of the world cup in its current form.

to me i dont think anyone should bother watching the next one. i beleive the world cup will hit new lows next time and i beleive more substandard teams will be make it through to the next round because they will bully the better teams and try and con the ref at every opportunity and there will be weaker groups which will allow them to go through.
and i beleive there will be less goals again. due to the pressure on coaches.
there has to be an incentive to attack and get goals.

Posted from  Australia

It depends on what you consider spectacle.
I mean a 0:0 and a 4:4 in the end are both a tie, but it is always true that a 4:4 is more spectacular?
I don’t think so. I don’t like watching a team get 4 goals because of an error of the goalie or because they didn’t stop the opposite striker and so on.
In Italy is a statistic that the team that better defends, wins the championship and I think that it’s true in general and not only in Italy. Spain and Argentina were the best team? Oh yes it was beautiful watch Argentina scoring 6 goal to Serbia or Spain scoring 4 to Ukraina, but when they met better organized teams like France or Germany they could at least score a goal and it wasn’t enough.
I’m a long time football lover (as all the europeans) and I appreciate all the phases of a match, defensive and offensive.
It’s football not basketball, a match can end 0:0!

About the ipothesis to transform the world cup in a sort of league… bah I don’t think it will never be possible!
A professional player has only a month free from his club in a year, this means that in that year must start and end all the competition: 9 jun, 9 jul that’s it!
You can measure the skill of a team also if they find the form for the most important part of
the tournement: play so and so in the first phase and grow ’till the final, the history of world cup is full of teams the scored lot of goals in the start to be eliminated from the team that otherwise qualified itself at the last minute.
It’s football
I love it!!!!

Posted from  Italy

troy it’s not true that Italy spend more time in defense.
You just think at the match against Australia where we were in 10, you can’t say it if you’ve seen us against Ghana or Germany.
How can you think that trying to score in the last 5 minutes it’s a tactic?
Do you really think that a coach can call al the player around him to say “ok guys let’s defend for 85 minutes, then score a goal and win the match!” ??
It’s ridicolous.
You don’t consider the opponent, if you defend probably it’s not your choice but because the other team is playing good.
A match is played by 2 team.
You’re good if when the opponent is up you limit your damage and when is down you take all you can.

Posted from  Italy

My World Cup Highlights

Now that the month long football carnival is nearly over, these are my memories of the major highlights. While I did not watch every single game I saw the vast majority and can only comment on the ones that I did. Two matches are also still ahead which may change these opinions

Best Team - Despite the travesty of justice in the game against the Socceroos I still feel that Italy was the best allround team irrespective of what will happen in the Final.

Most Disapponting Team - England despite reaching the Quarter Finals

Best Player - Andrea Pirlo (Italy) primarily for his superb performance in the semi final

Best Goal - The magical 24 touch wonder goal by Cambiasso for Argentina against Serbia

Best Goalkeeper - Found it easy to settle for Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon

Best Young Player - Based on potential rather than performance in this World Cup I go for Argentina’s Lionel Messi

Best Coach/Manager - A toss up between Marcello Lippi and Jurgen Klinsmann and for the life of me I cannot separate them. Lippi for taking a team under a huge amount of pressure into the final and Klinsmann for changing the face of German football. Possibly Lippi by a whisker.

Most Dramatic Game - The 2-2 draw between Australia and Croatia

Best Technical Game - The semi final between heavyweights Italy and Germany

Best Comeback - Australia’s 3-1 victory over Japan when the Socceroos came back from a goal down with 6 minutes remaining

Most Dramatic Decision - The penalty awarded to Italy against Australia with just 10 seconds remaining to extra time

Best Over Achievers - Very close between Ghana and Australia with the Socceroos slightly ahead because of the manner of their elimination

Best Referee - Very tempted to say NONE but I’m surprising myself by going for Luis Medina Cantalejo from Spain despite the two highly debatable decisions in the Australia v Italy game. He was possibly the best of a bad lot

Worst Referee - Without doubt England’s Graham Poll for his nightmare in the Australia vs Croatia game

Worst Non Decision - Poll again for the blatantly clear rugby tackle on Mark Viduka in the same game

Worst Decision - Too many to mention

Best Fans - Definately Australia, both the ones in Germany and the ones who went out in the middle of winter nights to support their team with so much passion

As an Australian I have done my utmost not to let any bias cloud my judgements and remain as objective as I possibly could

Finally the debate over the use of video referees must make FIFA come to their senses. Even if a 3 referee panel is only used to judge a questionable dive it will be a start and very simple to implement. The panel of 3 will ensure that a decision is not left up to the opinion of just one person.

The referee stops the game if in his opinion an illegal tackle has taken place, the majority decision of the 3 man panel is relayed to him after studying the video from a couple of different angles then either proceeds with the penalty kick or award the defending team with a free kick together with a red card to the offending actor.

The same process can be used for diving outside the penalty area but with the issue of a yellow instead of a red card.

Posted from  Australia

hello guys…thats great that you guys are going to continue you blog on a different site.. Here is a site that I made… hope you guys like it…

http://www.denissusac.net.ms

Posted from  United States

Matt, I put a link to your web site on my site. My web site is http://www.denissusac.net.ms

Posted from  United States

Can’t belive its over, now there is no football for a month, i’m pretty sure i speak for matt as well, that we can now start focusing on arsenal again, and let us join in praying that arsenal can sign cannavaro if juve get relegated.

Posted from  Australia

Dude http://www.roundballfooty.com has been up and running for six months now go and check it out!

http://www.roundballfooty.com

Posted from  Australia

WE, ARE, CHAMPIONS, AND WE ARE CHAMPIONS!

Posted from  Australia