Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Of world cup and soccer

Now that the quarters are over and the semis in just a few hours time (my prediction), world cup 2006 is slowly coming to an end. Certainly, this world cup will be remembered for a few things. One of which would be the few favourites making their way out early in the competition, this will include Brazil, England, Argentina.

Lets talk about the defending champions Brazil. Was it really that much of a shock that they were defeated by the French? I dun think so. Seriously, they are just another over-rated team with poor team work and a questionable defense. Perhaps people were just too blinded by Ronaldo's goals, but admit it, he's not as deadly as he used to be, not as fast, kicking nicely placed crosses into the crowd, getting tired way too early in the match. Ronaldinho? He was never there. Utterly under-performed and disappointing. Over-confidence perhaps?



Next up England. As someone aptly put it a few days back, whatever that got England till where they were in the world cup was purely luck. They did absolutely nothing that they could be proud of nor anything that inspired football fans and non football fans alike in this world cup. It was a pure torture watching them play, especially the quarter final match againist Portugal; we were bored to tears with their defensive play with a lone joker striker. The stupidity of Rooney was one factor that brought England to its doom. And the overrated coach Sven Eriksson with his weird tactics was yet another. Seriously, shouldn't the English team be scheduled for some penalty shooting practice with goal post double the size before the next season?




As for Argentina, its a pity that they did not hold on to their 1-0 lead. Yet, they did wasted a few good chances to double that lead. It seems to me, however, that the referee was favoring the host team with a few debatable fouls against Argentina. Nonetheless, Klose's equaliser certainly brought the Germans back into the game and eventually won. Indisputably, the hero of the match had to go to the German keeper, Lehmann, who saved a couple of crucial penalty shots which won his team into the semi.


My Prediction




As for the rest of the world cup, my prediction will be as follows:

Semifinals:
  • Germany vs Italy
  • Portugal vs France

Finals:
  • Italy vs France

I say France will be the winner of this world cup, what say you?




Next up, some soccer fun.

The long and short about world cup 2010, coming to you in the not-so-distant future.

"Brian Richman: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Hello and welcome to the live telecast of World Cup 2010: Singapore vs Brazil.

Brian: We are very happy to have with us here tonight, ex-national skipper Mr Fandi Alamak, as my co-commentator. He will not be skipping tonight though. Haha. Over to you, Fandi.

....."

Read more over at the misadventure of sibeh sian, very singaporean style.







Effeminate referee, quite hilarious and interesting. Watch it over at Pandy's














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