"I'm sorry for the team, the squad and the fans who were fantastic."
- Sven-Goran Eriksson
- Sven-Goran Eriksson
4 teams left. And they're all European.
The quarter-finals matches, most of them are all close, tight, drab affairs.
With the exception of Italy's victory, the goals in the other games more or less came from set-pieces. It seems to indicate that the tournament is now heading to a 'defend, don't concede' mode from the victorius teams (and if that continues in the semi-finals, then the football quality can only get sucks bad).
Of course, the shock result is Brazil being dumped out of the tournament. France again suprised me and once again beat the odds to come out as the victor. I'm pissed 'bout this result 'cause Brazil didn't display a good match at all, and Parreira really got it all wrong againts France. The tactics, how they're playing, how the players are playing and how the players are being played......really bad. Brazil came into this tournament as one of the favourites and they represent football. But instead, the performances from them have not been anything to show what's Brazilian football has been all about, and we never saw the Joga Bonito that was 'promised' by them. We didn't see any of the flashing, brilliance football (The only real chance for Brazil was the last minute Ronaldinho free-kick).
I also feel dissapointed and bad for Ronaldinho. I fully expected him to be the star man form the match, but it didn't happen. It's harsh to really put the blame on him alone (as many others are doing), since the other Brazilians themselves didn't exactly instill fear in the tournament, and parreira himself is another major factor for the failure (...and yet this guy lead Brazil in WC 94 with Romario and Bebeto....). It was really hard.
Frank Lampard would earned himself the award as one of the most (if not the most) dissapointing players at his World Cup. He still couldn't put the ball in the back of the net, and before the penalty shoot out againts Portugal, I felt that had he couldn't convert his penalty that night, it would definitely make him this World Cup's bad performers. And he indeed didn't score from the penalty (btw, great saves by Ricardo anyway).
& I do believe that Rooney deserved to get send off (the ref was near him, saw what happened, and to me it look like a deliberate stamp on Carvalho's balls. That, with the push provocated by Cristiano Ronaldo, would warrant Rooney ('aka' Pelé II by Brit. press) 2 yellow cards).
The real match that I felt had intensity from these games is the match between Germany-Argentina. Especially the 2nd half, Germany kept attacking and trying to break a way thorugh the Argentine defense, the pace was very electric right from the beginning of the 2nd half.
Of course, everybody by now would be thinking what & why on earth was Pekerman thinking with the subsititutions that he made (?)
I believe that had Abbondanzieri not got injured, Pekerman would have brought on Messi (which could really proved a big difference compared to the inlcusion of Cambiasso and Julio de la Cruz).
The quarter-finals matches, most of them are all close, tight, drab affairs.
With the exception of Italy's victory, the goals in the other games more or less came from set-pieces. It seems to indicate that the tournament is now heading to a 'defend, don't concede' mode from the victorius teams (and if that continues in the semi-finals, then the football quality can only get sucks bad).
Of course, the shock result is Brazil being dumped out of the tournament. France again suprised me and once again beat the odds to come out as the victor. I'm pissed 'bout this result 'cause Brazil didn't display a good match at all, and Parreira really got it all wrong againts France. The tactics, how they're playing, how the players are playing and how the players are being played......really bad. Brazil came into this tournament as one of the favourites and they represent football. But instead, the performances from them have not been anything to show what's Brazilian football has been all about, and we never saw the Joga Bonito that was 'promised' by them. We didn't see any of the flashing, brilliance football (The only real chance for Brazil was the last minute Ronaldinho free-kick).
I also feel dissapointed and bad for Ronaldinho. I fully expected him to be the star man form the match, but it didn't happen. It's harsh to really put the blame on him alone (as many others are doing), since the other Brazilians themselves didn't exactly instill fear in the tournament, and parreira himself is another major factor for the failure (...and yet this guy lead Brazil in WC 94 with Romario and Bebeto....). It was really hard.
Frank Lampard would earned himself the award as one of the most (if not the most) dissapointing players at his World Cup. He still couldn't put the ball in the back of the net, and before the penalty shoot out againts Portugal, I felt that had he couldn't convert his penalty that night, it would definitely make him this World Cup's bad performers. And he indeed didn't score from the penalty (btw, great saves by Ricardo anyway).
& I do believe that Rooney deserved to get send off (the ref was near him, saw what happened, and to me it look like a deliberate stamp on Carvalho's balls. That, with the push provocated by Cristiano Ronaldo, would warrant Rooney ('aka' Pelé II by Brit. press) 2 yellow cards).
The real match that I felt had intensity from these games is the match between Germany-Argentina. Especially the 2nd half, Germany kept attacking and trying to break a way thorugh the Argentine defense, the pace was very electric right from the beginning of the 2nd half.
Of course, everybody by now would be thinking what & why on earth was Pekerman thinking with the subsititutions that he made (?)
I believe that had Abbondanzieri not got injured, Pekerman would have brought on Messi (which could really proved a big difference compared to the inlcusion of Cambiasso and Julio de la Cruz).
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