Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

Well that was a nice match. Italy did quite well. Course England also did well. Final score Italy 2 England 1. Next match I will be watching will be on Monday. The match I will watch on Monday will be the US vs. Ghana match since I will be unable to watch the Germany vs Portugal match earlier that day.

I can't believe Hodgson's substitutes. Lambert would've done well against Paletta who seemed weak on crosses. No we bring on Wilshere who has always flattered to deceive for club and country.

Oh well we always expected 0 points here so on to the next one.

This was the match I've enjoyed the most so far. Well played by both teams and great effort. I was impressed by the English's youth (mainly Sterling. Sturridge and Barkley did a nice match too) and Italy, aside from an always-amazing-Pirlo-that-just-did-whatever-he-wanted-through-the-whole-match, had a really good performance from both Candreva and Darmian. I knew almost nothing about those two, and was surprised.

And some good refereeing, for once.

Nuke said:

I can't believe Hodgson's substitutes. Lambert would've done well against Paletta who seemed weak on crosses. No we bring on Wilshere who has always flattered to deceive for club and country.

Oh well we always expected 0 points here so on to the next one.

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Exactly. Nothings really changed. Beat Uruguay and Costa Rica and we go through.

I might see Costa Rica play well against both Italy and England. These could be the REAL surprise package, given the upset earlier.

England were abysmal. Rooney seems good for Man United, but terrible for England. I could see them beat Uruguay, but I can't see them beating Costa Rica, sorry.

>England were abysmal

Narrowly lost to an Italy side that would not have complained if it were a 2 - 2 draw. Rooney is good for United because he plays in his best positions (number 10 and number 9), not on the wing. Going forward we looked pretty good. From these two games I think England will go through.

We were good in the first half, just not good enough with the end product in the second. Roy's fault for taking Welbeck off when he had been great and not putting Lambert on later on.

The same team will work in the other two games as long as Sterling isn't found out.

I dunno what it is but Rooney has a reputation of doing poor in the World Cup and the Euros. I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, Ivory Coast v Japan this morning. Gonna watch this one before I sleep.

EDIT: Japan has scored! Ivory Coast 0-1 Japan!

All (if not almost) the matches in this WC has been good. Come on Ivory Coast.

Spain v Netherlands has been the best game so far, and I hope there is more great games to come. I wonder if Honduras may pull off an upset against France tomorrow?

Always possible, even in that group France are always susceptible to upsets these days.

Ivory coast can feel a bit hard done by so far.

Japan needs a second goal to ease tensions.

Edit: Ivory Coast score 2 goals in 3 minutes. Cruel but CIV has been better this half.

According to a text I got yesterday from my older sister was that one possible factor as to why Ivory Coast beat Japan was because Ivory Coast had their own "12th Man." For those that don't get the term, it means that Ivory Coast had really loud fans.

Switzerland win their match against Ecuador with a goal from Seferovic in the final seconds of the game, right after Ecuador failed to make a goal on a great opportunity. I see no reason they couldn't have at least attempted something there, I'm not sure Switzerland would have been able to come back from that.

Even the not so great games at this World Cup have good moments, another there with that last 30 seconds.

Next up France vs Honduras then. Not expecting any shocks here.

There go my dark horse expectations for Ecuador.

Honduras are a dirty team, only time I've decided not to support the underdogs as a neutral. Palacios probably earned three reds in that half.

I felt lucky that Switzerland won that game. Ecuador could have EASILY won the game there, but made a big mistake which cost them. I'm looking forward to the Argentina-Bosnia/Herz game.

You can take Palacios out of Stoke, but you can't take the Stoke out of Palacios.

I don't think the France-Honduras game was any good here. It was quite boring to be honest.

I enjoyed watching the French get kicked.