A better result than I feared it might be, but that refereeing was awful. More against the Americans than the Italians, but it seemed every slightly late tackle that idiot was tossing out a card. The first red card on the Italian, where McBride's face was a bloody mess, that one I thought was pretty justified. The red card at the end of the first half on (insert american's name I can't remember) was horrible. I thought that was a borderline yellow card, simple foul. And he's tossing him out? Egads. Pope's second yellow card (turned red) was not a card foul either. Seemed like if you fall down, the other guy gets carded. Rotten refereeing. Fun game. Wish USA won, but tie is a lot better than a loss. Now if we can just beat Ghana, and Italy spank the Czechs, we're golden. Kinda surprised that's all it's gonna take for US to advance.

 

Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda needs to be tied up, beaten with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, raped with a splintery broomstick -- and then shot.

I have never seen such a disgracefully called match in my life. He cost America the game, and if we were a country like Brazil his ass would be DEAD by tomorrow afternoon.

Great performance by team USA -- although I am seriously pissed at Demarcus Beasley.

We need some help, but we can still advance.

 

I'll have to disagree about the referee. He screwed up with that hand play, but everything else was on the level IMO.

That's skidding with both feet directly into opponent from behind. Entirely justified red card by FIFA standards. I agree that he COULD have given him yellow and a strong warning, but that would be hard to justify after a direct red for Rossi.

Skidding foul from back is a yellow card in ANY situation by FIFA rules. There are no exceptions there.

 

Considering the Italians had been doing it all game up till that point and had by and large NOT been called for it Pope should not have been either.

This ref has already lost his FIFA certification for inconsistant refereeing once, it's high time he lost it again.

 

I will have to agree with ip. I didn’t think the referee was too bad. However it was one of the most entertaining games in the world cup this far.

 

The world cup is complete.

I mean there has been everything so far, good and bad refereeing, good goals, great goals, outstanding goals, plucky unlucky underdogs, Argentina, and England winning both matches.

Nearly everything.

Until today, finally got the shock result - the underdogs won a match, and nearly won another. Ghana's and USA's matches today were a joy to watch. That's what the world cup is about. I would have loved it even more if USA managed to nick a winner against those bleeding italians.

Hopefully more of the same is to come, starting with Brazil v Australia (I know Japan and Croatia play first, but the Aussie match is the match of the day).

 

I felt the Itialians should of gotten some cards thrown their way for imbellishing the fouls. They played to the refs sympathy and it seemed to work. I thought the tackle that got the red was rediculous because it was just a late tackle. Those are a dime a dozen in the world cup. I don't even think it was from behind, but more from the side, what made the call difficult was the how late the tackle came in, but even still, it should of been a yellow at the very most or a strong warning. The Americans were called for like 30 fouls against Italians 10 or so (ruff estimate) but give me a break they were taking dives left, right and center, so that they could be stretchered off to get breather (rediculous)

I thought Donavin played really well bringing the ball up the field then staling for support, If the teams were even, I think the U.S would of won. The goal that was called offside was a bit lame considering the guy never touched the ball.

Where I live they wern't even going to show the game, and instead play womens basketball, but there was a huge uproar, thank god. Seems Americans are actually starting to notice we have a soccer team.

 

I missed every single match yesterday because I was in bed ill. Sounds like I missed a good match. What a bastard.

 

Here are games for today:

15:00 Japan ? - ? Croatia

If Croatia plays as well as they did against Brazil, they should win this one easily.

18:00 Brazil ? - ? Australia

Australia has some quality, but let's not kid ourselves - Brazil will probably defeat them playing with half strength and generally saving themselves for the knockout phase.

21:00 France ? - ? Korea Republic

Korea does have the strength to surprise France, but after Switzerland, French players will probably be on their guard against "small" teams. IMO, this game can go either way.

 

Henry will own.

Croats win
Brazil win (2-1) or if Brazil shows up 3-1
France beats Korea

 

Japan - Croatia

This one should be a Croatia win. I'm going with 2 - 1

18:00 Brazil - Australia

If Brazil only play to half their usual standard I'm going with a 2 - 0 win. If they play to their full capacity it'll be even bigger. Australia have some good players but I don't think their a match for Brazil.

21:00 France - Korea Republic

This one should be win for the French. I have a feeling that Korea are going to make it difficult though. I'm going to go with a draw for this one.

 

Ouch, my national pride. 2-0 loss to Brazil, it was expected, but it still hurt. I was hoping for a 2-1 loss or at best 1-1 draw, and that first half got my hopes up for a draw, but hey, if we can do it to Japan, no reason Brazil can't do it to us. If we do manage to pull past Croatia, which isn't looking too hard, I don;t think we'd make it past the group E finishers, most likely Italy. But hey, I'm can still secretly hope we get right up there.

 

Fantastic game between France and Korea.
I was on tenter hooks all the way through, and I must say a good result for Korea.

I like to see the under dogs get good results.
It looks bad for France though.

All the other matches were pretty much predictable.
So it's now looking very interesting.

Litha

 

Beautiful game between Brazil and Aussie. Is it just me or is Brasil not up to top form? I donno their playing seems a little disappointing. Aussie had some great chances at goal but in the end it was still 2-0 Brazil.

 

Brazil have improved since last match. Notice how the front 2 actually did something this match (even though Robinho stole the show). However Austrailia did something Brazil hate, they were structured for the best part of the match. It was only when Adriano scored that the Australian defence began to fall apart. If Brazil keep improving at this rate, it'll be foolish to write them off.

As for Australia, they showed a lot of heart and definitely deserve to be runners-up of the group.

 

It going to be an interesting day today. The folks over at FIFA must be running around like headless chickens. Togo are refusing to play Switzerland unless they are paid, which up until now they haven't been. They refused to get on the scheduled plane to Dortmund and it was several days after they were meant to fly that the FA finally convinced them to go. Still, it's not certain that they will play today.

If Togo don't play Switzerland will get 3 points... and France won't like that.

 

France won't like the 2-0 either. But they can still get through if they win with two or more goals ahead of Togo. If Korea and Switzerland tie, a 1-0 won't help France.

 

I think that the Spain vs. Tunisia one will end up being halfway interesting.

Not even sure if Ill end up taking the time to watch the Saudi Arabia vs. Ukraine one.

but, tomorrow...Ecuador vs. Germany.....promises to be interesting....especially since I live in an area with a lot of people from Ecuador.....to put it kindly, if Ecuador loses, there will be a riot in the streets

and Sweeden vs. England also will be pretty interesting.

Who knows, Im just hoping to get through today and just hold out for tomorrow!!!!

 

Spain deserved that win, even though or maybe because they took their time scoring.

For today's matches, I'll say...

Germany - Ecuador 2-1
Poland - Costa Rica 2-0

Sweden - England 0-1
Trinidad Tobago - Paraguay 1-2