World Cup

I'm revising for my last week of GCSEs, of course I have the time to keep track of it all.

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Today's results:

Serbia & Montenegro 0 - 1 Holland -- fun match. The Dutch had a lot of good chances.

Mexico 3 - 1 Iran -- haven't watched the highlights for this yet, maybe in a bit.

Angola 0 - 1 Portugal -- still going.

EDIT: Angola 0 - 1 Portugal -- a lacklustre, match apparently. The written commentary I've read is exceptionally boring.

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I'm happy!! Every single match for England from now until the end of the tournament is in late afternoon or the evening!! WE'RE SAVED!!

If you're wondering - we don't like the heat. We'd much rather play in torrential downpour than midday heat. So you should see us play a lot better in our remaining matches., And hopefully we'll se Owen with his runs, Rooney, and maybe even our novelty mascott prove he's too old to be wearing nappies.

England played terrible, they won by the other team's own goal..... I call that a lucky win for England. U.S is even worst, 0-3 says it all. So far, I like Holland the best.

I'm sorry, but Landon Who?! I watched the whole game, and he did sweet F.A.

First impressions of the American team:

- Defence. Defence. Defence. You'd be safer putting a fence up around the box than relying on the defence you've got. The Czech defence was good. They managed to stop you having any major chances... but the number of times they broke through yours. Rosicky's second goal was because of that. Granted, all three defenders nearly got there, but he should never have got into that position.
- Defence again - in the box when there were corners and free kicks, your men lost their targets easily. Then again, it is very hard to mark at a time like that.
- Third point of defence -- pet peeve. Onyewu. I don't like him one bit.

Good point about your defence -- first part of the second half it really was awful. But around the 65 minute mark, it started to improve a lot.

In fact, that seems to be the main thing I thought was bad about your side. The Defence.

It's hard to push against the Czech's - if you somehow manage to get through their midfield, then you've got their defence to deal with. And if you notice, when they closed a man down to tackle, a lot of te time it was two Czech's to the one guy.

Reyna's shot on target in the 27th minute was a scrocher. He was really unlucky for it to hit the post - he had Cech beaten completely. The same with Johnson's chance in the 70th minute. He had the power, he had Cech beaten, he just missed by a snail's whisker.

In the last 10 minutes you really picked up the pace. You probed the Czech defence much more, with one or two real chances - you even managed to break through! But I think McBride as a lone striker was a bit silly. He was relied on too much, the poor guy.

Sorry to be so negative... I started watching the match thinking you'd win, if only by 1 goal to nil. It really disappointed me, but I did see some great football in the Czech side.

You've got a hard group, with hard matches - especially in Italy and Czech Republic. Methinks if the defence problem was solved, and Donovan had chance to show off his blistering pace, you'd win.

And let me say, you have boring fans. Sure, they dress up, but where was the "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant? You'll never beat the Europeans fan-wise.

Altogether - could've been worse. Johnson, for me, was your man of the match. And the Czech's are hard opponents. At least the match kept me well and turly occupied for the full 90 minutes. Watching Australia v. Japan got kind of boring in the end, because they just kept on doing the same over and over and over again. That wasn't the case with this match.

I look forward to your match against Italy.

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EDIT: Just seen Gang'a reply.

We did play terrible. Especially in the second half. Hopefully on Thursday, when it's cooler, we'll play better. And there's news that Rooney might play, which is a great thing.

And let me say, you have boring fans. Sure, they dress up, but where was the "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant? You'll never beat the Europeans fan-wise.

If it was the world cup of basketball or "football" then you might actually see some real fans. For soccer you are consider lucky if you find 1 out of 100 people in the US actually care about the World Cup. It's kinda sad.

Still, you've got to be one of the most self-important countries in the WC, let alone on the planet. I expected to hear some "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chants, if only at the start of the match. Singing the national anthem was pretty quiet too - another thing Europeans really go for.

oh man, Japan couldn't hold up for the last 7 minutes, I was actually chanting for them.

I was hoping Japan would win too.

They nearly had a couple of chances in the last few minutes.

But Australia! Man alive!! Talk about a comeback. That was absolutely amazing!!!

Wahey!!

We've won our second game.

And this time round, we had the awful first half, brilliant second.

First goal - Beckham crosses a lovely ball into the box, Crouch gets over T&T's 6' 7"cher, and scores a great header.

Second goal was an absolute scrocher from Gerrard, left footed from just outside the box.

Brilliant!

First time we've scroed in the second half for 8 years, and we got 2!

no offense Lenny but i thought England played like shit. They got lucky that the 2 subs came in and actually did something. I think Germany might be the team to beat, if not Brazil. We will see how the US does against Italy tomorrow and hopefully we pull out a win so we can have a chance to go onto the second round.

who cares its soccer its not as fun to watch as football

No offense taken - we did play shit. But we did do a LOT better in the second half than the first. Sure, Rooney didn't do anything much, but he did bring moral to the team.

And Lennon and Downing played superb.

And, if Ecuador can pull out a draw against Germany, and we the same against Sweden, Germany WILL be the first team we beat in the knockout stages.

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I hope you do do well tonight, as it would be a shame to see you out of the competition so early. Hopefully you can get your defence sorted out. We'll loan you Terry if you want him.

EDIT: Man alive, that was one hell of a match!!

Sure, I've seen 10 men against 11, once I've seen 10 - 10. But I ain't never seen a house fly! I mean, 9 - 10.

4 goals - 3 scored by the Italians, and the one from Beardsley.

I must congratulate America on that performance. It really has been on of the best of the World Cup so far. Really entertaining as well - it reminded me of late night Division 1 football in the middle of November. Blood and guts and everything else.

Absolutely superb!!

Lenny. You ever start a brawl?

The game was awesome, but the red cards were unnecessary. I understodd the italian red card, maybe because blood was spilled, but the other two were terrible. The US held its ground and grinded a tie, which is much better then a lost. I sure hope that Italy beats CRupblic and US beats the surprise G

Lenny. You ever start a brawl?

Nah.

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The Italian red card WAS needed. I agree to an extent of Pope's red card, as he already had a yellow, but the other one was just mad. Must've been that time of the month for the ref.

You were unlucky to only get a draw. Donovan played better than in the first game too - he was up closer to McBride this time, which might be a reason.

At least you're still in the tournament. You group is the only group so far that looks so uncertain.

I'm serbian, and I guess it's in your blood from birth to like soccer if you're European. I decided to be a little patriotic and buy a Serbian flag to show that for once I do have some spirit. I put up the flag in my bedroom window before I watched the Serbia vs. Argentina game.

Now, to be honest, I knew we wouldn't have beat them, but I didn't think the score would be 6-0 Argentina for Christ's sake.

...I burned that flag. I burned it gooooood.

I was going to say that S&M still have a chance, but then I just saw the table.

Don't forget, you were drawn into the Group of Death... still a shame though.

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England again tonight. Can we beat Sweden for the first time in 38 years?

The Dallas Cowboys (U.S. football team) are gonna run into your precious world cup's final game and shank everyone. That's how hardcore we are.

And we'll run around you with the ball and make fools of you all trying to get it off us.

Don't forget, Brazil will be in the final - the team with the most talent in the world. Try and take on Ronaldihno and YOU will be run into the ground.

That's how Hardcore WE are.

oh well, U.S blew it. It's not like we are going anywhere at second round anyway, since we'll be facing brazil.

Yea, they failed huge in the game vs Ghana. Choke artists.