2010 FIFA World Cup

[devon]

Someone needs to brainwash Lampard, Rooney, Gerrard et al into thinking that they're actually playing Hull City at the KC stadium instead of Slovenia at The World Cup. They would play much better then.

[Red Ranger 1]

England practically committed suicide with that defeat.Anything less than a win against Slovenia and they'll need a miracle to get through.Even 1-1 would be no good.

Haven't seen the Kewell red card, I haven't really watched that many matches if England aren't involved.The rules do specify deliberate hand ball but on the other hand a handball to prevent a goal has been a sending off offence for a quite a while.If you go for the ball with your arm up, you're asking for trouble.

[Miranda]

Here's what I think briefly as its past my bedtime:

England played like numpties, I can't see them winning the cup, despite my patriotism.

Ditto Spain, who were my second favourite team

I'm glad Serbia beat Germany, they deserve a shock like that, they are always so smug.

The vuvuzelas are bloody annoying.

Interesting to see North Korea out in the world, I didn't think they were allowed out of the compound!

I can't imagine how Wimbledon will be shown as well as the World Cup, it will be wall to wall sport

Diego Forlan is a god

According to the New Statesman ranking of ethically sound countries, we should all support Slovenia and Uruguay as they have the best records Although I may support Uruguay for other reasons, see above!

[ebrett84]

Australia did pretty well against Ghana and might have even deserved to win. I didn't have a problem with Kewell's red card. As RR notes, if you use your arm to stop a goal, you're off. I know he didn't exactly stick his arm out and it seemed to be a case of ball hitting arm rather than arm hitting ball, but them's the rules. Tim Cahill's red card against Germany was a hundred times worse. What's up with all these goal keeping errors? And all these free kicks and shots from the edge of the area sailing into row Z. Is this new ball that hard to control? England are a complete joke, but it could be worse. They could be France. God, what a disaster. I thought I was being pessimistic, picking them to finish in second behind Mexico. They might finish last. Why are the Vuvuzelas (or whatever they're called) allowed in the stadium? I was making fun of a South African friend of mine for that being considered South African "culture" and he said he'd never heard of them before this World Cup.

[Adia]

The All Whites drew 1-1 with Italy! Absolutely amazing on defence... you could tell afterwards they had played the game of their lives even though Italy had the most possession and opportunities. Could not believe it when Shane Smeltz scored in the first seven minutes! England need Ryan Nelson and Ricki Herbert to come and give them a pep talk!

[Ryan]

England practically committed suicide with that defeat.Anything less than a win against Slovenia and they'll need a miracle to get through.Even 1-1 would be no good.

Haven't seen the Kewell red card, I haven't really watched that many matches if England aren't involved.The rules do specify deliberate hand ball but on the other hand a handball to prevent a goal has been a sending off offence for a quite a while.If you go for the ball with your arm up, you're asking for trouble.

Personally, I wasn't sure it it was a penalty yet alone a red card.

EDIT: Forgot Algeria had a point.

[Zetti]

England were crap and I agree that Algeria were the better side, but I dont believe that they dont deserve to progress. This entire World Cup has produced some upsets and England drawing both of their matches so far is one of those in my opinion. We will go through, am sure of it and I am sure we will prove ourselves

[Red Ranger 1]

Haven't seen the Kewell red card, I haven't really watched that many matches if England aren't involved.The rules do specify deliberate hand ball but on the other hand a handball to prevent a goal has been a sending off offence for a quite a while.If you go for the ball with your arm up, you're asking for trouble.

Personally, I wasn't sure it it was a penalty yet alone a red card.

Having now seen it in the highlights, I think it was unfortunate but the ball hit him up on the upper arm, preventing a goal.In the circumstances, the referee didn't really have any choice but to award a penalty and if it was a penalty it was a sending off.

As a couple of people have pointed out, there have been occasions in the past where England have had a dire first two group games, won the third and gone on to do pretty well, so here's hoping that's one piece of history that repeats itself.

[Slade]

I had to Google to find out what a "Vuvuzelas" is.

As a couple of people have pointed out, there have been occasions in the past where England have had a dire first two group games, won the third and gone on to do pretty well, so here's hoping that's one piece of history that repeats itself.

I'm assuming you are referring to 1986 and 1990. Fair play in 1986. They were pretty good against Paraguay and lost to Argentina with a goal that shouldn't have stood. I do think England were a bit lucky in 1990 though. Against Belgium, Belgium hit the post and England managed to get a goal in the last minute of extra time via David Platt although I have to say it was magnificent effort. Against Cameroon, the Cameroonians played pretty well and England won with two penalties.

Brazil were much better in this game than they were against North Korea but TBH for some reason I'm still not particularly impressed with them. The play acting the Ivory coast player did which got Kaka sent off was disgraceful and I don't think the referee was that great. He sent off Kaka which IMO wasn't a second yellow and with the second Brazilian goal Luis Fabiano handled it twice so it shouldn't have counted. I really think FIFA need to strongly consider introducing video replays now. I know that game of football is supposed to flow but the referees have shown even with the aid of the linesmen they still make the wrong decisions. Sepp Blatter won't allow it though!

I thought Italy were OK, much better than the first game and were the better side against New Zealand. I have to say though considering that some of the players consist of part timers/lower English division players the New Zealanders defended magnificently - Inter Milan of the 1960s would have been proud!

Interesting situation with two of the groups. If Italy and New Zealand both draw their final games with the same result e.g. 1-1, 2-2 etc. And England draw 2-2 with Slovenia in their final game and USA draw 0-0 with Algeria then we have - Firstly Italy and New on the same amount of points, same goal difference, same goals scored, same head to head, similarly England will be in exactly the same situation with USA meaning they will have to draw lots to see who progresses to the second stage with both groups.

[Jamey-Maria]

England practically committed suicide with that defeat.Anything less than a win against Slovenia and they'll need a miracle to get through.Even 1-1 would be no good.

Haven't seen the Kewell red card, I haven't really watched that many matches if England aren't involved.The rules do specify deliberate hand ball but on the other hand a handball to prevent a goal has been a sending off offence for a quite a while.If you go for the ball with your arm up, you're asking for trouble.

Personally, I wasn't sure it it was a penalty yet alone a red card.

Exactly, it was a dodgy yellow at best. There was absolutely no intent in it. Add that to the fact that Ayoub's tackle on Bresciano was a blatant red card for which he only got yellow, on top of some of the very OBVIOUS handballs by Serbia that got nothing, on the back of that stupid call that cost Cahill this game from our first game and yeah Australians are feeling pretty damn irritated that bad ref calls are having a big negative hand in our games. It happens but geez it's hard to cop.

In other news GO NZ! I was really impressed with their game and scoring so quickly.