The Ian Munnery World Cup Thread...

[Andrew G]

I am not changing my name to Andrea!

[David Lombari]

Marco, where are you watching it on Monday? I'll be watching it at home if you fancy coming over to Sydenham.

[Jon H]

We had the Italy game on a big screen in the boardroom for the benefit of our Italian clients. Pizza & beer too.

[Toks]

Oh Dear!...the germans looked very good today!

[Matthew Ives]

Yep...the Hun looks impressive.
Mind you, they might have to play The Argies next.

[Toks]

Calm Down, I know!.. it hasn't quite come home. In fact it hasn't even packed its cases

[huw williams]

While all the good teams are playing each other, and consequently half of them are getting knocked out, England's reward for playing the most unattractive football of this or any other tournament seems to be a clear path to the semi-final courtesy of being drawn against the weaker teams.

First Ecuador and next, after last nights fractious and injury-ridden affair, Portugal with half a team suspended.

Can you really imagine England, playing like they did yesterday, beating Holland or Mexico (both out) or Australia, Italy, Spain, or France (two of whom are about to go out)

Could it be that England's 'name is on the cup'?

[David Lombari]

Yesteday's match rivalled France-Switzerland for the worst amtch of the tournement so far, but I think England will lift their game when the quality of the opposition improves.

Last night's match was, er, eventful. Shame Graham Poll wasn't officiating, that could've been REAL fun! Always nice to see Ronaldo, possibly the most arrogant player around, in tears. Bless, he got a dead leg.

[adrian]

[quote="Matthew Ives"]the Hun (...) The Argies

[David Lombari]

Hi Adrian, I was hoping to see the Dutch win but have to say that Portugal played really well, esp. Miguel marking Robben out of the game AND supporting the attacks. Possibly the best individual performance of the tournament so far.

On a wider issue, I got really frustrated watching the games at the weekend and seeing players shooting from a long way out when a team mate was in a good position. Equador were particularly guilty of this. I hope it's not a side-effect of the new ball, in that it will encourage hit-and-hope football.

[adrian]

Hi, David. Yes, I agree that Miguel did a great job. It's funny but I was just saying to a colleague here that they either wanted to walk it in (Robben, well watched by Miguel etc) or just shot on sight. I think that with the new ball, players think (probably rightly) that if they can get it on target, there's a very fair chance of the keeper not being able to hang on to it, even if he does get to it. Anyway, apart from Cocu that one time, I just don't think anyone on the Holland side looked like scoring. Kuyt worked hard but didn't really get a look-in.

It was good that v Basten cleared away some of the hoarier elements (de Boer, Kluivert etc) but he still made some odd choices - he failed to take the most in-form striker (Huntelaar of Ajax) and insisted on playing Cocu who was clearly knackered out long before half-time in every game.

The ref handled it badly but teams really shouldn't go to pieces like that and get drawn into a free-for-all. Neither team covered themselves in glory but I didn't care for Figo's tactics one little bit.

All in all, I'm relieved it's over and I can get on with my life. Happens every time.

Hope you have more luck with Italy today.

[David Lombari]

I can't believe Van Nistelroy didn't get on as he is still one of the best goal poachers around.

Hope the Azzurri do the biz tonight. Talking about easy passages, if we're on top of our game we should be able to beat the Aussies and either Ukraine or Switzerland in the next round, so on paper the draw has been kind to us. Won't be surprised if we implode though.

[adrian]

Yeah, don't know what's going on with v Nistelrooy - no-one seems to want to touch him. Maybe he smells or something.

[huw williams]

Being the Azzuri they'll probably try and fix the results somehow

[Toks]

In the England V Ecquador game quite a few ex pro's and pundits thought Carrick was man of the match. Don't get me wrong I thought he played well but man of the match for me was Ashley Cole or perhaps Wayne Rooney!

As most people have already mentioned it was a very laboured win but as Huw has already alluded England just might be lucky this time around. With three key Portuguese men possibly missing, Rooney looking strong and fit, Beckham scoring what was once a trademark freekick - perhaps, just perhaps "this time more than any other time..."