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Football football. Football football.

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10:49 / 15.06.08

Good result there - 3-1. I think Qatar suffer from what the iraqi national team seems to be suffering from at present, forgetting the tactics and the defending in the hope of showboating and getting spotted. When it works, it's great, when it doesn't, they aren't much to behold.

Back in the Euro's - well, Germany's hiccup was interesting, and Holland have been producing some of the most attractive counter attacking football I've seen since Forest in the 80's! Long may it continue. Spain showed some good fight to get a result.

Can't help but think that England would have struggled against any team but the host nations, Poland and Greece. Glad we aren't there.

19:32 / 15.06.08

I don't know if what happened to Germany was a hiccup or not. They may not have been at top form, but Croatia was on fire. I'm interested to see how far they go. I agree about the Netherlands play, their offense was relentless. It seems Portugal is still the strongest, though.
So, being hopelessly uninformed on the current state of national teams (or club teams, mls, anything really— I usually can't watch anything, and I'm only watching these games on crappy, jerky, streaming espn), why did England not even qualify?

22:46 / 15.06.08

Turkey played lights out soccer against the Czechs in the 2nd half today. Great finish, even if it was against the team I was rooting for...

I scream for ice cream

22:49 / 15.06.08

That was glorious.

And, I'm not at all ashamed to say, that was my team that just won that. (Well, my brother in law's Turkish, so I can claim that, can't I?)

05:21 / 16.06.08

i set my alarm to get up this morning at half four to watch the turks, but decided i'd be better with the extra kip. d'oh!

i wonder if the dutch are maybe not peaking too soon? italy always seem to struggle to get out of the group phase, then whammo! spain and portugal look good and an all iberian final would be glorious. that said, i tipped a portugal/italy final and still stand by that - maybe to be revised after tomorrow!

s'been some good football played, damn television rights costing so much - our free-to-air runs out of coverage for the 1/4s and semis, though i did score today an invitation jointly from the ambassadors for switzerland and austria to rock up to the swiss residence at 4am to watch the final!

aussies, 3-1. yay! some fine football played, from all accounts and what i saw of the goals (though harry's was at the expense of some of the worst defending i've seen at int'l level for some time!) sounds like they're stil up for the challenge next week in the dead rubber against china, so i'll see a bit of a goal fest, or at least a lot of goal thrusts, and with a few out and others likely rested i'll get to see some of the new breed - i hope nicky carle gets a gig.

but we're through to the next phase, a game in hand, and as top ranked asia team, get to be top seeds for the june 27 draw, so won't meet korea, probly nor japan in our group. noice.

05:23 / 16.06.08

oh, and tsuga, england didn't qualify because they played boring, unimaginative football without inventive or attacking directives from a dull manager and only looked vaguely lively when capello took over, sadly too late.

with some serious work on their creative ethic they might do ok at the next world cup. or not.

08:41 / 18.06.08

italy emerge from the group. danger signs for the rest of the competition.

four teams get to rest their players ahead of the quarters; i rekkun not more than three will triumph in that game. the dutch and portuguese will, croatia and spain may struggle - esp spain! be acracker of a game, but. wish we could see it but free-to-air runs out with the group games.

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

10:08 / 18.06.08

Well, it was a bit of a disappointment I must say.

Sat down to watch France-Italy, fully prepared, and when Ribery was injured in the 10th minute the match was more or less over. Then, with the red card & penalty in the 21st, that was it.

What a shame, could have been the fight of the tournament. But when you're 10 and 1-0 down against Italy, that usually means the match dies a slow death on the Italy defense.

Switched over to Holland-Rumania, where the Rumanians looked like they never believed they even had a chance, and Holland started off a bit nervous. Then, with the 1-0 that game was over as well, but at least the Dutch kept playing.

Looking forward to Spain-Italy, that will be a telling match for the rest of the tournament.

06:37 / 24.06.08

you're right sjaak, the spain/italy encounter was telling (in a rave to my sis i tipped italy, but in extra time, noting if it went to penalties spain would get through...) but now, i'm none so sure how telling. i rekkun the winner of spain/russia will prevail against germany (i don't imagine the turks can keep on doing it; can they??), though funnily i rekkun russia more likely to beat the germans than the spanish...

great football though - the whole tournament has been a delight to watch. we are in a new era of fusbol style, i think, and the hold and punch tactics of a new way of counter-attack will dominate world fusbol for some time to come. total football in a new style.

and the dutch were giving master classes - yet failed to prevail - how cruel.

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

10:32 / 24.06.08

Having watched some World and Euro Cups I have come to some statistical conclusions:
*No team from a Group of Death will become champion: they have to peak to early.
*Almost all teams to become champion need a loss in their group stage to get them going.
*it is not the best team wthat wins, but the most efficient

If Spain wins the Euro Cup they will have won six games in a row, that would be a magnificent achievement. But, of course, the Germans will take it again, as usual....

06:05 / 26.06.08

don't rule out guus' russia... arshavin is almost capable of winning it alone. the germans were entirely ordinary today except for three occasions - and got three goals, but were lucky things didn't go better for the turks who may well have been two or even three up before klose hit the first decent german pass to podolski who centred for buster's equaliser.

i still think the winner tonight will win it...

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

10:24 / 26.06.08

yes, Germany - Turkey was fun to watch because of the excitement, not because of the football. The German team is definitely mediocre, and had they been in the C/D groups would not have survived the group stage. But, they are in the Finals! Somehow they always manage.
Tonight may give us some good football I hope (unless we get a France-Italy scenario, with Arshavin being sent off after 10 minutes and a penalty to Spain for example). Let's hope not.

04:33 / 29.06.08

a dull game nonetheless. rekkun spain will conquer the title.

asian last phase qualifier groups drawn friday night - australia got japan, uzbekistan (my quiet dark horse for some time, so not sure if i'm happy about that - go uzbekistan!), qatar [again] and bahrain. i don't think bahrain will get through to the third-place play-offs this time round (some may recall dwight yorke's trinidad and tobago went to germany at their expense).

two koreas in the other group, with the saudis should battle it out for the honours. top two in each group go to sth africa. japan will be stiff competition in our side, but we start with a date in tashkent and finish with the japanese at home, so a reasonable run - we just have to have players like tim cahill, josh kennedy, scott mcdonald and the like fit and in form to make qualification a formality. we should be looking for six points against both qatar and bahrain, with a target of home wins and a point away at least in tashkent and tokyo.

fun looms!

05:55 / 30.06.08

spain richly deserved their win - the best side of the night, the best side of the tournament; eternally surprising how they made diagonal through balls and made their opposition look ordinary. except against the defending genius of the italians, but they held on there for a shoot-out win. senna was one of the players of the tournament for mine, with iniesta and torres. haven't heard yet who took out that title - if they give it at euro?

now mebbe i can get some extended sleep, not getting up at 4am...

07:36 / 08.08.08

olyroos, aussie olympic lads, made an average start to their campaign in beijing - particularly stunning start as it was in shanghai! - but escaped from a mainly lackluster performance to take a point from serbia, and hit the post to narrowly miss taking the bikkies. messi inspired argentina to a win in the other side of the group, so we need a win over cote d'ivoire at least, though a point against argentina would also help.

cross ya fingers!

05:45 / 07.09.08

second and final phase of the world cup qaulifiers began overnight - in asia, australia's group began without them, with a great result for us from qatar, who hit three past the fancied uzbeks without reply. we beat qatar twice in the previous phase, and travel to tashken to meet uzbekistan ourselves for our opening game, after knocking off the world's fourth ranked team, holland, on their own patch!

harry kewell is back in touch and even without scott mcdonald we managed goals. with him, and vince grella and tim cahill to come back in to this side, i am working on the assumption now we'll be playing in south africa come 2010. gotta be happy right now.

and mark bosnich has made a return to professional football, in the a-league's mariners side. a great start saw him keep a clean sheet in his first game and he has a few more on contract until the errant danny vukovic, who is still finishing his suspension accrued for man-handling the ref in the grand final defeat last year, which also saw him miss beijing. unfortunately, sydney hit three past him in the real deal and he has let one and two in past him in the other games (though both wins). he looks up for it after more than six years since he turned out for chelsea prior to his coke bust.

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