T1B

Some interesting games to start the knockout stages.

Link to bracket

Holland-Portugal on Sunday is a hell of a matchup.

Germany should get by Sweden and Argentina should roll, setting up a great quarterfinal between those two, possibly.

A Brasil-Spain quarterfinal also looms. That would be a great game as well, as long as Spain can keep playing as they have ... a big if, given their history of choking in the later rounds.

I think the Germany/Argentina/Italy/Swiss side of the draw is tougher than the Brasil/England/Holland/Spain side.

Can't wait for the great level of this tournament to start.

RadioFan wrote:Some interesting games to start the knockout stages.

Link to bracket

Holland-Portugal on Sunday is a hell of a matchup.

Germany should get by Sweden and Argentina should roll, setting up a great quarterfinal between those two, possibly.

A Brasil-Spain quarterfinal also looms. That would be a great game as well, as long as Spain can keep playing as they have ... a big if, given their history of choking in the later rounds.

I think the Germany/Argentina/Italy/Swiss side of the draw is tougher than the Brasil/England/Holland/Spain side.

Can't wait for the great level of this tournament to start.

This is what it is all about if you are a soccer fan. I cannot wait for the games to start.

mexico will be tough today

throw out their loss, thay have a tough quality side, who tackle aggresively and hard, should be good physical south american battle

Mexico played very well. It took a great shot to beat them in extra time.

Ecuador vs. England should be a great match, too.

england is going to melt in the heat.

ecuador is used to playing in sweltering heat, this is a huge advantage, plus, the meltdown from england fans after a loss would be sweeeeeeeeeeeet, stuttgart will burn.

England is lucky not to be down 1-0 at halftime.

The longer this game goes on, the better Ecuador's chances become.

Great goal by Beckham. England is going to have their hands full with either Holland or Portugal in the quarters.

Looking forward to the next game this afternoon. Should be a classic. GO HOLLAND

Adelpiero wrote:england is going to melt in the heat.

ecuador is used to playing in sweltering heat, this is a huge advantage, plus, the meltdown from england fans after a loss would be sweeeeeeeeeeeet, stuttgart will burn.

Yeah, what could have been. The gerries are about 60 years overdue for a good burning courtesy of the allies.

There's hope yet though. The further england gets, the more bitter the hoolies will be when they go down. In the event they do win the whole damn thing, I'm guessing they'll go home and burn the entire fukking island right down to the ground. Someone should get in there quick and liberate their stocks of beer. I'll volunteer my services to oversea the evacuation the john courage warehouse.

ecuador was playing for extratime, while being down 1-0

Well if England plays against Holland or Portugal like they played against Ecuador they will be toast. Actually England has not looked too good this tournament.

I hope they win it all but I don't think they will. I think Potugal if they get past Holland will eliminate England. England would have abetter shot against Holland but they really need to step it up.

smackaholic wrote:
There's hope yet though. The further england gets, the more bitter the hoolies will be when they go down. In the event they do win the whole damn thing, I'm guessing they'll go home and burn the entire fukking island right down to the ground. Someone should get in there quick and liberate their stocks of beer. I'll volunteer my services to oversea the evacuation the john courage warehouse.

Fat, baby-murdering Osmond-teeth stetson-wearing Americans like you really shouldn't stereotype entire nations.

Although having said that, it pains me to report that England have the ugliest travelling support out of all 32 nations. Football hooliganism is so unfashionable these days, though. Good on the Stuttgart police for rounding up 120 nob-ends, keeping them in the nick over the match and then booting them home.

I predict 2-1 Italy over Australia. In extra time.

I predict the Ukraine will defeat the Swiss in a shoot out 2-1 as well.

The Italians are such pussies. Although nothing will match the diving going on yesterday.

Wow, what a dumb red card to take!

Cross Traffic wrote:The Italians are such pussies. Although nothing will match the diving going on yesterday.

Wow, what a dumb red card to take!

Piss on the Italians. Bunch of espresso drinking, scooter driving punks.

Go Roos!!!

Fuck the Spanish ref for calling a fucking penalty shot with no time left. The Italians were given a fucking gift.

Man, I thought Australia was going to win, they sure outplayed Italy but that was a bullshit call by the ref giving Italy a penalty kick at the very end, it did not look like a penalty to me.

That was absolutely criminal.

Did the ref have money riding on the game in Monaco? This game has the smell of a fix.

Who but Italy would pull a game like that out of their ass? Or have it pulled for them?

The Italians look like they need to mix in a shower, never have seen so many greaseballs in one place.

It was a good call, get over it. He slid in, didn't get the ball and impeded the way. He took a way a chace for Italy.

Horrible call. No way a ref should make that call with seconds left in stoppage time.

Nice "courageous" victory, Italy.

See You Next Wednesday wrote:It was a good call, get over it. He slid in, didn't get the ball and impeded the way. He took a way a chace for Italy.

Not for a penalty kick, and certainly not with 12 seconds left.

Italy have got a very nice passage to the semis now, with an incredibly unconvincing Ukraine.

Come ON, Ghana!

I had to finally see a highlight of the call. The Australian player didn't go out of his to trip of the Italian player. What probably got him into trouble was after he missed the challenge, he turned his body sideways to create a road block. The Italian player didn't have to go through the downed player but I think he saw an opportunity where he could draw some contact and maybe get a call. It's probably the same sort of thing when a shooter in basketball uses a fake to get a defender up in the air and in a vulnerable position and go out of their way to draw contact. I think the biggest crime of the call is that the Australians had no time afterwards to respond. To use another basketball analogy, it's like getting a free throw opportunity with one second left in a tie game. Officiating has been questionable in many of the games...I won't cry for Australia because there are probably a dozen teams at least with similar complaints.

Frogs and Spain...talk about a game where I don't want either to win.

Wonder how many times Spain's coach called Henry a monkey today.

What a Spanish choke...up 1-0 to blow it.

Now the easy goal by Zidane to cap it off.