England looks mostly in control but that last flurry of missed chances I just witnessed (the run on goal after the half) earned a channel flip over to nbc to watch Agassi & Nadal at Wimbledon.
There's almost a whole half left, but the soccer match looks like it's going to go to overtime anyway.

Portugal go through on penalties. England played better than they have in any of the previous matches, but Portugal (surprise surprise) were equal to it; I noticed that for the first time in the tournament, Maniche had played further back, helping to break up attacks and moving forward when the chance came. Maniche has been my choice for finest player in the competiton so far, but today he shamefully feigned injury, pretending he had been hit in the face. He still rocks, though.

Lots of genuine emotion from everyone in the England camp at the end, apart from the usual dim-looking Eriksson who appeared to be unconcerned to the last. People are fed up of Eriksson's tactics, his distant attitude and his total failure to shift his arse off the bench when things aren't going well. Not to mention the £25,000,000 he's fleeced from the F.A.

Hargreaves played well, and scored his penalty. Terry and Ferdinand acquitted themselves very well in central defence, but apart from that there were no stand-out performances from our players.

Disgracefully, on the BBC after the match, ALan Shearer was talking all sorts of rubbish about Ronney's sending off; the fact is that during that scuffle Rooney committed two yellow card offences and two red card offences. Such is the nature of the beast, and the referee was quite right to punish him.

Portugal played maybe their worst game so far, totally failing to take advantage of their half hour with an extra man. But they still looked a bit classy.

Good luck to 'em, I say.

Yes, Hargreaves played really well today, and ain't paid in return.
Yes, Portugal played their worst match.
I'm not particularly happy of the way things went, but on the other hand, I had a hunch Portugal were about to go far at the beginning of the tournament.
Some cars honking here and there in the distance, to celebrate the victory (many French come from Portugal).

Its a shame England couldn't score a goal, thay made better chances for themselves. The PK's were a total disaster! It wasn't a bad game to watch though, even with no goals. That is three games going to penalty kicks, this World Cup reminds me a lot of 1990. Not very 'fun' football.

Rooney being sent off surely didn't help matters any. Uncalled for pushing with his Man Untd. team mate.

Also, Lennon looks better and better, game by game.

Lennon is a nice find for us in this tournament - quick, skilful and committed. The question is, will Steve Mclaren do the right thing and play him from the start, or will he stick with Sven's tried and tested (and beaten) formula?

Brasil vs France in ten minutes - potentially a very good game.

Yes, 1998 REMATCH!

Lets hope Ronaldo doesn't go AWOL before the kick off like 98.

more sour grapes from me here, but you know, at one point (when I first picked players) I had ZZ & T Henry...the only player for France I still have is F Malouda...time for Brasil to wake up & answer

It's near midnight here in France, and I'm back from a little walk from downtown smalltown, and I've only seen it that wild twice.
First time was that 1998 day when Sonic Youth played A Thousand Leaves in Paris. When I got down from the train to head back home, I felt more than surprised to see so many people gathered around the main square by the cinema, yelling out of joy. Most of them couldn't have cared less about Sonic Youth, they were enjoying the French team's victory versus Croatia in the semis. I didn't stay long that time to rush and watch the game I had taped.
Second time was, well, after the victory.
Same scenes tonight after a rather stifling day. Fresh air, cars galore, honking, people waving flags (there was this car with both Portuguese and French flags waving out), excited kids with their parents, smiles, boys & girls...
Domenech's substitutions were fine, he didn't remove strikers in favor of more defenders. Zidane was marvelous, Henry in control, and Ribéry achieved something great. Pure delight.

France played so well, taking full advantage of their attacking capabilities whilst maintaining a sturdy defence. There was no luck involved at all - France were simply better than Brasil. I shlould think that the whole world was impressed with that.

The France vs Portugal semi-final should be a real treat. I hope it provides the tournament winner.

wow, i'm so impressed with his performance tonight, he was fantastic... i'm ashamed that i sort of lost faith in him lately... it's really late here and i will now go to sleep, but it was a nice evening... i must admit i did not expect france to pull a game like this tonight...

David Beckham has resigned the England captaincy, and may well not be picked in the near future; probably for the best as, along with the departure of Sven, it allows for a truly new England regime. Many of England's stars, and the team as a whole, had played very little quality football since Euro 2004, and the failure to excite at this World Cup means that major changes must be enacted. Things are looking up at last (and will look even better if beckham can rediscover his true form - for a couple of years he was iincredible as a player and pretty good as a captain).

The people are demanding Stephen Gerrard or John Terry be installed as replacement. In the past two games the armband has been passed to John Terry and to Gary Neville, so perhaps it is between those two. One hopes that Michael Owen, should he recover fitness, is left to goalscoring duties only. rather than being burdened further with captaincy. My preferred option would be John Terry, without hesitation.

Clicking on this pretty orange bit of text wil allow you to cast your vote for the Best Young Player of the World Cup. Although both of their respective nations have been safely eliminated, I think either Cesc Fabrigas (Spain) or Artem Milevskyi (Ukraine) are worthy recipients of the title, although Lukas Podolski of Germany will be a popular vote, I suspect.

maniche feigning injury in the face was almost identical to figo's feigning injury in the holland game which got bouhlarouz a second yellow card. me thinks they've been practicing on that. :D

anyway, finally we saw some passion from england at this tournament, even if we had to wait until they were a man down for them to show it. i still believed they were capable of winning it with a man down, until the moment that it came to penalties. portugal weren't having their best game of the tourmanent, but credit to ricardo... saving 3 penalties! from the look on his face i already expected lampard to miss his penalty though. it just never was his tournament. lennon looking good for the future.

france-brazil game was very entertaining as well. like most people, i had already kind of written off zidane, but what a game he had! magnifique! after their first two games i didn't even think that france were going to reach the second round... but yesterday they played really great and now i'm hoping they're going to win the tournament. football can be a strange sport sometimes.

during the entire tournament brazil never really looked like they were capable of living up to the hype. hopefully they'll learn from this tournament. by the way, did anyone notice roberto carlos during the free kick that eventually produced the goal for france? he was standing bent over with his hands resting on his knees, not moving at all during the entire time from when the free kick was taken up to the moment that henry hammered it home! wasn't he supposed to defend, seeing how he's a defender and all? :rolleyes:

as happy as i am that brazil are out, my fantasy team is fucked though... 5 brazilians and 3 argentinians have now become useless. should've listened to my feeling like i wrote in a previous post.

edit: milevskiy is a promising player for the future. i first noticed him during the u-21 european championships a couple of months ago. i think he's going to be big.

Gerrard should be the captain maybe terry. If beckham had been replaced by Lennon at the start of the world cup or even at the start of teh portugal match you lot would still be in the competition

Either will do, but Terry edges it for me.

Here's a nice statistic-type thingy from FIFA today:

No hat-tricks for the first time?
2 July 2006
by FIFAworldcup.com

After 60 games and a total of 138 goals, the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ is still waiting for its first hat-trick.

If the tournament runs to its conclusion without a three-goal haul it will be the first time that this has happened in a FIFA World Cup. There were no less than seven hat-tricks at Switzerland 1954 and five at France 1938. Four came at Mexico 1986 and also at Spain 1982.

Portugal's Pauleta is the last hat-trick marksman with his trio in the 4-0 defeat of Poland in Jeonju on 10 June 2002. The full list of hat-trick scorers at FIFA World Cups is:
2002: Pauleta (Portugal v Poland); Miroslav Klose (Germany v Saudi Arabia)
1998: Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina v Jamaica)
1994: Oleg Salenko (Russia v Cameroon); Batistuta (Argentina v Greece)
1990: Tomas Skuhravy (Czechoslovakia v Costa Rica); Michel (Spain v Korea Republic)
1986: Emilio Butragueno (Spain v Denmark); Igor Belanov (Russia v Belgium); Preben Elkjar-Arsen (Denmark v Uruguay); Gary Lineker (England v Poland)
1982: Paolo Rossi (Italy v Brazil); Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Germany v Chile); Laszlo Kiss (Hungary v El Salvador); Zbigniew Boniek (Poland v Belgium)
1978: Rob Rensenbrink (Netherlands v Iran); Teofilo Cubillas (Peru v Iran) 1974: Andrzej Szarmach (Poland v Haiti); Dusan Bajevic (Yugoslavia v Zaire) 1970: Gerd Muller (Germany v Bulgaria, v Peru)
1966: Geoff Hurst (England v Germany); Eusebio (Portugal v Korea DPR) 1962: Florian Albert (Hungary v Bulgaria)
1958: Pele (Brazil v France); Just Fontaine (France v Paraguay, v Germany)
1954: Sandor Kocsis (Hungary v Korea Republic, v Germany); Carlos Borges (Uruguay v Scotland); Sargun Burham (Turkey v Korea Republic); Sepp Huegi (Switzerland v Austria); Erich Probst (Austria v Czechosolovakia); Theodor Wagner (Austria v Switzerland); Max Morlock (Germany v Turkey)
1950: Ademir (Brazil v Sweden); Oscar Miguez (Uruguay v Bolivia)
1938: Ernest Wilimowski (Poland v Brazil); Gyula Zsengeller (Hungary v Sweden); Tore Keller (Sweden v Cuba); Gustav Wetterstrom (Sweden v Cuba); Leonidas (Brazil v Poland)
1934: Angelo Schiavio (Italy v USA); Edmund Conen (Germany v Belgium)
1930: Pedro Cea (Uruguay v Yugoslavia); Guillermo Stabile (Argentina v Mexico)

In that Russia vs Cameroon match in 1994, I think Salenko actually scored four, but Russia went out anyway.

he scored 5 i believe... 6-1 if memory serves me right. that one cameroon goal was historic as well, because it was made by roger miller, making him the oldest goal scorer on a world cup. 41 or 42 he was at that time. i think salenko even ended up as joined-topscorer of the tournament, despite of having played only 3 games.

lack of a hattrick was maybe due to the lack of a really weak opposition on this tournament. trinidad & tobago was a lot stronger than most people (me included) had imagined. but if i'm correct rosicky was close to scoring a hattrick vs usa.

It was indeed five for Salenko, yes. Well done indeed.

A few strikers have been substituted after scoring two goals, which is obviously a factor.

Goalscoring World Cup records:

Goals and goalscorers

* Most goals scored: 15, Ronaldo (Brazil Brazil, 1994-2006).
* Most goals scored in one tournament: 13, Just Fontaine ( France), 1958 FIFA World Cup.
* Most goals scored in one match: 5, Oleg Salenko, Russia vs Cameroon, 1994 FIFA World Cup.
* Longest period between a player's first and last goals: 12 years, Pelé ( Brazil, 1958-1970), Uwe Seeler (Germany West Germany, 1958-1970), Diego Maradona ( Argentina, 1982-1994), Michael Laudrup ( Denmark, 1986-1998), Henrik Larsson ( Sweden, 1994-2006), Sami Al-Jaber ( Saudi Arabia, 1994-2006)
* Youngest goalscorer: 17 years and 239 days, Pelé ( Brazil), Brazil vs Wales, 1958 FIFA World Cup.
* Oldest goalscorer: 42 years and 39 days, Roger Milla ( Cameroon), Cameroon vs Russia, World Cup 1994.
* Tournament with most goals: 1998, 171 goals
* Tournament with most goals per match: 1954, 5.38 goals per match
* Tournament with fewest goals per match: 1990, 2.21 goals per match

* First ever goal: Lucien Laurent, France vs Mexico, 13 Jul 1930, 1930 FIFA World Cup.
* Fastest goal from kickoff: 11 seconds, Hakan Şükür, Turkey vs South Korea, 29 Jun 2002, 2002 FIFA World Cup.
* Fastest goal by a substitute: 16 seconds, Ebbe Sand, Denmark vs Nigeria, 28 Jun 1998, 1998 FIFA World Cup.


From this excellent list of World Cup stats at Wikipedia

edit: this one's worth repeating! Most goals scored in one tournament: 13, Just Fontaine ( France), 1958 FIFA World Cup. Blimey.

This subject has already passed on the board, but I wasn't here last night, and it deserves to be said again...

France played an incredible game yesterday. Probably the most inspiring performance of the entire tournament thus far. I'll be the first the say that I thought France was on a one lane road to no where, but they have proven everyone wrong. I want to see them win it now.

Brazil = overhyped. I don't think it helps that this team rarely played together as a team, both in competition or in character. Ronaldinho should probably take note of his poor play in Germany. Very unexpected.

It's well worth reading Gavin Hamilton's World Cup Diary at World Soccer. Concerning the next World Cup, in 2010:

Four South African print journalists were accredited to cover this World Cup, out of a media contingent of some 10,000. Given that South Africa are supposed to be hosting the next World Cup in 2010, you would think they would be taking a little more interest in events in Germany. FIFA insiders are said to be genuinely concerned by the lack of progress being made by the South African 2010 organising committee. Moving the tournament away from South Africa, in the same way that Colombia gave way to Mexico in 1986, has not been ruled out. More likely is that FIFA will have to step in and run the whole operation themselves.

I think it will be a great loss if South Africa doesn't get it together and they have this taken from them. It is important for the entire continent that this tournament be held there, and its important for FIFA to show that everything it calims to be is true.

I've read that FIFA is initiating a continental roation in selecting a host for the World Cup. South America is scheduled to to have the 2014 World Cup, most likely to be held in Brazil. This is interesting, considering North America, South America, Asia and Africa have so few countries that have the means to host this kind of event.

It's a heated battle for 6th place hehe
Os Brasileiros (rtovarius00)346.5
Springfield Soccer Club (pong_atari)343.5

the thrill of victory & the agony of defeat

Lampard with all his attempts garnered me more points than anyone with 40.5. I should have made him captain a few times. The other blue chip is Buffon. He earned 39 with his 21 saves.

The best young player:


Lionel MESSI (ARG)
runners-up:

 

Cristiano RONALDO (POR)

 

Aaron LENNON (ENG)

it's a shame that Messi did not play more during this world cup...
in particular, it's a shame that pekerman used all of his substitutions and was unable to make him enter the game after germany equalised in the quarterfinals (or that he replaced crespo by julio cruz instead of messi)...

One of Pekkerman's substitutions was forced by injury, of course, but all the same he has to take a large amount of blame for what happened. Take off two players if you wish, but Crespo and Riquelme? They are the most puzzlingly insane substitutions since Graham Taylor took Gary Lineker off when England desperately needed a goal.

Messi will make a name for himself over the next few years. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if at least 80% of the players on that shortlist become big names by the next World Cup - they nerly all seem like dead certs, rather than possibles.

Jurgen Klinnsman needs to go into tonights semi-final unnaffected by nerves - he's got this German side this far by having them play fast, attack-oriented football, and the team will do best if they carry on in that style. Expect Italy, on the other hand, to be set up looking for counter-attacking opportunities.

i just read that schweinsteiger will start on the bench tonight... cars already start hooting / honking (?) outside my window...

It looks like he's replaced by Tim Borowski. Do you think that's a sign of a more defensive line-up?

vive le tour is what i say.

i don't know... it looks like Klinsmann is reorganizing his midfield (kehl is replacing frings, who is suspended, and apparently ballack will play closer to the forwards), but i don't know if it's going to be more offensive or defensive... borowski is quite offensive, i think, he will play on the wing for this game. and schweinsteiger might be on the bench because he was considered as disappointing in the last game...

That could be it. Also, given Italy's expertise in drawing games out, maybe Klinnsman likes the idea of a much fresher Schweinsteiger for extra time and penalties? He's a good man to bring on in a tight situation.

A tactical battle tonight, I think.

best game of the world cup, feel really sorry for the germans, they were only bettered by argentina in attacking and watchable football in this world cup, the final will be poorer without them.

It was good to see such a competitive match between two big nations at this stage of a tournament. It was very enjoyable indeed. In the end we had two very fine goals from Italy. The first was a fantastic finish, especially for a defender; the second reminded us of the extent of Del Piero's natural talent.

Great photo, eh?

Yeah, the ITA GER game was awesome and a last minute goal in OT was incredible! The 2nd goal a minute later was the loudest hammer strike in GER, the loudest hammer on the biggest nail.....that sucks for the home country...I thought they would be going all the way.

FRA 1 POR 0

Poor reffing in this game for sure, or at the very least, quite inconsistent. I hate when a PK is awarded when the ref has been letting play go on without calling fouls, then he calls an unexpected one. He was giving POR all the calls at first and then FRA all the calls later.

I can't believe FRA is in the final when they could barely make it out of the group! but Zidane has been playing great since the round of 16 started.

POR gave it their all and sported my favorite goalkeeper of the cup, Ricardo. Did anyone see him all the way out of the goal on that closing seconds corner kick and he biked it back into the box....love it!!

Here we go FRA ITA on Sunday!!!

France - Portugal was not a very exciting game to watch. I think Portugal played much better than France, but they let a lot of chances slip through their fingers (or toes?). What I really like about France is how much they frustrate offenses. Its like old time France!!

Interesting final we will witness.

I agree. France played a much better game against Brazil. Henry didn't start as strong and never really got up to speed. But, in the end I'm glad to see Italy and France in the finals. I still feel sorry for Germany, though. But they seem proud to have gotten to play in the 3rd place game. National unity is something that they haven't seen in a while.

I like Portugal a lot, but I have to admit that some of the diving tonight was comical. Again, Maniche played further back and again Portugal struggle. He really is the catalyst for Portuguese success - let him move forward and things happen. But it's too late now.

Another quality performance by France. I'm so pleased Zidane didn't get boked - he more than anyone deserves this final, and it'll be good to see hm play on Sunday.

Italy vs France, then. The secret of both nations success at this World Cup has been a basis of defensive solidity allied with real attacking prowess, which promises to make for an absorbing final.

Yeah, lots of diving by Portugal. It was really starting to annoy toward the middle of the match. Portugal did have more chances to score but they either missed them or were blocked.

The Final will truly be a battle of defense. In Italy vs. Germany it was 0-0 for almost the entire match and extra time. 117-118 minutes of scoreless soccer. And in todays game, France held the 1-0 edge for 60 minutes to win. So, it will come down to who scores first and can hold off the other the longest.

Agreed, but France will fancy their chances up front, I think, so the tempo of the game will be largely up to them.

Yeah, I definently put France to win.

Six Gillette Best Young Player nominees chosen
4 July 2006
by FIFAworldcup.com

Judgement day is drawing near. Six candidates remain on course for the title of Gillette Best Young Player. Three of them have been nominated by our readers, while the other three have been chosen by FIFA’s Technical Study Group.

Fans have voted on FIFAworldcup.com to nominate
Cristiano Ronaldo (POR),
Luis Valencia (ECU) and
Lionel Messi (ARG),

while the Technical Study Group has opted for

Lukas Podolski (GER),
Tranquilo Barnetta (SUI) and
Cesc Fabregas (ESP).

This shortlist of six has been whittled down from an original field of 40 young players. Since 9 June, readers have been able to vote for their favourite young player on FIFAworldcup.com, while the FIFA specialists have kept a close eye on the performances of the tournament's talented youngsters in their various matches. It is now time for the 14 members of the group to get together and decide the deserving winner, whose name will be revealed on 7 July.

This is the first year that FIFA has awarded the Gillette Best Young Player Trophy. Designed to reward the player born on or after 1 January 1985 who makes the biggest impression at the FIFA World Cup, the criteria for the award include style, charisma, fair play and appetite for the game, as well as pure technical skill.

Good to see Luis Valencia getting votes. From that shortlist, I'd pick either him or Cesc Fabregas.

<burp>

noo ITALY!! ;-):cool: :D