[johnnywinternoshow]

12 hours after the ecuador-poland game finished

[Hip Priest]

The stats were actually up pretty quickly last night - it took about two hours.

Argentina vs Ivory Coast tonight looks like a good game.

Before that, two group B games - England vs PAraguay and Sweden vs Tinidad and Tobago.

[Bertrand]

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

Wait untill after the opening round, when all of a sudden there are days with no games at all. You'll feel that. You get you life back, but for a while you forget what it was that you used to do with it.

Oh yeah, you're damn right, Paddington. That's an addiction.

[Bertrand]

After a terrible terrible African Cup where they achieved next to nothing, Togo loses the coach who had taken over since February.
Otto Pfister called it quits yesterday, 4 days before the team's first game, against Corea.
The reason : the players wanted more cash (they asked for 80 000 euros per player, and their federation would "only" grant them 30 000).
This is insane.

[Hip Priest]

I'm struggling to decide: if Gerrard plays, he's still carrying an injury, and he's gonna be marked the Paraguay's ruthless Roberto Acuna (so unpopular that he doesn't even talk to his own team-mates on a regular basis). Do I make him captain?

Expect free kicks and crosses a-plenty:

This match brings together two teams renowned on their own continents for the strength of their aerial game. England boast a real threat through David Beckham’s set-pieces and centre-back John Terry and, if selected, the towering Crouch are men the South Americans should keep a particularly close eye on. At the other end, England’s defence must be equally vigilant with strikers Santa Cruz and Valdez both a danger.

[pokkeherrie]

fuck. i didn't know you could change your first team/captain every day. i thought it would only be after every team had played a game... say goodbye to friday's bonus.

[Hip Priest]

England 1, Paraguay 0 (an own goal gave us victory).

We played well in the first half - we attacked the whole time and denied PAraguay the chance to reciprocate. Beckham was very sharp. In the second half we fell into the English trap of sitting back and trying to defend a one-goal lead; on most occaisions we are made to pay for this policy, on this occaision we rode it out and got the win. We never look comfortable playing that way, and PAraguay made us look like much the lesser team in the second half.

I don't understand why Sven didn't give Theo Walcott at least five or ten minutes at the end of the game - at somepoint we may have to rely on him, so it's best that he gains some comfortable experience early on. Surely Owen/Walcott would have been a more sensible substitution than Owen/Downing?

The referee: I'm glad we won, because it doesn't sound like sour grapes if I say that he was bad to the point of favouritism. His victimisation of Crouch, who was regularly penalised and even yellow-carded for nothing whatsoever, raises serious concerns about his objectivity. It'll be interesting to hear FIFA's match report on him - can yellow cards be appealed against and recinded at this tournament?

Parguay showed in the second half that given time and space, they are an effective unit, and could have scored - they've had some very good results in qualifying and friendly matches, and should be a threat to other teams. That forward of theirs likes to fall over though, doesn't he?

THree points though, and some good performances.

[Bertrand]

Let's hope we won't see that referee often.

[Hip Priest]

Unbelievable, wasn't he? Really, genuinely bad.

Persecuting Crouch, ignoring fouls but punishing players for nothing, not allowing players to drink water, quite incredible.

[Bertrand]

He was dressed in red. Might have gone up to his head.
And 4 times he switched that whadyacallit (when a player throws with his hands the ball once the ball has left the field).
Disappointing tactics from the Brits. A great void around Crouch playing a pole when Downing came in to run along the left wing.
I was impressed by his (Crouch) legs. No skin on them, no muscle either. Completely different from Munitis, the Spanish forward who played for the selection not so long ago. I used to wonder how he could walk with them and, more important, wear trousers.

[Hip Priest]

'Throw-in'.

You're right about Crouch - if you leave a forward on his own, you either need people running through or people supplying him with the ball.

Downing probably should have been left out of the squad - we're over-run with midfielders, he's not too impressive at this level, and another striker would be nice.

Still three days 'till France play. Are you confident?

[Bertrand]

Throw-in, of course. More relevant that what we use in French : we say "touche". Must have come from a time when the first to touch the ball earned the right to throw it in again, no matter who had pushed it out.

[acousticrock87]

Hah thanks for the summaries. That game aired at 6 AM here - didn't catch any of it. Isn't a T&T game supposed to be on now, though?

[Hip Priest]

It started thirteen minutes ago. T&T vs Sweden. The very exciting prospect of Argentina vs Ivory Coast at 8pm (just under three hours!).

[acousticrock87]

Ah, found it on another channel (ABC). ESPN2 said they're covering all 64 games. Not this one, apparently.

EDIT: They just said ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 will be covering all 64.

[johnnywinternoshow]

england were disappointing in the second half. Hargreaves and Downing on the pitch? Owen off the pitch? What was going on there. It was like watching 45 minutes of a cup final where the team 1-0 up throw on a shit load of defenders for the last 3-5 minutes

[o o o]

i just created my team on friday afternoon in a rush, just before the first game started... i'm glad i put schweinsteiger as captain... however, i had lahm in my team just 5 minutes before the game and eventually decided to take him out...

i have no access to internet at home at the moment, it will be difficult to make all the changes in time to get the maximum of points...

[johnnywinternoshow]

what a result for T&T!!! that second half was nail biting stuff for their fans, nearly won it too

[Hip Priest]

Indeed. A really good game. Very entertaining - T&T made them selves busy for the whole 90 minutes, they were everywhere. Shaka Hislop was superb, and what a game for Carlos Edwards - if he plays anothe two that well, he won't be at Lutin Town much longer!

[pokkeherrie]

incredible game...

argh, all my today's players picked up a yellow: gerrard, valdez, larsson.