The Round Ball Game

[EdgeleyRob]

I've missed quite a few of the matches but saw the second half of Germany v Ghana, it was so exciting and I'm sure I wasn't the only one willing Ghana to get another goal to get a win over Germany rather than a draw .... they never stopped attacking. I'm also very pleased about Costa Rica, in fact the World Cup is only interesting when there are upsets (like Spain being knocked out)

Meanwhile Rooney says England might have to become more cynical to win the World Cup. “I think you look at teams who have won the tournament over previous years and you can see that nastiness in them,” he explained. “I think we need to get that in us. Maybe we’re too honest, I feel, as a team. So I think, in terms of Uruguay the other night, they stopped the game, they committed I don’t know how many fouls. Clever fouls, really, to slow the game down. I think we’re a bit honest in terms of the way we play"

So is honesty not the best policy when it comes to winning matches?

But for a wrong choice of pass when 3 on 2 towards the end of the game,Ghana would surely have scored.
The 2nd half was best 45 minutes of football in the competition so far IMO

[jayne lee wilson]

OH LUIS, LUIS, LUIS!


After a tight, tense, absorbing and ultimately dramatic game... only one possible talking point: how sick at heart all Uruguay and Liverpool fans must feel after seeing THAT. AGAIN. I suppose there's only one possible outcome, and, like Maradona in 1994, we'll have to say farewell - surely with heavy hearts - to a great player who seems unable to control an appetite for self-destruction, even at the peak of his abilities. And yes, however you feel about Suarez himself (I'm a Liverpool fan, how can I hate him... love-hate perhaps? No, just confused!) this World Cup will miss his presence, terribly...

I thought Ian Wright was remarkably fair and insightful about Suarez, even compassionate, when many others will just seethe, and condemn. A bite on a defender's shoulder will never do the defender's career much harm - but it could certainly ruin the perpetrator's.... so... (after facing his wife & family) - back to the therapist. Seriously. But what then?

There'll be no sadder sight at this World Cup than Suarez, clearly miserable as he left the field, whilst his team-mates celebrated around him...

[cloughie]

OH LUIS, LUIS, LUIS!


After a tight, tense, absorbing and ultimately dramatic game... only one possible talking point: how sick at heart all Uruguay and Liverpool fans must feel after seeing THAT. AGAIN. I suppose there's only one possible outcome, and, like Maradona in 1994, we'll have to say farewell - surely with heavy hearts - to a great player who seems unable to control an appetite for self-destruction, even at the peak of his abilities. And yes, however you feel about Suarez himself (I'm a Liverpool fan, how can I hate him... love-hate perhaps? No, just confused!) this World Cup will miss his presence, terribly...

I thought Ian Wright was remarkably fair and insightful about Suarez, even compassionate, when many others will just seethe, and condemn. A bite on a defender's shoulder will never do the defender's career much harm - but it could certainly ruin the perpetrator's.... so... (after facing his wife & family) - back to the therapist. Seriously. But what then?

At least Norman Hunter stuck to legs!!! If the tabloids have any truth in them it won't be Brendan's problem next season.

[johncorrigan]

I haven't seen the fifteen re-runs of the Luis incident, but I would like to say that I am just as much going to accept the word of a Uruguayan forward as an Italian defender. Still he'll probably be out for the rest of the campaign even for the head butt... but, I tell you, if Uruguay end up playing Colombia that'll be a tasty one. (said one Count Dracula)

[jayne lee wilson]

I haven't seen the fifteen re-runs of the Luis incident, but I would like to say that I am just as much going to accept the word of a Uruguayan forward as an Italian defender. Still he'll probably be out for the rest of the campaign even for the head butt... but, I tell you, if Uruguay end up playing Colombia that'll be a tasty one. (said one Count Dracula)

Oh John, if only there was a doubt...IF ONLY...

...but yay! To Colombia - Uruguay!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's a funny old game:
Spain out,
England out,
Italy out,
Spain out,
Portugal nearly out,
Hannibal Lector on the loose...

[EdgeleyRob]

Severe weather warning.

Showers of s### heading to Europe very soon.

[Beef Oven!]

Italy got what they deserved. Playing for a draw, not fussed if if they needn't score.

Balotelli was a mistake, just as he was for Mancini/Mancity. Good look to Arsenal, they'll need it if they sign the unreliable so-and-so.

Even as a United supporter, I've always loved Suarez. But this is too much. A player who bites another player, cannot continue in the competition, IMV.

[Beef Oven!]

Italy got what they deserved. Playing for a draw, not fussed if if they needn't score.

Balotelli was a mistake, just as he was for Mancini/Mancity. Good look to Arsenal, they'll need it if they sign the unreliable so-and-so.

Even as a United supporter, I've always loved Suarez. But this is too much. A player who bites another player, cannot continue in the competition, IMV.

UPDATE: Many are calling for Suarez to be banned, this morning.

Third biting incident in his career. First in Holland with Ajax, then in a fixture in England's Premiership, now against Italy in the world cup.

I think he should be banned, but will FIFA have the courage?

[johncorrigan]

UPDATE: Many are calling for Suarez to be banned, this morning.


I think he should be banned, but will FIFA have the courage?

Do you mean Sine Die, Beefy? I assume they can ban him from international footie but not sure that they would have the jurisdiction for the Club game...and all that good work that Brendan did on him, undone on a journey back home. He was the story of the last World Cup and looks like he's going to be the story of this one.

[Radio64]

..

Third biting incident in his career. First in Holland with Ajax, then in a fixture in England's Premiership, now against Italy in the world cup.

..

Well at least now he's got his hat-trick!

Can't we have a friendly three-way tournament England-Italy-Spain somewhere next week? In The Outer Hebrides or something?

[Beef Oven!]

Do you mean Sine Die, Beefy? I assume they can ban him from international footie but not sure that they would have the jurisdiction for the Club game...and all that good work that Brendan did on him, undone on a journey back home. He was the story of the last World Cup and looks like he's going to be the story of this one.

I meant banned from the rest of the world cup. Anything else is for EUFA, the FA and Liverpool AFC.

Let's hope something better come s to dominate the 2014 World Cup.

[Beef Oven!]

Well at least now he's got his hat-trick!

And what will his mum say?

She couldn't have brought him up right/fed him properly.

I don't know what the game/world is coming to.

[Radio64]

He obviously likes Italian food, that's all.

anyone for chile con carne?

[EdgeleyRob]

No football on telly this evening ,say it aint so