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Inter Serie A silent legis

Sports

Italy might return to a class-based justice system considering its Justice Minister's call for leniency against the World Cup winners following the huge betting scandal in the Italian leagues:

The national side's World Cup triumph in a penalty shoot-out against France has sparked calls for leniency.

"Let's do what they did in ancient Rome: whoever has given us prestige and dignity should be treated differently, as one who has done something exemplary," said Italy's Justice Minister Clemente Mastella.

That would be as just as the OJ Simpson trial, but at least the fascist Ities are honest about it. (That said, read about self-admitted über-fascist Paolo di Canio.)

Bye England for real now

Sports

Portugal beat England after a penalty shootout, but not until after the ref denied England a penalty and then let them retake an already converted penalty during the shootout. Well done FIFA. You've ruined football once and for ever.

Bye England

Sports

I ignored my vows and am watching World Cup again. And what do I see during England-Portugal? The ref sending off Rooney without any good reason. All I hear about this World Cup is how Germany has changed so much, but to be honest all I see is a bunch of totalitarian refs and their personal fetishes. In fact I'd like to state that this World Cup is in fact the worst thing to come out me Germany since the Nazis.

Update: I have withdrawn my criticism of the red card. I do maintain however that the qualify of referees at this World Cup has been disgraceful.

World Cup 2006 a disgrace

Sports

I've watched my last World Cup match this tournament. Australia dominated Italy but an unfair penalty in extra time gave Italy a win. A total disgrace. I'll watch international football again as soon as FIFA gets proper refs and no moment sooner.

Ohne Holland..

Sports

Ohne Holland fahren wir zum Viertelfinal. The Dutch lost 1-0 against Portugal, itself and the referee.

Officially, Holland lost against Portugal. Between the lines, Holland mainly lost to itself. The team had most of the possesion and over a double dozen of goal opportunities, but failed to convert. That's the most important thing to learn from this match. Those who had criticism of coach Van Basten's decision to keep Klaas-Jan Huntelaar have not been proven wrong. The team was far better than Portugal, but if you are unable to actually score you do not deserve to win.

But more was going on. Not only did we already witness a World Cup where referee Graham Poll gave a single player got three yellow cards in one match, tonight's referee decided to steal even more thunder: he caused three new FIFA World Cup records:

Most Red Cards (Game): 4 (2 each) in Portugal v Netherlands, 25 June 2006
Most Yellow Cards Against One Team: 9 (Portugal), 2006
Most Yellow cards (match): 16 - Portugal v Netherlands, 25 June 2006, and 16 - Cameroon v Germany, June 11 2002

He gave sixteen yellow cards (nine of which for Portugal) and four red cards (all as a result of two yellow). He clearly lost control of the match (as did the teams). Maybe he should have given Holland a penalty when they deserved one, or he could have sent off one or two Portuguese halfway the first half, when fair play became a lost concept. Unfortunately Holland followed suit with the aggression, but there wasn't really a choice without proper arbitration.

I maintain that Holland was simply not capable of converting brilliant play into goals and that this is the primary reason for dropping out so soon. But I must note that the quality of referees at this World Cup has been so bad that I would prefer to have those crazy referees from tiny countries back. For some complete unknown from Swaziland I can have sympathy. For so-called professionals not so much. I'm glad FIFA agrees with me:

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the referee could have been yellow-carded himself after sending off four players and handing out bookings to eight others in Portugal's World Cup 1-0 win over the Netherlands.

"It was a great show with intervention by the referee that was not consistent and (had) lack of fair play by some players."

Oh well. Huntelaar helped us to the Under-21 European Cup, so maybe he'll be the one who can take us to the European Cup in 2008.

Socceroo madness

Sports

Team USA is out, losing against Ghana, so Neil won't have to endure something similar to Australian World Cup madness. The Socceroos only need a draw to proceed and Melbourne goes nuts.

World Cup after two rounds

Personal

How do my World Cup 2006 predictions after one round hold up? These are the teams I predicted to survive:

Germany-Sweden
The Netherlands-Mexico
England-Ecuador
Portugal-Argentina
Czech Republic-Australia
South Korea-Ukraine
Brazil-Italy
Spain-Switzerland

Predicting, drawing-wise, a Holland-Brazil final. What's the story after two rounds?

Group A

Germany need to win against Ecuador to ensure first place, which is most likely necessary to avoid a premature encounter with England. Prediction holds: Germany to win, Ecuador second.

Group B

Prediction holds: England to win, Sweden second.

Group C

Forget I thought we could beat them on goal difference. Prediction keeps teams, but switches group winner: Argentina to win, Holland second place.

Group D

Prediction holds: Portugal to win, Mexico second place.

Group E

I honestly have no idea here. Italy is the only team assured of qualification with a draw, all other teams need a win to be sure, in case Italy doesn't win the USA even needs to trash Ghana with a four goal difference to overcome goal difference. I do however think Italy will want to avoid Brazil and will win, while the USA seems capable of taking on Ghana. Prediction changes: Italy jumps to winner, USA to second place.

Group F

I said:

Brazil to win. Doh. If Australia can draw against Croatia they might very well be second, and I think that might just happen for the Socceroos.

Exactly what I expect to unfold. Prediction holds.

Group G

France will beat Togo, so it all depends on the Switzerland and South Korea game. The winner takes first and France second, or in case of a draw Switzerland wins the group and France is second. I'll stick with my prediction having South Korea as group winner, so France becomes second instead of Switzerland in my prediction.

Group H

I keep my prediction: Spain to win, Ukraine takes second place. They only need a draw anyway, unless Saudi Arabia beats Spain four nil. It's been a weird group but that won't happen.

1/8th Finals

That would then produce, including predictions in bold:

Germany-Sweden
Argentina-Mexico (Arg. instead of Netherlands)
England-Ecuador
Portugal-The Netherlands (Net. instead of Argentina)
Italy-Australia (It. instead of Czech Republic)
South Korea-Ukraine
Brazil-USA (USA instead of Italy)
Spain-France (France instead of Switzerland)

So I basically stick to my quarter final predictions, only Argentina and Holland are switched removing two the historical Germany-Holland and England-Argentina matches:

Quarter Finals

Germany-Argentina
Italy-Ukraine
England-Netherlands
Brazil-Spain

Unfortunately this means we prematurely meet Brazil, which we won't win. I do think we can take Portugal (but rather Mexico) and England (rather them than Germany actually). Rather Italy than Brazil though. Note that coach van Basten does have a lot of experience with the Italian league. So it would be a lot better if we'd win the group, a lot.

Semi Finals

Argentina-Italy
Netherlands-Brazil

Final

Argentina-Brazil?

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie, Bye Bye Bye?

Sports

Socceroo Tim Cahill is amongst the Australian players who have admitted placing bets on their own performance at the World Cup.

A FIFA official told the News of the World: "I can confirm that the declaration set out by FIFA and signed by all players and staff of each of the 32 nations clearly states that no betting is allowed for the members of the delegations.
"This includes internal betting within the players of any team, which is also strictly not allowed.

"The committee has made it very clear that no betting in any form should be taking place and they will investigate any case thoroughly."

Would the FIFA actually be able and willing to go as far as too kick Australia out of the World Cup or will they merely caution and fine, possibly only the participating players?

Capitalism 2 - Other 0

Sports

It's great to see capitalism win over even the Irish English grudge. As soon as England scored one nil against Trinidad and Tobago (final score 2-0), Paddy ran to the jukebox to put on party music to increase sales where just a year ago the English national anthem would be muted.

World Cup after six days

Sports

Now that we've been able to see all teams play at the World Cup 2006, favourites and disappointments are starting to shape. Nothing is in the clear yet, every team can still throw it all away or recover. Still, here's my take:

Group A

Germany to win the group. They're not good, but they've won already and play at home. That should be sufficient. Ecuador to be second. They will be able to take on Costa Rica and in a group with Germany six points will be enough for second place.

Group B

England to win. They won against Paraguay, Sweden sucks this year and Trinidad and Tobago can achieve anything but winning the group. Although Paraguay is not disappointing just yet, I still expect the Swedes to get through as second.

Group C

Holland to win. We shouldn't have to lose against them and I am still convinced we can do better against Ivory Coast than they can against Serbia and Montenegro. Therefore we'll make it to the top on goal difference. Argentina of course, takes second place.

Group D

Portugal to win. Compared to Mexico's performance against Iran, they disappointed against Angola. But they will win the one-on-one. Mexico to be second place, then.

Group E

Czech Republic to win. They overclassed USA more than Italy overclassed Ghana. They'll do it. Italy second.

Group F

Brazil to win. Doh. If Australia can draw against Croatia they might very well be second, and I think that might just happen for the Socceroos.

Group G

Tough, tough. France disappointed, I still don't know about Switzerland and South Korea didn't impress but did bag three points, to lead after one game. You know what, I'll take a risk and say they win the group, killing France this Sunday. Switzerland takes second place.

Group H

Spain to win. They never seem to win tournaments but damn, they're off to a good start. I do actually think Ukraine can take both Tunisia and Saudi Arabia so considering their just-finished two all draw, Ukraine takes second place.

1/8th Finals

That would then produce, including predictions in bold:

Germany-Sweden
The Netherlands-Mexico
England-Ecuador
Portugal-Argentina
Czech Republic-Australia
South Korea-Ukraine
Brazil-Italy
Spain-Switzerland

Which could very well create some historical quarter finals:

Quarter Finals

Germany-The Netherlands (is there any more heated confrontation?)
Czech Republic-South Korea
England-Argentina (okay there might be one)
Brazil-Spain

And then Holland can meet their arch enemies of the past decade, the Czechs. We've played them at almost every qualification and end tournament for decades, it seems.

Semi Finals

The Netherlands-Czech Republic
Argentina-Brazil

Final

The Netherlands-Brazil.. dum-ti-dum. No idea how that would end actually, but I do think that although my predictions seem amazingly generous to Holland, we can actually take all of Ivory Coast (they're not that amazing), Mexico (kicked their arse in friendlies with a second rate team), Germany (aging and not that impressive either) and Czech Republic (came ahead during qualification, manageable). The alternative opponents? South Korea, Australia.. please. We can reach the finals!

(I reserve the right to amend this post with a new prediction later in the tournament up to and including after the final, pretending as if these predictions never took place.)

Latest photos

2006-06-11 13:28
Orange fever
Orange fever
(0 comments)
2006-06-11 11:58
Trip to the stadium
Trip to the stadium
(0 comments)
2006-06-08 20:41
World Cup slippers
World Cup slippers
(1 comment)
2006-06-08 17:28
Ahead of time
Ahead of time
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