The first set of matches is almost over. The team that impressed me the most is italy. And next one is australia. What a comeback against the cheating Japs? After watching Brazil struggle against Croatia, I wonder how it will be if Italy meets Brazil. Oh yes. My favorite team Czech outclassed the americans. They sure will go a long way in this tournament I guess and wish. The American manager is funny. Especially his facial expressions. He tries his level best to look intelligent, but that makes him look funny.
And what happened to good referees? Ghana deserved a penalty. And yesterday Adriano fouled so much, but no yellow card? BBC came up with an interesting trivia yesterday. Graham Poll was the referee for the fluke koreans vs Togo match. BBC reports ‘Graham Poll celebrated his 14th wedding anniversary by blowing the whistle and starting the Korea-Togo match’ 
And its better I dont talk about France. Booooooooo
on 14 Jun 2006 at 2:05 pm # Srivat
Agree with you on Referees.
BTW did you say ‘Cheating’ - thats the word reserved for Premier league coaches :-).
I differ with your opinion on Brazil.Infact I never expected that they will play as a team.So loved their passing game.I would love to see them against an attacking side(open-ended)..thinking of which.How abt Czech vs Brazil in round 2 :-).
on 14 Jun 2006 at 2:28 pm # Prabhu
One thing is for sure: the Czech Republic is going to be one of the top performers this World Cup; too bad about Jan Koller falling out, hope he recovers on time.
Did you see Graham Poll sending off the Togo player for a second yellow? He first showed the red card and then the second yellow one; I guess 14 years of marriage has confused the old man a bit
First time i’m commenting on your blog: super-a irukku!
on 14 Jun 2006 at 2:31 pm # Bala (Karthik)
Ferrari,
“Ghana deserved a penalty”
Even the commentator was saying the same thing initially because from one angle it looked like two Italian defenders tripped the Ghana player. However, from the angle [referee's POV camera], which was a much closer and better view, it was obvious that the Ghana player had dived. Lucky not to get a yellow card for diving, as the commentator pointed out
BTW, i assume you’re talkin about the same incident!
on 14 Jun 2006 at 2:33 pm # Bala (Karthik)
The Italians are more attacking than they have traditionally been [except of course when they had the likes of the wonderful Albertini] but the main cause of worry is how their defense would hold up against the big guns. Of course Cannavaro had a terrific match.
FORZA ITALIA! - engal tharaka mantram
on 14 Jun 2006 at 7:24 pm # soccerfan
wht brazil gave was a no display. They were extremely lucky not to get some tough opponents like Ivory Coast or Ghana (lesser quality but good for yesterday’s brazil’s team). It was shocking to say the least. There was no team. The defense was screwed, the attack was toothless (by the way everyone is putting R9 to sword wht exactly was Adriano doing other than fouling an opponent, robinho was more interested in proving his coach why he shd start rather than playing for the team). Dinho was bad, i dont know why he takes dead balls while his conversion in dead ball is very low. Shockingly, Brazil cud not even put one decent move ending with the striker. Croatian defense was not great, 2 weeks back they lost to the great Iranian team 2-0, and were making horrible mistakes and even passing the ball to Dinho and R9 in their own half.
Better not talk abt the Brazilian defense, it was totally screwed. No organization, no man-marking, and only interested in commiting fouls. One wonders how Emerson was not sent off as he was more interested in sliding tackles than in mild distractions like football. RC is a disgrace, there shd be a limit to the hype thats being generated on this guy, he was totally out of his position and for 5 minutes he was playing the role of a central midfielder!!!!.
To cap it all Harsha Bhogle and his band-wagon of brazil maniacs were there to provide “excitement” when there was none, other than a few brazilian chics. He even went to the extent of saying that this was a practice match, now the same can be applied to England, at least their defense was tight.
The world views brazil this way:
When brazil plays football (a valid question that CP can ponder abt after yesterdays display) and it is defensive then still it is pleasing to the eye, they say in latin america joga bonito, beautiful game. but when italy or even greece (why not??) play defensive football or catenaccio they say it is boring.
This “they” refers to the stereotype, the ones who were sitting and blabbering in the ESPN TV set. They cant even call spade a spade wht a shame!!!
on 15 Jun 2006 at 8:32 am # SoccerTime
Watch out for the “gauchos” (ARG)…Riquelme,Saviola and Crespo…simply awesome!
Messi has’nt even played yet…
on 15 Jun 2006 at 4:55 pm # Gp
I can finish the French sentence…but I cant do it w.out vulgarity.
One thing caught my mind after the ‘cheating’ Japan, ‘fluke’ Korea? What the heck is wrong with you? You againts Asian teams?