your daily recap

[rone]

Portugal 0 - England 0 (3-1 PKs): This game started out well, then became quite dull.  Rooney was sent off after he stomped Carvalho's soft bits, but you wouldn't know it for a while because England played hard after that, looking for a goal and coming close a few times.  Meanwhile, Portugal never visibly took advantage of their numerical superiority, with a Figo who looked tired and slow.  Both he and Beckham were substituted in the second half, the latter of whom was limping on his way out.  When it came to the penalty kicks, Lampard, who's the player with the most shots taken in the Cup but hasn't scored, still couldn't find the back of the net.  Carragher, who was inserted with less than five minutes left in overtime, ostensibly to knock in a penalty kick, shot before the referee had whistled, and his retake was saved by the Portuguese keeper, who guessed right each time.  At least now the long, national English nightmare is over, and Sven-Goran Eriksson is gone.  And we got to see Victoria Beckham cry, too.

France 1 - Brazil 0: You know, for all the talk about how Brazil could field two World Cup teams with their talent, they could've used that second team today, because their top team played as poorly as any team i've seen in the Cup.  The French were absolutely solid until near the end, when Brazil desperately tried to tie as Parreira inserted every one of his forwards.  Zidane played like it was 1998 again, and he connected with Henry for the goal (this is Zidane's first assist ever to an Henry goal in international play).  Needless to say, i'm thrilled that Brazil is out, and maybe they need to stop fooling around with the ball for Nike commercials and learn to play with each other again.  France-Portugal happens on Wednesday.

Comments

[lusercop.livejournal.com]

London was surprisingly quiet post-match. I think many grown men went to go home and cry along with Posh. I guess at least all the hype is sorted now. I'm disappointed that the games they played have all been widely regarded (definitely not just by you) as "dull".

[wisn.livejournal.com]

We were in an Irish-theme pub full of several hundred England supporters and two dozen televisions and, frankly, there wasn't enough electricity in the room to justify the bar tab.

Portugal played surprisingly badly. It's more of a surprise that England couldn't get a ball past them than that they couldn't score either.

[yong-mi.livejournal.com]

I started rooting for France during their game with Spain. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. After that Zidane goal, I was ready to sing La Marsellaise. So I was pretty happy with today's result. I wonder what happens to Nike's ad campaign now?

[cheesetruck.livejournal.com]

After all the 'don't cry for me Argentina' jokes from the Brits, it was SO killer to see the Beckham's sobbing.

And yeah Brazil was waaaay too crap this cup, they should have killed everyone. Still pissed Argentina is out.

But at least England is out.

We're all rooting for Italy to go out next, mainly concerns of cheating.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I have a nasty suspicion that Italy will win, if only because I told a friend (who supports Italy) that they had "no chance" about a week before the tournament started.

From a selfish and parochial perspective, I'm viewing Scotland's qualifying group for Euro 2008 with something approaching horror. It Includes, Italy, France and the Ukraine (also Georgia, Lithuania and our old favourites, the Faroe Islands). The phrase which leaps to mind is, "We are so fucking fucked."

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

That's pretty damn harsh.

So what is the deal with the UK participating as such in the Olympics but not in the World Cup, anyway?

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

It's essentially historical: the first "international" match was between Scotland and England, and it kinda stemmed from there. It's reinforced by the separate league structures, too. The Olympics, OTOH were revived by a French bloke (IIRC), so it didn't start with a Scotland-England rivalry. The UK hasn't been represented in the Olympic soccer tournament for a number of years, partly because the various associations refuse to field a united team (that's currently a bone of contention with regard to 2012) which might be strong enough to qualify. There is a movement in some parts of FIFA to force the UK associations to unite, but there's a lot of stubbornness in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A few years back ('92 or '96, I forget which) Scotland very nearly qualified to represent the UK at the Olympics (European qualification at that time required teams to finish in the top 3 of the UEFA U21 championships; Scotland finished 4th). If they had qualified, it would have been a Scottish team representing Britain at the Olympics, with no players from the other associations...

It isn't the only sport where this arises. For example, Scotland and the other home nations compete separately in the World and European curling championships, but Scottish teams have represented the UK at the Olympics for at least the last 20 years. I think there's a similar set-up with regard to boxing, but there are more grey areas, there. Oh, and one of my friends keeps reminding me that Scotland held (may still hold, for all I know) the slightly improbable title of world elephant polo champions.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

A cynic might suggest that the reason for the hostility to a united UK team has something to do with the fact that it would essentially be an England team, with occasional contributions from other parts of the UK. At present, I can't think of any Scots who would make the 23 man squad, never mind the first 11. Ryan Giggs might have a chance (he would have had a better one a few years ago), but he's the only non-English player who leaps to mind. Bellamy (Wales) and McFadden (Scotland) might reach the required standard in a couple of years (Craig Gordon, the current Scottish keeper, is only 22 or 23, so I should add him to the list I suppose), but there are no guarantees.

Of course, there are also cheeky sods who point out that Michael Owen (Welsh) and Owen Hargreaves (Canadian) aren't really English...

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I'm going to lol my ass off if this is a Portugal/Italy final.