[quote=“scherpschutter, post:19, topic:2390”]I think it’s simply called second round
In Dutch we have the term ‘Achtste finales’, in German (if I’m not mistaken) Achtelfinale, but I don’t think there’s a similar term in English. Native Brits & Americans (native of not): help us out![/quote]
Yes, the second round is what we normally call it. Although last sixteen is also used.
And an England Germany final would be wonderful of course. Although I am approaching this World Cup the way I do any game involving my club team. (who are rubbish) Expect the worst and then anything short of a disaster is a good result. We all know England have good players but I have yet to be impressed with our performances and would not be surprised if we tumbled out early. Let’s hope not.
The goal was great, yes
Pareira, the Brazilian coach of South Africa, had done his home work very well. Mexico has offensive backs, and are therefore vulnerable for quick breaks. South Africa tried to use the space behind the offensive backs regularly. In the first half they almost got a clear chance this way, in the second half they could have had a penalty and hit the post. Although Mexico was the better team, South Africa had the better chances.
They’ll try to do the same thing against France. I suppose Uruguay is their most difficult opponent: they play close together, so South Africa can’t use their speedy players up front.
[quote=“Phil H, post:21, topic:2390”]Yes, the second round is what we normally call it. Although last sixteen is also used.
And an England Germany final would be wonderful of course. Although I am approaching this World Cup the way I do any game involving my club team. (who are rubbish) Expect the worst and then anything short of a disaster is a good result. We all know England have good players but I have yet to be impressed with our performances and would not be surprised if we tumbled out early. Let’s hope not.[/quote]
[quote=“Phil H, post:21, topic:2390”]Yes, the second round is what we normally call it. Although last sixteen is also used.
And an England Germany final would be wonderful of course. Although I am approaching this World Cup the way I do any game involving my club team. (who are rubbish) Expect the worst and then anything short of a disaster is a good result. We all know England have good players but I have yet to be impressed with our performances and would not be surprised if we tumbled out early. Let’s hope not.[/quote] i share your feelings phil, but don’t you agree if we don’t win our group the players shouldn’t bother coming home? i predict a 2-0 win over the u.s.a tonight.
Greece looked slow, lazy and old against a top fit South Korea (we’ve got two Koreas this time!)
They’ve made serious progress overthere in the far East. Holland played Japan in a friendly last year, and eventually won 3-0, but in the first half Japan were the better team, and they made quite an impression on the Dutch players (so they’re warned). We’ll see on monday what Japan is capable of, when they play Cameroon. It will be nice to see this South Korea against Nigeria and Argentina. Sympathetic team. Tremendous number 10 (one of the Parks), unbeatable in the air (he reminded me of Swedish player Ralf Edström, who played for PSV Eindhoven and the Swedish national team in the 70s)
Knock out stages or like our Brazilian friends say mata-mata, kill-kill.
Saw a little bit of South Korea Greece, Greece does not have many new players, plenty of Euro Champs from 2004 :'(, I guess against very fast teams they do not stand a chance, in any case I was expecting more from them, Beating Ukraine for a spot here it’s not easy
Well, they won their first game, but I can’t say they were particularly impressive
Nigeria and South Korea will play for the second place in this group, I suppose, can’t see Greece coming back (poor Otto)
The Argies look good on the ball as always and going forward they are a major threat but they look (like others so far) shaky at the back. A better side would have punished them today.
Come’on this gonna be all about the usual suspects, Brasil, Germany, Argentina, and Spain (now a usual suspect), and perhaps Holland (I do not know the draw they got) maybe one other surprise team that I do not know where it will come out, it will depend on the referees and on FIFA.
Rather strange to see England play a very individual game most of the time, but they lack a little bit of class, the class you need to be world champ, Gerrard and Ronney can’t do everything and are also tired players, bad luck for the goalkepper, a msitake can happen any time but in a world cup nobody forgets that, lucky for him it wasn’t in the “mata-mata” games. In any case I’ve seen much better english teams in the past, you need a player like Gascoigne with real magic on his feet.
For instance for Germany one world class player it’s more than enought, because as a team they’re are always (almost always) very strong with few weak points, that’s why they usually reach the finals.
We’ve seen two of the favourites so far, Argentina wasn’t completely convincing, England downright dissapointing
Yeah, a Gascoigne, or a Bobby Charlton, that’s what this team lacks. Gerrard should adopt that role, not stay too much in defensive midfield (although without him there will be a problem with the build-up from behind). Lampard isn’t a play maker. Good game by offensive right back Johnson. And Capello must find a solution for his central defence: if you play with too much space in your back (like England did in the second half) Carragher is too slow. This almost cost them the one point when Carragher was outrun by Altidore, who hit the post. The US did well, I guess they will be satisfied with this result.
Bizarrely, we actually played better this evening than we have for a while but one horrible mistake completely changed the confidence levels. Not just of Green but the whole team.
But as I said earlier, I am approaching this tournament with very low expectations so no surprises for me here. If anything, it seemed inevitable. On the positive side, I thought Heskey played very well. He was probably our best performing player alongside Glen Johnson. Unfortunately, Emile still doesn’t seem to know where the net is. Another downside was the fact that Rooney seems to be out of sorts at the moment. He was anonymous for much of the game and we need him firing if we are to win.
The big question is of course, will Capello stick with Green after this?