No Joga Bonito
Any one who thought that this world cup would be played in good spirits would have realised the reality of things in the Australia-Croatia match. Football is fun. Football means a super carnival atmosphere. Football is also pretty rough, especially when matches are close, more often than not.
One word to describe the early part of the Portugal-Holland game would be intense with high quality football being played. The Maniche goal meant that Portugal had the early advantage. Then, we had the many brawling incidents of course. For Portugal, it was extremely stupid of Figo to go for the head-butt as losing another man and so a 9 vs 11 would have meant suicide.
I thought Holland shouldn’t have got involved in the brawls as it meant, above other things, a lot of time wasted which cost Holland as they were already 0-1 down. In the actual match, Holland missed some easy chances and were unlucky in other times. The two goal keepers must be commended for making some astonishing saves which were very much significant in causing a lot of tension to every one.
With each match, as the world cup script unfolds - one match at a time, the anticipation and the thrill keeps increasing. While all this happens, we keep falling in love all over again with the great tournament.
Tags: FIFA World Cup 2006.
June 28th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
now that portugal are thru, i think we are on for a scolari 3 sven 0 scoreline…. 3 being WC 02 (Korea/Japan), Euro 04 (Portugal) and finally WC 06 (Germany)
June 29th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
The condemnation of the referee has been universal in this match. While I have to acknowledge the opinions of the gurus, as someone that witnessed the match, I wonder why the actuall villains have been spared any abuse.
The referee should have shown more authority by talking to the players and getting a clear message across instead of handing out yellows at every turn. However, but for maybe 2 yellows, every other one was very well deserved and earned by players from each side, IMO. And the worst foul of all, the one on Robben with one of the Portugese players (I don’t know who) landing his studs on Robben’s shoulder went unpunished! Play had already stopped by then, but it merited a red card in my book. Anyway, let’s see how many they accrue against England.
July 6th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Maverick: You were right!
Vinesh: I agree with you. I thought the referee shouldn’t have been targetted by fans and media after the match.