8 pm Games woot!

mike65

Holland

01 E Van der Sar
03 K Boulahrouz
13 A Ooijer
02 K Jaliens
15 T De Cler
20 W Sneijder
08 P Cocu
10 R Van der Vaart
17 R Van Persie
09 R van Nistelrooy
07 D Kuyt

Argentina

01 R Abbondanzieri
21 N Burdisso
02 R Ayala
15 G Milito
17 L Cufre
08 J Mascherano
18 R Maxi
05 E Cambiasso
10 J Riquelme
19 L Messi
11 C Tevez

Ref: Luis Medina Cantalejo

---

Ivory Coast

23 B Barry
03 A Boka
06 B Kouassi
17 C Domoraud
21 E Eboue
02 K Akale
05 D Zokora
18 A Keita
19 G Toure
09 A Kone
15 A Dindane

Serbia & Montenegro

01 D Jevric
06 G Gavrancic
14 N Djordjevic
15 M Dudic
20 M Krstajic
02 I Ergic
04 I Duljaj
10 D Stankovic
11 P Djordjevic
22 S Ilic
19 N Zigic

Ref: Marco Rodriguez

Mike.

KdjaCL

What happened to X vs X ?





Damn Wc has us not arsed ......


kdjac

kinaldo

Will be great to see Messi and Tevez up front together. Huge expectation on Argentina now, and they never do well against the Dutch. I imagine both teams would rather play Mexico in the next round. I'm at a loss for predictions on this one.

eirebhoy

I'll go for a boring 0-0 draw in the Dutch match and score draw in the other match.

Pepe LeFrits

Van Der Vaart playing the defensive midfield playmaker role should be interesting.

Pighead

Looking forward to this one. Fancy a 2-2 draw with Van persie to be sent off and Van Nisterooy to miss a penalty. Not to sure if messi and Tevez together is going to work but we shall see. The other game can do whatever it wants to be honest. Its all about Argentina V Holland.

kinaldo

another classic example of van nistelrooy penalty box diving

AnCapaillMor

Dutch team looks too narrow can see the Argentina defence mop up everything. no robben could be good, he's good but very selfish with the ball.

kinaldo

van nistelrooy is still more than welcome at newcastle

AnCapaillMor

Serbs 1 up, zigic, there goes my predictions competition.

Rikand

AnCapaillMor wrote:

Serbs 1 up, zigic, there goes my predictions competition.

Ditto, lol

eirebhoy

Had a feeling it would be Zigic, I came down to check that.

fade2black

2-0 now. Some of the worst defending seen in the WC so far.

fade2black

Penalty to Ivory coast..............................

They score....but it's to be retaken...

fade2black

Puts it in the same spot....

2-1. Game on.

(I'm watching both by the way)

futuredeath

dont like the hol-arg ref.

fade2black

Lads you're all missing a farce of a match...haha....Serbs down to 10 men after a diving lunge. Anyone into betting in running could do worse than backing Ivory coast now at around 10-1

Pepe LeFrits

Argentina have played with a lot more class so far. Holland are solid but seriously lacking in creativity, VDV and Sneijder never seem to get on the ball at all in Argentina's third of the pitch. Van Persie and Kuyt are playing far too wide; they aren't wingers and are leaving Van Nistelrooy very isolated.

Rikand

Ivory Coast climbed all over Serbia for the first half. Hopefully they get a few goals in the second half!

PHB

Van Nist hasn't had a chance yet, Robben is really really missing from this Holland side and Kuyt isn't a winger, and shouldn't really be playing. I'd rather VDV on the left and anotehr CM in there.

fade2black

2-2, a nice little goal too.

Telling ya...that betting in running is looking sweet now. IC look like they could score 5

Pepe LeFrits

Can't watch any more of the 'big' game, it's like watching paint dry.

fade2black

Another penalty to Ivory Coast!

fade2black

3-2 I TOLD YA!! hahaha

mike65

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz, hu-wha? Is it over?

Mike.

gimmick

What a load of crap. I know both teams were already through, but that was awful, it was almost like they were both trying NOT to score. Im right pissed off after watching that, having being looking forward to it since the draw was made.

Should make for 2 cracking last 16 games though.

eirebhoy

Nice call fade!

Pepe LeFrits

eirebhoy wrote:

Nice call fade!

... nice call eirebhoy!

(You wanted that, I know you did)

fade2black

haha...thanks Eirebhoy....I must say I thoroghly enjoyed that game. 7 bookings, 2 red cards...terrible defending, some showboating...5 goals...tennis balls thrown at the referee.....great fun alltogether....and nice call with your 0-0 boring draw

mike65

What channel was the entertianment on?

Mike.

eirebhoy

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

... nice call eirebhoy!

(You wanted that, I know you did)

My prediction was only 11/2, his was 10/1.

fade2black

Only got 13-2 in the end

It was on ITV 4 mike

eirebhoy

Does anyone know what match RTE will be showing tomorrow night?

fade2black

Brazil....Liam just raised the point there now that they're showing the wrong one. Bill said...."Well we can change..."

They really are brilliant.

mike65

Brazil-Japan I think

Mike.

Chucky the tree

anyone showing the austrailia? ITV 4 is it? You'd think itv and bbc would show either games, the muppets.

And rte showing the Brazil match? Goona be a laod of bollox.

eirebhoy

Nah, they have to show the Brazil match. Japan and Brazil are the most attractive teams to watch when on form. Their match in the confederations cup was excellent. I'm not a fan of the other 2 in the group. Brazil may have nothing to play for but Japan do and they'll be all out attack.

Chucky the tree

when on form though. Japan have been poor in this group. Brazil havent been great either. They are already through so i dont expect much from them.

Aus vs croatia should be a good one. Like a derby nearly.

eirebhoy

Japan haven't been that poor. No poorer than Australia and Croatia. Japan are one of my favourites to watch while Australia just annoy me. Also, Japan played both their games in the blistering heat so maybe they'll play at a higher tempo tomorrow night.

kinaldo

call me a sadist or whatever but i really enjoyed that game maybe it's because i've seen hundreds of premiership games and worse 0-0 draws i thought tevez literally dragging the ball past two dutch players on the touchline was absolutely brilliant

gimmick

eirebhoy wrote:

Nah, they have to show the Brazil match. Japan and Brazil are the most attractive teams to watch when on form. Their match in the confederations cup was excellent. I'm not a fan of the other 2 in the group. Brazil may have nothing to play for but Japan do and they'll be all out attack.

All very true, but the fact that Croatia Vs Australia is the strangest 'derby' in world football and that both teams can still go through, should make this a more lively affair and alot more watchable.

Pissed off that Czech Vs Italy is during the day, which I'll miss due to stupid work. Sure wish i were unemployed, then I'd show everybody!

eirebhoy

gimmick wrote:

All very true, but the fact that Croatia Vs Australia is the strangest 'derby' in world football and that both teams can still go through, should make this a more lively affair and alot more watchable.

Yeah, I see where your coming from. I'm just delighted that Japan will finally get shown on RTE at 8pm as most people wouldn't have watched them due to work. I've been praising them a few weeks now so hopefully they turn it on.

kinaldo wrote:

call me a sadist or whatever but i really enjoyed that game maybe it's because i've seen hundreds of premiership games and worse 0-0 draws i thought tevez literally dragging the ball past two dutch players on the touchline was absolutely brilliant

Yeah, it wasn't that bad. I thought Argentina were more up for it than Holland though. Bar Kuyt and probably Sneijder nobody seemed to be too pushed. The commentator asked will they risk going forward in the last 5 minutes but what are they risking?

unkel

eirebhoy wrote:

Yeah, it wasn't that bad. I thought Argentina were more up for it than Holland though. Bar Kuyt and probably Sneijder nobody seemed to be too pushed. The commentator asked will they risk going forward in the last 5 minutes but what are they risking?

Agree. Argentina was better but the Holland defence was stronger than I expected. This match would never be, and wasn't a true reflection of either team's capabilities. The only thing in it for both was pride (not losing) and both kept their pride. Argentina has only ever beaten Holland once and that was in the final of the '78 WC when JC (to himself probably better known as Jesus Christ) refused to be selected for the team for political reasons :rolleyes:

kinaldo

unkel wrote:

Argentina has only ever beaten Holland once and that was in the final of the '78 WC when JC (to himself probably better known as Jesus Christ) refused to be selected for the team for political reasons :rolleyes:

Amazing to think that Maradona was left out of and Johan Cruyff chose not to play that World Cup. A great what if would be if those two players had played...

Vokes

Why was left-footed V.Persie playing on the right wing and right-footed Kuyt playing on the left wing? Strange decision.

evilhomer

Chucky the tree wrote:

anyone showing the austrailia? ITV 4 is it? You'd think itv and bbc would show either games, the muppets.

BBC are showing both matches for thursday and friday.

If you have digital, you can press the red button, otherwise you can watch the alternate game on BBC3.

redspider

kinaldo wrote:

call me a sadist or whatever but i really enjoyed that game maybe it's because i've seen hundreds of premiership games and worse 0-0 draws i thought tevez literally dragging the ball past two dutch players on the touchline was absolutely brilliant

I also enjoyed the game, and I dont see why anyone who is a follower of football and knowledgeable would not have seen the skills exhibited in this game. It was not a goal fest or a classic game as some people expected. I did not expect such a game given the positions that both teams were in. The teams didnt go all out, and who can blame them. The quality of the touches were high, and players were playing at 80% of effort with defences at 95% and rightly so!

Argentina came close a couple of times and only for a toe of Bhoularouz and a shot a few inches wide from Tevez, and indeed a brilliant save from vd Saar on anoter occasion, this game would have had a goal. Perhaps the game would have been different if Argentina or NL scored an early goal, but it was a game that neither team really had to win, and a draw in a respectable way was acceptable to both. And thats what happened.

So, with that in mind, it was a good display. And much better quality than the Ivory Coast game and that of England v Sweden. Like I've said to people on here before, if goals are the only measure you have of excitement, go down to the u-12's in Phoenix park and you will get 6-0's and 9-3's to your hearts content. You can bring Bill O'Herlihy with you.

Speaking of which, last night, the magical words of "great player" came up again as an issue on the RTE panel after all these years. Many will probably remember the Platini/Dunphy origination of this. Apres Match have used it as material a fair bit.

Requelme was the player in question and it was Gilesy's line that whilst Requelme was "a very good player", I even think at one stage he said he was a brilliant player, he went on to say that he was "not a great player". He gave the reason that he was not industrious enough. Brady and Souness were backing up the case for Requelme to join those that could be used in the same adjective sentence that contained the description "great player". Liam even used Platini as an analagous situation, ie, a player that didnt track back, or chase after the ball after losing it.

This for the viewer was a bit of a comedy sketch. I think in some way as the match didnt live up to potential expectations, the pundits had little to discuss. O'Herlihy called it boring, clearly he doesnt recognise skills and good football in front of his nose, or understand the situation of the world cup that these two teams are in. I agree with Dunphy on one thing, "You havent a clue Bill". But no doubt, Dunphy rates Rooney as a "great player", even though he is only 20 bordering on 21.

RTE should ban the discussion of that phrase "great player" as its a touchy one. Dare not use it without prior consent.

redspider

eirebhoy

SofaKing wrote:

Why was left-footed V.Persie playing on the right wing and right-footed Kuyt playing on the left wing? Strange decision.

Strachan does it all the time with Celtic (Maloney on the left, Nakamura on the right). Chelsea do it some times. Barca always play a right footer on the left wing as they have van Bronkhorst to do the job of an out and out winger when they have possession. It just leaves more for variety and you'd really have to have full backs that attack which Holland have.