Spain - France

Pigman II

Fair play to Spain. They never fail to fail!

PHB

Should any type of persistant mistake making be punished?

It's not a mistake if it's being done on purpose, which it is. He is trying to get away with a mistake from the linesman, it ruins the flow of the game so much.

----

France deserved to win I think, they finally preformed. Spain just weren't good enough. Brazil will beat France convincingly I think.

nlgbbbblth

3-1 to France.

This result is really going to p*ss off the ageist critics (both the media and the general public) who seem to think any player over 30 is past it.

Only two of France's starting eleven were born after 1980 etc etc :rolleyes:

Great to see them being proved wrong.

wheres me jumpa

Surprised at the result but on the night France more than deserved it.

Ruu_Old

We'll be seeing more of Zidane so.

mike65

I grudingly take my beret off to France! Spain forgot to turn up, the attack was toothless under the pressure of a veteran French defence/midfield.

Torres is a chancer, twice he faked an injury. Henry also should be booked.

Mike.

kaimera

well **** you too Spain...thats my WC pool ****ed well beyond repair now...

I had spain to win the wc...

boo to henry...:mad:

sprinkles

sprinkles wrote:

Spain will win, I think it should be comfortable in the end for them

Got that one wrong. Damn the diving Henry.

gimmick

Stupid Spanish. That French team were there for the taking, yet Barthez didnt have a single save to make all game. WTF was Arragones doing taking off Raul and putting on Garcia? Cant emphasis how pissed off I am an another crap team going into the last 8, along with England and Ukraine. Im even more pissed off that either Brazil or France will be in the semis.

Stupid stupid Spanish.

Guy:Incognito

I take it Henry won't be giving one of his trademark moaning, blame-everyone else interviews now seeing as he's a cheating git.

Kingp35

I dont think it was a case of Spain not turning up, France were just too good for them on the night, The French defence was brilliant and Sagnol had the best game I have ever seen from him. Makelele and Viera were great in the centre and Zidane proved me wrong by pulling the strings in midfield and passing the ball around. I also thought Ribery was great. Spain were not given a chance to play and France finally played the football they are capable of.

Gimmick they are not a crap team, they just havent been performing in the World Cup. Should be some game between France and Brazil if Frace can play like that against them.

Anam

Great game of football,one of the best so far.France definately deserved to win,they were superb.

Great to see Zidane score at the end too.I think France will beat Brazil too,as I have said before.

gimmick

Kingp35 wrote:

Gimmick they are not a crap team, they just havent been performing in the World Cup. Should be some game between France and Brazil if Frace can play like that against them.

On tonights performance, no, however thats the 5th time ive seen them in 3 weeks, including the game vs China before the big kick off, and have been utterly underwhelmed every time before tonight.

Oh, and i agree, Sagnol was absolutely immense all night, and pretty much has been all tournament.

Kingp35

gimmick wrote:

On tonights performance, no, however thats the 5th time ive seen them in 3 weeks, including the game vs China before the big kick off, and have been utterly underwhelmed every time before tonight.

I totally agree with this, it could be argued that they were pretty average in the qualifying group as well bt with the players they have they should be able to put in a performance like that on a regular basis. I guess we will see what they are made of on Saturday.

RE*AC*TOR

Joga Bonita my arse.

evad_lhorg

tbh i really want them to beat brazil. Henry is my favourite player and so many time i have heard him say he wonders what players are doing on the ground rolling around when they havnt been touched and he did exactly that today. disappointing tbh.

Devious

Deserved win for France. I KNEW they'd deliver a decent performance eventually. Hope they beat Brazil next.

mike65

"Raul has failed completely..." to quote a Spanish jorno.

Mike.

MisterAnarchy

Anam wrote:

Great game of football,one of the best so far.

What game were you watching ?
It was a tight and intriguing match but certainly nowhere near the best game of the tournament.
Another free flowing team down,only one left ,hopefully Argentina will win on Friday.

Kingp35

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Another free flowing team down,only one left ,hopefully Argentina will win on Friday.

Portugal are one of the best passing teams there is if they get their act together

mike65

I wonder how long Luis Aragones will last? He's been a bit of an embarassment.

Mike.

gandalf

kaimera wrote:

well **** you too Spain...thats my WC pool ****ed well beyond repair now...

I had spain to win the wc...

boo to henry...:mad:

Feck sake I had Spain to win the fecking thing !!! Can't believe how toothless they were. I wonder will United actually buy Torres cause he looked very ordinary against good defenders tonight. Cesc was the best Spainish player by a mile. Unfortunately Thierre has been spending too much time training with Robert by the looks of it !!

God I hope the French stuff Brazil thou !!

(Now I just have to hope Argentina win it, my second bet!)

Anam

MisterAnarchy wrote:

What game were you watching ?
It was a tight and intriguing match but certainly nowhere near the best game of the tournament.
Another free flowing team down,only one left ,hopefully Argentina will win on Friday.

I said it was one of the best so far,not the best.What matches did you think were better?

Perhaps because I wanted France to win I enjoyed it more,but really i thought there were some really good performances from players all over the pitch,the ref did a good job and it was a very close match,so in my view,yes it was one of the most entertaining so far and the quality of football was very high.

astrofool

Wonder if this will do to Henry's image what happened to Rivaldo's image last world cup.

France deserved this one, as the Spanish were toothless on the night, and the French took their chances well. Another sob story in a tournament for the Spanish, and yet, come the next EC or WC, everybody will be tipping them to win again.

DaBreno

mike65 wrote:

I wonder how long Luis Aragones will last? He's been a bit of an embarassment.

Mike.

Racial outbursts notwithstanding, I think Aragones has been good for Spain. He picked a squad based on merit and appears to have their confidence or at least their respect. Not his fault that Raul has been off the boil for years or the man that lifted the european cup had a howler of a World Cup.
Id imagine he will stay on for two more with someone like Del Bosque waiting if nothing happens then.
Ah my poor Spain, why do you keep doing it to yourselves?

MisterAnarchy

Anam wrote:

I said it was one of the best so far,not the best.What matches did you think were better?

Perhaps because I wanted France to win I enjoyed it more,but really i thought there were some really good performances from players all over the pitch,the ref did a good job and it was a very close match,so in my view,yes it was one of the most entertaining so far and the quality of football was very high.

Off the top of my head Argentina V Mexico was far better and Italy V Ghana was better.
You were bound though to enjoy it more as you had a vested interest.

eirebhoy

DaBreno wrote:

Not his fault that Raul has been off the boil for years or the man that lifted the european cup had a howler of a World Cup.

Puyol had as good a world cup as he could have hoped. imo he's a terribly overrated player. He rarely makes mistakes but his teams rarely keep cleansheets against anyone that steps it up to them. Individual talent is one thing but it's his job to lead the line and he's not very good at it if you ask me.

i just realised i've passed 8,000 posts.:cool:

MisterAnarchy

eirebhoy wrote:

Puyol had as good a world cup as he could have hoped. imo he's a terribly overrated player. He rarely makes mistakes but his teams rarely keep cleansheets against anyone that steps it up to them. Individual talent is one thing but it's his job to lead the line and he's not very good at it if you ask me.

I dont know why he felt it necessary to block Henry for the free kick that led to the second goal when the left back could easily have reached the ball before Henry and either passed it back to casillas or cleared it.
I felt it could be a vital moment when the foul was conceded and so it transpired.

PHB

It wasn't a foul on Henry!!!

MisterAnarchy

PHB wrote:

It wasn't a foul on Henry!!!

Whether it was or wasnt a foul is open to debate,the point is he had no need to get into the position he was in.

eirebhoy

PHB wrote:

It wasn't a foul on Henry!!!

At first I thought it was a red card. OK, Henry overreacted by grabbing his face but there's absolutely no doubt that it was a foul. You can't take an opposing player out off the ball.

Rollo Tamasi

henry ran into the back off poyoul though. The defender didn't block him intentionally.

Kulgan

He played the player not the ball!! Clear foul

iregk

Henry = Cheating w***er. Never a foul, he was the one that barged into Puyol. I hope he gets a retrospective ban for that, cluthing his face. He is the new Rivaldo.

sprinkles

PHB wrote:

It wasn't a foul on Henry!!!

I thought it was the first time I saw it but it looked very inocuous in the replay and Henry milked it for everything he could. He's a disgrace of a player and a hypocrite. I hope the French are shown up in the next match.

therecklessone

sprinkles wrote:

He's a disgrace of a player and a hypocrite. I hope the French are shown up in the next match.

Agreed. I am an ABF unless Henry gets banned for his little performance.

RedPlanet

At first i thought it was a foul.
In slow motion replay however, i change my mind. The defender was in front and had a right to put his body between the ball and a charging Henry.
Henry is a cheat but there's no way FIFA have the balls to give him a match ban for diving.

eirebhoy

iregk wrote:

Henry = Cheating w***er. Never a foul, he was the one that barged into Puyol. I hope he gets a retrospective ban for that, cluthing his face. He is the new Rivaldo.

I can't stand Henry so won't argue with the first bit but it was definitely a foul. From one angle it looks like Henry just barges into him but it was definitely Puyol who did it.

The first angle here is the clearest:
http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=Puyol_Yellow_Henry_Fakes_Injury.zip

BolBill

I liked Henry until last night, what a cheat !!!!!!

county

henry this henry that,it doesnt take away for the fact france were the better team on the night and deserved the win

Roddy23

Great win for France last night, had thought that Spain would be able to do it, but Vieira and Makelele played brilliantly.
That Henry incident was not something that pleased me. I do think Puyol made contact, but Henry might have exageratted it (sp). But in fairness I can't really see where all the "what a cheat" remarks are coming from. Every team where it be in the Premiership, WC, EC has had these undesireable moments. It was only a few weeks ago, where Gerrard took a tumble, yesterday Garcia was doing it every few minutes once he had come on, the Italians were doing it the other day, and the Portugese have been doing it for years. Maybe its because Henry doesn't really have record of this sort of thing, and that is why so many have seen to jump on the incident.

fade2black

eirebhoy wrote:

I can't stand Henry so won't argue with the first bit but it was definitely a foul. From one angle it looks like Henry just barges into him but it was definitely Puyol who did it.

The first angle here is the clearest:
http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=Puyol_Yellow_Henry_Fakes_Injury.zip

What do you use tho play that file? Divx, Real Player, Quicktime, and Windows media won't play it.

Andrew 83

Roddy23 wrote:

Maybe its because Henry doesn't really have record of this sort of thing, and that is why so many have seen to jump on the incident.

I think it's largely his hypocracy that's getting to people. This is after all the man who said only a month ago 'I'll learn to dive next time maybe, but i'm not a woman'.

Roddy23

Quote taken from another website, which Henry said this morning: "You can ask Puyol whether I cheated. He came up to me afterwards to apologise."

Now why would Puyol apologise if there was no reason to.

Ponster

Can you show where that quato came from because all the webnews sites are reporting this one :

Puyol was unhappy about the foul that was given against him on Henry, which led to France's second goal from Patrick Vieira.

"The foul that provoked the game to become 2-1 was not true," he bemoaned.

"Henry is a star, a very intelligent one and he tricked the referee - the decision was unjust.

Meanwhile, France's Thierry Henry has denied cheating to win the free-kick which led to his side's second goal .

The striker fell to the ground clutching his face after colliding with Carles Puyol, although television replays showed that the defender had merely made contact with Henry's chest.

Puyol insisted the referee had made the wrong decision, adding: "If anything it was a foul by Henry."

But Henry responded: "Spain's left-back Mariano Perina was going to win the ball so I don't know why Puyol cut across me, but he did. I don't cheat."

Roddy23

Can you show where that quato came from because all the webnews sites are reporting this one :

Ye, no problem: here ye go

PHB

Even if it was a foul, the problem with Henry was that he went down holding his face, when he clearly wasn't.
Henry is a complete hypocrite, and everybody knows it. What team you support will determine whether or not you accept it

TheMonster

Roddy23 wrote:

Ye, no problem: here ye go

why was he holding his face when contact was on his chest? I don't argue it was a foul but there was no contact to his face. That is CHEATING.

Dustaz

Player fakes injury to gain advantage - SHOCK HORROR - I HAVE COMPLETELY FAILED TO SEE THIS IN THE WORLD CUP UP UNTIL THIS VERY MOMENT!

Henry was fouled and pulled of a horrible show of theatrics. Its a shameful part of the game. No doubt whatsoever.

Can someone please tell me how this differs from the recipient of figos "headbutt" (it took him about 5 seconds to have the presence of mind to go down and if he didnt, noone would be whining about retroactive red cards). How does this differ from the italian player who bereft of ANY attacking guile whatsoever decided to run over moore/neil's (cant remeber which) leg?

As it pertains to the game, the cheating didnt even result in anything serious. No penalty, no red card. Just a pretty run of the mill free kick which spain were unable to defend correctly. France were by far the better team on the night and deserved to win, theatrics or not.

No supporter of a team in the EPL can act holier than thou about this IN ANY WAY. Not when players like gerrard, rooney, ronaldo, pires, etc etc do this sort of thing EVERY WEEK. Go down holding your face, or run into an outstretched leg, its the same thing. I await the rabid fanbois response as to how its totally different when a player of gerrards calibre merely takes advantage of a rash tackle.

Cheating like this is part of the modern game and unless some serious action is taken, it will stay part of it.

PHB

Cheating like this is part of the modern game and unless some serious action is taken, it will stay part of it.

Indeed it is, but when it happens to you, if you've cheated, you lose the rgith to come out and complain about it.

Henry, in his own logic, is a woman.