France VS brazil

unkel

It has to be said, it was a great win for France. Coherent and determined, just like in the last match against Spain. Class is the best word to describe them. Best match in the WC so far and if France keeps this up it'll be Germany in the final and France to win. This time deservedly

mike65 wrote:

They'll steamroll Portugal.

No doubt they will. Portugal shouldn't even have made the quarter final, let alone the semi final. Impotent bunch of dive-happy sissies imho. Shame England wasn't set up to be more attacking this tournament

Johnny_the_fox

im well happy france won..

got them at 22/1 to win the world cup :eek:

Lemlin

My mate has a fiver on France at 11-1 to win it and a fiver on Portugal at 22-1 to get to the final. The Portugal bet is each way though so he'll get at least 11-1 if Portugal make the final.

Superdub2

Attractive Nun wrote:

I agree, but a true great, if you know what I mean. For a long time he's been thought of as the best player of the past 10 years or so, probably the best player since Maradona. I think a last hurrah like he appears to be planning would allow him to be thought of as one of the best players of all time, probably surpassed only by Pele and Maradona. Or maybe I'm getting carried away. In any case, of the captains left - Cannavaro, Ballack, Figo and Zidane - Zidane probably deserves to lift the trophy most, although he's won it before.

while i think he is a great player to say the best since Maradona is a bit of a stretch IMO and why does he deserve to win it the most?? He has only started playing again in the last two matches since his team have and was absolutely nowhere to be seen before that! and if he deserves to lift it then he will but not until he proves that and for me Cannavaro has been the best defender along with ayala and merits it more up to now on performance

casanova_kid

Superdub2 wrote:

while i think he is a great player to say the best since Maradona is a bit of a stretch IMO and why does he deserve to win it the most?? He has only started playing again in the last two matches since his team have and was absolutely nowhere to be seen before that! and if he deserves to lift it then he will but not until he proves that and for me Cannavaro has been the best defender along with ayala and merits it more up to now on performance

he's the best player i've ever seen at the age of 18. Everything he does is done with such decisiveness and skill and as a big game player, he's absoutely brilliant. Think of the great Zidane moments, the two goals in the WC final, the free kick against Spain in the quarter finals of Euro 2000, the last minute penalty against Portugal in the semi finals of the same tournament, the winning volley in the champions league final in 2002 against Leverkusen, the two goals against England in Euro 2004 and last night. Put that alongside so many other great performances and he has to be judged as one of the greatest ever. Definetly the best French player of all time and possibly the best European.

Attractive Nun

Superdub2 wrote:

while i think he is a great player to say the best since Maradona is a bit of a stretch IMO and why does he deserve to win it the most?? He has only started playing again in the last two matches since his team have and was absolutely nowhere to be seen before that! and if he deserves to lift it then he will but not until he proves that and for me Cannavaro has been the best defender along with ayala and merits it more up to now on performance

Who's been better since Maradona? He deserves to win it the most because of his career, not just because of this WC. Although if you were judging in on this WC then it would be a toss up between him and Cannavaro, but if Zidane continues in the next two games as he has been for the last two, then he'll have been the best player at this WC imho.

PHB

Zidane is one of the best player I've ever seen play, his play at Juve was just jaw dropping.

I've disappointed to see Brazil go out, as I'm really found of Kaka and Ronaldo(who btw, for a good period of 4 years, was the best player in the world), two of my favorite players.

That said, I get to watch Zidane play football for 2 more matches, so I'm happy. I'm just pissed off at France for not playing in the group stages, cause we could have France and Brazil in the semis.

pickarooney

Zidane was anything but jaw-dropping at Juve and often did more harm than good to the team as a whole during his stint there.

Zambrotta, now there's a chap who's been in cracking form all the way through the tournament and rarely gets a mention.

kinaldo

Attractive Nun wrote:

Who's been better since Maradona?

Ronaldo at Barca and during his first season at Inter. The best player I've ever seen by a long way.

Gangsta

Zidane has been better than both.

I agree with PHB although I'm much more fond of Ronaldinho than Kaka.

redspider

France 1-0 Brazil

Well, well, well. So Brazil's first main test in this World Cup ends with a defeat, against a French team which were clearly fired up for it and playing to their peak capability. And none other than Zizou, Zenedine Zidane, stole the show, who on this performance proved that he was the best player on the pitch, including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Henry!

But even with his silky skills in the centre of the park, Brazil were still the team that was expected to win it. And only for a goal which was slightly offside and which was mainly due to poor defending by Brazil, which is not a new phenomenon, the gap between the teams was very slight.

Brazil huffed and puffed but too many of their stars performed well below their billing, and arguably capability. I thought Ronaldinho was particularly poor. He couldn't get past Makele and created very little.

The French midfielders were very strong. Kaka was also poor in my opinion, just not offering enough. And Ze Roberto and Gilberto Silva had jobs to do that they did reasonably well. Ronaldo huffed, well, he puffed thats for sure, and although he nearly broke through a couple of times, the Brazil team could not create an opening against a French side which started with high tempo and kept it that way. Zizou must have been running on adrenalin and it remains to be seen if he can do it again, even though Portugal will be a 'weaker' side than Brazil.

Adriano when he came on tried to do everything, but he is no Michel Platini, nor a Zizou. It even got to a stage where he recognised that Ronaldinho was a liability and he preferred to take on French players rather than pass to 'the best footballer in the world'. Robinho when he came on couldn't do much. I couldn't figure out the decision to bring on of Cicinho, a player who seemed to be dawdling and just glad to be there.

The French had Ribery, Henry, who was usually offside, did ok, but no more than that. Zidane was a master at work, a Jedi knight showing all trainees just what he can do with a football. Viera helped out as well, and shouldn't be forgotten.

I have to say that France deserved to go through on this performance, just. And unlike the Argentinians who were better than Germany and lost out through lack of tactical nous rather than footballing talent, the Brazillians have no-one to blame but themselves. Of course, if Zizou and Thuram & co
would have stayed retired, and if France weren't up for this game, then things would have been different. In fact, maybe Ireland would have been in the World Cup instead of France. Such is football.

Now, Germany are favourites to win the tournament, France are 2nd, Italy 3rd and Portugal are the remaining 'dark horse'. That will favour the Italians. If they are forced to defend for the match it could easily go to penalties. These games are tight. Portugal could easily scalp the French, who may have peaked. Who knows. Germany v France would be a good final.

My 'dream' final - no, not Ireland v Brazil but - Argentina v Brazil didn't happen, so I will have to wait for another 4 years, or maybe 40 years, who knows.

By the way, Thanks be to jaysus that England are out, no disrespect to English people but the football wasnt the best. There must be a God, this is surely proof!

redspider