South Africa Confederations Cup 2009

kinaldo

Team by team preview

We should be in for some good some entertainment here with Spain, Italy and Brazil all going at it this time around.

Spain completed their warm up with a 6-0 victory over Azerbaijan, their 12th consecutive victory since needing penalties to overcome Italy in the quarter finals of the European Championships last summer, and their 32nd match unbeaten since a 0-1 reverse to Romania all the way back in November 2006.

Soon to be madridista, David Villa, bagged a hat-trick today taking his internationl scoring record to 28 goals in 46 apps. Torres, Riera and Güiza got the others. All the goals can be seen here;

http://www.rtve.es/deportes/20090609/jaque-mate-espana-los-azerbaiyanos/280334.shtml

Spain are also now only 3 games short of Brazil's 35 game unbeaten record. Personally I really believe they're good and young enough to go on and break just about every record. They have a great squad, a great manager, and a newly found winning menatality. Hopefully they will be able to light up the World Cup next summer as they did the European Championships last summer.

In the meantime we can hope for a Confederations goal fest and the possibility of a Spain-Brazil final. I think Spain have played and beaten just about every other nation in the last 2 years, but I don't recall them coming up against Brazil in my living memory. Should be good with Brazil in decent form after their historic 4-0 win in Montevideo at the weekend which placed them top of the SOuth American qualifying group. They have a tricky game against Paraguay tomorrow however. Anyway...

¡Vamos España!

Eire-Dearg

Looking forward to this. Glad Spain are in it, love watching them play. Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Villa, Torres...mmm....

Spain to win, preferably against Brazil in the final. Imagine that!

Headshot

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Looking forward to this. Glad Spain are in it, love watching them play. Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Villa, Torres...mmm....

Spain to win, preferably against Brazil in the final. Imagine that!

Iniesta is out

afaik

GLaDOS

Will the matches be shown here and if so about what time?

Headshot

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Will the matches be shown here and if so about what time?

yes rte have it

http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_fb_type&category=SOCCER&disp_cat_id=&ev_class_id=49&ev_type_id=2099

That_Guy

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Will the matches be shown here and if so about what time?

Not sure what time they'll be shown at but RTE definitely have the coverage.

kinaldo

Xavi supplying Torres, two unstoppable forces combine...

http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20090609/torres-lleva-premio-0-6/522605.shtml

CHD

Unstoppable forces? lol

MementoMori

SUN 14:45 South Africa v Iraq KO 15:00 RTE 1
SUN 19:00 New Zealand v Spain KO 19:30 RTE 2

MON 14:45 Brazil v Egypt KO 15:00 RTE 2
MON 19:00 USA v Italy KO 19:30 RTE 2

Looks like RTE are showing all the games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_FIFA_Confederations_Cup

GLaDOS

MementoMori wrote: »

SUN 14:45 South Africa v Iraq KO 15:00 RTE 1
SUN 19:00 New Zealand v Spain KO 19:30 RTE 2

MON 14:45 Brazil v Egypt KO 15:00 RTE 2
MON 19:00 USA v Italy KO 19:30 RTE 2

Looks like RTE are showing all the games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_FIFA_Confederations_Cup

Wonderful!

invincibleirish

Can i just say i love these tournaments. The summer tournament held in England in 1995 was the first i can remember savouring through the summer time. 2005 German one as well. i say kudos to Blatter for this midsummer oasis, who's with me?

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i would never say kudos to that him...

kinaldo

CHD wrote: »

Unstoppable forces? lol

Ok so tell me then, who can stop them?

invincibleirish

Headshot wrote: »

i would never say kudos to that him...

Heresy.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has urged women footballers to wear skimpier kits to increase the popularity of the women's game....

"Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball," said the Fifa chief.

"They could, for example, have tighter shorts."

Blatter added: "Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball.

"That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/3402519.stm

I salute his foresight and nous.

CHD

kinaldo wrote: »

Ok so tell me then, who can stop them?

Prety sure Man United, Chelsea and Bolton at home could

Don't say something stupid like sure Barca beat United and Chelsea and Torres has scored against them, proves nothing.

Davaeo09

At the above...
doesn't it?

kinaldo

CHD wrote: »

Prety sure Man United, Chelsea and Bolton at home could

Don't say something stupid like sure Barca beat United and Chelsea and Torres has scored against them, proves nothing.

Well I won't mention Bolton, they clearly know how to stop the best, but it would be folly not to point out Torres' impressive record against The Reds and The Blues, or Xavi's successes/performances against them this season.

Proves nothing indeed.

Warper

Villa to be top-scorer again - he works great with Torres. He is Spain's main goal-threat with Torres supplying him and Xavi in behind. Shame Iniesta is out.

Looking like a Spain-Brazil final. I actually fancy Egypt to beat Italy as the Italians suck.

Vokes

Anyone have a link to the full squad lists? Would be interesting to see what young players Brazil are bringing along that may make a name for themselves.

I'm gonna predict that Pato gets Top Goalscorer with Torres a close second.

eoin99

Vokes wrote: »

Anyone have a link to the full squad lists? Would be interesting to see what young players Brazil are bringing along that may make a name for themselves.

I'm gonna predict that Pato gets Top Goalscorer with Torres a close second.

Brazil squad list here (other squads there too)

http://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/teams/team=43924/squadlist.html

Doesn't look like there's too many young unknowns in the squad tho

HalloweenJack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_FIFA_Confederations_Cup_squads

Johnny Utah

invincibleirish wrote: »

Can i just say i love these tournaments. The summer tournament held in England in 1995 was the first i can remember savouring through the summer time. 2005 German one as well. i say kudos to Blatter for this midsummer oasis, who's with me?

If nothing else, at least it will provide a welcome distraction to the bogball and the toffs at Wimbledon!

Soby

My god that spainish midfield is sexual....centre midfield alone is orgasmic

Vokes

Team guide: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/12/confederations-cup-team-by-team

Spain vs NZ is on BBC3 tomorrow.

mike65

Looking forwards to this, normally I take no interest but should be good. BBC3 has games at 7 pm through the week, dunno whats lurking behind the red button.

Just as an aside the weather in SA is obviously in Winter Mode so will this hand European teams an advantage either now or next summer I wonder?

deisedude

Soby wrote: »

My god that spainish midfield is sexual....centre midfield alone is orgasmic

You might want to wipe your computer screen when you are done!:D

Headshot

Dont forget this is starting today,KO 3.00 .south africa v iraq

Eire-Dearg

How come RTE are only advertising for the Italy game tomorrow?

mike65

All games are on BBC, the early games are behind the Red button.

IvySlayer

Headshot wrote: »

Dont forget this is starting today,KO 3.00 .south africa v iraq

South Africa 2-0. Sets up nicely for half 8 between Spain and New Zealand, when I read Spains starting 11 I get sexually excited.

Johnny Utah

Here's hoping for a USA v Iraq final- the battle of Baghdad Part II and revenge for an illegal occupation!

Headshot

no not really




its a pity its not showing on bbc hd

mike65

Johnny Utah, politics forum is....not here.

Headshot

pity no Eamon Dunphy

come on south africa

Eire-Dearg

South African jersey is class.

mike65

Its handy that Mathew Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooth is the only white guy!

MementoMori

im finding the crowd noise a little distracting.

is it just me or is the commentary/picture out of sync?

ZiMZuM

Bah RTE commentry is a couple of seconds ahead of the picture!:mad:

Headshot

Bloody rte ahead of the game

IvySlayer

Is it me or are the buzzing bees getting annoying :pac: Great save by the Iraqi keeper.

Mikeyt086

Yeah it sounds like there is swarms of killer bees circulating the stadium. I hope next years world cup doesnt sound like that for every game.

Also sounds like im watching F1.

Carroller16

This game is awful and those horns are wreckin my nut. . Think I'll give it 5 more minutes

IvySlayer

Carroller16 wrote: »

This game is awful and those horns are wreckin my nut. . Think I'll give it 5 more minutes

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

mike65

Yep I've bailed out, it better not be like this the whole tournie. As for the game, its like Boro v Bolton but without the sparkle of such a tie.

Headshot

Pitch is a disgrace,god help the world cup

JerryHandbag

As usual RTE cant get the pics and the sound to match up....40 mins into the game.....do you think anyone in RTE has even noticed? :rolleyes:

BaZmO*

MementoMori wrote: »

im finding the crowd noise a little distracting.

is it just me or is the commentary/picture out of sync?

Yeah same here. Thought I was being a bit sensitive letting the noise distract me but it's incessant. Plus the commentary being out of sync is unforgiveable. Peter Collins telling you that the ball has gone wide before it's been kicked just makes a mockery of the commentary. :rolleyes:

mike65

Game on BBC interactive if they dont fix it during HT. Did they mention the temps?

JerryHandbag

BaZmO* wrote: »

Peter Collins telling you that the ball has gone wide before it's been kicked just makes a mockery of the commentary. :rolleyes:

Peter Collins makes a mockery of commentary full stop!

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

highgiant1985

mike65 wrote: »

Game on BBC interactive if they dont fix it during HT. Did they mention the temps?

not all of us have the BBC channel