Sepps World Cup?

Wade in the Sea

Is our old buddy Sepp B having a good or bad World Cup do you think?:D

* The Africans & Asian teams are all gone, and apart from a moderate
performance by Japan and Ghana they were all useless.
* The matches have been largely poor to watch apart from one or two recent
exceptions.
* Fans didn't turn up in big numbers. Especially surprised at S.Korea!
* Chances of a shock winner are pretty remote now GER HOL or ESP
* After all the trouble with France they left humiliated.
* His views on Technology is back on the agenda and isn't going away this time.

x in the city

f*** sepp tbh

UnknownSpecies

Most definitely NOT his world cup! Especially on the technology font, it's good that a bigger nation gets raped by a decision that technology could easily have decided! Maybe now the sport can go forward instead of digressing under his leadership!

Degag

Controvercy due to Video technology, Half filled stadiums, Bad Pitches, General Incompetance and Arrogance.

Good Riddance.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

South Korea, Ivory Coast and New Zealand were hardly useless, tbf.

UnknownSpecies

baz2009 wrote: »

South Korea, Ivory Coast and New Zealand were hardly useless, tbf.

I actually thought New Zealand did well, I'm well happy for them!

Wade in the Sea

dorgasm wrote: »

I actually thought New Zealand did well, I'm well happy for them!

Well maybe useless is a little harsh. NZ went beyond expectations though again Italy. Not the team of old?

tdv123

It's been the worst world cup of all time. So it's nobodys world cup.

aidan24326

Blatter is a clown, how he has held that job for so long is a mystery.


And I agree with the post above, it's been a sh1t world cup overall. Bad country, bad ball, bad teams. Bad.

GLaDOS

tdv123 wrote: »

It's been the worst world cup of all time.

I wish I could have watched every single world cup, like this guy

inforfun

tdv123 wrote: »

It's been the worst world cup of all time. So it's nobodys world cup.

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I wish I could have watched every single world cup, like this guy

Well, i didnt see them all :cool: but this one is certainly not worse than Italia90.
Maybe Irish think that one was great due to Irelands involvement but the standard of football in that WC was horrible.

This WC is mostly bad for the neutrals at home in front of the tv because of those ****ing vuvuzelas.

davyjose

tdv123 wrote: »

It's been the worst world cup of all time. So it's nobodys world cup.

I think it's a great World Cup

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

jesus_thats_gre

I'm happy so far!

namloc1980

Very good World Cup IMO. Plenty of shocks and controversy (for those calling for replays/TMOs/penalty goals etc controversial incidents are part of what make this sport so great). Sure the ball and the state of some of the pitches have been a bit of a pain but overall I've found it most enjoyable.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Wade in the Sea wrote: »

Well maybe useless is a little harsh. NZ went beyond expectations though again Italy. Not the team of old?

Italy are the team of old, I think that was the problem with them.

Leiva

Not a great WC , not a bad WC .

On the attendance thing ....

If Sepp/FIFA was so much on the side of bringing the WC to poorer nations , spreading the love of football , then why the hell was there half full stadiums at a good lot of games ?
Surely there are 100,000's of African kids around same said stadiums that would give there right arm to be in the stadium (regardless of who is playing).

Bad order if you ask me . To know the stadium are half full prior to kick off yet don't have any sort of getting "bums on seats" with local schools etc.

Just shows how pompus and revenue generating FIFA have become .

And don't get me started on the stupid ADIDAS stand holding the ball for the Ref on the walk out :mad:

steelcityblues

Despite a few controversies, I don't think the quality of the knockout rounds has been poorer than the last World Cup, or even 2002.

The refeering decisions on the whole, are clearly Blatter's biggest headache right now!

parker kent

mixednuts wrote: »

Not a great WC , not a bad WC .

On the attendance thing ....

If Sepp/FIFA was so much on the side of bringing the WC to poorer nations , spreading the love of football , then why the hell was there half full stadiums at a good lot of games ?
Surely there are 100,000's of African kids around same said stadiums that would give there right arm to be in the stadium (regardless of who is playing).

Bad order if you ask me . To know the stadium are half full prior to kick off yet don't have any sort of getting "bums on seats" with local schools etc.

Just shows how pompus and revenue generating FIFA have become .

And don't get me started on the stupid ADIDAS stand holding the ball for the Ref on the walk out :mad:

The paid attendances have actually been very high, it is one of the highest in WC history. Very few world cups have sell outs for all group stage games and then in the knock out rounds, lots of tickets were bought by expectant English, Italian, French etc fans. I have seen some of these English fans on TV saying they bought tickets for what turned out to be the USA/Ghana game.

http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/WorldCup/NationalNews/SA-nears-Cup-attendance-record-20100701

Johannesburg - The World Cup could set a new record for paid attendance with three million fans expected to attend games, local organising committee CEO Danny Jordaan said on Thursday.

"With the quarterfinals, semi-finals and final being played at the biggest stadiums in the country, it is possible we will top the three million fan attendance mark after the final at Soccer City on July 11," Jordaan told media in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Already 2.69 million fans had paid to watch the first two rounds of the global showpiece.

"I reckon there is a big possibility we will do it (break three million) for the first time since the 1994 event in the United States," he said.

"The signs are there. The South African fans have been superb. The spirit inside the country has been one of the outstanding features of this World Cup."

Jordaan said that attendance figures for fan parks worldwide were over three million. So far hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide had watched the first two rounds live giving South Africa incredible positive coverage.

He said foreign tourists had injected R6.5bn into the economy during the first two weeks of the World Cup. It was hoped that figure would rise to R9bn by July 11, he said, adding that the number of tourists was higher than expected.

Visitors beyond projection

"We had projected between 450 000 and 500 000 in 2004-07.

"But the world economic crisis in 2008 made us revise that figure to under 300 000.

"But we are delighted to have attracted so many soccer tourists for the first two weeks of the World Cup," he said, explaining that 364 000 visitors had been recorded in the first two weeks of the tournament.

Jordaan was also hoping that Ghana would break new frontiers and become the first African country to reach the semi-finals.

"We are hoping Ghana make history by becoming the first African nation to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup. That would be the cherry on top for Africa."

Ghana, the last African country left in the tournament, play Uruguay in the quarter-finals at Soccer City on Friday night.

Jordaan added: "But for us the dream has come true and this event hosted by South Africa has been an extraordinary success."

He said South Africa had proved the naysayers wrong.

Positive energy

"There were plenty of doubters from the foreign media when we won the right to host the 2010 event."

"Now to their credit those people have said sorry and complimented the way we have run the tournament and the huge success of the first World Cup in Africa."

The people of South Africa were the winners, he said.

"The atmosphere in the country has been incredible and this has been shown worldwide on television that we are a happy people despite the problems we have overcome in the past."

"There is a positive energy in our country we need to harness and maintain after the World Cup ends."

Jordaan added that a World Cup hangover could be expected on July 12.

"For a while we will be depressed. But we can hold our heads high knowing we have surpassed all expectations."

Leiva

Thanks fot that

Still would like to have seen that the stadiums full and empty seats given to local school kids.
Just a shame to see a once in a life time showcase go to waste.


Tho in saying all that ... I would have made their vuvuzela be there ticket price and left at the gate

Septic Blatter tbh.

Warper

It has been a fair World Cup so far. The Group stages were very poor but it has picked up a bit in the knockout rounds. The saviour of this WC has been Germany and I hope they go on and win it now as they are playing the best football. They have been a revelation and aside from Brazil who did show flashes of brilliance, have been practically the only sides playing good football. Spain are basically a B Barcelona side, Holland are just efficient and were gifted qualification by Brazil and Uruguay have got a dream run of games to reach the semis. Uruguay v Holland has all the makings of a bore semi so good luck to Germany.

Warper

Warper wrote: »

It has been a fair World Cup so far. The Group stages were very poor but it has picked up a bit in the knockout rounds. The saviour of this WC has been Germany and I hope they go on and win it now as they are playing the best football. They have been a revelation and aside from Brazil who did show flashes of brilliance, have been practically the only sides playing good football. Spain are basically a B Barcelona side, Holland are just efficient and were gifted qualification by Brazil and Uruguay have got a dream run of games to reach the semis. Uruguay v Holland has all the makings of a bore semi so good luck to Germany.

Xavi??, Iniesta??, Puyol??, Pique??, and you could also add Villa and perhaps even Cesc soon to that list, since when are these 'Barcelona B' standard players?

Iang87

in my opinion its the worst world cup i ever seen just plain terrible, annoying horns and ridiculous balls,

haha sounds like a bad porno or good porno depends what you like

Warper

Deleted User wrote: »

Xavi??, Iniesta??, Puyol??, Pique??, and you could also add Villa and perhaps even Cesc soon to that list, since when are these 'Barcelona B' standard players?

I meant playing like a Barcelona B side. They are like a bad clone of Barca, I realise that most of the team are Barca players, one stage last night they had 7 Barcelona players on the field and thats excluding the future Barca signing - Fabregas.

ArmaniJeanss

Wade in the Sea wrote: »

Is our old buddy Sepp B having a good or bad World Cup do you think?:D

* The Africans & Asian teams are all gone, and apart from a moderate
performance by Japan and Ghana they were all useless.
* The matches have been largely poor to watch apart from one or two recent
exceptions.
* Fans didn't turn up in big numbers. Especially surprised at S.Korea!
* Chances of a shock winner are pretty remote now GER HOL or ESP
* After all the trouble with France they left humiliated.
* His views on Technology is back on the agenda and isn't going away this time.

* South Korea and Australia did fairly well for Asia as well.
* Thats football for you, its fairly sh1t a lot of the time. 10 games in the EPL each weekend and there might be two good ones on average. No reason why World Cups should be different.
* Local fans just don't turn up for games they don't want to see. Its always been like that if you look through football tournamets on wiki. I was at a few games in France 98 where there were 1000s of empty seats as well.
Even in the home of football in Euro96 in England you had 26000 at Villa Park at Old Trafford for a quarter final and 44000 at Old Trafford for a semi final.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_1996#Quarter-finals
Away fans never really travel in the numbers required (10s of thousands) to ensure sellouts unless its somewhere really accessible with huge population density surrounding it (like Germany).

* I don't think Sepp or FIFA really mind whether or not there is a shock winner.
* I don't think the presence or not and the early exit of France was an issue for Sepp. I'm still sure that history will prove that the seeded playoffs was a UEFA idea, not a FIFA one but that they were happy to go along with it. (Probably not a debate for this thread though).
* You shouldn't underestimate FIFAs ability to brush the technology issue under the carpet. (Again not a debate for this thread).

I think its probably been a success from Sepps point of view. The really big money for FIFA comes from the sponsors and the TV money and these have held up.
South Africa's hosting has been fine, basically nothing has gone wrong despite the dire predictions in the media that half the fans would be murdered by hordes of lawless gangs. A 'host failure' would have been the biggest negative for Sepp as people were waiting to pounce on him as he was the driving force behind bringing it to Africa.

Pisco Sour

The first 2 rounds of games in the group stages were poor but I have to admit that the final round of games were very exciting. The vast majority of the 8 groups went down to the last game with 3, and sometimes 4 teams in with a chance of qualification, and there were so many twists and turns. The final round of group games can at times be the most dramatic and exciting part of a major championships.

I've really enjoyed the knockout stages aswell. This world cup started off slow but is kicking into gear at the right time, and I'm certainly enjoying it a lot more than 2006 (I was in the USA for that one and had to listen to awful ESPN commentry and analysis which spoiled my enjoyment of it, not to mention the kick off times).

kincsem

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I wish I could have watched every single world cup, like this guy

I do, and have watched every game since the 1966 final (clashes excepted).

No better, no worse than others. Editing make others look good.

Good for me, green on winner, top scorer, and finalists.

tdv123

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

The 1994 world cup for miles better than this tripe.

We seen magic from great players like Baggio, Hagi, Maldini, Romario, Stoitchkov, that Sauid Arbian dude, even a brief moment of magic from Maradona. And thats just too name a few.

The calibare of players has decreased dramatically since the 90's.

Just alot of physical athletic players who suck at actually playing football thats been the theme of this world cup so far. Excepet for Xavi & Iniesta who are dieing breed these days I'm sad to say.

steelcityblues

tdv123 wrote: »

The 1994 world cup for miles better than this tripe.

We seen magic from great players like Baggio, Hagi, Maldini, Romario, Stoitchkov, that Sauid Arbian dude, even a brief moment of magic from Maradona. And thats just too name a few.

The calibare of players has decreased dramatically since the 90's.

Just alot of physical athletic players who suck at actually playing football thats been the theme of this world cup so far. Excepet for Xavi & Iniesta who are dieing breed these days I'm sad to say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8w89sl7Grc

Warper

tdv123 wrote: »

The 1994 world cup for miles better than this tripe.

We seen magic from great players like Baggio, Hagi, Maldini, Romario, Stoitchkov, that Sauid Arbian dude, even a brief moment of magic from Maradona. And thats just too name a few.

The calibare of players has decreased dramatically since the 90's.

Just alot of physical athletic players who suck at actually playing football thats been the theme of this world cup so far. Excepet for Xavi & Iniesta who are dieing breed these days I'm sad to say.

Its not the quality of players, it is the systems. Teams are now set-up so as not lose rather than to win. That is why Mr. Mourinho is the most sought after manager in the world today. All that matters is winning, no matter how ugly.

Pauleta

tdv123 wrote: »

The 1994 world cup for miles better than this tripe.

We seen magic from great players like Baggio, Hagi, Maldini, Romario, Stoitchkov, that Sauid Arbian dude, even a brief moment of magic from Maradona. And thats just too name a few.

The calibare of players has decreased dramatically since the 90's.

Just alot of physical athletic players who suck at actually playing football thats been the theme of this world cup so far. Excepet for Xavi & Iniesta who are dieing breed these days I'm sad to say.

Thats silly talk in fairness. When Baggio etc were about they were the best players in the world and over the years they became legends. In 15-20 years time the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Villa etc will be legends like Baggio and Maradona.

noodler

baz2009 wrote: »

South Korea, Ivory Coast and New Zealand were hardly useless, tbf.

Exactly.

I honestly don't wonder if people actually watch the games.

steelcityblues

Only teams who should be put in the 'useless' category are North Korea, Honduras, and maybe France, because of the off field attitude.

Agree that it seems people don't watch the matches when they put South Korea and Ivory Coast in that bracket.

tdv123

Pauleta wrote: »

Thats silly talk in fairness. When Baggio etc were about they were the best players in the world and over the years they became legends. In 15-20 years time the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Villa etc will be legends like Baggio and Maradona.

Who both flopped hard in this tournament.

I certainley don't think Ronaldo has the mentality to lead a country to a World cup final the way Baggio & Maradona did.

tdv123

Warper wrote: »

Its not the quality of players, it is the systems. Teams are now set-up so as not lose rather than to win. That is why Mr. Mourinho is the most sought after manager in the world today. All that matters is winning, no matter how ugly.

Thats a good a point. But its made football alot more boring in my opinion.

But I still feel there was alot more quality players in 94 than there is now.

Son Of A Vidic

The FIFA top brass should be fecked out and their federation dragged into the 21st century. I won't get started on their hypocritical stance on fairness in football. This from an organsition that sanctions changes to the world cup ball, designed to confuse goalkeepers. Ironic or what??

Daemos

steelcityblues wrote: »

Only teams who should be put in the 'useless' category are North Korea, Honduras, and maybe France, because of the off field attitude.

Agree that it seems people don't watch the matches when they put South Korea and Ivory Coast in that bracket.

Hardly. Yes they finished with 0 points having conceded 12 goals, but their passion was beyond belief, especially against Brazil. They surpassed all expectations as far as I'm concerned.

MisterAnarchy

Warper wrote: »

Its not the quality of players, it is the systems. Teams are now set-up so as not lose rather than to win. That is why Mr. Mourinho is the most sought after manager in the world today. All that matters is winning, no matter how ugly.

Thats the major problem allright.
Too many defensive teams in this World Cup.
Every team has a holding midfielder ,some even have 2 .
The sad thing is that alot of the teams have good attacking players but they are forced to play defensively against their natural instincts .
Germany ,Argentina,Mexico ,Chile and Spain were the only real attacked minded teams in the tournament.
A few other teams tried to play open football but they simply didnt have good enough players.The rest of the teams were mostly ultra defensive.
Too man teams playing with a rigid back four ,with two defensive midfielders sitting directly in front of them.That only leaves 4 players to attack
Its a terrible reflection on international football when the likes of New Zealand ,a woefully limited team,can draw two matches in the World Cup .

parker kent

kincsem wrote: »

I do, and have watched every game since the 1966 final (clashes excepted).

No better, no worse than others. Editing make others look good.

Good for me, green on winner, top scorer, and finalists.

Even non-televised games? There is no way you have watched the full games for every game in every World Cup...maybe edited highlights. Dunga growing up in Brazil in 1970 was not able to watch the full games live. How was Sweden/Israel in 1970?!

eagle eye

tdv123 wrote: »

The 1994 world cup for miles better than this tripe.

We seen magic from great players like Baggio, Hagi, Maldini, Romario, Stoitchkov, that Sauid Arbian dude, even a brief moment of magic from Maradona. And thats just too name a few.

The calibare of players has decreased dramatically since the 90's.

Just alot of physical athletic players who suck at actually playing football thats been the theme of this world cup so far. Excepet for Xavi & Iniesta who are dieing breed these days I'm sad to say.

Yeah that Messi chap is just a physical athlete and sucks at playing ball. Robben is another one of those guys with no talent just athleticism.

Ozil, Muller, Forlan, Suarez, Honda, Donovan, Robinho, Maicon, Tevez are all the same, no skill just pure athleticism.:rolleyes:

tdv123

eagle eye wrote: »

Yeah that Messi chap is just a physical athlete and sucks at playing ball. Robben is another one of those guys with no talent just athleticism.

Ozil, Muller, Forlan, Suarez, Honda, Donovan, Robinho, Maicon, Tevez are all the same, no skill just pure athleticism.:rolleyes:

Still a poor list of players compared to there 94 counterparts.

Pauleta

tdv123 wrote: »

Still a poor list of players compared to there 94 counterparts.

FFS you sound like Johnny Giles. In 20 years time there will be another gob****e on a forum saying that the players now a days are nowhere near as great as world cup record goalscorer Miroslav Klose and the legendary Xavi. Even though the players in 20 years time will be far superior.

tdv123

Pauleta wrote: »

FFS you sound like Johnny Giles. In 20 years time there will be another gob****e on a forum saying that the players now a days are nowhere near as great as world cup record goalscorer Miroslav Klose and the legendary Xavi. Even though the players in 20 years time will be far superior.

Well it might be gob****ery pal but that dosent make it not true.

And actually it's Ronaldo who still holds the world cup goalscoring record.

How do you know the players in 20 years time will be far superior? Do you have a crystal ball there?

Like I pointed out earlier the players of today are inferior to the players of 20 years ago. So I don't know how you work that out.

Dr Galen

I think the problem with this WC has been mostly for the armchair fan. I don't use that term in a derogatory way, its just reality. After all the TV revenues from those people pay for the whole thing and can't be done without.

The point about teams being set up not to lose, and to defend is true, and unfortunately that does not make for a great "event" or spectacle. Your typical WC armchair fan, isn't looking to see Mascherano make amazing tackles or break up play in front of the back four, they are watching to see a Messi wondergoal.

The wonderful play of the Germans, moving forward and back as a solid unit of 10 players holds little appeal for the likes of my dad, who only watches so he has something to talk about at work. Mexico Vs Uruguay or the US Vs Ghana likewise has no attraction for him. Brazil Vs Holland does though, as even he knows this is a game between two big teams.

I've enjoyed the WC on the whole, watched most games, as always do. As for Sepp, well its a commonly known fact that he is an arse. Ghandi could descend from on high to save Mother Teresa's last minute penalty on the final, and Blatter would still be an arse. The sooner he is gone the better, though looking at who surrounds him (warner et al) I'm not sure that there will be much change in policy.

Fr Tod Umptious

On the attendance thing, ESPN Classic showed the official Italia 90 video a few weeks back.

One thing that struck me was the huge number of empty seats at the Semi Final between England and West Germany.

pickarooney

tdv123 wrote: »

The 1994 world cup for miles better than this tripe.

We seen magic from great players like Baggio, Hagi, Maldini, Romario, Stoitchkov, that Sauid Arbian dude, even a brief moment of magic from Maradona. And thats just too name a few.

The calibare of players has decreased dramatically since the 90's.

Just alot of physical athletic players who suck at actually playing football thats been the theme of this world cup so far. Excepet for Xavi & Iniesta who are dieing breed these days I'm sad to say.

Sayeed Al Owairanthelengthofthepitchandscoredapeachagainstbelgiumandwasneverheardofagain?

Warper

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Thats the major problem allright.
Too many defensive teams in this World Cup.
Every team has a holding midfielder ,some even have 2 .
The sad thing is that alot of the teams have good attacking players but they are forced to play defensively against their natural instincts .
Germany ,Argentina,Mexico ,Chile and Spain were the only real attacked minded teams in the tournament.
A few other teams tried to play open football but they simply didnt have good enough players.The rest of the teams were mostly ultra defensive.
Too man teams playing with a rigid back four ,with two defensive midfielders sitting directly in front of them.That only leaves 4 players to attack
Its a terrible reflection on international football when the likes of New Zealand ,a woefully limited team,can draw two matches in the World Cup .[/QUOTE]

Even worse, they were unbeaten, drawing 3 matches including one against the WC holders Italy.

pickarooney

New Zealand scored twice though, taking the lead against Italy and fighting back to earn a draw at the death against Slovakia? I fail to see how that can be a bad thing, as opposed to them being battered 6-0 in all their games.

Some people have a very weird notion of what makes football enjoyable.

Pauleta

tdv123 wrote: »

Well it might be gob****ery pal but that dosent make it not true.

And actually it's Ronaldo who still holds the world cup goalscoring record.

How do you know the players in 20 years time will be far superior? Do you have a crystal ball there?

Like I pointed out earlier the players of today are inferior to the players of 20 years ago. So I don't know how you work that out.

I know Ronaldo has the record but Klose will break it

And yes the players will be superior. Its how sport works. They will be faster, stronger, smarter and fitter in 20 years time. In 20 years there will be somebody faster than Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps records will be like Mark Spitz (irrelevant) There will be UFC heavyweights bigger and faster than Brock Lesnar. There will be a tennis player that makes Nadal and Federer look like Tim Henman. Thats how sport works. I know people want to be all misty eyed over the past but its evolution. In sport new standards get set every time.