<p>I’m so dissapointed that Spain lost. El Ni</p>
<p>Im also extremely dissapointed that spain lost. I was really rooting for them…But france was just better in the second half. I hope Brazil kicks france in the ass.</p>
<p>Argentina vs Germany!! that’ll be exciting
But the one I"m REALLY looking forward to is Portugal vs England</p>
<p>I don’t understand why people want France to lose. When it comes to football, France is one of the more subtle and humble teams. Their players aren’t flashy and they play fairly. Plus, they have an elegant and exciting style.</p>
<p>At any rate, all the quarterfinals games should be exciting, except for the Italy vs Ukraine game. I honestly see France beating Germany in the finals.</p>
<p>too many players on club teams that I hate, ha…and the fact that my friend absolutely loves them.</p>
<p>I see Germany winning the whole thing…so idk. France did finally come into form though, so we’ll see</p>
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<p>I agree. Comparing them to the other powers, there’s not much about France to hate.</p>
<p>Spain - Racist coach, ugly racist football culture
Italy - Crooked domestic league, ugly racist football culture, divers, boring brand of play
England - Usually over-hyped and over-exposed every World Cup
Brazil - Wins all the time that they may get tiresome
Argentina - I dunno, likes to live in past glory?
Germany - Too mechanistic, hate their country’s history?</p>
<p>France doesn’t have any of the negative characteristics above, yet people hate on them because I guess the French are easy to make fun of. But I like the French team, and am glad they beat Spain. I’ll be rooting for Brazil, though. But if France makes it, they’ll be my team to win it all.</p>
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<p>Germany’s yet to play a quality opponent so far, their toughest challenge (on paper) being against a Swedish squad that failed to score against a 10-man Trinidad and Tobago team. I predict an Argentine victory.</p>
<p>I think people hate the French team because people just hate the French (and their arrogance) in general…just like in latin america we hate Argentina for the same reasons. Argentina thinks they are God’s gift to the world…most latin americans refer to Argentina as the French of South America.</p>
<p>“Spain - Racist coach, ugly racist football culture
Italy - Crooked domestic league, ugly racist football culture, divers, boring brand of play
England - Usually over-hyped and over-exposed every World Cup
Brazil - Wins all the time that they may get tiresome
Argentina - I dunno, likes to live in past glory?
Germany - Too mechanistic, hate their country’s history?”</p>
<p>I heartily agree with Spain and Italy. However, I think the Germans are playing a much more exciting brand of football under Klinsmann. And I find your comment that they “hate their country’s history” funny. If they loved their country’s history, that’d be number 1 on your list of what to hate about football teams. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, although I think the success of their football team is creating, as some journalists have called, a “new patriotism” - as in people actually sing the German national anthem now, instead of humming it. There’s been lots of problems with German patriotism after WWII because of the Nazi problem, and they actually had to have a national day to cheer people up because there’s so little of it. </p>
<p>Add: Ukraine - Racist coach (see comment about needing Ukrainian footballers instead of “monkeys” you feed a banana to come play for the national team). Yeah, those comments **** me off.</p>
<p>I’m sad Spain lost because I liked Torres, but happy b/c of reasons above (coach is racist, fans racist, etc.). I think it’s ironic that Ukraine is in the quarters and not Spain…I still don’t believe the French will make it to Finals, and still place my bets on Germany.</p>
<p>Ukraine’s like that? Oh god, they play Italy next. It’s like choosing death by fire or death by starvation. </p>
<p>It’s good how France cannot afford to be racist even if they wanted to because most of their team (including Zidane, an ethnic Algerian) are Africans. </p>
<p>Yes, Germany has surprisingly been goal-happy this tournament. </p>
<p>Also, I think it’s interesting how it’s not the “white” European countries that are the most racist; there are still many people who don’t regard Spaniards, Italians, or Ukrainians as “whites”. Or if they do, they certainly put them on a lower tier than peoples like the British, French, and Germans (the “whites” who have really done much of the heavy lifting, accomplishment-wise). Maybe this inferiority complex adds to their hostility.</p>
<p>Whatever, Eto’o and Henry are better than Shevchenko.</p>
<p>What do you think of this?</p>
<p><a href=“MLS News, Scores, & Standings | FOX Sports”>MLS News, Scores, & Standings | FOX Sports;
<p>“Brazil midfielder Juninho believes the holders’ World Cup quarter-final with France will be their most difficult match of the tournament.”</p>
<p>Kinda surprised, but that’s probably because I’m new to the whole football thing and have only based my impression of France on the World Cup matches.</p>
<p>“Ukraine’s like that? Oh god, they play Italy next. It’s like choosing death by fire or death by starvation.”</p>
<p>Yup. I feel bad, as maybe we shouldn’t be judging the teams by their coaches, but coaches are a key influence and are supposed to be representative…</p>
<p><a href=“Scottish Football News - SFA, SPFL & Championship News - Daily Record”>Scottish Football News - SFA, SPFL & Championship News - Daily Record;
<p>"However, this latest black mark on their game comes after Ukraine boss Oleg Blokhin, right, launched a racist attack on foreign players. The former Soviet Union striker is also a member of parliament in Ukraine as well as being international coach…He said: "The more Ukrainians who play in the national league, the more examples for the young generation.</p>
<p>"Let them learn from Andriy Shevchenko or Blokhin and not some Zumba-Bumba whom they took off a tree, gave him two bananas and now he plays in the Ukrainian League.</p>
<p>"I remember when I played football, if we lost a game it was not easy to walk the Kiev streets - there were many friends out there who could beat you up for that.</p>
<p>“But is there any sense in beating up a foreigner? Okay, you beat him up - next thing he does is pack up and go.”"</p>
<p>Emphasis is mine.</p>
<p>haha yeah i agree. ETTO is such an excellent player. too bad he isnt playing for the world cup. but shevchenko qualified a non class 5 team to the worldcup and ETTO couldnt so keep that in mind. even if its because of that ■■■■■■■, whose name i dont know, missed the pk in the last minute of the qualifying matches for cameroon. </p>
<p>i, as a south american, wish an argentina vs brazil final. then, we would that our slow but tactical play works better than the european fast and aggresive style of play</p>
<p>I heard that African superstars like Eto’o got a hard time from their high-paying European clubs for playing in WC qualifiers; and they were even denied from playing in some games. That’s why top African teams like Nigeria and Cameroon failed to qualify while Togo and Angola are in.</p>
<p>Hah, like Ukrainians are one to talk racial smack and such. White supremecism wasn’t so good when Hitler and his Aryans were hellbent on exterminating their Slavic rear ends? It’s fascinating how Neo-Nazism is so popular in Russia when the real Nazis would’ve hated them.</p>
<p>In the end, I’ll root for Italy against Ukraine; at least Lippi hasn’t made embarrassing comments like that Ukrainian ■■■■■■■. </p>
<p>LOL, anybody remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Newman are playing Risk on the subway, and Kramer insults Ukraine in front of that Ukrainian man? </p>
<p>“Ukraine is weak, it’s feeble. And I think it’s time to put the hurt on Ukraine”.
“I come from Ukraine, you not say Ukraine weak”.
“Well, we’re playing a game here, pal”
“UKRAINE IS GAME TO YOU?! HOW ABOUT I TAKE YOUR LITTLE BOARD AND SMASH IT?!”</p>
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<p>Before I say anything I’d just like to point out that regardless of my current location I am not German. I am just an American living in Germany. </p>
<p>This is something a lot of Germans have a problem with. Unlike other countries they aren’t allowed to feel proud to be German or be proud of their accomplishments. People still like to have them feel guilty. Sure the WWII era and the Holocaust were terrible, no one is arguing that. But kids our age, we’re talking about their grandparents and great-grandparents. They can’t help what their ancestors did anymore than we can. You can’t choose where and to whom you were born. They aren’t Nazis and their parents aren’t Nazis, but essentially they are still treated as such. What does Germany’s history have to do with a soccer game in 2006?</p>
<p>Yea…you guys hate teams for weird reasons…the only reason I have to hate a national team is for what they do NOW, in this World Cup. Or, of course…in France and England’s case, from a nice rivalry with some of my friends who happen to love those teams. I dont dislike a team for how its club leagues are run, from their coaches point of view, or what happened 4, 8, 64 years ago.</p>
<p>oh yea…and I hate Portugal for what they did to my Netherlands :)</p>
<p>"oh yea…and I hate Portugal for what they did to my Netherlands "</p>
<p>I don’t think Portugal did as much to the Dutch as the Dutch themselves did to each other in that match. They looked like they got together for the first time out there. Better organization, more passing and they’d be playing again. They beat themselves out there.</p>
<p>yeah i aggree but portugal’s win costed them the loss of two starters and many yellow cards which leaves them with no chance against england. this is the game where englan have to show why they have the bets midfield in the world. lampard has to put one away as hes got too many shots on goal but no results. beckam will have to stop listening to all his fans on the pitch and start focusing and defending. gerrard and cole are doing great so im sure they will get a nice display againt the portuguese</p>
<p>yea they did look pretty shoddy…lord only knows why van basten continued to keep ruud on the bench…but they scored on us, so thats doing something</p>
<p>Yea, I couldn’t figure why RVN was sitting the entire match. He an opportunity goal scorer. I’m sure the Dutch aren’t too happy with the coach on that one. </p>
<p>What I saw was a very tense team, it seemed they were that way from the start and it wasn’t the ports that made them that way. </p>
<p>Of course I’d be tense to with the calls and cards this WC.</p>
<p>This is very interesting, in light of my previous post:</p>
<p><a href=“Sports - World Cup ’06 Blog - The New York Times”>Sports - World Cup ’06 Blog - The New York Times;
<p>"Before the tournament began we pointed out that Ukraines coach, Oleg Blokhin, had made some weird, race-tinged remarks about African players, perhaps not as bad or as often as the crazy things that Spains Luis Aragonés had said about French striker Thierry Henry, but certainly deserving of criticism. On the eve of Ukraines quarter-final match against Italy, we would like to point out that Ukrainian football also has a far brighter moment in its history.</p>
<p>Ukraines leading club side, Dynamo Kiev, which currently employs seven members of the national teams squad and also nurtured the nations biggest star, Andriy Shevchenko, was at the center of one of the great moments of anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War…"</p>
<p>yeah they said. before the netherlands and portugal match. van basten talked to ruud and told him that hes expecting more of him on the games. something that ruud probably didnt like so van basten started him onthe bench. with the score still 0-1 against portugal during the second half. he called RVN to enter but then minutes later, one of the dutch got sent off and van nistelroy had to sit back down, ahhahaha, funny how things happened but yeah, he shouldve placed van nistleroy on the starting line up since kick off</p>