Goodbye Porkchops
- Thread starter topcat
- Start date
Did anyone hear all that booing whenever Ronaldo touched the ball during the first half ?
Looks like a lot of English fans stuck around and the sight of him in tears may have been worth the price of admission alone.
So, who are the top candidates for the "Golden Dive Award" ?
Looks like a lot of English fans stuck around and the sight of him in tears may have been worth the price of admission alone.
So, who are the top candidates for the "Golden Dive Award" ?
LuckyJackson is no coward, he'll be here. He's just replacing the TV he threw out the window. Right beside mine when England lost.
Portugal lost this game because they have no strike force...they take off their most prolific striker, for a winger...all those crosses always went right to Barthez, Portugal needs more talent up front to go to the next level IMO
I found the Portugal/France contest to be a very uninspired effort by both teams,very lackluster play. You would think that either team would be pumped up to play,though it just seemed very mundane. After the match was over the French team didn't really seem to be excited about the win,perhaps knowing that they really didn't play very well and now have to face Italy who played exceptional in their semi-final against Germany. I still believe that France was inspired to beat Brazil,which they did,and then nothing after that? If they play like this in Sunday's final,then they will have a tough go of it.
No one should be knocking the Portugese keeper Ricardo... the guy was brilliant in this tournament....SPQR said:
I enjoyed seeing the keeper move up on that corner as well... it was fun to watch......
anyone think anything will come of this from the Luddites at FIFA??
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...RIDST_0_SPORT-SOCCER-WORLD-SUMMIT.XML&src=rss
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...RIDST_0_SPORT-SOCCER-WORLD-SUMMIT.XML&src=rss
Sorry for not commenting yesterday, but I was in no mood to post, or eat, or breathe.
Congrats to France, they were the better team yesterday. Though he needed no confirmation, Zidane proved once and for all that he is one of the greatest players of all time. We entered knowing we needed to shut him down, and succeeded for maybe the first 15-20 minutes, after that he asserted control. And it was Deco who was shut down.
The goal killed the game, because lord help us, but with Pauleta, we need to create 100 chances in order to get a goal, and the boys only seemed able to come up with 99. Thank god he won't see another major tournament. Now if only we could clone Eusebio.
Ronaldo played an excellent game.
I can't say I'm surprised to see that in all this talk about diving, no one has mentioned the most effective dive of the game. Henry's. Not that I blame the Frenchman, anyone would've done it, he was just better at it than our players.
I don't deny that Portuguese, and in fact southern European players, dive more than their northern counterparts. I'd like to see it lessened myself, but I understand why it happens. The answer is not to penalize only diving, but to also penalize the kind of impeding fouls that get in the way of a flowing skill-based game. It's analagous to the "if Gretzky were playing today" argument.
Diving is not only an attempt to gain obvious direct advantage through free kicks etc, it's also an attempt set the tone of the game. Players know that if they have a ref who is fooled by dives, there's a good chance their opponent will back off from rough contact. But that kind of game is not in the interest of teams like England or Germany - because their skills suck.
Those of you who are so quick to lambaste Portugal for diving should consider that Figo has been the most consistently fouled player wherever he goes. Same is mostly true for Ronaldo and Deco. You either believe these guys have consistently fooled a variety of refs over the course of their careers, or you admit that they are indeed fouled because opponents know their too dangerous to be allowed to play. It's the other side of the coin.
English hypocrisy, or to be fair English media's hypocrisy has been incredible this week. Desperate to divert attention from the real reasons for England's trip home, they've made absolute asses of themselves with an open and unrestrained show of bigotry towards Portugal. I admit I'm secretly pleased that they're hurting so bad after their successive defeats that they're reduced to this. We'll be sure to send 'em home again soon to compound their repressed self-loathing. Fair play and sportsmanship indeed.
As I said in some other thread, I couldn't be prouder of how we performed in this tournament. We came within a hair's breadth of being in the final.
Forca Portugal.
Congrats to France, they were the better team yesterday. Though he needed no confirmation, Zidane proved once and for all that he is one of the greatest players of all time. We entered knowing we needed to shut him down, and succeeded for maybe the first 15-20 minutes, after that he asserted control. And it was Deco who was shut down.
The goal killed the game, because lord help us, but with Pauleta, we need to create 100 chances in order to get a goal, and the boys only seemed able to come up with 99. Thank god he won't see another major tournament. Now if only we could clone Eusebio.
Ronaldo played an excellent game.
I can't say I'm surprised to see that in all this talk about diving, no one has mentioned the most effective dive of the game. Henry's. Not that I blame the Frenchman, anyone would've done it, he was just better at it than our players.
I don't deny that Portuguese, and in fact southern European players, dive more than their northern counterparts. I'd like to see it lessened myself, but I understand why it happens. The answer is not to penalize only diving, but to also penalize the kind of impeding fouls that get in the way of a flowing skill-based game. It's analagous to the "if Gretzky were playing today" argument.
Diving is not only an attempt to gain obvious direct advantage through free kicks etc, it's also an attempt set the tone of the game. Players know that if they have a ref who is fooled by dives, there's a good chance their opponent will back off from rough contact. But that kind of game is not in the interest of teams like England or Germany - because their skills suck.
Those of you who are so quick to lambaste Portugal for diving should consider that Figo has been the most consistently fouled player wherever he goes. Same is mostly true for Ronaldo and Deco. You either believe these guys have consistently fooled a variety of refs over the course of their careers, or you admit that they are indeed fouled because opponents know their too dangerous to be allowed to play. It's the other side of the coin.
English hypocrisy, or to be fair English media's hypocrisy has been incredible this week. Desperate to divert attention from the real reasons for England's trip home, they've made absolute asses of themselves with an open and unrestrained show of bigotry towards Portugal. I admit I'm secretly pleased that they're hurting so bad after their successive defeats that they're reduced to this. We'll be sure to send 'em home again soon to compound their repressed self-loathing. Fair play and sportsmanship indeed.
As I said in some other thread, I couldn't be prouder of how we performed in this tournament. We came within a hair's breadth of being in the final.
Forca Portugal.
So you are allowed to trip players in the box? Carvalho tripped Henry, he embelished it, but it would have still been called regardless, Henry isn't going to flop if he can stay on his feet and put that ball in...I dont know if you watched that youtube clip or not, but I entirely agree with that panel, Portuguese club teams are dive-tastic. Case in point, Porto vs Lazio and Celtic the year they won the UEFA Cup, that was a dive fest.
excellent video and (as if it was really needed) further proof that all you have to do is breath next to a Portuguese player and he will take a dive and roll on the floor screaming bloody murder.........they were an embarrasement to their country I hope the referee does not tolerate their cheating on Saturday and that he is not shy of giving them the yellow cards they so rightly deserve
Must see Pork Chop picture.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/r3v3ng3/portugal_training_ground.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/r3v3ng3/portugal_training_ground.jpg
Luckyjackson, every country does a bit of diving, France is no different, but what Portugal displayed this WC was absolutely over the top.
Expecially Ronaldo, but there were other Portuguese as well.
Taking a blatant dive when the nearest French player is a foot away and with zero contact is a bit much.
At least with Henry there was some contact before he went down
Expecially Ronaldo, but there were other Portuguese as well.
Taking a blatant dive when the nearest French player is a foot away and with zero contact is a bit much.
At least with Henry there was some contact before he went down
