Best and Worst of World Cup 2006
Round 1 Game 1
Best Goal: David Beckham (England) in the 3rd minute from beyond the corner of the 18 yard box, wicked curl. It was credited as an Own Goal but I think that actually made it closer for the keeper's chance to stop it. If it doesn't get headed by Gamarra it glances in off the far post. Amazing at that distance and angle. What may be more amazing is everyone in the world knew he would try to do exactly that and he did it.
Honorable mention: Tim Cahill (Australia); 89th minute from the right across the goal to the high left, untouchable.
Man of the Match: Shaka Hislop (Trinidad & Tobago); The team played with maximum effort but he made tremendous save after tremendous save against a Swedish team that you could almost tell was desperate to score so as not to be embarrassed by losing to the smallest World Cup qualifier. "TNT. We know drama."
Honorable mention: Arjen Robben (The Netherlands); scored the loan goal but had chances at several more. He was flying at full speed the entire match driving Serbia & Montenegro crazy.
Best Effort: Ronaldinho (Brazil); no surprise that the best player in the world on the best team played well, but he earns the accolades by giving everything he's got. He sprinted to the corners to keep balls in play that anyone else would have let go. He made moves without any space at all, and still looked ready for another 90 minutes when the game was over.
Honorable mention: Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast); I have been critical of the very talented Drogba for two years at Chelsea for being a bit of a baby, taking dives, and whining for calls. He was called out by the media and fans over the course of two weeks near the end of the club season and since then he has been a completely different player. He plays with more effort, fights through tackles, and seems more mature now. This showed against Argentina where he carried his team. He dropped back to play a midfield role in late in the second half so he could dictate the offensive possession. He even retrieved balls as the clock was against them so they would get more chances. A very good player is becoming a great player in front of our eyes.
Worst Call: Referee Massimo Busacca (Switzerland); gave a straight red card to Ukraine's Vladislav Vashchuk and awarded a penalty kick when it didn't even look like contact was made. There was a little bit of shirt tugging but that was before Spain's Davis Villa made it into the box, it didn't impede his advance, and it didn't keep a shot from being taken. Harsh call considering similar plays don't even get a foul call anywhere else on the field.
Dishonorable mention: Referee Essam Abdel Fatah (Egypt); no call on Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura when he collided with Australian keeper Mark Schwarzer going up for the ball. Nakamura scored and the ref seemed to spend the rest of the match trying to make up for it. He did at the end of the game when a Japanese player was cleated violently in Australia's penalty box. The no call there that would have resulted in a penalty kick was fair only because Nakamura's goal should not have counted.
The referees have been very good in this tournament. These are the only two bad calls that stand out and fortunately, neither one affected the outcome of their respective matches.
Best Game: Tunisia 2-2 Saudi Arabia; Surprisingly, this was a great game. I didn't expect much so maybe that had something to do with it. I didn't recognize any player on either team, didn't expect much contrast in style of play, and had no rooting interest. Tunisia scored in the first half and tried to hold the one goal lead until Saudi Arabia scored in the 57th minute. Tunisia seemed deflated as the Saudis took over. Sami Al Jaber replaced Yasser Al Kahtani in the 82nd minute to score the game winning goal. Two minutes later he did just that, or so he thought. In the 92nd minute Tunisia's Radhi Jaidi headed in the tying goal. Unbelievable ups and downs in this game.
Honorable mention: South Korea 2-1 Togo; 2nd Honorable mention: Australia 3-1 Japan
Worst Effort: Ronaldo (Brazil); overweight and apparently injured he walked for 69 minutes
Dishonorable mention: Claudio Reyna (United States); I've yet to see him control the midfield in any game the way he is supposed to. I think Bruce Arena is being sarcastic when he says Reyna and Onyewu were the best players on the field for Team USA. They both sucked.
Goofiest Mother F'er: Peter Crouch (England); creepy to watch and only committed like a dozen fouls against Paraguay
Honorable mention: Peter Crouch's shadow (Frankfurt Stadium turf)
Best Announcer: Tommy Smyth (ESPN2 by way of Ireland); It's not the World Cup without "the ball in the back of the only onion bag."
Honorable mention: JP Dellacamera (ESPN2); Dave O'Brien is better than him? Really? Is JP the Fredo Corleone of ESPN Soccer? "I got passed over. I do good things. I'm smaahht!"
Worst Announcer: Shepp Messing (ESPN2 by way of the NY Cosmos); No, Shepp, it's not all about style and all about creating space and all about goaltending. Pick one!
Dishonorable mention: Marcelo Balboa (ESPN2 by way of the Colorado Rapids)
posted by Nick Manning @ 6/15/2006 04:01:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Peter Crouch is a goofy mofo. I think he is lucky that he got the breakthrough goal against "TNT" or else he would have been the goat for the other umteen chances he screwed up. I loved Becks(A nickname that for some reason I am fond of) "Own Goal", but I actually thought his cross to Crouch to set up the breakthrough goal was equally amazing. I don't know enough to say whether the criticism of Beckham is just or not, but from my vantage point his playmaking skills are invaluable. He certainly looks more valuable that Owen who I think should start on the bench during the sweet 16(I know it's not the term that is used, but it should be.) Well enough talking about England. I guess it's easy to tell I'm a bit of a fan.
Go USA!!! If you play Dempsey, you will score! :)
I agreed with most of your items... The only one I disagreed with was the Japan/Australia non-call... that was absolutely the right call and Messings insistence that it was a foul is only a product of his experience as a keeper... The contact was initiated by the keeper and the player was in no way trying to impede his progress... Keeper's can't just run into an attacker, fall down and expect a call
For me, the best goal of the tournament is still Pirlo's goal against Ghana... that was amazing... worth mentioning also is the ridiculous screamer of a shot from Totti that was from like 40 yards away... That ball is STILL traveling upward ;)
Delta Gamma has just released a statement of delight. Now the only thing that goes down faster than their anchor is an italian soccer player. I think I have officially established why the US does not love soccer. The US likes tough guys. Football players see a cut and say just rub some dirt on it(similar to McBride who is a true American, they didn't carry his ass out on a stretcher yo eye-talian pussies). Our team played admirably, but internationally the players are a bunch of crystal butterflies. A.K.A. they're a bunch of pussies. I can get over the red card on Mastroeni(Thug just like Jeff said. I think JEH is totally justified and has proven how intelligent he was. This was exactly the kind of thing he feared. If we get through keep your damn cleets on the ground Pablo or we're going to have you work at McDonalds and have Carlos Mencia make fun of your dumb ass) and the two yellows on Pope. I think they're legit, but I also think a lot of other countries would have gotten away with it. The way the pussy italians play with their constant flopping is utterly ridiculous. How they did not get a yellow for such acts is beyond me. The refs made good non-calls on several of the occasions, but yellows for pussy italians should have been issued. In the end I am pleased with the result. Apparently disallowing the goal that Beasley scored was the right call and I can live with that. I am just pissed about the italian style of play and I think they should be ashame of being such open bloody wounds.
MWM
P.S. italians has been and will forever be in lower case on purpose for me.
I need to add that if we see the USA win the World Cup in the next 200 years it will be a miracle because it's obvious that everyone hates use. They call us Yankees and we are the Yankees if you want to make the analogy to MLB. You either love us or hate us. Since we only represent about 5% of the World Population most people hate us(But yet we don't have an F'in lottery to get a Visa for other nations like others do for the USA.) Fuckin piece of shit eye-talians. Anyway, all the chips are against us, but I think one day we will persevere. We are stronger and better. Maybe not smarter, but still better. Larry the Cable guy would not flop like a pussy eye-talian. He'd stay up and try to score a goal, go home and eat some edible britches. Not that I like that redneck piece of crap, but he represents the worst this country has to offer and that is still better than a pussy eye-talian. At this point I think I might cheer for the Czechs and Ghana on Thursday so the pussy eye-talians don't advance.
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