the teams

[martino]

france took me by surprise. what zidane did -- a late goal that was not really necessary -- is a thing i really like when it happens.

it used to be that the german team, upon goaling, built a wall around their own goal and the rest of the game was an ugly mess of killing time and kicking the ball away. i'm glad that germany no longer does that, and that france didn't do it yesterday, and i'm really glad that zizou had his last hurrah.

[marky]

Argh. I can't believe I have to get up early on a Sat. morning this time (not even Sunday!) to catch the England/Portugal game. It'll be fun though.

That is a funny joke about the Americans having an exit strategy.

[Tommy Martyn]

There is a guy on the Guardian podcast who says that he has always had sneaky feeling that it will be a Germany - England final. Anybody else had gut instincts that have nothing to do with actual form or reputation?

McC, are France now good? Who would back against lucky Italy? How great would England be if they could string four passes together?

For what it is worth, here are the semis. Germany,Italy,England and France. Don't forget, all games are a long way away from South America.

[Alta Vista [Bot]]

France has always had a good soccer team. No need to argue that point. Granted, there are other countries that can hold their own, but the French have always been in the hunt and (over the years), have finished better than average. Signing off now....

SJ

[Sloth]

Japan was a long way off from Brazil and they won it handily last time. I say its Brail/Germany and Brazil wins.

[Sloth]

Actually Germany may win if everyone in Brazil goes blind and they have to change the name of their country to "Braille"

[martino]

that would be cool

[bfj]

my strange gut feeling: Germany, England, Ukraine, Brazil

[marky]

I'm not sure about Brazil winning (again I'd really prefer if someone else wins) but something about Sloth's Germany/Brazil pair up immediately rang true for me as a solid prediction.

[Sloth]

And the football blind sloth will lead them... past the Magic Spray Mountains into the Valley of Stretcherland.

Seriously though. In American football a guy gets the stretcher treatment maybe once in his career. And a trip to the hospital always follows. Half the Italian team is on a stretcher per game.

Tommy... how many stretchers in a typical rugby match? Do they have magic spray as well? My guess would be no.

[Tommy Martyn]

In my day it used to be called the magic sponge, which was a sponge dropped into a bucket of ice water.

Rugby League is a beast of a different stripe. You go into it knowing you are going to get hurt. You win by hurting your opponents more than they hurt you. Last year my best friend at home was sat in the stands in the seat directly in front of Chris Joynt, who is the most successful captain our club has ever had. My friend was earwigging him the whole game. It became obvious that he was describing the game in some detail to a novice. One of the things that stood out, was he mentioned that irrespective of ability in general play, each successful team must have a guy that enjoys dirty play. A character who, when punched off the ball or stiff armed, will openly go looking to retaliate to a greater degree. If you don't have one of these guys then the opponents will intimidate you and you will lose. Consequently it is important to not let them know they have hurt you.

Play does not stop for injuries in RL you just play around the body unless it is not directly interfering. All the time you are rolling around on the floor you are putting your team under added pressure. There is an Australian website dedicated to the "hard men" called, "the era of the biff." Check out some of the stories. My favourite is the one about Alan Prescott playing for Great Britain in the 50's. There were no substitutions for injury in those days. He broke his arm in the first half and finished the game. He wouldn't admit to it in the changing rooms at half time as it would undermine the morale of the team. I have seen Roy Haggerty play out agame with a broken arm, though not as serious or for as long as Prescott. I have seen Dean Bell get hit in the face and get his 14 stitches at the side of the field without a painkiller and go straight back in. I have seen Les Boyd play. He had two bans from the game. One for 12 months and one for 18 months. I think they were both for stamping. Imagine someone 230 pounds or so stamping on your head in cleats. He was mean.

[marky]

I waited what, 6 hours at the pub today for a proper goal with no such thing in sight? I went home at half time between Brazil and France. I just couldn't stand it anymore. Surely I would do better to go home and listen to Vini Reilly.

[Tommy Martyn]

I can't talk about this at the moment.

[marky]

You see part of the problem was I'd had this feeling from a long time ago, before the England/Portugal game even started that Portugal would win. So then I was faced with this slow moving game of Nil-Nil where no side was taking it. And I expected Portgual to wrap it up within the usual amount of gametime. But then the two overtimes and the bloody penalty kicks. And in the end it was just what my intution had told me all along would happen, even if I WANTED England to win, I had always thought Portugal would win anyway. See? How boring. And then when neither Brazil or France scored within the first half, I lost interest. I couldn't take it anymore.

[marky]

Although if there were any highlight, it was definitely Rooney's moment. Fancy footwork! But he shouldn't have pushed the other player. Like I said, a lot to learn. Teach that boy discipline, and he's got the game in hand, just you watch. He'll be a shining star yet!