Any REAL football fans here? (Page 55)

Yes, it was looking pretty grim there for a while. The Welbeck game-winner was pretty.

Some unexpected results over the weekend.  Didnt see the Greeks beating the Russian even if i pick Greece to come out of the group.  Glad that they made it, their fans certainly need the entertainment and the hope that advancing to the quarterfinals brings.

The rest of group play should be exiting...How my week goes depends if Italia wins today or not, if they can't convincily beat the Irish they certainly don't derserve to advance.

Italy is only up 1-0 right now.  Then again, there is still another full half of play to go.

Yeap, a whole half to go...If both games stay this way it would work for me, i think Italia wins the group if that is the case, but they need to score as much as possible and keep a clean sheet to make sure

And they are through.

Has Ireland EVER looked THIS bad?

Yeah, they look quite awful, but when your best striker plays in MLS you can not hope for much....

That goal by Balotelli was fantastic, if he would get his head rigth he would be an incredible player. 

Not sure what you were expecting...just look at the clubs the roster players play domestically for....not exactly a high level of talent. Ireland should be happy with just qualifying...its unrealistic to think they can compete beyond that....and YES they have looked this bad for at least a decade! :-)

Yeah.  Well, at least their fans travel well. 

From a post on the UEFA.com site.  And email from a German fan:

He wrote: "What a pitty to loose them! The team is here in Sopot and Sopot is totally in Irish hands! No chance to get a draft beer, because everything is already drunken! Having a party 24/7 for several days now, everybody totally having fun, singing and cheering all the day. And Irish players including Trapatoni just walking on the streets for several times, giving autographs, shooting photos and with the fans! And no trouble, no police, no bad words. Great!

"You heard this chorals at the last match against Spain. There was just silence in the stadium, even commentators saying not a word, just the songs of the Irish! Unbelievable! You'll never beat the Irish!"

It sure is a shame to lose their fans.

England makes it through but i think France will win the group.  England never makes anything easy, at least they can be at ease that there are no penalty shootouts in the qualification stage..

That will be quite a controversial call.  Don't quite know if that would have let Ukraine through because they would have been tied on points AND on GD.  Still... it was a completely blown call.

ETA: looks like France would have still gone through. 

Well..it was the second blown call of the sequence - the first was that the forward was offside in the build up...same guy who missed the point blank header when offside also.....that linesman was poor

Platini needs to get with the program and introduce the goal line tech - thats the second "goal" this tournament that has not been given...

An almost identical situation happened this past weekend in the Chicago v NY match here.  Goal was CLEARLY over the line, was cleared out and wasn't called.  Fortunately, it mattered little in the match as Chicago still won 3-1.  That linesman was way too far up the pitch, too, considering he should have been closer to the end line.  But that is another story.

Agreed.  Very poor calling in the match.  Very poor indeed.

Loving how Platini's words are coming back to bite him in the backside from earlier this week. 

From the ESPN article:

Platini said Monday that if an official had been beside the goal that day (Germany v England in 2010), he would have spotted that Lampard's shot crossed the line.

"Of course, because it's his job to see if the ball is inside the line," Platini said.

Two days later, those words are coming back to haunt him.

Was listening to Counter attack radio on Sirius this morning and some pundit on there called Pete Corry ( sp) was spouting nonsense..need to see how you get to be an
"expert" since this talking head was so off base I thought he was taking the !

Loved the spat between the Ronaldo and Barca President..as to who is the best player in the world, Of course, the Ego himself thinks its him of course...rest of the world knows its Messi!

I pick the Czechs to bounce Portugal - perennial underachievers and big game bottlers.

Regarding Ronaldo, I have never liked him.  Ever.  That being said, I ALWAYS want my forward/striker to think they are the best in the world/country/league whatever.  I want that kind of confidence and arrogance.  That being said, I still hate the twat. 

That is a pretty good pick.  Should be interesting.

Or not.

Haha, i havent been able to watch the game so i can't comment much.  It does seem like the Czech put up a figth.  I cant wait until sunday to see the Azzurri play england, it should be a good one.

On a different note I will be going on Saturday to the World Soccer Master Tour game in Miami.  It should be a fun game to watch.

Crap game - Czechs had nothing...weird

Anyway - the talking head I referred to in my last post predicted 4-0 Portugal...I stand by my previous comments - the guy is an idiot...

Better game tomorrow I hope..

I really don't see Greece being able to stand up to Germany.  BUT, stranger things have happened.