World Cup Finalists by the Numbers

Go ITALY!Portugal supports you =P

Won’t some one PLEASE get Ribery the dental work he so desperately needs? He’s a great talent, but his teeth are a nightmare! Is this a French thing???

Peter, Gattuso is a midfielder, not a defender. :)

Just before the Italy – Germany game there were many negative posts against Italy left here by you German fans. What happened now? Cat cut your tongue? Or rather, the Azzurri cut your tongue??

1 – Number of goals conceded by Italy after 6 World Cup games (an own goal against USA).

FWIW: If Italy win, then the US can at least take (dubious) pride in the claim that we are the only team to take a point off the 2006 WC Champs.

Cannavaro isn’t going to let his defense conceed a goal in his 100th cap! Maybe he’ll even go after goal #2 after all of those games. :)

Forza Italia!

I think the Italian got a shot a winning it all, however the French are known for their “resistance” and after all France beat the defending champs to get here. If I were to bet on the final, I will put my money on France.

This World Cup has been destroyed by the unsportsmanlike behaviour of the top ranked teams and the poor referees in the majority of game. I can accept that referees make poor decisions sometimes, which add to the unpredictability of the game, but there is no excuse for incompetence. Unsportsmanlike behaviour should be treated with zero tolerance. PULL YOUR FINGER OUT FIFA AND MAKE SURE THAT STEPS ARE TAKEN TO RECTIFY THIS BY THE TIME THE NEXT WORLD CUP COMES AROUND.

Ed said: “If I were to bet on the final, I will put my money on France.”

You have a paypal account?
I will make you a bet if you have a paypal account. Say 1,000 dollars? Put your money where your mouth is Ed!!!Make a wager and I will bet you Italy wins.

Aussies still crying??? My god you people really are sore losers aren’t you. You played a good game leave it at that. Neil clearly got in the way of Grosso who could have ended the game just like he ended the Germany game last night. Stop crying about bad calls and take your loss like a man.

I just hope De Piero will be on the first line-up upfront. Italy won, when Del Piero in.
ITALIA!!!

I agree with Mike. The first sentence mike stated had me rollin’.

my my, don’t tell me the aussies are still full of themselves! They may have played well against Italy, and there may be a _little_ bit of nail-biting over the foul, which was indeed a good call when you view it in slow motion and you have the official rules as reference, but i hope they don’t think the could have _ever- scored one goal! Not even if they played for another whole game would they have scored. Guts yes, finesse, no!

As for France..,second best i’m afraid. FORZA ITALIA

France didn’t get a sharp win today, sometime the wind goes your way, Like for portugal When playing England out!

@ this level of the tournament, it’s such a close call, and any little thing can make a difference, Sloppy control, bad timing, loosy positionning, refferees, luck… May the best team win, It’s what it will take, team spirit above all, May the force be with them!

How about over 450 min of scorelss soccer againt the Azzurri…thats a number that impresses me the most…or 11 goals by 10 different players…the Golden Boot should go the Azzurri Squad!

Abe,

The Azzurries have a dam great team, more than a solid defense, and a surprising offense, and they are fast & smart!

Still, there is something that the french can make with the Italian midfield that often make them vulnerable.

Let’s hope for a great game, where both team give it all.

I’m gonna go with France to win but I’m not sure if thats cause I really believe they’ll win or because I want so much for them to win. Here’s what I know at this point: If France, and specifically Zidane, play the way they did against Brazil then Italy is in for a fight. If France play the way they did today and Italy plays like they did during regulation it will be even. If Italy plays the way they did during overtime and France brings anything but their best they are done with.

Hopefully, this will not end in a penalty kick shootout!

Both team have such similar qualities and weakness in the same areas.

Let’s see from where the wind will come from.

I take it that Mike Danni & Vanni are referring to my post. First of all I’m not Australian, in fact France & Switzerland made sure that Ireland didn’t qualify so if your looking for bias on my behalf my wife & children are Italian. Believe it or not my American friends there is life beyond your borders – You should get out more and experience other countries and cultures rather than jumping to conclusions and/or jumping onto the glory bandwagon of other countries when your own teams fail to qualify. My post was specific in it content as I have found this World Cup disappointing except for the good form France are now showing.

PS. – Mike, I am willing to bet that Canada or USA don’t make it to or pass the first round of the next World Cup Finals. We can place the wager in an escrow a/c stateside if you wish.

Hi Irishdownunder,

I am living in the US, and I am not even French, I am from Belgium, and traveled as much as I could, I am here for now,

The Austalian team showed up with an incredible team strenght, and to my eyes, what a delightfull surprise, as I use to know this country excelent for other sports, but football, (Soccer here).

There is nothing that the Australian team should be shamed about, they delivered genuines and competitive games, with an impressive team,

@ that Level of competition, it’s such a close call for all,

The smart asses are the ones who manage to get these players in good shape and team spirit @ the right time & rythn, there is a lot of gambling there.

Sorry to dissagree, but (OK for Canada) the US is making a lot of moves toward soccer, 4 years from now, I don’t want to bet they will bring the World cup, but for sure, they’re growing!

Denis –
I agree that Australia played well. In fact qualifying by knocking out Uruguay was excellent. There team performance reminded me a lot of the Irelands first trip to the World Cup where the played beyond there ranking except Australia played nicer football.

(The bet was directed at the bully blogger Mike.)

PS. Belgium may not have the best football team but it has great beer!

Mike – Another thing, as you described the Grosso / Neil “foul” you would know under the rules that is an indirect free kick. God you talk sh*t

Hi there, Irishdownunder,

Beside the beers, ( I am soooo proud of where I am coming from for that! By the way Ireland knows how to make the great stuff to!), there is the fries (what’s called here here “the french fries”) due to confusion in WW1 from who cames these great fried potatoes stuff came from.

And whatever people think, “if” as you say, these had traveled or spoked with the ones who did, they’ll know that Belgium had (and are back to) great sport teams.

Beside tennis, today there is nothing that seems to emerge, but it used to be a great soccer land, cicling was not the worst that Belgium had to offer, and basketball still building up over there (From what I know)

Of course Belgium never won the “Baseball World League”.

As none of the Non US did!

I am facinated by all sports (Except cricket), however, I haven’t sen any other kind that is as open and widespread as footbal (Soccer here), I simply hope that the “Team Spirit” cause will prevail.

But “when are these indirect free-kicks awarded?” I hear you ask.

It is when, in the opinion of the ref, a player does the following:

1) Impedes the progression of an opponent (obstruction)
2) Plays in a dangerous manner
3) Prevents the goalkeeper from releasing the ball from his hands

Or when a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area:
1) Holds on to the ball for more than six seconds
2) Handles a backpass
3) Handles the ball after receiving it from a team-mate direct from a throw-in
4) Touches the ball again with his hands, before it is touched by another player, after releasing it from his possession.

Cat cut your tongue Mike? You brought it up!

I don’t think we are going to see a PK shootouts this final game. Italy does not want PK shootouts when they are in upperhand. I think this is going to be the same strategy ITA used against GER which is they will attack in DEFINED periods of time.

Futbol,
I guess you’re right on that one!

Both team will do so!

That’s what they will try to do,

Not so sure they will close the game that easy!

Denis –
I like you am not a great fan of cricket but I did watch the las ASHES series between Australia & England. Strangly enough I wanted England to win because the Australian team needed to be put back in their box having become too cocky. It was really good with both teams playing good attacking cricket.Some of the best things about cricket is the “sledging”. Try this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledging_(cricket)

Most team sports have something worth watching especially at international level (beats warfare any day)

futbol-
You are exactly right about the Italy game plan. They certainly have perfected it.

I think France initially will look for a quick goal within the first 15min and close up shop in the midfield. If unsucessfull they will just maintain control of the midfield and look for an opening.

Neither team will want the game to go beyond 90min. Lets hope for a good even game with lots of quality goals.

It’s funny that I watched Grosso’s goal at least 3 times already. It’s truly spectacular. It’s curved across in between 7 GER players and just about 2 – 5 inches away from Lehman’s reach. It’s perfect

Great goal to watch even if it was more ass than class. It got to be up there for goal of the World Cup.

I feel sad that ARG was out. Otherwise ARG – ITA could be awesome as up to this point, I’m sure the 2 best teams in this tournament is ARG and ITA.

Hey, I think most people in Asia wants Italy to win this one. I think they deserve it.

C’mon, Thierry Henry also faked a few dives and the French players are not all too clean either if you are thinking of complaining about the Italians.

Anyway, may the best team wins!!! Show us some great soccer. Enough with penalties and unsportsmanship!!

Oh,, and btw, I dunno why my flag below was showing that I am from France. Anyway, I am not. I am from Malaysia!

Viva Malaysia! M’sia Boleh!!!

5—Number of World Cup games France went without scoring a goal after the 1998 final.
————
Is this really accurate? If I remember, France playing against South Korea this year was their 5th match in a world cup since 1998, and they did score in that game!

hey mike, its only the minority that are still complaining i think. so don’t go saying that “the aussies” are still complaining. italy deserve to be in the finals. nonetheless, allez les bleus!

i might be biased, but i think italy is the better team. even if france gets some shots on goal, its going to be tough to get anything past buffon. barthez is a mess though, and we all know hes going to screw up atleast once. lets hope that italy can capitalize on that oppurtunity (unlike portugal).

FORZA ITALIA

Irishdownunder:

You said:

“But “when are these indirect free-kicks awarded?” I hear you ask.

It is when, in the opinion of the ref, a player does the following:
…
Cat cut your tongue Mike? You brought it up!”

Since Mike’s not responding, I’m happy to:

“A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following six offences in a manner considered by the referee to be careless (…):

* trips or attempts to trip an opponent”

Note you don’t have to intentionally trip him (that was taken out of the wording some years ago), you just have to trip him by making a careless play.

And really, why are we still discussing this? Get over it, stop whining. Australia played well, but anyone that hopes to win on penalties (making only 12 shots to Italy’s 17, even playing a man up) gets what they get. Neither this blog’s in-house referee nor most of the neutral British/US papers had any problem with the call. You should try getting your opinions from somewhere other than the Aussie newspapers and blog comments.

Are you ever going to be able to put this issue to rest?

Que?

Sam,
I didn’t raise the issue but I love responding to dumb-ass comments. If you read my first post you would realise that I made comment on the standard of this World Cup. I’m Irish so don’t try an infer bias on my part. By the way, what papers have you being reading?

Learn the rules before you comment! That was only a penalty because the referee made a mistake. Everyone who follows football understands that this is part of the game. I guess what has pissed the Aussies off is the fact that the Italians won’t even acknowledge the fact that it was never a penalty. I’d equate to being dumped by your first love – God love’m the few Aussies who are still upset just want closure.

“Everyone who follows football understands that this is part of the game.”

You say this, but you don’t back it up with anything. Did you even look at the rule I posted? To re-word: If a player gets tripped because you made a careless play, then the other team gets a direct free kick. Is that really so difficult to understand?

As this blog’s ref said, “by no means was it reckless or dangerous, but it was certainly a foul nonetheless as his body took the attacking Italian out of the play.”

Also, Irish, I’d advise you to brush up on your terminology before you get into a debate about the rules of football. You say

“Another thing, as you described the Grosso / Neil “foul” you would know under the rules that is an indirect free kick. God you talk sh*t”

You seem a little confused. An offence punishable by an indirect free kick is called a “foul.” Indirect free kicks are covered under Law 12, Fouls and Misconduct. Fouls are covered in the first sections of the law, which includes the section you quoted (worded differently — are you using an out-of-date rule book?). Misconduct is generally placed under the banner “unsporting behaviour.”

If you believe the offence deserved an indirect free kick, then you must accept it was a foul. Telling people they talk “sh*t” when it’s you who doesn’t understand football terminology doesn’t help me see you as someone who understands how the game works.

this might sound stupid.. but i still dont get the difference between an indirect and direct free kick … anyone want to explain? ive read the official rules but either i missed it or im just an idiot.

blame it on my being from the states and not getting rai (the italian channel).

Hmmm… actually, you seem to be saying that “if it’s a foul, then it should be an indirect free kick.” If that’s what you meant, that’s obviously incorrect as well, as direct free kicks are also considered “fouls”, under Law 12.

Sorry for the tripple post…

jayt,

Basically, major offences, such as fouls that trip up an opponent are punishable by a “direct free kick”, which means that the person kicking the ball is allowed to aim straight at the goal and try and score if he wants. If the foul was in the penalty area, a direct free kick is actually taken as a penalty.

More minor offences, such as obstructing an opponent, are punishable by an “indirect free kick”, in which the kicker cannot try to score but pass the ball to one of his team mates.

Hope that helps.