Togo is doing the impossible here.
Togo will be the first team in 76-year-history who qualified for the World Cup Finals to widraw from a match.
Man, I could understand a person’s rage especially on salary/pay problem but still you have to represent your country no matter what.
Good friend Ahmed Bilal sent me a link on how to beat Brazil and win the World Cup.
In an excerpt:
The squad is a bit biased towards the Premiership (and towards England). Having said that, these players are either class in themselves (Henry, Casillas, Rooney), or they have performed well in the World Cup so far (Lahm, van Persie, Lennon, Robben).
I would prefer Casillas in goal to Cech mainly because of his experience (of playing in Europe and of playing behind a weak defense). Cech is still an option because of his height, and you would be stupid to put him out of the reckoning based on his form in the last two years. Buffon misses out - too old.
Defense - You don’t want a situation where Ronaldinho, Ronaldo or Adriano skips through the centre backs to score. You need strong and fast defenders, and that’s why form players like Carvalho and Marquez miss out. I’ve also chosen Lahm over Puyol, because we need creativity down the flanks and Lahm is great going forward. The right-back position will probably be taken by either Ferdinand or Nesta, considering that these two are far better going forward than Terry / Cannavaro / Gallas.
I have to commend Australia for making Brazil sweat all game long; but I would also like to bid them goodbye in this Finals.
Oh that is harsh but come to think of it, the way they played might just give them a chance to the next round. There is no way Japan is beating a poor playing Brazil squad and I am sure the Brazilian team is going to make adjustments to raise their level of play which gives me the confidence to say that Japan should start packing their bags and bring it with them in their last game.
Socceroos only need to draw with Croatia which I feel is highly achievable. Having said that, I take back my farewell to Australia and wait until the last game.
What does Hiddink mean by this?
This game has the potential to shape the way the public view football in Australia and it’s important I allow the team to go out and play the Australian way.
That means going for it and attacking the Brazilians. That’s the Australian way, not being meek and mild and failing to try and make a statement.
This team isn’t like that, and I don’t want to try and hold them back. They have that great Aussie spirit and I want them to show it.
It will be a massive test for them and if we lose the match and maybe end up not qualifying for the second phase, then we have to take that risk.
Spain which is the breeding ground of a lot of very good players and supports a great competitive league doesn’t win in the big leagues.
With a 4-0 demolition of Ukraine, Spain won it’s first opening game since 1950. That is a very long 56 years of waiting and it came on an explosive handling of their opponent.
Thiery the choker could not help but complain and finger point people for their disappointing scoreless first game.
C’mon man, go home and look for Mama and tell her about your pathetic teamates! Go home and drink your milk to get your bones stronger during big games.
Our office community is buzzing and taking a stab at Thiery “the choker” Henry. In an article we have been feasting with:
Ribery, starting a match for France for the first time, moved past Swiss defender Philippe Senderos down the right to feed Henry in the area but his pass was not accurate enough and meant the Arsenal forward needed to control the ball before shooting.
“Franck placed the ball behind me instead of placing it in front of me,” Henry told reporters at France’s training camp.
“If he had placed it in front me I could have pushed it inside an empty goal without controlling it and that would have been a goal. That’s how close we came to scoring.”
“That first goal changed everything,” captain Reyna said.
Excuse me U.S. team you just followed a game won by the Australian team on a come from behind victory. Too much talk you just can’t walk the talk. I hope you start looking around and be as humble as Trinidad & Tobago who silently dealt a blow to Sweden who is now fighting and in the state of chaos rather than (Story from ESPN):
Jan Koller of the Czech Republic delivered the first strike by scoring at the 5th minute on a header from a feed from Zdenek.
The thirty three year old Forward is one of the key players of the Czech team expected to score in a number of games this Finals.
Unfortunately, in the 45th minute of the game he suffered an injury and is taken out of the field on a stretcher with his knees heavily strapped.
We still don’t know the extent of his injury but let us hope it’s not that bad…
Butcher Tim Cahill performed his job extremely well leaving opponents bloodied in the field.
When he came in as a substitution for Marco in the second half people in the chat room said it was a good decision and I do agree though I doubted how much of an impact he would be to actually help Australia win it’s first World Cup Finals game. Right after the substitution I was thinking of writing a profile of Cahill justifying whether the replacement was valid but I felt it was not worth my time.
