World Cup 2006 - Biggest let downs.

[wedgie]

With the World Cup over early for us yet again, it got me thinking about what other things about the World Cup had been a dissapointment. Most are fairly obvious anyway but i'll start with the most obvious.

England - Self explanatory. Playing decent football and going out in the quarter finals would have been unacceptable. We didn't even manage that.

Spain - Yet again they fall short, this time after being so impressive in the early stages. At least it's not just us who can't make a half decent football team from a set of great players.

Ronaldinho - We know how good he is, which makes it seem much worse when he puts in a performance not up to standard. Very surprised at his poor showing at this WC.

Referees - The players should take a fair part of the blame on this one, but when a referee issues a player with 3 yellow cards in the same game, he makes a laughing stock of himself and football. Some of the decisions in this tournament have been unbelievable at times, I can think of at least 2 teams that have fair cases to say the ref was a major factor in them being knocked out.

Portugal/France/Italy/Germany - None of theses teams are anywhere near the best in the world, yet one of them will be crowned world champions. When the inevitable happens and we go out, I at least like to see the best team go on and win it. That wont happen this time.

Diving, play acting, cheating - It's been going on for a while now and seems to have culminated in the worst World Cup ever for cheating. Why do players have no shame in going down as if they have been nutted, when no contact has been made at all? (Prime example Maniche against England)

The fact that FIFA still does nothing about cheating - This is probably worse than the cheating itself now. We all know cheating happens, we can all see it plain as day on the tv, fair enough if they ref misses a few, but for FIFA to take no action retrospectively, even when there is so much evidence, ridiculous.

What other things about WC 2006 do people think have been a let down?

 

[Metalface Mark]

With the World Cup over early for us yet again, it got me thinking about what other things about the World Cup had been a dissapointment. Most are fairly obvious anyway but i'll start with the most obvious.

England - Self explanatory. Playing decent football and going out in the quarter finals would have been unacceptable. We didn't even manage that.

Spain - Yet again they fall short, this time after being so impressive in the early stages. At least it's not just us who can't make a half decent football team from a set of great players.

Ronaldinho - We know how good he is, which makes it seem much worse when he puts in a performance not up to standard. Very surprised at his poor showing at this WC.

Referees - The players should take a fair part of the blame on this one, but when a referee issues a player with 3 yellow cards in the same game, he makes a laughing stock of himself and football. Some of the decisions in this tournament have been unbelievable at times, I can think of at least 2 teams that have fair cases to say the ref was a major factor in them being knocked out.

Portugal/France/Italy/Germany - None of theses teams are anywhere near the best in the world, yet one of them will be crowned world champions. When the inevitable happens and we go out, I at least like to see the best team go on and win it. That wont happen this time.

Diving, play acting, cheating - It's been going on for a while now and seems to have culminated in the worst World Cup ever for cheating. Why do players have no shame in going down as if they have been nutted, when no contact has been made at all? (Prime example Maniche against England)

The fact that FIFA still does nothing about cheating - This is probably worse than the cheating itself now. We all know cheating happens, we can all see it plain as day on the tv, fair enough if they ref misses a few, but for FIFA to take no action retrospectively, even when there is so much evidence, ridiculous.

What other things about WC 2006 do people think have been a let down?

I think its been a pretty poor world cup all round, theres too many diddy teams in it from the start, so theres barely any shocks, the first group of games bring no (or very few) outstanding games, whats worse they made potential good games meaningless by having them play last (argentina vs holland, would have made a cracking opening game).

I disagree thought that the best teams not going to win it, spirit, will to win, determination are equally as important in football as skill, and it would be great to see France go on and win to show this as a shining example.

 

[KELTICKNIGHT]

think this was poor world cup from all top teams
when you see poor teams almost beating so called top teams
as far as yellow cards,the was more pentilys in this world cup than last,hard call or ref,too much play acting from all teams
did n't feel like much of world cup
best game so far was france and brazil,but was'nt the best l ever seen
goalies where poor in this world cup
the so-called stars where poor

 

[dannyjo22]

The ball.

It moves around so much when it starts to slow down that everyone seemed to be long range shooting, the keepers didnt stand a chance.

Play acting, even for terry's booking the portugal player went down they raised his head to see what the ref was doing then carried on rolling.

I think this is the worst world cup Ive seen with my own eyes. The refs have been poor and there is no team you just have to see play. No big players performing and some really lousy refs.

I never really got excited about this world cup, it never really got going for me.

 

[Third Opinion]

Boring

None of the teams have played very well IMO. We have slated England for it but near enough everyone else has played just as bad. Gone to plan as far as FIFA is concerned they have got the teams through they wanted and quashed any chance of having an unpredicted result.

French have had a walk through as usual and looked like they might be tested but Brazil looked like they couldn't be bothered.

Portugal have behaved in there usual disgraceful manner like getting a tap on the shin and then rolling on the floor holding their face.

Germany continue their run of luck that finds them every four years.

England played like rubbish and then were caught by FIFAs very impartial referee's, an Argentinian.

Im not a football fan other than internationals but this tornament has been very dull to say the least.

 

[Metalface Mark]

Boring

None of the teams have played very well IMO. We have slated England for it but near enough everyone else has played just as bad. Gone to plan as far as FIFA is concerned they have got the teams through they wanted and quashed any chance of having an unpredicted result.

French have had a walk through as usual and looked like they might be tested but Brazil looked like they couldn't be bothered.

Portugal have behaved in there usual disgraceful manner like getting a tap on the shin and then rolling on the floor holding their face.

Germany continue their run of luck that finds them every four years.

England played like rubbish and then were caught by FIFAs very impartial referee's, an Argentinian.

Im not a football fan other than internationals but this tornament has been very dull to say the least.

The referee had nothing to do with England losing last night.

Germany make their own luck, thats why they are successful in tournaments.

France have had the hardest route of any team to the semi's!

As you say though, your not a football fan.

 

[Bluebells]

I have to say the diving and feigning injury is starting to get overboard, players seem to go down with the slightest bit of contact. I am all for clamping down the tackle from behind and showing the studs but it is a mans game and contact should be allowed.

Worst case was Henry holding his face when he was elbowed in the chest. He obviously wanted Puyol to be sent off.

 

[Smithy]

TV Coverage

Commentary
Motty is a has been, once a legend, now an embarassement. Some of the things he was coming out with in the Portugal game was just the icing on the cake, he and most of the rest of the BBC team were very poor IMO, i wont even start on ITV's commentary. Other commentators are just as guilty aswell but John Motson stood out.

Camera Angles, replays when we wanted them and replays when we didnt
It seems that on several occasions during most matches the camera work wasnt up to scratch. There would be some dubious decisions from the ref where we wanted to get a second look at, and we didnt. Or even sometimes when we wanted the replay in slow motion, we didnt. Sometimes we would even be seeing replays which have absolutely no significance whatsoever and we would be missing a vital part in the game.
Same thing with cutting to people in the stands, such as executives sitting there in their suites while a corner was being taken, or a team were on the break.

Even though these things would never affect the outcome of the WC, it still affected how i saw it. If only Sky Sports had rights.

 

[Zip]

The Crap Refs


And All the shin grabbers

 

[Carlos_S]

One man-

Ronaldinho. He was so terrible it was annoying, so much for being the best player in the world he would have struggled to make Ecuador's team with those performances.

 

[jmc777]

Portugal/France/Italy/Germany - None of theses teams are anywhere near the best in the world, yet one of them will be crowned world champions. When the inevitable happens and we go out, I at least like to see the best team go on and win it. That wont happen this time.

Who do you think's the best team in the world?

 

[Third Opinion]

Just my feelings but

The referee had nothing to do with England losing last night.

Well the Rooney sending off was a little iffy. Dont remember him cautioning any of the Portugese for diving and play acting. Yet their behaviour against Holland saw them receive 8 yellows and two sent off for similar behaviour.

Germany make their own luck, thats why they are successful in tournaments.

Continual winning of penalty shootouts surely has an eliment of luck.

France have had the hardest route of any team to the semi's!

Togo, South Korea and the Swiss are hardly what you can describe as quality opponents for former World Champions.

As you say though, your not a football fan

I am not a expert this is just my views from a non-football fan. Many millons watch the World Cup who are not regular viewers.

 

[Metalface Mark]

Just my feelings but



Well the Rooney sending off was a little iffy. Dont remember him cautioning any of the Portugese for diving and play acting. Yet their behaviour against Holland saw them receive 8 yellows and two sent off for similar behaviour.



Continual winning of penalty shootouts surely has an eliment of luck.



Togo, South Korea and the Swiss are hardly what you can describe as quality opponents for former World Champions.



I am not a expert this is just my views from a non-football fan. Many millons watch the World Cup who are not regular viewers.

All the top teams had easy group stages - France had the hardest draw for the 2nd round and quarter finals though.

Id say continual winning of penalty shootouts (and continual losing of penalty shoot outs for that matter) has no element of luck, just practice and hard work. Germany have had 20 penalties in shootouts in world cups and scored 19 (or something like that), thats not down to luck, they practice, its part of the game, its something England should learn from.

The Rooney sending off wasnt iffy at all, even Erricson has said he was right to be sent off.

 

[Yas786]

Have to agree with Ronaldinho, i was quite shocked at his crap performance throughout the WC. Dont know if Parreira was playing him in the right position or what but he was largely ineffective through most of the games.

As for the WC generally, well its been ok i guess. But the last few games especially with the Portugese team being involved....has left me with a bad taste in my mouth tbh. I cannot believe a team like that would resort to such despicable tactics...for me the WC wasnt about football but more of how far can they can go with a bit of cheating.

 

[wedgie]

Who do you think's the best team in the world?

That's a good question as no team stands out. I do think all 4 of those teams are very good and of those four I would now like to see France win the World Cup. However, the best team in the world isn't decided on 1 tournament. The France team won't be the same after the World Cup so even if they do win I wouldn't say they were the best team around. I can't see any of the other 3 dominating the world game for the next 3 or 4 years either.

So to answer you're question, I don't know

I would probably have said Brazil before the tournament tho. Argentina do look in good shape as well despite going out, they've got some very good young players coming through.

 

[[ASSE]Hinchy]

Lampard. Total let down for me. Should have been dropped for another forward to play up with Rooney.

That and the level of cheating that has dominated.

 

[Mr Mag00]

our level of penalty taking. soft as warm ****. Too scared to miss so played soft balls. Complete and utter ****. No more WC for me thats it!

 

[MikeTimbers]

The cheating, definitely. I don't remember it ever being this bad ebfore and I only hope that FIFA institute a full review of the way the "beautiful game" has been played and displayed to the world.

New rules need to be brought in with all senior games reviewed by a referees panel and retrospective punishment brought in for diving and off-the-ball incidents. When players know they will be found out and banned, maybe they'll stop cheating.

Finally, bring in the same rules regarding the ref as in Rugby Union. The Ref is inviolable and may not be approached by anyone save the captain and even then, only when the ref wants. Any dissent is an immediate 10 yard penalty and repeated offences get yellow cards. Any attempt by a player to get another player booked, should be an immediate booking for the complaining player.

FIFA must clean up the game, it's been anything but beautiful.

 

[wedgie]

our level of penalty taking. soft as warm ****. Too scared to miss so played soft balls. Complete and utter ****. No more WC for me thats it!

Agreed, why are we so poor at penalties? We can say luck is a factor but the bottom line is every penalty we missed was a poor one, they weren't unlucky they were just poor.

I'd like to have seen more of Messi this World Cup tho he was coming back from a long injury so it's understandable why we didn't see more of him. He is without doubt a world star of the future.

 

[lemonkettaz]

i dont think germany are lucky...

they are just too good...

they actually believe they can win it. it isnt just because they are at home either, they did the same in japan/korea

the only success story to come out of this world cup now is if germany actually win it, even though their team indivdually arent "world class", their belief and team play outshines any skill.

prime example.. brazil... "world class" players, can do anything with a ball... they were an embarrasment to what they are supposed to be.

nothing to say about england, same old lack of confidence.

it would be nice to see italy win too, especially with everything that is happening in italy regarding football.