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Posted

I keep trying to come up with a Pauly esque 5 paragrapgh analysis of why the current World Cup winners have just drawn with the worse team to ever play in the World Cup but whenever I begin I just start to chuckle.

Thank you for Italy for making England only the second worse major footballing nation in this tournament.



Posted

Fantastic performance by the Kiwis from a country that has no professional league. Excellent goalkeeping by Mark Paston. The less said about Italy the better. With all due respect to today's result I can't see Paraguay losing to New Zealand.

Posted

This space is not big enough.

Below follows my dissertation called, "defence in 5 paragraphs".

1) At this point it's clear Lippi's taken a bad squad. The players don't lack heart, they've reacted well to going behind to two set pieces early, and they follow instructions, it's just that the lack of a #10 is plain even for a 5 year old to see.

2) Iaquinta is a terrible terrible man. When did he become Lippi's pet exactly? It's amazing. I was under the impression he was bought to play the same role he played in '06, when he was brought on wide to keep an opposing full back back late in the game. I also thought it was a mistake to leave him on and take out Gila, when the game called for players who cal play in tight spaces and receive the ball to feet- Iaquinta can only be marginally useful when the opposition are pushing forward and there's more space for him to chase his crappy touches.

3) In this world cup, players like Pirlo are going to have less of a role to play because of the ball. People are going on and on about the shots (especially keepers) but it's most obvious on the crosses. Every cross made by any player is going 10 yards over the place it should and all these players are not gronkjaer. The effect is generally to take the technique and skill out of games a little and it's favouring teams that are pushing forward with energy off the ball and numbers- Germany, Argentina and even Denmark last night come to mind.

4) that 442 was one of the worst things I've ever seen in Italian football.

5) If Di Natale and Camoranesi are this years baggio totti and del piero, it's going to get ugly.

Posted

Thank you for Italy for making England only the second worse major footballing nation in this tournament.

You are forgetting France, who are right up there as well!



Posted

I keep trying to come up with a Pauly esque 5 paragrapgh analysis of why the current World Cup winners have just drawn with the worse team to ever play in the World Cup but whenever I begin I just start to chuckle.

Thank you for Italy for making England only the second worse major footballing nation in this tournament.

Bit harsh there, I think the first two results alone prove that this isnt the case, there have been many more woeful teams over the years than this kiwi one who has now claimed two points. Lets also remember that the penalty was a crock of sh*t and if it hadnt been for that who knows what the end result would have been. NZ might not be the most skillful or talented of teams but it is very well organised and the team plays with a lot of passion.



Posted

Fancy drawing with a team from a country where sheep outnumber people about 10 to 1, its like drawing with a sh*t Wales.....

Posted

Fancy drawing with a team from a country where sheep outnumber people about 10 to 1, its like drawing with a sh*t Wales.....

If England keeps playing like they did against Algeria, New Zealand would probably beat them.

Posted

I keep trying to come up with a Pauly esque 5 paragrapgh analysis of why the current World Cup winners have just drawn with the worse team to ever play in the World Cup but whenever I begin I just start to chuckle.

Thank you for Italy for making England only the second worse major footballing nation in this tournament.

Can't let you get away with that, Loz! Pauly's post sums up my own feelings pretty much on gli Azzurri - but to say that they are worse than England is a gross overstatement of the facts. They are lacking an incisive forward (I couldn't agree more with Pauly re. Iaquinta - I've loathed him since Day One) and I can't see them getting too far in this tournament, but at least today they showed some heart and spirit and were doing their level best to attack. England did none of those things against Algeria, as far as I could see.

I can't be bothered with the 'offside' goal excuse, because I clearly saw the ball strike Canna's arm at the time, and I expected a penalty to have been given, but there was some neat, dogged defending from that hulking centre half of the Kiwis, and they deserved their point as much as Algeria did.

Four stars on the shirt - England's only dreaming ;)



Posted (edited)

Did I hear someone say New Zealand played well? One of the worst games of football quality wise I've seen at a world cup. One side 10 meters inside it's own half with no other ideas than kicking it long to chiellini, and another side who couldn't break them down despite playing 60 minutes of the game against a defense that looked like it was holding in the last 3 minutes. We were laughing the entire second half at the lack of quality going forward, iaquinta as the lone point trying desperately to be a footballer, and the fact that zambrotta was our best attacker (and the only player on the pitch who showed the movement of a professional footballer). Both sides showed good heart, some of the management was ok from lippi who made them press which caused NZ to play 70 yard balls forward the entire game, and trying to get our guys to stop crossing and failing. But the lack of creativity and movement through the middle was awful to watch. I have no idea why Cassano, Totti and co are sitting at home.

Edited by Pauly
Posted

Did I hear someone say New Zealand played well? One of the worst games of football quality wise I've seen at a world cup. One side 10 meters inside it's own half with no other ideas than kicking it long to chiellini, and another side who couldn't break them down despite playing 60 minutes of the game against a defense that looked like it was holding in the last 3 minutes. We were laughing the entire second half at the lack of quality going forward, iaquinta as the lone point trying desperately to be a footballer, and the fact that zambrotta was our best attacker (and the only player on the pitch who showed the movement of a professional footballer). Both sides showed good heart, some of the management was ok from lippi who made them press which caused NZ to play 70 yard balls forward the entire game, and trying to get our guys to stop crossing and failing. But the lack of creativity and movement through the middle was awful to watch. I have no idea why Cassano, Totti and co are sitting at home.

I live in nz and have done so for the last 10years, NZ may not have played pretty football and there might be a awful lack of quality at the front but it is a very organised team that has made it very difficult for more skilled opponents to get through, lets remember italys only goal came from one of the worse refereeing decisions at the tournament. De rossi barely got touched but looked like he had been shot when he went down. In that regard Italy are lucky to get out of this encounter with a draw. As poorly as the Italians performed i dont think people are giving NZ nearly enough credit out of this. So far including the pre world cup fixtures we have now claimed a victory against Serbia and gotten two very well earned points in the world cup.

There may be a lack of quality but did you really expect that? I think NZ played very well taking that into account, you set the standard of what classifies playing well according to the team that you are talking about. This was a team of players with one premier league player, a couple of championship players and then a couple of players from around Europe and USA but primarily players from the A league and even one or two players who just play in the NZ domestic competition.

Posted (edited)

The more things change...

Watch Italy progress by means of cheap theatrics through to possibly yet another world cup final aided by referees whose qualitative standards are hampered by a sporting body's perpetual recalcitrance concerning the use of available technology.

But hey, like us, the kiwis are merely football minnows there to make up the numbers and of course antipodean football is so monstrously crude that what does it matter in the end.

Who will be next to suffer the stanislavskian charm of italian football I wonder?

Edited by youlots
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Posted

Danielle De Rossi would walk into any of the top 4 teams, the guy is a monster. He scares me with or without the beard, if i seen him coming at me with his angry red face i'd probably run a mile.

Posted

The other thing to point out is England's squad, man for man, is FAR better than Italy's.

None of Italy's players would get into a top 4 English team.

As much as I like to mocky Pauly (If you haven't tried it you really should give it a go. I will get you started. He is very short and unfashionably hairy) even I can't go along with that, not even as a wind up.

Off the top of my head I would say that

Buffon would feature for all of the top four apart from us.

Cannavaro despite the fact age has caught up with him would improve Arsenal.

Again despite age Zambrotta would improve Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs.

De Rossi wouldn't be out of place in any of the top four.

Pirlo would improve Arsenal (especially with Cesc going) and Spurs.

Probably a few more if I thought about it a bit more.

I do agree that on a man by man comparison England are a stronger team however that just makes it more apparent how badly we are playing as we are no better than them as a team despite that fact.



Posted

As much as I like to mocky Pauly (If you haven't tried it you really should give it a go. I will get you started. He is very short and unfashionably hairy) even I can't go along with that, not even as a wind up.

Are you trying to tell us that lackage of hair (as Ruh Buh Juh would put it) is now à la mode?

Posted (edited)

Typical comment there Sydney illustrating what i was saying in the other post, EPL goggles.

Sals, we're both probably blind from bias but I can't conceive defending that deep and launching the ball forward under any pressure as a plan.

Also Loz- chiellini isn't bad...

Edited by Pauly
Posted

An Italian fan, complaining about defending deep? Never thought i would see the day. ;)



Posted

Fancy drawing with a team from a country where sheep outnumber people about 10 to 1, its like drawing with a sh*t Wales.....

Dicky, that implies that there is another kind of Wales

Posted

Well there's deep and there's deep... as loz said to the sailor

Not sure i want to know anymore about this to be honest, very worrying... :shok:


Posted

Well there's deep and there's deep... as loz said to the sailor

It needs to be when your keel is swinging low...

Chiellini I will also give you. If there was a combined Italy / England side then I would have him alongside JT with Ashley Cole at left back and Zambrotta at right back.

Posted

Ah but who would coach? I would go with

...........................Buffon.......................

Zambrotta.......Terry......Chiellini.........Cole

.............................Pirlo.........................

................Lampard........De Rossi.............

...........................Gerrard......................

....................Rooney.....Totti.................

Posted

We can let g4 coach - that way we both have someone to take the piss out of when it all goes disastrously wrong.



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