tmonkey

Mr Miyagi would be proud of that crane kick.

van Bommel turned to the camera after that and mouthed "that is for you, brother Jens".

Kuyt from the half way line under a slight amount of pressure = shoots at his own goal.

Nice pass to Cassillas by Sneijder.

I'm watching your posts with interest tonight after your super-rant earlier. It wasn't a rant, just an honest opinion of the Dutch side. They shouldn't be here at the Final. They're basically Greece in an orange kit, plus Robben.

Cheating cunt van Bommel at it again. Look at him. What a cheating cunt.

Nice pass back to the goalkeeper by Kuyt there.

Busquets

Hope Spain molest the Dutch tonight. Only Robben is worthy of lifting the World Cup - the rest are donkeys, cheats, or vastly overrated egotistical twats. Sneijder especially annoys me, scoring jammy/s*** goals and celebrating like a c*** with his midget bald face turning orange and that silly wristband he wears being highlighted by his goal celebrations. Kuyt also, ugly b******, plays s***, no skill, constantly loses the ball, but gets a crappy assist and points to the cameras as though saying "f*** yeah, I'm world class, I created this goal, now give me the praise I deserve". Deserves a bucket of digested orange s*** more like. And Robben/Van Persie running around with their arms outstretched like tweety pie makes me want to staple their arms to their sides. And van Bommel is such a snide c***, he's like Jens Lehman's younger brother but ten times the c*** Lehman is, as though he's learnt from the master himself. Watching that lot lift the World Cup would be painful. On the Spanish side, we have Xavi, Puyol, Iniesta, Villa, Cassillas, Pique - now they're all class, and deserve to win this. Sergio Busquets is the only overrated cuntflap in that team, but his camel face/body can be tolerated, whilst Xabi Alonso shouldn't be in the side based on his performances and general lack of usefulness so far but he's still a very good player. Sergio Ramos is an exceptionally thick footballer at times, but even then he still manages to be class with his athleticism/general competency. http://www.iwantthatsign.com/WebRoot/BT2/Shops/BT4029/4B92/3034/1ABC/7332/A5EA/0A0A/33E7/1BE1/Come-on-Spain_h.jpg

Amazing. For the Vuvuzelas naturally.

But I take it you're referring to the Carrick that moved to ManU for £14m and had a few solid seasons for them, as opposed to the Carrick that played last year for them? His entire game is based around his passing/distribution. He's not a natural ball winner, he's not the most athletic of players, he's not a goal threat, and technically he's very limited on the ball (which is why he passes it quickly in the first place). Since he was very poor last year in terms of passing/distributing the ball, shockingly so at times, and his touch had deserted him, he was pretty much a nothing player for ManU. Compared to Gibson, he looked inferior when Gibson did play imo. Can't say I noticed Gibson's touch/passing being awful, maybe you're right, but with Carrick being so visibly piss poor, merely posing a goal threat was enough for Gibson to look a better player imo. And given that Gibson is younger with possibly more room to improve as well as being from the ManU academy, maybe Fergie sees him as a better prospect than Carrick? Or as Dave says, it might be that he wants to bring through other prospects. But with Scholes and Giggs on the wane, and Carrick being in a prime age for a midfielder in his position, surely Fergie wanting him out should ring alarm bells for anyone? Assuming there's truth in this rumour. And of course the notion of him being another Butt type Fergie cast-off depends on whether last season was a blip for Carrick, or the start of a slide. If Fergie does let him go, I'd hedge my bets on it being the latter - he's not infallable, but if there's a manager out there who excels at getting rid of players at the right time then it's Fergie. Pique, Rossi and Forlan for example? 1) "He's not infallible". You even highlighted it. Yes, he does make mistakes, but I'm not denying this rumoured Carrick sale might be one. 2) No manager has a 100% track record in anything. Are you saying Fergie doesn't excel at getting rid of players at the right time because of a handful of counter examples? What next, Wenger doesn't excel at blooding youth into the first team because of Bentley, Hoyte and Merida? 3) We all know about Pique, Forlan, Rossi, Beckham, Stam, RvN, Kanchelskis, Ince, Hughes, McGrath, so on and so forth. Didn't think it was worthwhile including any references to them though, as they're not relevant to Carrick specifically, other than the last set of players. The premise I'm referring to is that Fergie only really sells "good" players if they're foreigners who've failed to adapt (Forlan, Veron), youngsters who've not broken into the first team (Pique, Rossi), or players he's fallen out with (Stam, Beckham, RvN). Carrick doesn't fit any of these profiles. Beyond that, he doesn't tend to get rid of first team players unless they've dropped a level or two (e.g. Andy Cole, Butt) or were never really good enough in the first place (Phil Neville), with youngsters or replacements at a similar level with the potential to get better waiting in the wings (and yes, I know who C.Ronaldo is). Carrick at his best is/was good enough for ManU's first team in the holding midfield role, he's in his prime years, he's experienced at all levels. If there is a sale and there hasn't been a fallout behind the scenes, imo it'll be because Fergie has seen (or thinks he's seen) a drop in ability/performance levels.

Cracking game.

Ruud van Nistelrooy scores for Germany!

Kiesling looked like he was running underwater trying to get on the end of that cross.

But I take it you're referring to the Carrick that moved to ManU for £14m and had a few solid seasons for them, as opposed to the Carrick that played last year for them? His entire game is based around his passing/distribution. He's not a natural ball winner, he's not the most athletic of players, he's not a goal threat, and technically he's very limited on the ball (which is why he passes it quickly in the first place). Since he was very poor last year in terms of passing/distributing the ball, shockingly so at times, and his touch had deserted him, he was pretty much a nothing player for ManU. Compared to Gibson, he looked inferior when Gibson did play imo. Can't say I noticed Gibson's touch/passing being awful, maybe you're right, but with Carrick being so visibly piss poor, merely posing a goal threat was enough for Gibson to look a better player imo. And given that Gibson is younger with possibly more room to improve as well as being from the ManU academy, maybe Fergie sees him as a better prospect than Carrick? Or as Dave says, it might be that he wants to bring through other prospects. But with Scholes and Giggs on the wane, and Carrick being in a prime age for a midfielder in his position, surely Fergie wanting him out should ring alarm bells for anyone? Assuming there's truth in this rumour. And of course the notion of him being another Butt type Fergie cast-off depends on whether last season was a blip for Carrick, or the start of a slide. If Fergie does let him go, I'd hedge my bets on it being the latter - he's not infallable, but if there's a manager out there who excels at getting rid of players at the right time then it's Fergie.

Would make sense for Fergie to get rid. He's had a shocking season for ManU and looks inferior to Gibson. Might be a good signing for them if last season was just a blip, could easily be another Nicky Butt though, since if Carrick has looked bad for ManU then it might be alot worse in a lesser side.

The final isn't too far away from being La Liga stars vs La Liga rejects (plus a few minor successes). Van Bommel, Sneijder, van der Vaart, Robben, Huntelaar, van Bronkhurst, Bouhlarouz, Heitinga - all played in Spain, with quite a few of them flopping.

Come on you 'Gers. Come on you 'Gers.

http://www.vgtv.no/?id=23021 Look at Carlos. Just sitting there. Waiting. He knows things we can only dream of.

Awesome. Was like watching a wild salmon jumping out of the river as it swims upstream.

A few less kebabs with beer and Villa would have made that.

What a cross by Iniesta.

10 minutes in and it already looks like a suspended Muller is big loss for the Germans.

Using the correct spelling of signing would have sufficed.

Sneijder is such a lucky bastard. Has been mediocre this tournament imo, but keeps "scoring".