oldtype

Samaras If they weren't slowly sapping away our chances of qualifying here this would actually be f***ing hillarious.

9? You drinking? Get it down to four and hope for set pieces. Actually, leave them alone with an open goal for 90 minutes and they'll probably manage one. Just barely. Just confirmed it with that terrible finish

It's not as if Greece is capable of scoring against 10 men. Get them down to 9 and I'll think about it.

YES! REEEEEEEEED CARD! ...God I've been sounding like a completel idiot for the past hour

All of Europe should hang their heads in collective shame for allowing this lot to qualify. Seriously

Fuck. Nigeria are going to win this. We're not going to progress. Japan will fluke a win against the Danes and make the second round. I will kill myself. :frantic::frantic::frantic::frantic::frantic:

You can't show what you don't have man. The Greeks wouldn't be able to attack their way out of a paper bag.

We're better, but if we need to win, I think a lot of the less inexperienced players in our side will bottle it. The echoes of the Switzerland match in 2006 will just be too strong. I think we're fucked unless a minor miracle happens and Greece score here.

Fucking useless Greeks. This is worse than us losing to Argentina. There is no way we'll be able to cope with the pressure of going into a straight shootout with the Nigerians without the ability to go up with a draw.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NO NO NO NO NO

I literally cannot imagine Greece scoring. The image does not form in my head.

COME ON GREECE! This was always going to be the important match tonight, if Greece can take points of Nigeria we go into that final round shootout only needing a draw to advance. That's such a huge psychological advantage.

Where was Cha Du Ri? Oh come now, how many goals do you think we'd have conceded with him in the defensive line. Bum Suck is a good, balanced RB and he should play when we're against better opposition. Cha Du Ri is for when we need to go for the nuclear option against talentless fuckers like Greece. Is it culturally insensitive to piss myself here? Am I allowed, oldtype? You're encouraged, actually. There's a reason I deliberately spell it like that

Where was Cha Du Ri? Oh come now, how many goals do you think we'd have conceded with him in the defensive line. Bum Suck is a good, balanced RB and he should play when we're against better opposition. Cha Du Ri is for when we need to go for the nuclear option against talentless fuckers like Greece.

Oh well, we Weren't bad. They were better. I blame genetics for allowing messi, higuain, tevez, and aguero to all be born within 5 years of each other.

Frustrating that we've conceded two stupid goals from set pieces, but we couldn't have scripted the timing for our first better and hopefully that'll wake us up so we have a match here. Fuck though it's going to be so easy to just randomly concede one to messi tevez or higuain. More than anything else I just find it frustrating that they're so much better than we are to begin with.

Ah heck, I hope we don't get slaughtered today. It was always going to come down to a straight shootout between us and Nigeria so I'm not so bothered about losing, but please let's not kill all the morale in the camp. Messi is due a "legendary" match sooner or later and I have a really, really bad feeling that it's going to be us. In other news, unless I'm mistaken North Korea's loss against Brazil was the ONLY match out of 17 so far to have both sides scoring with 3 or more goals scored total. Crazy really, all the fixtures seem to be going 1-0 or 1-1 with the occasional 3-0, 4-0 slaughter. No exciting, close matches at all.

I've got a £100 bet with one of my close mates that an Asian team wins the World Cup before an African team does I think you're Both going to die of old age before you collect

His situation, coupled with that of the Korean diaspora in Japan is... complex to say the least. Short version, he has a South Korean passport because his parents are nominally South Korean because they (or their parents) who had been living in Japan because they/their parents were brought there as laborers during the occupation chose "South" when we were divided after Independance. So despite being South Korean they have very little allegiance to South Korea in particular and most likely have never been there, which lead them to send him to a North Korean school in Japan. (because North Korea offers more support to its Japanese diaspora than South Korea, including offering free schooling, probably because they need the better PR.) Having attended a North Korean school from a young age, Jeong identifies himself as North Korean despite living in Japan all his life and having no intention of ever moving to North Korea, just like thousands of other Korean Diaspora in Japan who've attended North Korean schools do. I can understand the reaction to the national anthem. The "Jainichi" are a heavily marginalized minority in Japanese society and he's probably lived with a lot of discrimination his whole life. It was probably a combination sheer joy out of just being there + the feeling of achievement that he's finally in a position to sing the national anthem he learned as a schoolboy without anyone looking at him funny. Like I said, complex Now, I'm the last person to defend Jeong (or his parents') choice of nationality (YOU'VE GOT SOUTH KOREAN PASSPORTS YOU IDIOTS ,) but it's more complex than "he doesn't even live in North Korea! GLORY HUNTER WTF!!!"

hey oldtype i paid paid particular attention to your man Cha in the first game and he's fuckin class - i too remember him as a shockingly bad forward but he appears to be the classic example of someone being moved to his natural position did everything right, everything; his distribution, timing and positioning were great - making no mention of his strength and pace...reminded me of Seitaridis when Greece won the Euros actually, an unplayable fullback have him at the toon in a heartbeat He had a great game and I'd love us to sign him but... er... yeah, I suggest we look at how he does against Argentina before calling him "unplayable." I have a serious man-crush on him but he's been a joke for too long for me to believe that he's suddenly hit his prime at age 29.

I actually wouldnt mind Jong Tae-se here. Would it actually be possible to get awork permit though? Think it's only possible for countries 70 and up on the FIFA ranking? Could be he have a Japanese passport as well, though, in which case it should be possible. he doesn't have a Japanese passport. The Japanese government very rarely allows Koreans (if at all) to hold Japanese passports .....only permanent residence visas. I have been living in Japan previously and this is what I was told by the Koreans living there. Actually they rarely give passports to any non Japanese. Even if he did have a Japanese passport it would make no difference. He hasn't appeared for the Japanese national team has he in 70% of their games. He has a South Korean passport but like you said it doesn't matter because he's been playing for the North Korean national team. When he was on trial for Blackburn previously I believe there was also some concern that the Home Office would just flat out refuse to issue a work permit for a North Korean international due to security issues.

I just got a beautiful image in my head. Ronaldo crying his eyes out after losing to North Korea 1-0.

Would have been absolutely magical if that goal made it 1-1, but still, good show nK. That was an excellent effort. They just might spoil the party for Portugal or Cote D'Ivoire.

For the first time in the tournament, I can hear the crowd cheering a team on.

go get another at the death to make this the best match ever.