Segun Oluwaniyi

This will sound very foolish written, but I'll put it down any way. At one point, directly after Gerrard had scored, the commentator on my viewing said something along the lines of "Gerrard has scored a century of league goals for Liverpool and twenty of them....". He went on to say "penalties, but for that tenth of a second between words, I genuinely and irrationally thought he was going to say that twenty of his goals have come against Newcastle. This is how much the guy has terrorised us over the last fifteen years.He has been a demon. I'm glad he got your team to the World Cup, because they are always entertaining and controversial, but he shouldn't be clapped at the scene of his crimes.

apparently he can speak English fine but doesn't want to talk to the media in english Maybe he doesn't want to make a fool of myself. Theoretically, I know enough French to write statements, answer simple questions, and recite them for the media, but I would be reluctant because it may make me appear less intelligent.

Fowler then promptly tried to score from that falsely earned penalty and Liverpool did eventually score because footballers are paid to win matches and should try everything outside of blatant cheating to reach that goal. For me, there is a difference between a dive and falling when you have been adversely contacted. That contact from Yanga-Mbiwa on Suarez looks light, but at full speed this is more than enough to send someone off balance for .5 seconds, which is enough to end a goalscoring chance when a keeper who is also running full speed is a few yards away. If the illegal contact from our player means that his chance of scoring has been lessened by any amount, it is the proper decision to go down. Call me when the guy actually dives or starts biting again, I will join the outrage. IS THIS WAR? War, where massive entities pay sums in the millions to simply subsist and take the profit from clubs with no desire to compete. War, where small contacts are harshly punished by an arbitrary judge and losses rarely affect the players. The arena of sport is much different. If we are playing a serious game with refs, I will act accordingly.

People act like the referees are going to make the proper decision if people don't make it obvious they were fouled. This simply is not the case.

I don't understand comments like these. He was fouled, and it is likely the penalty wouldn't have been given and Mapou would have been able to impede him with impunity if he doesn't go to ground. The guy has every right to fall in this situation.

Some Black (half-caste anyway) man named Shawn Parker just scored for Mainz in Bundesliga against Dortmund. American should probably contact him.

This was a very entertaining and high quality match throughout. I enjoyed it. Liverpool were rather poor for large periods. Initially I thought this was to do with international hangover, but they definitely improved when Rodgers brought on Alberto and changed the formation a bit. Moses (who once again was ineffectual centrally) came to life and became a threat, while the front two began to combine at a much higher rate and hurt us with their fantastic movement. Henderson continued doing nothing. We also tired notably at the 70 minutes plus mark, which should be expected with ten players in a competitive match such as this. The back four and Krul all played very, very well today, imo, which is odd to say in a match where you concede twice. Williamson is literally useless on the ball, but he does his job well when called on to defend. Yanga-Mbiwa was very comfortable and assured until the one moment that changed the game. Football's a fickle game. I thought he was he was our best player until those five seconds. All three fullbacks were class as well. Debuchy was brave and Santon gave a very clean and polished performance. I thought Dummett made and error or two, but he battled throughout in a competitve atmosphere and even went and finished very well at the other end. What else would you ask of an academy lad on his home debut? Cabaye was fantastic in the first half. Nothing more needs to be said. On a pitch with several stars of this league, he was the best player by a distance. Tiote did exactly what we need of him. He had a few questionable moments, but if he continually plays at this level, he will gain his reputation back quickly. It is a shame Sissoko had to go off because I thought he was just finding himself in the match and would have been large in the second half. We didn't see so much of the ball, so it was a long day for the attackers, but Remy provided a great outlet to the break and Gouffran ran and fought constantly. Ben Arfa never really could get started and wasn't going to get enough chances to rectify it. Samuel (seyi) came on and once again proved to be the slowest quick person in the world. We have a good team and Pardew deployed them well today. Things are looking upwards. I hope Taylor is back for Sunderland, we should eliminate them if so.

Manchester United are clearly inferior to at least three teams in this league, imo. It could be a long season for Moyes if he makes it that long as manager.

He's a great defender on his day, too many lapses mentally though although I still think Cech was the one at fault there. If Cech called for the ball, sure, but on the replay, Luiz didn't even look to see where his keeper was. His head is up the field the entire time, and he is strolling away from the ball while the opposition score.

I think the challenge is honestly the sort that looks more blatant and obvious in slow motion replay with the aid of a dive. He tried to use his strength to ride Suarez off the ball but just misjudged it and mistimed it badly because he was off his balance.

No one can convince me that David Luiz is a good defender. He is a massively talented footballer undoubtedly, but he is 26 and still too foolish to have a position.

The best and worst of him was on display today. He put in some great tackles, was very firm and strong on and off the ball, drove the team forward at times, but he had two or three horrendous passes in dangerous zones of the pitch (this cannot happen), was caught on the ball, and rash in forward positions. It is fine that the boy can't shoot, this isn't his job, but he needs to be moving the ball to more capable players unless his shot is the only option.

The red card/penalty combination is always so unnecessarily harsh. It was a really foolish thing to do, he had their attackers bottled up before hand and now all of that good work is undone.

This isn't going to aid games in the tropics where it'll be ridiculous temps/humidity either. Going to be slow games. Have to think that benefits the defensive-minded squads. And unfavourable to sides whose game isn't based on possession football. [/ = England will be slowly simmered into submission] You'd imagine so, be a lot of get the first goal and pack up shop types. Who knows, it'll all be class though because it's World f***ing Cup. --- Be good if some of the ridiculous teams draw each other: Holland, Chile, Bosnia, Ghana and the likes. All out attack regardless of who/what the prize is. Will it really be that warm? I've never been to South America and don't know much of their climate, but it was funny in 2010 to hear commentators talking about how much effect the heat would have when June/July are the coolest time are year for most of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa is cold to begin with. Brazil is in the southern hemisphere as well.

I have the same question. It makes sense to work hard and ensure of the tie and earn your place, but when it gets to minute 92 and everyone involved qualifies if you just pass the ball among the back four, scoring just seems unnecessary. It is also nonsensical how easy Mexico's path is. They win 2 of 10 and live. Egypt wins 7 out of 8 and dies

I think what you mean to say is that he has put in a few extremely terrible and mentally weak performances that may cloud the opinion of him when he simply has average or solid matches. I would agree with this, but he has still been a poor signing thus far and played well below the standard you would expect.

I thought England were decent in the group stage of the last Euro. Roy hasn't built much of anything new with England, imo, but he has done well to get results with what he was given and provided stability to a side that is usually in a constant state of controversy and flux. There is some good foundation for the post-2014 team when several of the bigger players will finally fade away for good.

Colombia? They didn't do particularly well in the last Copa America and haven't been overly dominant in qualifying or anything. The problem with comparing int'l football to tennis is that there isn't enough competitive football between WCs to make a correct judgement. Especially given that teams are VASTLY limited in who they may play. The last World Cup is the best reference you have to compare sides across federations. In South America you are allowed to play every single team in a region with higher ranked sides. This is incredibly conducive to high rankings for the qualifiers. America have a nearly 100 percent record on their continent since the last World Cup and it means nothing because they have been denied the chance to play top sides competitively. Ghana and Ivory Coast have stormed through qualifiers, and done well in the continental tournaments, with Ghana going far in the WC, but it means nothing because African sides are ranked lowly as a whole. Also, we have ~54 teams on our continent. You cannot place everyone in one group and Ghana/Nigeria/CIV/Egypt aren't generally going to be playing each other. There is the same issue in Europe. The rankings are extremely biased.

Egypt have been ripped apart.

My stream is being commentated by Fabrice Muamba.

In the three minutes there were two goals and the stadium found itself in a deep fog? Wow.

Match is in Kumasi, Egypt have every chance especially if they can get a goal here and if the return leg is allowed to be played in Egypt.

My little cousin is 5 foot 8 and about 100 kg at nine. Useless fat man unfortunately. Maybe humans are evolving, because he wouldn't standout in a rich country at that size. People are massive where nourishment is overly abundant. Don't want to turn this into a discussion on your cousins size, but he would definitely stand out in most "Rich" countries. Well, mostly America I meant. America is land of the beasts. So many people there are tall and/or massive from a young age.

Was he? The whole team was extremely poor throughout. I vividly remember that game and two goals came from ridiculous give aways, two others came from Taylor not being able to play offside and Mbiwa not challenging a long ball against Sturridge, the sixth after Debuchy decided to take early showers. In terms of culbability for the result, others were in line before him.