Village Idiot

Problem is that as long players think that unless they go down like a sack of s*** they will be getting squat from the ref, they will keep doing it. If we do video refereeing at least for game-changing incidents and card divers that try to get penalties, etc... it will do a lot I think. I like that this WC has brought up the debate about officiating the game. Hopefully it won't fall on deaf ears (FIFA's).

Aye, because the moment Casillas touches the trophy he is going to wait 10+ seconds until Blatter leaves and nobody in the Spanish team is going to celebrate.

He would be 4+ years by the time of the next Euro, so makes sense retiring him now.

The third place game was the only end-to-end "you hit I hit back" goalfest. And that's because teams threw caution to the wind. As a football fan I was actually entertained by the tactical battles that were presented, but I admit as purely an spectator it wasn't that great. But there a few good games still, and 2006 was a bore.

How long do these animals live anyway?

Blatter is a cunt, but unless you propose he tosses the trophy from 10 feet away I don't know how he is supposed to not be in the photo

Zidane isn't PL-proven either. Go Rooney!

Casillas/Ramos haven't won the Spanish cup (Real Madrid hasn't won that in a looong time). Pedro didn't really play much the treble season for the first squad. But yeah, the Barça core have won every f***ing trophy possible. Mind numbing. I also profoundly agree with people saying that the Euro winning teams (2000 and 2008) were far better than the WC winning ones. And I think Spain edges that.

Also, apart from how Zidane schooled Brazil in the final, France wasn't that dominating. I think people take the final's performance (indeed one of the finest) and extend it to the whole tournament.

to be fair, it's not that far away...also the french team died of old age after 2000 - there's plenty left in this spanish side Didn't the 1998 side still provide the backbone of the team that came 2nd in 2006? No. Henry/Vieira/Pires had very secondary roles in the 1998 win. Only Zidane links both teams really.

This. France were a surprise in 1998 and nobody had planned for them which allowed them to express their football freely. Everybody has tried to pull an Inter on us in this WC.

Capdevila http://i29.tinypic.com/5wz7ux.gif

Drinking beer and posting on forums.

My Spanish friends work tomorrow so they have left me with a case of beer

He won't contribute much this season though, but if you hang in there I think he can be a pretty good player. Liked what I have seen of him at Everton. A great coup getting him on a free.

Must add that I'm drunk and getting myself in conversations without probably knowing fuck all I'm talking about.

If you treat it as 'Paul being right' against 'Paul not being right', it's essentially a coin-flip, as there's no accounting for a draw in the method of Paul's picking. It's not, since there are two possible instances of Paul not being right (opposition wins, game ends in a draw) versus one of him being right (team picked wins).

Have to take into account that the group stage games could have finished in a tie, which doesn't make them coin flips (still don't know how he could have predicted one, though)

Well, that surely means he's staying put? Wouldn't take a photo of myself of the WC with a Liverpool scarf if I'm about to move to another club.

€50m transfer to a Spanish club imho.

I think it's been obvious for quite a while than for the most part the CL produces higher quality football than the WC. The WC, of course, has all that mystique going for it and it's still the f***ing world championship.

Fatality!

There were some great games in the group stages and the knockouts. Final was shit, but most of them are.

Just realized that the fucking squid had a 100% record. Crazy stuff

I actually have some friends over at my place and are getting drunk on Spanish beer we bought at a Deli. I'm unemployed since last month which means that I get to get drunk until my liver bleeds