Who has time to talk about business and stocks currently? Of course its the World Cup talk and how you are running out of excuses to get medical cert or sick leave.
The vuvuzelas will be big in EPL next season, because the England team plays like the vuvuzelas, makes a lot of noise but is pathetically and increasingly boring and annoying the more they play in the tournament.
This Brazil is not like the Brazil of old. This Brazil seems to have drunk a lot of Weizenbock, Klosch and Bock as their defence is BMW-solid.
Argentina is playing like the eventual winners, in spite of having Maradona as the coach - goes to show you how insignificant a role a coach plays to a team, just ask Capello.
South Korea, Japan and even North Korea did Asia proud, and was David Beckham masquerading as a Japanese player when they scored the two brilliant free kicks?
The French should be barred from the next World Cup so that they can have 8 years to think about what it means to be in a World Cup and what it means to play for your country.
I have a new nickname for Fernando Torres, I call him "Samson" now. He's no fucking good when you cut off his hair.
Best goal so far, Luis Suarez's (Uruguay) second goal against the Koreans.
Why is it that the game have 3 referees and we STILL always get goals that should not have been given (for offside / handball) and we get goals not given that should have been (crossed the line). It would be OK if the occurrence was once every 20 games, but its happening once every other game. C'mon, when there is available technology and its not too intrusive, USE IT - here, I agree, is where the US games are a lot smarter and better.
Mind you, Blatter said that the game is about controversies, ... BULLSHIT, if it is, then use only one referee and the person should be a non-neutral referee as well. For example, Brazil plays Spain, and you appoint an Argentine referee. Now you get all the controversies you want. Look at the American games, they use the best technology for aiding the umpires, and still they have sufficient controversies leftover. Go resign la Blatter, the only thing you have in common with football is your first name (ala Sepp Maier).
Now to the Jabulani ball, I call it the Cristiano Ronaldo Ball because it flies through the air even if you just tap it lightly. Why do you tinker with the ball every World Cup? Obviously its a marketing gimmick. It almost never happens in other games. Scoring was down by 16 goals after the first round compared to the 2006 World Cup. How much was due to the increased difficulty to control the ball?
Herein lies the conspiracy theory. Look at who has scored the most (disregard the Portugal / North Korean match). Apparently the Germans had a few months to play with the Jabulani balls (this line would be really funny if there was actually someone named Jabulani). The German team is good but seriously, not great, but look at how effective they were when finishing their shots, they were so precise and effective. Look at the 4 goals each against Australia and England.
Hence Germany could be a good dark horse even though its still just #5 probably in odds to win the World Cup now, ... behind Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the Netherlands. If they really have a strong familiarity with the ball, they may well need only a few live shooting chances to score, while the rest will need more chances. For example, Brazil may convert at 15% which means they will score once for every 6.6 chances. While Germany may have a 35% conversion rate owing to their better ball familiarity, thus may only need less than 3 live chances to get a goal.
