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by **udosuk** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:14 pm

The Brazilians went out too... Much to the delights of the Germans...

It must be a bad day for England... The got trashed by the Sri Lankans in One Day Cricket too... I think Sri Lanka could have scored 500 runs if they had batted first... Jayasuriya made an absolute joke out of the English bowlers, 152 runs off 99 balls...

At least Andy Murray defeated Andy Roddick... But he's Scot not English... I suspect he didn't care a single bit about England soccer/cricket...

by **tarek** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 8:18 am

one of the newspapers' headlines this morning: "TEN LIONS AND ONE SILLY BOY"

France's display yesterday was sublime, Zidane was just incredible, Ronaldinho wasn't even close, Brazil missed a very good chance as their team to me was better than the team that won '94 & '02.....

England A Cricket: well the outcome of the 1 day series echoed the test series, these guys have some serious overhaul jub ahead.....

Wimbledon: Poor Henman, His second round foe turned to be non other than Federer....Murray, he's a good player, however he seems to want to make a statemet.... to the disliking of many pure tennis fans...

tarek

by **udosuk** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 8:57 am

Poor Wayne... Don't you feel a bit of a de javu? In 98 Becks did a similar thing and costed England the game. And France defeated a much more favoured Brazillian teams in that year too...

I'm speculating many London people ("pure tennis fans") don't like Andy Murray because he's a Scot... :?:

by **lunababy_moonchild** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 1:23 pm

udosuk wrote:I'm speculating many London people ("pure tennis fans") don't like Andy Murray because he's a Scot...

He didn't get a very good reaction to his comment about 'Anyone but England' when asked who would win the World Cup. He has since retracted that statement after receiving hate mail on his website.

Luna

by **Cec** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:47 pm

Sorry to "see" England is out. Been watching the teams on our news and sports channel and appreciating more the foot skills of the game. In our AFL competition, reported players can get suspended for future games but don't get sent off the ground for the remainder of the particular game . Getting sent off the ground seems a pretty severe penalty and hard on the remaining team players because of one player's indiscretion. On the other hand I can see it would improve discipline and "protection" of the opposition players.

Cec

by ab » Sun Jul 02, 2006 10:41 pm

Not really sorry to see England out. As a football fan, watching England play is often boring. Ironically in the game against Portugal when they went down to 10 men they probably played their best football throughout the tournament and it's one match they deserved to win. Also Portugal have not really merited their place in the semi finals (If England had got through I would have said the same).

by **lunababy_moonchild** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:21 pm

The Italians won this tournament. I must admit I didn't watch the whole match just dipped in and out from time to time, but I did see Zidane's headbut (we, in this part of the country, call it 'sticking the heid in') and subsequent sending off.

I do hope that there are serious consequences for him for that, it looked brutal.

Still, that's it over for another 4 years.

Luna

by **udosuk** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:00 am

lunababy_moonchild wrote:I do hope that there are serious consequences for him for that, it looked brutal.

He's retiring after the tournament... So any suspension won't affect much... Anyway I think he's received the punishment for not being allowed to take part in the shootout which ultimately cost France the title...

by **lunababy_moonchild** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:42 pm

udosuk wrote:He's retiring after the tournament... So any suspension won't affect much... Anyway I think he's received the punishment for not being allowed to take part in the shootout which ultimately cost France the title...

Yes, I knew that he was retiring after the tournament but no, I don't think that missing the penalty shootout is severe enough.

Frankly, what I saw was assault - and it's assault here, too, regardless of the fact that we have a name for it - and should be treated as such. He knocked Materazzi off his feet (the pictures in the paper show Materazzi suspended in the air before he hit the ground) which means that he hit him very hard. Zidane was walking away from Materazzi at the time and turned round and walked back to him in order to do this. The whole incident is completly unacceptable. Quite how the authorities expect to keep order amongst the fans when this type of thing happens on the pitch, is beyond me.

Luna

by **udosuk** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 4:21 am

Alright... Let's put him in prison... Would 3 years be enough?

I must say I probably don't have a fair judgement towards any incident involving an Italian player getting foul after the manner my country's team was knocked out of the tournament... But good for those Italians to grab the glory after all the scandals about match fixing...

by **fermat** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:48 am

I'm Canadian. I watch soccer a few games a year.

The players clearly have skills, some of them are good with a ball, also.

A game I like...most others, ones where people actually get hurt. Rugger, Ozzy rules football, hockey, you know, actual sports.

by **lunababy_moonchild** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:51 am

udosuk wrote:Alright... Let's put him in prison... Would 3 years be enough?

It might be. It's no laughing matter, imho.

Being a footballer doesn't make it OK for you to assault somebody, regardless of the manner in which you put somebody else's team out of the tournament. It's a game within a tournament. Perhaps the world cup is worth a lot of money but it's still morally wrong to physically assault a player.

You will notice that the assault took place when the referee and linesmen were all unsighted. The cameras caught the incident and the fourth referee reported it. The cameras caught the incident because Zidane is famous for his 'temper'. It doesn't matter how good you are 'temper' should not be tolerated.

Soccer is supposed to be a non-contact sport. Tackling is allowed but head-butting your opposing side's player just because you feel like it is assault.

Luna

by **lunababy_moonchild** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:26 am

Furthermore, since Zidane is well known for his temper, obviously the Italians would know that and, since it must've been obvious to Materazzi at that stage in the match that it was going to penalties he would have a vested interest in getting Zidane sent off. Zidane obliged.

It still doesn't make it OK to headbutt a player.

Luna

by **udosuk** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:32 am

Well, my advice to Luna... Stick to netball/cricket/tennis/badminton etc...

by **lunababy_moonchild** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:42 am

udosuk wrote:Well, my advice to Luna... Stick to netball/cricket/tennis/badminton etc...

Less physical violence in the tennis but I do enjoy the odd game of Aussie Rules (when I can get it, kinda thin on the ground here in the UK!).

By the way, someone else in the house was interested in that particular game - which is why it was on - and I'm not confining myself to another room just because there might be violence in a game that's not supposed to be violent. It was screened before the watershed (here, it's 9pm) and children were entitled to be watching such a momentous occasion. Obviously it's up to parents to ensure that children behave regardless of what they see on the TV but Zindane is supposed to be a responsible adult who is supposed to know better than to behave like that - especially since it's not part of the game.

You will notice that an apology is conspicuous by it's absence, as is any form of explanation from either of the players. Plenty of speculation in the press - with the addition of lip readers! - but nothing from the players.

Luna

*typo correction*

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