So, Who Do We Want To Play In Q/f's?

[Nate]

Bad sportsmanship on both sides. Especially the Dutch when not kicking the ball back to the Portugese. Very slack in my opinion. And Figo stupidly getting a yellow for making contact with his head. Although I think it was Van Bommel (?) made more of it than it was.

Portugal were my 'outsider' tip, but after these suspensions etc it will be very tough for them to progress.

[RevidgeBlue]

Too true, every one of those yellow cards was deserved. They were either for dangerous and reckless fouls or for doing something that the player should have known would have generated a yellow (ie Deco picking the ball up to delay a Dutch free kick.)

No doubt there will be lots and lots of comment about how the ref "lost the game." IMHO he didn't. The players and their managers "lost the game."

Agreed. The only one I disagreed with was the Portugese player that was wrestled to the floor only to be given a second yellow for holding onto the ball.

[philipl]

I thought the ref had a decent game in the circumstances.

Deco will be missed by the Portuguese and Christina if that thigh injury doesn't clear up.

Big Phil to make it 3-0 over SGE and England to feel cheated by the door-stepping reptiles of the tabloids.

[roverroll]

Superb game,

Never seen the like before...ahahahhhaaaaaaaaaahhhha

[jim mk2]

Superb game ?

Playacting; feigning injury to get other players booked/sent off; yellow and red cards dished out like confetti; poor refereering; I thought it was a disgraceful exhibition by both teams and a terrible advert for football.

Portugal (and Figo in particular) were by far the worse culprits and it is high time Fifa punished teams who behave in this fashion.

Saturday is very much a case of Eriksson v Scolari.

Big Phil's team have knocked England out in the quarter-finals of the past two major tournaments and he will fancy his chances of completing the hat-trick on Saturday.

Plus of course there is the added frisson that Scolari turned down the FA when they approached him to replace Eriksson after the Wolrd Cup.

Scolari gave a coaching masterclass against Holland, having to reorganise his team three times owing to the sendings-off but always his players knew exactly what he wanted and what they were supposed to do.

Can anyone imagine Eriksson in the same situation ? The passionless Swede would have rooted to his seat in the dugout, giving no clear leadership.

Even with two of his best players suspended on Saturday, Scolari have his team set up and organised properly to beat England's confused and bewildered team.

Scolari would have been a fantastic manager for England but the FA bungled it by insisting that they had to make an appointment before the World Cup. Instead, we will have Steve McClaren.

England won't win this World Cup nor the next or the one after that. England have had the players to have won tournaments since 1966 but have always been badly managed. Nothing changes it seems.

[den]

You could argue that the cards were, in the main, deserved.

What happened to the referrees of yesteryear, who would have got both captains together early on and dished out the law?

They're just a bunch of card flashers today. Anyone could do what that ref did yesterday.

[Presty On Tour]

i don't think the ref will be seen again for a while.

when ever there was a foul he seemed to bring out a card, i was waiting for his assistant to get booked for flagging for off-side!!!

the ref never had control, i really wanted the game to go to extra time, 9 v 9 with so many players on yellow cards too would of been facinating(sp) to watch.

ruud didn't look to happy did he!!!

england will win the q/f against portugal but it will be still difficult.

Edited June 26, 2006 by jansenpresty10@wales

[American]

I don't think you can blame the ref at all. I can't think of one yellow that I remember being harsh. It was the players who would rather flatten the opponent instead of playing proper football.

I'm suprised not to see more criticism of the dutch player who didn't return the ball to Portugal and took off towards the goal.

[Nate]

Superb game ?

Playacting; feigning injury to get other players booked/sent off; yellow and red cards dished out like confetti; poor refereering; I thought it was a disgraceful exhibition by both teams and a terrible advert for football.

Portugal (and Figo in particular) were by far the worse culprits and it is high time Fifa punished teams who behave in this fashion.

Saturday is very much a case of Eriksson v Scolari.

Big Phil's team have knocked England out in the quarter-finals of the past two major tournaments and he will fancy his chances of completing the hat-trick on Saturday.

Plus of course there is the added frisson that Scolari turned down the FA when they approached him to replace Eriksson after the Wolrd Cup.

Scolari gave a coaching masterclass against Holland, having to reorganise his team three times owing to the sendings-off but always his players knew exactly what he wanted and what they were supposed to do.

Can anyone imagine Eriksson in the same situation ? The passionless Swede would have rooted to his seat in the dugout, giving no clear leadership.

Even with two of his best players suspended on Saturday, Scolari have his team set up and organised properly to beat England's confused and bewildered team.

Scolari would have been a fantastic manager for England but the FA bungled it by insisting that they had to make an appointment before the World Cup. Instead, we will have Steve McClaren.

England won't win this World Cup nor the next or the one after that. England have had the players to have won tournaments since 1966 but have always been badly managed. Nothing changes it seems.

Well said jim. I hope Scolari takes over from Guus

[Moppy]

I don't think you can blame the ref at all. I can't think of one yellow that I remember being harsh. It was the players who would rather flatten the opponent instead of playing proper football.

I'm suprised not to see more criticism of the dutch player who didn't return the ball to Portugal and took off towards the goal.

Well said. I was very glad Deco did what he did to get that first booking. If it hadnt been for the rest of the contraversy this would have been a massive talking point. The whole game stank of cheating in every respect. Althought the ref didnt play well he didnt have a terrible game like most of the media and Sep Blatter have suggested. He definatly did make mistakes though Deco's second yellow a big one. I was defending his decsion at the time. I thought he had book the dutch player for putting Deco on the floor and when I realised what he had actually done as was stunned.

[Shevchenko]

Scolari gave a coaching masterclass against Holland, having to reorganise his team three times owing to the sendings-off but always his players knew exactly what he wanted and what they were supposed to do.

Even with two of his best players suspended on Saturday, Scolari have his team set up and organised properly to beat England's confused and bewildered team.

Scolari would have been a fantastic manager for England but the FA bungled it by insisting that they had to make an appointment before the World Cup. Instead, we will have Steve McClaren.

Was thinking the exact same thing while watching the debacle last night. Scolari was constantly making adjustments and was on the touchline motivating and spurring his players on. What a manager! And what a huge coup it would have been for England to get him. Yet again though England are shooting themselves in the foot thanks to the media.

Such a shame.

[jim mk2]

Going back 40 to 50 years, sendings-off in football were extremely rare and always headline news on the few occasions they occured. To be sent off a player had to commit a serious offence, such as striking an opponent. In the 1960s I can recall only one Rovers player, Mike Ferguson, being sent off at Ewood, and that was for elbowing an opponent in the face !

Now sendings-off are commonplace and players are booked for innocuous challenges that years ago would not have merited even a free kick. Football is a contact game and it seems to me common sense has gone out of window. The number of bookings/sendings-off is already a record in this World Cup and it is spoiling the tournament.

. Yet again though England are shooting themselves in the foot thanks to the media.

Such a shame.

Nothing to do with the media lad. If the FA had waited until after the World Cup to make an appointment, they would probably have got Scolari. He was placed in the untenable position of having to accept the job knowing that his present and future employers might meet in the World Cup. And now they have !

[BuckyRover]

For the record I do think Scolari would be a great manager for England.

But I also think had England gone down the 10 men and Sven had taken off our only striker, then he would be vilified, yet Scolari is getting praise for it.

Also two of his players were sent off, hardly super manager is he.

We will beat Portugal

[Shevchenko]

Yet, the England job is one of the most challenging jobs to take in football...because of the media. They seem hellbent on digging up dirt on anyone near the team, particularly if he happens to be foreign. The tabloids would have been all over Scolari and wasn't it so that he was going to accept until he had countless journalists camped outside his house for days? It apparently made him reconsider, and who can blame him.

[RevidgeBlue]

Big Phil to make it 3-0 over SGE and England to feel cheated by the door-stepping reptiles of the tabloids.

Scolari told us his real reasons for declining to take the England job last week.

He said he could not possibly ask his players to give their all knowing that he himself was off to join another country.

There was also obviously the possibility we would draw Portugal putting him in an impossible situation - and it has happened.

That feeble excuse about the Press was just a smokescreen. THE FA bolluxed it up with the timing of their approach. No-one else.

[jim mk2]

I just said that Simon. see above.

[RevidgeBlue]

Sorry sir!

50 lines..................I must read my threads..................I must read my threads etc.

(I did see it actually I was attempting to agree with you but couldn't think of a way of putting it differently. )

[philipl]

Let's see if we can spin this differently then (Big Phil accepted didn't he before he got door-stepped?)

Figo is cleared to play against England and Cristina should be fit to play.

[Oklahoma]

Big Phil, like you call him, calls this games "mata-mata" (kill-kill in english).

Basicly, in this games you either kill or be killed. So there's no way it would work if everyone knew that he would be England's next manager.

He has a very close relationship with his players, they respect him and do everything that he says.

News here already mention a possible new agreement between him and the portuguese FA till 2008.

Scolari has also asked that one of the Deco's yello card is turned down.

Cristiano Ronaldo might not recover in time.

So, out: Deco, Costinha and Cristiano Ronaldo.

In: Simao Sabrosa, Petit and Tiago.

[Drakefyre]

I thought Deco's second yellow was deserved - if you pick up the ball and walk away with it when your team is winning, that's delay of game and a yellow card. Of course, Cocu should have also gotten a yellow.

Also, he didn't take off his only striker, Simao Sabrosa and Figo were playing as forwards in a 4-3-3.

[Oklahoma]

At half time, me and my friends were trying to figure out what Scolari would do after Costinha was sent off.

It was clear that Petit was going in.

The options to go out were:

- Simao Sabrosa: had only a few minutes in the pitch so highly unlikely

- Maniche: just because he had a yellow card. Too stupid option.

- Figo: he is the captain, has been playing well so not possible.

- Pauleta: my choice. with 10 men, we would have to play in counter attack. Pauleta is not a player that can keep the ball and, with Figo and Simao counter attacking, the dutch defense would have bigger problems.

[ABBEY]

wont be the convicts now