Eddie

Actually Neekoy I did respond to it. My point was that there are players from every nation that dive; however, not every nation seems to have all 11 doing it and having it occur every game as a sort of tactic. The English don't regularly dive (as I said Joe Cole being the only real diver) and if you remember when Gerrard did dive he was ripped to shreds by the media and fans (Ian Wright excepted). Somehow I don't see that happening in other countries and it is testament to the fact that we do not consider it to be part of our game.

I'm sure he planned on playing him, but the opportunity never really presented itself.

Henry made the most of the penalty, but it wasn't a dive as such, he was fouled.

It was pretty stuff, but did the two sides arrange to just pass the ball around and go for broke in extra time? Neither looked liked scoring. You can keep the ball as well as you want in the middle of the park, good performances come from what you can do in the final third and until extra time it didn't look as if either side could do anything where it counted.

Even I want Italy to win the world cup. France have been that poor.

Could have been worse, he could have been nixono.

Italy must be rubbing their hands at the prospect of playing France.

Hey hey now, it's vive la france, viva is spanish.

Will there ever be a worse world cup semi-final?

The English and Brazilians must be kicking themselves.

Good news is Rovers have also gained at least one supporter out of this deal. A friend of mine was a Wigan supporter simply because of Roberts but has now seen the light.

I don't think I was wrong. Were the Dutch, Argentinians and Brazilians also wrong? Of course not, they all had the ability to win it. Neville is world class, as is Zambrotta, Neville played well in every match he played in this world cup and we never looked trouble down the left hand side with him in the team.

I'm not saying that, I think the worst offenders of this sort in the World Cup were German. Like it or not though, much like diving, you will see this sort of thing far less from English players.

Trying to get other players sent off is still something that needs to be gotten rid of.

Yeah, but the problem with these sides is that none of them are really small, they are just sort of B sides. If there was a South Korea or someone in there then I would be right behind them and loving the success story.

I just like to see games between the top sides, as pleased as I am to see France going far, or as pleased as I would have been to see England get this far, one of the wonderful aspects of the world cup is the clash of the best sides in the world, especially once your side has been knocked out and you are once again a neutral. For me though this is really unconnected to my complaint. What annoys me is people who have suddenly developed this passion for the game where you know very well that on July 10th they simply won't care. You probably haven't experienced it to the same degree because in France I have been in a nation that has gone from thinking their team were old and rubbish and using every excuse to insult them to suddenly everyone praising them and thinking that they are world beaters and yes, I know that football is always a fickle sport. I understand the concept of tournament football and I do enjoy it, but that doesn't mean that every tournament shoud consist of the better teams not really turning up and the final four consisting of four unexpected sides, it gets a bit boring after a while. Will many of these supporters actually gain an interest in football? Very few. It is like any little fad for them and right now the thing to be is a football supporter. As for the personal insults, please leave them out. If you don't agree with me then that is all well and good, it is simply my opinion.

The guy is named after Reagan, what did we expect?

Don't agree with that. As has been pointed out, had England put on a display like either side did during the 90 minutes they would have been slaughtered for being unimaginative but solid. I think Germany lost because they were happy to go to the shoot-out, Italy were willing to do anything to avoid it, it told in the end.

Didn't he go through the man first?

Please someone, explain why no mention of the penalty appeal? I have yet to see it again other than on the big screen where I didn't have a great view.

Great game, Italy deserved to win it and you have to say that now they are probably favourites to win in the final. Unless Portugal or France impress tomorrow Italy will also deserve to win it. By great game I mean the extra time was exciting, regular time was pretty boring.

I'd agree with Phil there, I just want this all to be over so I don't have to listen to people who don't know a thing about the game talking about it like it is a life long passion.

They've been good, but nothing amazing. Brazil didn't show up and Spain were pretty average in an average match that should have finished 2-1. I hope they do better, I always support France as long as they aren't playing England, but I haven't been that impressed by them. The general standard in this world cup has once again been pretty ordinary.

Yes, but that was Trinidad and Tobago going for broke in the group stages, not the same as being 0-0 in a tight quarter final. Sven handled it well, the team played well after the sending off and had the chance to win the game both in regular time and the penalty shoot-out.

Portugal didn't exactly give us a lesson in how to take them. 3/5 would lose you most shoot-outs, they were just up against the worst penalty taking nation in the world. It is the pressure of the moment, not the quality of the player. We need to figure out something in time for the next competition, it is just becoming too much of a regular thing.