Oh what a beautiful night. just came back from darling harbour in the city!

ZE DUTCH = IMPECCABLE

And your verdict on the most expensive player in the world is... ?

You don't want to know. The rules(which I helped draft, I should add) ban posters from insulting players.

The man who he replaced (Robben) actually did more with his dives than CR9 could with his play. I guess that's the most decent thing I can say.

Can we agree that it's okay to mock the most expensive player in the world?

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about good ol' CR9. That primadonna was a dud as well despite ESPN's infatuation with step-over dribble archive footage.

Great Muntari goal to take the lead at HT

Seems like nothing is going well for Uruguay - Lugano's injury worries me, and this goal was definitively Muslera's fault.

That's why I asked.
And I whole-heartedly agree with our (no doubt tasteful) aquatic friend that an exception should be made in Ronaldo's case.

Tennie's too busy looking at pictures of players from that Catalunya club to comment.

I'm the one who wants to mock Ronaldo.

Happy now?

Doesn't everyone?

Adiyiah is a real person! He's just been subbed in for Muntari!

Strange squad those Uru-guys. They are a team with buttoms. A period they play one strategy, then the suddenly fall into a defensive one and then suddenly back to the opposite. Strange.

Wow.

Ghana about to score the winner, in stoppage time in the 120', Suarez stops it on the goal line with his hands, gets his red, and Ghana hit the crossbar on the resulting PK.

Penalties to decide the winner...

Oh dear god, Im with both to be honest !
Ghana for africas last hope and Urugauy that I have been cheering since the beging.

Mensah misses !!

Urugauy misses !!!

Gyan is good but I can belive he missed the penalty at 120 minute !!

Ghana misses agian !

Adiyiah's pk is saved by muslera.

Im happy and sorry,
Gyan could have scored it but..
Im sorry that Africas last hope are out.. Gyan is crying and so do I

Urugauy is through and Im happy for them and crying for Ghana .
I really thought Urugauy would win Ghana.

I can't believe Gyan missed that one.

Goodness. That was quite an end to the game.

Gutted for Ghana.

Holland/Spain/Paraguay to beat the forces of evil please.

Why, because a linesman from the same country made a mistake that cost England?

Yes, 100% that.

Mamma Mia! what an amazing game of football! this is why we love the Beautiful Game!


And he made up for it you have to applaud the kid. he is destined to become one of the world's greatest GKs.

PLEASE COME TO MILAN MUSLERA!!!!


-

EDIT: this was a win win for me. I liked both teams. now I feel happy for Uruguay and terrible for Ghana and Gyan. he played amazingly but converting that PK was never going to be easy.

Based on what? Muslera has poor basics. I'd be surprised if a top team took a gamble on him because he doesn't fill me with confidence at all.

He's very young for a keeper and is bound to make occasional mistakes but he makes amazing saves (amazing at PKs) and is a very confident kid. that's the key.

I think playing for a top team especially will make him great. he shouldn't stay at Lazio for much longer.

I think Muslera is one of those goalies that makes spectacular savings every now and then, but is way too unstable, makes howlers often and doesn't give confidence to the back-line (i.e. Dida of the last 3-4 years).

Muslera is just a fancy-named David James, in my opinion. Some days he'll win games on his own, but bad decisions, howlers and erratic goalkeeping will mean he'll never make it big.

Probably a reason James has also never played at the top level at club level.

Exactly, he reminds me a bit of the Dida-type goalie. I'm not sure with him either.

But yes, he deserves an applaud at the end.

Go Tabarez!
Go Uruguay!

Melo doesn’t care about criticism
Friday 2 July, 2010


Juventus’ Brazil international midfielder Felipe Melo says he doesn’t care about the criticism after his sending off cost his nation dearly in the World Cup.

Melo stamped on Arjen Robben during Brazil’s Quarter-Final against Holland, which they eventually lost 2-1, much to the disappointment of their fans.

The 27-year-old started well enough, providing Robinho with a lovely assist after the first 10 minutes.

From then on, though, his game went downhill as he scored an own-goal.

Melo was also at fault for Holland’s second goal, losing the man he was supposed to mark, Wesley Sneijder, who gave Holland the lead.

He was sent off shortly afterwards.

“It’s the ugliest moment of my career. I am too sad, but football is like this,” Melo said.

“Unfortunately you can’t always win at a World Cup and today we didn’t manage it.

“Anyway, I’ve had a good World Cup and today I had a good first half with the assist for Robinho’s goal.

“If we had won the World Cup, I would have given myself a 10 out of 10. We didn’t do it, so I will content myself with a six.”

When asked if today’s performance hadn’t helped his cause at Juventus, Melo said: “I don’t care at all about what the people think. I am not afraid of the criticism. Those who understand football know my strength. The others don’t interest me.

“I am happy to return to play for Juve because they are a great team and I want to win with my club,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo advised Melo not to return to Brazil for his summer holidays via his Twitter page.



I knew Melo wasn't the brightest kid in the class, but this is just... words fail me.

Adiyiah almost headed home a huge goal for Ghana, but Suarez saved it off the line (with his hands). No Suarez for the semifinal either, going to be tough for Uruguay against Holland.

People seem to forget that Muslera is just out of puberty, while James has been around for quite awhile. Age plays a part here, as GKs tend to peak in their late 20s.

I'd wait to see how he does at Lazio for one more year before we start the he-should-play-for-a-big-team talk, as Lazio were awful this season and I want to see how he rebounds from that.

James was the same when he was a kid at Liverpool. He's barely changed his whole career, it's the same old story. Single handedly win Villa an FA Cup SF.. single-single handedly lose us the final. These kinds of goalkeepers can't really be trusted. Cosistantly good > very good and very bad, in my opinion.

Did'nt we score five goals against Muslera away to Lazio at one point , it doesnt make him a bad goalkeeper but surely hes not Milan quality but then again Milan scored six goals against Frey away to inter remember that

Yep, that was (if memory serves) Muslera's very first game for Lazio. He came in that season as second keeper behind someone (an argie?) who was supposed to be really good but...wasn't. The bad keeper was benched and poor Muslera happened to get an in-form Milan for his first game. I remember feeling really sorry for him.

Yes, it was his first start. He was so bad that Gilardino scored twice on him. I even had that game on videotape for awhile but I've since gotten rid of it.

Funny, I become a Dida fan after he gets beaned by flares, then Muslera when he has a horrible outing against us. I feel like some kind of GK charity case.

LMAO!!

Meh, there is not a single reason why Muselra will be the next David James (silly, silly comparison). if anything, there are dozens of reasons why he won't be the next David James. not being English one of them.


Often makes howlers? would you name, say, 5 of his recent howlers? I think I've missed them.

Dude, if he had already done 5 howlers, you think he'd be Lazio's #1 and play at the WC?

The last one I remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_VjWgIaS6c

Plus there's that horrible game against Milan.

There's dozens of reasons he won't be a top keeper. Being from Uruguay for a start.

He really does have Fabian Carini/Sebastian Viera written all-over him, that's the level Uruguay keepers seem to reach.

Kurt, it's only fair that you don't give Uruguayans due credit after what happened to England.

I bet you all of a sudden don't like Forlan anymore

So now we're on to Argentina-Germany.

Who do folks favor?

Liking a player and thinking they're good or not are two very, very different things. It's also possible to like individuals without liking the team. I like most of the Uruguay players, but that doesn't mean I want them to win it.

Speaking of uruguayan players, how many games should Suarez be banned for the handball on the line?

1
Germany

Just 1. But FIFA will show their stupidity once again and extend it I think.

Anyways, Germany-Argentina up first. If ever there was a game I wanted horrible officiating with lots of silly red cards..

Hoping for Argentina to go through. I love the Germans for what they did against that other team but that's as far as my love goes. Come on the Argies!!!

I love how the entire World is obsessed with us.

Just makes it far, far more enjoyable when the media rams it down your throats.

I think I'll enjoy this. Win/win.