2006 FIFA World Cup

[Hackalicious]

Perdictions:
Germany vs. Sweden 2-1

No way. Germany is going to ride home field advantage straight to the finals.

[JosueSays]

I was a little hopeful with my perdiction, and it's more of who i think SHOULD win... if youre watching the game right now you can tell that the refrees are incredibly slanted toward Germany. Both those yellow cards were complete Crap... I hope Sweden is able to net atleast one goal!

Germany is playing better today, but I think Sweden is the better overall team... Germany's defense is weak (WHere's Kahn!?! Kleighman is overrated) and their offense relies soley on Ballack, Klose, and Podolski. Germans basically have speed and power on their sides and that's why they win games.

[Sonny]

The crowd noise and energy from the ARG/MEX game today is simply amazing. IT sounds like a college football game meeting a rock concert amplified. I think I'm going to try and go to South Africa in 2010 for the next World Cup. When do tickets go on sale?

[bste_lax]

What is your Brazil soccer name?

I didn't like Mildo so I went with my full first name to get Matthisco.

[TheBearcatHimself]

Mexico put up a fight with Borgetti back, but it wasn't enough. Argentina wins 2-1 to set up a thriller of a quarterfinal against Germany. Good enough to be the final if you ask me, but sadly only one team moves on.

Can't wait for Portugal/Netherlands tomorrow, could be one of the best round of 16 games.

[sohotrightnow]

Beckham's free kick was pretty ridiculous today. Looks like they will go on to win.

[cjwilhelmi]

That was the only goal of the game

England 1
Ecuador 0

[JosueSays]

Other than Beckham's freekick, i have to say watching England play is absolutely BORING... Only good game i've seen them in was against Sweden.

[Brent Burns]

I will still root for the Oranje and do hope that this game will provide more fireworks and excitement other than what josuesays called the game between ENG and ECU dreadfully boring.

[FLAK]

The Oranje arent in Orange, is this a potential weakness the Portugese plan to exploit? Im still shocked that they didnt start Van Nistelrooy, he would've finished half the chances that Kuyts gotten.

[Sonny]

Silly little International Soccer Ref Question for Jesse (or anyone else) - Why do the referees hold the whistle in their bare hand? Why would they use a finger whistle like we use in lacrosse or a whistle on a neck laynard? It seems like they are holding in thier hands and they would drop it or something. The whistle has to be a pain when they are dealing with all the cards, etc.

[Brent Burns]

I missed the first half of the POR and NED game, and my wife told me that the Dutch played bad in first half. I can not understand the Dutch coach's decision not to insert Van Nisteljooy when Holland had 10 man advantage. He would have been able to equalize and even finish another one. Just a wild fireworks of a game with both teams losing their cool plus the ref and ref assistants lost control of the game. !6 cards! That is totalllly ridiculous. That even tied the record in the Germany-Cameroon game. Give credit to Portugal's D in keeping the Dutch away, and that Portugal goalie sure can kick booming shots. How would that play against the English team?

[JosueSays]

Pretty much sums it up... Poor managment (notice how the US too lost from bad managing) is a common factor for losing this world cup. Rudd Van Nistrooig is their best goal scorer and is scoring imporant goals and is still somehow left out. He could have turned the tides to the netherlannds favor. Overall second half was pretty bad for both teams.

[mholtz]

Other than Beckham's freekick, i have to say watching England play is absolutely BORING... Only good game i've seen them in was against Sweden.

While I agree that they don't have the most exciting style, you can't argue with the results.

How about the camera panning to Beckham puking, then to Posh? That was kinda fun.

[Brent Burns]

As the saying goes, "A picture is worth thousand words" as the ESPN folks did a good job panning on those three players sitting due to being thrown out of the game:

Two Dutch players and one Portugal player sitting next to each other.

While Van Bronckhorst (Netherlands) was listening, Deco (Portugal) was talking and gesturing. You can see that Boulahrouz (Netherlands) was either staring at Deco hard or looking beyond both of them. I guess he was probably listening to Deco's discussion. It turned out that Deco and Van Bronckhorst are actually teammates at Barcelona.

I guess the world has got smaller.

That was really INTENSE and PHYSICAL game I have seen so far in this World Cup.

Without any question, the German police will be ready in force for the Portugal-England game.

It was interesting that the Dutch fans still applauded their team at the end of the game, but like anyone else, they will probably be muttering about their coach's decision, the ref from Russia, and the mistakes made by both teams.

Scolari won his 11th straight World Cup game (Brazil and Portugal). He stated that his contract ends on July 31.