FIFA World Cup 2010

[Matt Morrison]

About time this here thread got set up.

And no, for all you haters, one generic football-based thread simply is not enough.

Opening ceremony is at 1300 BST.
South Africa - Mexico 1500 BST.
Uruguay - France 1930 BST.

[Michael Wallace]

About time this here thread got set up.

And no, for all you haters, one generic football-based thread simply is not enough.
Opening ceremony is at 1300 BST.
South Africa - Mexico 1500 BST.
Uruguay - France 1930 BST.

I AM SO EXCITED I AM ALMOST AS EXCITED AS EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXCITED ABOUT CO:LON

[Marc Meakin]

Here are my world cup predictions.

Week 1.

South Africa 1 Mexico 2
Uruguay 1 France 1

South Korea 2 Greece 0
Argentina 3 Nigeria 2
England 2 USA 0

Algeria 1 Slovenia 1
Serbia 2 Ghana 1
Germany 1 Australia 1

Netherlands 4 Denmark 2
Japan 0 Cameroon 0
Italy 2 Paraguay 1

New Zealand 0 Slovakia 4
Ivory Coast 1 Portugal 0
Brazil 6 North Korea 1

Honduras 1 Chile 3
Spain 3 Switzerland 1
South Africa 1 Uruguay 2

France 2 Mexico 2
Argentina 2 South Korea 0
Greece 0 Nigeria 1

Lets see how stupid that looks next week.
Anyone else interested in using their crystal balls?

[Jon Corby]

I fucking love the World Cup so fucking much. I'm so excited. Off home in a minute to settle in

[Dinos Sfyris]

Emma got me a Panini World Cup sticker book for being good

[Michael Wallace]

Emma got me a Panini World Cup sticker book for being good

itym a panino

[Matthew Green]

I love the world cup but then again its actually not that good. They've steadily declined in quality and excitement in my lifetime and the fact that there are no 'surprise players' like Milla in 90, Hagi and Stoichkov in 94 or Suker in 98 makes it all the more boring- has the champions league killed the World Cup?

Brazil are now boring, England are almost unwatchable, Italy, France and Germany are turgid and the Africans are frustrating. The only hope is if Spain, Holland and Argentina can get it together.

Also, I genuinely think that the vuvuzelas are going to make matches unwatchable. But I hope I'm wrong on all counts.

Go Switzerland!

[Marc Meakin]

Hope that there are more goals and less penalty shoot outs this time.

[Marc Meakin]

Emma got me a Panini World Cup sticker book for being good

Mmmm Panini (makes drooling noise)

[James Robinson]

France v Mexico 2

Are you suggesting that France are going to throw the match or something against Mexico

[Marc Meakin]

France v Mexico 2

Are you suggesting that France are going to throw the match or something against Mexico

Oops, now corrected.
Now give us your predictions, Mr Oranje Squash.
This link may be useful http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A69801014

[Matt Morrison]

France v Mexico 2

Are you suggesting that France are going to throw the match or something against Mexico

Winning 5-2 doesn't sound like throwing a match, chortle chortle.

[James Robinson]

France v Mexico 2

Are you suggesting that France are going to throw the match or something against Mexico

Oops, now corrected.
Now give us your predictions, Mr Oranje Squash.

Fair enough. They'll probably all be wrong, but you never know.

Week 1.

South Africa 2 Mexico 2
Uruguay 2 France 0

South Korea 2 Greece 1
Argentina 3 Nigeria 2
England 3 USA 0

Algeria 2 Slovenia 1
Serbia 1 Ghana 2
Germany 1 Australia 2

Netherlands 3 Denmark 0
Japan 0 Cameroon 1
Italy 2 Paraguay 0

New Zealand 1 Slovakia 3
Ivory Coast 3 Portugal 2
Brazil 6 North Korea 0

Honduras 2 Chile 2
Spain 3 Switzerland 0
South Africa 1 Uruguay 2

France 1 Mexico 2
Argentina 3 South Korea 1
Greece 0 Nigeria 1

[Matthew Green]

Thierry Henry kicked out of WC after failing a drug test- you heard it here first.

[James Doohan]

Hurry up 3 o'clock before I die of excitement, here's hoping the tournament can live up to the epicness that was USA 94

[Matt Morrison]

I was expecting Lucas Radebe's English to be a lot better for some reason. Or maybe it was just the sound of the vuvuzelas drowning him out. Actually, I expected him to be better at the vuvuzela too. Must try harder, Lucas.

[Marc Meakin]

R fucking Kelly

[Ryan Taylor]

Hmm.

[Michael Wallace]

I know it's not like me to swear, but why the fuck are ITV showing the opening ceremony? WE'RE MISSING OPENING CEREMONY ACTION

[Lee Simmonds]

I'm so excited I am on to my 3rd pair of pants today what with all the excited related piss coming out

[Ian Volante]

I was expecting Lucas Radebe's English to be a lot better for some reason. Or maybe it was just the sound of the vuvuzelas drowning him out. Actually, I expected him to be better at the vuvuzela too. Must try harder, Lucas.

He lived in Leeds for years. QED.

[David O'Donnell]

Week 1.


England 3 USA 0

Never going to happen, England will be lucky to scrape some kind of ultra boring 1-0 victory.

[Howard Somerset]

Never going to happen, England will be lucky to scrape some kind of ultra boring 1-0 victory.

Even that would be better than 1966. Incredibly boring 0-0 in first game.

[Liam Tiernan]

I love the world cup but then again its actually not that good. They've steadily declined in quality and excitement in my lifetime and the fact that there are no 'surprise players' like Milla in 90, Hagi and Stoichkov in 94 or Suker in 98 makes it all the more boring- has the champions league killed the World Cup?

Brazil are now boring, England are almost unwatchable, Italy, France and Germany are turgid and the Africans are frustrating. The only hope is if Spain, Holland and Argentina can get it together.

Also, I genuinely think that the vuvuzelas are going to make matches unwatchable. But I hope I'm wrong on all counts.

Go Switzerland!

Thank you for the support, But I have the feeling we are going to get cheesed in the next round.

[Matt Morrison]

When Mexico scored I knew the vuvuzelas would shut up, but fuck me I thought they'd be back to their full blowing power to cheer SA on again as soon as the match was restarted... but it's been a good five or so minutes now and they're quiet as you like compared to the usual din.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Can't Wait!

USA - 3 - 2 - England.

Stunning opening game with a cracker goal from the guy with the best name in football. Really enjoyed it and the atmosphere was electric. South Africa have a decent team, with great fitness levels and skilful players like Pienaar, Mokoena and Tschabalala.

Come on USA and Germany!!!!

[Kai Laddiman]

South Africa v Mexico 1 - 1 Yes, I predicted that before the match
Uruguay v France 0 - 2

South Korea v Greece 0 - 1
Argentina v Nigeria 4 - 0
England v USA 3 - 1

Algeria v Slovenia 1 - 1
Serbia v Ghana 0 - 0
Germany v Australia 2 - 1

Netherlands v Denmark 2 - 0
Japan v Cameroon 0 - 0
Italy v Paraguay 3 - 0

New Zealand v Slovakia 0 - 1
Ivory Coast v Portugal 1 - 4
Brazil v North Korea 4 - 0

Honduras v Chile 1 - 1
Spain v Switzerland 3 - 0
South Africa v Uruguay 1 - 2

France v Mexico 2 - 1
Argentina v South Korea 3 - 0
Greece v Nigeria 2 - 0

[Eoin Monaghan]

Portugal beating Ivory Coast 4-1?!

[Charlie Reams]

Is there any good reason for the offside rule in the modern game?

[Matt Morrison]

Is there any good reason for the offside rule in the modern game?

Yes it outlaws goalhanging. Without it, strikers would just hang around the goal, which would cause defenders to have to be way more cautious and hang back to mark them, and thus the game would be very stand-offish.

[Marc Meakin]

Is there any good reason for the offside rule in the modern game?

I've often thought that the offside rule should only apply to the penalty area only.
It would be easier for referee's assistants too.

[Gavin Chipper]

Is there any good reason for the offside rule in the modern game?

As we're questioning aspects of the game, why don't they just stop the clock whenever the ball goes out of play? They go on about time-wasting and stuff, and surely it makes far more sense to have it so the time is the actual time spent playing. And don't answer "Well a 90 minute game would be really long". It doesn't need to be 90 minutes!

[Paul Howe]

As we're questioning aspects of the game, why don't they just stop the clock whenever the ball goes out of play? They go on about time-wasting and stuff, and surely it makes far more sense to have it so the time is the actual time spent playing. And don't answer "Well a 90 minute game would be really long". It doesn't need to be 90 minutes!

This rule might actually make the game a lot longer (yay irony) and change the dynamics of the game (constant tactical consultations at breaks in play, stopping the clock for every little injury and so on). Probably not worth it to deal with a minor problem.

I've suggested this on here before, but I'd get rid of the straight red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity, and instead give a penalty, even if the foul was outside the box. You could still give a straight red for denying what the ref judges to be an almost certain goal (e.g. handball off the line).

[craig]

I can't watch the England match properly tonight because I'm working. There's a gathering at my house to watch it as well! Can someone give me some sympathy please, I'm really upset here!

Back on track, the main thing that should be changed in football is the consistency of referees. Why are so many fouls giving outside the box that would not be given inside? I know a penalty is usually as good as a goal, but players get away with so much in their own area it's ridiculous.

[Gavin Chipper]

I can't watch the England match properly tonight because I'm working. There's a gathering at my house to watch it as well! Can someone give me some sympathy please, I'm really upset here!

If it's any consolation, I'm not really into football but I'm going to be watching it anyway, so it averages out! I'm going to a friend's 30th who is watching it, although I probably would have watched it anyway to be honest.

Back on track, the main thing that should be changed in football is the consistency of referees. Why are so many fouls giving outside the box that would not be given inside? I know a penalty is usually as good as a goal, but players get away with so much in their own area it's ridiculous.

I often wonder about that among other things. The problem is that when you have a game where the scoreline is often very tight, you need very precise refereeing for a fair game. Because of the nature of football, it's always going to be hard to achieve the precision of something like tennis, but then really the only sensible solution to make it a serious competition (rather than a show) is to design things differently so that there are more goals.

[Eoin Monaghan]

South Korea played very well today, however Greece were poor and lacklustre.

Boring game last night, glad France didn't win.

Argentina should be winning by 3 or 4 by now but haven't converted chances.

Still fancy USA for tonight and possibly the Argentines to win the whole thing if Messi hits top, or even 3/4 top form.

[Gavin Chipper]

This rule might actually make the game a lot longer (yay irony) and change the dynamics of the game (constant tactical consultations at breaks in play, stopping the clock for every little injury and so on). Probably not worth it to deal with a minor problem.

Presumably you'd set the length so that it would be approximately the same overall length as now. You could just look at the average time the ball is in play. It also seems entirely arbitrary that there is time added on for injuries but not other things. I don't see why you'd have constant tactical consulations. If anything, that's more likely to happen now - by the leading team - to waste time. But you could still stop this anyway by having the referee keeping the game moving. Just because the time stops, it wouldn't make time wasting allowed.

Also, do people not find it unsatisfactory that there is not a definite end point? If you had a set amount of time rather than an arbitrary amount of injury time added on, the game would just end at the end of the time and you'd know when it was going to happen.

Edit - http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdevel ... _37447.pdf

It's about 52 minutes, so games could be set at 50 minutes long, or 60 if you want them longer.

[Paul Howe]

Presumably you'd set the length so that it would be approximately the same overall length as now. You could just look at the average time the ball is in play.

Yeah, I got that. What I was getting at is you could do things when the ball is out of play that you wouldn't do before, because you're no longer wasting time. So the time the ball isn't in play would likely last longer. Injury breaks, review of refereeing decisions, increasing emphasis on American football style set plays, and so on. Difficult to say what would happen, but I'm not sure you could easily legislate away the changes to the nature of the game. Unintended consequences, innit.
e.g. the games would finish at a wider spread of times, the orgasmic finale of Soccer Saturday would be ruined, Jeff Stelling would commit suicide, Countdown would get cancelled, people would gradually dwindle away from c4c, and you'd no longer have an audience for your unique brand of pedantry. That's not what you want to happen, IS IT GAVIN?!

Anyway, back to the world cup (because, let's face it, the above debate isn't even close to being interesting. In fact, I hate myself slightly for taking the time to type it out). A couple of decent second halves (SA v Mexico, Argentina v Nigeria), hasn't really caught fire yet though. Still, I'm ridiculously excited

[Andy Wilson]

Graeme Souness about 20 mins ago on RTE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msHq6EGsLK0

[Ryan Taylor]

Graeme Souness about 20 mins ago on RTE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msHq6EGsLK0

Ha! Reminds me of Pardew on MOTD

[Andy Wilson]

hah. That one was better cos he just kept talking as if he'd said nothing wrong!

[Kai Laddiman]

Does anybody fancy having a prediction competition? You get 1 point for correctly predicting one team's final score (so if it was South Korea 1 - 0 Brazil and you had predicted South Korea 3 - 0 Brazil, you'd get 1 points for correctly predicting Brazil's score), and 3 for correctly predicting both teams' final score. I'm currently on 7 out of 18 (not including Serbia vs Ghana).

[Michael Wallace]

[Charlie Reams]

Totally made up for them. They deserved to win, unlike Slovenia who were just as useless as their opposition.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Superb performance from Germany, who I want to win, who can stop them?

[Ian Volante]

Superb performance from Germany, who I want to win, who can stop them?

Brazil, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, etc etc

[Jon Corby]

Is anyone pissed off by the constantly negative coverage by the BBC? They broadcast Slovenia v Algeria and the commentators just bitched constantly about the poor quality. What did they expect? Not only do I find it disrespectful, it just pisses me off as we're effectively paying for them to be there, and they're just moaning about it as if they'd rather be doing something else. Show some fucking respect and gratitude.

They returned to the studio after the France v Uruguay match and Lineker said something like "they were vuvuzelas you could hear and not us lot snoring" and Hansen launched into a tirade about how shit it was, completely in the tone of "I'm so annoyed I had to sit here watching that". Well, fuck off then. It's like taking somebody somewhere and them sitting next to you bitching about the whole time and showing no gratitude. Fuck off the lot of you and instead stick some people in who'll be grateful to be there, show some respect for the countries that have achieved qualification, and not just bitch and the moan to the viewers who are footing the bill and have invited you in to their homes.

Appalling bunch of cunts. I don't receive HD so I didn't miss Gerrard's goal, but I'd much rather every game was on ITV than BBC at the moment. I never thought I'd be saying that.

[Marc Meakin]

Is anyone pissed off by the constantly negative coverage by the BBC? They broadcast Slovenia v Algeria and the commentators just bitched constantly about the poor quality. What did they expect? Not only do I find it disrespectful, it just pisses me off as we're effectively paying for them to be there, and they're just moaning about it as if they'd rather be doing something else. Show some fucking respect and gratitude.

They returned to the studio after the France v Uruguay match and Lineker said something like "they were vuvuzelas you could hear and not us lot snoring" and Hansen launched into a tirade about how shit it was, completely in the tone of "I'm so annoyed I had to sit here watching that". Well, fuck off then. It's like taking somebody somewhere and them sitting next to you bitching about the whole time and showing no gratitude. Fuck off the lot of you and instead stick some people in who'll be grateful to be there, show some respect for the countries that have achieved qualification, and not just bitch and the moan to the viewers who are footing the bill and have invited you in to their homes.

Appalling bunch of cunts. I don't receive HD so I didn't miss Gerrard's goal, but I'd much rather every game was on ITV than BBC at the moment. I never thought I'd be saying that.

In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king.
BBC for me every time.

Kevin Keegan is a pundit on ITV.
Nuff said.

[Jon O'Neill]

Is anyone pissed off by the constantly negative coverage by the BBC? They broadcast Slovenia v Algeria and the commentators just bitched constantly about the poor quality. What did they expect? Not only do I find it disrespectful, it just pisses me off as we're effectively paying for them to be there, and they're just moaning about it as if they'd rather be doing something else. Show some fucking respect and gratitude.

They returned to the studio after the France v Uruguay match and Lineker said something like "they were vuvuzelas you could hear and not us lot snoring" and Hansen launched into a tirade about how shit it was, completely in the tone of "I'm so annoyed I had to sit here watching that". Well, fuck off then. It's like taking somebody somewhere and them sitting next to you bitching about the whole time and showing no gratitude. Fuck off the lot of you and instead stick some people in who'll be grateful to be there, show some respect for the countries that have achieved qualification, and not just bitch and the moan to the viewers who are footing the bill and have invited you in to their homes.

Appalling bunch of cunts. I don't receive HD so I didn't miss Gerrard's goal, but I'd much rather every game was on ITV than BBC at the moment. I never thought I'd be saying that.

In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king.
BBC for me every time.

Kevin Keegan is a pundit on ITV.
Nuff said.

Adverts annoy me more than shit pundits. I don't watch the half time bollocks. Their job isn't to be objective, it's to find something to say, unfortunately.

[James Robinson]

Is anyone pissed off by the constantly negative coverage by the BBC? They broadcast Slovenia v Algeria and the commentators just bitched constantly about the poor quality. What did they expect? Not only do I find it disrespectful, it just pisses me off as we're effectively paying for them to be there, and they're just moaning about it as if they'd rather be doing something else. Show some fucking respect and gratitude.

They returned to the studio after the France v Uruguay match and Lineker said something like "they were vuvuzelas you could hear and not us lot snoring" and Hansen launched into a tirade about how shit it was, completely in the tone of "I'm so annoyed I had to sit here watching that". Well, fuck off then. It's like taking somebody somewhere and them sitting next to you bitching about the whole time and showing no gratitude. Fuck off the lot of you and instead stick some people in who'll be grateful to be there, show some respect for the countries that have achieved qualification, and not just bitch and the moan to the viewers who are footing the bill and have invited you in to their homes.

Appalling bunch of cunts. I don't receive HD so I didn't miss Gerrard's goal, but I'd much rather every game was on ITV than BBC at the moment. I never thought I'd be saying that.

In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king.
BBC for me every time.

Kevin Keegan is a pundit on ITV.
Nuff said.

With the exception of Sky (not being freely available to everyone), the BBC does it miles better than anyone else.

ITV should be stripped of all its football coverage, because they don't spend enough time focusing on matches, mainly becuase they have to cram adverts in all the time, particularly during the matches.

Its been a bit better since they've brought in Adrian Chiles, but in a straight fight between the 2, it's no contest. BBC all the time.

[Matt Morrison]

Is anyone pissed off by the constantly negative coverage by the BBC? [...] I'd much rather every game was on ITV than BBC at the moment.

I really don't think the distinction between ITV and BBC is as great as you might be suggesting, Jon.

Possibly the issue here is that BBC are using their usual team of pundits, Hansen and Lawrenson et al, who have been used to doing Match of the Day with Lineker and thus already have tons of TV punditry experience working together, so the joviality and the tone has picked straight up from there. I do agree with you though that talking about Algeria playing Slovenia in the same fashion as if they'd just sat out an unimportant goalless draw in the thick of winter between Sunderland and Stoke IS a little wrong and smacks of not getting into the spirit of the differing competition.

Compare this to ITV and they are using more fresh faces like Patrick Vieira and Edgar Davids - players who have tons less TV experience, certainly in English coverage productions, and who have also been playing football more recently - so they tend to be ALL about the analysis without all the jokes and stuff. Adebayor (though was this BBC? hard to keep track when only paying half-attention) was also a great pundit I reckon. And the English people ITV are using - Keegan and that - again are not really regular TV pundits so they don't have the camaraderie built up. ITV's two regulars - Andy Townshend and Gareth Southgate - are pretty much completely devoid of all personality anyway, and this is probably the only reason that they haven't become a Hansen-Lawrenson type partnership.

But the guy that makes me say it isn't all that different is that smarmy shit Chiles. He is exactly your Lineker, cheesy comments that you could easily see as disrespectful, prepared 'jokes' off a script (seriously, watch him when he talks - sometimes he has to turn to the auto cue or his joke sheets far too often to be comfortable), and crappy nonsense links to segue between the match and the analysis, or the analysis and highlights. Mark my words, I am sure ITV will do their best (or maybe it will happen naturally) to use Chiles as a catalyst to turn Townshend and whoever becomes his regular ITV pundit partner (I doubt somehow it will be Southgate) into a Hansen-Lawrenson type partnership. Chiles is exactly like Lineker (in fact it wouldn't surprise me if the BBC has nurtured him in this way) except probably slightly less lovable for all the middle-aged housewives out there.

All that said then, I'd still rather have Lineker-Hansen-Lawrenson on my screen (obviously not that boring cunt Shearer though) than Chiles-Townshend-Southgate. Until you mentioned it today the jokes and stuff hadn't bothered me, fact is they are more likeable guys (IMO) and more interesting to listen to, and that same relaxed atmosphere which is producing the jokes that you don't like is also producing the on-screen chemistry which I believe does warm a lot of people to the BBC coverage. Double-edged sword, for sure.

The only thing that really HAS got my goat about the English coverage thus far is funnily enough an ITV thing - the side-features for the South Africa vs. Mexico coverage made it feel like the whole thing was some kind of foray into a backwards culture rather than the opening fixture of a globally-represented competition. Obviously a big part of a World Cup is the local culture, but every time ITV have tried to interact with that culture it has come across as awkwards, condescending, patronising, very much "and now let's look at how these poor black people are doing". They got that hot, generic looking blonde bitch with centimetre-thick make up to go and stand in the middle of a room of bewildered locals and basically laugh at them for how they were using a bedsheet to project the match on, the only response their tone was invoking was laughter and "oh those silly blacks, let's all feel good cos we have 42" HD plasma screens". Bad enough, but then after the South African goal they actually went to split screen during the fucking match so that they could bring us pictures of how those silly little black people with their silly little bedsheet projection are celebrating the goal. Yes, they're really using a bedsheet, can you believe it! Fucking appalling. The BBC coverage of 'local' or 'cultural' stuff has never strayed so easily into stereotypical racism if you ask me.

[Marc Meakin]

Note to ITV.
James Cordon aint no Baddiel and Skinner (although he probably weighs about the same as both)

[Jon Corby]

Even though I mentioned Lineker & Hansen, I am mainly really talking about the in-match commentary. I don't really have to watch all the other shit, but I'm kinda stuck with the match commentary.

I agree about ITV's guff surrounding the opening ceremony, and commented to my bird about how patronising it all was.

Re James Corden - he used to actively annoy me, and while that's worn off in that I can tolerate him on programmes and even find him funny on occasion, the two shows so far have just been utterly devoid of... well, anything. I'll probably give it one more go before I reduce it to just checking who the guests are each day just in case somebody I really want to see pops up on there.

[Ian Volante]

To be fair, the games the BBC pundits were criticising for being shit were in fact shit. I don't think their opinions should be coloured by whether they're lucky to be there watching the matches or not - they could have been reclining in jacuzzis with drinks in hand an endless stream of 19-year-old beauties licking coke off their cocks, but those games would still have been just as shit.

[Marc Meakin]

Jubilani, shit or what?
Discuss.
Edit. Admittedly the Germans know how to use it.
Who makes that ball again?

[James Doohan]

Jubilani, shit or what?
Discuss.
Edit. Admittedly the Germans know how to use it.
Who makes that ball again?

Its horrendous, almost as bad as the vuvuzelas. The Germans had success with because they kept it on the deck almost all the time, good passing teams will do well at this world cup, unlike England the last night where they seemed intent on knocking the ball long to Heskey all night long, change of tactics drastically needed

[Ian Volante]

Jubilani, shit or what?
Discuss.
Edit. Admittedly the Germans know how to use it.
Who makes that ball again?

Its horrendous, almost as bad as the vuvuzelas. The Germans had success with because they kept it on the deck almost all the time, good passing teams will do well at this world cup, unlike England the last night where they seemed intent on knocking the ball long to Heskey all night long, change of tactics drastically needed

It seems to produce a bounce akin to Kenilworth Road c.1987, I reckon that's what caused the Slovenia goal. They need to work harder to get used to it.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Passes are being overhit and we have seen nearly all long range shots go over, I really hope the quality of goals does not decrease because of the simplest aspect of the game!

[Craig Beevers]

Hmm James Corden, can't get the past him being not remotely funny, totally unprofessional and a complete arsehole. I'm somewhat perplexed as to why he keeps getting so much work.

Don't like the Jabulani. As mentioned above it bounces far too much and I don't see why modern balls are made so they have this property where they just move about in the air randomly after you hit them.

[James Doohan]

Passes are being overhit and we have seen nearly all long range shots go over, I really hope the quality of goals does not decrease because of the simplest aspect of the game!

Indeed, free kicks have also been dreadful and it's all down to the ball. Long balls, crosses or any time the ball goes in the air it doesn't seem to stop and the lack of goals is down to this. Hope it doesn't turn into another Italia 90 of 1-0's and 1-1's