Salkkuman: http://brainking.com/cz/Board?bc=56&ngi=463800

Bruno Jesus: Yup, your Rook is on its way...I made the payment right after the yesterday's game. Congrats. :)

Czuch Czuckers: Carragher in, Lennon out. :)

diogenes: Not really, my team is already out, I'm rooting for the best and fairest possible footbal....:)

diogenes: We'll see, I might lose a bet as soon as tonight...true, Bruno? :)

diogenes: Nahhhhh, I wouldn't bet a nickel on Germany against the Italians....:)

Red card for Rooney - I think this guy should have stuck to boxing, LOL...:)

WatfordFC:
Kooteepee-Valkeakoski 0-2
Tampere Utd.-Espoo 2-1
HJK-TPS 3-2
Inter-Myllykoski postponed

Andre Faria: I hope you've had your pill today.

WatfordFC: You're welcome.

Gabriel Almeida: You have him? Where do you keep him?

Gabriel Almeida: ???

WatfordFC: Are you watching the same match?

WatfordFC: I think Adriano was on-side and the decision of the referees was correct.

Andre Faria: I'm just glad Portugal won the game. I can't imagine what crybabies you'd be if you lost. Ronaldo got hurt! They didn't give us the ball!
If you think Figo's and Deco's reactions were appropriate, you're crazy in my book.
Now tell me something: if Boulahrouz was sent off, your players would not "unleash hell"? If so, I don't get it. If they avenged on the Dutch players for the tackle on Ronaldo, they'd have to do so even if Boulahrouz was sent off. If they avenged on the Dutch players for the wrong call from Ivanov, wasn't that a bit unfair? Shouldn't it have been the referee who they should have taken revenge upon?

Czuch Chuckers: Yes, that's what I really think. There are still many refs who are literally afraid to pull a red card out of their pocket or make a penalty call. Fortunately the number of these decreases. The biggest problem with referees at the World Cup is, in my opinion, that FIFA selects too many inexperienced refs from all over the world, which is wrong. Take a look at the Champions' League. The best of the best referees umpire those games and there haven't been any major problems there, as far as I remember. Why most of these are not called to come to the World Cup is beyond me.

The FIFA officials do have the possibility to make such distinctions. They can suspend a player for a certain number of games, for instance. The problem is how effectively this instrument is used.

Andre Faria: If I was on the pitch, after seeing what happened to Ronaldo, I would try to injure the first dutch player who would appear in front of me. It´s human.

No, it's not human. It's bestial. Or should I say Portuguese?

It was premeditated, Van Basten orders were to injure Ronaldo on the first minutes of the game.

Prove it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You´re saying that because it was not your team.

No, I'm not. A Czech defender named Řepka, who had been a regular member of the Czech national team, brutally tackled one of the other team's players and the whole nation condemned him for that. The coach has never called him back to the national team because we don't want players like that in our team. But we're probably different.

Czuch Chuckers: In my opinion, referees have been a major problem of all previous World Cups. Compared to the 2002 one, I think we're seeing a slight improvement, even though it might not seem so at first sight. We have to keep on mind that referees are humans just like all of us and they do make mistakes. It's up to the FIFA officials to select the best possible referees who make the fewest mistakes, which task they seem to have failed in many cases. But as I said, I see an improvement this year and I believe it's going to get better and better. I believe that your blank statement "the officiating has been poor" is wrong, since there have been many games which were officated very well (GER-CRC, GHA-CZE, ITA-CZE, etc.), on the other hand there've been some which come close to the KOR-SPA game from the last World Cup. Today's ITA-AUS game is a good example of that.

As far as your proposal for a change of rules concerning the red cards, I'd let the rules stay the way they are right now. In my opinion, the problem is not in the rules, it's in applying them on the pitch.

Andre Faria: I pity you and hope you'll grow up soon.

Andre Faria: All I've heard from Portuguese guys here was "They are the bad boys, we played clean and nice, we were provoked, they deserved what they got, referee was against us" and similar piece of you know what. Excuses and defences of the Portuguese team. Hrqls said he was ashamed for his own players and that's what I appreciate. The game was not ruined by the referee and the Dutch players, it was ruined by the referee, the Dutch players and the Portuguese players.

Hrqls: Both Deco and Figo are excellent players, as well as vd Sar, Cocu, vd Vaart, Sneijder. For some reason, I don't like the way C. Ronaldo plays. I wouldn't want him in my team. :)

BTW, I think Vennegoor of Hesselink should decide what he wants his last name to be, LOL. It almost didn't fit the back of his jersey.

Hrqls: Great post. If only I could read some like this from the Portuguese part...

Andre Faria: That's not it, I'd be glad to pay Bruno a membership if Portugal played nice football free of such stupid things which I hate to see, let alone at such a high level as the World Cup. Anyone who calls Figo "the best" 1 hour after the game with the Netherlands is either infatuated with nationalism or nuts.

Andersp: Right...I originally thought the ref should have added at least 10 minutes of extra time, but as the end of the game came closer and closer, I thought the sooner the game was over the better.

The worst game I've seen so far at the World Cup. Brutal fouls, diving, malingering, unsportsmanlike conduct...you could find all these in the game. The referee did a good job handing out the red cards. He only missed giving one to Figo for that "nice" header. By the way, if I were either Portuguese or Dutch, I'd be ashamed for the way the players behaved tonight. I hope the English win the quarterfinals.

Andre Faria: Inghilterra is the same as Gana. I recommend to try to speak English here though.

Please, guys, let's keep this board sports-oriented.

skipinnz: This is what I agree with. The fact that so many different football styles from so many different parts of the world clash at the World Cup is definitely good for the game in general. There is only one word I don't agree with (understand) in your previous post and it's the word 'but'.

Andre Faria: You only wish...LOL

skipinnz: No, they're just the ones who qualified from their geographical zones. Or you want to claim that Saudi Arabia, Togo or Trinidad and Tobago are better than Denmark, Uruguay or Greece?

rednaz23: But you don't want to tell us that being 5th in the FIFA ranking means they are currently the 5th best team in the world, do you?

What you have to take into consideration when you look at these rankings is what are they based on. It's mostly the WC qualifiers and qualifiers to continental championships. Now there you see why Mexico is 4th and the USA 5th even though both of these teams are about as strong as an average European team (like Turkey, Romania, Norway, Greece). And when you play Panama, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Honduras or Jamaica in the qualifiers, it's not that hard to have great results.

Czuch Chuckers: That Mastroeni's slide hit directly the calf of the Italian player. I remember that when I saw that tackle, I thought to myself "Ouch,I hope he didn't break his leg". It's was an extremely dangerous play and it doesn't matter that he got the ball as as well.

You cannot compare fouls for which a red card is given. There are simply situations for which a player is sent out. Compare an intentional hand ball on the goal line and and intentional kick in the head, for instance. That's just uncomparable. Yet both situations require red cards.

Czuch Chuckers: I'm afraid all the 3 red cards in the ITA-USA game were deserved and the refs did extremely good job in comparison with other referees at the WC. Actually this referee and the one who umpired the other group-E game yesterday (and the very first game of the WC) are the only two refs who I have had no objections against so far.

Czuch Chuckers: You bet. Yesterday was a sad day for the Czech Republic. Now we have to win against the Italians, which is going to be a tough game, considering the fact Baroš and Koller are out because of injuries and Lokvenc received his second yellow card yesterday. It's hard to win games without forwards!!! Anyway, I'll be rooting for the US on Thursday!

Czuch Chuckers: You bet! Less than three hours left till the kickoff...I can't wait. Baroš is out of play, I'm afraid but still it would be a big surprise if we didn't win...:)

Czuch Chuckers: I'm far from calling the way the Portuguese played yesterday "well done". I think they "suffered a win".

And well done to Ecuador!!!
2-0 win against the Poles is definitely a surprise for me!

Czuch Chuckers: I think you've got the wrong board, Chuck. This is World of Sport, not Jokes!!! And BTW, we're playing on Monday, not tomorrow.

Stevie: Being 3 frames up doesn't need to mean much, especially in Crucible. I personally still favor Ebdon. :)

Stevie: Who do you think will take the title? I was hoping to see O'Sullivan in the finals, that would make the pair with Ebdon much more insteresting (at least for me).

Stevie: I think all snooker fans all around Europe can watch the WC games on Eurosport, which is available almost everywhere.

I'm a fan of Ken Doherty's, BTW, too bad he didn't make it past Fu. The Ebdon-Fu semifinals were incredible though.

Czuch Chuckers: :))
You would have been already back, but I can't.

I would like to say my thank you to Czuch Chuckers, who was a co-moderator of this board for some time and was arbitrarily removed by the Global Moderators for nothing that happened on this board. Thanks for having been a good moderator of World of Sports, Chuck.

TeamBundy: André did sign up for the backgammon tourney...:)

BTW, Chuck, will you or Doris play for the Ghanian team in the backgammon tourney?

Andre Faria: You must excuse Chuck's spelling André, he's only American after all (just teasing you, Chuck )...he wanted to write Andre's but somehow the apostrophe got lost...:)

Andersp: LOL - right. With all my respect to Niitymäki, I'd expect the MVP to come from the team which won the gold medals.

Congrats to the Tre Kronor on winning the Gold. It's been well-deserved.
The MVP of the tourney should go to Niklas Lidström, imo.

Salkkuman: Jarkko Ruutu should have been sent back to Helsinki right after the match with the Czech Republic. Westerlund is a coward - after the game, he said he hadn't seen the "contact". Ridiculous.

Soooo....Steelers or Seahawks? :)

OK, guys, let's forget this "you people" and "you guys" thing - or take care of it through your message boxes.