Andre Faria: How do you think Portugal will fair against England next Saturday, with them being 2 excellent players down

WatfordFC: We still have Ricardo... ;)

WatfordFC: Not 2, but 3. Ronaldo is injured, after the brutal agression of the dutch player that everybody have seen except the referee...

It is going to be a difficult match, Petit and Simão are god substitutes of costinha and Ronaldo. It seems to me that Deco is oing the big problem. We have Tiago, but he is not as good as Deco, and Figo is not so good in the middle.

But england doesn´t have Owen either...

I´m counting on portuguese motivation for that game, and for sure, it will be a cleaner match. The english are always more fair than the dutch, and I think it´s going to be a great match...

As good as the last 2 Portugal - England in Euro 2004 and Euro 2000...

Marfitalu:

Marfitalu: Eheheh... nice joke! ;)

Andre Faria: I agree with you wholeheartedly , it is going to be a cracking game.

Andre Faria: What has Owen done in the last 18 months, nothing! Why did Sven take him in the 1st place I'll never know.

cindsman: Owen is unpredictable. He can solve a game. Just like Ronaldo...

Portugal is in a position to win the cup!Or at least stay in top 4!

Billy Idol: It would be great. Bruno would love it. Right, Martinez? ;)

Andre Faria: no Boa Morte is unpredictable, Owen has lost it. I wouldn't be suprise if he calls it a day.

cindsman: eheh, Boa Morte is the wors player we have... He is always awful at the national team...

I wouldn´t mind at all to have Owen on my team...

Andre Faria: Do we have a score prediciton for Saturdays match me darling

WatfordFC: 1-0 for England. I hope I´m wrong...

Andre Faria: i reckon it will be a draw and England will save the day in extra time

i was deeply ashamed :(

the first yellow card (i think it was the first?) for the attack on c. ronaldo was very bad .. should have been red .. and totally not needed (if a foul this bad can ever bee needed :()

but i was most ashamed of the behaviour of the players after a card was given (again) .. they tumbled over another to start a fight and to earn a new card (this happened on both sides) ... there was so much need for 'revenge' .. it was no fun.
especially the dutch players should have known better .. they were behind in score .. and (for some time) with 1 more player .. so they should have used all the time they had and not throw away fighting like little children.
they lost more than 15 minutes fighting and only got 6 minutes extra .. thats a real loss
but the worst part of it was that it ruined the game .. there were only short moments of soccer .. but thats hard to remember after so many 'situations'

the referees (sp?) have been given orders to be more strict .. the players are trying to take advantage of it .. thats a bad path to go :( .. referees are using their power a lot .. players notice this and try to use it in their advantage ... making the referees take more actions .. etc.

in the old days (and i am not even that old) players were tackled .. but tried to stay on foot and battle for the ball (not for the ground, or worst damage to do to your opponent) .. they would run on ... keep the ball with them .. and try to play the game

on another board i read players nowadays are more like cows .. they see grass .. the dive for it .. and stay down (to eat?) .. or like dogs being given a commando to play dead .. they feel something .. they think it might work .. and they drop dead (and so does the match, dead at once)

soccer isnt about skills with the ball or team play anymore .. its about acting

portugal has more individual class and skills .. the netherlands players are more team players

sometimes the game was exciting .. portugal defended very well .. the netherlands failed to score .. portugal did .. and won :)

my prediction is that portugal will win against england, and then lose against brasil (or maybe spain) .. then the final which either brasil or argentina or spain will win

my dream final will be australia portugal though ;)

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

Pedro Martínez: :) figo is a good player .. but not much better than some dutch players

deco is the really dangerous guy on the portugese side though .. i hold my breath each time he is on the ball (and if he is playing against a team i favor ;))

Andre Faria: Boa is great in 1 match and then crap in the next 5. i've watched him down at fulham and he dont run at people like he used to. him and Saha was unstopable when they were together.

Hrqls: And how about the red card to Deco, think it was fair?

Gabriel Almeida:

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.

WatfordFC:

Unlucky Australia , wanted u to go through.

Pedro Martínez: what do you mean by the portuguese part. What I posted was the general opinions of the more important newspapers in the word.

The referee ruined what could have been a good game. Of course there were some unsportman behaviors from both sides, but I think we deserved to win because we defended well and were lucky to score a great goal. Holland players failed because they still are unexperienced. Though, they are very talented, and they will achieve a very good team in 2 years...

Andre Faria: And the referee was against us, that ********... Deco's red card is a joke!

Gabriel Almeida: I think that the referee was not in favour or against any of the teams. He was just bad, and ruined the whole match...

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.

Since I do not follow international soccer very closely, I dont have anything to compare this world cup with. So I want the opinion of some people who do follow it closely. There have been a record number of yellow and red cards already and there are more than 10 matches left! The games I have watched, it appeared that many of the fouls did not warrant yellow cards, and many red cards were unwarranted as well.

So, is this record amount of fouls due to increased illegal physical play over past world cups, or is it due to poor officiating?

My opinion is that the officiating has been poor, but I have been told that all the fouls I have complained about were warranted....

What do others think?

I really think it is a shame when a great match ends 1 to nothing because an official calls a foul on a player in the box, when the replay clearly shows that the guy tripped over his own foot, for example. I personally would rather the officials let them play more, with only obvious and purposeful fouls called.

Has there been a rash of injuries or something recently that has made the need for closer officiating? I dont want to see people get hurt, but it seems like a lot of player really fake how injured they are, and roll around hoping to get a foul call! And quite often, the officials give it to them!

I would also like to see a rules change, so that t6here could be different levels of red card infractions. Since for me, I think a person who gets two yellow cards doesnt deserve the same punishment as someone who purposely elbows a guy in the face and knocks him out of the tournament. Maybe something like two yellow cards and you are out for the rest of the game. And red card fouls ranging from minor, to major, where you can be excused from anywhere to one extra game to out of the rest of the tournament. Has this type of punishment ever been discussed?

Pedro Martínez: I´m sorry to say that you´re wrong...

At minute 2 of the match, a dutch player have seen an yellow card for tackling Ronaldo. At minute 6 another dutch player have seen a yellow card for tackling and injuring Ronaldo. Van Basten orders were to injure Ronaldo on the first minutes of the game. They accomplished their mission.

It was Van Basten who told the dutch player not to give the ball to Portugal, going against the code of honour every team signed before the world cup... Deco just had payback tackling the dutch player.

The portuguese players reacted to all the unsportman conduct from the dutch players. They are no saints, and they had payback. Two wrongs doesn´t make one right, but since the referee was doing nothing to stop the dutch players being unsportman...

I was happy to see Figo giving an header on the dutch guy. I know it was a bad action, but it was fair for all the circunstances of the game.

Our players were warriors at the battlefield and they have won the war. I´m proud of them...

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

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...

Pedro Martínez: You´re saying that because it was not your team. I would like to see how would you react seeing Nedved being injured on the first minutes of the game, seeing it was premeditated, and seeing that the referee was going to ignore it... :(

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.

Czuch Chuckers: Some great points Czuch, I think the high number of red and yellow cards is due more to poor officiating than to any real increase in the number of aggressive plays. But, there has also been a push for the officials to try to clean up the play a bit as well, so maybe a combo of reasons. But, I also have to agree that its not right to watch a well played game be blown for one team because the officiating makes a poor call!

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.

Pedro Martínez: So you would say that the record amount of cards is because of finally good officiating, where in the past some calls that should have been made were not? That could be another possibility I didnt consider.

I still would argue for the rules to distinguish between an intentional elbow to the face, and a hard tackle where the ball is being played, I think there is a difference, and the same punishment for both isnt warranted.

Pedro Martínez: yes, it´s human. Due to all emotions involved in such games... Happens in every team once in a while.

It´s portuguese? Did you know that in 4 years it was our first red card? Why don´tt people talk about that. We hardly have seen yellow cards, and not a single red card in 4 years. But our well known players (Figo, Ronaldo, Simão, Deco, ...) ytoo often suffers brutal tackles. Is this fair?

I don´t need to prove anything. Just watch the first 6 minutes of the match and take your conclusions...

And I didn´t say the referee was in favour of the dutch and we played clean. The referee was bad for both sides, and for the game. He commited too many mistakes for both sides. He was just terrible, period.

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: Ronaldo is one of the biggest divers going. Mind you look what prem club he plays for!

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?

Pedro Martínez: So, just so I understand, in your perfect world, the officiating will become so tight that players finally learn and there are no more tackling plays and you dont dare even touch someone in the box for fear of a penalty, and the scores rise 4 to 5 instead of 1 nill? Im not disagreeing, Im just curious.... it seems if you agree that more officiating is better, then thats where the game will go. You must be able to agree that there are some "ghost" calls, especially in the box where people tend to fake getting tripped or whatever, where the game is decided because of the officials and not by the best team winning?

Pedro Martínez: Maybe.

That why I think it was the referee who ruined the match, not the dutch players. They were doing their game. But, maybe, just maybe, if the referee would take the correct decision which would have been sending off Boulahrouz, maybe the match would have been fair. But the referee was afraid of sending off a player at minute 6 and he didn´t apllied the basic rules...

And as I said, I would like to see how would you react having one of your best players injured at minute 6 and seeing it was premeditated...

Gabriel Almeida: i dont remember exactly .. it was a second yellow card wasnt it ? i forgot what caused the second card though :(
by then i was annoyed by the whole acting of all players (ok not all, but most :))

btw was there announced a 'man of the match' ?

Hrqls: Yeah probably the referree LMAO

Pedro Martínez: lol true :)

they should use just the first letter of all parts of his name :)

Hrqls: yes, it was Maniche...

Gabriel Almeida: there were more bad calls or cards not given .. for example the kick to the shoulder of (i think) robben after someone else was tackled .. that should have been a yellow card (or maybe even red for a kick that high), and a penalty kick (it was in front of the goal, although the referre had already whistled for the other foul)