The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup

[ONeill]

Prob missed it but what's the craic with Souness's absence - was it the rape comment?

[Minder]

Prob missed it but what's the craic with Souness's absence - was it the rape comment?

Had a holiday booked I think. Excellent analyst.

[ONeill]

Prob missed it but what's the craic with Souness's absence - was it the rape comment?

Had a holiday booked I think. Excellent analyst.

Really? I found his analysis uncomfortable.


So def nothing to do with - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYg3hJdq96I

[Minder]

Prob missed it but what's the craic with Souness's absence - was it the rape comment?

Had a holiday booked I think. Excellent analyst.

Really? I found his analysis uncomfortable.

So def nothing to do with - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYg3hJdq96I

Just my opinion, he was a shit manager but he knows his stuff and is able to articulate it. Don't think it had anything to do with that comment, thought I heard mention of a pre arranged holiday.

[ONeill]

An enjoyable discussion between the three (USA v Eng)

[ross4life]

Raped/taken apart by Torres in the 1-4 match? first goal was a misjudged highball that Michael Owen would have scored from & then he got sent off for a tackle on Gerrard 

For me the only good analyst on RTE is Liam Brady

[Capt Pat]

There was nothing terribly wrong about the comment. Strong language.

[Main Street]

Granted, but they have vast experience of playing at altitude as several other south american countries play at altitude (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru on occasion), so they play quite a few games in those conditions, and know both how to play efficiently and how the ball might be affected.  Undoubtedly Uruguay and Chile are much improved teams, Brazil and Argentina we know all about and Paraguay whilst probably quarter finalists are not in the same class as the others.
See this article, it was talking about games which may be affected by climate and altitude, some very interesting and accurate predictions - England are fecked tomorrow according to the article, written pre world cup.
http://www.realclearsports.com/blognetwork/the_cup_running_over/2010/06/how-playing-at-altitude-might-transform-the-world-cup.html

The article is mixing heat conditions and altitude conditions. It also quotes Tim Vickery, who was actually answering a question about how to play one of the 2 legged Sudamericana final at 2,900m (relatively extreme altitude), when the away team just arrives a few days before a game and proceeds to ignore all sensible advice.

Extreme heat/humidity has a serious influence on a game, but is playing at 1,500m a problem when all the the teams are well acclimatised?
Looking at these games where Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have played, maybe the coaches' advice has effect but it is not obvious, you would be hard pressed to find the evidence of an advantage.

[Capt Pat]

Extreme heat and humidity, doesn't stop you playing football it forces you to play football and pass the ball and keep it. Instead of running around like a mad donkey. We need to start playing that way if we ever want to do well in a world cup.

[Bogball XV]

The article is mixing heat conditions and altitude conditions. It also quotes Tim Vickery, who was actually answering a question about how to play one of the 2 legged Sudamericana final at 2,900m (relatively extreme altitude), when the away team just arrives a few days before a game and proceeds to ignore all sensible advice.

Extreme heat/humidity has a serious influence on a game, but is playing at 1,500m a problem when all the the teams are well acclimatised?
Looking at these games where Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay have played, maybe the coaches' advice has effect but it is not obvious, you would be hard pressed to find the evidence of an advantage.

Teams may be physically acclimatised, but the teams who have experience of playing at altitude know from long experience that the ball moves differently and that no matter how acclimatised you are, fatigue will set in, so the point is that they play football suited to these conditions, ie. they play football as Capt Pat points out.  I thought the games the article cited prior to the tournament were interesting.

[Capt Pat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHoN93rXX4

This is the reaction of US fans to winning the last group match with a last minute goal.

[Main Street]

[  I thought the games the article cited prior to the tournament were interesting.

You mean the other world cup Finals where heat and humidity were the obvious factors and admits that the results were not affected in Mexico 1970, except he says Peru were a surprise 1/4 finalists,  but Peru had a good team in the 1970's.
Almost every Finals have weather conditions which mitigate against a team which have a work ethic over skill but I have not seen one game at South Africa where altitude experience was an obvious advantage to the S American teams & Mexico. As regards the ball movement being affected by altitude -  or is it the actual ball itself?  have those S American teams adapted any better?  The conditions in World Cups that Ireland were involved in, were much more mitigating (by a factor of 10), against teams that have a work ethic.

The article quoted Vickery out of context from an answer where he was in fact making the case that teams can acclimatise playing a team that is already based at high altitude in Quito.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvickery/2009/11/can_history_be_made_in_the_sou.html?page=18
The South African context is very different.

[pintsofguinness]

England have no chance against Germany!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/10420131.stm

all the England "merchandise" half price in the shop this morning...

[Minder]

Get the nappies on folks.

[Puckoon]

Ze Germans are coming