[Ella]

England lalalalalalaaa im so proud to be English wooo wooo!

[Lil-Lindz]

Me too

WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON!
lol he he :c olour:

[Mike]

Glad we won but it wasn't too convincing to be honest.

I thought we should have bought Lennon on alot earlier as Beckham was clearly struggling.

It's a waiting game now - will it be Portugal or Holland.

[InTheHood]

Originally posted by Mike

It's a waiting game now - will it be Portugal or Holland.

Holland

Well maybe. Apart from 45 minutes against Serbia, we've been a bit like England, quite average, yet if we meet, one of us will be in the Semi Finals

I hate it when we play England, as it means the wife and I, are opponents for 90 minutes But at least one of us will be in the Semi Finals.

First up though, is Portugal, and i'd make them slight favourites tonight. They have been playing okay, although they look a little suspect at the back.

Fingers crossed

England were disappointing today. They just about deserved the win, but Ecuador are a very average side, that England made look fairly solid. A.Cole, Hargreaves, Carrick and Rooney all put in good shifts, although I thought Lampard and Ferdinand were poor, and Gerrard misplaced too many balls. Beckham was also fairly anonymous, bar the goal.

[Lil-Lindz]

Its obvious that sven has picked a team which he thinks will go no where because he is going to be leaving soon. We have no people up front other than rooney and gerrad and lampard cannot play together cause they dont go!
If sven picks up his act i think we could well win this

Well at least i hope we do lol

[InTheHood]

Nice entertainment for the yellow/red card connoisseur.

If we weren't diving everywhere, the Portuguese were rolling around in agony everywhere, or headbutting our players, and if that wasn't happening, we were pushing there players over and putting on The Carthorse (Vennegoor) rather than The Horse (RvN)

The footballing feast was ruined by the ref. I thought Boulharouz deserved to go, Gio Van Bronckhorst should not have gone. Deco should have gone for the 1st tackle, although that only arrived as we refused to give Portugal there ball back

Figo should have gone, Costinha was correctly dismissed and...........have I missed anything? Sneijder was maybe lucky with just a yellow for his push....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, well I'm with my wife's camp for the Quarter Final. Cheering on England against the dirty Porkers

[Mike]

I couldn't stop laughing for most of the second half it was like wrestling rather than football.

The referee could have handled things better in my opinion, not sure why he sent Gio off but there you go.

[InTheHood]

To be fair to the ref, he got 3 of the red cards right, and had he sent Sneijder or Figo off, no-one could have complained then either.

I think both sets of players let themselves down.

[James]

I thought the referee lost the plot in that match a bit.

He was booking for every foul by the end.

[Dan_]

England just did enough for the win but yet again it was unspectacular.Great free-kick by Beckham but he provided little else.

The first half of the Holland vs Portugal game was not the most exciting but 2nd half jeez that was overy hectic and a shame to see a game descend into that state.Portugal are going to be missing some key players against us so it gives us a better chance.

[InTheHood]

England will only win if they don't get involved in Portugal's antics.

If England players start getting frustrated or annoyed (Rooney especially) then England will see players sent off as well.

England will also need to revert to 4-4-2 for that game.

[Dan_]

Stevenage Borough have today signed left sided defender Santos Gaia on a 2 year contract. A Brazilian at the Boro

[InTheHood]

Cheating Italians AGAIN!

[InTheHood]

Did anyone else fall asleep during Switzerland and Ukraine?

The Swiss were so negative, they couldn't even score in the penalty shootout

[BigSister]

I agree ITH I switched over and watched BB instead

[Mike]

Both teams were so negative.

I at least expected Switzerland to score a penalty but no they still missed.

[Dan_]

It was a complete snorefest, I switched over to bb and kept a check of the score on the radio, I kept turning over during extra time and all. Fancy not being able to score one penalty.

Italy vs Australia was a bit better but Italy cheating yet again just made my annoyed.I really wish they would get knocked out.

[James]

I'm really getting annoyed at these BBC and ITV commentators not giving any of these teams credit for anything.

Both teams tonight tried to win, they just didn't have a lot going forward.

[Slartibartfast]

Am I the only one to think that it was a genuine, dead on penalty in the Italy-Australia game?? Cheating!!?? I don't think so! Especially when that was a never red card offence by Materazzi.

Th two most annoying things about this world cup (and it's generally been good overall) has been the referees poor decision making and the commentators on BBC and ITV.

The Refs have been terrible, giving yellow cards based more on the fouled players reaction rather than the actual foul. The players don't help them but the refs have been awful as well.

And the commentating is a disgrace. They don't apply the same criticisms to the england team as they do for other teams, although that is to be expected. Clive Tyldsley must need to get his head surgically removed from Rooney's a**e everytime he commentates on an england game. The commentary in some games (not involving england) is incredibly biased at times, clearly favouring one team over another, which is just poor comentating. They are really patronising to all the african teams as well.

[BigSister]

so i guess you wont be watching the Brazil/Ghana game based on that then

But yeah I agree about the referees as well

[Dan_]

Grosso fell over Lucas Neill, never a penalty

[Mike]

The referees have been a complete joke throughout the world cup, its not the fact they are giving free kicks its the way they issue yellow and red cards because of the players rolling around like they have been shot.

[Slartibartfast]

Originally posted by BB fernzy
Grosso fell over Lucas Neill, never a penalty

Or, Lucas Neill threw himself in front of Grosso who coudn't help but fall over him!!

And I'll watch the Brazil - Ghana game... on RTE! Much more balanced commentating

[BigSister]

oh yeah good idea

[InTheHood]

Re: The Commentators

I think it's fully acceptable they are biased towards there own nation. In fact, compared to other Countries, the English commentators are very low key.

French commentators are very Pro French, but also anti opponents. Germans are similar, Italians are even worse. They see things that don't even happen, and if one of there players cheats (Which happens alot!) they don't see it, UNLESS, it's a Roman, because even other Italians hate the Romans!

I know on Sky Sports when Scotland, Ireland & Wales play, the commentators are very Pro Scottish/Irish/Welsh, no different to English commentators. It's just a natural thing and I wouldn't want the English commentators to change. They are obviously passionate about there country,a nd so they should be. The Americans and Aussies are very biased, with the Aussies being Anti English.

Whilst being biased towards England, the commentators are very fair to the opposition. If they warrant a penalty, they will say so. In Australia, if a Whinging Pom hits a 6 in cricket, it's a poor ball, rather than a great shot.

The only thing I have against the English commentators, is they keep referring to us Dutch as never having won the World Cup, and they will continue to do so for at least 4 more years

Although saying all that, they should get rid of Mick McCarthy on the BBC. What a miserable barsteward!