im just pleased fucking england are out

i would have like the argies to be there though

You could watch Zidane's touch, timing, placement, ideas, command... and find it boring? Or watch ole Scarface running flat out all the time to actually make Brazil look slow? France's first few games were ugly, and the next one was too... but this was a masterpiece.

I often wonder whether I'm watching the same games as folks here because I don't see that at all. Perhaps I'm incapable of being unbiased or perhaps I hate 1-0 games regardless of whose the victor or most likely a little of both.

France deserved to win tonight. They have actually improved a lot from the group stages and Zidane had his best match in a long while but at the same time they didn't exactly over work Dida.

The depressing thing for me about this tournament has been the prominance of the 4-5-1 formation. We seem to be slipping back into the defensive negative football of 15 years ago.

Apart from Klose (and Germany actually play with 2 proper strikers) what other striker has actually impressed so far? None, they are all completely isolated because coachs are flooding the midfield. Pauleta for Portugal has hardly had a touch yet. Same with Rooney for England. Henry has been a little more successful but he's been operating on scraps.

Greece won the Euro 2004 playing one up, defensive football and I certainly don't want to see an other winner playing like that. It will be interesting to see how Italy line up against Germany because they have used both systems so far.

The prominance of the 4-5-1 formation is befuddling. You had an American team who played rather terrible in their group and was constantly criticized for having McBride as the lone striker and not playing Johnson enough. Then in the knockout and quarters you have some teams that were playing wonderful in the group stages due to their aggressiveness and using more than one striker at certain times become incredibly defensive and look awful.
Italy most likely played its worst game against the USA and it was due to them being overly defensive initially.
I think the 4-5-1 has probably made the quarters more exciting due to the fact that most of the games are being decided by penalty kicks or one magnificent goal, but it has also made a bunch of incredibly talented teams look exceedingly dull and mediocre.

the only thing worse than the 4-5-1 is the 5-4-1, in which case you might as well go straight to the shootout and save everyone the trouble of an awful game. i wish more teams would play 3-4-3. now theres a formation.

Torres, Villa, Toni, Gilardino.

A lot of teams are using 4-5-1/4-3-3 depending on the situation. For me only England, Portugal, Ukraine have used a real 4-5-1 and they have payed for it. Argentina have had Crespo isolated but you cannot accuse them of of playing defensive. Even Podolski has been dropping back behind Klose. The modern game. I think it's great, 4-3-3 can be deadly when it works and great to watch, then they can tuck in if the opposition is not showing much and close the game or encourage the other team to attack. Players are taller, faster and fitter nowadays at the top level.

You also get to see the real masters at work. Riquelme, Zidane, Ballack, Totti, Deco, Figo, Xavi. That's what i fucking love watching. The movement, linking up the play, finding space that other players would never be able to find (beckham).

Ive never seen crouch play till today...homeboy is TALL. all arms and legs...those elbows would be dangerous out there.

i wish teams still played 4-2-4

THANK YOU. It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who sees this.

I guess it's all relative. Yes, seeing 3-4-3's and more goals and beautiful offensive football would make everyone happy... but you can appreciate the skills of a Zidane or Riquelme or an old hack like Figa, even if it is in a field of play that is clogged up and scoreless.

ha? i don't get this



it was not a boring game. france dominated brazil in the midfield for most of the game (not the entire game, but that's a given) in a display of swift touches and intelligent passing that weren't that defensive (or 'BORING' to watch) at all. even at times AFTER they had scored. they played good football, not stay back on defense and hope for one goal type of futbol either. true they only had one striker up (but so did brazil), and ribery and malouda were always looking dangerous. zidane outplated kaka (who looked out of sorts) and ronaldinho. also france looked more dangerous than portugal (who ran out of ideas after a while) did when attacking, even if their final ball was lacking. i hate it when brazil lose, or have a bad game the general consensus tends to be (this is not a specific attack to anyone) "oh, they must have been lazy", "oh, they must have not cared enough", "oh, they are just waiting to click into the next gear", "oh, they're opponents must have played B O R I N G football." none of those were simply true yesterday.

the truth is they were outplayed in a good game that was won in the midfield.



you have no idea what most neutral football fans feel right now. this is almost a revival. (and zidane)

although can't argue with italy and B O R I N G

thank god they blew another chance to further popularize soccer in america. i'm rooting against france now just because i hate the french- the games have almost nothing to do with it anymore.

i hate teh french too, but thankfully most of the french squad is not a true representation of the french at all. and are difficult-to-hate, fairly down-to-earth dudes

italians and germans however

Seriously if the final is France v Italy, they might as well go straight to penalty kicks

At least the Top Three national anthems got to the Semi Finals.

folks were talking about this all last season--especially in the context of chelski. negative football. i've seen it compared to "the trap" in hockey, too.

I think this defensive approach has been creeping in since Greece won the European Champioship in 2004 with a string of 1-0 wins.

I also think from about 1994 - 2004 we had a generation of genuinally great players and as they come to the end of their careers they have not been replaced with players with the same talent or in some cases have played or been selected for too long, restricting the opportunties for younger players .

It might take another 3 or 4 years for younger talents to come through and get the sort of top level experience need to become great players. Hopefully then we will see a return a better standard of football.

i feel argentina takes the cake when it comes to national anthems. although germany and italy are no. 2 and 3 for me, yeah

WC's in 94, 98 and 2002 were also home to some of the more boring football (remember the 94 final), and i think in general terms this WC (at least in the group stages) has seen some more flourishing stuff, more goals etc. despite most top countries having great defences

but yeah, argentina in 4 years time gonna be amazing