stewarty

As I've said previously, you need to take into account the context of the game. Also Rodriguez's effort was more difficult to take given the angle he scored from.

As I said earlier, there were some excellent goals from a number of players and Joe Cole's goal was good but not in the same league as the 2 Argy goals.

I'm surprised there wasn't a mutiny! I wonder if the fact the Mclaren was his number 2 had an affect. Similar to my earlier point, if they criticesed Eriksson then they would be criticising their future boss at the same time.

Just watched them both again. Still cant make up my mind which one to go for. I'm swaying more towards Rodriguez purely because of the game situation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5153566.stm Here's a link to the BBC Goal of the Tournament. You can watch the video of some of the goals.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/5160364.stm Owen clearly didn't think much of Sven's tactics. Now that Eriksson's gone will we see other players come out and criticise his management. It never happens during a managers reign becuase the players who speak out, still want to play for their team.

What does everyone think? I cant decide between 2 Argentina goals. Firstly Cambiasso's goal vs Serbia and Montenegro. Brilliant possesion, one touch, give and go football with about 40 consecutive passes. Eventually they exploited some space, moved the ball into the box and an excellent finish into the top corner by Cambiasso arriving late. A goal for the purists. Secondly there's Maxi Rodriguez's volley vs Mexico. Given the context of the match i.e 2nd half of extra time heading for penalties, and the sheer audacity and quality of his chest and volley from the corner of the box was simply outstanding. Often players get too caught up with making sure they dont make a mistake that they forget to that a goal in extra time might win the game without the lottery of penalties. There were lots of other good finishes and some spectacular strikes from outside the box but those two, for me, stood out...

I hope Uncle Sol's lawyers dont read that!

At the end of the day, Italian football needs Juve, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio in their top flight. They have TV contracts and sponsorships which would be affected should they all be relegated. I agree with Gribs that there's more likely to be an injustice coming at the end of this but given all the factors I just cant see 4 clubs being relegated

I'm just looking for a good footballing final although these games have been few and far between as Juffers says. I'd like to see Zidane do well but also Rino too.

I think the queston on Owen will be if he can re-capture his Liverpool/ England form of a few years ago. He seems to have been injured for about 2 years solid and for a guy who relies a lot on pace to punish defenders, will he be as quick as before? I doubt it.

I hope the Germans embarrass Portugal. I've gone right off their diving cheating antics - which ironically for me started in the '03 Uefa Cup Final vs Celtic. It was good to see Celtic getting beaten, but it's just not funny any more.

I kind of agree with that but think it would cause more harm than good to change the captaincy. I think Barry is a natural captain because the shouting/ moaning/ geeing up that he does is suited to being the captain and it's also part of his normal game. To take away the captaincy could perhaps take something away from his game or make him feel he cant do the things that come naturally.

Just noticed that was post number '666' from me so am posting again so that the devil doesn't set about me for stealing his number...

Couldn't agree more. Also thought that Paul Robinson did a swan lake for the England v Paraguay game as if someone had set about his leg with a machete. He took about 5 minutes to recover. Meanwhile his team-mates re-grouped, caught their breath and drank some water. Then miraculously he gets up and, kicking from hand, launches the ball 85 yards from the re-start. Gamesmanship if ever I saw it and yet England will bang on about being hard done by....

It doesn't say much for his ambition if he's happy to leave a potential league winning side in Brondby for a middle of the road french side. Granted the general standard of play will be higher there but he's guaranteed Champions League/UEFA Cup football every season at Ibrox. If he was in any way serious about coming to Rangers he would have knocked back any offer from Tolouse (or similar) until eventually Brondby accepted Rangers offer.

Italy 2 - France 1 I reckon Italy will just be a wee bit too strong. I think the scandal thats hit Italian football and the incident with Tessotto (I think thats his name) has galvanised their determination to win. I can see Italy getting a goal up early, then adding a 2nd as France push the game with a late Zidane consolation. Stewarty - Crystal Ball Loyal.

Agreed, given what Danny's just said, 3.5million is a lot of money to spend. We haven't done that for about 5 years now!

For those who watched the game on RTV last night... Anyone get really cheesed off with Derek Ferguson's summarising? He had one point to make on each player - usually about how they played at the end of last seasn, and he then went on to repeat the same point about 50 times throughout the game and then finally once more when he was wrapping up the coverage. I would have kicked the telly. ARRRGGGH.. I'm getting angry just thinking about it...

What? No Namouchi?

The players tired in the 2nd half and didn't seem to have the energy to force the game. This invited Linfield to have quite a lot of possession in the 2nd half although they never really threatened. It was interesting to hear that the players had a hard training session in the morning before the game. Talk about a hard task master or what!?

We have a chance, albeit not a big one, against the Ukraine, but Italy and France!?? Given the players that will be retiring from the French team you could argue that we could catch them a bit cold but cant see us getting any change from the Italians. I think the best we can hope for is 3rd. Would there be the possibility of qualifying from 3rd? Was there not a place in Euro 2002 for the best 3rd place teams?

i think this is a good move. it would undermine our stance with uefa if we had, lets say 'ambiguous' name printing on the back of shirts from our official vendor.

it just shows that any pre-conceptions about who was getting papped might not be true. well done to big gavin! just shows that if you work hard and have the right attitude then le guen will give you a chance. ditto with boydy getting an extra year on his contract - he's made all the right noises about coming back to murray park to impress the new boss...

nice one. a couple of days late tho