I’m not a football fan either, but have just got back from watching the match in a pub (again, not something I’d ever normally do).  It was unbelievably tense and I can see why people get so wrapped up in it.  Unfortunately there were several knuckle-scraping idiots behaving in exactly the stereotypical way that gives the game a bad reputation.  Walking home, there were police everywhere; I asked one if they always had so many people out on a Saturday; they don’t, they were manned-up because of the game.

Being from the U.S. I knew that my team didn’t stand a chance, so I have been rooting for our English cousins. I am with you on the penalties, the amount of yellow and red cards seems a bit excessive.

You’ve got to give it to Portugal, they really controlled that game and their goal keeper is amazing.

There was nothing excessive about Rooney’s red card, imo. When you act like a baby, you get treated like one.

This just goes to reinforce the centuries-old adage, “Never crush a man’s balls with your feet.”

If I got my math right, England got the same yellow cards as Portugal (plus Rooney’s red) with twice as many fouls. If that’s excessive, then someone must have missed Holland x Portugal.

Portugal has lousy moments (many failed passes, some in quite dangerous areas), but controlled the thing, made it to the penalties, and performed better --- but for those who prefer to put it that way, yeah, there may have been 120 minutes of resistance and then luck.

And now France. C’mon british people, we’ve gotta be supporting us now --- it’s the French! ;)

My comment above regarding yellow and red cards was in reference to this year’s World Cup in its entirety, not just the Portugal vs. England match.

I zoned out after that red card, and found myself facing the bar rather than the screen. It just seemed so fated from then on.

Well that’s what you get for having yobs like Rooney on the team. Maybe one day, football will be about how well you can kick a ball, not how well you can kick someone in the ‘nads.

Being a football fan and who’s watched the majority of games this World Cup I am only too happy to see England out.

Let face the hard facts here:
1. All the English perfomances were poor throughout the World Cup
2. The decision to choose 4 strikers, 2 whom were injured, 1 who had never played in the Premiership and a Giraffe wasn’t exactly the greatest idea Sven ever had
3. The FA made a huge cock up trying to employ Scolari before the competition

They think it’s all over? it is now

> and a Giraffe

Zing.

Well yeah Mark, England played well considering they were a man down, but to be fair Portugal played well too - and more importantly, you can’t deny that their keeper made four incredible penalty saves, and the one he let through brushed his fingers too. I’d say that his performance alone deserved a win for the team.

I think England could have won it really, if not for the demoralising loss of Beckham - but then again, there’s a very appropriate saying for that which includes eggs and a basket.

Anyway, don’t these people wear shin guards? I swear I’ve been kicked harder than that, and I never felt the need to bury my face in the grass afterwards.

England played their best football of the Cup without Beckham and Rooney on the field. Watching the match on tv from Australia I thought England played really well with ten men. Portugal never looked much like scoring whereas England created several chances. Was a shame that England fell apart in the penalty shoot out. I’m not fan of Portugal though, they have couple of potential Oscar winning actors in Figo and Ronaldo.

I for one love the “giraffe”, he gives hope to talk, skinny people everywhere that they can play sport! :) Love him or hate him, he gave it everything against Portugal.

I was rooting for Portugal (hoping England lose is bred into Irishmen. Sorry, there’s nothing I can do about it). But to be honest, I was wishing they could both lose by the end of it. One of the worse games of the competition.

Compared to the Brazil/France game that evening… that was a game.

Still, I’m not sure Rooney did it on purpose. Honestly, it looked kind of accidental.

> Still, I?m not sure Rooney did it on purpose.

It was his temper that earned him a red card, not the actual ball crunching.

>It was his temper that earned him a red card, >not the actual ball crunching.

Well then I would have sent off Ronaldo for interfering too. Since when is refereeing a democratic process?

Interesting football, is like ‘military intelligence’ both come under the category of ‘oxymoron’.

While “football violence” is a redundant synonym

Being a portguese guy I must tell you guys that it is quite good to win in penalties. I don’t know why:) Any way Rooney realy meant to do it! Ronaldo made what every footbal player would do and i don’t think that he influenced the referee because he almost doesn’t know how to speak. And no, footbal does’t mean violence, it means physical contact and that influences violence. Football im my opinion is a very beuatiful game or do I have to remind you about the goals that this world cup as given so far as the argentiniam or the Joe Cole goal… Be fare Portugal deserved to win and the french are next:P

Oh no, football can be beautiful, sure—what I’m saying is that it is also inexplicably linked with constant violence, if not from the players themselves (e.g. Argentina) then from the fans.

I agree with Leszek, more than ever, sport is loosing a little bit of what it was suppose to be about; Fair play.
Either in the field or outside it.

Being Fair Play the main idea the german organisation wanted to promote, we shure did have some bad moments in this world cup. I can recall two games, one of Argentina and Portugal vs Netherlands, in witch players made themselfs center of the atentions for the wrong reasons.

And the same happens with fans. Lately, in the news, I see too often images of wrecked cafes and sports fans beeing arrested.

I don’t believe that is even close to the true spirit of football, or any other sport by that matter!

btw, I’m portuguese and must say that England played really well against portugal, even more if we see that they were one player short.

2 players were missing from the Portuguese side who faced the lack lustre English: Deco and Costinha

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