British Expatriate Network

Having seen al of the knockout games up to now thes are my picks for the best amd worst .


Best game in my opinion was the argentina/ mexico game it was close either side could have won a real thriller .edge went to argentina

Worst game of course was the disgusting tangle between portugal and netherlands . the referee lost control and i though i was watching a ice hockey match . bad refereeing bad sportmanship bad every thing .
Portugal won but i didnt care for either team .

did enjoy the first game this morning italy - australia i wanted to cheer for the ausssie but even playing against 10 men those wankers could.nt find the net and lost on a silly and unnessasary foul given the italians a penalty which they turned into a goal in the last seconds of overtime .


classy game between switzerland and the ukraine only one yellow card and lots of gentlemanly conduct on both sides ukraine won on goal kicks after 2 15 mins extra time periods .

Now that is an interesting thought for a shootout...

Paul Robinson would be fantastic at that, we'd play for a draw every game...

I agree pretty well with that John. The only thing is that the refs have been told to take it easy with the cards. If the Ukraine game had been ref'd by the guy from yesterday, I think some of the ukes would be carrying yellow cards and one would have had a red. This puts Portugal at a disadvantage, because of a change of FIFA instructions to the refs; two of their players can't play in the next game.

I'd say Ukraine - Tunisia was pretty bad. Japan - Australia was one of the best.

I actually enjoyed the Portugul Netherlands one. It was full of heat and I was wanting a late Netherlands equalizer so they would play extra time. Then they'd all get more tired, possibly a few injuries and some more suspensions. Let's face it, England need all the help they can get right now.

So did I! It was a very exciting game and got my adrenalin flowing. Glad the neighbours couldn't hear us though :mrgreen:

Me too. Thought it was a very funny game. The France Spain game was the best so far.

I'm going to say that for me it was a toss up between Australia Vs Croatia which was a pretty entertaining score draw or the France Vs Spain game which was ok, and the Holland Vs Portugal game was pretty good too!!

The Japan Vs Croatia game was pretty bad but the last two Ukraine games are most definitely the worst Ive seen so far.

Why am I not looking forward to the Italy-Ukraine game? :mrgreen:

That game is going to be awful. Tho hopefully the Ukraine will dump out Italy in some horribly controversial fashion - Shevchenko with his hand or something like that - and Italians will once again sulk for 4 years. Ha ha.

As for best and worst, what about players? I've been surprised by how dull some of the supposed best-in-the-word have been. I guess it goes to show what real class Ballack, Essien, Klose and Riquelme are - they've been consistently superb. Two goalkeepers have stood out for me too - Kawaguchi (Japan) and Kinson (Ghana). As for the Fab 4 England midfield - it's been a true let-down. I'm still puzzled how the England v Ecuador game is being viewed as a succesful return to form.

As for best coaches - Guus Hiddink appears to be able to make any player into a world-beater. Why the FA didn't get him I'll never know. Eriksson seems quite inadequate in comparison.

I expect that to be interesting, The Ukrainians play hard and the Italians are superb actors, so, depending on the particular referee, we could see eleven Italians against seven or eight Ukrainians, by the end of the game. Of course, if we have a ref who doesn't like players taking a dive, we could end up with a seven-a-side game :mrgreen: