[JuZ]

So, anyone watching the World Cup???

I watched the opening game and will catch as many of the the late games as I can. The day games start at around 2am here so they're off limits for me.

Look away now if you recorded the first match but haven't seen it yet.

The opening game was really entertaining. Drama, goals, a potential upset and Brazil ultimately winning. The penalty was a joke, his hand was barely touching him. The amount of writhing in faux agony was bloody annoying. If you did that on an Aussie Rules ground you would be either booed or laughed off the ground. Neymar is also a cheeky prick, claiming he didn't see his opponent coming, when the replay shows him eyeing him off before elbowing him. Anyway that all sounds negative, whereas I really enjoyed it.

The last goal was lovely, really nicely taken.

There are some superstars at this tournament. Gerrard in his twilight, ditto Pirlo. Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez... Should be fun.

Poor old Aussies will be lucky to manage one draw in the group of death!

[swervedriver]

Yeah, I'll be watching it as it conveniently airs all during the evening here. We'll be lucky to make it out of our (shared) group of death, I really think Spain and Chile will move on and for us and the Ozzies to drop out. The match yesterday was very entertaining, yes, but all the drama/personal confrontations and the penalty took some of the fun out of it.

Curious about Spain - Netherlands tonight.

[JuZ]

It was pretty distasteful wasn't it? Bad ref calls, ugly remonstrations, players mouthing off. "Fair play" is pretty much non existent. Players are too busy trying to get each other booked or losing their mind if they feel slighted.

They could take a leaf out of rugby union's book. Huge respect for the referees, who are usually referred to as "sir'. Get in a rugby ref's face the way the Croatians did and half your team would be sent off. And rightly so.

[EphelDuath666]

yeah, that first game was a total travesty. I'm not saying that Brazil didn't deserve to win, they did score perfectly legitimately twice. But still, that ref really didn't do a good job. Germany's gonna play on Monday. And of all the teams it of course has to be Portugal they're playing against. Oh boy, that's gonna be a tough nut to crack.

Yaaaaaay there are sportsfans here. Unreal.

Seeing as we unsurprisingly didn't qualify for the World Cup I get to watch the whole thing nerve-free and just get to constantly shout for the underdogs, especially Ghana. I really like the way they play and after that cunt Suarez screwed them in the last World Cup I'd love to see them do well. I also think Asamoah Gyan is one of the most underrated strikers in world football because he didn't do too well in the Premier League.

On last night's performance I can't see Brazil winning this tournament. I thought it was being over-hyped before a ball was kicked anyway but watching them just kinda plodding through the motions last night kinda sealed it for me that it'll take a miracle or a whole lot of luck and crowd influence for them to get the trophy. That Japanese ref should be shot out of a cannon after that penalty call as well. Jaysus.

I'm looking forward to the Spain - Holland game tonight, seeing as Van Gaal was one of the Dutchies that helped to grow tiki-taka at Barcelona, and with the Spanish team basically being comprised of Barcelona's best and others who grew up playing that style, it should be interesting to see how he plays Holland's tactics to combat it. No matter what happens it surely can't be any worse than the last World Cup Final. Nobody wants to watch players at that level belittling themselves to that sort of kickshit football again.

[JuZ]

Gaaaaaahh!!!!

2 games, 2 opening goals via shit penalties.

The Netherlands look nervy at the back and keep turning over the ball in dangerous positions. Come on Dutchies, lift! I want a good game!

Nice early save from Casillas... If that had gone in it would have been game on.

Edit: RVP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Terrific goal.

[EphelDuath666]

holy crap, Spain got one hell of an enema Dangerous, dangerous Dutchies! But pretty awesome and fun to watch!

Well, that was unexpected! RVP's header is an early contender for goal of the tournament anyway. Unbelievable stuff! And Torres doing what Torres does best: making a complete bollocks of himself.

[Keeker]

Pim! You're in the lead! That was quite a rout.

[JuZ]

Well, that was unexpected! RVP's header is an early contender for goal of the tournament anyway. Unbelievable stuff! And Torres doing what Torres does best: making a complete bollocks of himself.

If this was Facebook you'd get a thousand likes from me for the Torres comment. The moment he put on a Chelsea shirt he became a potato.

That was just ridiculous and great fun to watch. 10 goals in the first two games.

The group of death just got even more interesting.

I got Netherlands in a sweep in work, and I usually like to root for them, but I'm finding it really hard this time. I can't stand Van Persie (I'm an Arsenal fan) and Robben (he's history's greatest monster), but that was some match

[JuZ]

Our boys did us proud vs Chile. It really should have been 2-2 rather than 3-1 but we paid the price for early nerves and didn't make the most of all those chances in the 2nd half.

Still, as has been said we are one of the very few nations to have treated the world cup as the ultimate development program. Our manager is making the hard calls that his predecessors refused to. Which means we won't win a game but will be set up for future tournaments.

[EphelDuath666]

England vs. Italy today, that should be fun to watch too. Well, hopefully.

[JuZ]

My son is hogging the TV right now so I might be lucky enough to catch some of the second half.

Sterling is starting... I hope he does well.

[EphelDuath666]

4-0.....neato