₦airaland Forum

ALL HAIL MOTHER RUSSIA, i must admit i never NEVER EVER saw this coming until the first 15 minutes of the game. The Ruskies were cold blooded, determined and very well coached. Thanks to Coach Hiddink's emphasis on conditioning this guys ran the Dutch out of the game. I am still incredibly stunned. In hindsight, Marco van Basten shouldn't have rested 9 of his players during the Romania game, they seemed to have lost there rhythm and momentum, meanwhile the Russians who were fighting for their dear lives from DAY 1's calamity against Spain were on edge throughout and this made them very sharp also plus they carried the momentum from winning the last two games including the trashing of the swedes, who knows what Arjen Robben's speed could have accomplished had he being brought along.

Guus Hiddink sure must relish being a traitor in his native land.

@mr showbobo
I must admit i was one of the Dutch fans, because IT TAKES ONLY A MAN TO ADMIT HIS MISTAKES, everybody can say well i told you so (like most Nigerians do) but it takes A REAL MAN to admit his mistakes. Besides, let's be honest, nobody in there right mind saw this coming not even the commentators and the analysts. What an anti-climax it was. But at the end of the day, you have to give it up to the Russians, they played awesome, fearless football, and took the game to the Dutch. Kudos to Pavluychenko and Arshavin you guys deserve fat contracts with the biggest clubs in Europe.

Now to all those who said that C. Ronaldo choked, you guys must know absolutely nothing about football, there is nothing you can do if the other team designs there defensive tactics to stop only you and in this case, the Germans not only had the personnel to execute those tactics, but the personnel were fantastic. Whenever C.Ronaldo had the ball, there were immediately 2 or 3 players surrounding him, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS NOT FREAKING DERBY COUNTY!!!  THIS IS DIE MANSCHAFT (German National team), its only members of the stupid media who are just casual fans of the game (or arm-chair analysts as i love to call them) who say that Ronaldo doesn't play well. It all comes down TO THE QUALITY OF THE OPPOSITION. This is the same C. Ronaldo that scored 42 goals in 49 games people.

That's why i fault Felipe Scolari and Ronaldo's teammates because in situations like this, when a player is attracting attention from defense, this should leave spaces for other players to perform, but none of them stepped up. Big Phil should have done what Alex Ferguson does to CR7 in games, he should switch the guy from wing to wing during the course of the game. At times he should switch him to the left wing and at times to the striking position, or just give him a free role, this would make the defense confused and create chances for other portuguese players. Heck he should have even put him in central midfield in place of Deco who was slowing down there counter-attacks so that he could launch those quick offensives, while Quaresma plays on the right wing, but Felipe Scolari was just not flexible enough with his tactics. What a shame and this is the same guy that Chelsea is going to be paying a huge sum of money to.

why would i want to be French kissed, isn't that the easiest way to spread meningitis? Abeg commot jare, besides its not our culture, if you want to be French kissed, go and marry an OYINBO. Why would i want to be exchanging saliva with somebody else, you know how many germs and bacteria dem get? Na too much western movies dey cause this one jare.

Whatever happened to the 4-4-2 formation? People hardly ever use it again, everybody is playing either a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3, in fact, Germany's formation which has been the most effective so far is the 4-2-2-2 which did wonders in the Portugal game. I like the formation because it gives a lot of freedom and creativity to the front 4 players with two defensive midfielders protecting them.

But having said that, this match showed how different the German team is from the ones of old. There is no way a Lothar Mattheus or Franz Beckenbauer led defense would conceed those two goals, the German central defense is sooooooooo  incredibly weak, no wonder Croatia beat them through crosses to the center which begs the question, what are those tall trees doing in the centre of defense (Per Mertesacker and Metzelder), they have been so incredibly horrible plus the defending at the flanks was just horrible as the Portuguese proceeded to launch most of there attack from there.

Phil Scolari made some mistakes in the game, his team kept focusing on long balls which wasn't effective against the tall Germans, his should have ordered his midfield to resort to short quick one-two passes and launch counter-attacks from there, but unfortunately Deco is way too slow and he was usually a pass too late.

Francois Clerc is not the first choice right back at Lyon yet he played and was selected ahead of the best right back in the premiership, B.Sagna. As if that wasn't bad enough, he even selected Eric Abidal who has been out of form in Barca this season. The other bad decisions this man has made was to send Mathieu Flamini home despite the fact that Vieira was injured and finally the mother of all bad decisons, to select Jean Alain Boumsong in the squad, a one man disaster (Calamity Jean), they are only two logical explanations for his selection, Monsieur Domenech is either dating Boumsong's sister or Boumsong has some pictures of Domenech in some really uncompromising situations. To be fair to the guy sha, the poor boy acquitted himself in the game but that still does not justify him playin over Phillipe Mexes or Sebastien Squillaci. Lassana Diarra was on the bench which was another dumb decision because Lassana is a mini-vieira in that he can be a holding midfielder and can launch an attack at the same time. He would have come in very handy considering the fact that the French always play with two defensive midfielders. Unfortunately, Toulalan and Makelele are the same kind of players all they do is defend and they have no attacking talent, so why not take out one of them and put a defensive midifielder like Lassana who can go forward and launch a counter-attack.

This Domenech sef, i don tire for am, man no understand am at all.

In all fairness, lets give credit to the Italian team, what a turnaround from there first game, they are definitely going to beat the spanish, with Chellini absolutely smothering David villa  .
They [the italians] played a 4-3-1-2 formation with 3 defensive midfielders  and Perrotta behind Cassano and Toni and they didn't do quiet bad. Unlike Monsieur Domenech did, Donadoni played 3 different defensive midfielders with different capabilities. de Rossi knows how to attack and he has some skill going forward, Andrea Pirlo knows how to attack and he is especially deadly with his crosses and long balls,  and Gattuso, well he is always going to be a Gattuso and nothing more. If it was Domenech in charge, he would have played 3 Gattuso's instead, holding midfielders with absolutely no attacking skill. This Italian formation worked so well for them  that whenever the French even tried there counter attacks they were immediately swallowed by seven white jerseys. Kudos to Chellini especially, he has been wonderful, i must confess i never even heard of the guy until he played the last two games and so far he has been good, he covers ground much faster and reacts quickly plus he has one extra thing Cannavaro didn't have, height.

@jackal
My goodness are we not saying the same thing? I said in my earlier post that Brazil and Argentina are the only teams that can compete in the Euros and you just agreed with me. By the way, are you an adult at all, geez with all the name calling you really really sound like a kid, i really do hope you are not in your 30's because it would be a shame for an adult to be talking like this, seems to me that you can't even respond with a logical arguement except name calling. Oh boy grow up will you.

@oyinye
Please mrs. oyinye, can you please tell me the difference between a 4-3-1-2 formation and a 3-4-3 formation. When you can tell me the difference, analyze it for me indepthly and convince me properly only then would i believe you. I hope you are not one of thos arm chair football watchers who only watch football during the world cup or when there brothers or husbands are watching.

By the way, i need people who can analyze a soccer game PROPERLY to comment on this board and not just casual fans who resort to name calling when they can't even give a simple insightful analysis about how Spain defends there corner kick with a combination of a 5 man zone defense and 2 man, man to man scheme. Until any of you can do that or even explain to me how Luis Aragones's 4-3-3 scheme work, then come talk to me.

hey, hey WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO ME and who are you? keep your insults to yourself, we are trying to start an intelligent conversation not name calling. By the way, not everybody in yanki loves rap music, in fact a lot of people  HATE IT.

@folahann
Good to see you're back , remember when i told you earlier when the  draws first came out, that Holland would qualify from the group of death and you were doubting me ha ha.
By the way, don't mind this people jare. They don't know what they are talking about, i agree with everything you said, why are we talking about history.
Can you remember the World Cup match between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia? that was the worst football i had ever seen. That says a lot about horrible the World Cup is, and anybody who has a very deep knowledge of football would know that. Even Arsene Wenger and most knowledgeable coaches say that the Euros are a better standard than the World Cup.
P.S: The African teams too are waaaay overrated, we've still not justified FIFA's inclusion of 5 teams from our continent, we seem to make the quarter finals once every 16 years (the ivory coast wey everybody dey shout, no be them lose to holland and Argentina?). What a shame.

@jackal
we are on a sensible blog here, we are not here to insult anybody!!! we are just here to give proper and indepth comparisons about what tournament is better and not NAME CALLING other people. By the way, the Austria and switzerland you are talking about, isn't that the same team that Nigeria managed to tie with. Switzerland only qualified for the second round simply because they were playing South Korea and Togo.

Also, you said that you watched Mexico '86 and Espana '82, who are you  decieving? what next are you going to say, that you watched Argentina '78 or Sweden '58? I just love how people love to bring up old games or history in general to try and show off that they know more about everything than everybody else, what insecurity, it reminds me of those old "babas" who like using phrases like "in 1966, when i was in London (London ko, Great wall of China ni.    ) .You and i both know that in our heart of hearts that you didn't watch it (reading about the games or watching documentaries and old highlights don't even qualify), heck, NTA were not even licensed to broadcast those matches in those days, so stop kidding us.

Can someone tell me this, why are rappers always rapping about ho's, bitches, niggas? then this are the same people who cry foul when oyinbo man go call them niggas. Truth of the matter is that hip-hop is a very bad influence to young African-American men, in fact, black men in general. The genre degrades women (as seen in the Nelly video where he swiped a credit card through a woman's butt crack)   Even in naija, people have started calling themselves the N-word or sagging there pants or stealing from there parents (including school fees) or robbing people (including "obtaining" juniors in sec. school) to buy jewelry's, jerseys, rocawear's, sean john's or snickers. In the 90's a lot Naija girls were getting their fashion sense from the rap or R&B videos and dressing like people of ill repute (don't let me say what was on my mind  ). The most annoying part of it is when my siblings or my  friends back home tell me to buy them baggy jeans or jordan snickers which usually cost over $200!!!!! (snickers ko, sandals ni). In urban america, its worse because a lot of families there are in shambles (75% of African-Americans are born out of wedlock), the kids learn a lot of corrupting influences from rap music, they don't want to go to school any longer because when they watch Fiddy, Ludacris or Weezy in the videos glorifying the gangsta lifestyle rapping about ho's and pimps (the worst creatures on earth), they too want to be like that because there is no glory in staying up all night typing a project.

I watched "Knocked up" and it was the worst comedy i've ever watched, it was so unfunny (if there is ever a word like that) and boring, all they were doing was swearing and cursing and swearing, i can't believe i just wasted over 2 hours of my precious life watching that, what a shame a good 2 1/2 hours i would never get back again.
WARNING: For those of you who want to marry Oyinbo, you better watch the movie and understand why in yanki, 50% (60%in some estimates) of there marriages end up in divorce. See how the wife (Debbie) was mistreating and disrespecting the husband, now i wonder why O.J Simpson killed his wife  . Abeg o, my fellow Nigerians make una no marry oyinbo o, if you like yourself you better just go and chill with your African queen or you will find yourself single at age 40 (ouch! ).


Another so-not-funny comedy i watched was "The Return of the Zohan" that was just horrible. I know it was supposed to make fun of Israeli people and some of there culture (like there love of disco) or mannerisms but i just couldn't get it.

The Euro only miss Brazil and Argentina. I don't think watching China vs Costa Rica would hold any form of excitement.
I also feel 5 slots is too much for Africa 2 is just okay

mr. dayokannu, thanks a gazillion for the comment, that's by far the best commentary i've read so far and i agree with everything. I hate watching unorganized football where defenders just keep booting the ball 80 miles into the air all the time instead of seeing a team string 23 passes before they score.

Also, how could a country like Italy win the World Cup 4 times and yet they've only managed to win the Euros once, and that was back in the 60's. Truth of the matter is that its much easier to win the World Cup than winning the Euro's. Tell me, which European team has won the European cup 3 times. I am sure if Brazil and Argentina were in Europe they wouldn't even come close to that tally.

Which European Championship in it's history compares Italia 90/Mexico 86?

Euro '96 was way better than those competitions especially Italia '90 which was extremely boring. At least you should have mentioned USA '94 which was much better rather than using Italia '90.

what a horrible game 6, i expected the Lakers to show up especially kobe (way to go with the MJ comparisons) but they didn't what a shame, that i wasted an hour of my life watching such a boring game, a good hour i would never get back. By the way, did anybody notice David Stern, NBA commissioner being booed before the commemoration ceremony? OUCH!!!

@eldee
Tell me this, why are rappers always rapping about ho's, bitches, niggas? then this are the same people who cry foul when oyinbo man go call them niggas. Abeg jo, carry go. Truth of the matter is that hip-hop is a very bad influence to young African-American men, in fact, black men in general. Even in naija, people have started calling themselves the N-word or sagging there pants or stealing from there parents (including school fees) or robbing people (including "obtaining" juniors in sec. school) to buy jewelry's, jerseys, rocawear's, sean john's or snickers. In the 90's a lot Naija girls were getting their fashion sense from the rap or R&B videos and dressing like people of ill repute (don't let me say what was on my mind  ). The most annoying part of it is when my siblings or my  friends back home tell me to buy them baggy jeans or jordan snickers which usually cost over $200!!!!! (snickers ko, sandals ni). In urban america, its worse because a lot of families there are in shambles (75% of African-Americans are born out of wedlock), the kids learn a lot of corrupting influences from rap music, they don't want to go to school any longer because when they watch Fiddy, Ludacris or Weezy in the videos glorifying the gangsta lifestyle rapping about ho's and pimps (the worst creatures on earth), they too want to be like that because there is no glory in staying up all night typing a project.

TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS RAP IS HORRIBLE BECAUSE IT DEGRADES WOMEN AND ITS A BAD INFLUENCE AMONGST OUR KIDS. End of discussion.

Reading this thread makes you know that we are in the end times. For somebody to say that it is not mandated to pay tithes because its not in the New Testament means that we should ignore it? What blasphemy, Jesus said "i did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it" and here you have people saying that its not mandated to pay tithes. Don't you guys pay your taxes? You think the state cares if you are owing somebody, if you don't pay your taxes, then that is a crime whether you are owing somebody or not. If you can't cheat the state then what more God, who created all things and explicitly stated in his word that if you don't pay your tithes and offerings, then you are robbing me.


God is above all your debts my friend, what you are probably going through right now is a test to see to see how faithful you are going to be. Jesus said "occupy till i come" are you going to do that or be found wanting also do not forget that the Jesus said that "many are called but few are chosen" are you going to be amongst those faithful ones? or be like the foolish virgins. "O ye of little of faith" if you could just trust God that he will see you through, he will reward you with much more than you could imagine.

So my good friend if you want to deny yourself blessings from God, then don't pay your tithes.

I definitely remember Kamala. I think one of the other dude is the million dollar man.

mr. texazzpete
Obviously, you know nothing about football so keep your opinions to yourself? Anybody who has in-depth knowledge of world football and by that i don't mean fans who can't tell the difference between a 3-3-3-1 formation from a 4-3-2-1 formation, i mean those who know how to strategize and game plan for a match would tell you that the quality of football is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay much better and its not even close. If its not true, then why is it that 14 Europeans qualify for the World cup while the rest of the world can barely make it? Why is it that an African team can't get to the semis?

From what i've seen so far you can't compare the world cup to the Euros, would your rather watch Iran vs. Angola or France vs. Holland or the just concluded match; Turkey vs. Czech Rep. or Tunisia vs. Saudi Arabia. As for me, i think only Brazil and Argentina are worthy to be in the tournament.

The standard of football is waaaay much better, the players are tactically disciplined, and besides brazil and argentina all the teams that got to the quaterfinals of the world cup are in the Euros. In the Euros, your weaknesses get much magnified in such a competition of high quality opponents. Case in point, in the 2006 world cup where the football world was realigned and the Europeans dominated once again restoring the order of things the same teams are now struggling.  To further demonstrate some of the disparity between competitions, switzerland that got to the second round of the world cup can't even get past there group because they were playing against teams like Togo and South Koreans and the italians and the french who were on top of the world are now struggling for survival, especially the french who were so wonderfully sublime in there game against Togo  .

What do you guys think?

Those of you that were clamoring for France to include there younger players saw how Patrice Evra went missing in such an important game.

@camaron
Last time i heard, he was playing for Shooting Stars FC of Ibadan.

why did this man keep on playing? Didn't he save all his money from playing proffessionally in Europe and invest it?

Join the discussion and more at www.soccernet.com

It is when you watch games like this you realize how overrated the English and that truly, they don't deserve to be in this tournament. Mordern day football is like Chess, not "draft" with a lot of scheming and tactics and like basketball in terms of well orchestrated and structured (fast breaks) counter-attacks. The English on the other hand play ball like Nigerians; direct ball, long ball, "gra-gra" or "wuru-wuru" football. Its not uncommon in the English league to see a defender instead of giving short passes and possessing the ball, instead he boots it 30 metres in the air. The English players unlike the Super Eagles have no skill and technique at all (at least, we have the Okocha's and the Kanu's), all they do is play physical football and to make matters worse are not comfortable with the ball at there feet which is what Fabio Cappello is trying to teach them. Case in point, how many English players can do what Ruud van Nistlerooy did to keep the ball from going out of bounds while at the same time passing to Robben? None, end of story.

As for France, Marco van Basten took over 4 years to prepare this young players to play like this, and he has been experimenting for several years now and now its coming to fruition. The French and the Italians are now suffering the effects of not developing and integrating there young players since they've been living in past glory. The French team have a combined age of 208 years and they were going against the fleet footed Dutch, ha, what a difference 2 years make. The French and the Italians should have retooled immediately after the world cup but they didn't now they are suffering the aftermath of being complacent and sticking to the old guns. Also, i don't understand why Raymond Domenech likes to stick with older players? the guy was the French U21 coach before coaching the senior team.

On a side note, thank God that Marco van Basten put his ego aside and decided to beg RvN to play in the tournament, it has worked well thus far.

the Dutch are amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing.

In Domenech we don't trust.

This guy beat everybody (who was anybody in boxing, unlike Rock Marciano) and he went undefeated which Lewis, Clay, Tyson did not even manage to do, what more do you guys want him to do? walk on water? Just admit it guys, you people know nothing about boxing and never knew who Floyd Mayweather was especially the guys screaming about Mike Tyson and Cassius Clay, Mike Tyson's career fizzled before you could say Jackie Robinson. None of you; i repeat NONE ever watched Cassius Clay fight and you guys are just pouting about how great he was, proclaiming yourself to be the greatest of all time does not necessarily mean you're the greatest. Also, being the most popular fighter does not make you the best or else Mike Tyson would be the greatest. Lennox Lewis fought nobody, heck, the guy even lost to Hasim Rahman (Yes, Hasim Rahman of all people) and severall others. Ali, lost to Leon spinks, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes so you guys who know nothing about boxing and Floyd Mayweather should just keep your opinions to yourselves.

Italy needs to make some changes in there line up, they need to replace Gattuso and Ambrosini with De Rossi and Perrotta and replace Camoranesi with Aquilani or Antonio Cassano. Camoranesi wasn't getting the job done in the last game and the team desperately needs to get younger.

There has been a lot of controversy lately about RVN's goal that even UEFA had to release an official statement about the controversial goal. What are your thoughts on it?

http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/news/kind=1/newsid=711341.html

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=544817&cc=5901

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/federation/laws_of_the_game_0708_10565.pdf

omo, you don turn oyinbo.

The Spanish are absolutely awesome, they gave us a clinic in counte-attacking football and passing football. Everybody thought they were going to use there normal 4-3-3 with Torres as the sole striker but since the formation was unimpressive against the US in a friendly last Wednesday, they scrapped it for a 4-4-2 and even when they removed Fernando "El Nino" Torres and reverted back to the 4-3-3, the boys were still flying.

By the way, when would Nigeria ever learn to play like this guys, this is classic technical and tactical football instead of the long ball,  "jam body", "kick and follow" football we play all the time.

Man that dude in the picture must really be in love with himself, heck he even looks like Marshall Faulk.

@seanT21
Who are you and what's with the insult? I don't know you so don't be addressing me like you know me.

I saw "The Eye" with Jessica Alba last night and it was pretty creepy, but was a cool movie though and it did make sense unlike a lot of horror movies out there.