FOOTY!

[Pierre ZFP]

Earlier today the England team visited an orphanage in South Africa.

"It's good to put a smile on the faces of people with no hope,

constantly struggling and facing the impossible" said Sikele Umbanda,

aged 6.

[pachapapa]

Was hoping for a ticket from Robbie Earle....to nique leur coach....but the orange m**** messed up.[:)]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="velcorin"]

Just be very thankful you're not French.

Deep, deep joy at their humilation[:D][:D]

[/quote]

England isn't that far off you know.

Previous captain of England scandal when he shagged his team mates woman.

Next England captain suspended earlier in his career for failing to take a drugs test.

Current England captain caught in CCTV thumping a DJ in a night club, but he "amazingly" got off of that.

Then you got Rooney crying at the cameras because the England fans are booing them for being crap.

And then aforementioned captain having a whinge to the media as well.

I think Frances plight is masking how tragic England's plight actually is.

[pachapapa]

La lutte finale! You remember Dhorasoo the guy who did the video film in 2006 which upset Raymond SSSSSOOOOO much.

Well,on his blog "billet" entitled "La lutte finale" he is paddling ...

The commentaries are plentiful and pithy. Worth a read.

http://dhorasoo.blog.lemonde.fr/2010/06/21/cest-la-lutte-finale-2/

[velcorin]

Maybe. But, only the English seem to be aware. Honestly, no one else cares. The French humilation has been GLOBAL. There was one of my German colleagues, agreeing with a American colleague the French just lived up to the national stereotype. Go on strike, or run off home.

[pachapapa]

Glad to see the ref  gave a straight red card, thoroughly deserved for cold calculated brutality.

A mere yellow would have been a bad example to " les jeunes".

[La Guerriere]

You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh ...

[pachapapa]

[:)]C'est vraiment une bonne transmogrification.

Perdonnez-moi le pseudo-grecque qui n'existe pas dans la langue de "coupe au rico".

[velcorin]

B*gger, they scored. Takes all the fun out winding them up.

[Gardengirl]

They surely had to try hard, after being told they were letting their children, friends and country down.

Final score: France 1 - South Africa 2

[pachapapa]

[quote user="velcorin"]B*gger, they scored. Takes all the fun out winding them up.[/quote]

They desrve a "butte" from an "hors-jour".Check the left side and return to Malouda.

Oh and while I remember did you check the handball in the 64th minute,skilfully concealed from the ref, as he directed the ball down from his head,by that world renowned expert in the art.[:)]

[Pierre ZFP]

TH could be the first person to play for France and The Lakers in the NBA [:-))]

 

[Weedon]

The French team's humiliation is complete, with the coach refusing to shake the hand of his opposite number. He should hang his head in shame. I just the love the SA's approach to the game as they sing their way down the tunnel.

[Quillan]

See, cheating your way to the World Cup is not such a good idea after all, it just shows how talentless the French team really is. Well done SA. I suspect the English will be out soon as well. [:D]

[pachapapa]

[quote user="velcorin"]B*gger, they scored. Takes all the fun out winding them up.[/quote]

Commiserate!  They got ONE POINT it could have been worse.[:D]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I think the French team has a lot of talent, much more so than England's for instance.

However, their attitude and self destruct has majorly over powered it.

And I agree, England will most likely be following them out of the competition.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]I think the French team has a lot of talent, much more so than England's for instance. However, their attitude and self destruct has majorly over powered it. And I agree, England will most likely be following them out of the competition.[/quote]

Having had a short sporting life myself but also having the opportunity to represent my country the most important thing that was ever explained to me (after that of being part of a team) was that a good sports person would have no reason to cheat. France qualified for the WC by cheating, pure and simple, a good team has no need to cheat and neither do any individual members of the team. If you do cheat then it will come back to haunt you and listening to the French booing Henry today and seeing the absolutely terrible performance of the French team its clear that what I was told is quite correct.

England on the other hand never cheated to get in to the WC which makes it better than France (just) but yet again its team that just does not sparkle. The question is of course, watching the main European teams, is what exactly is wrong with them. My personal thinking is its all down to money and the wages these people are paid coupled with the constant living in the press spotlight. They believe they are gods, they demand and get huge a salaries when the bulk of them would be nothing if it were not for football, indeed many would be unemployable at worse or only fit for manual work at best like emptying bins. This is typical of what happens when big business gets involved in sport. Another example that comes to mind if F1, how anyone can say that its exciting beggars belief but then we are not talking F1 so I will say no more.

[just john]

F1 is at least a sport where English teams do particularly well, and if you bother to follow it I think it is more exciting than the current English football, and more sporting as well, with a couple of german exceptions. As far as I'm aware all the team managers are quite happy to shake hands after, unlike the French in this footy farce. disgraceful.

[Weedon]

For what it's worth this is what I think is why the England team is just average (at best). In the Premier league the English players are made to look good because of their foreign teammates so when the English individuals are put together they have no skilled players to link them together. I don't think they actually have the passion to play well, why should they when they earn more in a week than I ever did in a year.

And now we have the bloody tennis on all day and all night. So what with the frogs in my pond croaking away and the tennis players grunting and shrieking it's getting ON MY WICK.

But if England win, and win well tomorrow I will calm down.

[Russethouse]

 Don't dismiss the Tennis Weedon, yesterdays Federer match was more exiting than the England match, and lots of the other matches too.

[NickP]

Quillan wrote:   "indeed many would be unemployable at worse or only fit for manual work at best like emptying bins."

Careful my friend, although you are entitled to your opinions of footballers, you are showing your middle class prejudice, I have a few members of my  family who where gainfully employed as bin men and I find your comments uncalled for to say the least. [:@]

[Gardian]

The problem for international football, is that the demands of club football are so great, that the former suffers. So many players ply their trade abroad & are (literally) strangers when they come together for international matches.

I'm not making excuses for France, because they've self-destructed in so many other ways off the pitch, but they probably suffer from this more than most (a relatively weak domestic league, by comparison with Spain, Italy, Germany, England).

I watched today's catastrophe with my French neighbour - I was chucked out, because OH wanted to watch Wimbledon.  The commentary was  ............... well, one of dismay & despair.

Hope it turns out better tomorrow.[blink]  

[LEO]

[quote user="NickP"]

Quillan wrote:   "indeed many would be unemployable at worse or only fit for manual work at best like emptying bins."

Careful my friend, although you are entitled to your opinions of footballers, you are showing your middle class prejudice, I have a few members of my  family who where gainfully employed as bin men and I find your comments uncalled for to say the least. [:@]

[/quote]

Obviously they were no good at football !

.

[Gardengirl]

I'm not much into sport, but if a good game of football, rugby or tennis is on, I enjoy it. We don't have a TV in France, so no WC, apart from seeing a few minutes in bars when we've been out for a stroll and coffee with visitors after supper, and no Wimbledon.

Having been brought up on a diet of football, I'm not much impressed by what I've seen of football and behaviour of footballers in recent years. I put this down to big business leading to massively inflated pay in UK league football and a lack of time to gel as a team in international matches.

It seems to me very sad that young people are given huge amounts of money because of a wonderful talent in something they're passionate about, yet so many seem to need to live in the glare of publicity in clubs etc. Maybe we only hear about a minority, getting bad publicity. I know there is some guidance for young footballers, such as Theo Walcott had when younger and a supportive family with their feet firmly on the ground must help too.

Poor Weedon, frogs getting at you! I can't believe I'm actually missing the noise of cicadas; not a peep from them so far this year; maybe they suffered in the bad winter and spring.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

France did not cheat to get into the finals, Henry did.

Just as England & Liverpool do not cheat, but Gerrard keeps on diving.