What language do they speak there?  Belgian or something?  Meeo supportio Portugalee!  Mucho goodio playarees!

So, I guess the talk about cheating bastard scum players being penalised was so much twaddle then.  I wonder how much longer the game can go on pretending that the referee is always right, even when he's wrong.  And a cunt.

-
Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.

I thought the red card was for the pushing after the fact...

IIRC the penalty retake was because he took the kick before the whistle.   To be fair, their goalkeeper didn't even move so I think it's likely that people weren't ready.

RE: referees/diving etc.  I'm not going to blame either for our loss.  We didn't have any goals disallowed (the penalty above excepted), no dodgy decisions led to a goal against us, and the red card (which could easily be argued as legitimate) if anything made us play better.

Nope, we lost this one due to good old English incompetence.

I'm hoping Germany win.  No, seriously!  Portugal and Italy are both precious little dirty bastards whose play style is to let the referee win the match for them^*, France winning twice in three competitions?  Dear God no!

That leaves Germany.

_{^*I'm still not blaming the ref, but that doesn't mean I can't dislike their cheaty-cheat playing style.}

---

"Engarde!" cried the larvae, huskily. - Scrymarch

I'm still feeling gutted though it'll be my first chance to properly drink away the dissapointment tomorrow. Sad thing was from an England's point of view is Crouch did really well in the role Rooney looked so uncomfortable in. Had the 2 been on the pitch at the same time I think we'd have ripped Portugal's defence appart.

In terms of who'll win I can't see Portugal winning it - they don't look good enough (but then what do I know). After a ropey start France have pulled themselves together - best team in it now but I have a feeling their going to come unstuck by a Bartez looking even more "dodgy keeper" material than normal. Italy may dive there way to the title but I doubt it, so I guess my money'd be on the German's even if I's like it to be France.

Rock Hard Abs are just a sw-sw-swivel away!

On the one hand, as the English press are so fond of pointing out, Sven is a muppet and deserves a blotch on his reputation after some of the fuggling around this year. On the other hand, they rather want to blame everything on him, which seems a bit much to me. The players surely have some responsibility for the results of their play (and the appalling passing  at various moments.)

Red cards and Orc boys...

On the one hand, when I saw the incident it looked accidental, once you're off balance it's easy to put your feet on the wrong spot.

On the other hand, no-one, not even the rabid Sven-hating Rooney defenders seems to think it was an accident and if it wasn't it definitely deserved a red card.

As you say, we could well have gone on to lose with 11 men, the way we were playing and the blame for that does lie in part with Sven.

However, there's an enormous wall of rubbish coming from various pundits to the effect that "It's Sven's fault for putting Rooney up front alone to get frustrated. That's why he lashed out."

This makes me want to blame Rooney for the whole business, frankly. If you can't play a hard match in an unfamiliar position without lashing out then you're not an international class footballer.

Sure, we might have been better off with 2 up front against Portugal, but, sooner or later, there will be a game where, for the good of the team, Rooney will have to play up front on his own.

With any luck, he will learn some lessons from this (c.f. Beckham, Argentina) but I'm wary (and fed up) of the indulgence people are beginning to extend to "Orc boy."