The Flops And Disappointments So Far In Germany 06

Does Spain Deserve To Lose? Yes

So I was discussing with Sylvia about footie yet again and she claimed the French deserved their victory. Well, on the bus trip home I had a serious thought about it and took off my red-tinted glasses and I would like to say, yes they deserved to lose. Firstly, their coach, Luis Aragones once called Thierry Henry 'a black sh*t'. It's a racist comment and I never had respect for that old man anyway. Secondly, the booing of the French national anthem. It's shameful and this was the first incident in the World Cup that a nation's anthem was being jeered. Very disrespectful from the mindless fans and football might be competitve and rivalry does exists between nations, but it's time to make friends, right?


And now, this is the perfect example of what it is to have an egg on your face. Now, he comes back and haunt you and finished you lot off with the 3rd goal and what do you have to say? Well in Zizou Zidane. He is one player that everyone should look up to and learn from. He was poor, but used his extraordinary talents well. Once he got rich he didn't flaunt them around and remained one of the most low profiled 'stars' around. I hate to see him retire, but he already has left a legacy among us.

All in all, the Spanish got what they deserved. Karma.


Flops & Disappointments So Far

So now we are left with 8 teams competing for the prestigious World Cup. So far I have watched the majority of the matches and have been impressed as well as disappointed by some players during the course of the World Cup. Some came into the competition as man-to-watch but flopped spectacularly and some just flattered to decieve. I shall try to name a few players that I find are major disappointments and flops so far.

• Ronaldinho (BRA) - He is without a doubt the best player on planet fotball when he's on form. But rather surprisingly he's had 4 disappointing games already and looked distinctly average and he's currently over-shadowed by compatriot Kaka and maybe even Juninho. Still haven't found the net yet but managed to notch up an assist last night. Really could have done better.
  

• Frank Lampard (ENG) - The Chelsea midfielder hailed with an impressive 21 goals in the Premiership season of 05/06. But he apparently arrive in Germany not to play in the World Cup, but perhaps having a little competition with new team-mate, Michael Ballack on who's the first to put 20 shots into the stands. Caught practicing shooting secretly with the Ghana squad. (Sarcasm Alert)

• Thierry Henry (FRA) - The famed big game bottler was at it again last night, when he was caught offside a total of 8 times and had 0 shot on goals the entire night. This coming from a supposed world's best striker and scoring bucketloads for Arsenal. But I wasn't surprised, watching him play against Barcelona in the CL Finals. Lacked support, but to be honest he looked like he don't give a toss anyway. Oh, and he did a 'Rivaldo' last night too. Cheating French.

• Michael Ballack (GER) - If you frequently watch him play, you know his performance has been sub-par so far and although his shooting might be a little better than Lampard, but still very disappointing from the German captain. I believed he disrupted the German squad a little when he came back into the squad in the match against Poland. Can be better and SHOULD be better.

• Luca Toni (ITA) - The first striker in Italian Serie A to score a whopping 30 goals in a single season. 30 goals in Italian League is a major achievement that even top class strikers like Shevchenko and Inzaghi couldn't do but this big man came into the tournament as a striker on fire. Now he is the striker under fire after failing to score in his 3 games.

• Zlatan Ibrahimovic (SWE) - As I have stated over and over and over again, this big Swede is the one of the most over-rated footballer ever. Everyone hails him as the best thing to Sweden since Henrik Larsson. How he flopped spectacularly in this tournament as he finished without a goal and now suddenly, everyone noticed that he's not that special after all.

• Theo Walcott & Sven Goran-Eriksson (ENG) - The pairing made in heaven. In case you thought they're gay, you're wrong. Sven brought little boy Walcott to the World Cup to be a back-up of Owen, Crouch and Rooney. Oh maybe not, he apparently have never seen Walcott played and gambled to bring this kid to the WC. Now with Michael Crocked Owen out of the WC, he now has only a Roonster, a lanky RoboCrouch and...DAVID JAMES. Great.

Anyway the following players are who I thought have flopped or disappoint in the tournament. You can have a different view from me so please do drop a comment or an email if you wish to share your views. Thanks alot and enjoy the 2 days of break before the Quater Finals start again this Friday. Have fun! I'm watching Superman tonight so maybe a review tonight? Cheers.

Tags: Spain, France, Les Bleus, World Cup Flops, Ibrahimovic, Theo Walcott, Luca Toni, Michael Ballack, Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Ronaldinho