RobertG you are bugging me more than any other person here! Beautiful football? Argentina? Pah!
Stop denigrating Germany and their football team! They deserve to be where they are right now - anything else would have been a shame! A team that was nothing before the world cup started is doing great now! You guys don't know what team spirit is, eh? This is all that matters - not the single action of single cocky Argentinian or Brazilian players...!

And remember: You're the one who blamed the ref and everybody else for losing the game instead of being honest and concede that Argentina just lost it due to a lack of fighting spirit.

German football has become much better and to me, is definitely not ugly. Nevertheless, there's no rule that says that football has to be played "beautiful". See, this is why you'll never achieve anything great in football - playing around like little kids in the street and thinking it has to look "beautiful" is not the point of the game!

GO GERMANY, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kick these italian asses! Now more than ever!

And by the way: Frings gave a punch after he got punched from Cruz...He didn't start it! And no punishment for Cruz? Argentinas behaviour after the match was a shame! They should be banned from any further tournaments! I'd rather have Greece back! Anyway, if I had a persecution complex, I'd say: Argentina, nice arrangement for Italy! How much did they pay? Thank godness I don't have suffer from it

Iirc, Argentina drew against the Netherlands and against Mexico, closing the door for Mechico due to an outstanding and somewhat lucky goal from Rodriguez in extra time.
Argentina was a great team, but not THAT great, imho.

In the end its just football - lets enjoy the sports and the world cup atmosphere.

Guys, Frings did not respect an existing rule and therefore is banned now.
hard for him because he was probably only defending himself. But life is hard sometimes.

the really strange thing is that all this stiuff arised because some players from argentinia
were not able to loose in a way men should be able. However, hot blood, the hard game,
we should really forget all this ugly stuff and keep on watching football the last 4 games.

If we want to beat italy - we now must be able to do this without him.
So what ? the more problems - the more glory ^^

btw

Argentinia plays the more beautyful football, right. But they were not able to
be a real danger for the german goalie more than 2-3 times in this 2 hour game.
So in my opinion there was no effective superiority. Playing football without scoring
- or without even be dangerous - well, that looks nice sometimes but this is not
how we germans understand football.

My son (8 y.o.) is playing football. I often watch the boys, funny thing.
The chief of all these boys is the one that scores. No matter what the other
boys do, tricks, nice playing, nices passes. They are good but they are not hero.
The hero is the one that scores. If one of the boys keeps the ball for a long time,
even if he does good - the other ones shout: hey, go ahead ! Playing slow is the
worst thing one can do. The boys want speed, attacks and goals.

This is the way we think and play football.
All the other stuff is nice & pretty show around. Not necessary. Not efficient.

Rudi

I'm from germany and I have seen the video showing what happened. To me it showed that Frings indeed hit Cruz lightly with his fist and therefore the FIFA was right to ban him.... even if it hurts. It doesn't matter who starts it. Hitting another player must be punished even if you were provoked. And I don't think that you can blame italy for a newspaper and a tv-channel showing these pictures. This is what journalists should do: Show us what happened.

Argentinian players did not show us "beautyfull football" but "ugly wrestling". But things like this happen. This is not excuse for Frings. After all we did win the game against argentinia and we deserved to win as much as argentinia did. I hope there will be no more bad feelings regarding this match.

This being said: I wish Italy all the best when they play for the 3rd place. After all Italy and Argentinia can say that they only lost against the world champion

i do not understand why italy should be blamed for a fight between german and argentinien ?
do we know what is happening to the argentine player who did hit some german player ?
It is normal to suspend Frings but what for those who attacked German players ?
I think germany should call for the TAS to investigate this suspension as well.

Yes why isnt Cruz punished? He hit Frings first. Oh wait, Argentina is out so no need to do something about it. But Germany is still in and Italy was whining about it so they had to punish Frings so the Italians would be quiet.

indeed...i don't see why argentina was all that good....they played one outstanding match....but Servia was no oposition at all in that game. They draw against the Netherlands and if someone was superior, it was clearly the Netherlands. Agains Mexico, some luck...a terrible decision keeping Heinze on the field and then a superb goal by Maxi....but it was with his left foot....he could try all night to repeat it and wouldn't do it....
So...let me remind you Portugal beat Mexico without most of their Starting lineup players and beat Netherlands playing most of the game in numeric inferiority....what makes Argentina the best team in this world cup? one game won't win you any world cup.....you need to win 5 or 6 and specially, you can't loose in the knockout....Riquelme isn't all that you paint, he is way to slow, stops every counter attack, i didn't see much from Messi in this world cup, and you defense still needs lots of improvement

Lol RobertG.
You already disqualified urself in many threads here.
Man how did Italy play to get to the semi finals? I mean i dont think i gotta say much about Australia or the USA.
And u say they deserved it more than germany who played really good?

In first half of extra time, i never saw a team having its hands so close to argies throat in the last 2 years than than the german.

Not granting ur opponent a victory in a close match where both sides played well is just really bad sportsmanship.

But u guys already showed, u have none, and if all argies r like u, i wont whine any tear for them being gone from here.

I totally agree that ANYONE actively involved in infringing any logical rules on conduct be prosecuted in some way.

The thing is, I think figo wasn't punished severly enough, but he WAS booked by the ref. That technically means he was already "judged" for his misconduct. You can't take a person to court twice for the same thing. If Frings had been booked by the ref, then FIFA wouldn't have done anything after the match.

The real problem is that FIFA don't deal with TV images on a logical basis. I mean, if Figo should've been given a red card, then FIFA should give him one, even if he was booked. The same goes for Materazzi - his foul should have been only a yellow (and noone has disagreed with that on any forum), but FIFA STILL disqualified him. THat just doesn't seem right, does it?

I, too, agree that the Italian press isn't to blame. They've hardly been talking about it to avoid these accusations (I think).

I didn't notice the brawl at the end of the match initially, but when I went on internet (various videosharing sites) I found various videos on the brawl already highlighting the punch. None of these sites were of Italian origin OR language.

The truth is that Germany is very afraid of Italy. We are more powerful than you and we will eat you like a Pizza!

Italy fan

lol... thats one of those stupid posts where ppl talk crap. its no problem if you think italy will beat germany- but atleast it would be nice if you could give any reasons for your opinion. so why do you think italy will eat germany lika a pizza? why would germany be afraid of italy?

because of that undeserved victory against australia (lol) or the game vs the usa? or that 3:0 victory against the ukraine (who really didnt look like a world-class team) hehe... wow i guess the germany must be really scared of the italian performance.

italy for sure is a good team and it will be a hard match.

First of all hi to everyone, I'm a new member. And I'm from Italy

I just wanna say that you are talking as italian media has spoken about Frings' punch all the time and they pushed FIFA to disqualify him. But I have to say, that probably you haven't read or listened to them, while I did. And I must say that I didn't even know about Frings' punch until he has been suspended, because here it has been a very secondary news. They have presented it has every journalist should do, that is to say show what happens without hiding it. I don't remember we did a mess like this when in 2004 Totti has been (rightly) suspended. Instead we blamed Totti for his bad doing.
To clear once and for all, the images were taken by Sky, the Pay-per-view tv of Rupert Murdoch.

I agree with who said Frings is just paying for his behaviour...He had a violent behaviour and he has been suspended. What is unfair in that?
About Argentina, I think that the jury has judged Frings immediately because Germany had still to play(as the rules say), I'm almost sure that Argentina will be punished after the World Cup.

For this evening, I just hope it' ll be a good match and that whoever will lose won't have nothing to complain about. Someone wins, someone loses, I hope it will happen fairly...If Germany wins, congratulations to Germany; if Italy wins, congratulations to Italy

Yes, ForzaRoma, I also hope we'll both have fun and enjoy a great game.
Maybe a game of the century again ^^ ( aaahhmm better a 4:3 for germany this time )

In the small village I live - a lot of people with origin from italy live with us since about 30 years - and we will watch the game together via public viewing at the market place.

These guys will shout for Italy, we will shout for germany and in the end we both will be drunken and the looser will be sure that next time his side will win. Our wives will take us home in the morning and we will awake with some headache.

that's fine and that's all

have fun!

Rudi

this is how it should be...

btw... too bad this match is on tuesday... most ppl have to work tomorrow so i guess there eventually wont be that much of celebration.

Rudi, that's what I like to hear!!

Yeah, that's how it should always be ^^

No Problem the match is today the germans will celebrate till Sunday poor Italy and now Juventus will win the SerieC hahaha the whole italian serie A will be boring next season all of the top clubs get punsihed...That's like the premier league without Man U, Chelsea , Arsenal and Liverpool. WE can be glad that soccer is only a cheating sport in italy


btw don't you think it's worse for the italians that nesta won't play then for the germans frings?
The Germans got Kehl and Borowski who's a powerfull midfielder and who will be there for nesta ????

Best post in this Thread! I totaly agree. Tonight we will see if all this fuss was worth it If Italy wins, congratulations. But I am absolutely and 100% sure (=I desperatly hope) that germany will win the cup

steve2005.you'be better be thinking about the massive shorcomings of england.

we Italians we have a final to play(the 6th)