WC2010 Round of 16 - Spain vs. Portugal

Very good opening minutes by Spain, nicely balancing passing ability with directness.

5:20 - double dive by Torres and Contreao?

stinger wrote:5:20 - double dive by Torres and Contreao?

are you doing the dive tracker?

Eduardo has dived the most so far.

from BBC Live Text Commentary:

Legendary Spanish pundit Guillem Balague:

Ricardo Wetzel wrote:

stinger wrote:5:20 - double dive by Torres and Contreao?

are you doing the dive tracker?

Nope, just looking for the first one in each category.

Debaser is doing it

Ramos dive!

great game so far

9:18 - first indvividual dive in the game, by Sergio Ramos.

Now waiting only for Busquets part

Impressive defensive work by Villa tracking back Costa and blocking his cross from byline, wow

Portugal fancy this. I really hope they can do a number on Spain.

stinger wrote:9:18 - first indvividual dive in the game, by Sergio Ramos.

Now waiting only for Busquets part

Impressive defensive work by Villa tracking back Costa and blocking his cross from byline, wow

Etoo replacement

And Ronaldo is quite half-hearted in his work, hence Spain working some good openings from the left.

Busquets did his part in the 11th minute, I'm updating the dive tracker

ronaldo dive

Such a selfish prick. What a ridiculous position to shoot from, but it's never a surprise with Ronaldo.

Im going to count the crosses to Torres. So far Ramos smashed one over his head.

Spain is asking way too much dribbling from Villa, I would like him to cut in more off the ball trying to collect through balls from midfield.

At the moment Spain is playing diamond formation - with Iniesta at the top, and Villa and Torres playing from wide positions in similar manner to what Ronaldo and Higuain were doing for Real.

I'm going to count the minutes without vuvazela

casillas

Sheffield gunner wrote:Such a selfish prick. What a ridiculous position to shoot from, but it's never a surprise with Ronaldo.

Bet you was saying the same thing in the cl semi

Casillas got a bit lucky there, it wasn't strong goalkeeping from Tiago's shot but he recovered well under pressure.

Great game so far.

Fuck sake Ronaldo

stinger wrote:Spain is asking way too much dribbling from Villa, I would like him to cut in more off the ball trying to collect through balls from midfield.

At the moment Spain is playing diamond formation - with Iniesta at the top, and Villa and Torres playing from wide positions in similar manner to what Ronaldo and Higuain were doing for Real.

And that's really stupid because neither Iniesta nor Xavi are really the kind of midfielder you want making a run into the box. Del Bosque should have played Cesc there if that was his plan.

Who thinks he'll shoot here

Ricardo Wetzel wrote:casillas

Situation was created because Puyol fell into his old habit of getting sucked in towards the ball, despite a DM already being there.

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Coentrao has been impressive, as everyone has been saying. A Portuguese Gareth Bale.

ooohh could have went anywhere. Not a bad shot

Villa crosses to Torres.. goes out of play. thats 2

portugal slightly better now

Portugal's players are probably equally as good as Spain's in terms of passing the ball. So I don't get why they are stupidly booting it long to Ronaldo so often, and just lose possession. Just pass it and build FFS.


Oh wait, they tried that just now and lost possession before crossing halfway

kas wrote:Portugal's players are probably equally as good as Spain's in terms of passing the ball. So I don't get why they are stupidly booting it long to Ronaldo so often, and just lose possession. Just pass it and build FFS.


Oh wait, they tried that just now and lost possession before crossing halfway

because if you lose the ball after a pass like that, there's no chance of a decent counter attack?

Portugal want Puyol and Pique as high up the pitch as possible