Dave Yadallee's personal blog

FRom Benny:



8 July 2006



GERMANY 3-1 PORTUGAL

Schweinsteiger 56, 79 Gomes 88

Petit 61 (og)



Metzelder headed down a Schneider free kick and Kehl flashed a volley just wide

of a post. Simao dribbled from the half-way line and played in Pauleta with a

lovely disguised pass, Kahn covered his near post and like an idiot Pauleta shot

straight at him. Ricardo, trying to look busy for the cameras, made an

un-necessarily spectacular save from a Podolski free kick.



Ricardo, who is an accident waiting to happen, was beaten for the second time in

the tournament when he misjudged the flight of speculative shot from

Schweinsteiger. Five minutes later he was picking the ball of his net again when

Petit sliced a Schweinsteiger free kick past him. It took the Portuguese over an

hour to really trouble Kahn, Deco forcing the Bayern 'keeper into a superb two

handed save. Minutes after coming on as a substitute for Klose, Neuville sprayed

a ball out wide to Schweinsteiger, Petit backed off as the midfielder ran in on

goal, Schweinsteiger took a step inside and let rip with an amazing right foot

shot which arched away from Ricardo before nestling into the corner of the net.

Kahn was almost caught by a ferocious 40 yard Ronaldo free kick, deceived by the

flight of the ball he managed to make a split second adjustment and punch the

ball clear. Figo, in his last ever international appearance, and Gomes combined

to score a consolation goal. Gomes met Figo's outswinging cross with a brilliant

diving header.



That reprehensible cheating Ronaldo, who was once again booed unmercifully,

should have been booked for an outrageous dive in the box at the end of the

first half. He's in for a long season regardless of whether he stays at Man

United or leaves for another club.



Attendance : 52,000

Assists : Kehl, n/a, Neuville, Figo



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AFAIK, Christiano Ronaldo is a punk he should be tossed into the dunk!

From Benny:



5 July 2006



PORTUGAL 0-1 FRANCE

Zidane 33 (Pen)



The Portuguese defence got caught on a longball out of defence, Malouda,

probably because he was being shadowed by the brilliant Miguel, wasted the

opportunity by snatching at his shot. Barthez flapped at a tame Deco effort but

no one was on hand to take advantage. Just past the half hour mark Malouda

dribbled his way past a couple of Portuguese players before giving a reverse

pass to Henry and he made the most of Carvalho's clumsy challenge as he turned

inside the defender to win a penalty. Up stepped Zidane to blast the ball into

the bottom left corner. Henry wasted a good opening with a poor finish and

Ricardo, like slap-head Barthez, made hard work of a tame long range shot.



The French should have finished off Portugal on the break early in the second

half but Zidane screwed up a pass to Henry with the striker open in the box.

Les Blues made no concerted attempts to attack probably confident in the

knowledge that Portugal's strikers would have problems scoring in the MLS &

J-League let alone in the World Cup but with prize clown Barthez in goal there's

always a chance. He dropped an almighty bollock when he scooped a Ronaldo free

kick high in the air with both hands but Figo bailed him out by heading over. In

injury time Thuram fell under a challenge from Postiga when they battled for a

longball but Meira smashed it into row Z.



After last night's classic both teams served up a magnitude of shite. As far as

Portugal are concerned good riddance to bad rubbish. One goal in three games

in the knockout stages speaks for itself and their part in the disgraceful match

against the Dutch cannot be overlooked. I expected more from Scolari, especially

given the way Brazil played in 2002 and Portugal in 2004 but I guess, given the

abysmal quality of the squad he had to work with, surely one of the worst teams

to ever play in a World Cup semi-final, he did well to get them this far.



Ronaldo was unmercifully booed by the French, presumably because people thought

he was disingenuous in his comments over the Rooney red card and because he

continues the long tradition of simulation that plagues Portuguese players

(Greeks and Turks are equally as bad). Ronaldo and Postiga should have been

booked for diving in the box.



Zidane looked exhausted after 60 minutes, as did many of the other players which

makes Sunday's midfield battle all the more intriguing. Gattuso and Pirlo can

keep going for 90 minutes and beyond, can Vieira and Makelele? Unfortunately for

Italy Saha is out of the final having picked up his second yellow of the

knockout stages which means Trezeguet will play some part and we all know what

happened last time he played against Italy.



Attendance : 66,000

Assist : Henry (won pen)



http://soccer-europe.com

Chat room : http://www.lhcw.net/WorldCup

Rss feed : http://soccer-europe.com/RSS/News.xml



SO Saturday Germany and Portugal and the BIG game:



France versus Italy. In Euro 2000 France 2 Italy 1



ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!