June 30 - Group D - Poland v Brazil [R]

[DJT]

Group D

POLAND v BRAZIL

Saturday, June 30
11:15 AM PDT / 12:15 PM MDT / 1:15 PM CDT / 2:15 PM EDT / 3:15 PM ADT / 3:45 PM NDT
Montreal

Live Television:

CBC
Telelatino

Repeat Television:

Country Canada
9:00 PM PDT
10:00 PM MDT
11:00 PM CDT
12:00 AM EDT
1:00 AM ADT
1:30 AM NDT

[Jarrek]

I say Poland with an upset 1-0.

[Bertuzzi44]

3-0 Brazil

[Bertuzzi44]

anyone else having reception problems?? CBC keeps sorta cutting out... dont think its my TV

[Rujulus]

Why are Jack Warner (?) and all those officials manhandling all the players in the lineups before the game? Odd.

[Vancouver Fan]

How come the Big O is not full yet.They said half full before the anthems began.

[marktci]

Howard Webb is looking nice and tanned. Didn't even recognize him.

[Vancouver Fan]

Someone should tell Dolan to speak up.

[Rujulus]

quote:Originally posted by Bertuzzi44

anyone else having reception problems?? CBC keeps sorta cutting out... dont think its my TV


Well, all my other channels are crystal-clear (including CBC Newsworld), but the game feed is fuzzy and has diagonal lines going through it. I hope that issue will be sorted, or at least is specific to Montreal.

The commentators are offensively incompetent, but other than that, I'm so happy the day is here!

Poles holding their own quite well in the early going.

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by Vancouver Fan

How come the Big O is not full yet.They said half full before the anthems began.


It looks much more full now. at the 20th minute. still 0-0

[Vancouver Fan]

Heres a first. TLN has Italian play by play with Portuguese commentary.

[Glenn]

Nice goal from Poland off a free kick.

[Rujulus]

1 - 0 Poland!!! Brazil have been looking shockingly human!

[Vancouver Fan]

Great goal.Poland. What was the keeper doing in that position?

[Rujulus]

WTF? Red card for Poland?? Tragic for them after such a bright start, totally unwarranted.

[Bertuzzi44]

man these announcers suck....

i think it was his second yellow = RED

[Vancouver Fan]

Oh my. Get it together CBC. TLN called the red right away.

[Kibby]

Bad card..... but ..... are the CBC announcers retarded?

[Kibby]

ya it was second yellow..

[Rujulus]

quote:Originally posted by Bertuzzi44

man these announcers suck....

i think it was his second yellow = RED


Oh, OK. I'm mostly watching it on TLN as they are broadcasting a clear picture, but my Portagee' "no eshta bom". ;)

[CanadasBest]

Brutal commentators. These guys know nothing about soccer. How does it take them 5 minutes to realize that it was a red card?

[strobe_z]

you'd think Dolan would at least know what's going on. The ref obviously flashed two cards. Did I miss the first yellow though?

Armitage is useless...

[Bertuzzi44]

the announcers didn't mention the first yellow.

if they were actually WATCHING the game you can see the ref show him a RED CARD. even the replays showed the red. But the announcers are so clueless they...

they were asking the audience.. "did he get a red"?? haha comon guys.


they still havent mentioned that it wasn't a straight red, it was a SECOND yellow!!!

[Kibby]

Dolan would know..... I just think they didn't notice the first yellow... i don't know how ... but thats the only explanation.

[Vancouver Fan]

Feel bad for the young Pole Krol. He'll miss the next game. Dreams can get crushed so fast.

[strobe_z]

heck... even if you can't see the card's colour the ref obviously flashed two cards. I was fooling around trying to get the CBC internet feed to work (preparing for the USA/Korea match later - gotta go in to work), so if they didn't mention the first yellow I must not have seen it.

For those who don't know, the Colour man is Paul Dolan - Canada's World Cup '86 keeper...

[Krammerhead]

quote:Originally posted by Vancouver Fan

Someone should tell Dolan to speak up.


Great minds think alike. I was thinking the same thing earlier on. Either speak up or stop mumbling.

[Paddy]

quote:Originally posted by gwallace76

Brutal commentators. These guys know nothing about soccer. How does it take them 5 minutes to realize that it was a red card?


Totally...It was painful waiting for them to realize that the Polish player had received a red card. Dolan is so monotone, he is putting me to sleep. Please tell me there are other commentators for this tournament.

[Steve B]

There was yellow early on (10th minute or so)that both the commentators and the broadcast graphics completely missed. CBC is a bad joke - totally useless.

[Krammerhead]

quote:Originally posted by Steve B

There was yellow early on (10th minute or so)that both the commentators and the broadcast graphics completely missed. CBC is a bad joke - totally useless.


Hey, at least thy put up huge graphics over the game letting us know who the commentators are!;)

[Paddy]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I was sure that it was a different player that got the first yellow. I thought he had longer hair and was taller. Maybe the camera just focused on the wrong player.

[Bertuzzi44]

man the Poles sure do get stuck in... they are playing a very tough game but it might backfire if they keep getting these cards

[marktci]

quote:Originally posted by Paddy

Correct me if I am wrong, but I was sure that it was a different player that got the first yellow. I thought he had longer hair and was taller. Maybe the camera just focused on the wrong player.
Soccernet had it given to a different player too, but the FIFA site had Krol getting both.

[Paddy]

Anyone else getting (non-commentator related) crappy audio. It keeps crackling and cutting out.

[CanadasBest]

This referee is going to wear out his yellow card. lol

[Rujulus]

Ya, he is flashing it a lot in a game that has not been violent or mean-spirited at all.

[Vancouver Fan]

Poland is doing a fantastic job winning the ball. They have to be careful though with the cards. They do not seem to be affected too much with the ejection. Anyone else think that Brazil might be having problems with the Field Turf?

[Rodway]

That was the most awkward commentating moment I have ever seen in soccer game. I missed the first part of the game so I didn't know it was a second yellow. The red was flashed very quickly.

But then they showed a replay of the ref pulling out the red, the camera panned the player as he was walking off the field (while showing the red card in the caption at bottom of the screen). Still it wasn't until he got all the way to the tunnel that either was them had any idea it was a red.

It's about 20 mins later and neither of them still have any idea that it wasn't a straight red.

Wow! I never thought it would happen but these guys make Gerry Dobson look like a superstar.

[canadianfoot]

The ref is a moron. Ok 1yellow but a red for Krol(king)....let them play now we gathered already 3yellow and 1red while brasil 1red

[Tyson M]

ive been watching the CBC feed the whole time and the first yellow was obviously shown much earlier(before the goal)... anyways... commentating is bad, but I'm still just enjoying the fact this is happening in Canada too much to care!

[Footy]

Great game so far ... but man does the broadcast team suck Dolan is a great guy and was great keeper but his colour comentary is Vanilla and the play by play pretty dumded down for the soccer newbies ...

[canadianfoot]

Leo Beenhakker(the senior squad coach is Pissed) is saying that the ref should have called at least 2yellows!!! Michal Globisz the U-20 Coach is loosing his temper(watching CBC, TVP and TLN) Krzysztof Krol plays for Real Madrid

[Bertuzzi44]

half-time stats CBC should show SAVES not just shots...

[canadianfoot]

Poland will be playing defensive for next 10-15min according to TVP with a single striker...then pressing Brasil in the 60+min for 10min with subs coming shortly there

[Rujulus]

Only see a couple guys in Brazil's 11 who faced Canada a year or so ago in B.C. - the fullback Carlao, and Ji Parana on the wing, who is now their captain. I remember Ji Parana being in the thick of things against U20 Canada.

[marktci]

"not sure what Eduardo was thinking there"...

I'm embarrassed for Armitage.

[canadianfoot]

Mariusz Sacha http://www.90minut.pl/kariera.php?id=5669

[strobe_z]

Armitage and Dolan are gonna call Canada's game on the RADIO?!

Can't imagine what it'll be like to not be able to SEE what they're talking about. Doesn't give me a lot of confidence...

[Rujulus]

And both Carlao & Ji Parana are subbed off. Their leadership on the pitch has not been yielding the desired results against 10-man Poland.

[canadianfoot]

http://www.sport.pl/sport/1,74735,4279170.html polish news ticker

[canadianfoot]

Poland 2nd Sub Lukasz Janoszka - http://www.ruchchorzow.com/41,%C5%81ukasz-Janoszka,pilkarz.html

Plays for 2st Division Ruch Chorzow

[canadianfoot]

Leo Beenhakker is shown on polish tv yelling his lungs out at the players...even thou he isin't the u-20 coach

[Glenn]

quote:Originally posted by Jarrek

I say Poland with an upset 1-0.


Good call.

[Rujulus]

Well done to Poland! Brazil looked out of sorts. A surprising start to things.

[Vancouver Fan]

Brazil did not take advantage of the extra man.Poland never looked intimaidated. I'd say that we're going to have to watch this team carefully.They wil make some noise before it's all over.

[Kurosawa]

Great game for the Poles, especially with 10 man for 60 min. The Stadium looked half full at the beginning of the game, I would'nt be surprised that they sold out this game because of US fans who will be there for their team.

[rdroze]

Agreed that Armitage and Dolan were brutal. Don't know if this has any real impact, but I've already made my feedback:

http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jsp

[jeffymac1971]

I will be in the minority here, Arimtage in the past had called better matches then this! World Cup 86 (I thought he worked well with Graham Leggat)

I must admit I was disappointed! Armitage and Dolan really had no chemistry but in fairness, it was their first match together. But I still would rather have Armitage and Dolan then some of those morons from gol tv (us) remember those boozos that called the Canada- Costa Rich a few weeks ago?

[Bertuzzi44]

quote:Originally posted by jeffymac1971

I will be in the minority here, Arimtage in the past had called better matches then this! World Cup 86 (I thought he worked well with Graham Leggat)

I must admit I was disappointed! Armitage and Dolan really had no chemistry but in fairness, it was their first match together. But I still would rather have Armitage and Dolan then some of those morons from gol tv (us) remember those boozos that called the Canada- Costa Rich a few weeks ago?

True. Hopefully the CBC crew gets better as they do more games.

[Richard]

One of the worst commented games I have ever seen/heard. Fire that crew!
That plus the feed to Shaw in Vancouver kept breaking up and vanishing every 10-20 seconds for the first ten minutes of the game, extremely annoying. Expect far better from the mother corporation.

[canadianfoot]

Well great game I am HAPPY like a little kid in the Candy Store cheering for 3Teams(Poland my heritage, Japan my wife's and CANADA our HOME our COUNTRY) and loosing my head. I think Poland played smartly being 1man down they really couldn't attack otherwise they would run out of steam right away. The attack might have had flaws but JANCZYK was Spectacular fighting like hell as for the defence well they used their physique to makeup for their speed and the agility of the Brasilians... One comment by a friend Pissed me right of "they were lucky" wtf.....no comment only lucky to be in one piece

http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/8/4279/z4279368X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/4/4279/z4279314X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/3/4279/z4279313X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/9/4279/z4279369X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/1/4279/z4279311X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/7/4279/z4279287X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/5/4279/z4279315X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/7/4279/z4279367X.jpg
http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/0/4279/z4279370X.jpg

Bartosz Bia³kowski - Ben Starosta, Jaros³aw Fojut, Krzysztof Strugarek, Krzysztof Król - Artur Marciniak, Adam Danch, Grzegorz Krychowiak (90-Jakub Feter), Tomasz Cywka (61-Mariusz Sacha) - Patryk Ma³ecki, Dawid Janczyk (73-£ukasz Janoszka)

[Rujulus]

quote:Originally posted by rdroze

Agreed that Armitage and Dolan were brutal. Don't know if this has any real impact, but I've already made my feedback:

http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jsp


Thanks for the link, Richard, I also wrote in about 1) the bad picture with fuzzy diagonal lines I'm experiencing on CBC and no other station (anybody else getting this?) and 2) rating the commentators and asking CBC to use the English guy in preference to the two Canadian guys going forward.

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by Kurosawa

Great game for the Poles, especially with 10 man for 60 min. The Stadium looked half full at the beginning of the game, I would'nt be surprised that they sold out this game because of US fans who will be there for their team.


It took a long time for fans to get into the stadium because there is only one entrance. It took me 15 or 20 minutes to get in because of the lineup caused by the security searches. What were they searching for: weapons, flares, bombs (US was playing later)? No, they were searching for water and other beverages. Sure, create massive lineups so you can sell your $3 bottles of water.

Thus, many people including myself arrived late. Yet the stadium was not really sold out if you count bums in the seats. What happened was not that they sold tickets to Americans (they had the fewest supporters of any of the 4 teams) but that they sold cheap tickets to soccer groups and many of these people didn't bother to come. Since this was Montreal's marquee game there will probably be even more no shows for other games. That being said I would estimate about 35 000 actually there for the game out of an announced 55 000 which is still a pretty decent crowd. This is the drawback to selling reduced price tickets to soccer groups. It guarantees a decent crowd and impressive ticket sales numbers as well as guaranteeing a certain amount of income for the tournament. On the other hand it also means that there will be a large number of no shows and that some people won't be able to get tickets despite there being many empty seats.

[amacpher]

Too bad about the commentators being so clueless. A lot of people watching this tournament in Canada are just casual soccer fans or not really soccer fans at all, I imagine. And they are relying on these commentators to provide some insight. Instead these muppets seem to be making a mystery out of something pretty simple. [:0]

I was watching on Univision in the US which means the commentators I'm listening to are sitting in a studio in Los Angeles calling the match. And they still had no problem figuring out what was occuring on the pitch in Montreal. There's no excuse for commentators who are actually in the stadium to be confused by this.

By the way, was the first yellow card justified? I don't remember it. The second-yellow was certainly a good call, IMO. But in general that English referee seemed to be pretty harsh with dishing-out the bookings.

[Christian B.]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly


quote:Originally posted by Kurosawa

Great game for the Poles, especially with 10 man for 60 min. The Stadium looked half full at the beginning of the game, I would'nt be surprised that they sold out this game because of US fans who will be there for their team.


It took a long time for fans to get into the stadium because there is only one entrance. It took me 15 or 20 minutes to get in because of the lineup caused by the security searches. What were they searching for: weapons, flares, bombs (US was playing later)? No, they were searching for water and other beverages. Sure, create massive lineups so you can sell your $3 bottles of water.

Thus, many people including myself arrived late. Yet the stadium was not really sold out if you count bums in the seats. What happened was not that they sold tickets to Americans (they had the fewest supporters of any of the 4 teams) but that they sold cheap tickets to soccer groups and many of these people didn't bother to come. Since this was Montreal's marquee game there will probably be even more no shows for other games. That being said I would estimate about 35 000 actually there for the game out of an announced 55 000 which is still a pretty decent crowd. This is the drawback to selling reduced price tickets to soccer groups. It guarantees a decent crowd and impressive ticket sales numbers as well as guaranteeing a certain amount of income for the tournament. On the other hand it also means that there will be a large number of no shows and that some people won't be able to get tickets despite there being many empty seats.


I completely disagree with you on the 35,000 number. Like at the Gold cup or any other event with a doubleheader a lot of people came only for one of the 2 games. I was seating near the Korea section and it was empty for most of the first game. Then a lot of Poland fans left after their game as well as brazilians fans. They announced 55,800 and I have no doubt that at least 95% of them show-up for one game minimum.

[Free kick]

Judging from the lineups at the service centres that I just experienced earlier tonight, due to all those polish fans it was impossible to get a a Tim Horton's coffee anywhere along along the 401 from Mtl to TO tonight. They were in a pretty festive mood though.

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by jeffymac1971

I will be in the minority here, Arimtage in the past had called better matches then this! World Cup 86 (I thought he worked well with Graham Leggat)

I must admit I was disappointed! Armitage and Dolan really had no chemistry but in fairness, it was their first match together. But I still would rather have Armitage and Dolan then some of those morons from gol tv (us) remember those boozos that called the Canada- Costa Rich a few weeks ago?


I agree as well. Maybe Armitage has lost it a bit and I don't think that he called a game in while. I prety sure he even called the wrong names on many occasions. But I remember him doing world cups in past and I thought that he has great voice to call a game and goal.

[Christian B.]

My power rankings for Today in Montreal:

1- Poland
2- South Korea
3- Brazil
4- USA

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by orletafc
One comment by a friend Pissed me right of "they were lucky" wtf.


Poland were full measure for the win unlike the Czechs and Americans who were completely lucky to get a point from their games. Beautiful goal and they played Brazil pretty even even with 10 men. Despite having to defend they still had a good number of chances on the counter attack. Brazil was typical showing a lot of individual talent and no teamwork. Maybe it is the problem of bringing in the big name players at the last moment but I thought they were less impressive than the Brazil team we played in the exhibition series. I think they were also very arrogant in the sense that they were overconfident that they could score on Poland especially after the red so they didn't play with much urgency until the last 15 minutes. In the final 15 minutes they really pressured Poland and would have scored had it gone on much longer. Had they played like that for 90 minutes they would have won the game. Jo was dangerous but Alexander Pato didn't do much other than the one chance he should have scored on. 2nd half subs Marcelo and Adriano looked good.

As others have comment the ref was very poor for this match, actually the worst of the day. He was card happy, bought all the Brazilian diving and was also influenced by the crowd (a couple of times he hesitated about cards and then the crowd seemed to sway him). This is surprising in that this match was reffed by Howard Webb who is an experienced Premiership ref. On the other hand the EPL supplied the worst ref of the last World Cup so maybe we shouldn't be surprised although I have always rated EPL referreeing as pretty good.

There were several thousand Polish and Brazil fans in the crowd. There were more Brazil shirts than Poland shirts but the Polish fans were louder. I surmise that the reason for this was that the people wearing Polish shirts were actually Polish or Polish-Canadian. Many of the people wearing Brazil shirts were probably just people who cheer for them because they are a good team. The game had a great atmosphere especially near the end when the upset became more and more likely and Brazil threatened more and more.

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by Christian B.


quote:Originally posted by Grizzly


quote:Originally posted by Kurosawa

Great game for the Poles, especially with 10 man for 60 min. The Stadium looked half full at the beginning of the game, I would'nt be surprised that they sold out this game because of US fans who will be there for their team.


It took a long time for fans to get into the stadium because there is only one entrance. It took me 15 or 20 minutes to get in because of the lineup caused by the security searches. What were they searching for: weapons, flares, bombs (US was playing later)? No, they were searching for water and other beverages. Sure, create massive lineups so you can sell your $3 bottles of water.

Thus, many people including myself arrived late. Yet the stadium was not really sold out if you count bums in the seats. What happened was not that they sold tickets to Americans (they had the fewest supporters of any of the 4 teams) but that they sold cheap tickets to soccer groups and many of these people didn't bother to come. Since this was Montreal's marquee game there will probably be even more no shows for other games. That being said I would estimate about 35 000 actually there for the game out of an announced 55 000 which is still a pretty decent crowd. This is the drawback to selling reduced price tickets to soccer groups. It guarantees a decent crowd and impressive ticket sales numbers as well as guaranteeing a certain amount of income for the tournament. On the other hand it also means that there will be a large number of no shows and that some people won't be able to get tickets despite there being many empty seats.


I completely disagree with you on the 35,000 number. Like at the Gold cup or any other event with a doubleheader a lot of people came only for one of the 2 games. I was seating near the Korea section and it was empty for most of the first game. Then a lot of Poland fans left after their game as well as brazilians fans. They announced 55,800 and I have no doubt that at least 95% of them show-up for one game minimum.


I agree with your team rating for the day but don't think there was anywhere near 55 800 in the stadium today. Most of the Koreans had arrived by the mid point of the second half (which could be seen with the number of arguments they had with Polish fans sitting in their seats) and the stadium was still never more than 2/3 rds full. Also I thought the Poles and Brazilian fans would completely leave after the game but I would say the majority of them stayed for the 2nd game judging by the number of people wearing their jerseys. At the highpoint the stadium had about 35 000 people. There were very few American fans and a couple of thousand Korea fans (the only group that managed to get a significant block of fans sitting together). The majority of people were just soccer fans who were there to see good soccer and not any team and certainly not Korea or the US. If I am generous and take the 35 000 maximum and add a couple of thousand Koreans with a couple of hundred Americans it is still under 40 000 for both games. I mean 20 000 extra people did not show up to watch Korea-USA. Also despite the large number of ticket sales to soccer clubs there were not that many youths there. Outside the stadium it was quite easy to buy tickets from scalpers at good prices. It reminded me very much of the sold out Impact games where there are still large numbers of empty seats and tickets easily to be had from scalpers who got them from soccer groups.

[Grizzly]

I don't know if they showed this on tv, but at one point in the second half a Polish supporter started running around the stands with a Polish flag causing the Poles to cheer a lot. Then two policemen started running after him chasing him up and down some stairs. Don't know if they caught him or if he managed to slip back into the crowd or not but I thought it was an excessive reaction by the police. Maybe they didn't want to get the Poles to heated up but it didn't seem like he was doing anything wrong to me.

[DJT]

The repeat broadcast of this game on Country Canada has the international feed commentary instead of Armitage and Dolan.

[masster]

quote:Originally posted by rdroze

Agreed that Armitage and Dolan were brutal. Don't know if this has any real impact, but I've already made my feedback:

http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jsp


I let them know and I encourage everybody else to as well. Paul Dolan is dreadful when he does USL broadcasts now he is on CBC? Are you kidding me?

[Jeffery S.]

I have happily discovered La SEXTA will have one or two games a day here in Spain, on an open feed. The Big O looked big, with tons of holes in the stands, and they thankfully decided to turn down crowd noise after 10 minutes. Screaming kids for every attack is embarrassing. Prefer to not hear anything than have to put up with that, just shows soccer ignorance.

Did it really fill in by game's end, I went off to a concert early second half and did not see.

We get Spain-Uruguay tonight, and my internet is on the blink, so I will miss any webcast of Canada unfortunately until I get things fixed.

[Canuck Oranje]

My Comments:

- Horrible announcers with poor research to support them.

- Brazil looked liked they were not prepared for playing on turf which would have been an error in preparation because even I know of a similar turf field in Sao Paulo that they would have been able to use in training. So, there are no excuses.

- I remind everyone that only 10 (now 9 with the injury to Lucas) of the 21 players named by Brazil for this tournament played on the South American Championship side and only Leandro Lima, Cassio, Roberto, and Alexandre Pato started today of that SA team. Integration of the team has to be a problem. Only 5 of 21 were on the Canada tour last year (Carlao, Ji Parana, Edson, Luiz Adriano, and Muriel).

- I also think they really missed Lucas who is the leader of this teams and the quarterback. However, he would have arrived the same time as Carlos Eduardo so there is no guarantee that even he would have played.

- Marcelo and Carlos Eduardo are the expected starters instead of Carlao and Ji Parana but those two did not arrive to the Brazilian pre-tournament camp until a week ago. Carlos Eduardo only left Gremio after the Copa Libertadores and Marcelo came to camp after the completion of Real Madrid's season.

- There will be some questions raised in Brazil about how this team was prepared for this tournament because it chose to stay in Brazil and play against lower level Pro teams instead of getting some games on similar turf against some European teams. Having said that, this team has a lot of talent and will get strpnger over time. This, in fact, makes the task much more difficult for the USA to advance because now Brazil will need to win next Friday and Poland already has three points.


Finally, I hope that Mitchell was watching this game because Poland played exactly how Canada needs to play against Chile.

[marktci]

From William Houston's colummn on the Globe's website:

quote:Dolan, a former Canadian national goaltender, was quick to identify the important developments and was able to present his analysis effectively. But, often, it was difficult to hear him. He speaks quietly, a point that was accentuated by his working with Armitage, who has one of the big voices in the business. Surely, viewers must have been yelling at the TV, "Speak up!"

Link (http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070630.wspt-houston-fifa-30/GSStory/GlobeSports)

[Alberto7]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

I don't know if they showed this on tv, but at one point in the second half a Polish supporter started running around the stands with a Polish flag causing the Poles to cheer a lot. Then two policemen started running after him chasing him up and down some stairs. Don't know if they caught him or if he managed to slip back into the crowd or not but I thought it was an excessive reaction by the police. Maybe they didn't want to get the Poles to heated up but it didn't seem like he was doing anything wrong to me.


I was near this supporter when he was chased by security. The security guys said that it was the stick he used to fly his flag. It is against security regulations as it can be used as a weapon (odd I know, but there you have it)they warned him but he didn't comply. BTW, a supporter(I'm not sure if it was the same one) eventually made it to the field after the game ended and was tackled by a policeman. He was escorted out by the policeman and the biggest security guard I have ever seen in my life (he must have been 6'8" and 350 pounds at least!)

My two cents about the atmosphere and the games:
Loved the atmosphere. The Polish fans were amazing as were the South Koreans. The Brazilian fans would start a chant and be drowned out by the Polish fans(when I took the Metro home after the second game, there were Polish and Brazilian fans standing together and chatting.Great to see!)
Poland played a great team game(apart from the ridiculous amount of fouls in the first half) which is much different from the Brazilians who seemed to play individually. Occasionaly, a Brazilian player would pull off a flashy move that was absolutely useless but looked great. This was the difference, Poland were a team and Brazil a collection of individuals.

[Daniel]

I was at the stadium and didn't even notice the red card!

I'll disagree with Grizzly on attendance. If you're saying that there were 35k people, that means you think the stadium was less than 2/3rd filled.

I'd say that at the end of the first game, the crowd was hovering between 35-40k and that there was surely 4-5k people that came only for the second game.

Not 55k people, but definitely above 40k.

We saw with the Korea game that the stadium can get REALLY loud when people start smacking those seats.