Spain vs Portugal

[Vic]

At the moment of the touch on - it's very close:

[earlimus]

I like your defence of the greasy one River City, but it's not just his diving that makes him such a disgusting sports figure. He is (in no particular order): selfish, arrogant, cocky, whiney, and all together unlikeable. I try not to judge players for what they do off of the field, unless that is their off field antics are truly dispicable (ie. the life and times of John Terry). With Crissy R, I see all of these unlikeable traits ON the field. How Portugal can make this guy a captain is absolutely beyond me. He doesn't exhibit any of the traits that I'd want in my captain. Just let him be your biggest star and hand the armband to someone who can do it justice. I think that he does spit near the camera btw....

Spain had a great second half. I was very worried after the first and I still don't see them playing a full 90 minutes like they're capable of. I found that at times Alonso, Xavi, and even Iniesta weren't sure of their positioning and occupying similar areas. I would prefer to see Alonso or Bisquits dropped and David Silva returned to the starting 11. Why fix something if it don't.....

Also, I love Torres, but the man is no where near 100% so let Llorente start already. The guy is an excellent player and obviously does a great job with this team. Imagine what Rooney's World Cup could have been had Llorente been beside him, holding the ball up....

[masster]

Yes, Spain dominant but need to improve finishing. That killed them in the Swiss game and could have hurt them here. Could have been 3-0 with decent finishing. Maybe the best reffed game of the tournament so far with an official who didn't buy any acting. Seeing Ronaldo sitting on the field sulking after the ref ignored one of his dives really warmed my heart.

I felt the same way up unil the red card. I need to see a replay of that.

[the biologist]

surprising ability of Ronaldo to be invisible

...even at the World Cup finals.

[the biologist]

Now that both their tournaments are over and both played like their team had 10 players on the pitch, we can only say that these 2 guys go so well together...

[earlimus]

Lol ^^^. Nice work. I'm seriously wondering if Fifa set a mandate about questionable replays such as the red card/Capdevila incident. I was watching the game on BBC, my brother in law on Spanish television, and according to you guys here (CBC I suppose?), none of these three channels were able to show one solid replay of foul. Considering that there has to be at least 40 cameras in each stadium, this can only be a result of Fifa dictating what we are allowed to see.

[the biologist]

I felt the same way up unil the red card. I need to see a replay of that.

At 1:07



With this third replay almost no one has put on youtube (you know, the one after we see Capdevilla checking his head to see if he's "bleeding"), we clearly see the elbow and this can be classified as a red most of the time, though not all the time nonetheless. We can't say that this red was unfair, really.

[the biologist]

Lol ^^^. Nice work.

Ha Ha ! I was keeping these pics in bank (long life to the fail sites that made me discover them and much more) for the right time. To say the time has now come would be and understatement.

I'm seriously wondering if Fifa set a mandate about questionable replays such as the red card/Capdevila incident. I was watching the game on BBC, my brother in law on Spanish television, and according to you guys here (CBC I suppose?), none of these three channels were able to show one solid replay of foul. Considering that there has to be at least 40 cameras in each stadium, this can only be a result of Fifa dictating what we are allowed to see..

Look at the replay I posted, it looks pretty clear IMO. Of course that ain't "solid replay" material but still does the job well enough.

[Unnamed Trialist]

There is no conclusive video image, and it does not matter to the final result, Portugal did not have the ball after Spain scored. But the ref was looking right at it and called it convinced.

One thing that made it look plausible was that Costa had already made his mark on a few plays with his hands and arm, a player whose arms and hands are always out swinging at shoulder height.

The second thing is that if you are defending a 1-0 lead in a knock out round late in the game, you don't go down gratuitously in your own box, especially with the ref so far away. Defenders grin and bear it and strikers trying to get a comeback goal go down more easily, that is the simple truth.

Capdevila had a great game, like in the Eurocup, but who would ever say that he is one of the best outside defenders in the world? No one, but he is, he is consistently excellent, not spectacular but excellent.