World Cup 2010

[Kounelaki]

Joachim Löw didn't get the emo treatment, either.

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Mesut Özil was an emo a few years ago:

[Voodoo Billy]

Looks more like an emu.

[Kounelaki]

Mesut Özil was an emo a few years ago

Someone must have had a word with the Mannschaft this year. Nary a dodgy haircut in sight.

[Kounelaki]

'Yuichi Komano's reward for missing the penalty that dumped Japan out of the World Cup isn't a lucrative role in a pizza advert, but a medal. "We would like to present Komano with a medal for giving people such dreams and emotions," cheered Yoshinobu Nisaka Wakayama, the governor of Komano's native Wakayama prefecture.'

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

England got their shit losers medal as well. Fabio Capello. A bill of 12 million quid if the cash-strapped English FA sacked him had anything to do with it though.

[Kounelaki]

Managers' salaries

01. Fabio Capello (Angleterre) 8.800.000 €

02. Marcelo Lippi (Italie) 3.000.000 €

03. Joachim Low (Allemagne) 2.500.000 €

04. Berter Van Marwijk (Pays-Bas) 1.800.000 €

05. Ottmar Hitzfeld (Suisse) 1.750.000 €

06. Vicente Del Bosque (Espagne) 1.500.000 €

07. Carlos Queiroz (Portugal) 1.350.000 €

08. Pim Verbeek (Australie) 1.200.000 €

09. Carlos Parreira (Afrique du Sud) 1.200.000 €

10. Javier Aguirre (Mexique) 1.200.000 €

11. Carlos Dunga (Brésil) 800.000 €

12. Diego Maradona (Argentine) 800.000 €

13. Takeshi Okada (Japon) 800.000 €

14. Ricki Herbert (Nouvelle-Zélande) 800.000 €

15. Otto Rehhagel (Grèce) 750.000 €

16. Paul Le Guen (Cameroun) 650.000 €

17. Marcelo Bielsa (Chili) 575.000 €

18. Raymond Domenech (France) 560.000 €

19. Vahdi Halilhodzic (Côte d’Ivoire) 505.000 €

20. Hun Jung Moo (Corée du Sud) 405.000 €

21. Morten Olsen (Danemark) 390.000 €

22. Milovan Rajevac (Ghana) 365.000 €

23. Radomir Antic (Serbie) 305.000 €

24. Bob Bradley (Etats-Unis) 275.000 €

25. Majtaz Kek (Slovénie) 245.000 €

26. Gerardo Martino (Paraguay) 245.000 €

27. Rabah Saadane (Algérie) 245.000 €

28. Reinaldo Rueda (Honduras) 240.000 €

29. Vladimir Weiss (Slovaquie) 215.000 €

30. Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay) 205.000 €

31. Kim Jong Hun (Corée du Nord) 170.000 €

32. Shaibu Amodu (Nigéria) 125.000 €

[Dave Smith]

F*cking German efficiency....Vorsprung p*ss off!

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Counter-attacking at its best. Maradona obviously didn't bother looking at the Germany v England game. It was a carbon copy even down to Germany scoring four goals.

Odd thing, people often talk about "world class" players at the world cup. Germany has few. Klose now has scored more goals in the world cup than he did last season for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. He has now scored just one less goal than Ronaldo in the WC. Is he that legendary? I think not. Very strange. Even more strange is six of these players played in the U21 European championships final last year. They did exactly the same thing to the England U21 team. Those players shouldn't have gone in an international tournament with relatively few caps and done what they have been doing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK6xYoJaeFc[/youtube]

My theory is Germany has developed a secret factory in the heart of Bavaria that develops special boots. Call them Willheim's boots. They are not allowed to wear them when playing for their clubs, so appear to be mediocre shite players. During international tournaments, however, once on all the German team possess footballing skils never seen before. Your mission Luitenant Kolonel van Bronckhorst is to take your flight of free Dutch Mosquitos and bomb this factory. It will be fraught with risks with lots of surprises from those crafty Germans but you must stop this team's march on world domination for the sake of football. Good luck.

[kook]

Great young team of hungry players wit cojones!
You don't see their lives and wives splattered all over the gutter press. They just play football.

[fat cherry]

ah, the old jimmy grimble theorem GP.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--CO0b5DIY[/youtube]

also, isn't it true that the classic Leeds early 70s lineup survived not just on kicking the fuck out of the opposition but highly ingrained superstitious prematch rituals without which they lost their match plan.

[camden jack]

Maybe it's the thought of World Domination that brings out the best in them! I'm only watching now in hopes of seeing them lose.

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

You don't see their lives and wives splattered all over the gutter press. They just play football.

Of course they don't as they hadn't reached any kind of celebrity status prior to the WC. I don't know about the German press, but there seems to be enough stuff out there on Ballack and Klose's wives. This kind of pic is not too disimilar to some of photos that appear regularly over here on say Rooney's wife or Lampard's TV girlfriend. Nicer though particularly in an Ursula Andress Dr No kind of way.

http://media.monstersandcritics.com/galleries/2324529_21268/importimagesource=FPICFP_5123262_Ballack_Michael_BRJ_08_1355085.jpg

[fat cherry]

when you say TV girlfriend, do you mean o the telly, or, you know. I'm a bit out of touch with celeb stuff.

[Kounelaki]

F*cking German efficiency

... that is a joy to watch.