...could Ronaldo get a break in that game?

Perhaps he was the boy who cried "Ref!"

Maybe he and Messi could throw a pity party for each other. I'm sure Maradona would obligingly jump out of a cake for them.

But true, he was closed out of the game, and…

Perhaps he was…

It's actually sanctionable even in the junior leagues

When I was a kid I was the goalie. I got cold as shit standing around for 90 minutes with very intermittant action. What better way to keep a kid goalie involved in the game and a seagulling striker learning to out…

I still think Pele is the G.o.a.T. but Maradona is 2nd, a genius crazy man that no amount of money or professionalism can straighten out.

Only being 5 during the World Cup that is widely acknowledged as the peak of Pele's career (1970) I feel unqualified to judge the comparitive…

He truly was a renaissance man.

Or a pseudo-renaissance man.

Actually, you're right, it wasn't cocaine – it was ephedrine.

He truly was a renaissance man.

...but I remember it being weightloss drugs that bought him down. He came out of nowhere in 1994 to start playing and running like a young man.

The Hand of God became, to me, a fun player having fun.

The HoG also restored some pride & joy to a population who'd been through the ringer from their own govt dictatorship and Thatcher's criminal militarism. It was seen as helping (in a small way) to right a wrong, a…

I'm truly thinking (hoping) he was thinking of something more innocent.

Yes. Yes, I was. Seagulling in amateur football is when you hover by the opposition goalkeeper, behind the defence, hoping to kick stray balls into the net. It's actually sanctionable even in the junior leagues, in spite of the…

At some point in my childhood my father (or possibly an uncle) told me that Maradona was the greatest player of all time, and being young I believed it, unquestioning.…

Roddy Doyle agrees with you:

Heh, brilliant!

I completely agree, Maradona is fast becoming a world football treasure. I realised the other day he's been involved in World Cups for pretty much my entire adult life. He was a 17yr old on the bench in 1978, a genius in '82…

I can hardly tolerate that age group 'seagulling'. The prospect of adults doing it is chilling.

I just naively ran a straight Google search for the term "seagulling". Wow.

Speaking of which... now that NZers have a new-found appreciation for technically inferior teams sticking to a limited game plan and playing out of their skins to achieve an unexpected result, will we see a bit of love for the French effort in the last RWC quarter-final?
Thought not.

C'mon…

The goal scoring machines vs the world's wildest cheerleader.

Roddy Doyle agrees with you:

By the time I got to the bookies, a five-minute walk, I’d changed my mind and I put my euros on Argentina. It was a wise, mercenary decision, I thought. The odds, 9 to 1, were…

The best thing about football is the flow of the game. Slow it down and you may as well pick the ball up and run with it.

Brazil vs Chile. It was more like tennis at times, they moved up and down the field so fast.

I know the final…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBkbj_S3etY

That said, whilst I'm in favour of a goalline cam for big tournaments (how many of these line calls are there likely to be -…

Jesus for once in their life can football players stop complaining? England should fire them all and hire…

No off side rule seems to work in hockey-a game similar to football in a lot of ways.

I think it works better partly because (speaking as someone who used to play it) the sheer speed of the game on the turf means that by the time the ball is…

(But seriously, field hockey remains a puzzle to me with or without offside, but ice hockey has steadfastly held on to its offside rule you'll observe. I think really if you've played…

Yes. And make five year olds play. I mean so long as it's goals you want. (I can hardly tolerate that age group 'seagulling'. The prospect of adults doing it is chilling.

No off side rule seems to work in hockey-a game similar to football in a lot of ways.

MARADONA HITS OUT AT MESSI TREATMENT.

seagulling

Well, better than this approach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da0IHBMr_AY&feature=related

Just get rid of the off side rule!

Yeah, I don't think that works. Someone else can maybe give a good technical defense, but IMO, doing away with the offside rule would turn it from a game of two teams trying to score into a game of 22 (or 20,…

Just get rid of the off side rule!

Yes. And make five year olds play. I mean so long as it's goals you want. (I can hardly tolerate that age group 'seagulling'. The prospect of adults doing it is chilling.)

Argentina are scary! But good! And Messi(ah) hasn't scored yet!

It was a great atmosphere until the Lampard 'goal', which actually silenced the audience for a while – they were…

Stephen Fry – 'Mein Handy!'

If only there'd been a 'hand of god' moment in the match last night. But maybe it should be 'Mein handy dandy notebook' for this world cup. The Argentina Mexico game was good because there were whole minutes (minutes I tell you) when the whistle…

The comparison is not necessarily winning the respective World Cups but performing well below realistic expectations. England should have topped their group and by virtue of a relatively easy draw made the semi-final.

The comparison is of top players freezing on the big stage perhaps due to fright and the…

At least Italy get to vary the script, anyway. England's is sadly predictable.

Their supporters would happily swap with Italy, and alternate total rubbish with occasional trophies.

Er... Italy hadn't failed to clear the first stage since 1974, boy-o. Besides winning the tournament twice since then, it lost a final on penalties and two semifinals, one of which also on penalties. Not what…

John Terry can take a large share of the blame for that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc79m1X-mXU

As soon as they played a real contender – probably Brazil/Netherlands in that half…

That's often a recipe for going quite deep. They must rate as a major disappoinment.

1 minute of football less in USA's final game and they probably would have. Or had Green not fluffed it....
I don;t think they would have put away Uruguay though, on form I think they…

The All Blacks are usually ranked number 1 in the world, or close to it. They consistently prove their quality by beating everyone else in the (smaller) world of rugby,…

I couldn't help a nice warm feeling when little Ghana put the mighty US out of contention.

As they did four years ago. I don't think the US went into that game as favourites at all.

I think we must also add Brazil as one of the etc etc. 7-7, sorry.

I totally knew that Brazil was even involved in World War II. Really! Ahem.

I actually like the chances of a selection of Italy, Spain, Germany and Japan against those particular nations (to which we must add the Netherlands and France).

While it would be an amazing game, I fear the outcome could cause another war.

I actually like the chances of a selection of Italy, Spain, Germany and Japan against those particular nations (to which we must add the Netherlands and France).

It would be very complex.

The French would start on the Allied side, get their butts kicked, and then start playing for the…

The Axis leads 7 world cups to 2 for starters.

As the Daily Mail famously said prior to the 1966 final,

“If, on the morrow, the Germans beat us at our national game, we'd do well to remember that, twice this century, we have beaten them at theirs.”

Germany vs England+USA+Russia+Australia+NZ+Canada+South Africa etc etc

I actually like the chances of a selection of Italy, Spain, Germany and Japan against those particular nations (to which we must add the Netherlands and France). The Axis leads 7 world cups to 2 for starters.

But it wasn't supposed to happen like that! The UK gutter press said so .. you know, how they whip up the populace into a frenzy of wartime memories — how we beat the Bosch and all that

The wartime analogy doesn't really make sense, unless it was Germany vs…

how we beat the Bosch and all that.

We were at war with an automotive replacement parts and accessories company?

They hate the Germans, for obvious reasons, and the French, (think Belgium on the verge of being two countries).

I get why the Dutch hate the Germans. But Germany only lost against the Netherlands in 88 – it seems a thin foundation to build hate upon.

But arrogance before the game. Remember Rooney's cocky remark that England's B team could beat Algeria even on a bad day?

At least David James was right yesterday when he said there was no way the game was going to go to penalties.

y support was with the Germans --…

I don't fully…