Serbia Ghana OFFICIAL THREAD

[Ark Royal]

Crazy handball. 1-0 to the Black Stars.

[Ian Royal]

Definite penalty, but I'm not convinced he was trying to handle it. Penalty because it gained advantage and his hand shouldn't have been there though. Plus enough element of doubt about whether it was not intentional.

[sam1]

[Archie's penalty]

They deserved it. On to Australia Germany.

[Ian Royal]

Ghana could do something this tournament. Maybe put themselves into contention to be a seed next time round with a really good showing.

I don't think we'll see a non-seed win the tournament at any point.

[exileinleeds]

Decided to have a last minute bet on this- I know so many Ghanians that I thought I should support them. I am going to be able to buy lots of beer at this rate. Wonder if I can make enough for a st over the next weeks...

[Baines]

Really good game. Watching Ghana is fun , direct and full of running. Serbia a bit too ponderous. Seemed very much like the style of the old Eastern bloc countries in the 80s.

[Archie's penalty]

Thought it was a poor game. Waiting for a game to light this tournament up. 7 down, nothing doing so far.

[Archie's penalty]

Marcel being a bit racist there.

[winchester_royal]

Boateng has impressed me everytime I've seen him this year. Suprised he hasn't had more of a chance at Spurs...

[Ian Royal]

Thought it was a poor game. Waiting for a game to light this tournament up. 7 down, nothing doing so far.

kill joy.

I loved every minute of it. COuld have done with more goals, but I suspect we may be saying that about a lot of games. Even Argentina with half the best attackers at the fricking tournament only managed one.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

South Korea were worth watching, I thought; shame the Greeks didn't hold up their own end

'Guese and the Ivory Coast ought to lively up the proceedings come Tueserz arferz

Speaking of the referee'ing, this is by a good sight better'n last time, when Blather told 'em to go out there and book anything and everything and then bitched 'em out for all of the sendings off and suspensions for accumul7ed cautions

Been pretty judicious so far, on balance, and vastly improved over 2006

[Archie's penalty]

Me a killjoy? I enjoyed parts of the Mexico-SA game and I thought Argentina's attacking was really good.

Ghana were decent but I thought Serbia were very disappointing. The first round of games is about people sizing each other up. That's why the goals have generally been from mistakes or set pieces.

7 games, 3 games with 2 goals in a game. None with more than 2.

9 goals in 7 games = 1.28 goals a game so far.

Italy 1990 was the lowest so far at 2.2 a game - http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/63353

Says it all really. Give us some goals!

[Ian Royal]

South Korea were worth watching, I thought; shame the Greeks didn't hold up their own end

'Guese and the Ivory Coast ought to lively up the proceedings come Tueserz arferz

Speaking of the referee'ing, this is by a good sight better'n last time, when Blather told 'em to go out there and book anything and everything and then bitched 'em out for all of the sendings off and suspensions for accumul7ed cautions

Been pretty judicious so far, on balance, and vastly improved over 2006

Not taking any crap and being harsh on cynical pulling and so on, but not dishing out loads of reds and yellows. Like to see more of that in the domestic game

[winchester_royal]

Thought it was a poor game. Waiting for a game to light this tournament up. 7 down, nothing doing so far.

kill joy.

I loved every minute of it. COuld have done with more goals, but I suspect we may be saying that about a lot of games. Even Argentina with half the best attackers at the fricking tournament only managed one.

Agreed with that IR....cracking game of football IMO. Ghana were great to watch, fast-paced and direct, showing England how we should be playing. I've found my 2nd team for the tournament.

[1960]

The ball thing. Apparently it was to reward skilful players and cause more excitement, but how many long range shots including free kicks have sailed miles over? It will be interesting to see if Ronaldo, as a free kick specialist, will be able to keep it down.

[Millsy]

Thought it was a poor game. Waiting for a game to light this tournament up. 7 down, nothing doing so far.

kill joy.

I loved every minute of it. COuld have done with more goals, but I suspect we may be saying that about a lot of games. Even Argentina with half the best attackers at the fricking tournament only managed one.

Agreed with that IR....cracking game of football IMO. Ghana were great to watch, fast-paced and direct, showing England how we should be playing. I've found my 2nd team for the tournament.

So do I.

Well impressed with Ghana.

Good luck Ghana!

[Ian Royal]

The ball thing. Apparently it was to reward skilful players and cause more excitement, but how many long range shots including free kicks have sailed miles over? It will be interesting to see if Ronaldo, as a free kick specialist, will be able to keep it down.

One positive thing I noticed, it didn't seem to affect us a great deal...

It'll likely help teams who play it on the deck in short passes. South Korea being one notable example. Argentina another, Ghana to a lesser extent. when I say help, I mean by not hindering them compared to teams who play longer more arial balls.

[Ark Royal]

Ghana were great in the ACON with a bunch of kids and have had no issues with promoting the U20s to the full national team. I picked Ghana and Serbia as my dark horses of the tournament and Ghana did not let me down today. I was impressed - they kept their discipline and shape, which is not something you can easily say about African teams. Serbia appeared leaden-footed and how pony is Zigic?

This is still going to be a tight group. I think that Australia are very similar to the US in make-up and could frustrate the Germans.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

For about the first eight minutes, the Aussies had 'em!