Post by Salem6 on Jun 8, 2004 7:03:54 GMT
By Myles Palmer
__________________________________________
DID YOU SEE France v Ukraine on Sunday night?
When the two giants combined, it was awe-inspiring, earth- shaking.
Two huge athletes, two powerhouses, two footballers with amazing strength and incredible skills - Zizou and Pat were extraordinary.
Shevchenko's sister is recovering from a heart op, so he didn't play.
Ukraine just sat back and defended tenaciously and didn't try to attack at all.
They have not won in five games since Oleg Blokhin took over, so in Paris they decided to soak it up.
And it almost worked.
French midfield was Pires-Vieira-Makelele-Zidane.
They had Saha and Henry up front.
The Henry-Pires partnership did not click because Pires was on the right for the first hour.
BUT ZIDANE-VIEIRA CLICKED - and how !
France had a good tempo.
They were fast, busy, purposeful. But they could not score because they had Gallas at right back and he cant do a Cafu job.
Zidane and Vieira were unbelievably physical, unbelievably skilful, unbelievably two-footed - supreme gladiators.
Zidane can ride bumps and barges and turn and score with either foot.
He has the body of a bear and the mind of a fox and when he is 100% fit and 150% motivated he is unplayable and unstoppable.
He has the body strength of Gazza - and the audacity.
He is a Ferrari.
His doors close with a cushioned clunk.
His control is luxury control because he has shock-absorbers in his boots, so the ball is always killed from every angle, at every height, on either side.
He does preposterous things with a football, and does them all night long.
And Zidane always sweats buckets. Torrents of water pour off his chin.
VIEIRA is beautifully efficient and can accelerate away from his marker, content to leave his mate Claude in the holding role, covering him.
Vieira blossoms with Claude behind him and Zizou in front of him.
Zidane and Vieira are two huge locomotives, two guys with burning desire and inventive strength.
Who can stop them? Nobody.
Henry had a poor game.
But he nodded down sub Willie Sagnol's cross for the goal in 88 minutes - Zidane hit a murderous half-volley just inside Shovkovky's right-hand post.
ON SATURDAY the belligerent Rooney banged in two fine goals as England hammered Iceland 6-1.
Owen, like Henry,was peripheral.
SHOULD SVEN BE SCARED of Zidane and Vieira?
No, because Sunday is only a three-point match.
Sven can lose it and win the other two and qualify.
We can beat Switzerland and Croatia.
So France cannot put England out.
Only Croatia can put England out.
Or Switzerland.
So Sunday is, in fact, a free ride.
Play the game, Sven.
Don't be paranoid. Have a go!
Enjoy it and share it with us.
If you lose, win the next two.
OBVIOUSLY, IT'S A LONG FOUR DAYS after a defeat.
In Euro 2000, Keegan's England took a 2-0 lead against Portugal, but lost 3-2.
We waited five days to the next game and those five days were excruciating.
Those five days were hell.
Those five days seemed to last forever, even for those of us who enjoy these tournaments for the football, rather than supporting the Three Lions.
Having lost 3-2 in the first game, England beat a feeble Germany 1-0, and then lost 3-2 to Romania, when Phil Neville conceded a stupid penalty in the last minute.
EDU STARTED for Brazil in a 1-1 draw in Chile, which I watched on Bravo 1 tonight.
Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is too negative, too European, so we didn't see much of the beautiful game, except from Kaka, who will become the most-fouled player of the Noughties.
Striker Fabiano was almost onside when he was flicked through.
He went round the keeper and finished very well and it was given.
1-0 to Brazil, 16 minutes.
KAKA is not quite as much fun to watch as Ronaldinho, who is injured.
But Kaka is marvellously productive and consistent.
There's always a final ball or a shot.
He is stylish, but not flashy.
And,like Vieira in a different way, he is a manager's dream because he is so efficient.
Things went downhill after Kaka was taken off in 71.
Edmilson was in the Gilberto position - until 81, when Gilberto replaced him.
Rodrigo Perez earned a dodgy penalty in 88 by dribbling into the side of the box and slowing down for a nanosecond so that Cafu's leg clipped him.
He played for it and tumbled.
Bearded centre forward Reinaldo Navia hit a thunderous penalty past Dida, who is the best keeper in the world, miles ahead of Toldo and Buffon.
1-1 was fair since the Argentinian ref had denied Chile two earlier penalties.
Edu played well, but Gilberto got a second yellow of the World Cup qualifying series, so he will miss the next game.
CAROLINE JUST came home from seeing her Gooner friend Chris, who is 25 and now a soldier in the Irish Guards.
They had five years together in the Junior Gunners.
Five years of exciting football and laughing.
She went to Wellington Barracks, where Chris has a blown-up photo of Stewart, Dan, Ben and little Leo on his wall, taken just after Thierry Henry scored against THFC.
Many of the Irish Guards are Liverpool fans.
Chris bought a pair of Arsenal shorts and cut them up and stitched the club logo inside his bearskin hat.
They all do that, apparently.
He gets girls kissing him while he is on guard outside Buckingham Palace and people trying to make him laugh all the time.One girl mooned him.
But the army found out he had catering experience, so he has lately been working as a waiter in the officers mess.
www.anr.uk.com/articles/m-2004-06-07-23-55-14.html
__________________________________________
DID YOU SEE France v Ukraine on Sunday night?
When the two giants combined, it was awe-inspiring, earth- shaking.
Two huge athletes, two powerhouses, two footballers with amazing strength and incredible skills - Zizou and Pat were extraordinary.
Shevchenko's sister is recovering from a heart op, so he didn't play.
Ukraine just sat back and defended tenaciously and didn't try to attack at all.
They have not won in five games since Oleg Blokhin took over, so in Paris they decided to soak it up.
And it almost worked.
French midfield was Pires-Vieira-Makelele-Zidane.
They had Saha and Henry up front.
The Henry-Pires partnership did not click because Pires was on the right for the first hour.
BUT ZIDANE-VIEIRA CLICKED - and how !
France had a good tempo.
They were fast, busy, purposeful. But they could not score because they had Gallas at right back and he cant do a Cafu job.
Zidane and Vieira were unbelievably physical, unbelievably skilful, unbelievably two-footed - supreme gladiators.
Zidane can ride bumps and barges and turn and score with either foot.
He has the body of a bear and the mind of a fox and when he is 100% fit and 150% motivated he is unplayable and unstoppable.
He has the body strength of Gazza - and the audacity.
He is a Ferrari.
His doors close with a cushioned clunk.
His control is luxury control because he has shock-absorbers in his boots, so the ball is always killed from every angle, at every height, on either side.
He does preposterous things with a football, and does them all night long.
And Zidane always sweats buckets. Torrents of water pour off his chin.
VIEIRA is beautifully efficient and can accelerate away from his marker, content to leave his mate Claude in the holding role, covering him.
Vieira blossoms with Claude behind him and Zizou in front of him.
Zidane and Vieira are two huge locomotives, two guys with burning desire and inventive strength.
Who can stop them? Nobody.
Henry had a poor game.
But he nodded down sub Willie Sagnol's cross for the goal in 88 minutes - Zidane hit a murderous half-volley just inside Shovkovky's right-hand post.
ON SATURDAY the belligerent Rooney banged in two fine goals as England hammered Iceland 6-1.
Owen, like Henry,was peripheral.
SHOULD SVEN BE SCARED of Zidane and Vieira?
No, because Sunday is only a three-point match.
Sven can lose it and win the other two and qualify.
We can beat Switzerland and Croatia.
So France cannot put England out.
Only Croatia can put England out.
Or Switzerland.
So Sunday is, in fact, a free ride.
Play the game, Sven.
Don't be paranoid. Have a go!
Enjoy it and share it with us.
If you lose, win the next two.
OBVIOUSLY, IT'S A LONG FOUR DAYS after a defeat.
In Euro 2000, Keegan's England took a 2-0 lead against Portugal, but lost 3-2.
We waited five days to the next game and those five days were excruciating.
Those five days were hell.
Those five days seemed to last forever, even for those of us who enjoy these tournaments for the football, rather than supporting the Three Lions.
Having lost 3-2 in the first game, England beat a feeble Germany 1-0, and then lost 3-2 to Romania, when Phil Neville conceded a stupid penalty in the last minute.
EDU STARTED for Brazil in a 1-1 draw in Chile, which I watched on Bravo 1 tonight.
Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is too negative, too European, so we didn't see much of the beautiful game, except from Kaka, who will become the most-fouled player of the Noughties.
Striker Fabiano was almost onside when he was flicked through.
He went round the keeper and finished very well and it was given.
1-0 to Brazil, 16 minutes.
KAKA is not quite as much fun to watch as Ronaldinho, who is injured.
But Kaka is marvellously productive and consistent.
There's always a final ball or a shot.
He is stylish, but not flashy.
And,like Vieira in a different way, he is a manager's dream because he is so efficient.
Things went downhill after Kaka was taken off in 71.
Edmilson was in the Gilberto position - until 81, when Gilberto replaced him.
Rodrigo Perez earned a dodgy penalty in 88 by dribbling into the side of the box and slowing down for a nanosecond so that Cafu's leg clipped him.
He played for it and tumbled.
Bearded centre forward Reinaldo Navia hit a thunderous penalty past Dida, who is the best keeper in the world, miles ahead of Toldo and Buffon.
1-1 was fair since the Argentinian ref had denied Chile two earlier penalties.
Edu played well, but Gilberto got a second yellow of the World Cup qualifying series, so he will miss the next game.
CAROLINE JUST came home from seeing her Gooner friend Chris, who is 25 and now a soldier in the Irish Guards.
They had five years together in the Junior Gunners.
Five years of exciting football and laughing.
She went to Wellington Barracks, where Chris has a blown-up photo of Stewart, Dan, Ben and little Leo on his wall, taken just after Thierry Henry scored against THFC.
Many of the Irish Guards are Liverpool fans.
Chris bought a pair of Arsenal shorts and cut them up and stitched the club logo inside his bearskin hat.
They all do that, apparently.
He gets girls kissing him while he is on guard outside Buckingham Palace and people trying to make him laugh all the time.One girl mooned him.
But the army found out he had catering experience, so he has lately been working as a waiter in the officers mess.
www.anr.uk.com/articles/m-2004-06-07-23-55-14.html