2006 HWCI World Cup Pool "Clap! or Crap?" Newsletter (Sam Nishi)

CLAP! or CRAP? TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT

[ CANNAVARO & TOTTI re-added 22Jun ]

GK: BORUC (POL)
D: CANNAVARO (ITA) - LAHM (GER)
M: BARNETTA (SUI)-CAHILL (AUS)- TOTTI (ITA)-SCHWEINSTEIGER (GER)
F: KLOSE (GER)-SAVIOLA (ARG) -TORRES (ESP)-VILLA (ESP)

recently dropped: ONYEWU (USA) & ROSICKY (CZE) 22Jun
DELGADO (ECU) & SANCHO (TRI) 20Jun
TOTTI (ITA) [re-added 22Jun] & ROBBEN (NED) 19Jun
CANNAVARO (ITA) 19Jun [re-added 22Jun]
VILLA (ESP) 16 Jun [re-added 19Jun]
WANCHOPE (CRC) 15Jun

MY NOTEBOOK

Players just ‘under the radar’ who I would sign (cheaply):

CLINT DEMPSEY (USA)

Will spearhead the USA attack the next three World Cups

ARUNA DINDANE (IVC)

Skilled striker has mellowed this year after the death of his daughter this past winter

CARLOS EDWARDS (TRI)

He could play the right side of my MF, or DEF for me .. .. See that pace on him?

IRENEUSZ JELEN (POL)

Would be my first signing – Has to be the world’s fastest Pol!

MOHAMMED KADER (TOG)

Pure striker but has had more than his share of chances at age 30+

AARON LENNON (ENG)

Quickest player for Eng won’t be cheap much longer

YOSHIKATSU KAWAGUCHI (JPN)

Great GK on a shitty team – Can’t seem to play at his best outside of Japan

ILLIASU SHILLA (GHA)

Hard men are easy to like

Match 41: CZECH REPUBLIC v. ITALY

Lots of positives for ITA despite what has to be the BURDEN OF THEIR LIVES hanging over them this afternoon – The ITA F.A. is going to announce the names of the players involved in the massive SERIE A MATCH-FIXING SCANDLE .. .. All of the Juventus-based players were under sever scrutiny .. ..

CZE had it all to play for but only NEDVED looked up to it .. .. He was constantly dangerous even though POLAK was sent off for his second YC just before the half .. ..

ITA had everyone playing hard and were focused despite the fore-mentioned announcement to come .. .. TOTTI was active all match and may just now be gaining his fitness .. ..

After the match, their FA announced that their four largest teams may face relegation to Serie B and over 30 Serie A players may be involved .. ..

CZE MoM: #11 PAVEL NEDVED was admirable in what was sure to be his World Cup finale .. .. Showed sweet vision all match and his passes set his teammates free .. .. Was even a danger coming forward in the second half despite being a man down .. ..

ITA MoM: #23 MARCO MATERAZZI came on as an early sub a scored the winner in the first half .. .. Imposing centre-back climbed above two markers and snapped the TOTTI CK into the lower-left .. ..

Match 42: GHANA v. UNITED STATES

In the end, GHA was lucky to get their PK off an unwarranted foul on ONYEWU .. .. And what was REYNA doing back there and didn’t at least see DRAMAN in the area?

USA, bad PK aside, didn’t do much with their attack as well .. .. They had their chances in the second half when MCBRIDE’s header went off the near post and ONYEWU’s unchallenged header just missed the corner .. .. The boyz got 10 shots off inside the PK box but only DEMPSEY converted .. .. It’s going to be a long summer .. ..

GHA MoM: #23 JAMINU DRAMAN gets full credit for charging REYNA, pressuring him and then coolly slotting home for the opening goal .. .. Another amazing story after they found this Ghanaian playing in Serbia .. ..

USA MoM: #8 CLINT DEMPSEY scored a cracker when BEASLEY finally ran at somebody and was able to lay off a sweet square-ball for DEMPSEY who was running the right-box and crushed it home with his right foot .. ..

Match 43: JAPAN v. BRAZIL

The early goal by JPN turned this into a fun match to watch .. .. BRA looked like the BRA they could be as they created at will in front of the JPN net, but a JPN defense is no better than a warmup match in reality .. ..

JPN needs to re-think their approach to the world game as the USA is trying to do .. .. Their players run hard but don’t get results (unlike KOR) .. .. Only ALEX & NAKAMURA are creative at all and the JFA needs to get more of their players & clubs to Europe .. .. In the J-League close season, the National Team should have a camp in Europe for a month every year!!

Did you see JUNINHO’s knuckleball goal? That’s at least the second goal that fooled the GK when the adidas WC ball shows no rotation!

JPN MoM: #20 KEIJI TAMADA scored a dream goal to open the match and give JPN some hope .. .. Took a great ball from ALEX in the left-box and slammed it home left-footed .. ..

BRA MoM: #9 RONALDO had over a half-dozen chances in the box and could easily have had a four-bagger .. .. Hard to gauge his performance against such a weak side .. .. Had an easy header that he converted easily and a nice turn and shot from the top of the box that flew into the right side of the goal .. .. Just doesn’t move anymore .. ..

Match 44: CROATIA v. AUSTRALIA

Good match with everything to play for – But the Socceroos where unlucky to win outright .. .. SRNA grabbed an early goal but AUS fought back and earned at least 2 PK’s that were missed by the officials .. .. AUS also allowed a soft goal that KALAC should have handled .. ..

Both sides created opportunities, with AUS’ chances a bit better .. .. Full credit to AUS who played hard despite being down early .. .. Became a chippy affair late when CRO and then AUS had men sent off .. ..

CRO MoM: #2 DARIJO SRNA grabbed the match for CRO early when he delivered a perfect FK in just the 3^rd minute .. .. Just above and to the left of the ‘D’, he curled his right-footer into the upper-left corner to leave the GK just wishing .. .. Punched in crosses .. ..

AUS MoM: #10 HARRY KEWELL was the driving offensive force behind AUS and finally grabbed his overdue goal on a scramble in the box .. .. The best-ever footballer from Australia, and now at Liverpool, will lead the 25,000 AUS fans v. ITA in the second round .. .. The 25,000 Aussies are the largest exodus from AUS since WWII .. ..