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

CLAP! or CRAP? TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT

[ None added 5Jul ]

GK: LEHMAN (GER)
D: CANNAVARO (ITA) - ZAMBROTTA (ITA)
M: BALLACK (GER) - BARNETTA (SUI) - M. RODRIGUEZ (ARG) - FIGO (POR) - VIEIRA (FRA)
F: HENRY (FRA) - KLOSE (GER) - TONI (ITA)

6th MAN: ODONKOR (GER)

recently dropped: BORUC (POL), LAHM & SCHWEINSTEIGER (GER), SAVIOLA (ARG) 30 Jun
TORRES (ESP) & VILLA (ESP) 27Jun
CAHILL (AUS) & TOTTI (ITA) 25Jun
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

BY THE NUMBERS .. ..

Of the 51 World Cup matches that had a winner >

106 winning players played in the Premiership last year .. ..

Second is ITA that had 102 play in Serie A .. ..

Third is GER that had 94 play in the Bundesliga .. ..

SEMI-FINALS WEEK

Match 62: PORTUGAL v. FRANCE

You just have to know that it’s not your Cup when the only side that you despise gets through to the Final on a bad PK call .. .. A very even match that did not deserve to have a bad call determine the victor .. .. Tres, tres poo-poo .. ..

1^st Half >> Better first half than the nervy GER/ITA match yesterday – Both sides didn’t turn over the ball needlessly and came right after each other .. .. FRA was sharp early as both sides looked prepared .. .. But, the FRA PK was crap .. .. HENRY cut the ball back and then dragged his foot when CARVALHO went to ground and the fooled ref pointed to the the penalty spot .. .. The ball was gone and HENRY drew an unwarranted penalty which ZZ slotted home to the lower-left past a diving RICARDO .. ..

2^nd Half >> More of the same in the second half but POR just couldn’t get on the end on their service despite 19 crosses in the whole match .. ..