World Cup Soccer Results and Review

Italy was crowned world cup 2006 winners, Germany hosted the tournament superbly and played some great football on their way to the semi final. But was the standard of football great? I am not sure, the Italians were very strong in defence but are not a brilliant team as highlighted when they struggled to beat nine man USA and were fortunate to beat Australia with a last gasp penalty.

If we look at some of the 2006 world cup teams we can see many failed to deliver.

ITALY- Winners

Outstanding defence and in Buffon the best goalkeeper in the world as he highlighted with his great save from Zidane in extra time. More attacking formation than normal but no real strikeforce success with Toni failing to emulate his Serie A strike rate.

As with most good teams they managed to grind out some results and were very hard to beat. Many of their top players are now reaching their peak, interesting to see how they perform in Euro 2006.

FRANCE- Runners up

The veterans of France surprised many by reaching the final. Inspired by Zidane the French eliminated holders Brazil and also defeated Portugal in the semi final.

The French were unlucky in the final as for long periods they dominated the game, however the crazy sending off involving Zidane cost them dearly as with Zidane, Vierra and Henry all unavailable for the penalty shoot out, the French had to settle for runners up.

GERMANY- 3rd Place

The Germans went into the world cup as underdogs despite being the home nation due to a run of terrible results. The manager, Klinsmann was under intense pressure but the Germans performed superbly and only were denied a final spot when the Italians scored two late goals in extra time in the semi final.

The Germans provided the young player of the tournament and in Klosse they also grabbed the top goalscorer award.

PORTUGAL- 4th Place

Portugal have emerged as serious contenders in recent tournaments under the guidance of big Phil Scolari. Impressive wins over Holland and England were not matched when they performed poorly and were eliminated by France in the semi final.

Players such as Figo, Pauletta and Deco may have played their last world cup but they still have some young players such as Ronaldo emerging.

BRAZIL- Quarter final

The holders played some great football in the early stages despite Ronaldo not looking anywhere near fit. Ronaldinho showed some nice tricks but was quiet in many matches due to tight marking.

A very lacklusture showing against France sent the Brazilains home and for players such as Carlos, Ronaldo, emerson, Junior and Cafu it is probably the end of their world cup dreams.

ENGLAND- Quarter final

With so many quality players there is no doubt England under performed. They were terrible in the group stages struggling against big guns such as Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago!

Their manager failed to bring enough strikers and with Rooney clearly not fit and Owen out injured there was no real strength in depth to the squad. The long ball tactic was used too often and England yet again were beat on penalties at the quarter final stage.

ARGENTINA- Quarter final

The South Americans played some superb stuff in the early stages and had many outstanding players . However they were eliminated by the host nation on penalties as their early form failed to reappear in the latter stages of the tournament.

A narrow win against Mexico suggested they were not unbeatable and the Germans more than matched them in a dull quarter final. With young players emerging such as Messi there is no doubt that Argentina will be back challenging the next world cup.

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Kevin McNally offers soccer tips and tricks at World Cup results - visit =>http://www.worldcupsoccerfacts.info

The Weekend Football Results As Unpredictable As Ever

This year the Barclays Premiership has already produced some unpredictable weekend football results and no doubt there are still many to come. Leading the pack are the champions Chelsea which is probably been the only predictable thing to come out of the season so far. Once the fixture list was produced ever single manager in the league would have concluded that it was most likely Chelsea would sit at the top of the table with 5 wins out of 5, even considering their poor pre-season results and their defeat to Manchester United in the curtain opener the Community Shield. However they strolled past West Brom, Wigan, Stoke, West Ham and Blackpool, scoring 21 goals in the process and only conceding a single goal. They already have a four point cushion over second place big spending Manchester City who they however failed to beat.

Money can't buy you success! This statement may have to be revisited at the end of the season. Manchester City have started slow but are steadily building some momentum and their new players are gelling a lot quicker than everyone predicted. They have already beaten Liverpool, Chelsea and drawn away to Spurs. They have a lot of energy about their play and are a strong physical youthful side with the right amount of flair to win games. The only concern they will face is keeping all of their multi-million pound players happy, which will be easier with the English players than the foreign ones I predict.

The year of the Berbatov! Has his time finally come after 2 years at Old Trafford? His early season form certainly suggests this. He sits on top of the goal scoring table with 6 leagues goals in 7 games already this season and how Manchester United have needed him as Rooney has failed on all fronts to spark any kind of his form from last season which this is largely due to his off the field antics, which we all know about so there is no need to delve further in to that. As ever they have started the season slowly, but what has been a shock to the system for all of their fans is the despicable state of their defensive performances. Last season they only conceded 28 goals and this season a goal a game already. However Rio Ferdinand returned to the starting line up away to Sunderland where they didn't concede and was in impeccable form for England against Montenegro.

Liverpool languish in the bottom three of the table! Yes you read that correctly, they are in dire straits at the moment, however it looks like the sale of the club from the current American owners will be pushed through by the High Court today (13/10/2010). Not that the takeover will change the on field prospects of the club straight away and being realistic there won't be any big names coming over in the January transfer window if they still languish in the bottom half of the table. So sadly their season is already over after all the pre-season ambitions they had.

The Premier League returns after the international break and the unpredictability will no doubt continue with the likes of Blackpool and West Brom especially shocking a few more teams. Will Chelsea build on their 4 point lead or come the next international break will we see Arsenal, Spurs or Villa competing for top stop.

There are definitely a few more twists and turns in store this season and if you feel like you can predict what people haven't predicted so far, why not make a bit of extra money using a Ladbrokes free bet code to do so.