Prediction Page My predictions Vs Your Prediction on the 98/99 season.

Comments on France Vs PortugalDate: 29/6/00
It’s a real sad thing that Portugal missed out on the chance to get into the finals. To say that France didn’t deserve the win is wrong, just that Portugal deserved to win more than France did. Luis Figo and gang were just fantastic throughout the whole tournament!! Losing out to France in the last minute of the golden goal period through a penalty is total disappointment – suicidal!

So, is it the fault of bad refereeing as we so often saw throughout the tournament? Penalties seemed to be given out so freely! Okie, so it’s to clamp down diving, shirt tugging and what not. According to replays, Abel Xavier did touch the ball. But was it unintentionally or was it not? Who cares, a handball is a handball. I still can’t believe what happened to Portugal, must have been a total nightmare for them! It sure is a lucky win for France. So much for wishing that it would be a Italy v Portugal final.

Comments on Italy Vs HollandDate: 29/6/00
This is yet another pulsating match. Totally heart stopping. In the 1st half, the Dutch dominated the match which left the Italians back peddling and committing fouls along the way. The first penalty that the referee gave was somewhat harsh on the Italians! Thankfully, it was squandered by the Dutch (I support both Italy and Holland but in this case I support Italy more :)
Then came Zambrotta’s dismissal in the 34th minute for a second bookable offence. Much as I feared as the Italians seem to be committing so many fouls! This means that Italy would have to play the rest of the match (11mins+45mins+golden goal period of 30mins (that is if they manage to survive that long!) =86 mins! – almost a full whole game!) with 10 men. It’s going to be really tough. What with the number of yellow cards hanging on the heads of as many as 4 Italian players.

In the second half, Holland had yet another chance to capture the game through yet another penalty (as I’ve said earlier, I can’t help feeling that referees seem to be dishing out penalties so easily). This time, the penalty taken by Kluivert sent Toldo the wrong way but it hit the post. Unlucky! For the rest of the match, it was Holland all the way but the Italian defence was totally and fantastically OUTSTANDING! They managed to stop Holland’s onslaught. Holland had a great many chances but either the shot was weak or that they are off target. This really isn’t Holland’s day.

This match revealed something, something which we already know but is so strongly shown yet again, that the defenders, consisting of Maldini, Nesta, Cannavaro is one of the best in Europe, if not the world. They were the ones who managed to keep Italy’s hopes alive for the whole match.
Then it was the heart stopping moment for penalty taking. Luigi Di Biagio, the 'villain' in the WC98 was the first penalty taker for Italy. The thought of him taking the penalty just freaks me out. Why him? And not Totti or Del Piero to take the penalties first? Shouldn’t the ones who are most confident in taking penalties take them first?

Anyway, it takes lots of guts for Biago to take the penalty! Thankfully, he scored! Lined up for Holland to take the next penalty was Frank De Boer, the culprit who missed the penalty in the earlier stage of the match. Sadly, I think he’s not destined to take penalties, he missed yet again.

Next up for Italy was Pessotto who is not a regular penalty taker. Where’s Piero and Totti? Thankfully, Pessotto made no mistake and scored for Italy. Next up for Holland was Jaap Stam. I couldn’t believe it! I mean out of all people, Stam? What about people like Overmars or even Davids to take the penalty? And as much as we guessed, he missed it. Kluivert and Totti took the 3rd penalty and made no mistake. The fourth penalty taken by Maldini and Bosvelt for their countries were both saved. So final score 3-1!

WOOHOO! FANTASTIC DEFENCE! FORZA AZZURRISSS!!!!!

Match Review:(team) Comments

News or rumours about transfers? We'll see..........
Fowler to leave? Hope not! I still think he's a natural compared to the other strikers. Then again, Owen has been performing really well lately, scoring as many goals as we wished he would. And McAllister is scoring crucial goals at the right moment. Well, this has got to be the best season! It would be even better if Liverpool could win the UEFA cup and get 3rd place in the league for a place in the Champions League, next season would be even more interesting to watch! You get the sense that Liverpool could be contenders for next season's league title! YIPEE!!!

Question?
Don't you think that in a couple more years, Liverpool would just be like Chelsea? A united-nations team? Okie so there's still Owen and Fowler. But the team who has prided themselves in having 3/4 English players might just turn out to be another Chelsea or Arsenal with almost half or even a couple of English players?

List of my fav players in the english premier league:
@Jamie Redknapp (Liverpool) @Jason McAteer (Blackburn) @Micheal Owen (Liverpool) @Robbie Fowler(Liverpool) @Steve Macmanaman (Real)@Paul Ince (Boro) @Graeme Le Saux (Chelsea) @Alan Shearer (Newcastle) @David Seaman (Arsenal) @Marc Overmars (Arsenal) Speedy winger. I love this guy
@Dennis Berkamp (Arsenal) @Ruud Gullit (but he's not in any english league team anymore)

List of my other fav players:
@Roberto Baggio (love him in WC 94)     @Paolo Maldini
@Del Piero @Alessandro Nesta (He's voted the best youngest player. ) @Gianluca Pagliuca (Might not be in the next world cup) @Christian Vieri @Frank and Ronald de Boer @Bebeto (He too might not be in the next world cup) @Jorgo Campos (He's best remembered for his highly colourful jerseys but apparently his taste in those kind of jerseys is not allowed in this World Cup. The officials says that it is a distraction. We might not get to see him in the next World Cup.)

Italian Soccer Sites
Italian Soccer Links It's got one whole list of Italian sites. Really cool links offered too.
Italian Serie A
Tifo-Net  Italian fan clubs. Lots of very nice pictures and links!
Roberto Baggio I think it's the best page dedicated to Baggio.
Soccercity Italian Links Page
International Soccer Server Homepage
Italian Soccer start page listing of club homepages.

Comments? Mail to: kenickie@iname.com