How would you rate this year's world cup?

[Shaft]

I love the world cups, I love a summer of football and the atmosphere and love watching the matches with a beer. I loved the world cups from Italia 90, France 98 and Germany 2006 the best, I thought the venues were fantastic, there was a great atmosphere with the fans, great weather, etc. This world cup has been different, not as many fans have been out there, those stupid horns have made the atmosphere very strange. There have been a lot of pretty dull matches, there haven't been many really fantastic exciting games, there haven't been that many great goals, the stars such as Messi, Kaka, Rooney, Ronaldo, etc never showed up. I don't think its been a great worldc up personally. I think the next one in Brazil will be far more exciting.

[Jamster26]

Agreed Shaft. As you say the "stars" who you expect to light up the tournament, simply haven't delivered. While the people who you may not of thought would be big hits, have turned out to be! People like Schweinsteiger, Forlan etc.

[Diana Prince]

one word: shite!

[Didledee]

I think Messi showed up but just couldn't score, didn't really effect the Germany game but his overall play was good and could have been way out leading scorer if it wasn't for the Nigeria keeper alone.

1st round of games were pretty average, but it's got better since then and there as been some great goals, some very good games and some exciting finishes to matches. It would have been great to see all teams with the attitude of Chile, like attack attack attack but mentaly I don't think they want to take to much of a risk, hence the poor games and cautious football.

[Sluffy]

Worst World Cup I've seen.

[stinkythefrog]

Memory plays tricks on you but there seems to have been a shortage of entertaining games this world cup. Don't suppose the England performance really helped our overall view of the World Cup

Spain while technically gifted really don't make for entertaining football.

[The Ghost of Burnden]

Totally agree with Diana and Sluffy

[Chris Rabz]

It has been a dull World Cup, and while it would have seemed better if England put in any kind of performance even the neutral games everyone expects to be exciting simply weren't. I noticed yesterday though that even in the World Cup Semi Final, teams are unwilling to run at defenders. Unwilling to gamble anything at all on the attack just incase it results in a counter-attack and losing a goal. While it's alright to see Spain popping it around the field from side-to-side for 50 minutes, it only got interesting when they started committing men forward and actually breaking Germany down.

Then there's the tackling. Tough tackling has pretty much been outlawed now because of divers and cheats, so the only way of winning the ball back really is to block a pass. Any sort of physical challenge may result in a foul so most aren't willing to take the risk.

The bottom line is everyone has entered this World Cup with the mentality "let's not get beat", rather than "let's go and win", apart from Germany, Argentina and possibly Holland. Give me back the Premier League.

[Bwfc4eva]

It has been a bit shíte this year, the only good game so far was Uruguay v Holland.

[Natasha Whittam]

This world cup has been blighted by the worldwide football disease known as 'playing to avoid defeat, rather than playing to win'.

There's also the fact players in 2010 aren't anywhere near as good as they were 20 years ago. Few can open up defences anymore, and the crossing has been shocking.

Football is dying.

[Diana Prince]

Plus not one frigging fight. It's boring.

[The Ghost of Burnden]

1.  Natasha - change your avatar and NEVER use any of my photos again

2.  As said earlier I agree with Diana and Sluffy in that this world cup has been a complete shocker - not just from an England point of view but all countries involved

3. Only positive to come from this campaign has been the official music videos....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUr4rh2LRE                             (K'Naan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0                         (Shakira - gorgeous!)

[The Ghost of Burnden]

Plus not one frigging fight. It's boring.

Yes there was - cant remember which match - possibly drunk at time - but it was either one of the games last weekend or the Dutch match on Tuesday.

I know completely vague, but yes there has been a fight

[Diana Prince]

Yes there was - cant remember which match - possibly drunk at time - but it was either one of the games last weekend or the Dutch match on Tuesday.

I know completely vague, but yes there has been a fight

It must've been a shít one then as I don't remember. I'd probably turned off though tbh, to stop terminal boredom.

[Diana Prince]

3. Only positive to come from this campaign has been the official music videos....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUr4rh2LRE                             (K'Naan)

Are you taking the piss?

[The Ghost of Burnden]

It must've been a shít one then as I don't remember. I'd probably turned off though tbh, to stop terminal boredom.

hence reason as to why I was drunk - more exciting than the game!

[The Ghost of Burnden]

Are you taking the piss?

Must be my personal taste - as I love that song!

There again, I also prefer this version of Shakira's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzsuE5ugxf4

[Martinbwfc]

Are you taking the piss?

LIKE YOU NEED TO ASK,sorry for shouting but come on you know the score shorty.

[Faroe-boy]

There have been good times and bad times in this world cup.

France and Italy failed big time

Spain has played amazing

Denmark were a disaster from day one

England failed again

Actually the only good thing so far, has been spain and watching the underdogs win. Some stunning goals have also been

[Chris Rabz]

Spain have not played "amazing". They lost their opening game to a nobody, and then beat Honduras (who?), and granted they had a good result against a strong side in Chile. They got the odd goal from the odd chance by either side in a boring contest with Portugal, and won a game they could have quite easily lost against Paraguay. They did play well against Germany and deserved to win, but I'd still not say "amazing".

I'm not saying they haven't done well, or that they don't deserve to be in the final, but they haven't been good to watch in my opinion. A lot of short passing but most of it going nowhere, like everyone else.

[bigsamsarmyusa]

There was a moment of interest in the Spain v Germany game, when someone ran on the pitch early on in the game.

I've enjoyed watching Argentina up till they lost to Germany; and I've really enjoyed watching Germany until they were outclassed by Spain yesterday.

Other than that, it's only been snippets of entertainment, usually at the end of games.

I thought that the Vuvuzelas were a complete distraction and annoyance.  Thank god they found a way to mute them to a degree.

Most of the pitches were in poor condition after one or two games.

The Latin players tended to dive too much and the refs preferred diving to good tackles.

On the plus side, I did watch a couple of games where players were booked for feigning injury.

Overall, I'd so this world cup was not the worst but no more than average.

[Faroe-boy]

Spain have not played "amazing". They lost their opening game to a nobody, and then beat Honduras (who?), and granted they had a good result against a strong side in Chile. They got the odd goal from the odd chance by either side in a boring contest with Portugal, and won a game they could have quite easily lost against Paraguay. They did play well against Germany and deserved to win, but I'd still not say "amazing".

I'm not saying they haven't done well, or that they don't deserve to be in the final, but they haven't been good to watch in my opinion. A lot of short passing but most of it going nowhere, like everyone else.

Every game they play they are keeping the ball all the time. Xavi and Iniesta could pass the ball togheter forverer. Even though they lost the first game, they were in total control and had a lot of chances. The way Paraguay played was stunning. They were the first team to keep them under pressure the whole game, and when they did that Spain did not get their play to work. When they meet Germany, they were not under that much pressure again, and than they were allowed to run their play. No wonder they out classed them.

Its obvious that they are the best team in the world at the moment. Sneijder and Robben are the only big threat to them in the final.

[Chris Rabz]

Yeah but while keeping the ball for 90 minutes is all well and good, it's not "amazing". Using it to continuously pick teams apart and score goals left, right & centre is, but at no point have I felt Spain were "inevitable" to score, despite their domination of possession. Any team that came up with a rigid defensive structure but some sort of counter-attack had Spain struggling to break through. They managed it a few times against Germany, but that game aside they haven't been all that much more impressive than anyone else - in my opinion anyway.

[Didledee]

I could watch Spain's passing in triangles and 1 touch all day, not really penetrative enough to get many goals in this World Cup, but their style gets the other team moving and their opponents know they have to defend and hope to score on a counter, if a team is organised like Inter v Barca at the Nou Camp it's hard to break them down, that's been Spain's problem.

They could have beaten Germany by a lot more and have had the most shots in the World cup out of all the teams, they didn't really get a lot of people in the box when Capdevilla or Ramos got forward but it's not really their game, against Honduras they created tons of chances, they played with Jesus Navas as a natural winger and his crossing was poor, and hasn't played since, even Silva hadn't played since Switzerland until the Germany match for a few minutes . Spain play to their best players strenght, passing and with Villa upfront you will always have the threat when you open up teams with quick combo moves.

I think a lot of teams are to scared to pass back, but it's effective, Puyol to Sergio, Sergio to Puyol, Puyol to Pique, Pique to Puyol, Puyol to Capdevilla, Capdevilla to Sergio, Sergio to Xavi, Xavi to Sergio, etc where many teams would just do Puyol to Sergio, then forward or to the wings or just a hoof upfield. It's the beautifu game without the penetration as of yet, but yesterday they taught Germany how to play and Germany couldn;t get the ball at all and had to rely on counters to create anything[I think they had 2 chances all night]that's what happened when Switzerland won, Spain dominated the game but couldn't score. Torress has been poor, just like Rooney. Doesn't make him a bad player, but you know if he was firing Spain would have scored more. Pedro should have passed to him for a goal, but Pedro had a great game, and he was the one creating the force after the passing players had made space doing their subtle quick 1 touch passing. Iniesta's,Alonso's, Fabregas, Sergio and Xavi's experience and understanding is what make their game so wonderful, but because people are used to seeing a typical english style it's sometimes overlooked and seen as passing for passing sake, when in fact it's much much more than that.

When I was in year 6, I had two men infront of me, and I passed backwards, and my teacher said to me 'get the ball forward' I was like you want me to turn and get tackled? when I could pass backwards and not lose the ball? and we can create from their? How many times does Casillas kick the ball in the air? hardly any, how many times does Puyol or Pique go long? only time is when they hit to the wings and usually successful, how many times do we see teams like Bolton just kick it long and our keeper just punt it forward, the reason is we play to our strength in Davies and our players have hardly an control or awareness[Knight,Robinson for example] were as teams like Spain have players with vision, awareness, technique and skill and they play to their strength's and in a way that has made them Euro Champions and in a way how Barca are known as the best team in the world.

[Chris Rabz]

I understand that's their style but while possession is paramount in football, the ball also must be in the right areas. That's usually the difference between Man Utd & Arsenal, or Chelsea & Spurs. The likes of Arsenal play the percentages in that if they keep over 60% possession during a game, chances are they'll get some chances and win a game 2-0 or 3-0. But the stronger sides, while trying to keep the ball also, want to get it forward as quickly as possible in search of the first - and often decisive - goal.

Even if this means spreading the play around, long diagonal passes, even long ball tactics which Chelsea do use, I don't care what anyone says, it's taking that gamble to go and win the game rather than keeping the ball over 40 yards out from goal and being satisfied that you won't concede just because they can't get the ball.

I never complained with Bolton's direct approach when we actually utilised it. When we had Davies in the middle it worked a treat because running off him we had Diouf, Anelka, Gardner, Stelios, even Nolan in his younger days, and with all that pace plus the strength of Davies, opposition sides just couldn't live with it. The only way teams could beat us was to go and grab the initiative.

I only started to dislike the style under Lee and Megson because we gradually lost all of the players that made it function. It ended up where we only had Nolan & Davies and without that pace, that zip on the wings, it ended up just being a pointless ball towards Davies with no chance of anybody winning the second ball. Then Davies got crowded out by teams and we were knackered.