¡El Fantasma del 50! Well, I am Brazilian. But I am from Rio Grande do Sul state, the southernmost state in Brazil. Uruguay's full name is Eastern Republic of Uruguay. It has this name because it is part of the "Banda Oriental del Uruguay", the Eastern Bank of Uruguay River. My state is the northern half. So, we share territory with our southern neighbors. The Uruguayans usually do not know, the relationship can be weird at the border, and the Montevideanos are an island on themselves, but, we, Gauchos, have the "Orientales" as brothers. We are also "Orientales", right? Every time Uruguay succeeds, we feel like a victory of our on. Every time, they failed, we are also hurt. In 1950, after the triumph, Uruguay national team took a flight from Rio to Montevideo. They had to stop in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul's capital, to fuel. There were thousands and thousands of people there to salute the champions. We are glad that the "Phanton of the 50" will be there. We are hoping you are drawn in Group F to play in Porto Alegre. ¡Vamo, Celeste, nomá!
Here is an Uruguayan from the interior that knows it, hermano. No artificial borders can separate us. You guys take care of Maxi Rodriguez. He might just be the missing piece in our left wing come June.
Sometimes, I wonder if we don't take care a little bit to much. We could use him more. He was simply phenomenal last game. Next season, maybe, HOPEFULLY!, he will start more games.
First Tunisia showed desperation, now Burkina Faso is as well http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25060833 Bold strategy, let's see if it pays off.
I hope not. Fortunately Tunisia's latest complaint was ridiculous. Unfortunately this type of complaint has precedent and might bear fruit. This is a horrible way qualify for the World Cup.
Preferences aside unfortunately burkina faso has a strong case. Cape verde was ditched on the same grounds, so if the case isn't made up it looks like a forfeit.
According to the FIFA site the Bougherra guy didn't get a yellow in the first leg but he did in the second.
Yeah. Just found out the same. Odd from burkina faso. Thanfully looks like poor grounds for appeal. It would look terrible if one of the qualifiers were determined by a mistake. ---- Edit - dug a little deeper and the burkina faso fa are apparently protesting that bougherra was shown a yellow in the previous game, but the referee made a mistake to not record it. Even if this protest is factual then it was not a mistake by aalgeria but by the referee. Worst case scenario a rematch would have to be played.
http://www.socceramerica.com/article/55054/burkina-faso-files-baseless-protest.html Yes. There's no record of any card being issued. Just another case of grasping at straws. Especially in this round to try to get into the WC without earning it is just shameful. Not that I support breaking the rules or not abiding them, but looking for mistakes and trolling for wins is ridiculous and horrible. FIFA set a bad precedent with issuing all of these forfeits, fortunately only one team that benefited from one actually went on to qualify. Replays would have been a wiser choice but ugh...
I think the even worse issue is all these FA's making the mistakes in the first place. Your basically saying FIFA shouldn't enforce their own rules.
No I'm saying that the manner in which they enforce their rules is stupid. There are better ways to handle this and they know it. Now you have teams making crap up just to get wins.
Sometimes, the mistake committed by those punished is so astonishing absurd, that the penalty seems reasonable.
It is actually weird. I don't know how to answer. I would have to wait the actual game to be able to do it. I guess that's my dream final. I would feel champion right after the semis!