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JCK

JCK

Biased
JCK
May 11, 2004
125,382
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread Starter #104
    Prince William is sitting next to Franz Beckenpauer watching the game.
     

    rainhard

    Senior Member
    May 5, 2004
    4,365
    Review Sport : Robinson questions World Cup ball




    TheTottenham stopper, 26, has been practising with the lighter ball in England training ahead of Saturday's Group B opener against Paraguay.

    And he warns the balls will give strikers the upper hand in Germany as they are "very goalkeeper unfriendly".

    Robinson said: "It's more like a water-polo or volleyball. It's very light and moves so much in the air."

    England's first-choice keeper revealed, however, that he became familiar with the new ball long before he arrived in Baden-Baden with Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad this week.

    "I had the foresight that the ball wasn't going to be what we're used to, so with four or five weeks to go I got my agent to get me half a dozen of them," Robinson said.

    "I mixed them in with the training balls at Spurs, and for the last five weeks of the season I've been training with them.

    When the ball gets wet it's even worse. It's as if the new ball has a plastic casing around it.

    "It doesn't even have to be a shot from Ronaldinho or Roberto Carlos; the ball will be moving about all over the place."Despite the wildly variable flight of the ball, Robinson insists he will not do anything differently.

    "I don't think you can because if you start doing things you don't normally do during the game that's when things can go wrong," he said."It's something we have to deal with. They're bringing out new balls all the time."

    The former Leeds goalkeeper is determined to ensure he is as well prepared as possible before England open their campaign on Saturday and admitted: "I'm my own biggest critic.

    "Every goal that goes in, even if it's one from 25 yards that everybody says you could do nothing about, you wonder if you could have got a stop in."If I'd have done this, or that; is there any way I could have affected the outcome of it?

    "But playing on Saturday will be a very, very proud moment for me as a footballer and as a person."Every time you pull on an England shirt it fills you with a lot of pride.
    "I've been given the chance to be one of the few English goalkeepers who have played at the World Cup finals and I'm really looking forward to it."
    source = www.bbc.co.uk
    =============================================

    Beckham will love this ball.. gerrard, ballack,lampard, carlos, ronaldinho, etc
     

    Eddy

    The Maestro
    Aug 20, 2005
    12,645
    What a shit match. 3 amazing midfielders and nothing came out of it. 1 total fluke goal which shouldnt have gone in.
     

    Byrone

    Peen Meister
    Dec 19, 2005
    30,778
    edpiero said:
    What a shit match. 3 amazing midfielders and nothing came out of it. 1 total fluke goal which shouldnt have gone in.
    indeed Ed,Sweden would have them for breakfast if they play like that again.
     

    PhRoZeN

    Livin with Mediocre
    Mar 29, 2006
    16,930
    Pity that the first hard made the most difference in a match where paraguay took the most time in settling in. For me the match approach made the biggest difference. The paraguayan coach talked a lot about how england shouldnt underestimate his side and how great they are .. :blah: :blah:.. It kind of has a similiar tone to what the costa rican coach was promising to the germans. Playing Santa Cruz from the start in my opinion was certainly a bad move.. I know his there most "well known" player but seriously he was hardly nowhere to be seen, (afterall the guy came back from a long term inury and certainly was insane from the uruguyan born coach) and also i think diego should have started as a left back and maybe that would have caused some problems to beckham and finally cuevas should have been playing earliar.. all in all a good three points for england, great result for a side who in my eyes have the easiest group out of the big dogs.
     

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