At 6/7/10 07:45 AM, Auz wrote:

Anyway, if the midfielders aren't stopping the attacks, we're clearly in trouble. I think that makes us pretty vulnerable to teams that play defensively and go for the counter.

Exactly, and that's why I'm hoping Brazil won't play against Netherlands, because Brazil's infamous for their counter attacks, and they'll just take our attack and use it against us.

Yayz! Soccer!

England can't win the WC. They suck at penalties plus the wheather is too hot for the english players (that was being used as an excuse last time they failed to make it to the semi finals, IIIRC).

As much as I'd love to predict a win for the German team I'm afraid they don't survive the group phase. I have this strange feeling that this year will be a desaster for german football. And I had this feeling way before this unbelievable injury streak started.
But a desaster would have something good as well: I will never have to see Löw again as coach of the German national football team.

I think this year an african team will win the WC.

Hey guys, just want to 'show off' my World Cup sig I will be using that JaY11 was kind enough to make for me. I don't believe England can win it but of course I will be supporting them and hoping for the best. Anyone else besides Ejit going to use their national team in their sig somehow for this great event?

I'm kind of hoping Spain win the huge thing. Probably because they have never won it before and I think it's long overdue for them.

I would if I could :P But I'm supporting France "the auld allie" and canny wait for your game against the states. They have come on in leaps and bounds and could do you all good and proper for a nation of "soccer" players verses england who we all know play good football from time to time :D

The granny shagger rooney will probably do his usual stuff. He can score but theirs nothing great about how he dose it :P

At 6/7/10 10:55 AM, Haggard wrote: England can't win the WC. They suck at penalties plus the wheather is too hot for the english players (that was being used as an excuse last time they failed to make it to the semi finals, IIIRC).

Ah yes weather influences. I think they do play a role actually. Good thing is that it's winter in Africa though, meaning the weather is basically like a normal summer in North-West Europe :p

As much as I'd love to predict a win for the German team I'm afraid they don't survive the group phase. I have this strange feeling that this year will be a desaster for german football. And I had this feeling way before this unbelievable injury streak started.

Hehe, but that's what people say about Germany all the time. That they're gonna suck and aren't gonna get anywhere etc.. You know they always manage to do well somehow ;)

I think this year an african team will win the WC.

Not the first time I heard that statement.

If any African team is gonna win, I would bet on Ivory Coast.

At 6/7/10 11:07 AM, MrPercie wrote: I bet Ireland will win, no idea just thought Id say.

But they didn't even quality... =/ Remember that Thierry Henry incident?

At 6/7/10 11:42 AM, Auz wrote:

At 6/7/10 10:55 AM, Haggard wrote: England can't win the WC. They suck at penalties plus the wheather is too hot for the english players (that was being used as an excuse last time they failed to make it to the semi finals, IIIRC).

Ah yes weather influences. I think they do play a role actually. Good thing is that it's winter in Africa though, meaning the weather is basically like a normal summer in North-West Europe :p

It's still too warm for the english players. :P

As much as I'd love to predict a win for the German team I'm afraid they don't survive the group phase. I have this strange feeling that this year will be a desaster for german football. And I had this feeling way before this unbelievable injury streak started.

Hehe, but that's what people say about Germany all the time. That they're gonna suck and aren't gonna get anywhere etc.. You know they always manage to do well somehow ;)

Yes, they are a "Turniermannschaft" (= a team that performs well in big tournaments) but... well... remember EC 2004? >_>

I think this year an african team will win the WC.

Not the first time I heard that statement.

If any African team is gonna win, I would bet on Ivory Coast.

Depends on wether Drogba can play or not. I think Ghana and Nigeria will perform great.

Ghana, without Essien? I don't think so they won't make it out of the group Serbia will probably win the group with Germany coming second maybe.

At 6/7/10 11:07 AM, Victory wrote: Yeah, if England get knocked out I'd like to see them win it. With Pepe Reina captaining the side, oh yes.

Pepe wont get in that side hes a benchwarmer Cassilas (if thats how you spell it) is a fucking country mile better.. and the captain as far as i know

At 6/6/10 02:19 PM, iateamexican wrote: Is there not a football club?

Some sports discussions are not solely reserved for a club. When certain events are huge, it deserves it's own discussion thread.

Remember FIFA World Cup is a huge international event, with that the discussion for this event will naturally spawn dozens of pages.

At 6/7/10 11:54 AM, Haggard wrote:

At 6/7/10 11:42 AM, Auz wrote:

At 6/7/10 10:55 AM, Haggard wrote: England can't win the WC. They suck at penalties plus the wheather is too hot for the english players (that was being used as an excuse last time they failed to make it to the semi finals, IIIRC).

Ah yes weather influences. I think they do play a role actually. Good thing is that it's winter in Africa though, meaning the weather is basically like a normal summer in North-West Europe :p

It's still too warm for the english players. :P

It's not such a bad excuse though ;)

As much as I'd love to predict a win for the German team I'm afraid they don't survive the group phase. I have this strange feeling that this year will be a desaster for german football. And I had this feeling way before this unbelievable injury streak started.

Hehe, but that's what people say about Germany all the time. That they're gonna suck and aren't gonna get anywhere etc.. You know they always manage to do well somehow ;)

Yes, they are a "Turniermannschaft" (= a team that performs well in big tournaments) but... well... remember EC 2004? >_>

All too well :p Good times.

Although they got a fairly tough group with Serbia and Australia, I think they'll be fine. Maybe second place, but they'll probably make it. If they have to face England though, things are gonna get difficult. But hey, you can at least play for a 0-0 draw and go for penalties then XD

I think this year an african team will win the WC.

Not the first time I heard that statement.

If any African team is gonna win, I would bet on Ivory Coast.

Depends on wether Drogba can play or not. I think Ghana and Nigeria will perform great.

Ivory Coast do have more good players beside Drogba, but yeah he is very important to their team.

Ghana sucked against Holland. Their goal was like the only time they got near our goal and it's because of very poor defending that the ball went in. I heard their goalie was pretty bad, he hardly played last season.

I don't know about Nigeria, but I think they have some good players.

At 6/7/10 11:07 AM, MrPercie wrote: I bet Ireland will win, no idea just thought Id say.

Eh?

Funny thing is I was in Ireland and watched the game where they failed to qualify. Taken out by France and the hand of Thierry Henry. They were drunk and rageing as was I but I will support France non the less because England hates them as much as they hate us and the French hate them back as much as we do :D

I love the friendly hatred!

At 6/7/10 12:03 PM, CharltonChinchilla wrote:

| Cassilas

Its Casillas.

Who do you predict will be the scapegoat when England are eliminated?

I have this sneaky feeling the English media will turn on Rooney for not scoring enough goals. Or perhaps the goalkeeper for having a nightmare.

Then again history could repeat itself and Christiano Ronaldo could end up on the end of that kosh a second time! He certainly deserved it last time it happened.

For some reason I think these crafty krauts have a good chance. They are like a Paula Radcliffe in many respects; Not pretty but a fucking runner. They could easily scaff 1 nil victories all the way through to the final.

At 6/7/10 11:54 AM, Haggard wrote:

At 6/7/10 11:42 AM, Auz wrote:

At 6/7/10 10:55 AM, Haggard wrote: I think this year an african team will win the WC.

Not the first time I heard that statement.

If any African team is gonna win, I would bet on Ivory Coast.

Depends on wether Drogba can play or not. I think Ghana and Nigeria will perform great.

Let's not forget about Cameroon either. Even though Eto'o is being a little girl about being criticized, they still have a very solid team. They were the Group A winners out of Africa for good reason. I think they're the African team that has the best shot of pulling through, just because they have the least amount of competition in their group stage. I believe Cameroon could blow by Denmark and Japan, and if they're lucky pull out a draw with the Netherlands.

I don't think Ivory Coast or Nigeria will pull through however because their groups are just too tough. The only way for Ivory Coast to get through is to have a very good game against Portugal and hopefully get a draw or maybe sneak in a win. However they can not lose to the very solid Portugal side or else they have lost all chance of advancing. Also they'll need to destroy North Korea so that goal differential doesn't eliminate them from round of 16. And then against Brazil, I don't think they quite have enough to win, but they need to make it close.

In my opinion I think Nigeria is the best African team in the World Cup. However, they have the hardest road to the final out of the African teams. They're stuck in a group with Argentina (who is my pick to win the whole thing) a surprisingly good and solid Greece team, and then South Korea who is also a very strong side. I think the Nigerians may pull out a win against the Greeks, and then to advance they'll need a win against South Korea which will not be easy. I think Nigeria has a chance to advance from the group, but it will be extremely tough.

And the finally there's South Africa and Algeria who I can't really see doing much of anything. Although a host team has never failed to make it out of the group stage, I think this will be the first year. I don't think South Africa is good enough to compete with Mexico, Uruguay and France. South Africa got put in a very strong group and sadly will not be making it out of their group. Algeria I could see maybe getting a draw against the US which then allows Slovenia and England to make it through, but other than that I don't think Algeria can do too much.

So there's my summary of the African teams. I'm looking forward to a great showing from them because for the most part, they are all very talented sides.

Also, I just filled out my first bracket and here are my picks. Compare and criticize me please. Hopefully it's readable.....

double post

At 6/7/10 11:42 AM, Auz wrote:

At 6/7/10 11:07 AM, MrPercie wrote: I bet Ireland will win, no idea just thought Id say.

But they didn't even quality... =/ Remember that Thierry Henry incident?

YES

No use complaining now though.

Anyway, I really fancy the Netherlands to go the distance this year, I mean of course we all know about the attacking ability of VDV, van Persie, Sneijder and Robben (who I hope recovers in time for the finals assuming they get out of the group), but if Huntelaar can get his goalscoring confidence back, he could be a Golden Boot contender, as he will receive fantastic service from the aforementioned.

It's just a pity that at the back, though fairly solid (and not taking away from Stekelenburg's ability), Van der Sar decided to hang up his gloves, with his commanding presence and big match experience, he could have been invaluable.

At 6/7/10 01:43 PM, DingoTheDog wrote: Who do you predict will be the scapegoat when England are eliminated?

Argentina XD

At 6/7/10 06:22 PM, Ship wrote: Also, I just filled out my first bracket and here are my picks. Compare and criticize me please. Hopefully it's readable.....

double post

About what I would predict, although I would say Germany for finalists. I really don't have much faith in Argentina and I'm actually hoping they're gonna fail this time. Also, a final with Holland vs Germany is simply awesome :p

France being 2nd in the group does not sound unlikely to me.

At 6/7/10 06:41 PM, RohantheBarbarian wrote:

At 6/7/10 11:42 AM, Auz wrote:

Anyway, I really fancy the Netherlands to go the distance this year, I mean of course we all know about the attacking ability of VDV, van Persie, Sneijder and Robben (who I hope recovers in time for the finals assuming they get out of the group), but if Huntelaar can get his goalscoring confidence back, he could be a Golden Boot contender, as he will receive fantastic service from the aforementioned.

I don't know about Huntelaar. I'd rather keep van Persie as the striker.

It's just a pity that at the back, though fairly solid (and not taking away from Stekelenburg's ability), Van der Sar decided to hang up his gloves, with his commanding presence and big match experience, he could have been invaluable.

Yes, van der Sar is in my opinion the best goalie Holland's had in the past 15 years and arguably the best goalie in the world. Stekelenburg is a very good goalie as well though. I think he will do fine, I'm more worried about the defenders =/

There's no real point in me trying to figure out who will win the World Cup this year as I care nothing for all the teams involved, the top goal scorer however is where I can make some serious money.

Who will join the everlasting ranks of the Golden Boot winners to stand beside such legends as Fontaine, Kocsis, Eusebio, Stoichkov and Ronaldo?

For me the Spaniards will have the edge, the formidable partnership of Villa and Torres up front is a terrifying prospect. Torres won the award at the Euros a few years ago and Villa scored 20 odd goals last season winning him a move to Barcelona.

Then.. You can never rule out those crazy Argentines either. With people Like Messi, Milito, Higuain and Aguero goals could be abundant from the Argies if they get their act together.

We also get to enjoy watching Van Persie and Huntelaar, they shouldn't really struggle with a midfield of Van Der Vaart, Sneijder, Van Bommel and Robben providing for them.

Then there's the other amazing strikers present at this years World Cup too, Fabiano, Klose, Anelka, Gilardino, C. Ronaldo and that faggot Rooney also.

There should be goals abound and remember, in the last seven World Cups the Golden Boot winner has only actually won the World Cup that tournament once and that was Ronaldo.

Personally, I think I'll go with an outside bet of Huntelaar. At 50/1 odds a couple of quid wouldn't be so bad a loss at the prospect of winning something big at the end of the month :)

Thoughts?

At 6/7/10 06:22 PM, Ship wrote: Also, I just filled out my first bracket and here are my picks. Compare and criticize me please. Hopefully it's readable.....

double post

Not a bad prediction there. I agree with it in some ways but I doubt Argentina will make it nearly that far. I do believe and hope the Netherlands will go all the way or nearly all the way though.

By the way, how did you create that bracket? Some website or something?

Nani is out! thats one less possible pain in our (england obviously) ass everyone is saying it will be a brazil vs england semi with brazil making the final ive had a look at our run in if we win the group which we really should there is no reason for not making the semi's. Once youve reached that stage you've got your eyes on the prize this is our best shot in a long time lets not fuck it

At 6/8/10 09:23 AM, Victory wrote:
Actually it was Villa who won it at Euro '08, not Fernando.

Word, I have no idea why I got the both of them mixed up.

I think Spain or Brazil are the best bet, considering they both play the best free-flowing attacking football out of all the teams.

I think Fabiano is shit to be honest, I was looking at Nilmars stats a wee bit ago and he looks like he could also be a surprise package for top goal scorer and at 33/1 that's not a shabby bet either.

Milito is the biggest goal poacher there, so him if you're going for the Argies.

I do rate him as a player, I'm just not really confident about the Argentina midfield. There's far, far too much talent on show and it could end up a terrible fucking mess.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar is about the most classic definition of a goalpoacher you can get, and I think the Netherlands will do well, so yeah he's got a good chance. At those odds, even a small bet will get you big rewards if he pulls it off, so not much to lose at all.

He was also their top goalscorer in the qualifiers if I remember correctly, I think the bastard scored against Scotland too.

David Villa or Fernando Torres strike me as the most likely candidates, as Spain are fantastic going forward.

Spain are getting far too much hype in my opinion. Sure they've been playing the most amazing football I've seen at the national stage in a long time but I can't seem to shake the feeling their going to under-perform yet again. I hope not but it's possible.

Just a wee bit relevant but, I'm just back from London a couple of hours ago and being the smart ass that I am, I took it upon myself to try and wind up as many English people I could about the World Cup, but not a single person would bite. All the ones I spoke to (Quite a few) where adamant they where going out in the quarters, not one of them said they would win it. I was most upset about this because being Scottish is all about arguing and the Auld Enemy wouldn't let me fight with them. Bastards.

At 6/8/10 09:26 AM, Victory wrote:

At 6/8/10 09:04 AM, CharltonChinchilla wrote: Nani is out! thats one less possible pain in our (england obviously) ass everyone is saying it will be a brazil vs england semi

Nani plays for Portugal, not Brazil?

Yeas i know my lack of punctuation made it seem like i said played for brazil sorry i need to learn to use grammar

well, go USA anyways...

At 6/8/10 07:41 AM, Slightly-Crazy-Dude wrote: Personally, I think I'll go with an outside bet of Huntelaar. At 50/1 odds a couple of quid wouldn't be so bad a loss at the prospect of winning something big at the end of the month :)

Thoughts?

You do know that Huntelaar is probably going to spend most of the WC on the bench, right? van Persie is currently the striker in the Dutch team, with Sneijder, van der Vaart/Kuyt and Robben backing him up as attacking midfielders.

So how are the odds for van Persie? If it's 15/1 or higher I would definitely go for that bet instead if I were you. You might also wanna check Sneijder's odds. He scores lots of goals for the Dutch team as well.

At 6/8/10 01:48 PM, Auz wrote:
You do know that Huntelaar is probably going to spend most of the WC on the bench, right? van Persie is currently the striker in the Dutch team, with Sneijder, van der Vaart/Kuyt and Robben backing him up as attacking midfielders. So how are the odds for van Persie? If it's 15/1 or higher I would definitely go for that bet instead if I were you. You might also wanna check Sneijder's odds. He scores lots of goals for the Dutch team as well.

I was thinking Van Persie wasn't 100% fit and coming back from injury. Is this not the case? His odds are shit though, 10/1 isn't worth a punt.

The rest of the Holland squad is at 50+ to one though, Sneijder is an interesting prospect at 66/1 I suppose, but I dislike that fucker for scoring against Scotland when they hammered us 6-0 a few years ago. It was an absolutely beautiful goal too. 66/1 is too far off the odds for any reasonable bet, I may stick a few quid on it right enough though.

At 6/8/10 08:29 AM, Narusegawa wrote: Not a bad prediction there. I agree with it in some ways but I doubt Argentina will make it nearly that far. I do believe and hope the Netherlands will go all the way or nearly all the way though.

By the way, how did you create that bracket? Some website or something?

Yea, Argentina is my dark horse for the tournament who I hope comes through to surprise everyone as long as Maradona doesn't screw things up.

And to make the bracket I just went to espn.com/brackets and filled one out from there. All you need is an account and I don't think it takes very long to create one.

Great thread!

I was only made aware of this story the other day. I feel slightly cruel knowing what this would take, but I would like to see him play. I hope I'm not entirely alone on this one.

I'm not so clued up on football myself. I never really get interested in the national leagues and gossip, etc It's probably because I come from a family of Bolton fans, which, yeah. Apparently we have two players in it this year, not sure if there are any more. So I suppose, that means some of us will be going for South Korea and the USA when the timing is right. The latter might, erm, cause issues when we play them. I know how confused we all get in this house when we're drunk and watching football.

I like to be a bit extreme and act slightly anti-England in sports though. It didn't help last time, that when Rooney was getting surgery efforts for his broken bones seemingly on par with what cancer-curing scientists get while I had a stiff, plastic, factory-smelling cast going up my right arm.

Actually, this isn't really being 'extreme'. It's called being British in some circles.

I always get excited about the World Cup though, partly thanks to an interactive encyclopedia on it that my Dad got back when multimedia-based CD-ROMs were big in the '90s. I might crack it out later, because I've got it. It has some freakishly catchy tunes (MIDIs) for each World Cup - Mexico '70 has this fast-paced mariachi thing going on for instance.

If you were wondering, '66 gets a 'Love Me Do' ripoff.

At 6/7/10 01:43 PM, DingoTheDog wrote: Who do you predict will be the scapegoat when England are eliminated?

I have this sneaky feeling the English media will turn on Rooney for not scoring enough goals. Or perhaps the goalkeeper for having a nightmare.

I caught a Nike ad on the Internet the other day, where the Rooney part was actually acknowledged for humour. I could complain about Nike on a fairly regular basis (as I currently do) for the rest of my life, and that part of the ad would still make me smile.

Then again history could repeat itself and Christiano Ronaldo could end up on the end of that kosh a second time! He certainly deserved it last time it happened.

He might WINK IT'S ALL OVER again!

I'm really thrilled, we're only three days away from it! Too bad I'll still have classes on the opening game, though, but at least the local TV stations will transmit every game on the cup! Way better than their lame afternoon programs! :)

Also, injury reports:

Apparently, Robben will only be able to play the second game of the group. I don't think he'll be that necessary during the qualifiers, but he should play the last two games...

Drogba is fine, apparently, at least he is confirmed against Brazil on the second round.

Nani is out of the cup, which puts Portugal in a tricky situation, since he's au pair with C. Ronaldo.

Kaka should play all the games, but apparently he's not "100%" yet. He has a week to get in shape, when we have our first match against North Korea...

Both Essien and Muntari are out for Ghana, and they're the referential players in there... Maybe Muntari will play the cup, but it's not confirmed yet.

At 6/6/10 09:17 PM, Ismael92 wrote:

At 6/6/10 09:02 PM, Sir-Nuts wrote: Yeah, if they were playing well, they wouldn't need to rely on the last game against Uruguay.

Anyone who watched that game knows that Maradona is a pussy and that Argentina got lucky >:(

Actually, I'm starting to think that Maradona could surprise us as a decent coach - he isn't a tough guy, he really likes to have some fun during the practice. I think that should make Argentina's players less nervous over the upcoming matches...

And Maradona is in the same situation as Dunga - a first time coach, already on the National team.

I know I sound rude because of all the hating against Argentina, but Maradona shouldn't have become a coach in the first place.

Maybe, we'll see if he's actually a good coach or not in this cup.

LOCO ABREU.

yay :D

He plays for a Brazilian team, and he's possibly the best player in there. :)

At 6/7/10 02:45 AM, Sentio wrote: I'd suggest that Germany are going to struggle with so many high profile injuries, and have a tough group (Serbia are very underrated, they made France look terrible in qualifying).

Germany is always criticized before the cup, but they always do well in it, somehow. As for Serbia, indeed they are underrated, but I don't think they'll get past the quarter finals...

...That would teach Brazil for playing boring football (by their high standards), and give a Brazil- Spain last 16 game, which I think everyone would love to see!

I'd love to see that match, but I'm not too sure about Brazil either. And Ivory Coast has a strong team even without Drogba - Keita, the two Toures, Gervinho, Eboue, Dindane... only to name a few, although he is still their best player. ;)

At 6/7/10 05:04 AM, Auz wrote:

At 6/6/10 09:02 PM, Sir-Nuts wrote: Heh, I just wrote down what came into mind that I thought it would be important mentioning, like the issues they're having, favourites, match ups to look forward to... It isn't the best opening post ever, but it's decent, heh. ;)

I think it's a fine opening post ^^

Thanks! :)

Well you gotta have some faith in young players. I'd say it would be a good investment in the future to take him with you.

Indeed, but a few more younger players were left out as well, there was some protestation over that in here...

As for Ronaldinho, has he not been selected in three years then? I heard he was doing great in AC Milan at the moment. Surely he can still do better than some of the other players that were selected.

Not really, he was being called in the first few years, but I think that since 2008 he hasn't been called. Yeah, he is slowly coming back to what he used to be, but still... calling a player that you aren't sure how well he'll do on the cup? =/

The thing is, we needed a substitute for Adriano, who is a strong striker, while Pato is a "lighter" one. Grafite has little experience in the national team, yes, but he was the only option...

Ah alright. I understand. But I guess they'll start with Robinho and Luis Fabiano and keep Grafite as some kind of 'pinch-hitter'?

Grafite is the bench for L. Fabiano and Nilmar is the bench for Robinho - depends on what Dunga thinks it's best at the time.

I personally hope Nilmar plays really well. ^^

But they really need Didier Drogba to be recovered for the group stages. Nobody knows if he's going to be alright, but he's the team's main player!

Yes, Didier Drogda is of course their star player. They're probably gonna need him, if it was for the morale boost alone.

Yeah, he's the captain as well. Ivory Coast has a good team, but Drogba is still the "reference player" - the teams plays with his style, they play "around" him...

At 6/7/10 11:00 AM, Gagsy wrote: Anyone else besides Ejit going to use their national team in their sig somehow for this great event?

Hmm, I might make one now, even though I'm not too sure over who will win the cup... oh well, cheering is cheering, VAI BRASIL!!! ^^

At 6/7/10 05:57 PM, Ship wrote: Let's not forget about Cameroon either. Even though Eto'o is being a little girl about being criticized, they still have a very solid team.

Whatever Roger Milla says, it's true. If he called Eto'o a sissy, the he IS a sissy. :P

At 6/7/10 06:41 PM, RohantheBarbarian wrote:

At 6/7/10 11:42 AM, Auz wrote: But they didn't even quality... =/ Remember that Thierry Henry incident?

YES

We all remember that - I hope France losses a match with a hand goal.

At 6/8/10 07:41 AM, Slightly-Crazy-Dude wrote: Thoughts?

Yes.

DIDIER

DROGBA

At 6/8/10 05:33 PM, Scarab wrote: Great thread!

Thanks! I'm liking the way this is going... ^^

Just as a kickback, and honour, to the multimeda world we... hastily left behind, here's a screenshot from that encyclopedia I mentioned. 1994 is also featured on the CD-ROM, in a serperate section.

Not pictured: CATCHY MIDIS