The World Cup Thread

[vicz]

"This world cup is like WWII: The French surrendered early, the Americans turned up late, leaving England to fight the Germans"

Ha ha, yes. "For you Fritz, soon the World Cup will be over"!

[leedsquietman]

I don't think I will be so bold, we've played about an hour of decent football from 3 matches (4 hours) so far.

Still, if you fear your opponent, you might as well not show up.

Germany only looked impressive in their first game (a game they played 62 minutes with an extra man), with odd flashes of good play in their other games.

They deserve respect, but are not unbeatable, even if they are probably slight favourites going into the match. Italy were overwhelming favourites to beat Slovakia and New Zealand - look what happened there.

[UKRuss]

Could be worse, we could have Jon Dahl Tomasson up front.

He really is shit. He was shit at the Toon and he's shit now.

(this isn't my opinion, I read it somewhere else)

[UKRuss]

'He's played like a Rolls Royce tonight, Honda'

[8O]

One thing I noticed after today's matches...

Tanaka:


Camoranesi:

[rbmonosylabik]

Dude, you mixed them up.

Funnier still, took me a while to notice

[leedsquietman]

I think that was his intention ... it was a subtle humour - or maybe not !

[vicz]

FIFA world rankings

1 Brazil 1611
2 Spain 1565
3 Portugal 1249
4 Netherlands 1231
5 Italy 1184
6 Germany 1082
7 Argentina 1076
8 England 1068
9 France 1044
10 Croatia 1041
11 Russia 1015
12 Egypt 967
13 Greece 964
14 USA 957

If England beat Germany then Argentina will probably be next - all very even especially given what happened to France and Italy. Also Germany and Arg are on a downward trend while the rest are mostly static.

Full list here http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranki ... nking.html

[leedsquietman]

Interesting that Ghana and Japan are ranked #32 and #42 respectively, but both qualified, while France and Italy (#9 and #5) are out. Greece who were desperately poor, were ranked #13.

[djgroovy]

That ranking means absolutely nothing when the ball starts to roll.
Otherwise, semi-finals here we come!

My favorite to win is Argentina.

[vicz]

Interesting that Ghana and Japan are ranked #32 and #42 respectively, but both qualified, while France and Italy (#9 and #5) are out. Greece who were desperately poor, were ranked #13.

Yes difficult to know what caused Italy to implode. Over confidence or fear of failure? As usual France managed to self-destruct. So far the other notable self destruct artists, Holland, are holding it together. Great performances from Japan and Ghana, can they sustain it? Glad to see Greece fail with their execrable 'anti-football' , shame Cameroon seem to have abandoned their traditional exuberant approach and have suffered because of it. Spain, Portugal (despite the 7-0) & Brazil still to look truly convincing.

Still wide open at this stage, not often been the case, its great to see.

Just some random thoughts, roll on Sunday!

[UKRuss]

1990 England 1 Germany 1 (Ger win on pens, World cup Italia)
1996 England 1 Germany 1 (Ger win on pens, Euros England)
2000 England 1 Germany 0
2000 England 0 Germany 1
2001 Germany 1 England 5
2008 Germany 1 England 2

I make that 3 all in the last 20 years.

Will be interesting fo sho

[nikulo]

im pissing mah pants! please let spain bash!


ot: hellfuck?!? noisia - machine gun 16bit rmx

the heaviest beat ive heard in a long time.... shit, just aaaawhwwwhwhwhwhhhh xD xD
edit: here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abw1nhuB2KA

hohohoo.

[rbmonosylabik]

Wow, Chile started playing really good but fell apart in the back, and now it'll be really hard to come back from that BS red card. Sucks that they can be left out even after winning their first two games.

[UKRuss]

Can't say they didn't deserve the red card overall though...those challenges were all different kinds of wrong. Lucky not to break Xabi Alonso's leg!!