FIFA World Cup 2006 - Page 3

Picked up The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup to get me even more ready. Pretty good book with various writers giving a small piece on each country/team playing in the World Cup. My Barnes and Noble had plenty of copies, so I figure other stores will have them readily available. If you have seen the latest issue of National Geographic this is where they get their article on soccer from.

And, I found a pub here in New Orleans which will be showing the games. Now all I need is to get the t-shirts for my son and I (no, he won't be going to the pub with me to watch games, and I will probably only be there for a couple anyway).

Maybe I'm just opening myself up for ridicule. But I really think the US can beat Italy.

first of all id say thats a pretty big overstatement.

second of all id say if you can say that about england, youd have to say it about just about every other team in the world.

anything is possible with the lineup england has, even without rooney.

Heh, true. Well whatever happens I hope Theo Walcott gets a chance to show what he's made of, it would be nice to see him rise to the occasion and score a few goals or something.

Also, when Lampard fucked up the penalty I just had to laugh. England and penalties...you'd think that would be one of the biggest priorities for the team, rather than Rooney's leg at this point.

I saw Brazil slaughter some team 8-0 today, and they were incredible. If Brazil play to their strengths, England won't get near them.

The thing with Brazil as well, is that they don't just have a killer first XI, but their squad is amazing as well.

Dida
Cafu
Lucio
Juan
Emerson
Roberto Carlos
Adriano
Kaka
Ronaldo
Ronaldinho
Ze Roberto
Ceni Rogerio
Cicinho
Luisao
Cristiano Cris
Silva Gilberto
Gilberto Silva
Juninho
Ricardinho
Fred
Julio Cesar
Robinho
Mineiro

Frankly, it's terrifying.

Nope, a different one. He plays for Lyon, and scored an incredible free kick in the match I saw earlier.

I'd rather face that side than Maradona's Argentina in '86. Brazil has some fantastic players, there's no doubt about it. However, there are big question marks hanging over a number of their players.

Roberto Carlos is more defensive liability than defender these days. Cafu needs a zimmer. Ronaldo is a shadow of his former self. Neither Robinho nor Adriano have set the world on fire this year. Kaka's temprament is suspect. Dida's average at best. Fred is inconsistent and Gilberto Silva wouldn't get in the England reserves.

The truth is Brazil's defence is creaky (mainly because of its age). If you can stifle the supply from midfield you're in with a good chance.

England actually did quite well against Brazil in the last world cup until that first goal destroyed their spirits, after that, they just crumbled. I'm hoping England don't make the same mistake.

He's always been like that. Doesn't change his incredibly abilities going forward.

[/quote]Cafu needs a zimmer. Ronaldo is a shadow of his former self. Neither Robinho nor Adriano have set the world on fire this year.[/quote]

True, but you know Brazil, they love waiting for the major tournaments. It's also not easy to play well with the Real Madrid team/setup falling apart as is.

Compared to Beckham's - or Rooney's?

Pretty insulting, and I think unfair. When you look at the England side - Rio Ferdinand, who seems to have pissed most of his potential away, Gary Neville , the worst of the Fergie brats, Michael Carrick, again had the potential but hasn't lived up to it at all, Owen Hargreaves, who looks like he should be wearing a second division side's shirt whenever he plays for England.

That's the thing - while I don't agree on them being creaky, especially on Cafu (he's still as good a defender as anyone, even with his age - Brazil have never been about defending. Stifling the supply is one thing, but when you have the players going forward that Brazil have, it's less about stopping the supply and more about needing to form a huge wall to stop them getting through.

Newsflash - The WC features countries other than Brazil, England, and the US.

Looking at the FIFA groups, it almost seems like a given that the usual suspects (England, France, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Spain) will advance. Personally, I hope Sweden do well, not least because Henrik Larsson is one of the most underrated strikers around, and Elmander might be a future star if he has a good few games.

Italy looks remarkably strong this year, and are my favorites along with Brazil. I'm curious to see which African or Asian team goes far this time (I hear things about the Ivory Coast and Tunisia), and I'd like to see what Hiddink has done to Australia.

But most of all, I hope the Ukraine and Switzerland are thorougly pummeled so that we don't have to suffer through their primitite, ultratactical, Greece-like approach to the game that makes you want to punch children.

He's never been as poor as he has been this season for Real Madrid.

Not playing well for your club is one thing. Turning out 12 pounds above your playing weight because you've munched your way through all the pies is another. Ronaldo has been a joke this season. The rest can't really have a lot of excuses for not prospering from service provided by the likes of Zidane and Beckham.

We're talking about Brazil here, not England. Rooney's temper is a concern, but then so are a few on the Brazilian side.

What's insulting? That Dida is average? I'd expect some Milan fans to back me up on that. Fred is inconsistent. Gilberto Silva would not get anywhere near the England midfield. Indeed, I reckon he'd struggle to make the reserves.

When Rio Ferdinand is on form he's a first class defender. If he weren't he wouldn't have had half of Italy and Spain trying to sign him last season. Whether Ferdinand is in form right now is another question, but you cannot deny his ability. Neville winds me up something rotten but, again, his credentials are sound. His form has been good this season and, if you recall, he was one of our best players in the last World Cup. Carrick is one of the form midfielders in the Premiership. The jury's out on whether he's international quality, but he has to be given a chance. As for Hargreaves, he's been in good form with Bayern, one of Europe's leading clubs. Even if I don't much care for the guy, he's there on merit.

They've been stopped before, they'll be stopped again. The 82 Brazil side was the best I ever saw. It was dumped out of the competition by Italy.

As I said before, I don't doubt the quality of the Brazilian side - I just refuse to accept that they are a team of unconquerable titans. There are weaknesses in that side. It does contain an ageing defence. You can't discount age as a factor. If you could, Pele would be knocking them in for Chelsea today.

What is the history on Neville? Seems like a lot of people are less than thrilled that he made the squad.

You should hear him try to speak Spanish. Wait, no you shouldn't. When I was living in Spain (last year) the media gave him a ton of shit because he and his wife don't speak Spanish and don't seem to try. I don't know if it's any different now.

Get off your high horse. Most people that have been discussing the World Cup in this forum are either from America or the UK. Obviously they're going to discuss their native countries. And Brazil, well they're the #1 ranked team in the world and the defending champions. Go Argentina! Fuck the dutch, revenge of '98!

Ballack's hurt. They're middle of the road with him. I can't imagine how they'll play without him.

Is there an easy to view american broadcast tv guide somewhere out there?

Given the impending awkwardness in broadcast times, I would like to be able to know a bit in advance which matches I will be able to catch for sure.

Fazer, check out http://soccernet.espn.go.com/.

All the games will be broadcast on the ESPN/ABC networks. Plus, ESPN will have a daily wrap up show.

Rooney's fit. Yay!

I'm glad the Rooney issue is over. Every newspaper I've picked up over the last five weeks has had ten pages of will-he-won't-he?

All I've got to do now is explain to the missus why she can't watch Crononation Street for the next five weeks ...

Hope he breaks something on his first touch of the ball in his first game.

What the fuck, dude?

Smell the fear!

What, noone found that amusing?

Well at least the media will shut up about his leg now, lazy sods that they are.

Did anyone watch the friendlies today? I kept an eye on the scorelines via the world cup's website, and France and Spain looked like they were drawing 1-1 each for the first 90 minutes. Final scores:

France 3:1 China (stoopid China scored an own goal in 89th minute, then Henry finished two minutes later)
Spain 2:1 Croatia

What the hell are teams still doing warm ups for? The Cup is 2 days away. Ukraine is playing tommorow for christ's sake! I hope Sheva isnt playing.

I am so anxious for this to get going.

Cisse

I was watching ESPN's Pardon the Interruption and they had a short segment on racism and how it can really screw up this world cup. They proceeded to show the nazi flags waving around and the fans throwing bananas at the african american players.

Does anyone know where I can find more info about this? Its sad and disturbing, but interesting.

I have a strong suspicion that racism could prove a major problem in this world cup. Extreme nationalism is on the rise in Europe. The Italian leagues are notorious for racist abuse, monkey chants etc. At Lazio the fascists are represented in the boardroom. Ex-Premiership player, Paolo Di Canio, has been snapped twice making fascist salutes.

Supporters from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Croatia and other south-eastern European nations have a long and lamentable history of abusing black players from foreign teams. Spain's national coach, Luis Aragones, referred to Arsenal's Thierry Henry as a 'shitty little black man' and was fined a measly few thousand pounds. When England played Spain in Spain, players such as Shaun Wright Phillips were subjected to appalling monkey chants that were so loud the TV company couldn't block them out.

Add to this threats made by Polish far right groups to cause mayhem in Germany, increased racial tension in Holland, France etc. and England’s notorious travelling fans. It doesn’t take a genius to see the potential for big trouble in this tournament.

Not to mention the english hooligans, although I think Germany has taken measure's in regards to that.

I saw on the news today, Australia wants to bid for the WC for 2014.

Well done, Geoff. It seems natural for England fans to suddenly forget when they talk about racists/hooligans that there is a strong English contingent, so it's rare to see someone pointing that out. Good show.

I think Australia stands a decent chance of getting it. There are plenty of good stadiums over there in use by the AFL (Aussie Rules Football) and NRL (Rugby League). Still, they'd need to be upgraded to cope with the kind of usage a World Cup generates. The only negative for Australia is its isolation. For something like the Olympics this isn't so much of a problem because there aren’t huge numbers of travelling fans. World Cups bring maybe fifty times as many overseas supporters.

I think England fans present a different kind of problem, although no less serious. Whilst racism (perhaps xenophobia is a better word, since we tend to treat everybody with contempt) is certainly a driving force, our idiots tend to get mixed up in senseless violence. Violence for violence’s sake - often fuelled by huge quantities of beer. It’s the same kind of thing you see outside of nightclubs across the country at throwing out time. Basically, English people drink too much of something they can’t handle anyway.

IMO, there’s a clear line of division between the above and the kind of enmity that exists in Poles for all things German. Similarly, you won’t find the levels of ethnic tension that exist amongst supporters of … say … old Yugoslavia. I remember watching that documentary featuring the match played between Bosnia and Serbia (I think). That was really scary.

Of course, if you’re an innocent German trapped in the middle of a pitched battle, it doesn’t matter whether the people involved are Serbian, Polish, or English. The effect is just the same.

It’s a good job Turkey didn’t make it. German Neo Nazi groups are already stirring up trouble in the sizeable Turkish communities. The arrival of the Turkish national team could have triggered mayhem.

That's a little messed up.