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Post by Woo on Jun 16, 2010 17:39:48 GMT -1
Switzerland strike again! They did this to France four years ago and topped the group... though France still made the final despite having the worst team ever. Sooo looking forwards to Spain vs. Chile now. That will be awesome!
I don't know who I want to win this match tonight. I like Uruguay as they are former champions and I feel sorry for them about how far they fell from grace. But then again South Africa as the hosts deserve something. I'd like both to go through but then there is Mexico who I also like. Just as long as France don't go through I guess.
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Post by MetalBlade on Jun 17, 2010 11:54:29 GMT -1
yes. group A is Definitely the group of death. specially for the hosts. I felt so desperatly sorry for them after the URUGUAY Game. them trumpets sound awesome.
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Post by Carter on Jun 18, 2010 15:08:19 GMT -1
ugh! USA got screwed..... these refs suck. Thanks for taking away the game from us.
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Post by Woo on Jun 19, 2010 9:42:25 GMT -1
Yeah you have to feel sorry for the South Africans. Heart breaker Digeo Forlan is at it once more. Knocked Liverpool out the semis, then scored against Fulham in the final for the winning goal and now beats the hosts. If England can somehow top their group and then make it it to the quarters, something we should still do, Forlan will be there to end it for us again.
We should still win the group, but last night's performance was shocking. Wayne Rooney is a prick too. You get to hear the comments he made into the camera as he left the pitch on American TV Flyers? "Nice to hear your own fans booing you... they're supposed to support us." Rooney you were beyond rubbish, by far the worst player on the pitch so shut up.
The USA were indeed robbed. What was that goal dissalowed for? There were like 6 Slovenian fouls and on USA foul. It should have been a penalty. How good were those US goals though? Landon Donovan's finish was as good as it gets. Straight at the keeper, but directly up into the roof of the net. I'm still amazed at how he managed to pull that off. You;ll still go through Flyers, you look a better team than us and should beat Algeria and will probably top the group.
What about that Germany game too? Why an Earth was Klose sent off? Two yellow cards in 2 minutes, for two fouls which shouldn't have even been a yellow. Awful. Then Vidic's handball?!! What the hell?! That's what a Serbian guy did in their last game which led to the winning penalty by Ghana. What are they playing at? Is it match fixing or something? First Evra on Thursday and now Vidic, plus the injury to Rio. This is a bad world cup for United defenders.
Anyone see the Nigeria game too? What the hell was that guy who got sent off thinking? They were 1-0 up, he was off the pitch and then just kicked that guy randomly. He gave Greece the victory and has cost his country what was a very realistic chance of making the second round.
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Post by MetalBlade on Jun 19, 2010 12:18:12 GMT -1
That Spanish ref at the Germany game was the worst thig since unsliced bread.
He lost the grasp of the game very early on.
The main problems I noticed about England:
Gerrard was incredibly greedy in the first half.
Rooney received very little help, and every time he did get the ball, he did fuck all with it.
Ashley Cole was left abandoned in no man's land on the left. He had acres of space for large periods, but was completely ignored.
They seemed afraid to get in and offer any kind of challenge when Algeria were on the ball, and gave the ball away cheaply when they did have possession, and then gave Algeria loads of freedom with it.
I didn't think I would see a woerse team performance than France, but England went that step further than pure shit.
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Post by Hellion on Jun 19, 2010 15:41:37 GMT -1
Alot of people in Australia right now are crying foul about Harry Kewell's red card. Having to play devil's advocate, I've been trying to inform people that a handball as the last line of defence stopping a certain goal IS a red card offence. At times, I feel like I am more unbiased and informed than our commentators here. This is a sorry state of affairs indeed...
Anyhow, recieved an excellent performance from young Luke Wilkshire who could very well blossom into our best player at RB. In fact, the whole team (with the exception of stinkbomb Culina) played a very gutsy and determined match. At times we even made the dream of clinching victory with 10 men plausible. Unfortunately our incapacity to score goals again proved our undoing. Where Wilkshire delivered some superb crosses into the box, we just didn't have the firepower to finish it off. Our only goal came from a hard-dipping rebound off the goalie from a Bresciano FK. Verbeek's decision to replace Bresciano (imo our best player by some way - including Kewell, Schwarzer and Cahill) with Scott Chipperfield was a fucking bonehead move. And judging by his body language, Marco agreed.
Well done to the Ghaneans. I've spruiked the qualities of Asamoah Gyan especially for some years now. He is a class act and always fun to watch. It was an even, hard fought game and probably deserved a draw. We need a miracle set of results to go through. Ghana need beat Germany and we need best Serbia in the next set of matches. It's not impossible... but I wouldn't put money on it. That said... here's hoping.
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Moving on from Australia, I was hardly surprised by Spain's losing the other day to Switzerland. I have stubbornly called the Spaniards perennials chokers for the past 3 world cups. Where my friends have argued everything has changed and the lineup is amazing now, I still hang on to this stereotype. It is true, their squad is alot stronger than it has ever been on paper and they do have some of the world's greatest players ie. Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Cesc, Torres etc. But winning Europe means little imo... where some people claim it is a more difficult and competitive tournament than the World Cup, I beg to differ. My prime resource being 2004 champions Greece. If that team wins the tournament, then the tournament isn't that great... end of story. I do not expect Spain to be eliminated early.. but I also do not expect them to go all the way.
Pre-tournament I had spruiked the chances of England and Argentina. I had hoped England would bring Joe Hart to the world cup, as what I have seen of him lends me to believe he could develop into your very own Iker Casillas. Regardless, I'm not nearly as assured of England as I was pre-tournament given what I've witnessed so far.
As for Argentina, I genuinely feel this is the most talented team in the cup. Although they barely qualified and have the deranged fat man in charge, the combination of Tevez and Messi is football perfection. Skill and brute force. It was on dynamic display against the koreans before Tevez was substituted.
I can't help but laugh everytime I see the bearded and mullety Maradona get so animated. I love the guy, but have said consistently that Argentina can NOT win with that man in charge. Now... for some reason to me it seems like they will. I just see the craziness prevailing in some kind of warped ending to the tournament. Half expecting Maradona to pull on an old shirt and hit the field for a D2: Mighty Ducks/Goldberg type ending.
It's still early days, so who knows...
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Post by Woo on Jun 20, 2010 0:06:54 GMT -1
What a fantastic game Denmark vs. Cameroon was! It's a big shame that Cameroon are out as they played brilliantly, but they played awful against Japan and never should have ever played Eto on the wing.
Looking forwards to Ivory Coast vs. Brazil tomorrow, should be great.
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Post by Carter on Jun 21, 2010 14:00:40 GMT -1
well, anyone who thought FIFA had N. Korea ranked too low at 105th..... a 7-0 loss lol. yup i guess they are ranked just fine.
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Post by MetalBlade on Jun 21, 2010 19:48:05 GMT -1
As desperate as England seem at the moment, this is just taking the piss...  I always thought British meant England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and English meant just... England. |
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Post by Hellion on Jun 22, 2010 11:16:36 GMT -1
No comment about the headline? USA Wins 1-1?
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Post by MetalBlade on Jun 22, 2010 11:30:00 GMT -1
Yeah that was the main joke, but the comment about the British also caught my attention.
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Post by Woo on Jun 23, 2010 7:13:57 GMT -1
I posted this on another forum a couple of days ago just before Portugal's game.
Yeah I saw that Brazil game, Kaka's red was harsh, but justice will be done. Kaka misses a game that doesn't matter for Brazil and it actually weakens their side giving Portugal a chance of beating them. The Ivory Coast player who dived could have ended up costing him the chance to go through to round 2.
Anyway for what it's worth here are my predictions for the world cup;
Group A
Well the French squad are in chaos, Anelka has been sent hope and they are refusing to train! I see South Africa beating them. I see Uruguay beating Mexico top the group, but the Mexicans still go through.
Group B
Argentina are going to win this group, but I think South Korea will sneak through also.
Group C
....Yeah I still think England will top the group! USA for second place.
Group D
Despite the loss to Serbia I think Germany will still top the group. Serbia will beat Australia and go through also.
Group E
The Dutch are already through and should top this. Denmark will best Japan to 2nd.
Group F
Following Italy's second draw I think Paraguay will now win this. Italy will beat Slovakia and advance too.
Group G
Brazil will probably get a result against Portugal, will be a close game though. Portugal I think will advance as runners-up.
Group H
I think Chile will top this group and Spain will shockingly settle for runners-up.
Round 2:
Uruguay beat South Korea
Argentina beat Mexico
England beat Serbia
Germany beat USA
Holland beat Italy
Paraguay beat Denmark
Brazil beat Spain
Portugal beat Chile
Quarter Final
Uruguay beat England
Argentina beat Germany
Brazil beat Holland
Portugal beat Paraguay
Semi Final
Brazil beat Uruguay
Argentina beat Portugal
3rd Place
Uruguay beat Portugal
Final
Brazil beat Argentina
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You know England still have a fairly easy-ish path to the semifinals....
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Post by Woo on Jun 23, 2010 7:18:03 GMT -1
After that excellent Chile game I don't think the South Americans will advance sadly. They only won by a single goal in their two games and still have to play Spain. If they lose by more than two goals or Switzerland beat Honduras by more than 2 (and both look likely at this point) Chile will go out. Big shame as Chile look fantastic while the Swiss are awful.
So Uruguay beat Mexico and topped the group. South Africa got the win they needed over an awful France, but not as many goals as they needed. The commentator over here actually said the line "they beat this awful French side!" hahaha! Feel bad for the host nation, they must be ruing that late shot against the post against Mexico in the opening game. The French manager proved what a horrible disgusting person he is after the match by refusing to shake his opposite number's hands..... but then again the French only use their hands to set up goals against the Irish....
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Post by Woo on Jun 23, 2010 7:21:20 GMT -1
So Argentina make it 3/3 setting up a rematch with the Mexicans from foyr years ago. That match was an utter classic and Maxi's extra time winning goal was as good as any you'll ever see. Argentina were for my money the best team in the entire tournament last time, but scarily and sadly for Mexico, they look even better now. South Korea may actually cause Uruguay some problems, but we'll see.
The Nigerian goal keeper looked great again. He plays in Israel at the moment but that should change, he's looked fantastic in all three games. I feel bad for Nigeria, they were the team with the biggest chance of advancing from Africa and could have down had Yakubu not missed that sitter. He'll be hating himself so much.
It's very sad how on their big stage all six African nations will probably go out. Cameroon had the easiest group (they should have got the better of the Japanese and the Danes), but were the first to go. South Africa gave it their all, but that 3-0 defeat to Uruguay was too great a margin in the end and Nigeria played very well but a 2-2 draw is their only reward. Ivory Coast won't make it now either following Portugal's 7-0 drubbing of North Korea. Ghana need a result against Germany, which seems unlikely but could happen.
Amazingly despite playing the worst, and indeed being the worst, Algeria have the best chance of advancing. A 2-0 victory over the USA and they are through no matter what happens in the other game. Won't happen though, the USA are far too good for them.
It looks like the Asian teams have surpassed the African teams now. Japan and Australia (who I still hate referring to as Asian...) have both played well, North Korea have showed a lot of spirit and South Korea beat a good Nigerian team and a former European champions. I'd say Asia was now fourth behind North America (USA and Mexico anyway!), South America and Europe.
Having said that this world cup is slowly turning into the Copa America and it seems to be a question out of which one of the seven decent American sides (sorry Honduras!) will walk away with the world cup.
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Soooooo nervous about this afternoons game. Slovenia proved they are now slouches. Not only did they draw to the USA, but to get here not only did they beat one of the mighty Russians but they shockingly overcame the Czech Republic, who while they are aging I'd still consider them to be in or around the best in the world.
Not only do we need to win, but we need to score as many past them as possible to cancel out whatever the USA do against Algeria.... I simply do NOT want to face the Germans again...
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Post by MetalBlade on Jun 23, 2010 9:13:30 GMT -1
Lol, Germany v England is always a dream match for me.
Oh, and the French also use their hands for raising in the air when they surrender at war.
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