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World Cup 2006
Nimuel
Member UncommonPosts: 163
The WC kicked off today with a win for the German hosts against Costa Rica with 4-2.
Germany looking fairly stable, i was extremly impressed by Schweinsteiger, that guy didnt do a single thing wrong! Klose true to his form scores twice, looking real good and if Germany stays in the game he could be a coud very well be a contender for the top scorer. Flings and Lahm scoring the other two goals and both also doig a very solid job. Big headsup for the German squads problems in the defensive lineup though, letting thigns through way too easy down the middle. So, Germany wins the opener, hardly surprising, but with some questionmarks regarding their defese. Costa on the other hand showed that they're not to be underestimated with 2 goals having had only 4 shots on goal! That's pretty efficient in my book.
The second game was Poland vs Ecuador, the latter getting the win with 2 goals vs Polands 0. Poland having scored twice in the goalframe twice in the last 15 minutes of the game, once in the bar and once in the post looked real feeble defensively, and were overall a real dissapointment, they can do alot better. Ecuador on the other hand were surprisingly stable, extremly disciplined defense and skilled strikers. The polish defense didnt amount to much though so they still remain to be tested, although i'd keep an eye out for Tenorio, he's looking real hungry. As for Poland, Smolarek was looking really good too, had his teammates played with the same energy as he did the numbers might very well have been reversed. I was also impressed with Jelen, who replaced a very dissapointing Sololewski, Jelen pulled off some pretty neat things and was very close to scoring with a quick shot with his left foot hitting the bar.
The way i see it Germany should win this group comfortably, but the seccond place could be a tossup, Poland having severly lessened their chances today ofcourse and if they don't play better than they did today they'll be going home pretty soon. I'm actually thinking that Ecuador may be the ones to clinch the second place in this group.
Cant wait 'till tomorrow!
England vs Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden
and Argentina vs Côte d'Ivoire (had to copy paste that)
There's 3, if not 4, endgame condenders right there. England, Paraguay, Sweden and ofcourse Argentina all looking really good. The most interesting game ofcourse being the one between Paraguay and England. There's alot of questions hanging in the air about the quality of Englands troup, not really heving been tested yet, and ofcourse Rooney not playing tomorrow is a pretty big deal as England needs someone with that kind of killer instinct up top. Paraguay on the other hand have always been up there, always a contender, but often falling short just at the end of the line.
I think England will get away with a win though, And i think Sweden and Argentina will win their respective games. Tomorrows games are going to be a very interesting cause they will show the form of these 4 endgame contenders. I'm also curious to see what Côte d'Ivoire can amount up against Argentina, as i dont know much about them, cant even spell their name, you never know though
What i'm wondering is if they're going to be a threat to any of the two teams i considder to be favourites in their group, Argentina and Holland...As i said, cant wait 'till tomorrow! :P
So, ehh, what'd y'all think?
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
Comments
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
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Played- Runescape, Conquer
Tested- EQ, RYL, Freeworld
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
Also Germany's defense is too slow and they wont get far if they keep playing like they did against Costa Rica.
(even though they won)
waited for the world cup for a while now. im rooting for australia!!!
Yeah, it's the defence that is Germany's biggest problem. It will hold against teams like Costa Rica, but further out in the cup it won't hold it. They really need to fix that.
England - Paraguay 1-0 at halftime, England clearly dominating the game, Crouch completly dwarfing the short Paraguay defenders, working very well with Owen. The English out of the teams that played so far showing the only defensive line with any quality, completly neutralizing Santa Cruz and Valdez. I'm particularly impressed with the english midfield, opening with deep passes for Owen and Crouch seemingly easily. I'd be surprised if we didnt get to see another English goal or so. Paraguay needs to step up alot in the seccond half if they want to have a chance, in particular they need to move up their midfield and go for faster plays to try and bring a hole in the so far solid English defense.
Woot, 2nd half is on.. c ya :P
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
here's my review
Germany vs Costa Rica 4-2
Germany: the defence-goalkeeper could have done better, im surprised they managed 2 balls into the net (then again, they say kahn wasnt playing but you never know) they should pull themselves up!
Poland vs Ecuador 0-2
Cant really say anything about them, I didnt watch it and know nothing about the team
Edit: game finished England won
1-0 , no reason to be happy though 1 goal isnt enough
Trinidad & Tobago vs Sweden, 0-0, the game can be summed up in one word... Inneficiency... it's amazing that a team with players like Zlatan, Larsson and Ljungberg on top fails to score after completly and utterly dominating the full 90 minutes. Another extremly dissapointing performance, this time by Sweden. A strange decission by the Swedish coach to start with Kallstrom on the bench who when he did come in in the 80th minute stood behind the best chances Sweden had, opening ip the strikers with a couple of brilliant crosses. T&B were actually closer to winning the game, John Stern having hit the outside of the bar in their only chance in the whole game. Not to mention that for almost the full 2nd half T&B played with only 10 players after Avery got sent off with a second yellow card.
Actually thinking about it, Inneficiency isn't the right word, pathetic is more like it.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
How about Trinidad & Tobago's keeper?
You say nothing about him. What an amazing job. If they could beat Paraguay (I think it's possible) and tie England (DEFINATLEY possible) they go through.
In regards to the other match:
/sigh
England are back with their lackluster, long-ball, uninspired play. I just HATE this team. I really hope Sweden beat them.
By the way, Nimuel, set up a poll for who think will be in Final to win...
FINALLY a real game worthy of a world cup, Argentina and Côte d'Ivoire both play very well and enteratining football, atleast first half looked really good. Côte d'Ivoire with Drogba on top are from from helpless against an extremly effective Argentina, Riquelme and Saviola absolutly fabulous to watch :P
Argentina in the lead with 2-0 after the first half... Looking forward to a seccond half.
How about Trinidad & Tobago's keeper?
You say nothing
about him. What an amazing job. If they could beat Paraguay (I think
it's possible) and tie England (DEFINATLEY possible) they go through.
You're right, he did an awesome job keeping the ball out, especially considdering he was under preassure for the whole game! But to be fair, the Swedes completly failed with their finishes, they looked very dangerous pretty much untill the last pass, that's usually when the fumble happened.
We'll see how T&B stands up against England on Thursday
*Edit*
About a poll for the win... There's only 10 possible choices for the poll, and i think there's more contenders than that, let's wait until the group plays are over shall we
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup,
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle,
You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now water can flow or it can crash!
Be water, my friend.
~Bruce Lee
a) Your mince at it.
b) They can't throw adverts in your face every 2/3 mins when nothing is going on. coughNFLcough
Which must irritate the businessmen that run us sports because they would cream over the audiences that the World Cup gets.
Argentina v Ivory Coast has been a magnificent game, easily the best game so far, although i said it would be a draw and atm it's still 2-1
I do like that fact that its the only sport that has a championship including every country in the world or at least close to every country.
Yea, a bit into second half Argentina pulled back trying to kill the game and were close to paying the price for it when the game got new life in with 10 minutes left to play as Côte d'Ivoire's Chealsea striker Drogba reduced Argentinas lead to 2-1...
Best game in the WC so far
Some interesting games tomorrow aswell
Serbia & Montenegro - Holland
Mexico - Iran
Angola - Portugal
S&M (gotta love the abbreviation) vs Holland could be a real good game, Holland has always had a high quality team and this one is no different, Serbia and Montenegro, once part of the former football superpower Yugoslavia also has a tradition of playing great football. I'm expecting Mexico to fairly easily walk over Iran. Also it's gonna be interesting to see Portugal with Figo and Christiano Ronaldo, they have some good qualities in that movie but they've still to show that they can perform. I think they will though
And on Monday we've got
Italy - Ghana
USA - Czech Republic
Australia - Japan
Italy has alot to prove, Ghana shouldnt really be a problem for Italy, but they do have some high quality players (Essien from Chelsea for instance), you never know
US and the Czechs are both quality teams, so that's gonna be an intereseting game to watch too... Australia vs Japan will play for the chance to threaten Croatia's (otherwise probable) seccond place in the group behind Brazil.
*edit* oops i mixed up the dates
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
Well "Girl Soccer" isnt it popular in US? In Sweden we got a tournament called "Gothia kupp" and its alot of American girl teams.
Well back "On-topic" I was really dissapointed after the Swedish match, and enough with Kim Källström. Hes on TV 24/7 now and its alot of critisism on our Team Captain. Anyway, the heroes of that match was the goalkeepers!
Anyway who do you think take the whole thing? I dunno myself. In last EM Greece won (correct me if Iam wrong memorie is dizzy
) So I say anything can happen, its sports afterall and in everything else you need Luck!
gb2/b/
Personally, I think Germany will take it...
And that is ONLY because FIFA is so goddamn corrupt. The officials tend to decide who wins the game. For example, Portal vs S. Korea in the last World Cup.
The host countries always get a big boost from the corrupt officiating. And in this case, Germany is just good enough to allow that boost to help them win.
PS However, I have to say that I was very suprised that the first Costa Rica goal was allowed. It was definately NOT off-side, but the lines-man wouldn't of been blamed if he called it thusly.
thought i'd bump this..
keep it near the top, if you don't mind
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
Great game
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth." - Henry Mencken
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
"And what would you do with a brain if you had one?" - Wizard of Oz
Yeah I have to agree.
This might be Holland's time...