World Cup 2006
 

Sorry guys it's soccer/ football not AMERICAN FOOTBALL!!!:rolleyes:

Re: World Cup 2006
 

Here we are counting the days for World Cup !!!! ;)

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Ah, but American football might be better though. :D :razz:

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I was going to start a thread about the World Cup with 30 days to go.....seems like someone beat me to it.

Without even a shred of blind patriotism I fancy England to go pretty close. If Wayne 'who needs Ronaldinho' Rooney was fully fit I'd really fancy us to win it. Unfortunately it seems the 'curse of the metatarsal' has struck again.
Davis Beckham broke his before Japan 2002 and I believe the same injury caused Gary Neville to miss a tournament. Also, Michael Owen has just come back from the same injury.

Sven MUST take him. He could be back for the Quarter-Finals and I think we can qualify from the group stage without him. If we progress we should face Germany or Poland - I take us to beat any of them.

However, my money will be on Argentina or Italy.

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England have a strong team and I hope that they finally pull their fingers out of themselves and do good, but I think Germany will surprise everyone! They have strong players in every position, especially Ballack. He's the best player in the world together with Ronaldinho. His problem has so far been that he plays in the wrong league. When he finally join Chelsea or United, he will show everyone his true qualities.

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Rumour has it that Ballack will be joining Chelsea this Summer.

Germany should do well - they normally do. However, if we play them (and we could in the second round) I 'd strongly fancy us to beat them.
Brazil don't scare me either. I don't think they're as strong this year as they have been. They normally come to every World Cup with an outstanding striker and I don't think they possess one of the same calibre as Romario or a Ronaldo in his prime - maybe Adriano.

England are very strong. Our midfield of Beckham, Cole, Gerrard and Lampard is probably the best in International football and our strikeforce of Owen and Rooney (hopefully back for KO stages) is sensational. Ferdinand, Neville and Terry are all reliable and Ashley Cole could be heading for Real Madrid.

Argentina are the strongest South American team and Italy are a great 'dark horse' bet.

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:eek: You know...I think you keep putting funny posts...:D

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But this post is not only funny but...absurd!!!!:eek: :eek: Rememeber argentina team in the last cup -- 2002??? Ridiculous!!!!!! Remember Brazil ??????;)

Re: World Cup 2006
 

That was the last World Cup. A lot has changed since then - especially Ronaldo's weight.
Does any aeroplane accommodate a man of his size?
Is any toothbrush adequately proportioned to clean his teeth?

If you progress to the second round (and you will) you will probably play either Czech Republic or....Italy. If you play Italy - you will lose!! :crying: :crying:

Hush now darling
Don't you cry
Every little thing's gonna be alright
Hush little child you will be OK
When David Beckham lifts the Jules Rimet

Sublime
Sublime

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2002...2002...oh yes, I remember that World Cup - Ronaldinho's fluke goal against England. Wait a minute, something else is coming back to me - a big, fat man coaching Brazil. What was his name? That's it...PHIL SCOLARI.

The same man who 'choked' when offered the biggest job in world football. The same man who couldn't handle the pressure of the english media. The same man who has a streak running down his back the same colour as his nations shirt!! What a wimp!! I'm glad we didn't hire him.

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Yeah...England has a great team...certainly the best english team of all times --better than the team who won the 1966 Cup.


Italy has a very strong team -mostly physically but with no much technic ...

Argentina is also a great team but they only have two great players ...but of course they are always favorites...

Brazil however has a difference --our team has very good players ain all positions...starting with the goalkeeper Dida and also Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Zé Roberto, Kaká, Juninho Pernanbucano, Ronaldinho and ending with Ronaldo. ;)

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USA's got a pretty good squad... Bruce Arena thinks it's even better than in '02, when we barely missed out on the semis. i'm definitely going to be watching as much of it as i can. i'm one of only a handful of Americans who actually loves the sport.

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Yeah..US had a good team in 2002 Cup.

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Unfortunately, Wayne Rooney has fractured more than one bone in his foot and IS going to miss the World Cup. It's a shame, not only for England, but the competition itself. The world is not going to see his amazing talent on the biggest stage.

However, here is our new secret weapon (:D ) - Peter Crouch. He's 6ft 7in (1.98m) tall.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-imag...06/crouch2.jpg

This has severely dented our chances of winning. Every World Cup winning side, no matter how good, have one 'special' player and he was ours.

RMadd - great to see an American who appreciates 'the beautiful game'. USA are rapidly developing into a very talented force in world football.

Ana, Brazil have a very talented side - they have and always will. But this is the best chance the rest of the world have had in a while to upset them. I strongly fancy a european side to be successful. The climate will not be to the South American's advantage and I don't consider them unbeatable. Saying that, they deserve to be the favourites.

My money is going to be on Italy and Argentina. For top goalscorer, the finest player in the world today - Thierry Henry. Our top scorer will probably be Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard - he knows how to belt one.

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You know what? I m not so cofident in Brazil's success in this Cup...but you know...here we 'breath' soccer right? lol --So the World Cup is like something 'sacred'...and we are counting the days ...

But my opinions are Italy, Germany or maybe Argentina...not much different of waht you said...lol

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Sad to se Rooney miss the WC. His replacement, Crouch, is with no doubt one of the worst soccer players in the world, seriously! :D

And for Italy and Argentina...in the last 2 or 3 WC's they've been favs, but they always shit their legs...every time. The same thing in Europe for Italy. There's no doubt that they both have the teams to win this years finals, but it seems like that they both have a disease that stops them to do well in the final stages! They lack the experience. Brazil and Germany have more experienced players, and that's why I see them both getting far.

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I agree with you regarding the past performances of Italy and Argentina. The same can also be said about Spain and Holland. Holland have one of the most talented squads (maybe THE most talented) in the competition but they always seem to 'implode'.

However, this is generalizing. If a team is good enough it will win the competition. Germany have the home advantage and a great record but are a very average side. If we progress we will probably have to play either Germany or Poland in the second round - I'd rather play Germany.

Peter Crouch, regardless of talent, is a very unorthodox player. He wins a huge amount of free-kicks - with those legs he's so difficult to tackle! He's also a great distraction. For a guy who's 6-foot-7 he's terrible in the air. In a recent win over Argentina, a ball was floated into the box and the defenders were so worried about him they left Owen (5-foot-8, very good in the air) free and he headed home.

I'm still down about Rooney. Sven has actually said he will take him just for the Final (wishful thinking!!). People are so gutted about our chances they have forgotten that this is a twenty-year old who's missing out on his first World Cup.

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im goin for the ivory coast but since i know that theyll be knocked out the first roung, ill go for...idk

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holy sh** dude! welcome back! how was africa?

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Hahaha :D ...well, Ivory Coast actually got many strong players for this WC. They have Drogba (Chelsea) Kolo Toure (Arsenal) and so on. Maybe they will surprise us all! :confused:

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Mmmm...the jury is still out about Drogba. I think Mourinho paid in the region of 25 million for him - he progressed well during the season but he's not worth that. Toure is an excellent defender and another great example of Wenger's eye for talented youngsters - Fabregas, Reyes, Van Persie etc

Wenger also purchased another talented youngster - 17 year old Theo Walcott. He hasn't even played one Premiership game but has been selected for the England squad - Sven hasn't even seen him play!!

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Providing the U.S. doesn't win... I'll be rooting for Italy and Germany.

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There is only one favourite: Brasil.

They have the most talented squad, the players that won't be in their start-up team would probably be in every other team's start-up line.

Germany will win from lesser teams, but their team is really not that good, there would have to be a lot of momentum going on there if they had to go far. In Korea/Japan they had the luck that they didn't have to go up against a 'big' team untill the final. This time they will secure the second round and than it's going to be hard for them.

England's chances of going very far are also down 50% now that Rooney is out.

The Ivory coast could surprise, as they are in our group, I'm a bit scared of them, these are teams who play great or terrible, there is often no middle ground.

Other teams that will get far or at least have the potential to do so are Italy and Argentina and maybe France or the Czechs.

For our own team, the Dutch, the squad is not as extremely talented as in other years, but our coach Van Basten seems to be able to get a good team-performance. The question is whether some of our players like Robben, Kuyt, Van Nistelrooy and Cocu can reach their best form, also our in-experienced defense players don't seem to be in the best shape lately. Another problem is our group of death, you have to be on top from day 1 and that might become a problem too. On the other hand, whenever a tournament was played in Germany we have always at least reached the final :D

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I agree with you about all those teams. France are not a great team but any team who has the best player in the world in their side has a great chance.

I disagree with you regarding England. Our chances of going far in the competition have been dented by Rooney's injury but not by 50%. We have the players to go very far without him. If we reach the Q-F Rooney could be fit by then - he is the difference between us winning the cup and only reaching the Q-F though. A little fact about our qualification - Rooney never even scored. We have goals throughout the team - Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Cole in midfield and at set-pieces our defenders Terry and Ferdinand are dangerous. Not to mention Michael Owen, who had a superior goal-to-game ratio than Raul, Robinho and Ronaldo when he was at Real Madrid.

I love watching Holland play. I remember their match against the Czechs in 2002. I think you lost 3-2 but what a great match (for the neutral!!). If you play as a team (which has been your downfall in the past) you should go close.

Brazil are the favourites but are no dead-certs...

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Italy England Argentina

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You know Ralphy...I keep loving your words here..lol ;)


Anyway...let me tell you the truth...here we arent so confident in Brasil' s success in this Cup...


And Germany is always a great team to consider as a possible champion....

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Humm..good choices...;)

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Do you remember Brazil X Holland in 1998 (semifinal) ???
AMAZING!!!!! ;) The best match of the whole Cup!!!!!



PS:But please dont tell me about the final!!!!!!! GRRRRR!:mad:

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3-0 if I remember?? Didn't Ronaldo have some sort of panic attack a few hours before kick-off?

Great news for English fans - Rooney could be back for the start of the competition. It's worth watching an England match just to see him play. I still wouldn't risk playing him in the group stages - if we can't progress from this group without him we don't deserve to be in the competition.

Who's gonna be top goal-scorer? I'm gonna have a flutter on Lampard (England) and perhaps Messi (Argentina).

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Brazil X Holand was great....amazing !!!!!!!

NO...dont even mention a word about it....here we still dont understand what happened ...or maybe we know...ohhhmad1: :mad:

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A sign of things to come??

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/29052006/32...up-trophy.html

:D :cool:

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:rolleyes: Humm I dont think so....but okay okay ...keep dreaming!!!!!!!!!:D

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The robot as you've never seen it before...

This is a fine goal by Peter Crouch, but watch the celebration - not bad for a guy standing 6-foot-7.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w4JNzyugc...Peter%20Crouch

Look at this for creativity.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=96eSrFlUVh0

BTW, England just finished their World Cup warm-up with a 6-0 demolition of Jamaica - Crouch scored a hat-trick!!

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the second vid is a clip of a 2 second thing about 21 times in a row.

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Yes, but it's Peter Crouch.....doing the robot.....to the sound of sex machine!! You have to know the player to find it funny. To see him doing that is strangely heart-warming.

At the same venue a year ago he was being booed playing for England - now he's kind of a celebrity.

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Anyone know where you can get the official merch? The jerseys are made by difference companies (nike, adidas, etc..) So theres got to be a better place than the official sites. I think I might have the best luck checking out the spanish TV Channel.

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Just watched Spain Vs Ukraine. Spain are the most impressive side I've seen so far.

France and Brazil were lucky in their respective results - what is up with Ronaldo? He looked very lethargic and well overweight - Adriano too. Were the Brazillian fans booing him or the substitution when he went off?

England were great in the first half against Paraguay but terrible in the second half. A fantastic win and if we beat T & T (and we should) we're through - job done. Then we unleash Rooney!!

It seems the Dutch are imploding again. Van Persie has called Robben 'greedy'. This always happens to them. They did look a very solid outfit in their opening game.

I'm looking forward to Australia Vs Brazil and Holland Vs Argentina. Germany Vs Ecuador to (possibly) decide Group A also looks interesting. I hope Luke Wilkshire keeps his place in the Aussie squad.

C'mon England!!

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That was sad, Australia was lucky to win that game.

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[quote=Robin101]


Hey...here we had the same impression...Ronaldo didnt play ...he was sleeping !!!!!!:mad:It was evident ...semeed that parreira took so much time to decide for his substitution... but it was definitely the best thing to do...all the newspapers and sites agreed ...and when Robinho started to play seemed taht another team was playing...another match...hope Robinho keeps hsi position next sunday. against Australia...and not Ronaldo.;)

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And France ...wow...did u notice that we cant see a goal from France squad since 98 World Cup on that 'tragic' match????