OT: World Cup 2010
 

So, am I the only one here excited for the World Cup?

I'm going to be pulling for the U.S.A. and Uruguay (I lived there for a few years as a teenager), of course, but I also love watching Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and Holland. Of those, I think Spain has the best chance to win it this year. Brazil is less creative and more defensive oriented than they normally are which is not necessarily a bad thing but they're not quite as fun to watch as they've been in years past. Argentina has tons of talent but a buffoon (Maradonna) at the helm. The U.S. and Uruguay just aren't deep enough to go all the way. If the U.S. loses Donovan or Dempsey, it's over for them.

If I had to pick a winner today, I might go out on a limb and pick Holland as my darkhorse. They have tons of firepower. Three of their midfielders were starters in the recent Champions League final and their fowards are no slouches when it comes to scoring goals. If their defense was better, they'd be my front runner. Otherwise, Spain is the safe bet.

Who's your pick and why? What teams or games are you most looking forward to watching?

Now how come you didn't mention England?:D

According to the British newspapers (or rather the English versions of them) England are one of the potential favourites. In reality the newspapers in this country always talk up England's chances and we have an outside chance at best - if we make it to the semi finals we'll be doing well!

I'll be cheering them along but, like many England fans, I'll be expecting disappointment at some point!

Well, I like England too. I watch the EPL all the time so I know their players quite well and I wouldn't mind a bit if they won it. They're good, but they have some weaknesses that I think will prevent them from going all the way. For example, there's not a lot of variety in midfield. Gerrard and Lampard both play very similar roles on their club teams. They haven't worked well together when they're on the pitch at the same time. They both like to attack, leaving a big hole in the middle. Lampard really shines for Chelsea but doesn't do much for the national side. England doesn't have the best defensive midfielders to cover for them either, IMHO. And Garreth Barry might be done, too.

Up front, Rooney is one of the best in the world, but he doesn't have the best strike partners. I mean Crouch, DeFoe, and Bent are all good but none have really gelled with Rooney and Heskey is too slow.

I don't know. I wish them the best of luck.

Soccer (football to most people :) ) isn't too big here in the USA. I'm excited for the world cup, but I have to admit I couldn't name a single player that's playing.

I'll catch a few games, especially if the US does well though. I like soccer, it just doesn't get much exposure here.

I just hope Italy does poorly. Cheating bastards.

Well Crouch is an interesting one - he's actually scored 21 goals in 38 appearances for England.

One of the suggestions is actually to play Gerrard up front with Rooney and to have Lampard in the centre of midflield behind them. That relies on Barry being fit and a defensive midfield player instead of Barry could turn out to be England's biggest weakness.

I'll be watching all of the England games and quite a few other matches but in the end football is the wrong shaped ball for me :D - my favourite sport is rugby union!

...to illustrate further.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noOHdTQd6H8

LOL, hadn't seen that, good one :)

The part with the american announcer becoming bored, while the foreign one gets excited about the action was dead on :)

I'm looking forward to it, even although yet again Scotland failed to qualify.

I do think Spain are the favourites, although they could potentially come up against Ivory Coast or Portugal early on (assuming both Spain and Brazil win their groups), which could be quite an interesting match up.

The USA should manage to get past the group stages OK, but assuming they finish second in their group (behind England) they'd then expect to play Germany in the next round, and Germany would be the big favourites in that one, so realistically the last 16 is as far as I'd expect the US to go this time round.

Rae, I'd agree with you about England - whilst they have a number of talented individuals, in my opinion they sometimes seem to struggle to play well together as a team. That said I do think that they have a good draw, and this year is probably their best chance of actually winning the World Cup since 1990 (and as a Scotsman it pained me to type that...:). Mind you, looking at it the Dutch also have a good draw.

It will be interesting to see how the South Africans do as well...historically the hosts have usually done quite well, e.g. South Korea getting to the Semi Finals in 2002

Anyways, not long to go now...bring it on...

As an Englishman (well three quarters English and one quarter Irish) I won't mention 1990, Scotland and Costa Rica..... :D

I'd say that England's biggest problem is an over reliance on a couple of star players and it is almost inevitable that one of them will get injured or sent off in a crucial game....

LOL...the list of Scottish World Cup disasters is endless...Iran in 1978...Morocco in 1998...Russia in 1982 (sheer class...two of our own players running into one another...)...;)

Don't worry, Targ, I don't think they'll get far this year. They're old and lack the firepower.

@Mahahatain: I like Crouch. He needs to bring back his robot dance. At 6'7", he makes me look graceful on the pitch (I'm a skinny 6'4"). I think he and Rooney would work well together. He could play target man and let Rooney play a little deeper or drift around.

@Rainbow: I like how this U.S. team matches up against this year's German team. I think we could take them (if we stay healthy).

For those of you who haven't seen it, check out this commercial. It's pretty funny. It won't make much sense to you, though, if you don't know soccer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19-ROSfwY8

Here in England it is pretty intense already, all over the media...one of my local pubs has painted it's whole frontage as a giant England flag :P

I will be cheering for England ofc, but inevitably we seem to slip up somewhere (things like penalties and/or Germany), we do have a decent chance though.

Many teams have the potential to win it, Spain being probably the best team in the World atm however in these competitions anything can happen - Holland/Germany/Brazil/Argentina/Portugal and even aging Italy all have a shout.

I saw South Africa play ina a couple of their warm-up games and they were pretty poor, but as has been said, hosts always seem to get that bit further than they should.

Worth watching for the non-football/soccar fans imo, if only a team you follow.

Cmon England! :)

So Targan, did you enjoy the New Zealand - Italy game? :D

Anyone want to speculate on the fate of the North Korean team when they get home? Pretty spectacular result today.....

If they go home...:)

A year of hard labor working in a coal mine, then 2 years probation spent polishing Kim statutes.

Their families have probably already been transported to a detention camp as well (keeping in custom with NK blood justice).

...or return as World Cup champions after the game footage has been altered.

World Cup
 

Thats what you gotta love about the world cup - "small " nations ( football wise ) face their Goliath and come out with unexpected results . I thought US -England was such a match also ( for ONCE the US was an underdog- gotta jump at the chance to cheer them on ;) )

Havent seen Mohohender here in a while - though he might not respond in this thread :D

seriously - it must be hard for fans and not to mention the millions of kids that have been looking forward to the games to see their side behave like the French have these past days.Loosing is one thing -quitting quite another imho .

I would be pissed off.

Did I ever! I watched it with a mate who is a Kiwi like me, we were going nuts right up to the last second of the game. Very happy with the result. Matter of fact if an Italian player hadn't taken a dive (and received a penalty he didn't deserve) New Zealand would have won the match 1-0.

Well, that's the French out...and the that way they have played they didn't deserve to go any further...I'm sure there'll be a few happy faces in Ireland tonight...

Things have certainly been interesting so far...can't believe we're nearly two weeks in. This has to be one of the worst World Cups for years for the major European teams...I think the only ones who are assured qualification for the next round at this stage are the Dutch and (probably) the Portugese?...so a few crunch matches coming up in the next couple of days...and we could be looking at Spain vs Brazil in the next round...

Man, I feel sorry for the French fans. I also feel badly for the Irish fans/team. They were effectively robbed of a place in the finals by a team that apparently doesn't even want to be there. This French team is a major embarrassment. To think that many of them played in the championship game four years ago. It seems like a lot of the Euro squads have great inidvidual talent but very little team chemistry (I'm looking at you Three Lions). Capello and Domenech are making Maradona look like a genius.

Uruguay wins their group! I was living in Montevideo during the '90 World Cup so I have a soft spot for the Uruguayos.

Big game for the U.S. team tomorrow. They'd better not blow it. I don't want to hear any crying about how we were robbed during the Slovenia game if we fail to advance tomorrow.

Dae han min guk!

(ok, I'm not rooting for South Korea and that pic is from the 2002 world cup, kato, any idea who she is?)

Shim Mina

Whoa.

It's the big day for England and the US - hopefully decided on the pitch and not names out of a hat which is a potential scenario (if we both draw with same number of goals scored in total).

France were an embarassment, Italy look shaky, Germany convincing then unconvincing, Argentina will be found out by a good side imo, Brazil dont look as good as expected nor do Portugal, Uruguay or Paraguay maybe dark horses..

It has been poor footy in the main - I am hoping once these awkward group stages are over the cream of the crop playing each other in one off games will make for better viewing.

Play Crouchie for the win!

I shall be glad when the damn thing is over and I don't have more drunks than usual wandering outside my house :mad:

I'll be glad as well. I am a steriotypical American. If it Ain't football (our version), baseball, or basketball, I am not really interested. :grumble:

What a game. In the 90th minute, it looked like the US wouldn't even qualify. In the 91st, we scored, went on to win the game- and the group! Wow!

Unreal, I was watching this game in class, and yelled out 'goal!' as we scored right when class ended. Great game by the Algerians, but the U.S. pulls it out!