Anyone watching the World Cup?

I saw yesterday's match between Poland and Ecuador. Man, what an upset for Poland losing to Ecuador! I also saw today's match between Ivory Coast and Argentina. Wow, that was an excellent shot in the second half by Drogba. But unfortunately, they lost out to the Argentines.

I think that CF and the English lads had better watch out for Trinidad/Tobago as their keeper is like a brick wall!!!

I've seen bits of every game so far.

Most impressive: Trinidad & Tobago. I was amazed that they managed to hold on for a draw after that Swedish onslaught.

Least impressive: I know I'll probably get creamed for this but I have to say England. I mean, if it wasn't for that own goal by the Paraguay player they would have had to settle for a draw. They just seemed lifeless in that game.

Disclaimer: I am an American. As such, I don't watch a whole lot of soccer/football and I don't know the finer points of the game. So take my opinions for what their worth. Which is probably nothing.

So what are the chances of Mexico beating Iran? This late in the game, it could go either way but since my father is a Mexican citizen, all I have to sey, in lieu of Mexico winning or losing, is "Viva Mexico!".

And just as I was typing the above post, Mexico scored a goal. Guess that was a bit of good luck!

The Mexicans have ended it 3-1. Viva Mexico!!!!!!! Arriba!!!!!

Ok. I've seen all of the 8 games so far.

Argentina looked great against an excellent Ivory Coast team.

Not much else has caught my eye, other than the obligatory shots of nubile female fans.

Germany, England, Holland, Mexico, Portugal deserved to win but were hardly inspirational. Can't see Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador, T&T, Paraguay, Sweden, Iran or Angola going any distance.

Still, the winners rarely shine in their first game.

Group A looks like a stroll for the hosts. Whoever finishes second will surely fail at the first knockout stage.

Have to say, group B is the most disappointing so far. England faded against a poor Paraguay (thanks in part to diabolical subsitutions) and T&T held out bravely against an astonishingly shit Sweden. I'm not scared of the West Ham keeper though! I predict that England will beat T&T by 2 or more goals.

Group c has 3 great teams - and Serbia & Montenegro aren't bad either. Looking forward to the next round of games there. If Ivory Coast bounce back in their next game they may well embarrass Holland. Argentina looked a cut above everyone else I've seen so far. Their second goal was just magnificent.

D seems a really ordinary quartet by comparison. Portugal should have ripped Angola apart but looked toothless in the end. Mexico needed a bad mistake by the hard-working Iranians to turn their dominance into a win, having conceded a sloppy equaliser.

Still, we've only seen half of the teams yet. You'd expect Germany, England and Holland to improve in their next games.

That's my take on it so far.

I thought that Portugal looked pretty good today. "Win the ball, control the ball" and that they did. Angola was very sloppy at times and my
guess was that this could have been a 3-0 game. I would agree that
they are not going on.

Who is this Kid Renaldo? He looked very sharp as did the other Portugal
forward. I see that he plays for Manchester United, so he must be pretty good!

I thought Poland really out played and dominated Ecuador, but time and time again they could not close the play. I loved the long throw-in backheader to header goal, but let's face it, Ecuador was lucky to get by Poland.

I doubt I can get through the day tomorrow without someone telling me the outcome of USA vs C. Republic, but the VCR will be a spinning. You know, I think I may be coming down with something (cough, cough).

Telemundo is showing all the games here in Spanish and they are so much better than the US commentators. They replay the matches in Prime time on one of their secondary channels on my cable service.

I thought that Portugal looked pretty good today. "Win the ball, control the ball" and that they did. Angola was very sloppy at times and my
guess was that this could have been a 3-0 game. I would agree that
they are not going on.

Who is this Kid Renaldo? He looked very sharp as did the other Portugal
forward. I see that he plays for Manchester United, so he must be pretty good!

I thought Poland really out played and dominated Ecuador, but time and time again they could not close the play. I loved the long throw-in backheader to header goal, but let's face it, Ecuador was lucky to get by Poland.

I doubt I can get through the day tomorrow without someone telling me the outcome of USA vs C. Republic, but the VCR will be a spinning. You know, I think I may be coming down with something (cough, cough).

Telemundo is showing all the games here in Spanish and they are so much better than the US commentators. They replay the matches in Prime time on one of their secondary channels on my cable service.

It's funny you should say that, I tried to find the Mexico/Iran game here on my local spanish language station. Couldn't find it though. I wonder what that was all about.

I just wanted to here the announcer say "GGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL"

Nothing says "World Cup" to me more than that.

Let me correct myself. It is Univision and Telefutura that are showing the games. Most of the live games are on Univision and the Eve re-runs are on Telefutura, at least that is how they are doing it in Phx.

Unfortunately, Senior Andres Cantor Mr. GOOOOOOOOOOOAL himself
works for Telemundo and I have not heard him call any games yet.

I have Win TV USB so I don't miss a kick

Portugal were playing a very, very poor quality Angolan team who probably deserved to scrape a draw. Personally, I think C. Ronaldo is one of the most overrated players in the world. Perhaps he was unlucky with his header that hit the bar (although he wasn't really challenged properly). Other than that, he wasted a lot of possession as usual and hit Portugal's best chance straight down the Angolan keeper's throat. Robben for Holland vs. Serbia & Montenegro (hence forth known as S&M - great name for a country, shame it no longer exists as of last month) was, IMO, a million times better playing in the same position.

Three hours to go till Australia vs Japan. Better do some work...

Come On England!

Yep it's here again, when the beautiful game takes over our TV screens (four weeks of footie). Footie, beer and sun, its going to be a great time. Capped of by Becks picking up the Cup.

Must say the gaffer (Mr Wenger) has brought another great player to Arsenal in T.Rosicky. What do you think Conceptfan? A great performance today and two well taken goals to boot. Won't say anymore about that game guys :wink:

So next game up Italy V Ghana, will there be a shock instore tonight?

Gooner

The U.S. sucked big time today. It looks like our futility on european soil will continue...

Let me correct myself. It is Univision and Telefutura that are showing the games. Most of the live games are on Univision and the Eve re-runs are on Telefutura, at least that is how they are doing it in Phx.

Same over here in HOU.

The U.S. sucked big time today. It looks like our futility on european soil will continue...

Yep, and it's no consolation that the Czech defense was excellent. I only saw the U.S. team making 3 shots in the second half.

shaka hislop....a brick wall.....
I think not.

shaka hislop a lucky son of a bitch sounds more like it

anyways from what i here the swedish have trouble in the dressing room....again

same two players as last time arsanals own Freddie Ljungberg and aston villa's Olof Mellburg theres no love loss between these two guys and they showed it again after the disapointment of the Trinidad and Tobago draw

looking on some of the blogs the swedish fans are already righting off there world cup hopes. the say how do we have a chance against a team that pushed the english all the way on saturday? and all england need is a win against Trinidad and Tobago which in no real problem unless your swedish that is

well im gunna watch every match that i can (which should be all of them )

Ooooh and it was nice to see boros own stuie downing getting a run out in the first world cup match heres hopeing (from a boro fans point of view) he gets a few more but not at the expense of a striker that even at 50% is more than capable of scoreing a match winning goal

Batteries, I totally agree about Shakey Hislop. And yeah, Downing: decent player, totally incorrectly used. Why the f*** did he take Walcott if he's not going to use him under those circumstances?

So... the Czechs look very, very good indeed. Not only solid at the back (I'm not sure the US team will be satisfied by the lack of pressure they were able to exert, though) but also wonderful going forward. If there is one area the US were critically lacking in experience, IMO, it was at centre back. By experience I don't mean number of international games played, I mean number of games played against quality opposition. Playing against CONCACAF nations or in the MLS simply does not equal playing at the top level.

Speaking personally, I'm thrilled at the prospect of Rosiscky playing for my club next season. He was superb. The Czechs will need him on that form as Koller seems to be out of the tournament now.

So, the US need a win and a draw (in either order) against Brazil and Croatia. Hmmm.

Today's other games:
Japan/Australia. They had it in the bag with 6 minutes to go and ran out of steam in the heat. Fair dinkums to the Aussies for pounding the Japanese for the whole second half and reaping the reward in the end. The final result means, realistically, looking at the other two teams in the group, the Japanese are just about done for. HMP Australia still need something special to qualify from the group. But they've still done better than Australia's cricketers...

Italy/Ghana
Ghana worked hard all night and made 2 very bad errors both of which were punished. The Italians are the latest "big" team to win without really setting the world on fire.

So, the US need a win and a draw (in either order) against Brazil and Croatia. Hmmm.

No. We need a win and a draw against Italy and Ghana. You got the wrong group there. Brazil and Croatia are in the same group as Japan and Australia.

After our pitiful display today, I don't like our chances. It seems the only thing we can win on european soil is World Wars!

There is nothing quite like a good old fashion ass kicking. C.Repuplic looked like big pros on steroids and we looked like little college kids. I think we just saw one of the two finalists today (unless they are not on the opposite side of Brazil in the knockout rounds).

CF, I don’t understand what you mean when you say that we need a win and a draw to go on. Are we not 5 goals behind Italy as they have scored 2 and we have allowed three? If we both finish 1-1-1 and C. Republic goes 3-0 and Ghana goes 0-3, how do they determine who moves on (assuming that we tie Italy)?

I hope the boys can come back from this crushing defeat, but I think that if we don’t beat Italy, we will be coming home very soon.

And when was the last time in World Cup play that a team scored 3 goals past the 85 minute mark to win and then seal the victory? I though Australia out played Japan, but just couldn’t get a break and then Japan just ran out of steam and gave up. That has to be tough to lead for 85 + minutes and then have it just go away.

Let’s hope that Mexico continues to fair well so that we Norte Americanos will have a team to pull for in the knockout rounds!

And by the way, only in the USA could one go all day at work and not find out the results of your team's World Cup performance. That is a sad comment, but I am sure if they had won, someone would have said something because America loves winners!

OK. Now we know what happens when Cf tries to pontificate at 2:30am on the hottest night of the year when not even tried and trusted family remedies such and beer and vodka can induce much-needed sleep. Apologies for confusing my groups. Yeah, OK. The US need a win and a draw from Italy and Ghana. So the US are only 75% f**ked, compared with Japan who are 90% f**ked.

The temperature on the pitch for the Japan-Australia game was cruel. Not that great a surprise that the Australians had a little bit more strength and stamina in the last 5 minutes. The 'convicts' are big guys. (In the case of Viduka, big, fat guys.)


How the points system works.

The first round of the World Cup is a series of mini-leagues of 4 teams - the groups. In the tournament (and in the qualifying stages) and most of the world's major domestic leagues, teams get 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw (or "tie") and 0 points for losing. So, if a team wins 1-0 in their first game, and loses 5-0 in their second, they have 3 points in total, the same as another team who loses their first game 1-0 and wins their second 5-0.

The number of goals in matches is only a consideration when 2 teams have the same number of points. So, Italy won 2-0 and have 3 points. Czech Republic won 3-0 and have three points. The US and Ghana lost and each have 0 points. In the league table, the Czechs are above Italy because they have a better "goal difference" (+3) compared to Italy's (+2). Ghana are above the US for the same reason - the 2 teams have the same number of points (zero) but Ghana's goal difference is -2 compared to the US' -3. So the league table for the group looks like this:

[code:1]Team Played Won Drawn Lost Goals For Goals Against **POINTS** (Goal Difference)

Czech 1 1 0 0 3 0 3 +3
Italy 1 1 0 0 2 0 3 +2
Ghana 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 -2
USA 1 0 0 1 0 3 0 -3[/code:1]

The top two teams in the group, after everyone has played 3 games, go through to the next stage, which is a straight knock-out competition.

As things stand, a win and a draw will leave the US with 4 points. Because Italy and the Czech Rep. still have to play each other (and they both can't win that game!), and Ghana still have to play the Czechs, 4 points is likely to be enough, irrespective of goal difference. I'll leave it to you to do the permutations. In the cold light of day, it looks a very tall order for the US.

Italy and the Czech Republic know that one more win will give them 6 points which as good as guarantees qualification. For the US and Ghana, one more defeat means the most they could get in total would be 3 points, which equals certain elimation.

By the way, it has happened that two teams have finished level on points AND goal difference at the end of the group stage. They are separated first by taking into account the result in the game between the 2 level teams. If that was a draw, then (belive it or not - it has actually happened in the past) a coin is flipped. Of course, it's only really an issue if the 2 teams are second and third in their group...

Hope that explains things for those new to the beautiful game. I'm pretty sure I got it right this morning...


Don't forget, newbies, part of the fun of the World Cup is watching other matches not involving your country. Two of the best teams on paper, Brazil and France, are in action in different games today. Both have the capacity for terrific entertainment and boast some of the world's greatest players. If you haven't seen much "soccer", check 'em out!

yo concept from what I’ve been lead to believe sven......in his ultimate wisdom had decided to swap between 4.4.2 and 4.5.1

4.4.2 been the attacking formation that he will i presume start with in all games then reverting to the more defensive 4.5.1 formation, This will then use our best players to greatest affect mainly been our midfield trio if gerrard lampard and beckham on there game the can happily hold the ball for great lengths of time.

If he was to use the formation to greatest affect though he should think about reverting to 4.3.3 in an attack pushing gerrard and lampard up to help the lone striker so to increase the chance of getting another goal but if the other team brake you will still have depending on who’s playing beckham downing and cole in midfield to offer some sort of resistance

I think the Americans were made to look worse than they are by the Czech’s they have a great team and use the above style to great affect hence there defensive dominance and there great counter attack

Brazil.... well on that performance I think Australia have a good chance of qualifying for the next round! They were defiantly not the team we all expected but then give Croatia there due's they are no push over

I think Walcott was taken as backup/secret wepon his inexperiance will always be a downside of his game untill he plays week in week out but then the pace he has......you can't discount that, put the ball at his feet and set him running at some of the older defenders out there and it could pay great diverdends (thinking roberto carlos here!)

So I guess if we were to tie Italy, we would have to "run up the score" against Ghana and hope that the C.Republic would do the same to Italy,
but they would have little motivation to do so.

It's do or die against Italy in my book, whereas Italy could play for the tie
without much worry.

Ace, that's about the size of it. Another way of looking at the situation would be to say that the Italians and Czechs are in a very, very good position now. The US team's destiny is still in their own hands, of course: if they win their two remaining games, they will qualify. I think any kind of win against Ghana would do and is possible. But that leaves the azzurris. The best hope is if the Italians go into the game thinking they've already won it and are worried about getting their hair-dos messed up. That said, it would still be the shock of the tournament...

batteries, yeah. The man is mad. To play 4-5-1 you need a great striker (not Crouch) being supported by fast, attacking midfielders (Gerrard yes, not fat Frank, ffs!) and 2 pacey wingers who can cut inside. Regardless of system, why play J. Cole out of position? Especially when he actually had a decent first half in his normal role. 4-5-1 might be an option when Shrek is back, but surely if Crouchatron is the main man (how frightening is THAT thought?) it HAS to be 4-4-2. Svennis took 2 injured strikers and a kid he does not trust at that level. From what's left, Stevie G as emergency attacker is the only option I could accept. Still think we'll beat T&T and win the group though.

I might have to stop these posts. It's not going well for me. First I got my groups all confused the other night and then I said Brazil and France were two of the most exciting teams with great players. Yesterday, they were both completely shit. So I now confidently predict that England won't win the whole thing.

Yesterday was the worst day yet. South Korea needed a bit of luck and looked dire until the sending off. Then a free-kick which should have been saved and a massively-deflected shot won them the game. They'll have to improve beyond belief to match what they did 4 years ago. For their part, Togo scored a great goal, but that was their only contribution to the game.

Rather like Brazil, in fact. I know the Croats contained the samba boys well, but half the Brazil team seemed disinterested. My god, I thought Ronaldo was tubby when I saw him for Real at Highbury (we sang "Get your tits out for the lads" to him) but he's been eating eight square meals a day since [batteries, do you remember Jan Molby? The "Danish pastry" was svelte by comparison!]. Croatia must be gutted they didn't take just 2 of their 8 chances.

France are just inexplicable. I had to check if Vieira was on the pitch. The guy played all season and won the league with Juventus (with help from the referees as we now know). How clever of Wenger to send a body-double of King Henry to Germany, whilst the original is kept safely in a North London lock-up until August. If the Swiss had had 1 decent striker, they'd have definitely won. Something is very, very wrong in the French dressing room. Va va voom? Va t'enculer!

The only teams we've yet to see are in action today:

Spain. On paper, they're the weakest Spanish side for a while, but then they ALWAYS disappoint anyway so maybe this time they play above rather than below themselves for a change.
Ukraine: Enough good players to make an impact and give Spain a tough game. I predict Fabregas will come off the bench to win it cos he's f***ing magic.

Tunisia: the second best African team in it after Ivory Coast. I think they'll win comfortably against Saudi Arabia today. I'm backing the Saudis to finish with 3 defeats.

By the way, if I've got everything wrong (again) I promise I will shut up this time.

Well, you seem to be right on the Spanish, CF. That 4-0 upset against Ukraine was utterly amazing. Gonna be leaving here in about 10 minutes to watch the BIG Germany-Poland match.