World Cup Footy Thread!

[KaiserJ]

yeah, maybe it's too early for this.

but still, it's world cup year! you should be digging out your flags and waving them... many forum members have countries represented in the competition... what do you guys think will happen? lets hear some predictions!

france has got to go; after qualifying due to a handball goal... i heard they aren't even going to pick thierry henry for the squad.

north korea is going to get rocked by brazil and portugal.

netherlands + denmark + cameroon + japan seems the most balanced group stage.

i hope england makes it out of the group stage; their toughest opponent in there is the USA (gogo red cards) and my relatives in the UK will all have heart attacks if they don't make it through.

germany seems to be fielding a "fresh" side, lots of young players compared to past competition, and i figure that alongside spain and argentina have one of the deepest benches.

argentina of course will lose because their coach is maradonna and he's completely out of his mind in recent years

so what do you guys think? who do you support? its nice in a way that canada doesnt ever make it into the WC, that way i can pick a team to support rather than being forced to back a team that will surely lose.

[Raghna]

Belgium. Wins.

[KaiserJ]

belgium didnt qualify, and lost their awesome coach to russia

double loss!

welcome to canada land

[Gota]

Just for a sec i thought you were talking about the WC3 mod..

[Pxtl]

@ KaiserJ

in recent years? There was a time when Maradonna wasn't an arrogant loon?

[Wartender]

no one mentions the current world champion?

but yeah italy will most likely lose

[Otherside]

Argentina have a surplus of attacking talent.

Messi Higuain Tevez Milito

And if it wasn't for Maradona being a shit coach i would have said they would be my faivourites to win. Hes left out some really good defenders and some big names to bring in players who play in a low tier Argentenian League and for me that will prove costly to there world cup chances. But Messi deserves a good world cup and its time for him to shut up his critics who say he can't do what his country what he does for Barcelona. I want Argentina to win

Brazil Imo are overated they have a good lineup but are no longer the free flowing attacking team they used to be and now just a pacey counter attacking team. Imo Dunga leaving Ronaldinho out was a big mistake considering his renewed form and imo the lack of Super Sub alternatives.

Spain are my favorites to win although they are on a rough side of the draw. Potentially meeting Brazil as soon as the round of 16 or quarter finals. Spain need to forget all the media attention and put in a solid performance they certainly have the players to do so. A plethora of attacking talent the best midfield in the world paired with world class defenders and one of the best if not the best goal keeper in the world and alot of strength in depth on the bench. The only problem i see is to much hype and injuries.

England. Even though i am british in nationality and usually support England i am not a big fan of the English football league (prefer the spanish league). The type of football they play is not appealing to me and i do not like the majority of the players. They do have a decent teams but i believe they will fall short. I wudnt put it passed them getting to semi's.

Dark Horse for me: The Netherlands (very strong squad)

France: Lol coach not even in contention at all

Italy/Germany: No chance imo Italy have an aging squad and Germany are in a transition period and will be ok in the next world cup.

[KaiserJ]

italy are sending the same old dudes... they just won't be fast enough IMO. plenty of good younger talent from italy that is largely ignored in favour of battle tested veterans.

mexico and uruguay are sending good teams this year (in terms of the latter otherside in particular i would guess you know all about diego forlan already, but im pretty sure that people at least over here haven't a clue who he is)

england i would put into the same boat as italy... maybe a less extreme degree; they have some good young talent among the team with walcott and huddlestone, not to mention roon the goon (hehe) but i think in the long run, if the best keeper they can come up with is david james, the chances aren't that great. strong attacking teams will take him to the cleaners.

brazil apparently instead of picking the 30 man preliminary squad are bringing only the number for elimination rounds (i believe 22) and as stated have left out ronaldinho and some other big stars... interesting move, and i think a poorly chosen one.

not really familiar with who will be on the netherlands squad; they often fall short it seems in international competition, much shorter than their abilities would seem to indicate. it would be nice to see them have some success for once!

edit : and yes, maradonna has always been insane. his powers are growing though, soon he'll be the president of argentina!

[Otherside]

Netherlands have 2 very good players in Arjen Robben and Wesley Snejder. Also have good players like Rafael Van de vart and also Robin van persie has returned from injury.

Diego Forlan is very decent. Cant believe I forgot to mention his atheltico team mate Kun Aguero for Argentina.

England have James Milner who imo is there best/most consistent player atm along with Wayne Rooney. I dunno how England can fail so miserably at training good goal keepers I dont think the clubs in england or training in General emphasize much on goal keeping and has left England wanting in terms of goal keeper. It dusnt help that all the top British clubs have foreign goal keepers so top english keepers dont get experience in top level european competition. The fact that Spain has 20 or so keepers who would be better than Englands current number 1 is worrying.

England do have a better squad than Italy tho.

I would like to see an Argentina vs Spain final.

[Raghna]

1. is football a drugs-free sport?

2. if not, isn't this another contest in: who-takes-the-most-drugs-and-get-away-with-it-win?

[Pxtl]

@ KaiserJ

Considering how many Argentine presidents stay on for a matter of weeks, crash the economy, and then resign in disgrace... well, it's not like a coke-addled nutter like Maradonna could do much more damage.

I remember passing through La Boca and seeing a bar with three sculptures over the door: Eva Peron, Carlos Gardel (a Tango musician) and Maradonna. Pretty much the Holy Trinity of Argentina.

[KaiserJ]

hahaha canada vs argentina this weekend :D i wonder if its the argentina B-side or what... we pretty much have -one- good player.

and yes, i'm not sure why england has such fail keepers; it's like brazil historically, maybe they just haven't had much luck with them coming up through the ranks... takes something really special to be a top-ranked keeper.

who is the best keeper these days anyway? casillas?

raghna : nah it's not drug free... there are doping tests, and people get banned from competition; seems like the list of restricted substances is growing too, there was a romanian player recently banned for three years because he took restricted diet pills (although to be fair he had already been banned on a different occasion for cocaine)

hopefully there isn't a doping scandal, that would really spoil the competition if it comes out later that someone was on the juice. i'm not sure how i feel about some of it anyways... i really don't feel someone should be banned from competition by FIFA for smoking weed (for instance) but that recreational substance abuse should be handled by the national clubs. performance enhancers though should be addressed with the banhammer.

[KaiserJ]

heh. i don't really know all that much about argentina beyond football, but from what i saw of "real football factories" the whole organizational system of EVERYTHING over there seems to all depend on palms being greased and strange internal politics. football clubs are publicly traded companies, and club presidents are elected by popular vote... football hooligans are paid to support a candidate, who then pressure the average fans into voting their way. its all a big landslide of ridiculousness.

i figure that for an argentinian to vote for maradona for president would be like us voting for don cherry for prime minister... you know they're nuts, but you really are interested to see what they would do! (yes i would vote for don cherry, even if it was for the facist party)




rock 'em sock 'em!

[Pxtl]

@KaiserJ

Oh God, is that game going to be televised here in Canada?

[KaiserJ]

apparently it's going to be on all rogers sportsnet channels (i'll be watching a sopcast from myp2p.eu because i don't have a HD box and generally there are 1080p streams available, esp for events in europe and north america)

but a much more interesting game is saturday, champions league final on all fox channels @ 2:30 pm :D woo woo

[tombom]

i like football manager

[Sausage]

Argentina will pwn Canada. I haven't cared about football in years but last time I played Fifa, Argentina was one of the best. I didn't even realise USA and Canada even did football? Can't imagine they'd be very good.. I mean they don't even know the actual name of the sport lol

[KDR_11k]

1. is football a drugs-free sport?

2. if not, isn't this another contest in: who-takes-the-most-drugs-and-get-away-with-it-win?

No, it's a contest of who-can-pretend-the-most-injuries-to-get-free-kicks.

[Sucky_Lord]

I didn't even realise USA and Canada even did football?

You dont remember back in 2002 USA reaching quarter finals to everyone's surprise?

[Raghna]

1. is football a drugs-free sport?

2. if not, isn't this another contest in: who-takes-the-most-drugs-and-get-away-with-it-win?

No, it's a contest of who-can-pretend-the-most-injuries-to-get-free-kicks.

I lol'd, so true.