World Cup Footy Thread!

[KaiserJ]

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

lol if canada loses by less than six points, im claiming a moral victory

the USA team has been pretty good in recent years.. quarters in the last world cup (and were the only team that played italy without being defeated) and won their confederations cup match in the semis last year against spain for a surprising 2-0 victory. pretty much all of their players come from first division sides.

not the prettiest football to watch, and they have some issues with red cards when playing against teams of great actors, but i have to admire their determination and general unwillingness to flop and appeal for cards.

anyways, they're in the group with algeria, slovenia and england... if england screws up badly like every other time i've seen them in international competition, USA should be a shoe-in to advance

and yeah... that's the worst thing about the sport, some of the "elite acting" that goes on, and the fact that video replays aren't valid for the officials to review (although it's been argued that such a change would break up the flow of the game which i have to agree with)

all we can hope is that the officials keep their eyes peeled and don't let anyone get away with some BS

edited due to poor clarity

[KaiserJ]

bump bump bumpercars!

missed the first game; but in a few hours, france vs uruguay!

a cited 80% chance of a terrorist attack during an england, denmark or netherlands game, most likely from talibans from the mozambique.

uruguay and france in a few hours... should be fireworks! i can't wait to see ribery (after he missed the champions league final) and diego forlan (cause he's a beast)

got all my england gear together to harass my italian neighbours.

[N3mesis]

I think nobody missed the last games? lulz. 4 - 0

[knorke]

only watched france - uruguay
boring game imo, did not change my mind.

also TRÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖT!
funny how all the soccer fans get trolled

the fact that video replays aren't valid for the officials to review (although it's been argued that such a change would break up the flow of the game which i have to agree with)

which sport is it even done in, except tennis (i think) and motor sport?

[Pxtl]

@knorke - is TRÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖT a reference to that buzzing noise the crowd makes? I'm happy to hear that the South Africans let the fookin' Prawns come out to watch the games.

[Bender The Offender]

Australia are pretty good i think.
lol @ green poor guy

[Das Bruce]

I've put $11.07 on Slovakia against NZ. Gambling money tastes even better when seasoned with the tears of your countrymen.

[Sabutai]

I'm running a live betting website :) And facebook won't let me connect it because of some obstruse validation requirements.

[Otherside]

I dunno if its the altitude, the vuvuzelas or the new ball.

But the performances from most teams (bar Argentina/Germany) has been horrible.

Not very many goals or very exciting games.

I hope Brazil today and Spain tomorrow can liven up this tournament a bit.

Generally disappointed so far but its only early days.

[Sucky_Lord]

brazil-north korea, destined to be the best match of the cup :D

[Pxtl]

brazil-north korea, destined to be the best match of the cup :D

Yeah, that. That's a hilarious mismatch they've got going there.

But seriously, there is no way that Argentina game should've been that close - either something's knocking them off their game, or Maradonna's sharing his coke stash with the team.

@ knorke

Don't they use video replays to review tough calls in baseball? I'm not sure.

[KaiserJ]

heheh according to the lead striker of north korea, they have the power to beat brazil, and he will score at least one goal every game

and that sucks knorke; that was a pretty boring game to watch

[Sucky_Lord]

Its funny that when north korea are kicked out with 0 points, every player from brazil, portugal and the ivory coast will disappear.

Kim jong il doesnt kill people! they just... disappear

[Neddie]

You assume Kim Jong Il has enough people left in his country to actually maintain a foreign intelligence service of note. Probably half the team are his black ops.

[Otherside]

this world cup carries on making me sad.

So far its been the worst in its history.

There must be a common problem, there is no way all of the teams can underperform horribly.

Apparently the German league used the new ball in the bundesliga last season so the majority of the german players have more time on the new ball, coincidence that they are the only team to really perform (with what is regarded as a pretty sub par German team).

Seriously i wish the world cup would be played with a normal ball without vuvuzelas and at a normal altitude then we might get good games... :/

[Neddie]

Are the balls slippery?

[Sucky_Lord]

its largely the altitude aswell. its really hard to perform well at such a low partial pressure of oxygen

[Otherside]

imo it has to be the ball.

The confederations cup was very eventful in terms of goals etc and it was played in the same stadiums as the world cup.

+ alot of shots are going over the top of the goal posts and people are over hitting alot.

[Sucky_Lord]

Well 2-1 to brazil. but if korea can play like that against brazil, who knows, they might beat portugal or ivory coast!

[KaiserJ]

hahaha im afraid to read this thread now in case of spoilers XD;

stupid timezones make it so that the games are on when i'm at work... so i have to watch them all in a row afterwards (on the way home, blast some music and try not to look around in case i see anyone with a flag celebrating)

otherside... i agree somewhat about the stupidity of the ball... it's really to do with sponsorship... even once the ball was available, many teams did not train with it due to existing deals (england for instance has an umbro sponsorship, and trained only with umbro balls) which is pretty ridiculous IMO. it should be like motorsport, where the ball is make to exact specifications that can be duplicated by every manufacturer. or just use what the players are already used to, instead of a needless switch

which would lead me into the "behaves strangely at altitude" which is exactly right, and makes me more convinced that it was a poor choice. (again... sponsorship... adidas is probably selling tens of millions of the damned things, and if they are defective... ugh) neddie : the ball is made to be more like a solid sphere than the "patched hexagons" or whatever of a classic soccer ball... it's dimpled like a golfball to improve flight, but i have a feeling that the dimples are holding moisture from the pitch and creating unusual amounts of slippery ballage

bottom line with the ball though : "a poor carpenter blames his tools"... its not like the balls weren't available, so it's really an issue with the individual teams not adopting them for practice for various reasons

the vuvuzelas i can handle. it's just a cultural thing, it would be like telling canadians "no beer at the hockey game", or a euro "no singing at the football game" etc etc... it just harkens to the fact that africa is a strange land compared with where most of us live; they have their own customs that they want to show the world. (on the soccer show i watch daily, they have a "vuvuzela meter" that still hasnt gotten past 7.2/10 so maybe the best is yet to come)

worst world cup is fairly subjective but i can agree with you if i consider only the points you mentioned... for the japanese, it's already the best world cup ever...

almost every team is playing 4:4:2 it seems, which makes for a lot of time spent scrambling around in the midfield.

early days yet, although the games haven't been great on the most part so far i still have high hopes