South Africa, 2010

Priene said:

Oh, you shouldn't be so hard on your boys. They do hold a World Cup record, after all.*






* record number of exits in the first round

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I like to think of it as being consistent.

waylander said:

So, any thoughts on the England squad?
I'm surprised he's not included Walcott.

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I was too. If nothing else, a striker with blazing speed can stretch defenses and keep them honest, and is a great weapon to have in reserve. It's not like England has a plethora of brilliant strikers.

Seems like they're going with David James as their #1 keeper.

rugcat said:

I was too. If nothing else, a striker with blazing speed can stretch defenses and keep them honest, and is a great weapon to have in reserve. It's not like England has a plethora of brilliant strikers.

Seems like they're going with David James as their #1 keeper.

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Walcott would have gone as a right winger, but Aaron Lennon's much the better player. The surprise is that Wright-Philips got in the squad ahead of him, but neither have done much, and Walcott's been off form for an entire year.

Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand is out of the tournament, which is the second worst thing that could happen.

Ferdinand has been poor or injured for most of the season. I'm fairly happy with Carragher as his replacement

If NL, BR or US win, I make $200!

-Not dumb enough to punt on my own country's team

I won a free trip to Melbourne* in 2006 when Italy won. I had to hid my elation at Italy's disgusting and unjust penalty defeat of Oz in the semis, lest I get murdered in the streets.


*2nd prize: two free trips to Melbourne

My English mother's prediction:

Rooney will be the subject of a) a concerted hack n slash effort designed to break one or both of his legs or b) an orchestrated campaign of diving in order to get him sent off and disqualified.

The World Cup fixture wheel. A fine piece of software.

Hmmmm, not a fast-moving thread, this one. Still, the great day is nearly upon us. My predictions for tomorrow:

Mexico 2 South Africa 0

Mexico are, of course, the perennial underachieving softies of Latin American football with a dodgy defence and a growing inferiority complex towards their northern neighbours. South Africa as hosts should do better than expected, but they have a weakness in one position -- the pitch -- and I have a feeling the vuvulayas may honk in vain.

Uruguay 1 France 1

France have a coach who uses astrology to pick his defence, and Uruguay's previous forays in the finals have highlighted their national love for kicking lumps out of the oppositino. A draw which won't be pretty, but may be entertaining.

AHA! I knew I'd find a World Cup thread if I looked hard enough. An excellent opener which hopefully is a good sign of things to come. The stage is set now though for France to dominate the group.

The big event though is tomorrows game between England and the USA. Any thoughts on that one?

Priene said:

I have unresolved hatred issues with the England players stemming from the fiasco of hubris and incompetence that was Germany 2006. Frank Lampart actually he said he thought they were the golden generation. If you're going to come up with absurd boasting, at least win something first. At least reach a semi-final, for god's sake.

(And you should see how I sledge the opposition).



Hey, that's England's position. Unless...

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Sadly it goes back further than that. The only tournament I feel we truly acquitted ourselves was Italia 90. What a heartbreaker that was. If we could have gotten past Germany we might have won the cup. Then for USA 94 we didn't even qualify. France 98 was the year Beckham made himself look a complete ass. 02 we collapsed against Brazil. And don't even get me started on the Germany 06 tournament. What the hell happened to them? We didn't play well at all until the Portugal game which, ironically, we then lost. I just hope we can turn things around this time round. At least heat won't be an issue.

It goes back even further. We weren't bad in 1986 once Butch Wilkins got himself sent off. 1982 wasn't so bad, if you can forgive Kevin Keegan's pathetic missed header against Spain. The two failed qualifications in the seventies were awful. Coming second against Italy was understandable, but the England-Poland game was a fiasco. Then there was our collapse against West Germany in 1970...I was only four at the time, but nobody ever forgave Peter "The Cat" Bonetti.

But 2006 was the worst of the lot, simply because of the self-entitlement those players had. They genuinely thought they deserved to win the World Cup. I think maybe too earning much money erodes your capacity for self-analysis.

France 0 Uruguay 0
Poor game, neither side looked threatening going forward. France had marginally the better chances but neither side looks like a contender

It's on baby! England Vs USA. England are going to win. We're off to a bar in the city to watch it!

Well Greece aren't going to win it!

S. Korea 2 Greece 0

The world cup summed up in one image:

Man, I'm telling you. I HATE having to mute a sporting event but that attack of killer bees that keeps threatening to overtake the stadium is driving me crazy.

Good lord.

Robert Green - AAAAARGH!

Just not good enough.
Didn't create enough chances; Heskey missed the best one
Joe Hart in goal for the next match

mscelina said:

Man, I'm telling you. I HATE having to mute a sporting event but that attack of killer bees that keeps threatening to overtake the stadium is driving me crazy.

Good lord.

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I keep thinking it's the opening bit to Welcome to the Jungle. Then, I wonder why there's a hockey game about to start...

*snicker*

Alas, hockey is done for the year. Almost time for college football though. Whaddaya think, Rob--Miami and Florida State to the SEC?