The "OMG, Football World Championship in Germany!!!!" - thread

[Barkworm]

Originally Posted by Dinny

OK, well that's fair enough, but what about teams like France who deliberately get their players French citizenship just so they can play for the French national team?
Also, in Britain I read in a newspaper that a young Greek player called Masmanidis (could be mispelled) played for the German youth team and said in press conferences that he didn't want to play for Germany, but for Greece. When I see a player play for England, I want to know that he truly cares about England so that he will play to the best of his ability. If a player stated that he didn't want to play for England but for his fatherland, I wouldn't want him in an England jersey because I would feel as though he didn't care, and was taking the place of someone who may not be as talented, but has dreamed his entire life of playing for England.

I agree 100%. I'm glad Jürgen Klinsmann sees it the same way, his policy is that a player needs to have an emotional bond with Germany. We could have naturalised at least two great players in the last two years but Klinsmann disapproved of it.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by Barkworm

I agree 100%. I'm glad Jürgen Klinsmann sees it the same way, his policy is that a player needs to have an emotional bond with Germany. We could have naturalised at least two great players in the last two years but Klinsmann disapproved of it.

Who exactly?

And even Poland has its own experience with football players' naturalization.

[Barkworm]

Originally Posted by Sewer Bull

Who exactly?

Bayern's Valérien Ismaël and the infamous Ailton.
I just learned that Klose and Podolski usually talk to each other in Polish on the field but aren't allowed to do so against Poland.

[Anarky]

Hey, here's my today's estimates.

From the look at the gameplan, there's three completely WM-unrelevant games. I don't expect any of them to pass on over the next round. Mexico maybe, with luck, but the others? Naw...

Serbia - Netherlands: The Netherlands win. Serbia might be quite good, but the Netherlands will win.
Mexico - Iran: Who cares? Mexico will probably win, but nobody will give two sh*ts about it. Also, I don't expect any real good football from this match, so I'll watch it in the sports journal and not live.
Angola - Portugal: Yeah, right...

Whoever put together Group D, and be it by luck, is an idiot.

[Dinny]

Originally Posted by Anarky

Angola - Portugal: Yeah, right...

You're right that Portugal will probably win, but boy are Angola hyped for this one! Angola was a Portuguese colony and last time they played the match had to be abandoned because too many Angolan players were sent off.

About the FIFA rankings: they are the most retarded thing in world football. Mexico 5th in the world? Yeah, right... USA 6th? Ahem... Poland all the way back in 26th? WTF?

And on Olisadebe: what a legend! Before his injuries he was a fantastic player! Nominated for European Player of the Year when he was at Panathinaikos, if I'm not mistaken.

[Sewer Bull]

Serbia - The Netherlands. Not the best match I've ever seen but definitely one of the most interesting encounters so far. Arjen Robben is a fantastic player yet very selfish at the same time - the whole Dutch team could have scored a couple more goals if he had bestowed his team-mates with passing the damn ball from time to time.

And yeah - Olisadebe was awesome, he scored 11 goals in 25 international matches and was the main author of Poland's presence in Korea four years ago. We definitely lack someone like him in our forwarding line.

[Dinny]

Mexico 3 - 1 Iran

Pretty good game, but it always seemed a matter of time before Mexico would win it. Iran lacked any ingenuity besides with set pieces.

[Barkworm]

I was afraid that Iran would fall asleep in the second half.

[Sewer Bull]

Iranian performance has positively shocked me from the very beginning. I mean - I supposed they were going to be just a background for the mighty Mexicans. And hell, they weren't. They deserved a draw for the first 75 minutes of their quite good game. But after that, two terrible mistakes occured and so did the Mexican victory.

Nevertheless, that match proved that Mexico's FIFA rank is highly over-rated.

Dinny - if not by means of the FIFA ranking, then how would you like to choose the best 32 teams? Looking at their past achieviements?

[Anarky]

Okay, today was excrutiatingly boring. I will no longer watch the games live. I can waste six hours a day better with other stuff. I might watch "Dead like me again" or I could go play soccer myself.

Here's my guesses for tomorrow:

Australia - Japan: All the australian japanophiles and anime idiots can rejoice tomorrow, because "kawaii nippon senshi" will beat "Foster's mate". But on the other hand side, the anime idiots (you know the kind of people who use "kawaii" and "nani?" in real life despite not being able to stutter a complete sentence in japanese) will be disappointed, since they won't see any of the great moves seen in "Captain Tsubasa".

USA - Czech Republic: The USA will probably win that one, despite the Czechs being quite good. Too bad nobody in the USA will give two sh*ts about it, because if the USA is not the best at something, it doesn't care about it.

Italy - Ghana: You gotta be kidding me. Seriously. That's just idiotic. The poor Ghanians (Ghanans? Ghanites?) don't stand a chance against the freaking italians. They're just too strong.

[Dinny]

Originally Posted by Sewer Bull

Dinny - if not by means of the FIFA ranking, then how would you like to choose the best 32 teams? Looking at their past achieviements?

No, I just think there needs to be some room to accomodate those European teams that should be there and would be there if it weren't for geographical location. Mind you, I do enjoy the participation of teams like T & T and Senegal. The underdogs are what make the tournament more exciting, but something needs to be done about qualification. The big nations of Asia and North America have an easy job of making it to the finals every four years while better teams from Europe and to a lesser extent, South America have a much harder job. I have no idea how they would do this, and I don't expect them too, it's just a shame that the World Cup never represents the top 32 nations in the World because if they did, it would be full of European and South American teams (hardly a world affair).
I'm not sure I'd like the World Cup to change because it never fails to deliver, but I'd certainly like to see a competition held between Europe and South America where the top teams from each continent play each other (where they could find time for this, I don't know).

And Anarky - I don't see the USA getting a result against the Czech Rep.. In my opinion, the Czechs are the 3rd/4th strongest team in Europe and if they can get the sort of form they had in Euro 2004, they have a chance to win. USA would be happy with a draw in this one. USA probably won't qualify for the next round. The match between Italy and Czech Rep. will be the group decider.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by Anarky

Italy - Ghana: You gotta be kidding me. Seriously. That's just idiotic. The poor Ghanians (Ghanans? Ghanites?) don't stand a chance against the freaking italians. They're just too strong.

I wouldn't underestimate Ghana. They might steal the precious points from Italy, Czechs or the USA. However, they are going to stay in this group.

[Dinny]

Perhaps Ghana can sneak in a draw while the Italians are concentrating on matters going on in Serie A. Plus, in recent tournaments the Italians have been as disappointing as the Spaniards.

[Sewer Bull]

Angola - Portugal = BOOOOOORING!

The pleasure from watching this match was merely the same like watching England-Paraguay. Exactly the same scenario: BANG - the early goal is scored and then one of the strongest European teams starts to defend itself for the whole encounter. How... exciting.

But this match left me in some deep sadness too. Angola at least fought fiercely and with a style... unlike some European team, ranked much higher than Angola.

[Barkworm]

This championship definitely lacks surprises so far. The Portugal match felt like a re-run of the England and Netherlands match. Early goal, then boredom.

[Dinny]

The big European teams are being too cautious and are making sure they win their opening games. I expect the same to come from the Italy match today, Italy afterall are the masters of defensive play.
I thought the Netherlands - Serbia Mont'gro game was much better than England - Paraguay or Portugal - Angola. The only thing that disappointed me in the Netherlands first game was Arjen Robben's selfishness after he scored. He would never pass to team mates in better positions and he probably cost his team a goal.
And Barkworm - you're so lucky to be going to Argentina - Netherlands! That match will be incredible. Both teams need to win and have great attacking capabilities. Argentina wants revenge for France '98.

[Barkworm]

You got that wrong, I said I'd probably be going to see Argentina or the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
If my masterplan works out it'll be Germany-Argentina.

[Dinny]

Originally Posted by Barkworm

If my masterplan works out it'll be Germany-Argentina.

Germany will win the tie 7-6 at which point the world media will start to think that maybe this young, German team can win the world cup. Then they'll meet Brazil in the final and win 12-11, Owen Hargreaves making a surprise appearance for the Germans

You've got to get through England first... Although judging by our opening performance... I wouldn't worry about that too much

[Barkworm]

My guess is that we'll get Sweden instead of England since England is going to win group B.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by Barkworm

My guess is that we'll get Sweden instead of England since England is going to win group B.

Yes, but you ain't gonna win Group A, so you're going to meet England anyway.



*is overfilled with patriotism*