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Originally posted by Punkcow:

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Originally posted by Imprezu21:
compare the germany game with 6 goals to the sweden game with zero?personally i think they are the 2 best matches so far.

I can't see why you liked the German match that much? The goals were only caused by the horrible defense skills of both teams. My fave match by far until now was Argentina - Ivory Coast. The technic skills of Argentina are amazing and they were playing with a sort of relaxed attitude. Ivory Coast are a good team too.

Unfortunatly the "wrong" teams of Africa qualified for the World Cup. E.g. Nigeria and Senegal would be much more interesting than Angola or Togo.

i was usingthe german game more as an example to show how high and low scoring games can be entertaining. i personally was more excited about the game because it was the first, overall the game was ok, i liked the goals by wanchup (sp?) but yes both defenses where horrendous, and lehman is a big baby.

i would have liked to see cameroon in it over ivory coast.i like ivory coast but they seemed lackadsical in their match, no one was filling holes they where all relying on drogba...although scoring a nice goal towArds the end.you could tell he was absoluyely drained, often times being the lone man in the box with multiple defenders on him.
i hope they figure a way to get some more shots on goal, and more people attacing the defense.

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Unfortunatly the "wrong" teams of Africa qualified for the World Cup. E.g. Nigeria and Senegal would be much more interesting than Angola or Togo.

Yeah. How did Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, not qualify, but a tiny little place like Togo did?

If the African teams don't do so well this year, they'll have a much better chance in 2010 when they have home court advantage.

Bye-Bye USA, you won't enslave the football (sic!) - world.

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Originally posted by Punkcow:
Bye-Bye USA, you won't enslave the football (sic!) - world.

yeah we shall see, i am curious to watch italy play today to see what we are up against next.if we can put a strong win on them it is far from over.

today was horrendous though, we looked like we didnt even belong in the cup.silly mistakes, passing backwards all game.no forward momentum.

hoping ghana and italy tie somehow.

As someone who played soccer (football) all his life, through high school and into college, I'm embarassed by how little attention I pay to the sport now. But I've been watching the games over the weekend rabidly, and I really enjoyed them. I didn't see any of today's games because I'm in my office, but the Iran/Mexico game was really riveting, as was the England/Paraguay game. It really makes me want to go kick a ball around again....

Does anybody know if the "England" team includes folks from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc? Or do they field their own teams, and just failed to qualify?

Ireland, Scotland, and Wales all field national teams although, only Ireland is known for occasional success. The other two are seeded rather low in the world rankings.

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Bye-Bye USA, you won't enslave the football (sic!) - world.

I take no offense to this but; I do have pride in our team. The amazing thin about Soccer (Futbol) in America is the fact that we field a competitive team in the first place. Like I said before, I like our underdog status and would be thoroughly bored with US domination on a global scale. If young Americans didn't have 30+ other sports to turn their attention to, we most definitely would dominate the World Cup. Imagine a starting lineup that included Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Kidd, Chris Drury, and Tiger Woods. If soccer was the only option in this country, I'd imagine that we would churn out a pretty damn good national team.

I am almost positive Ireland and Scotland have their own teams; as for Wales, I'm not sure. I don't really follow soccer that much, but for some reason the World Cup absolutely captivates me. I glance at the European standings throughout the year, but never really follow it very closely. There is something about the spectacle that is irresistible. I'm cheering for the USA, but before the tournament started, I picked the Czech Republic to win it. So far so good!

i honeslty dont see USA getting out of the fist stage, after seeing italy, i can almost guarantee it is going to be italy and the cheks coming out.

there are numerous teams that i love to watch during the cup, sweden, portugal, italy, netherlands.and of course france...

if france had cissee they would be my pick.

yeah i cant help but be captivated by henry, the way he kind of floats around the field.i watched numerous arsenal games in this years premiership, and was totally impressed.wait to see him play for france, i dont think they will win it again this year, but he is a joy to watch.

u may say ronaldhino is the best indavidual player, and he may be...but he is too indavidual for me.i like how henry sets up his mates and plays an all around good game.
not to say ronnie is bad, but i prefer henry.



rooting for the underdogs and newbies to have a good showing though, no huge blowouts and good hard fought close games.

cant wait, france and then brazil.
i will be seated for 180 minutes plus stoppage time !!!

Am I the only one from England here? For those of you that said football is like a cult, you're certainly correct. I'd love to post a picture of the town center here, but for anyone that saw the crowd on the England match a few days back will get the idea - it's insane. People were still blowing air horns and screaming "ONE - ZERO!" long into the night. It's strange, because - unlike the states - England tends not to display it's flag locally too much (you normally don't see it on houses and cars). But over the past few weeks, everything here has had a flag attached to it.

I normally don't watch it, but like the others said, there's something very special about the world cup. I'm almost worried what'll happen if we keep winning - English football hooliganism isn't just a stereotype, it's a weirdly real part of life anywhere in the country...

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cant wait, france and then brazil.
i will be seated for 180 minutes plus stoppage time !!!

Dammit, Croatia came so close! I'm glad Switzerland held off France though, so at least some good came from today.

I hope Tunisia wins tomorrow, the continent of Africa is 0-4-0 so far

England vs. Sweden will be a good game.

saudi vs. tunisia

a helluva match.
i thought it was gonna be 1-1 really the way it was going.then the saudis brought in the superstar veteran, man looks like hes 45 and he scores a goal !!

then tunisia comes back and scores in stoppage time for a tie...yikes what a match !!

ecuador?

who says they cant play below 9000 ft now??

It'd be huge for their (Ecuador) confidence if they can beat Germany in the next match! That's what the World Cup is all about!

It's a long shot, but if Trinidad & Tobago beats Paraguay and England beats Sweden, T&T might get to the next round on point differential.

I missed England vs. T&T today...damn

argentina's going to the finals.

Yeah, viva Argentinia!

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Originally posted by Imprezu21:
argentina's going to the finals.

That was an embaraasing domination of Serbia. I'd agree with you that they are Finals-bound.

My wife is glowing. The amazing thing is that Tevez and Messi (the future greats) both scored off the bench. I spent a month in Argentina earlier this year and all I heard was those two names. Crespo is already a renowned sniper and this team looks good: really good. Maybe they will beat England in the final and avenge the Falklands.

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Originally posted by P-Bo:
My wife is glowing. The amazing thing is that Tevez and Messi (the future greats) both scored off the bench. I spent a month in Argentina earlier this year and all I heard was those two names. Crespo is already a renowned sniper and this team looks good: really good. Maybe they will beat England in the final and avenge the Falklands.

i would be surprised if england makes it, seeing as they will have to face germany or ecuador. right now ecuador is scary...plus englad has barely eeked out a victory against two mediocre teams.

ecuador vs. germanys gonna be a big game.