World Cup 2010

Ive only been able to see some part fo South Africa-Mexico (the first goal was sweet) and second half of England vs USA. USA did really well and I think they will go through. England looked a bit clueless when they couldnt get past midfield thru USAs amazingly organised defense. Id be more worried about that than the fluke goal (although it was purely a goalie error) That was really nice to see USA play so well as a team, and not so nice to see England fail as a team.

South Africa will prolly go through, the home advantage is a big thing in the big tournies, has always been.

ps. Good luck Australia

 

I bet Italy is going to lose to Paraguay. they always do that, at the beginning of every turnament, they go in as if they already won the match and get their arse kicked.

 

I am happy that the US at least tied England, I was concerned when England scored in the first few minutes. It shouldn't too hard for us the rest of the way at least in our group anyway

 

The noise of those Vuvuzela even just on the TV is starting to get annoying; other nations should hire bagpipe players to overpower that din with a proper tune

The games have looked good so far in HD(on BBC at least), although the England game was a complete fail by ITV HD.

They cut to a Hyudai advert just before Gerrard's goal (so we all missed that goal live) and then they dropped the coverage on HD down to SD (on FreeSatHD for the 2nd half of the game); no apology or explanation which was very irritating.

The England, Usa game had quite a few decent performances by player on both teams; Heskey, Howard, Gerrard and Cherundolo possible being the best on display I saw.

Cherundolo's attacking success against Milner got him withdrawn after 25mins was notable, as was Cherundolo getting booked against the initial threat of Wright-Philip's in his place.

Everyone made a big thing about Altidore skipping past Carragher to nearly win the game, but in all fairness, the replay shows that he and Terry worked well to show the player a small (near post) target that Green had covered; goalkeepers shouldn't get beat at their near post too often.

In this tournament I think some of the smaller/newer footballing nations are going to establish themselves as serious contenders; one of the teams like Japan, South Korea, Australia, USA or Ivory Coast might be able to push on from their previous improvements and become an established top team in the world.

I guess we'll all know more when Germany, Spain, Brazil & the Netherlands have had a game, but the early signs suggest that traditional footballing countries aren't going to have any easy games.

 

I think England's problem (and has been for a long time) is that we think we are too good, on paper we should be one of the best, but meh. USA are a good side, they said on the commentary they were runners up in the confederations cup only behind brazil (they even knocked out Spain, the European champions out!). I'd say that was the hardest match in the group for both sides.

looking forward to seeing the Netherlands, Spain & Portugal play.

I'll also be rooting for Australia

 

Brazil has always been an awesome team. But back in the 90's they were Insane and in their on category. Nowadays brazil is just an everyday awesome team thats actually beatable

 

What, you're not going with North Korea for the second spot in Group G? One of their strikers was convinced that they'd be going through.

As for the England game, firstly, I knew everyone would underestimate the US. They're an improving side and because on paper, England are the superior side, in the game, I felt that the US were much better overall. With regards to Green's cockup, I was just waiting for the game with the moment where I could repeat this line.

Also, I'm convinced I just heard the Spanish commentators in the Serbia/Ghana match insult England, as one of them said:

"*Lots of Spanish* Robert Green *More Spanish*"

They also keep saying random players' names at times and there's a guy who looks like Mario hosting it.

And yes, those horns are REALLY annoying.

 

i Wager Brazil wins hands down. Ghana already won against Serbia

 

70 minutes into Germany vs Australia and my guess is Myke has now left the theatre.

 

To quote a newspaper and a book:

1. In the eve of tournament England is certain of victory
2. England faces an old archenemy and loses
3. England believes they got incredibly unlucky
4. England thinks the others might be cheating
5. England realizes they dropped from tournament without even getting close to victory
6. Englands life goes on
7. England finds someone to blame
8. England prepares for next tournament certain of victory

Dont kill me

 

England goes into a depression after they get put out.

 

Nah Manji, England can be summed up in one statement:

England believes that they should be granted a free pass to the finals because they are the side of the country that "gave" football to the world, but because they don't get one, they squeeze through on unimpressive performances because they're not as good as everyone says because they're too busy beating up DJs or cheating on their wives or taking drugs or crashing their retardedly expensive cars because all they are is a bunch of overpaid tossers.

Still, it's the World Cup, and I've got to be patriotic, so go you gallant and brave boys! Do our country proud!

 

My main problem for the England team can be isolated to one constant that has never lost money and has never changed its' tune; the British tabloid (gutter) press.

While they remain in business, controlling the opinion of the mindless masses through pornography on page 3 and sports gossip on the back pages, the England team will struggle to be a good international team.

England players are excellent; capitalist competitions such as the Champions' league/Premier League show that they are more valuable to their clubs/companies than cheaper players; so the fact those other players do better on the (semi-amateur) international stage always feels strange.

The advert the Sun is currently doing has likely jinxed an England world cup win already; showing a second star above the badge before a ball had even been kicked.

Personally I was hoping the England fans in SA were going to adopt Geraldine's(Commedian Peter Kay's) “My Winner's song” as an anthem.

 

This, and Ash post, are both good explanations and I agree with you guys. But one other thing to consider is that despite the English players being good, not many of them ever play abroad. I understand it's because the money is better in UK, but my point is, there isnt anybody THAT good to the point that real madrid or barcelona wants them (Beckham, ok, but it's arguable whether he is that great, or just help t-shirts sales). English players should forget about money for a bit and try to become european stars, maybe it could help winning european and world cups.

 

Man, Australia got owned by Germany.

 

^I feel bad for Australia, but they're lucky it wasn't 6-0 instead. That red card was a terrible call too.

That said, viel glück die Manschaft! Woooo! Let's go Germany! Man I hope they can keep that offensive flow and pressure up when they go against teams better known for their defense. It was scary how well they were playing on offense.

EDIT: Also I have a question, when looking up teams I sometimes see the stat "Caps" or "Most Caps". What exactly are 'caps'?