FOOTBALL WORLD CUP 2006 THREAD

[Felonius_Monk]

4 days to go. I'm already ruined 3 pairs of underwear with excitement.

For those of us who'll be watching, post your abuse, elation, flaming, questions, answers, excitement, commiserations, and anything else in this thread.

COME ON ENGLAND! 40 years of hurt never stopped us dreaming....

[Molina]

[Danhdan]

[Sunbob]

[droqqa]

[ale_k300]

I work at home so prolly i'm gonna watch as many games as i can.

I hope that my country ( Argentina ) will get very far in the competition

[emmasdad]

[Kuso]

[Kuso]

[NorthView]

[Felonius_Monk]

It's a tough group, the hardest in the tournament. All 4 teams are probably within the top 15 or so in the tourney so it's a bit unfair they've all been thrown in together.

I'm not so sure I'd make the USA big favourites over Ghana. Ghana looked very impressive over South Korea the other day and man for man they're actually probably a more talented team (Appiah, Essien etc.). Ghana and Ivory Coast are both fairly unimportant nations but a lot of people forget that basically all their players play in very good leagues (mostly France) and they've got one or two real world-class stars. That said I still think USA can qualify from that group, and I think there's a very strong chance one of the favourites (Czech and Italy, both of whom have a chance of winning the whole thing) will get dumped. So if you can get decent odds on either USA or Ghana to win the group or qualify I'm guessing that's where the value will be.

USA looks like a good team and for the sake of the game (and for you guys who'll be rooting for them) I really hope you do well because it could raise the profile of the game in the states. If they'd drawn a sensible group the quarter finals would be by no means beyond you, perhaps even quite likely, but that group's such a pisser it's got to reduce your chances really. I still have a sneaky feeling you might squeeze through somehow, probably at the expense of the Czechs who have simply got 4 years older without adding any new talent. It's probably the hardest group to call.

Pre-tourney I had a feeling the teams that could surprise people were Ivory Coast (first and foremost), USA, Ghana, Serbia and maybe Australia but to shit on my predictions they've ALL got rock-hard groups. Meh. USA are ranked 5th best team in the world in the official FIFA rankings, which is kinda cool , those rankings seem to throw up a lot of wierdness now and again, the Czechs were ranked no.1 at one point, and Mexico always seem to be in the top ten, both of which are ridiculous.

And I think Sunbob knows about soccer, he's just a pessimist should be English, by that rationale ....

Bring on Paraguay! England just beat Jamaica 6-0 in a friendly so i'm not too worried about Trinidad and Tobago just yet

[ToastedMoses]

I really like soccer, but don't follow it that closely. That said, from what i remember about the US performance last world cup, was that they played pretty well and outplayed the crap out of Germany despite losing 2-1 or so. Is the US this go around considered worse than the previous iteration or do they have a tougher draw or is it just the same old "americans can't play soccer worth a shit yet" sentiment?

Anyway, really looking forward to World Cup!

Actually i'll be down in Costa Rica for the like 10 days toward the start of the tournnament. Is CR even in this thing?

[NorthView]

[Kuso]

[Sunbob]