FIFA: Germany 2006

[Winged Dancer]

Now... aside from money... Croatia, England or Germany should win. I want a Latin team to win... but Im kinda sick of both Argentina and Brazil... out of those two... only Mexico and... well... bleh to my own team...

Oh yeah... I hope USA get eliminated on the first round

I can't stand Argentina - try being in a bus full of 'em for three hours and I swear to God you'll want to kill anyone who says "sho" instead of "yo". I didn't watch the last friendly matches we had but I know from my brother that we either sucked or we were experimenting with the team formations.

All that aside...

Your last line is wisdom. Complete, and absolute wisdom that has nothing to do with us being Mexican. So there.

[DB_Hunter]

Well half an hour till the first match kicks off and then we will be on our way. I hope its a good world cup, last time the the final was boring because everyone knew that Brazil was going to win that... Germany have been a great team over the years but last time round they sucked and it was amazing that they got to the final. Anyways lets see hwot hey do against Costa Rica now. I reckon a convincing win, anything less and you can forget the Germans for this world cup, even if they do end up in the final again.

[Edort4]

Well here we go. 3 goals in 18 minutes this is fun. Today we can see how the referee are going to do their jobs.

Its very important to see what kind of arbitration they are going to do, if they are going to punish hard game and destructive players or not. I dont like faulty teams (italy, germany) and I love creative game (brasil for example) but usually referee let defenders to use excesive force to cut the game.

[DB_Hunter]

The Germans arn't really being tested... they have too much space. Costa Rica are playing too narrow and Germany are taking advantage by attacking down the right flank and using their width. Despite the goals I am not convinced of Germany's chances so far.

[Psyke]

Been a while since we've had a high scoring 1st game. Anyway I'm already looking forward to England's match tomorrow. *need sleep*

[DB_Hunter]

Yep England's game should be good tomorrow. Steven Gerrard should be fit for the game so England should have some attacking teeth.

On another note if England meet Germany in the next round I think Germany will lose. England have a very good defense, and with the suspect German one it shouldn't be too difficult to get some goals. It remains to be seen what impact Michael Ballack will have for the Germans, but at the back they won't last long.

[Splash!]

Poland's loss to ecuador was harsh. Maybe 1-0 would have been alrite, but the second goal was just a little too much, i dont think Poland deserved to lose that bad. They did press on hard in the second half, but i guess luck wasnt with them, with two shots hitting the cross bar. Also i think Ecuador did a very good job defending. In the second half, it seems Poland forgot to pay attention to their defense and one counter attack was enough for Ecuador to score the second goal and bag the game. ALot of time hogging from the Ecuadorians in the second with a yellow card shown for wasting time.

@Edort4: What do you mean by a 'faulty' team?

Edit: [DOWN] I don't know CK, i think Italy has a really strong team this time around and they have been sizzling in the friendly's, not that those mean anything. But still keep in mind this Italian is nothing like the team from Euro 2004 or from the last world cup. They are all players that have been in really good form this year.

[ChaosK]

I guess the result of Germany vs Costa was expected...

Czech will elimate Italy

[RyougaZell]

I can't stand Argentina - try being in a bus full of 'em for three hours and I swear to God you'll want to kill anyone who says "sho" instead of "yo". I didn't watch the last friendly matches we had but I know from my brother that we either sucked or we were experimenting with the team formations.

All that aside...

Your last line is wisdom. Complete, and absolute wisdom that has nothing to do with us being Mexican. So there.

I have several argentinan friends at work. They are nice people. But true, most of them are very arrogant... at least I got nice ones.

And yeah... last line is pure wisdom

We have no internet at work , so we had to rely on those people that had a radio... but with all the systems they are barely audible...


PS: Donovan sux big time.

[Psyke]

Argh! Can't believe how badly England played against Paraguay..... This despite all the hype that they're the best England squad in recent years and that they can go all the way this time. They've played so badly I'm not even sure if they can make it to the last 16.

[Swallow Your Soul]

We (England) were good in the first half but terrible in the 2nd half today. Eriksson's fault imo, he takes off Owen and leaves us kicking balls up to Crouch but with no-one to pick up the flick ons...our manager is famous over here for making insane substitutions and he carried on today...realistically though the result is all that matters so its all good.

Obviously I want England to win and I do think we've got the best team since I've been following football though taking only three main strikers plus Theo Walcott could mess us up big time (as was shown today - we take off one striker and had no-one suitable to replace him with). We just have to hope Rooney is fully recovered by the end of the group stage (assuming we pass it).

Brazil will probably win it in the end, along with yet another devastating way for England to go out as per usual...I can't see Italy or Germany doing it, and I don't think the World Cup will be as unpredictable as the Euro Championships where teams like Greece and (in the past) Denmark have a chance of winning.

Hopefully the Swedish and Argie games will be good as the games haven't been very entertaining so far...

Argh! Can't believe how badly England played against Paraguay..... This despite all the hype that they're the best England squad in recent years and that they can go all the way this time. They've played so badly I'm not even sure if they can make it to the last 16.

Don't worry about that, its pretty rare for us to even WIN the first game let alone play well - we never do things the easy way...I reckon we should be ok but I'm a bit worried our players might bottle it when they're under pressure against a big team...

[PSJ]

Sweden's game was a huge disappiontment. We had all the chances but never scored. The coach's fault for not doing the substitutions in time.

[darkmetal505]

Iran vs Mexico tommorow. Thats one I'll definetly watch.

[DB_Hunter]

My days Sven Goran Eriksson is a complete prat for what he did in the second half. Clearly he does not have confidence in Theo Walcott, seeing as how he wasn't brought on and Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard were made to try and be support strikers. Crouch is completely useless, he can't do anything by himself up front except intercept the long ball, and even then he has trouble.

I think the first half was OK to good. Though the team were citing the 30C heat as an issue I think it was poor tactics by the manager. He was trying to replicate an Italian style of football... English football is typically more attacking than what he was trying to do in the second half, which is why the team were all over the place. I most certainly don't think that England will win the World Cup if this keeps up, never mind all the talk about how its a good omen that England have one their first game, which is rare. Omens mean jack all.

The only hope England have is that Rooney is match fit ASAP and he starts to introduce some creativity in the team. That and Eriksson stops mucking around with the formation so much in the middle of a match... it simply breaks the flow of the game.

[RyougaZell]

First half of Mexico vs Iran was equally matched.
Mexico scored first, but when Iran tied, they grew. Iran played good in the first half, but bad in the 2nd.
LaVolpe's changes, Kikin for Borguetti, Luis Perez for Guille, and Sinha for Torrado worked nicely.
At times I got worried, but at the end we won. Great victory, and Iran... wow... never expected that kind of team... but well... before today I never saw them play.

[Swallow Your Soul]

Sven seems to like playing that kind of football though, which doesn't play to our strengths at all. I'm gutted we're replacing him with McClaren though, Allardyce would have been better (even though Boro jammily made the UEFA finals I don't rate him or the job he has done there at all).

I'm not a big fan of Crouch but I think he's been alright so far, he didn't stand a chance in the 2nd half considering people were just lumping high balls to him and he had no-one to head them to...he's got good close control and when he's playing well he can score a few goals...still can't see why we didn't take Bent or Defoe as well though. As for the bad players, I hate to join the Hargreaves bandwagon but I really can't see what he adds to the squad.

I don't think its a good omen that we won, I was just relieved that we did despite playing badly because we never start well, and a mark of good teams is that they win even when they play badly sometimes (eg, Arsenal play gorgeous football and don't win much, whereas often the red filth and Chelsea often have bad games but almost always win).

I still think we will be decent enough when we get going - we're fine from the keeper to the midfield, the main problem will be scoring as we only seem to be able to score from set pieces - hopefully Becks doesn't get injured and now we're in a comfortable position in the group so its less likely that we'll need to rush potato head back.

[Winged Dancer]

Yay, we won!

We could've played better but we won, that's good enough...

3-1, too.

Hey Ryouga, didja see in today's newspapers the cadidates predictions for the game? Seems that the Peje was the closest. I wonder if that means he'll win come July....

[RyougaZell]

Yay, we won!

We could've played better but we won, that's good enough...

3-1, too.

Hey Ryouga, didja see in today's newspapers the cadidates predictions for the game? Seems that the Peje was the closest. I wonder if that means he'll win come July....

We don't buy the newspaper at home. And I kinda woke up 10 minutes before the game

I hope Peje doesn't win.

Portugal almost made the fastest goal on a World Cup, but they missed. If they had scored it would had been at 12 seconds...

[gr3atfull]

First half of Mexico vs Iran was equally matched.
Mexico scored first, but when Iran tied, they grew. Iran played good in the first half, but bad in the 2nd.
LaVolpe's changes, Kikin for Borguetti, Luis Perez for Guille, and Sinha for Torrado worked nicely.
At times I got worried, but at the end we won. Great victory, and Iran... wow... never expected that kind of team... but well... before today I never saw them play.

That game was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I loved it. Both teams were great. I cant believe the goalkeeper made a mistake in the end of the second half! I loved the fist goal Mexico did. I was really well done. Mexico deserved the win of today. Iran played well, but wasnt the best game they played. Oh well, they will play better on the 17th against Portugal.

[Splash!]

Speaking of Portugal, their game against Angola was extremely boring. The first ten minutes of the game were rather exciting but after that goal by Pauletta and a few good plays by Figo and Ronaldo, it seems that portugal didnt care about playing well anymore. Their heart really wasnt in the game. Although they won, i dont see the Portuguese getting far in the tournament if they play like they did today.

The Dutch Game was a really good one despite the lack of goals. It shows that Group C really is the Group of Death. Serbia and Montegro seem to be a really strong team and they have had an amazing qualifying run. Also, judging from yesterday's match, we can clearly see that even the Ivorians are a team to be reckoned with as well.