[RdTv]

Germany is looking very weak. It seems like thew were taken into the barn all year in the friendlys they played....

[o o o]

Anelka must be driving mad now...

anyway, things could be interesting with Ribéry...

 

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

I don't know why people think France is such a threat?

I think the fact the African teams look poor on paper is why they will perform so well.

[pokkeherrie]

well, france has still some world-class players. admittedly some of them are past it, but i definitely rank them among the 4-5 teams having a chance of winning it: brazil, italy, france, germany, argentina...
hopefully henry will finally live up to his status on a big tournament. for some reason he's usually never that impressive for france as he can be for arsenal.

i would never rule out germany's chances either, no matter how bad they may look. they can grow into a tournament like no other team can and never have to rely on 1-2 individual key-players performing well.

holland's squad has been announced yesterday and i'm somewhat disappointed klaas jan huntelaar hasn't made the definitive selection. the boy is in great form and was this season's topscorer of the dutch league with 33 goals in 34 games, despite moving clubs halfway the season. but alas, van basten doesn't want to take 4 central strikers and prefers beanpole vennegoor of hesselink (in a way he's the dutch version of england's crouch ) as pinch-hitter. such a pity. there's not a real right-winger in the squad either.

on the positive side, i think holland's chances at the european under-21 championship have now dramatically increased with huntelaar going there instead of the world cup.

[space_monkey]

this will happend in group F :
CROATIA - BRASIL 2-2
CROATIA- JAPAN 2-1
CROATIA - AUSTRALIA 3-0
------------------------------
BRASIL-JAPAN 2-0
BRASIL - AUSTRALIA 4-0
----------------------------------
AUSTRALIA-JAPAN 1-1

[o o o]

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060508/1/6pzk.html

what is the most ridiculous, horrible of these bus slogans?

i think that "Liberté, Egalité, Jules Rimet" could take the prize...

then i don't know what to think of "2006, it's Swiss o'clock"... oh and Costa Rica's slightly militaristic "Our army is the team, our weapon is the ball. Let's go to Germany and give it our all" is quite noticeable too...

[Hip Priest]

'2006, it's Swiss o'clock'.

That's bad.

'Vehicle monitored by 180 million Brazilian hearts'.

That's even worse.

Trying to spot a good one.

edit: 'Oranje on the road to gold' isn't too bad at all.

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

AHAH Those are all pretty lame.

Some much worse than others. I like this one: Trinidad and Tobago - "Here come the Soca Warriors – the fighting spirit of the Caribbean"

Very to the point. JUST 23 DAYS GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

Also!

Who do you guys like in tomorrows final????

[soupisgoodfood]

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaasil

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

I read this morning Rooney will only miss the Paraguay and T&T games. Though I realize he's a bit of an ass, this must be good news for England.

[Hip Priest]

Sven Unveils England Masterplan

At a press conference today, England manager Sven Goran Eriksson revealed for the first time the reasoning behind his selection of strikers for next month's World Cup.

"It's a simple matter of being prepared", he commented. "With the four strikers we are taking, we will always have a ready excuse for crashing out of the tournament in the quarter finals".

Sven elaborated: "everyone knows that Crouch is only there because I think he looks funny - he might score, sure, but not more than one goal. We expect that one goal to be against Trinidad and Tobago, when we are three-nil up anyway".

"We couldn't use the 'Beckham is injured' excuse this time, as we've used that at the past two major tournaments, so I have switched the target of the 'injured' excuse, to not one but two people. 'Owen and Rooney were injured' is going to be my main excuse for this tournament. I've been practising it in training, so I should be able to deploy it accurately as soon as I get the chance".

On the surprise inclusion of teenager Theo Walcott, who has famously never kicked a football, Sven added: "Walcott is my stroke of genius - if he scores a few, I'll be able tp make out I'm a great talent-spotter, and if he fails then the blame for our early departure can be directed at him rather than myself."

Asked why he is so prepared to throw away England's chances of winnning the World Cup, Sven said "basically, I don't give a f***. also I haven't got a clue, which doesn't help. I'm getting my millions either way, so whatever happens I'll be f***ing off to Italy to spend the rest of my life sunbathing - I will positively glow with smugness. I've f***ing struck it lucky coming to England, and I don't mind saying it; I wasn't really a manager anywhere else - I'm a paperclip salesman, with Sweden's fifth biggest paperclip manufacturer. I just faked my c.v. and put on a pair of glasses to make the F.A. think I looked clever. It was a piece of p*** too, I can tell you. The F.A. must be dumb as s***".

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

Asked why he is so prepared to throw away England's chances of winnning the World Cup, Sven said "basically, I don't give a f***. also I haven't got a clue, which doesn't help. I'm getting my millions either way: whatever happens, I will be able to f*** of to Italy and spend the rest of my life sunbathing. I will positively glow with smugness. I've f***ing struck it lucky coming to England. I wasn't really a manager anywhere else - I'm a paperclip salesman, with Sweden's fifth biggest paperclip manufacturer. I just faked my c.v. and put on a pair of glasses to make the F.A. think I looked clever. It was a piece of p*** too, I can tell you. The F.A. must be dumb as s***".

Thats funny. The problem lies with Sven, then? (...)

By the way, what is that from?

[Hip Priest]

I just made it up.

The problem lies with Sven, and his selction of strikers. I actually think Walcott is a good move, but there's a chance that he's going to be under phenomenal pressure - both Owen and Rooney may be unable to play and Crouch can't be relied upon to score many (although he's OK). That may leave a 17 year-old who's never played a single top-flight game with sole striking responsibilities, which is risky.

The unknown young genius ploy can work, but surely it needs back-up?

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

Very good, sounds like something The Onion would write up.

I've never heard of this Walcott, but Crouch (as you've said) is decent. The good thing is, I don't think England will need many goals to get out of the group. And hope Owen and Rooney are fit for a potential second round match.

EDIT: Potential second round game could be scary.....

[Hip Priest]

Thanks mate.

Yeah, England's group is about as easy as you could want. In England, there's a football saying 'there are no easy games in football'. But it's a lie - there are easy games, and we have two of them with Trinidad and Tobago and Paraguay.

But what happens when we're in the second round? It would be great if Walcott were to shine, and indeed he might, but it's just so dodgy. Only four strikers, and two of them are injured...

I'm looking forward to group D, with Mexico, Iran, Angola and Portugal. There's a nice range of ability, style and geography in that group.

I'm also looking forward to group H - I want Ukraine and Tunisia to go through at Spain's expense too. Ukraine were fantastic in qualifying - the first team to qualify from any European group, and I think they may do OK. They may fail miserably, though.

[Hip Priest]

Quite good official World Cup site here

[krastian]

Let's get the show on the road!!!

[Mudride]

Argentina will kick everyone asses !

[Hip Priest]

That's what I've been saying for the past few years, although Netherlands have a very good team too. It'll be good to see the two play each other in the first round.

Argentina have by far the best man-for-man squad, and when they play well they are stunning.