" Upsetting " World Cup

[JohnIII]

Nu-uh. We are still the strongest footballing continent by a mile. So France, England, and Portugal are going out, maybe. What about Spain, Italy, Germany, and Turkey?

[War4ever]

go germans go.....hehe

[Immortal Wombat]

Considering that Japan and Korea are the host nations, and Portugal are very inconsistant, the only big surprise result is Senegal-France.
The USA winning was surprising, but not as much. And as JohnIII said, we'll still have more countries in the knock-out stage than any other continent

[Imran Siddiqui]

Nu-uh. We are still the strongest footballing continent by a mile.

Didn't say that. Said you are falling in power respective to the other nations in the world. I mean, you can't say you are gaining in power respectively!

[Mr. President]

It's true that more than 50% of South American teams qualified for the World Cup. That's because they're good. Are Slovenia, objectively, good enough to be there? Or Croatia? Talk about makeweights. England even are rather borderline, and I'm not convinced that Portugal aren't overrated after that performance they put on last night.

Even Ecuador played exciting football when they had the leather at their feet. What did we get from Sweden? Long ball, long ball. Let's face it, folks; this is not 1950, and Hidegkuti is long dead.

[The Rusty Gamer]

THIS IS THE WORLD CUP OF THE UNDERDOGS!

Don't you just love the underdogs, and it would be one of the few sports where USA are considered underdogs.

Even if these underdog teams eventually lose, they'll at least leave with their heads held high, with the exception of Saudi Arabia perhaps.

[tniem]

Originally posted by Arrian
Hopefully, they'll win a little bit more, and people will start to take an interest in soccer. It's a great sport... much more so than some others which dominate over here.

Agreed. Got very little sleep last night as I woke up early to watch the game. Man was it good for the American team after the embarassment of France '98. I hope that if the US can win one more game, maybe, just maybe there will be some buzz when the US enters the second round. Hopefully it will allow the slowly mounting American soccer experience to continue.

[SnowFire]

Korea 2 Poland 0

This is an upset?!

I have to admit, I was shocked seeing how many people were predicting Portugal for that group in the World Cup thread. Not having followed soccer this year, there IS one thing I do know: that the home team traditionally does way better than it should in the Cup. I mean, look at how often the home team has won. Not to mention times that the home team did better than expected, like Chile getting to the finals when the Cup was held there, or the USA getting past the qualifying rounds to be beaten by Brazil when it was held here in '94.

So looking at the Portugal/USA/South Korea/Poland matchup, I immediately gave at least 50% chance that South Korea would win the division. I'd say that they still have my vote: I think that the US team is in trouble when they play South Korea next. But I wouldn't be surprised if they win their division and advance well. I wouldn't be surprised at Japan doing well, too.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
And as JohnIII said, we'll still have more countries in the knock-out stage than any other continent

That's because Europe grabs 15 slots out of 32. You're just reiterating an unfairness

[Ecthy]

The 1-1 against Ireland was more than embarassing.

And before you ask: both of them.

[Space05us]

You Europeans are just too scared to admit that us Americans and Asians arekicking your arses at your own game!

[Dauphin]

There should be eight more spots available, and at least seven should go to European sides.

Eight groups of five with top two qualifying would be good.

In the qualifying stages they could also widen the inter-confederation play. Have all "playoff teams" play a team from another confederation - same way Ireland played Iran and Uruguay played Australia.

[Kropotkin]

true, underdogs have been winning a lot but who says that it could not as well has been European underdogs doing that? Even a poor team like holland can do that.

I have to admit (as I'm one of those complaining) that Africa has done well (but I've never questioned their presence like some other though) and also Costa rica, Mexico and also the US. Even if I don't think any of them will get futher than the second round.

The asian teams are still not good enough though. Winning at home in a competition like this is common. All host countries have done good in history. Japan and Korea are not any different. Asia can have two places but considering the quality of the two teams that qualified the normal way i can't see why they should get any more, they have been appaling.

[Kropotkin]

i might add that although i don't think other parts of the world needs more places I'm happy about all those "upsets" (or most of them). Nothing wrong with that. A predictable tournament is a boring tournament.

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
The only undefeated conference in this year's World Cup so far is CONCACAF, which is 3-0 (Mexico, Costa Rica, US). Shouldn't we get an extra spot from the Europeans?

no,
your conference should delegate 1 team at most. three is too much. also, take one team from asia and hand it over to africa