World Football Thread VI

[Dauphin]

Anyone got a site for doing what-ifs yet?

(I could do it manually but I'm feeling Italian)

[Fidel]

unfortunately we could not get into english group. england was, alongside mexico and spain, one of the easiest seeds.

[Dauphin]

England seem to do better against good teams than mediocre teams, so from Serbia's perspective you're probably right.

[Fidel]

yeah, that is my point. argentina also tend to flop against mid-level teams. if i recall correctly, they were out of 98 cup pretty quickly...
anyway, it will be fun.

[Barnabas]

they lost to the netherlands in 1998, but they went rather far I think

it was a good match 3-2 if I recall correctly

[Dauphin]

In '98 Argentina beat England on penalties in one of the most interesting games of those finals. They then lost to the Netherlands in the Quarters.

In '02 England and Sweden dumped Argentina out in the group stage.

[Imran Siddiqui]

One phrase comes to mind as I think again on the US's pairing... SONS OF *****ES!

It'll be very tough to break through against Italy or Czech Republic. We have to hope for a win against either of the two, or a draw, and then try to outscore Italy.

[Dauphin]

Time for predictions?

A few tough choices, but thought a couple of 'upsets' may be in the offing, but nothing shocking like Togo reaching the Quarters.

[Fidel]

us group is probably the second toughest. even worse, team that finishes second faces brazil.

[Dauphin]

BBC has woken up, if you are interested visit here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/shared/spl/hi/predictor/html/football/world_cup_06/default.stm

[Frozzy]

Ranked in my order of difficulty:

E Italy, Ghana, Czech Republic, United States
C Argentina, Ivory Coast, Netherlands, Serbia & Montenegro
F Brazil, Australia, Croatia, Japan
B England, Paraguay, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago
G France, Togo, Switzerland, South Korea
A Germany, Ecuador, Poland, Costa Rica
H Spain, Tunisia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia
D Mexico, Angola, Portugal, Iran

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Kalius
Ranked in my order of difficulty:

E Italy, Ghana, Czech Republic, United States
C Argentina, Ivory Coast, Netherlands, Serbia & Montenegro
F Brazil, Australia, Croatia, Japan
B England, Paraguay, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago
G France, Togo, Switzerland, South Korea
A Germany, Ecuador, Poland, Costa Rica
H Spain, Tunisia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia
D Mexico, Angola, Portugal, Iran

From who's point of view? For instance Group F is tricky for Brazil, whereas G, A, and E are easy for their 'big teams.

As a top country all you want are two whipping boys in the group.

[Dauphin]

I agree that group E is the most difficult, in that you want to win the group to avoid an almost inevitable first placed Brazil in group F. I would like to see Italy finish second in E so that they can knock Brazil out on penalties.

[C0ckney]

i'm happy with that draw tbh.

[Footie Mad]

Yes Sweden and England look the most likely to go through, on paper. Seeing as both teams qualified from a group with Nigeria and Argentina last time this shouldn't be more difficult. And as I said earlier, i'm more confident against England than against Paraguay.