World Football Thread XXX - Germany 2006

[atawa]

England were lucky not to draw against Trinidad and drew against a poor Swedish team, the win over Paraguay was mainly becouse of an unlucky own goal. Untill they show me a win against a decent oponent I wouldnt considder them favourites.

Portugal is playing Holland in the next round...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by atawa


Both the Ukraine and Ivory Coast are better then France at the moment, Czech I'm not sure about, depends how soon Koller is ready for play again.
Italy sucked against the US, but they should make 1/4 at least.

Obviously the lines between the alst few teams in anyone's top 10 and the teams next few teams are not at all clear.

When I was thinking of other teams that could substitute in , I was thinking Ukraine but that 4-0 pasting they took doesn't look so good. Is Spain THAT good? I was also thinking about teams like Mexico
With France, to me the jury is out . .. If they can find some offense perhaps . . so far they haven't given up much. It just seems to me that they have middling results against reasonably good teams

[Flubber]

Originally posted by atawa


Thats my point, at this moment Ronaldo due to his lack of speed or anything else for that matters is holdiong the team back. They are playing at around 50% of their ability at the moment I'd say.

Now THAT is scary

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by atawa


Did you read the second part of my post?

But seriously, who would you name outside those 5?

Brazil, England, Italy, France......have I mentioned England?

Theres 7-8 teams that can win the WC but the Ukraine isn't one of them.....

[Flubber]

Originally posted by reds4ever


Brazil, England, Italy, France......have I mentioned England?

Theres 7-8 teams that can win the WC but the Ukraine isn't one of them.....

Why does everyone forget Portugal? After all they speak Portugese just like the Brazillians so they have to be good.

Actually I am picking Portugal as my dark horse-- not due to skill but mainly because they are a little country that people tend to forget about

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think Ukraine may have a better shot than France at winning this thing. But that's mostly because France sucks.

[reds4ever]

Apparently Liverpool have agreed terms with Feyenoord (sp?) for Kuyt, how good is this player......???

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
I think Ukraine may have a better shot than France at winning this thing. But that's mostly because France sucks.

Thats like saying Paris Hilton is better looking than Nicole Richie...

[Colon™]

Originally posted by Flubber
Actually I am picking Portugal as my dark horse-- not due to skill but mainly because they are a little country that people tend to forget about

When was the last time such a country won the WC? Paraguay in 1950?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Thats like saying Paris Hilton is better looking than Nicole Richie...

Hey, you're the one who said France .

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Colon™


When was the last time such a country won the WC? Paraguay in 1950?

Sure but lots of people are picking Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands,germany and there are proponents for lots more. There is not a large pro-Portugal group here so if I am right everyone should bow before my brilliance.

My lack of any justifiable rationale and the fact that they are probably an underdog against Netherlands are just irrelevancies

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Hey, you're the one who said France .

..and you said Ukraine....

[Imran Siddiqui]

Actually I said Ukraine AFTER you said Ukraine. So, you also said Ukraine first. So nyah!

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Actually I said Ukraine AFTER you said Ukraine. So, you also said Ukraine first. So nyah!

Does that mean I lose?

[Locutus]

Originally posted by atawa
Argentina is one of 5 teams that could win this together with Germany, Ukarine, Spain and Holland.

That's a pretty fair estimate but I wouldn't count out Brazil and Italy just yet. Brazil plays as well as it needs to and no better, and Italy is a real tournament team, they manage to win when it matters, no matter how poor they game is.

And Spain won't win it, they never do. Not because they don't have the quality but because they just never do well on major tournaments. There's an astronomically small chance this time will be different (hey, if Greece can win the EC...) but that's no reason to consider them favourites.

Originally posted by Flubber
Argentina, Brazil, Czech, Italy , England, France Germany, Netherlands, Portugal , Spain

France and Germany in the top 10? Have you seen them play in the last 6 years? They're barely top 20...

At least Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Turkey, Ukraine, Serbia and possibly Columbia and Uruguay (but I'm really bad at judging South American football, don't get to see enough of it) are all better than those two and can all contend for a place in the top 10.

Part of being a great team is managing those conflicts.

Conflicts that exist for a few weeks don't mean much when it comes to the quality of a team over a longer period of time. That just has to do with the form of the day, which currently just isn't there for Serbia. Quality of a team has to be seen independently from their form.

Probably true . I did not see the game yet. But "great" teams find a way to win.

Over the course of 10+ games in a period of several months maybe, not over 3 games in less then 2 weeks time, and certainly not within a single game.

Originally posted by Flubber
When I was thinking of other teams that could substitute in , I was thinking Ukraine but that 4-0 pasting they took doesn't look so good. Is Spain THAT good?

Again you're judging on the basis of one game. Ukraine are one of the strongest teams in the world right now, whether people are paying attention to it or not.

Originally posted by reds4ever
Brazil, England, Italy, France......have I mentioned England?

France or England winning the World Cup? England?!