Europe
-----------
Spain and England are favorites. Italy, France and Germany should not
be underrated. Especially Italy, they are the best when it comes to
playing the big matches. Netherlands is strong but seem to not perform
their best at the big stage. This time, however, I feel they have a
chance. Dark Horses = Denmark
Africa
---------
Ivory Coast is the best in my opinion. S. Africa has home advantage.
Not too keen on the rest.
Asia
------
Australia is the best team. Rest all suck
N. America
----------------
This is a joke group. Hopefully the US doesn't embarass themselves. I
would like to see them perform well.
You can consider Ireland defeated.
I wish it was.
--
Ixion
En coupe d'Europe, quand on dit diplomatiquement que l'arbitre
n'ï¿œtait pas dans un bon soir, c'est toujours le club franï¿œais
qui morfle.
Agreed on Cd'I, but I think Ghana looks impressive. On paper they're
not as strong as many but they seem like they're more than the sum of
their parts.
Try to explain that to them . An Irish team might finally be defeated
or recognized as defeated at minutes 98' not before. Unless the EPL
have turned them into divas and pansies..Don't count on it though.
As we know, England are ALWAYS the favourites, at least
for the English media. Then just as the groups are announced,
the tune changes completely and the group England are in is
dubbed 'The Group of Death' by the same English media, even
if it contains such giants as Saudi Arabia, Australia & USA.
And then the 'favourites' fail to get out of the group yet again or
lose promptly in the 2nd round.
Like a certain Scot who was a favourite at 3 of the last 4 slams
but didn't even reach the final of one.
it's cos the media here is largely run by foreigners who despise British
sporting triumph.
especially that Aussie bastard Rupert Murdoch.
> it's cos the media here is largely run by foreigners who despise British
> sporting triumph.
England has some excellent sportspersons but their football team
hasn't done anything recently that is worth a mention - they won
the WC when it was held on their soil 40 years ago.
But they haven't won any international tournament in any form of
cricket -
Tests,ODIs or T20s despite inventing all these forms of the game.
Their best-known footballer is more known for non-football
activities and
even on the field, his expertise is with the dead ball (free
kick). He hasn't
won absolutely anything for Team England.
The Netherlands or England or USA will win this cup.!!
Brazil will get tossed out in the group stage in the group of death.
I'm thinking the media normally downplay English chances and often
gleefully roll out the biting "overrated" (by who???) editorials when
they miss out.
The last time I saw them hyped up was in 2002, as they should've been.
a) Ireland is far from defeated, they are coached by the king of
catenaccio, and they might just pull it off.
b) Even if France make it, they stand little chance of success under
Domenech.
>>> France is not in WC as of today
>> You can consider Ireland defeated.
>
> a) Ireland is far from defeated, they are coached by the king of
> catenaccio, and they might just pull it off.
> b) Even if France make it, they stand little chance of success under
> Domenech.
They've shown before they can do pretty well despite him, so I wouldn't
write them off. But I agree that ultimately if they make it he will
find a way to cost them dearly.
You mean: like last WC when they reached the final?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
or once if it's digital :D
But were more than transparent at Euro 2008...
May be he is an ''every two cycle" guy?? :-)
> Their best-known footballer is more known for
being like totally hot & gorgeous & perfect
we've won everything, might be in the past, but who cares, WW2 was in the
past, fact is we've won everything and you're jealous of that.
Please pass the weed.
You havent won World Cup Cricket yet.
>On Oct 21, 10:25�am, Matthias M�hlich <muehl...@iap.uni-frankfurt.de>
>wrote:
>> Alkamista schrieb:
>>
>> > b) Even if France make it, they stand little chance of success under
>> > Domenech.
>>
>> You mean: like last WC when they reached the final?
>
>Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
like raja ?
no weed for you punkawalla. keep pulling that rope.
>
>
>> � � Their best-known footballer is more known for
>
> being like totally hot & gorgeous & perfect
like me !
That's utter rubbish. That's one of those lazy cliches trotted out with no
thought to whether it has any truth in reality. I challenge you to back up
your assertion with one single example.
(Simply saying "the media said England were the favourites in 1990" is not
enough if you can't show examples from the media.)
Huw
No, Raja is a broken boy who is sticked to his mum until her dies.
I'd say "Only Brazil" for the entire tournament. When you have to
resort to making England a "favorite", Lendl, not realizing that the
only reason they have a viable home league at all is because of all
the money being thrown around the Premiership to _foreign players_,
you know that Brazil, when motivated, is the best team in the world
and probably the 2nd best on top of it.
The only team which can beat Brazil in South Africa is themselves.
They make this game the carnival and the dance they can, and it will
be as easy as that second half against the USA in South Africa --
they'll make a joke of the entire tournament.
> Europe
> -----------
> Spain and England are favorites. Italy, France and Germany should not
> be underrated. Especially Italy, they are the best when it comes to
> playing the big matches. Netherlands is strong but seem to not perform
> their best at the big stage. This time, however, I feel they have a
> chance. Dark Horses = Denmark
Italy will always have a chance, for some odd reason or another, as
does Germany. England will flame out at some inopportune point, as
usual.
> Africa
> ---------
> Ivory Coast is the best in my opinion. S. Africa has home advantage.
> Not too keen on the rest.
Not too keen on any of them.
> Asia
> ------
> Australia is the best team. Rest all suck
Anyone else need to wonder why UEFA needs about 20 spots if they're
going to have a 32 team Cup?
> N. America
> ----------------
> This is a joke group. Hopefully the US doesn't embarass themselves. I
> would like to see them perform well.
Oh, don't get me started.
Mike
South Korea is at least as good as us, if not better. You'll have to decide
between upgrading South Korea or just concluding all AFC teams suck.
I agree, we are fuckin' dead set morals !!
But can't win, because games will be decided by 1) A missed offside 2) A
feigned injury
3) An impetuous yellow 4) A goal deemed not to have crossed the line or 5)
An errant
beach ball. Billion dollar game, 10 cent technology
Viper
Not so sure the Scots would like you painting them with the same brush
as the English.
You talk about Groups of Death, since when have England failed to
emerge from the Group stage of any major tournament? Their major
failing in recent times has been scoring pens.
As good as Spain and England are now, it would be hard for me to pick
them above Italy France or Germany
Especially Italy, they are the best when it comes to
> > > playing the big matches. Netherlands is strong but seem to not perform
> > > their best at the big stage. This time, however, I feel they have a
> > > chance. Dark Horses = Denmark
>
> > > Africa
> > > ---------
> > > Ivory Coast is the best in my opinion. S. Africa has home advantage.
> > > Not too keen on the rest.
Cameroon is a team that can do well in tournaments, historically they
are probably the best bet for an African win.
>
> > > Asia
> > > ------
> > > Australia is the best team. Rest all suck
>
> > > N. America
> > > ----------------
> > > This is a joke group. Hopefully the US doesn't embarass themselves. I
> > > would like to see them perform well.
>
> > As we know, England are ALWAYS the favourites, at least
> > for the English media. Then just as the groups are announced,
> > the tune changes completely and the group England are in is
> > dubbed 'The Group of Death' by the same English media, even
> > if it contains such giants as Saudi Arabia, Australia & USA.
> > And then the 'favourites' fail to get out of the group yet again or
> > lose promptly in the 2nd round.
> > Like a certain Scot who was a favourite at 3 of the last 4 slams
> > but didn't even reach the final of one.
>
> Not so sure the Scots would like you painting them with the same brush
> as the English.
>
> You talk about Groups of Death, since when have England failed to
> emerge from the Group stage of any major tournament? Their major
> failing in recent times has been scoring pens.
The major failing of recent times is failing to qualify.
Going back 15 years or 8 tournaments,
2008EC, 1994WC come to mind.
Failed to get out of group stage in 2000 ,but aside from that they
have at least reached the second round and once even a semi final of
a major tournament.
So 5 out of 8, that is better than 50%!
Cameroon have only made it out of the WC group phase once in their
history. They are nothing special apart from Eto'o. Ivory Coast is
quality through and through. They have very good players in all areas
of the pitch and are the strongest African team on paper by far.
And performed strongly at the last WC, but were short on luck.
But how are they on "grass" ?
They have an excellent serve but their net play lets them down time
and again. Or did you mean how are they when they smoke grass? I dont
know, I'll have to ask Didier Drogba.
Net play is irrelevant these days.
Yes, that's why tennis is irrelevant.