World Cup 2010 Thread

[Pesci]

lol at one of USA, Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea getting to the semis.

Wait what ... you can't be serious. Have you not been paying attention to this World Cup ?

Uruguay has been one of three squads that has played more than one quality match so far and they've yet to concede a goal. South Korea and Ghana are the type of teams that give "better" clubs headaches. The USA has shown their ability and should England get by Germany that's the last team they'd want to face.

I just meant that in terms of "name value", one of them being assured a place in the semis this early is surprising. Calm down. The next few lines (which you kindly ommited from your quote) should tell you that I've been watching them all a lot and am looking forward to watching them some more (Y)

Edited June 23, 2010 by Pesci

[naiwf]

I'm not even bothered about getting Germany. And I'm certainly not saying the USA haven't played well either. I'm just saying in my opinion, they've had more lucky breaks than any other team that has progressed so far. It's not even trying to put them down. Hell, I wish England would of had some luck, because it's certainly not a bad thing. Either way, USA have had a few lucky breaks. Saying that doesn't exactly mean they've been shit or don't deserve to be winning the group :/

I'll give you the fluke goal against England, but can you please name the second lucky break in this series of lucky breaks that only you've seen? They were robbed of the full 3 points against Slovenia due to a bad call. They had another goal wrongly disallowed today and missed about 7 or 8 other chances to score today. They were literally a few minutes away from getting sent home with 3 points instead of 7, so how have they been lucky?

[Kaney]

England were lucky as fuck. Defoes shot had no power behind it at all and the keeper made a right cunt of the save. It actually hit his gloves but he had already leaned back and let it flick in over his head rather than hold the fucking thing.

They played better than the first two teams, but if that was the only thing they could manage to pull out of that group, then yeah, they were lucky as fuck not to get put out. Unless they make a vast, vast improvement, they'll get found out against teams like Argentina, Brazil and probably even Germany.

[Crybaby Bunting]

I'm guessing he means that he expected USA to come second and England to finish first, with the idea that we'd steam-roll every team along the way to get 9 points from 9.

Unfortunately, through England utterly sucking for the first two games (and for a good portion of the third) England DIDN'T breeze through the group thus paved the way for USA to capitalise on these mistakes.

He might bring up the Rob Green incident but I figure that England not winning against Algeria is the bigger problem here, the USA had their fair share of unlucky decisions and in the end beat a team that England couldn't to win their group.

Congratulations to the USA for winning the group, I don't think even you lot actually expected it to happen, but you deserved it for being greatly entertaining throughout the competition.

[HailtotheYo]

I had the US going through as the first team in my bracket .... and honestly after seeing what this team has done over the last two years I honestly felt like we could. I never expected England to almost completely shit the bed like this though. I felt that if we could get a point out of the England game we had a shot at the group.

I think I'm going to start calling Johnny "Evil Chase K"

[Meacon Keaton]

Now, now, naiwf. Maybe lucky means something different to JohnnyPerfect than to the rest of the world.

[METALMAN]

jammy bastards

[Plubby]

I had the US going through as the first team in my bracket

I think I'm going to start calling Johnny "Evil Chase K"

The irony is so staggering I feel like I'm in a drunken street fight. Who is the real homer now? (which is what I assume Chase is known for, it's what he does in the hockey thread)

[HailtotheYo]

Who is the real homer now?

Me picking the USA to finish first in the group is absolutely nowhere near, let alone in the same realm of what JP and ECK have displayed.

Not even close.

Did you even bother to read the explination for my pick ? Huge difference in picking what I believed could happen and stating that I expected it (which I didn't).

[sahyder1]

I'm just saying in my opinion, they've had more lucky breaks than any other team that has progressed so far.

Can you please tell us where they got lucky aside from the one goal against England? Scoring in stoppage time isn't "lucky"......last I checked those goals still counted the same as the other goals.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

LOL @ "Americans don't like soccer" attitude

Its not the sport, its the tournament. American LOVE international tournaments where they can try and act superior to the rest of the world and say stuff like "we just beat Algeria in soccer!" Unless the US goes on to become a world power in soccer, the sport will never be more than an Olympics-esque specialty attraction every four years. Millions of people got behind the near miraculous run of USA Hockey in February, but the NHL didn't receive a super bump in interest. As long as the best players to continue to play abroad and the US is another of the pack in terms of international competition, the sport will remain a niche sport in this country.

[SeanDMan]

NHL didn't get any noticable boost in popularity besides the best ratings for the season and Stanley Cup finals they've ever scored. >_>

[Liam]

Whilst I still think that they are the favourites coming into the game, I don't think much of Germany's form thus far. I mean, we almost shit the bed in a pretty poor group, but beating a largely woeful Australia (compounded with a dodgy red card decision for Cahill), losing to a Serbia side shown to be fairly ordinary elsewhere (although again, game largely hinged on a poor red card decision), and beating Ghana, who really have had no end product in this World Cup whatsoever....I dunno, I think they are also the kinda team that may get found out by a better side. Whether England are that team is hugely debateable, but there isn't a reason why we can't be.

[The Quasi Juice]

I'm just saying in my opinion, they've had more lucky breaks than any other team that has progressed so far.

Can you please tell us where they got lucky aside from the one goal against England? Scoring in stoppage time isn't "lucky"......last I checked those goals still counted the same as the other goals.

Ghana not finishing first even though they went into the last round as first, thus meeting the USA in the next round. Uruguay topping the first group, Mexico second, thus not meeting France in the knockout stages. Had any of the "top" teams like Brazil, Argentina, Holland or Spain been in USA's position it would almost be a guaranteed spot in the semi's.

This makes me think, had England actually beat Algeria, they would have had that spot in the semi's :lmao: Man, they really screwed themselves here.

Whilst I still think that they are the favourites coming into the game, I don't think much of Germany's form thus far. I mean, we almost shit the bed in a pretty poor group, but beating a largely woeful Australia (compounded with a dodgy red card decision for Cahill), losing to a Serbia side shown to be fairly ordinary elsewhere (although again, game largely hinged on a poor red card decision), and beating Ghana, who really have had no end product in this World Cup whatsoever....I dunno, I think they are also the kinda team that may get found out by a better side. Whether England are that team is hugely debateable, but there isn't a reason why we can't be.

Germany were great against Australia. Were better than Serbia even with 10 men. Were better than Ghana, scored and then cruised 'till the end knowing they were topping the group. England were shit against USA, shit against Algeria, average against Slovenia. Yeah, to me Germany are the heavy favorites. Not to mention the Germans have a great tournament mentality and a superb World Cup record.

[Blue Rosler]

Whether or not they played better than a ten man Serbian side is redundant, as they lost the match. Like many other countries this tournament, the Germans are a strong side. Who would have thought Switzerland would have beaten Spain? Very few people. If England approach the game with the right team mentality, and the right tactics, then it's possible we could scrape a win.

And not trying to bring up an old point, but I can see Johnny's point that USA were lucky. A last-minute goal is always quite fortunate. It was for New Zealand against Slovakia, so why is it different in this case? That said, England were the luckiest team in the group by a long long way. I feel sorry for the Slovenia side that beat Algeria (we couldn't, USA did in the last minute), drew with the USA (unfortunate!), and weren't exactly steam-rollered by England. It's not a fair representation of the group that England make it through.

And USA playing Ghana isn't 'lucky' - we all knew that the winner of the group very probably would play Serbia/Ghana. We just couldn't win the group.

[Liam]

I'm just saying in my opinion, they've had more lucky breaks than any other team that has progressed so far.

Can you please tell us where they got lucky aside from the one goal against England? Scoring in stoppage time isn't "lucky"......last I checked those goals still counted the same as the other goals.

Ghana not finishing first even though they went into the last round as first, thus meeting the USA in the next round. Uruguay topping the first group, Mexico second, thus not meeting France in the knockout stages. Had any of the "top" teams like Brazil, Argentina, Holland or Spain been in USA's position it would almost be a guaranteed spot in the semi's.

This makes me think, had England actually beat Algeria, they would have had that spot in the semi's :lmao: Man, they really screwed themselves here.

Whilst I still think that they are the favourites coming into the game, I don't think much of Germany's form thus far. I mean, we almost shit the bed in a pretty poor group, but beating a largely woeful Australia (compounded with a dodgy red card decision for Cahill), losing to a Serbia side shown to be fairly ordinary elsewhere (although again, game largely hinged on a poor red card decision), and beating Ghana, who really have had no end product in this World Cup whatsoever....I dunno, I think they are also the kinda team that may get found out by a better side. Whether England are that team is hugely debateable, but there isn't a reason why we can't be.

Germany were great against Australia. Were better than Serbia even with 10 men. Were better than Ghana, scored and then cruised 'till the end knowing they were topping the group. England were shit against USA, shit against Algeria, average against Slovenia. Yeah, to me Germany are the heavy favorites. Not to mention the Germans have a great tournament mentality and a superb World Cup record.

I'm not talking about Germany's record relevant to ours, just that it looks good on paper, but if you dig deeper, they haven't blown anyone away of any quality. I think that the first game was as much Australia playing badly as Germany playing well, they were unlucky against Serbia, but Serbia have probably been over-rated if their other games are anything to go by, and Ghana have only got through because they've had the luck to get two penalties, and whilst physical and full of work rate, lack any real quality.

I'd be more worried as a team if I'd have to end up playing Brazil, Argentina or Spain in the next round than Germany, basically. They should still beat us, but of the 'bigger teams', I wouldn't argue that they were anywhere near the best.

I've backed Holland anyway, so my financial interest lies away from all those teams >_>

EDIT: From a German poster at another forum I go to:

Our midfield has three guys in it - Mueller, Oezil, Khedira - with less than 20 international caps, our left backs are either Badstuber or Boateng, both less than ten internationals. Our keeper just had his fifth or sixth internationl.

Guys like Lahm, Podolski and Schweinsteiger have been around forever, yet they are only in their mid twenties and might be 3-4 years from peaking.

Yesterday I thought we looked in deep deep trouble for some parts of the match while watching and it was sometimes really frustrating, until I reminded myself of the facts I stated above. This is the youngest team we had in 66 years and there was some immense pressure on the team yesterday, and you shouldn´t be to angry when thinks go bonkers with the young ones.

That being said, one of my favourite players, Per Mertesacker, looked astonishingly horrible yesterday and it was damn close to a miracle that Arne Friedrich of all people had to save the day in the back. Mertesacker is one of the experienced players who is in his third big tournament, yet yesterday seemed nervous as if this was his first cap. We can´t afford shit like that against the Three Lions who looked vastly improved yesterday and while we shouldn´t be afraid of them we should DEFINETLY expect them to show up. This is basically why I think odds are slightly in favour of the English team:

- solid defense: You were hardly in any trouble in your group matches. Very very brief and very slight moments, but never looked shaken in you defense.

- experience: while I don´t think we are that much worse as a team in terms of quality, you guys are definetly more experienced than most of our players

- leaders: I have the feeling that - while our leaders are great guys - your leaders are the ones that can actually decide a game for the Three Lions. Guys like Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney. Don´t see that from Lahm and Klose. Maybe from Schweinsteiger.

Combine that with the fact that your biggest weak spot David James didn´t look week at all so far. It´s not a huge gap between both teams (like German media always tries to make it out to be before a tournament), but the English have the slight advantage imo. Still, it should be a fun game and it´s one of this WOW matchups.

Kind of odd, four years after total European domination in Germany it could be a semi final without any Europeans...but well, still a long way to go.

Curious to see how it all turns out.

Whilst I don't agree with all of that, he does talk about some of the potential failings of the German side, and areas where England have looked at least solid. Should be interesting at the least.

Edited June 24, 2010 by Liam

[SeanDMan]

You guys are all lucky. if we hadn't been so busy with the Olympics, Canada would be in the world cup and we'd have shitkicked the lot of you.

[Blue Rosler]

Ha.

I still remember Ringy telling me that Craig Forrest was a great goalkeeper, and Tomas Radzinski was a great striker.

I think he was joking. >_>

[SeanDMan]

Craig Forrest is a great analyst. >_>

[Crybaby Bunting]

Wait a minute, I've just realised something.

JohnnyPerfect is complaining about how unfair it is to see teams score last minute goals.

Isn't he a Manchester United fan?