The Official 2010 Football & World Cup Thread

Brasil for me    Argentina   nooooo hand of God     fouls and attitude   lol  sorry    Before any missile land i know an argentinian guy hes priceless  lovely man  apart from the fact he love Maradona handball 

Atkingani wrote: ExittheLemming wrote: I wholeheartedly endorse this. Argentina has qualified in spite of Maradona. Given the calibre of players he has at his disposal, failing to finish in the top four slots should take some real incompetence to achieve (but he almost did it) However, a world cup finals without Argentina would be a diminished competition. I should like to comment that Dunga the Brazilian coach, despite a comfortable qualification and a Confederations Cup success is viewed with complete contempt by his county's media. Like many romantics, the latter continue to delude themselves that Brazil continue to play free flowing attacking football. They have not played this way since circa 1982 and their subsequent triumphs have all been built on a solid defensive backbone wedded to a lethal counter attacking ability. Yes, they have some of the finest individual players on the planet, but so do Italy (and look at how successful and numbingly sterile they have been) I don't mind either way, as long as ANYONE knocks the English out, I'll be a happy rodent again....   I agree with the bold paragraph... in the last 20 years, Brazilian National Teams are composed basically by players that soldier in Europe and many transferred there too early with 21-22 yo or even less (like Pato, for instance). They got the ticks of the European way-of-playing and use it while in the Seleção.   However, if one wants to see a glimpse of the romantic jogo bonito once played by the National Team I recommend to check the National Championship and much more the Serie B (2nd Division) than the Serie A (1st Division). Not enough in terms of strategy and tatics to beat Germany or Italy but enough in terms of art and joy to satisfy our hearts and souls.

Interesting observation about the 2nd tier of Brazilian domestic football. The further you go down the pecking order in most professional leagues, the closer you get to the type of art and joy you describe (Albeit the joy is that of the honest journeymen and the art that of the apprentice Kakas)
As soon as the stakes become much higher (i.e. money) and failure becomes non-negotiable, so much that is to be cherished about the jogo bonito is lost. Top level club football lost whatever vestige it had of being 'representative' a long time ago now and the likes of Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea et al reflect more accurately their bankers spending power than they do the communities they were forged from. (Ask yourself why soccer clubs are mainly named after a location ?)
From recent memory the entirely dignified and decent Avram Grant took Chelsea to the Champions League Final where they narrowly lost on penalties to Man Utd. In the land of his birth (Israel) this achievement made him a revered role model. In the heartlands of his employer (Roman Abramovich) he was immediately sacked.
It seems a shame that what is perhaps the last bastion of purity in football (International competition) is similarly mired with the sorts of mercenary greed endemic in the pro club sphere e.g the players of Togo threatening to withdraw from the 2006 World Cup Finals unless their qualifying bonuses were paid before the 1st match. (There are other examples from every finals tournament like the Saudi squad who won sports cars) If an association feels it necessary to induce its athletes to give their all in the pursuit of sporting success by paying them money, what does that say about the attitude of gifted individuals who any one of their impoverished countrymen would walk over hot coals to emulate ?
FIFA must surely be culpable in allowing this state of affairs to exist. They are transparently terrified of being seen to bite the hands of the media(s) that feed them and nothing would undermine them more than the possibility of  representative football being the preserve of those who seek only to uphold the values that FIFA themselves are entrusted to preserve.

And... New Zealand makes the World Cup for the first time since 1982 by beating Bahrain 1 - 0 in NZ tonight.

Well done to the NZ team, and C'mon the All Whites!

Are they good? I've never seen them play. Would it be OK to expect quality football from them on the sole basis of having liked Australia in 2006? 

My predictions for tonight:

Rusia - Slovenia 1 - 0

Greece - Ukraine 0 - 0

Ireland - France 1-1

Portugal - Bosnia 2-1


This being only the first leg the teams won't take many chances and there won't be many goals, IMO.

harmonium.ro wrote: Are they good? I've never seen them play. Would it be OK to expect quality football from them on the sole basis of having liked Australia in 2006?

We are good enough to make the WC finals... we probably won't worry the top teams, but NZers have a habit of punching above our weight in our minor sports. We play a similar physical style to Australia, the Bahraini coach said we play like a "bunch of bruisers". What does he expect from a country that lives off Rugby, League, Cricket and drinking?

All in all, not bad for a country of only 4 million people.

Any Colour You Like wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: Are they good? I've never seen them play. Would it be OK to expect quality football from them on the sole basis of having liked Australia in 2006?  We are good enough to make the WC finals... we probably won't worry the top teams, but NZers have a habit of punching above our weight in our minor sports. We play a similar physical style to Australia, the Bahraini coach said we play like a "bunch of bruisers". What does he expect from a country that lives off Rugby, League, Cricket and drinking? All in all, not bad for a country of only 4 million people.

Atkingani wrote: Any Colour You Like wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: Are they good? I've never seen them play. Would it be OK to expect quality football from them on the sole basis of having liked Australia in 2006?  We are good enough to make the WC finals... we probably won't worry the top teams, but NZers have a habit of punching above our weight in our minor sports. We play a similar physical style to Australia, the Bahraini coach said we play like a "bunch of bruisers". What does he expect from a country that lives off Rugby, League, Cricket and drinking? All in all, not bad for a country of only 4 million people.   Uruguay has 3 million people and a fantastic football record; that's the marvel of football association: you don't need to be a giant to be great.

Yeah, that's true, but you also should remeber that Uruguay has Argentina and Brasil as neighbours, which by my calculations, gives them some pretty handy opposition.

crimson87 wrote: We lost today against the so called best team of the world just 2-1 and Demichelis could have scored in the end. Spain isn't better than most included in the South American qualifiers. Now... England , Germany and Brasil those teams are worth facing.

I've only seen about 20 minutes in the first half but the Argentinian team was totally anonymous while the Spanish were missing one opportunity after another. After I changed the channel to Ireland - France because that was a real game, with tension and drama - and a real prize at stake!

This is a very funny thing to read regarding the game between Ireland and France: http://i.imgur.com/nAqPa.jpg