7

6/8/2006 2:59:42 PM

In terms of the four to make it to the semi finals, I am suprised nobody has said Germany. They [obviously] have the home team advantage but if they have to face my boys in red they are going down.

6/8/2006 3:31:28 PM

Quote :

"the exact time out of 90min and you only get a free pitcher of beer? what's that happened, like never or something"

It's whoever comes closest.

And I've already got Germany in the 12th minute for the first game.

6/8/2006 3:38:55 PM

I'm so pumped up for this.. should be a fun fucking month.

6/8/2006 3:50:00 PM

I always wished they would cut it down to every 2 years instead of every 4 years.. thoughts?

6/8/2006 3:54:28 PM

Nah.. not enough time for qualifying + things like the UEFA competitions, which aren't going anywhere..

6/8/2006 3:56:47 PM

It takes two years to qualify, so there'd be no time for regional tournaments like the European Finals or Copa America.

6/8/2006 3:57:31 PM

yeah thats what i figured.. i just hate having to wait 4 damn years for this

6/8/2006 4:04:23 PM

Plus, I can't imagine how the constant mental stress would build up over time..."Congratulations, you helped us win the World Cup!! Now, kindly report to training camp in Cary two days from now, we have a qualifying match against St. Kitts in two weeks."

6/8/2006 4:10:44 PM

true.. wishful thinking I know.. whose everyones spoiler for the Cup? You know their's going to be one

I am going to say possibly Ivory Coast with Drogba, they could surprise some people

6/8/2006 4:13:26 PM

all germany has is ballack and he isnt 100%...with that said, he was all they had in 02

6/8/2006 4:28:46 PM

dont know if its been posted yet, but Ballack is out for sure for the Opening game against Costa Rica

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=370414&cc=5901

6/8/2006 4:32:41 PM

^that makes me have little to no interest in tomorrow mornings game

6/8/2006 4:51:25 PM

german sucks now, they used to be the shiznit in '94, '90 and before

6/8/2006 5:00:10 PM

Germany has always sucked. They won, but they still sucked. It's the German way.

6/8/2006 5:04:43 PM

what are you talking about. look at the germans from '94, '90, and 98'
every guy was like 6'3", had execellent first touch and was fast
they were like the best genetically engineered team
now they look like everyone else, and they're sloppy

6/8/2006 5:13:06 PM

Ticos to defeat Deutschland!

6/8/2006 5:13:20 PM

spoilers...ivory coast

6/8/2006 5:37:16 PM

There is no way Germany will get to the final 8

6/8/2006 5:50:09 PM

Germany are getting the piss taken out of them. If they leave their group, they'll play either the first or second place team from USA/GHA/ITA/CZE group and Germany isn't getting past them. They are about 2 years early on this world cup as Podolsky and Schweinstiger are good talents, but young.

6/8/2006 6:03:43 PM

umm im pretty sure usa's group #1/2 plays brazil's group #1/2 in the 2nd part of the tounament (round of 16, quarters, etc)...so i dunno what youre talking about?

6/8/2006 6:25:36 PM

anyone know the latest on nesta's status?

6/8/2006 6:34:19 PM

big hawk, the guy in the you tube video with dempsy on page, was killed the day before dempsy was choosen for the team.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=370300&root=worldcup&cc=5901

6/8/2006 6:51:17 PM

a favorite video of mine

http://youtube.com/watch?v=S4v1OUl4TMs&search=gerrard

6/8/2006 7:05:06 PM

US vs mexico game from 2002 world cup was on espn classic today, that def got me in the mood to support the hell out of the US this year

6/8/2006 8:25:34 PM

umm check page 6, i already said those 2 games were on dude

6/8/2006 8:36:16 PM

Italy will win it all

6/8/2006 8:41:17 PM

pfff Italy ain't shit

6/8/2006 9:08:45 PM

^^^ much appreciated...i watched both

6/8/2006 9:30:23 PM

6/8/2006 10:33:18 PM

6/8/2006 10:48:05 PM

Woooooooo!

So excited.

Fixed my sleep schedule, ready to hit all three games every day.




[Edited on June 8, 2006 at 11:00 PM. Reason : usa]

6/8/2006 10:52:13 PM

havent really made any predictions for the world cup, and im a bit drunk and felt like posting something....so


adriano gets the golden boot

brazil wins the world cup (too easy i dont care, they are that good)

Lampard is the best overall player in the world cup

6/9/2006 1:13:21 AM

Quote :

"Fixed my sleep schedule, ready to hit all three games every day."

Thank goodness we don't have to wake up at 4:30 AM like 2002.

6/9/2006 1:30:11 AM

although waking up at 4:30 in the morning to watch a soccer game did make me feel hardcore as fuck

6/9/2006 1:35:13 AM

AAAAAAAAND all of the sudden, I'm frightened again. I was watching the FSW Report and they had training footage on over stuff from press conferences. Our training footage featured Brian Ching, Pablo Mastroeni, and Marcus Hahnemann; the Czechs had Milan Baros, Pavel Nedved, and Petr Cech front and center. It's not a new idea, but it just hit me.

Also, 25,000 people showed up to watch Brazil practice today.

In fitness news:

Govou has been recalled to replace Djibril Cisse.
Shevchenko scored in 30 minutes on the pitch in the final warmup against Luxembourg.
Sven says Rooney is fit but Gerrard is 50/50 for Paraguay.

6/9/2006 3:21:28 AM

^ BBC saying this morning that Gerrard will play against Paraguay.

Starts today!

6/9/2006 6:57:23 AM

I haven't been this stoked since... well... World Cup 2002

6/9/2006 8:50:13 AM

game today may be a little more interesting to watch now...Ballack now says he is ready to play

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=370459&cc=5901


I wish he would make up his damn mind about whether he's playing or not

6/9/2006 8:58:58 AM

Oh yea, i think the second game is going to be more interesting its going tell who is going to come second.


BTW Italy isnt making it out of their group this year..czechs first, USA second

6/9/2006 9:01:38 AM

italy first
usa second

6/9/2006 9:17:46 AM

The more I look at the U.S. and their group, the more it just screams 1-1-1 at me. Hopefully we won't continue our recent form in the opening group stage:

1990 European WC - 0-3
1994 non-European WC - 1-1-1
1998 European WC - 0-3
2002 non-European WC - 1-1-1
2006 European WC - ?

stats:

USA all-time are 0-7 in European World Cups.
Our all-time World Cup record is 6-14-2.
We're 0-2 against Italy, losing 7-1 in the Italy '34 first round, and losing 1-0 in the Italy '90 group stage.
We're 0-1 against Czech Republic, losing 5-1 in the Italy '90 group stage when they were Czechoslovakia.

[Edited on June 9, 2006 at 9:37 AM. Reason : .]

6/9/2006 9:36:11 AM

what 2 teams do you have coming out of each group?

I have:
Germany and Poland
England and Sweden
Argentina and Ivory Coast
Portugal and Mexico
Italy and USA
Brazil and Croatia
France and Swiss
Spain and Ukraine

6/9/2006 9:49:38 AM

Viva Italia!

6/9/2006 9:50:40 AM

For whoever was asking for a streaming link, this note is from elsewhere:

"The game MIGHT be ¨illegally¨ available in http://www.ticofutbol.com, i got their email a few minutes ago...."

That would be in Spanish, but it looks like if you want one in English you're gonna have to search the back corners of the internet.

[Edited on June 9, 2006 at 10:14 AM. Reason : .]

6/9/2006 10:14:23 AM

pfff it doesn't matter if it isn't in English, it's not like you can't tell what is going on.

Thanks for the link man, you are a life saver.



btw, things are looking good for Rooney, he may even play in Round 1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/england/5062042.stm

[Edited on June 9, 2006 at 10:23 AM. Reason : ]

6/9/2006 10:15:20 AM

I PREDICT FRANCE TO TAKE IT ALL THIS YEAR

6/9/2006 11:05:46 AM

For some reason, it seems like there are a bunch of Italy fans on here.

Probably one of the most liked teams in this world cup.

6/9/2006 11:13:30 AM

i guess i should've posted about this earlier, but anyone do the cbssportsline.com Puma challenge?

with a $50m salary cap, i picked Italy and Holland to go deep at $15m each, and then picked up Croatia at $6m, then Mexico & Poland as mid level teams, and Paraguay, Saudis & i think Togo because the three were cheap...website is down on heavy traffic right now.

Germany, Argentina and England were $20m each, Brazil was $25m, France $14m, Spain $13m, Portugal $10m, and then the rest. The US was $4m. Japan & Korea were $2m each i think.

6/9/2006 11:22:09 AM

So this thread is gonna get quite huge in a month. Are we having separate game threads, or maybe just for the USA?

[Edited on June 9, 2006 at 11:28 AM. Reason : .]

6/9/2006 11:27:42 AM