The OFFICIAL TG FIFA World Cup 06 Predictions/discussion/hype thread

[RGM-79N_GM_CUstom]

^^^^^I like it. I definately have to pick one up this time. In addition to a new Brazil jersey. (And who ever else I decide to get.)

[munchkin]

Personally, I really don't think that England will win it. Make it to the final? Maybe. To the semis? Probably. To the quarter-final? Almost definitely. As we like to remind ourselves here, they've only won it once before in 1966.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by RGM-79N_GM_CUstom

^^^^^I like it. I definately have to pick one up this time.

I was thinking about picking one up for me and m'boy until I saw the price... I'm not paying $130 for a soccerball. I would very much like to kick one around, though.

[Santa]

Im surprised its only 130 if its new and is the official ball for the World Cup. The phantom soccer balls can go for 195. Theres a definite difference in the feel between my 20 dollar ball and the Phantoms i sometimes mooch off of from my friends. So much easier to control, especcialy in shooting and crossing.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by TG_Santa

The phantom soccer balls can go for 195.

? Those are $40 each?

I don't play soccer and my boy can barely dribble from one end of the field to the other, so I think the $20 soccerballs from WalMart will work for a while longer.

[DudeMan]

Originally Posted by TG_Mateo

I'm pretty much on par with you lot, although I think:

Group B:
Sweden
Paraguay

Sorry England. You just don't have the talent. When the big news is whether a 20 year old wil play or not, you are sunk.

.

oh god, this shows a complete lack of understanding as far as the English squad goes... when players like Pele and diego Maradonna (that cheating wise ass brilliant man.... if you know football you will understand) are saying that Wayne Rooney is the next... well them.... you stand up and listen, lets not forget that wayne scored on numerous occaisions at 17 on his first international torunement. lets not also forget that this same 17 year old, scored a hat trick against fenebache (thats spelled wrong) but a good european team in the champions league, on his european debut...

so yes, it's news if we have this as an option. although if you have watched Englands two warm up fixtures, and seen Peter Crouch in action, with 2 goals on tuesday and three goals against Jamaca yesterday.... he hasscored 6 goals in his lastthree apearences... you would be careful to rule England out of the finals.... with David Beckham playing two blinding games with ball control out of this world, im sorry but i have to disagree in the strongest terms.

i will also challenge you root, and i have taken a bet out on this, England will beat Sweeden, they are by far our biggest challenge in the group stages, and it might even be worth loosing to them, (so as notto face the germans who will top their group) i think we will beat them, i think the squad even without Rooney,(who should be ready for that game fingers crossed), the promise the squad has shown since the defeat at northern Ireland is great.... and to be honest being Irish on my dads side, i am a little dissapointed that they didnt get through, but common, their group...they had france and sweeden i believe... they had no chance...

England for the Win...

[DudeMan]

Originally Posted by Rock

He might be 20 years old, but dam he is a excellent player. Voted for pfa young player of year and won, 2005. I personally dont like him (because he plays for Man U) but he is a the one to watch out for.

I think ENGLAND have a exceptional chance of winning this world cup, bar no silly mistakes or injuries.

We have a mixture of youth, experience, loads of pace, great crossers, fantastic strikers and some of the best defenders.

+ rep... i absolutley agree... accepti would kiss Rooneys feet, i am a die hard United Fan... that man is like a god when hs is on form.... that goal (i think it made goal of the season) when he is having a go at the ref turns round looks uprecieves a30 yard cross and fires it passed everyone top right hand corner on the volleywithout even looking... he is a magnificent... he always knows where he is and everyoneelse aswell... and even though he plays forward, hedoubles as a defender all the time.... ok im going on... we may not even have him in the squad,....

[DudeMan]

Originally Posted by munchkin

Personally, I really don't think that England will win it. Make it to the final? Maybe. To the semis? Probably. To the quarter-final? Almost definitely. As we like to remind ourselves here, they've only won it once before in 1966.

achem....the ashes.... ackhem.....

sorry throat tickle there... in any case lets play a gamecalled how many times have the aussies won the world cup... and then how many times have the England....hmmmmm why i ask do you like to remind your selves we have done it more than you.... i dont know...

"Im England till i die, oh Im England till i die.... i am i am im sure i am im England till i die...."


oh and its still football... not soccer, soccer is an american invention... football is the true name for it... but as i say this i can see 20 million americans put their fingers in their ears and go LA LA LA LA LA CANT HEAR YOU LA LA LA>... :P

as for the USA qualifying, although i dont pay any attention to the seeding, for the mere fact that Greece won the euro 2004 over portugal... and in many cases the seeding is worked out all wrong... they seed countries by victories and how far they go in competitions... but we all see it some countries get a really easy group even theough they suck they get a good seed. not saying this is true of the USA but it happens and its why i pay no attention to it..

but i still think the USA will make the quater finals, your goal keeper is well.... i wished he was English... from what i remember (from our last encounter) you have a solid back 4, only problem, and the reason you lost they game was the midfield were not closing the ball down in their defensive role and gave the attackers too much room... but just look how far you went last time around... nah anyone who counts the USA out and puts the czechs up there is mad IMO.... that is going to be a good group... and i would say USA have a slight advantage over the Czechs purely because of the big man between the wood work.

personally just so there could be some true rivalries on here i want a USA England Final.... but i dont think anyone is predicting that.... ok thats the last post i swear... still that will teach you to talk about "The Beautiful Game" in front of an English man.

[munchkin]

Originally Posted by DudeMan

achem....the ashes.... ackhem.....

sorry throat tickle there... in any case lets play a gamecalled how many times have the aussies won the world cup... and then how many times have the England....hmmmmm why i ask do you like to remind your selves we have done it more than you.... i dont know...

Fair enough. But where did I say that Australia was going to win the World Cup?

[Mjr Doodie]

Originally Posted by icky

It's only soccer.



Please understand that this is an obligatory post which I make to all such discussions.

IS...football.....no?

[DudeMan]

Originally Posted by munchkin

Fair enough. But where did I say that Australia was going to win the World Cup?

you didnt, you just said England wouldnt and quoted a time that we did (because it was once) to say we wouldnt again...


i just illustrated, that no matter how much you know about football, and no matter how right you are, i can still pull the school boy trick of going... we did it youdidnt ner ner ner...

oh and you will never see a true English man take a bet against his own country. its a completelack of honour to do so where i come from... call it stupid... i dont care it probably is, but every time you ask me or most English men, they will always predict and English victory.

Originally Posted by TG Santa

Im surprised its only 130 if its new and is the official ball for the World Cup. The phantom soccer balls can go for 195. Theres a definite difference in the feel between my 20 dollar ball and the Phantoms i sometimes mooch off of from my friends. So much easier to control, especcialy in shooting and crossing

that ball looks crap..... but you areright,i suedto play in goalfor my school and then for beckton (a local borough) and you can soo tell the difference.... you get what you pay for, its not even the crossing, its the completely un predictable movement of the ball, especially for strikers and goal keepers, when you have the proper expensive balls, you can place them, and you can predict their flight, so shooting, the ball... it goes where you aim it... whereas the cheaper ones... they have cheapleather that tears easily, and you can get your ball control down because the ball is so unpredicatable.

[Mateo]

Originally Posted by DudeMan

oh god, this shows a complete lack of understanding as far as the English squad goes... when players like Pele and diego Maradonna (that cheating wise ass brilliant man.... if you know football you will understand) are saying that Wayne Rooney is the next... well them.... you stand up and listen, lets not forget that wayne scored on numerous occaisions at 17 on his first international torunement. lets not also forget that this same 17 year old, scored a hat trick against fenebache (thats spelled wrong) but a good european team in the champions league, on his european debut...

so yes, it's news if we have this as an option. although if you have watched Englands two warm up fixtures, and seen Peter Crouch in action, with 2 goals on tuesday and three goals against Jamaca yesterday.... he hasscored 6 goals in his lastthree apearences... you would be careful to rule England out of the finals.... with David Beckham playing two blinding games with ball control out of this world, im sorry but i have to disagree in the strongest terms.

i will also challenge you root, and i have taken a bet out on this, England will beat Sweeden, they are by far our biggest challenge in the group stages, and it might even be worth loosing to them, (so as notto face the germans who will top their group) i think we will beat them, i think the squad even without Rooney,(who should be ready for that game fingers crossed), the promise the squad has shown since the defeat at northern Ireland is great.... and to be honest being Irish on my dads side, i am a little dissapointed that they didnt get through, but common, their group...they had france and sweeden i believe... they had no chance...

England for the Win...

My understanding of Team England is that in the past they have assembled a similar group of talented individuals, and this strategy has yet to bring the Cup home.

Englands issue is similar to the US' Dream Team: you can't just throw a bunch of talent on the court/field and hope that they become a team.

Granted, USA hasn't done any better, but this is one sport where us Yanks are not expected to win. Not our sport and all.

[RGM-79N_GM_CUstom]

Some more match time.

Saturday 10
England vs Paraguay 900 EST (1500 local time)
Trinidad and Tobago vs Sweden 1200 EST (1800 local time)
Argentina vs Côte d'Ivoire 1500 EST (2100 local time)

Sunday 11
Serbia and Montenegro vs Netherlands 900 EST (1500 local time)
Mexico vs Iran 1200 EST (1800 local time)
Angola vs Portugal 1500 EST (2100 local time)

[DudeMan]

Originally Posted by TG_Mateo

My understanding of Team England is that in the past they have assembled a similar group of talented individuals, and this strategy has yet to bring the Cup home.

Englands issue is similar to the US' Dream Team: you can't just throw a bunch of talent on the court/field and hope that they become a team.

Granted, USA hasn't done any better, but this is one sport where us Yanks are not expected to win. Not our sport and all.

actually its not, your understanding is flawed... the team work extremly well together, and they have proved that on several ocaisions. so i dont know where you get this from, would a team who didnt know how to play with each other even reach the semi finals quarter finals etc on a regular basis...? no... but we do, and when we are in those gameswe usually play very well, to the point where the game is a draw and weget knocked out on penalty shoot out... thats just an English curse.... the penalty shootout always kills us.... its widely said if we have not won in the 90 minutes or 30 minutes OT we have lost, no questions asked.

the problem is, which we are rectifying, every single south american state, cheats.... and increasingly the italians and european teams cheat... fall over on a whisper, and dive left right and center. now its always been traditionally british to play fair, and a perfect example of this is the hand of god incident with maradonna scoring the brilliant 2nd goal... any other team would have sliced his legs... but squeaky clean liniker and the crew didnt... and we lost.... to be honest, its a travesty that this is what happens, but its what is happening. we are now playing a much more continental game, falling over from bad breath diving the moment we get into a box ect ect....

but quite honestly whereyougot the team thing from i dont know.... the English team play several games with each other everyyear, and they are by no means strangers to each other or the match tactics...

[DudeMan]

Originally Posted by TG_Mateo

.

Granted, USA hasn't done any better, but this is one sport where us Yanks are not expected to win. Not our sport and all.

had to draw attention to this, WHAT YOU MEAN LIKE BASE BALL... GO ON YOU JAPS....