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South Africa 2010 World Cup
Here we are! One week to the start of the fantastic South African circus!!!
I see Argentina (with the question mark of the technical choices Diego may make) and England as level 1 favourites, with Brazil and Spain immediately behind, and Holland and Portugal as possible surprises.
No real chance, in my opinion, for Italy (Cassano was left home, and we probably lost now Pirlo as well), Germany and France (hopefully, after their theft against Ireland). Ghana may be the first of the Africans after Côte d'Ivoire lost Drogba.
As usual, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and Serbia are teams never to be underrated, and so are (in a lower level) Algeria, South Korea, Cameroun, Nigeria and Australia.
I'm curious to see Honduras and New Zealand (that I saw as a child in Spain '82) and North Korea (that eliminated Italy in England '66).
Very sorry for Drogba, Ferdinand and Beckham who could not be in it due to injury.
Now, let's leave the word to the ball and to the green field, and see what happens!
Enjoy it all!!!!
Comments
Ridiculous show by France and Domenech. Brazil has probably not shown all it has, while Argentina showed a fantastic Messi, we have to see if he lasts till the end.
England need to wake up, otherwise it will be hard, and Spain will have a dramatic game with Chile: if they do not win (and it's not easy against 11 Chileans defending the goal against their mother-country) they're out!
In the eights-final we should have crazy matches: Holland-Italy, and we may get Germany-England and Brazil-Spain.
On the other side, we should have Paraguay-Denmark, Uruguay-South Korea and possibly Chile/Switzerland-Portugal and Serbia-Usa. Which means, we might have Uruguay, Usa or Serbia in the semis. Yep, weird World Cup, can't wait to see how it goes on!
After Belgium in 1986, Bulgaria and Sweden in 1994, Croatia in 1998, Turkey in 2002 (let alone South Korea that did not make it there due to its merits.....) and Portugal in 2006, we will have another surprise this year. Let's see who it is. But the final will be, as usual, a classic, and, if England and Spain do not wake up, for the first time will see on both benches two guys who already lifted the cup as captains in the past.......
Not going to debate the issue, but it is on in our lunch room at work all the time, so I see snatches of it when I go to make my coffee. For some reason, my work colleagues don't find it helpful when I point out that if the chap had kicked the ball into the goal he would have got a point.
No matter how skillfull these people are (or maybe because OF it), it is so bloody boring! No wonder someone had the bright idea 150 years ago to pick the bloody thing up and start running; and someone else had the idea of thumping the prick that picked up the ball, and consequently started a much better game.
I know I am in the minority and that you all think of it as the beautiful game, but to me soccer is to football sports, what time trials are to F1.
By the way, how can you stand watching it on the telly with all those awful horns constantly blaring? Perhaps because, like the game itself, the banality of it all is the juice.
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Good news from England's last training session - Emile Heskey hit a fearsome volley right into the net.
The bad news is that he is rubbish at tennis as well...
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Just heard a man on death row in Utah has been told he can choose his own firing squad. He's chosen Rooney, Heskey, Gerrard and Lampard!
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Robert Green recovered from his blunder in the first game and held more than 4200 shots on goal in training. The rest of the team will now join him and Heskey to practice some more...
Anyway back to the Football England won't qualify to many ego's and square pegs in round holes (i'm not just saying that because I'm Scottish by the way.) I hope its a Holland / Argentina final they are the two teams that have impressed me the most so far.
Go back home, Lippi and Domenech, hope never to hear about you again!
Crazy world cup, one between Uruguay, USA, South Korea and Ghana will make it to the semis, and on the other side, if Spain fails as well tomorrow, we will have one between Paraguay, Denmark, Chile/Switzerland and Portugal!
Lease, as for the rugby vs football querelle, they are two wonderful sports, full of fantastic technical jestures. And remember, playing with the feet is much more difficult than with the hands, as feet are a much less sensitive part of the body. The marvel of it is that players can do those things with their feet!
But I'm afraid it's just a cultural question, it's impossible to be explained by a Continental European to an Aussie, as it would be impossible for an Aussie to explain to me how's it possible that he likes cricket!
I think Argentina and Portugal have so far looked most convincing. Apart from the Orange Army (which, just like Germany progressed but didn't exactly rock the boat either until now) my support's with Uruguay (remember 1950?) and US Soccer (they deserve a good tournament after their fantastic run in the Confederations Cup)