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World Cup 2006

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17:43 / 19.05.06

to beat the likes of brazil, argentina or france

Excuse me, france? FRANCE? Living in the past much?

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

18:29 / 19.05.06

Yeah, France have like, no good players! Oh wait...

Although they do have Boumsong. Who knows why?

18:50 / 19.05.06

vieira, gallas, ribery, saha, henry all class

zidane old but i still wouldn't trust him not to score against us in the last minute if he came on as a sub or summat (the baldy get)

am i right in thinking that giuly is not in their squad? anyone know why?

03:49 / 21.05.06

i was going to say giuly - surely he's first pick in his national side, wherever he comes from??!! offer me him or terry henry and i'd take him any day. are france eschewing him? have to chase that up...

yup, not listed in the squad i just read...

but anyway, yeah france? what? ya rekkun?

00:07 / 24.05.06

i suppose i would probably put france in that group of five or six teams who have a chance™

to be honest ... as an england fan i find it impossibly difficult to think objectively about likely outcomes simply because i know more about my own team/players than i know about the other 31 teams put together ... now i don't know if this is an experience peculiar to the uk, or whether fans of all nations find this.

people?

00:13 / 24.05.06

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=international_feed/06/05/22/SOCCER_Fra-Giuly.html

excellent stuff ... are there penguins in australia?

03:19 / 24.05.06

well, yes, but if he's gone canoe among them all he'll paddle tile next world cup! i admire both his stance and his choice of holiday destination. he'll get a right world cup fervour here for the first time for a long time. i'm sure he'll be wanting to jump and scream in a stadium / full of australians! [wearing my green and gold...]*

* sorry, just giving our new national team song a plug. sbs had a song for the socceroos show and this won. a sort of hip-hop with didgeridoo footy chant - brilliant for rhyming 'stadium' with 'australians'!!

the winners get to premiere it live in front of the 98 000 expected at the mcg tomorrow night for our last home soil warm up 'friendly' [charming term] against greece, in melbourne which coincidentally is the largest greek population outside greece, so a doozy of a first gig! o, if ludovic could join in with that..!

oooh, look at me, i'm so excited!!

19:48 / 29.05.06

reuter's article on socceroos - a pretty fair summation.

i'd have maybe been more pessimistic and aimed to get maybe a point and almost certainly a goal, and have been a bit less epl-centric, with kalac at ac milan and grella and bresciano also serie a regulars at parma also a key facet of our capacities...

have others seen foreign press summations of their teams' wc potential?

well our lads beat greece one-nil. a great result, but the greeks belied their claims thety had come to play. we still showed a lot of promise and mettle and fluidity, controlled the game for most parts but i still rekkun if we showed that exact performance against japan in germany we'd get walloped. but the win has caused a tremendous buzz about football in australia, one i've never seen before.

suddenly, in australia, the game is played with a round ball. so we've won whatever the result on the pitch!

16:14 / 30.05.06

Astro, I read today (in Teh Gnuaardi) that Tim Cahill was a Western Samoa international at the age of 14 and, essentially, had to lobby to be allowed to play for Oz - do you know anything about this?

22:21 / 30.05.06

yeah, a little.

he was born there to an australian dad and samoan mother [?] and was asked to play for the junior squad. his father had the samoan fa check with fifa that this wouldn't affect his future australian representative hopes (musta been some kid star!) and was assured then that no, his dual nationality allowed him to play for which ever senior squad he later chose, this wouldn't affect things, no. says fifa.

later, fifa says no, we didn't say that did we? who said that? musta been [insert name of scap[egoat here] and we wouldn't have said that if you asked us. sorry, he can't play for australia.

i think the point of dispute arose over whether the non-sanctioned international age group (there is no fifa tournament for the kiddies that age) should / could affect the player's choice in senior football. that, and having bothered to seek advice, acting in good faith upon it...

there ensued a lengthy dispute that eventually was settled in the commonsense, and we have a valuable player in a dangerous squad at the world cup. australia does. yip-faarken-pee!!!

00:17 / 31.05.06

Yeah, I thought it was maybe full int'nl, which would have been absolutely mental - but, there again, I do know I could probably get a game for some Oceania squads, nationality notwithstanding (Solomon Islands, say) - because we (Scotland) have had Nigel Quashie and Stuart McCall represent us, despite in the case of the former (iirc) representing at U-21s for England and the latter be in a squad for said, although the legend goes he took too long to tie his boots as a last minute sub because he'd changed his mind about who he wanted to play for.

15:18 / 04.06.06

astro, you must be pleased with that draw with holland!
were they both pretty much full-strength lineups?

23:16 / 04.06.06

yep, we had tim cahill back on as a sub to score the equaliser. kewell wasn't even on the bench but he did play a full 90mins in a scratch match against a first grade dutch side this week. otherwise, we were at full strength and the dutch fielded their strongest line-up.

the game was predicably cagey and full of little moves but rarely flowing. the dutch seemed hapy enough to bat the ball about their defence, including the 'keeper, who was chased by the aussie front men a couple times into making mistakes. then they launched balls to the flanks and their pace in van persie and robben was pretty confronting, especially to a very very one-footed brett emerton. he really needs to learn to do something else with his left foot than model football boots... we were typically australian: physical when called on, sometimes when not, but exciting in patches and looking leaky other times...

that said, the dutch really are a class above us, but we did enough harrying and moving the ball ourselves to stop them getting really tee'd up in prime positions. and schwarzer made a couple of really world class stops - but so did van der saar against a certain close range viduka header!

so yeah, a great hit out, early nerves and sloppiness, but settled into a line up that will be hard to get around, i hope. still not sure we'll cut mustard in germany, but we've every chance when the gaffer is guus hiddink and he pronounces 'we kept our opponents busy and matched them at times' against the dutch - who i fancy could go a long way this w.c.

s'getting close!

01:21 / 06.06.06

this article seems a reasonable wrap of the dutch v socceroos match - the dutch players generally rate the 'roos a chance, they see a stamp of themselves in our play [with their guus at the helm]

i still wonder what they might have said if they'd played japan or croatia...

question for you all:

what's the mood out there 'lithers? how are you rating your appraisal of the world cup? what has been your answer when someone asks, 'so, who'll win the cup, then?' - eh?

...mine has usually prevaricated (was asked last night by an old swiss chap - we are fond combatants in conversation, so had long rambling answer - i'll be more brief here!), saying that brasil will be hard to beat, but mebbe the dutch, the argentinians and perhaps a dark horse like portugal, england or italy might do surprisingly well. i expect germany not to win.

i expect the quarters to have the above (obviously only two of holland argentina and portugal can possibly get that far, sadly) four and then brasil, france ('cause they have little opposition unless they meet spain), germany, spain/ukraine. pick a winner from that lot.

upstarts? australia, obviously! and mexico, paraguay & ghana.

but anything might happen!

18:25 / 06.06.06

Gio van Bronckhorst was seriously pissed off with you boys, though, especially Wilkshire.

21:33 / 06.06.06

One week to go, people. I've been following Brazil's team pre-Cup games (8 x 0 against some team from Holand; and 4 x 0 on New Zeland), and we're soooo gonna kick all your asses, ha ha!

22:08 / 06.06.06

you don't gotta be brasil to wallop new zealand, dm. sydney fc club side do it pretty regularly...

so, d'ya rekkun they're ready for it? what is the buzz in brasil like?? what do you think of the tactics to play gently, just soft training friendlies and no real tests in the lead up? i'm a little skeptical meself. even though these are all battle-hardened players, they are not a battle-hardened team yet...? is this mebbe the case?

...and yeah, falcon, i rekkun he'd have cause to be a little miffed...

but when you see the replay wilkshire gets a lot of the ball. this raises the question, for me - mebbe i should just post this in the 'football x 4' thread - about what constitutes 'behind' in a tackle from behind? how far back from level with the player do you need to be? if it is anywhere at all behind the attacking player, then most great saving tackles in the box would be penalties; and they're not. where's the line?

[and i don't mean to try to exculpate young luke here - he was far too excited and was not behaving professionally. malice isn't a sole offence!]

22:56 / 06.06.06

you don't gotta be brasil to wallop new zealand, dm. sydney fc club side do it pretty regularly...

I admit, ity wa snot much of a foe, but it was good to see what we call "footbal art" in the making. If not anything else, it was reassuring.

so, d'ya rekkun they're ready for it? what is the buzz in brasil like?? what do you think of the tactics to play gently, just soft training friendlies and no real tests in the lead up? i'm a little skeptical meself. even though these are all battle-hardened players, they are not a battle-hardened team yet...? is this mebbe the case?

ready for it? Oh yeah, As Cacá - one of our players - said, the team is 70% of its full power by now, and it will star with 80%, reaching full throttle by the end of the 1st phase. If you ask me, false modesty aside, 80% is more than enough

Regarding the players vs team issue, you got a point. The Players seem to be in an internal competition to see who's gonna play the best, which is not the best of attitudes in group sports. But, the thing is, this time we are coming with so many great players - Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Cacá, Adriano (the so called "Quartet"), Cafu, Robinho, and others that we could actually play with two teams (Brasil-A and Brasil-B) and you'd still have plenty of chance, so we have lots of room for error. But, as we say in Brasil, "Football is a box of surprises", meaning, luck and heart plays a large part of the game, and being the best, no matter how better, is never a guarantee of victory, so who knows? I do feel we're gonna trumple everybody, but I may have to swallow my own words.

Anyway, astro, there's still time for a little bet between us on Australia vs Brazil (game 2 on phase 1). I'll give you 5 to 1 odds

04:56 / 07.06.06

i suspect i'd be wanting to put any money i haven't got on our foe in that encounter. i think we'll get through with a win over japan and a point against a hungry croatian side.

no i don't, but i hope so!

and yeah, dm, brasil at 80% is probably overkill for most sides...

00:49 / 08.06.06

oh no, poor cisse broke his leg against china last night. needed immediate surgery, so not good. in any case, out of the cup.

mebbe ludovic will get the nod to come into the squad?

a scratchy sort of performance by a second string socceroos (seven changes from holland game) at least had one positive for me (apart from a 3-1 win) in that zelko kalac was in the sticks and was called on by sloppy defending to do stuff - and he was commanding as ever. their goal came from our own goal, a deflected header from a free kick into the box, innocuous until lucas neill totally wrong-footed spider, who must have thought it would be safely left for him...

two more sleeps til it starts!

20:44 / 08.06.06

Just found this article on wikipedia:

The greatest three minutes in the history of Football

Just so you know what awaits ya...

03:25 / 09.06.06

Twelve hours to go! I'm pumped. The good 'ol USofA got screwed in the group selection process but we're going to show the world not to mess with us again.

Teams I'll be pulling for:

1)USA

2)Czech Republic
3)Germany

ONLY NICE THINGS

05:49 / 09.06.06

The good 'ol USofA got screwed in the group selection process but we're going to show the world not to mess with us again.

Troops on the Rhine? Dude. Sweet.

13:55 / 09.06.06

Govou?! Domenech's claims that it is all about the team seem even more ridiculous now that Cisse's out and he's still not selecting Giuly (or Anelka?)... I think someone's a little bit touchy still.

22:34 / 09.06.06

what a cracker of a game 'twixt poland and ecuador. got up at half four am rather than stay up to two to see the hosts... and i found out yesterday i drew poland in the sweep at work...

i was in ecuador just a few months before the last wc, where they qualified for the first time, so i have a soft spot for them, and actually rated them a chance to get out of the group. they sure showed that!

fantastic start to my world cup watching... yours?

05:39 / 10.06.06

Yes, not bad at all. I'd hoped Ecuador would be good but kept hearing they were only good at 10,000', they pushed that notion themselves too by saying they wished they could play their games on the Zugspitze (the highest mountain in Germany).

The Germany-Poland game is a really big deal now. Great!

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:44 / 10.06.06

Remarkably, Dead Megatron's triumphalism is starting to make me hope that Brazil lose, which is a remarkable state of affairs and not one that I have ever thought that I would have to confront.

11:44 / 10.06.06

I just went groceries shopping and the last time I saw that many german flags hanging on balconies was 1990.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:47 / 10.06.06

Look after yourself, Mist. A lot of pissed-up Englishmen over there.

13:04 / 10.06.06

Thanks stoatie, but I can´t imagine many english rascals being here and looking for a fight. I could worry about drunk frustrated german "fans", if "we" lose again, though.

13:58 / 10.06.06

So.

I'm in the Greek islands but fortunately(?) I can watch BBC coverage of England winning their first opener in over 40 years; Michael Owen isn't fit is he? No.

Bit fucking stupid to take another unfit forward and a schoolboy then, probably. Various mystery substitutions, also, although Downing looked keen. Germans, with their free-flowing carefree football, much better yesterday.

14:04 / 10.06.06

Owen, I would go so far as to agree, played 'like a dripping tap'.

20:01 / 10.06.06

Oh yeah! Finally some really good football. Argentina versus Côte d'Ivoire (2:1). Absolutely classic! I hope to see both again in the final.

20:18 / 10.06.06

Remarkably, Dead Megatron's triumphalism is starting to make me hope that Brazil lose, which is a remarkable state of affairs and not one that I have ever thought that I would have to confront.

ok then

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:02 / 10.06.06

Just... you know, we know that Brazil are very good at football. Everyone likes that. There's no need to be like that about it.

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