We can use this as a place to just talk about anything and everything about the hardest Championship to win in all of professional sports.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Sweden go on a bit of a run this summer. Henrik Larsson is in fine form and Ibrahimovic continues to impress.

I'm anxiously awaiting the first big matchup of the tournament...Netherlands vs Serbia and Montenegro. It has the possibility of being an explosive contest in the Group of Death. It's hard to imagine that Argentina, Netherlands or Serbia and Montenegro will fail to make it out of the first round. Such is the magic of this tournament.

Will Togo be the Cinderella team of the tournament? They're in a group that could easily see them advance to the second round.

While at work, I was thinking of some of the possible second round matchups and man oh man things could get interesting early!

Germany should finish first in Group A which leaves them with a second round matchup against either England or Sweden (second place finisher)

Portugal and Mexico (both who should win Group D) will face either Argentina, Netherlands, Serbia and Montenegro...just phenominal how this all worked out

Should the USA finish second, they would most likely face Brazil in the second round. Other scenarios see either Italy or Czech Republic against Brazil. Wont be an easy feat for the defending Champs.

The last few pairings aren't really anything special. None the less...I just can't wait!!!

Will England ever win the World Cup again? With their best squad in years, it looked like this year would be their best chance since 1990. But now, Wanye Rooney, England's most powerful and creative player, is probably not going to recover fully in time for the tournament...and England's hopes have faded considerably.

I'm very very eager to see Brazil play- I think they are even better than they were four years ago. One slight problem: Brazil have never won a World Cup in which they were strongly favored to win...

The Holland-Argentina match could be as exciting and lively as the Czech Republic-Holland match in Euro 2004...that's another game I'm excited for...

I just can't wait for the World Cup to start just for the fun it creates here in Toronto. With one of the most multicultural populations around, there is a street party somewhere after almost every game depending on who wins.

All the local TV stations have their live cams out in the different neighbouhoods for each game so they can catch all the fun on the streets as the parties begin after each game ends. A few World Cups ago when Italy won - because there is such a huge Italian population here - over 200,000 hit the streets after each of their wins - peaking at over 500,000 when they won the final. But it is when some of the other countries win that is the real eye opener. I had no idea we had such a huge Korean population until we saw the thousands hit the streets after they upset Italy last time. There are always huge parties after each win by the Potugese and Brazilians. And there had to be 200,000 out on the Danforth when the Greeks won the European championship a couple of years ago. The best part is that often the fans of the losing country will travel to the neighbourhood of the winning side and join in the fun along with thousands of other Torontonians. It has become a Toronto tradition of sorts for the entire city to get involved. The entire city sort of becomes one giant month long World Cup party!

Let the street parties - and the games begin!

I agree Pat. Its one of the things about this city that I love. Its always a great party and certainly livens up the city.

I hate to mix politics and soccer but I will for right now. With recent news that Iran is going to be placing badges on Jews and Non-Muslims, should FIFA step in and ban Iran from participating in the World Cup? This has been done in the past with Yugoslavia in Euro 92 (They were replaced by Denmark I believe, on short notice, who then went on to win the tournament). FIFA has also banned South Africa from participating in any sanctioned events up until a few years ago due to their political unrest.

I personally don't have an opinion yet as I could go either way...but hopefully this weekend I'll come up with something.

See my edited comments in this thread. It is easy to mistranslate and misjudge.

Now that Montenegro has voted to leave Serbia and form its own country, how will this affect the World Cup and Euro 2008 qualifying?

Serbia and Montenegro are a strong team that's lumped into the Group of Death with Argentina, Netherlands, and Ivory Coast. I'm assuming that with such short notice, Serbia and Montenegro will compete at the World Cup under the unified flag for one final time. It'll be interesting to see if FIFA must now re-seed the groups for Euro 2008 or how they handle this situation.

Maybe it's just me but does anyone else have a weird feeling inside that Brazil is gonna struggle and NOT win the World Cup this year?

We shall see...I keep going back to this point, but I think it deserves repeating: Brazil have never won a World Cup in which they were the favorites.

If Ronaldinho wasn't so phenomenal when he's on, if Robinho wasn't one of the best young forwards in the world, if Dida wasn't a strong goalkeeper, and if the team hadn't won the Confederations Cup in Germany last summer with such aplomb, I think I'd feel the same way as you. But then again, a lot of those arguments could have been made about France coming in to the 2002 World Cup. I think that Brazil will do well, though. They may not win the World Cup, but there have been very few World Cups in which Brazil has struggled. This Brazil team has too many veterans and too much skill to struggle.

I will say that Croatia, Japan, and Australia are, on paper, a more challenging bunch than France's 2002 foes Senegal, Uruguay, and Denmark.

One nation that's certainly been left out of a lot of talk is South Korea. Rightfully so in my mind- I simply don't think that South Korea will reach the semifinals again. I think South Korea's performance at this World Cup will depend strongly on Switzerland's performance: a weak Swiss showing, and South Korea will reach the next round easily; a strong Swiss team will spell disaster for the young South Koreans.

Metro you hit the nail on the head...South Korea will certainly not make the semi finals this year. The ONLY reason why they made it so far in 02 was because of Guus Hiddink who was able to get the most out of that team, and a little help from the officiating. Things are different this time around and they'll be lucky to make it out of the first round!

And how much are time zone changes going to matter? The European teams will all be playing "home games" to an extent, and international play where time zone changes are a factor are even more so in a low scoring sport.

That "one day for every hour" to recover is only a benchmark and maybe an old wives tale for all it will matter in the Cup.

Team play may be the key so those teams with the most national fervor may be the best at overcoming it. I still fear the Aussies and S. Koreans. Youth could be an advantage.

Still think the Swiss coach's comment about how unknown some of these teams are will be crucial, especially those teams that don't have a lot of players in the European leagues.

Even though he was talking about Togo which finished in the bottom of it's group in the Africa Cup, that only shows how strong the African teams can be.

That's what makes the Cup so much fun.

[ May 22, 2006, 06:50 PM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

So Guus Hiddink has already proven his magic with the Aussie Socceroos. You have to give them the Hiddink edge above Japan & Croatia. Hopefully, their emotional win over Uruguay to reach the Finals in Germany doesn't leave them drained. I'm sure Hiddink won't allow that to happen. Is it true that for the next WC qualifiers, Australia will compete in Asia instead of Oceania?

As for a European-wide homepitch advantage, some of the football-casters are saying this could be true for the countries that surround Germany, such as Switzerland & France. But I'm sure traditional German foes like England, Sweden, Netherlands and Czech Republic will not have a homepitch feeling. And since most of the teams, especially from the Americas and Asia are getting there well ahead of time, this should not be a problem. One of the best stories I heard is how Kasey Keller went to the Bundesliga 2 years ago just so he could feel comfortable in Germany for the World Cup. That's a man with vision. Go USA!

[ May 23, 2006, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: simontexas ]

Yes Simon, Australia has left the Oceana confederation and joined the Asian Confederation.

Australia have been a team of perennial underachievers, but I think this is their best chance. Their game against Brazil could be interesting- the fluid play of the Brazilians could be thrown off by the Aussies' physical play. Australia should triumph easily over Japan, and though Croatia may prove a tougher foe, I think they could win there too. I just have a feeling about that Brazil match though- something tells me that Brazil are going to have a tough time with Australia...

It says something about the international nature of the sport, and the intensity of the intra-country rivalries, that this story about the unruly treatment of its own national team members by French fans in Paris should appear in an online news source in Mumbai, India.

The French are becoming their own worst enemy yet again, even though Zidane seems optimistic in saying they will draw together to support the team once Cup play starts.

Zidane is a player easy to love for the French because his regular season play is on a team outside the country, and maybe more importantly, he retires after the Cup this year. Also he seems like a really likeable soft-spoken guy who doesn't involve himself much in the intense poliitcal discussions the French love so much.

His unifying personality and background are going to be missed by Les Bleus. And those fans making a bid to be as rude as the Brits and others should take a hint from their hero.

Love this photo which captures the man's skilful and unselfish game, and is a fitting tribut to him on the occassion of his retirement:

Good by and good luck.

And please don't try to pull a Michael Jordan on us and try to come back.

Very few people can do that, and it can be really sad when a great player doesn't know when to quit. frown

Australia played a friendly against Greece last Thusrday @ the MCG & won 1-0. The crowd was 95,000 & it was fantastic.

Actually, he already did that...he retired from the French national team after Euro 2004, along with Claude Makelele and Laurent Blanc. All three returned to the French team after France struggled in 2006 World Cup qualifying.

Aussie Bomber- glad to hear Australia's getting support like that. That's amazing- 95,000 fans would make it one of the largest crowds in history... Hopefully, they can continue their form in Germany- against Brazil and Croatia they're going to need it...

I really think Australia is going to beat Brazil...seriously, watch out for the Aussies!

If the Aussies have a defense that can stop both Ronaldo and Ronaldihno for 90 minutes, I want to see it. Ask the Germans.

Their best hope may be that Ronaldo shows up drowsy or nauseous. I love the Aussie's spirit but at their best the Brazilians can be scary, their so good. Luck and Kewell could be the key. That's like if Jordan came back only to play in the Olympics but not the regular season, as he did.

The grueling regular season play is what could put Euro players at a disadvantage by comparison.

[ May 30, 2006, 01:38 AM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

Nice article about sex at the World Cup by Outsports...but Luis Felipe Scolari coaches Portugal NOT Brazil.

Australia defeating Brazil? This is really pushing it, but hope (for some) springs eternal. I can't wait to see Adriano, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and the rest of the Selecção Brasileiro take the pitch!

[ May 31, 2006, 09:41 AM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

I don't think it's as far-fetched as it sounds at first. It'll probably depend on the first match of the group: if Brazil dominate Croatia and the Aussies lose to Japan, expect an easy win for Brazil...a tough match for Brazil and an easier win for Australia could set the stage for the Australians to win.

In other news, Brazilian midfielder Edmilson has been ruled out of the World Cup. This could be a big blow for Brazil, as they look a little thin on the defensive side of the ball...

I think the Argentines' opening match against Ivory Coast will be terrific. IC played very well against Spain and Switzerland this year. They should be the best team coming out of Africa (but it will be tough for them to pass both Arg. and the Dutch to get into the second round)

France v Swiss is also gonna be an interesting first round matchup. Angola v. Portugal will be fun just because it's the colony v. the colonists -- it might motivate the Angolans, but surely not enuf to beat Portugal.

btw -- you guys who think the Aussies will beat Brazil. No. Ain't gonna happen. As mentioned above, Brazil has way too much talent, depth and international experience.

Oh .. and the fun news this week. 3300 hooligans in England have to surrender their passports to ensure they cannot travel to Germany for the Cup -- and on top of that -- must report to their local police on the dates of England's games.

[ June 01, 2006, 10:50 AM: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

No one thought Senegal could beat France, the US could beat Portugal, or South Korea could beat Spain and Italy...

There hasn't been a World Cup without upsets...and I think, giving the Brazilian track record coming into World Cups as favorites, that Australia just may be able to beat Brazil. No one said Australia is going to dominate Brazil because that's not going to happen. But that's not to say that Marco Bresciano, Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka, and the rest of the Australians won't be able to top a Brazilian side whose superb attack is propped up by aging defenders (and is no longer supported by Edmilson). Out of all the groups, I think the surprise will come out of this group.

Again though, I reiterate the fact that it's going to depend on form. If Brazil have a strong opener, they will probably carry their energy and flair into the next game. A tougher game, combined with a little excitement out of the Australian camp, could set the stage for an upset.


In other news, I just finished reading an interesting article at the Soccer America website...it turns out that the knockout round of the tournament comes first! In France 98 and Japan/Korea 2002, just one team who lost their opener went on to qualify for the next round. Teams who win their opener do excellently, almost always going through...

Has anyone else checked out the World Cup Blog (www.worldcupblog.com)? I saw a link to it in yesterday's news on the Outsports main page...it's very good! I think I am addicted to it...

Must you always remind me that the USA beat Portugal in 2002? frown

That's interesting about losing the opening match and not moving on. I guess the teams just lose all momentum.

Another neat fact that doesn't bode well for Argentina or the USA. I believe Brazil is the only nation to have won the cup away from it's own continent. 1958 in Sweden, 1994 in USA and last time in Korea/Japan.

As for big upsets this year, I'll go for Trinidad over England.

Yeah...I've heard that before. It's interesting- I guess teams are just more accustomed to weather, fans, and stadiums in their own continent then anywhere else. If Brazil are knocked out, I think it will be a European team lifting the trophy, especially because UEFA made the leagues in each country end earlier than usual (to prevent the fatigue players complained about in 2002 and 2004).

Do the Crouch Robo-dance!
This is the same dance he did for Prince William after scoring against Hungary earlier this week.

LOL...that made me feel better (after being depressed with the Indians tonight...)!

The British hooligans appear to be less of a worry this time than the homegrown German Neo-Nazi and far-right nutcases, though black players from the US and elsewhere have been encountering some hardcore racist wackos during European national league games. I hadn't heard that US player Oguchi Onyewu was punched in the face by a fan while throwing in a ball in Belgium. Sort of like what happened with that crazy fan in KC, except that guy wasn't yelling out racist chants. I hope Germany can get things together so that this madness doesn't taint or tar the Cup.

[ June 02, 2006, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

I've read many articles online about neo-Nazis making threats against the Tunisian and Saudi players, most of whom are Muslims.

Germany needs to be very alert to these threats and the racist threats. FIFA has been known to only give slaps on the wrist for racist abuse of players (see coach Luis Aragones of Spain)...

England has found its starting striker in Peter Crouch. Three Goals against Jamaica...not bad. 6-0 result...England is riding momentum heading into the World Cup!

Bad news for the Germans on the eve of the World Cup opener...Michael Ballack will miss the opener against Costa Rica. He had a slight injury, and didn't receive treatment until the German team reassembled on Monday, claiming that symptoms didn't show till then. This is a causing a big uproar with the German media...we'll see how Germany are able to cope with his loss...

Germany has a lot of young players too. Youth could be an advantage if they play loose.

Ballack resting for the Costa Rica game may be an advantage as well if he is ready for the following games. Depends on the extent of his injury.

I think I'll keep Germany as my pick to win it all, with the extra energy and comfort of the home advantage. And gay-friendlier to boot. wink

The Ballack saga continues: Michael Ballack has declared himself fit for today's opener. This comes just 24 hours after coach Jurgen Klinsmann said Ballack was not fit to play. Now I'm wondering if Klinsmann will play him- it's a lose-lose situation for him. If he starts Ballack and he's not ready, then Ballack could get injured and Klinsmann will take the heat. If he doesn't start Ballack though, and he says he's ready, Klinsmann will be in trouble with the fans for not starting his captain and for any potential disappointments with the final result. Doesn't sound like a fun situation...

We need to come up with a nickname for the American team. Costa Rica are "Ticos"; Italians are "Azzuri"; Spain: "La Furia"; Trinidad & Tobago: "Soca Warriors"

The Germans call theirs the "Mannschaft" -- isn't that the name of the bar that George_twinsfan works at in NYC?

We're less than an hour away from the World Cup...I can't believe it's finally here! Christmas truly has come early (actually came earlier when my Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals)

Bad news for Portugal as it's unknown if Deco will start against Angola. Here's hoping he'll be able to get the nod as he's a magician out there!

Poland will beat Ecuador....while I'm picking Germany over Costa Rica I will NOT be surprised to see the Ticos come away victorious.

Wow...

Germany looked very very good in their opener against Costa Rica. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Miroslav Klose were brilliant, and even without superstar Michael Ballack, the Germans looked great. One cause for concern: the poorly timed offsides trap! Paulo Wanchope broke the German offsides trap twice to score goals. If Germany doesn't do something to fix that, it might still be a short tournament for them.

My Poles looked awful in meekly falling 2-0 to Ecuador.

Maybe they expected friendlier line judges at home. Wish I could have seen it. Cuddly Frings apparently got a goal too. A Ghanaian associate at work thinks Argentina will win it all while I give Germany the edge, so we have our own little friendly going. Didn't know 80% of Ghana's team play in Europe. Wish I had talked to him before making my World Cup picks. :mad: Things are looking tougher than ever for USA. No easy games at all.

[ June 09, 2006, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

The one advantage the US has over Ghana- experience. This is the US's 5th straight World Cup; Ghana is playing in their first tournament. It might not seem like a big deal, but it's very important to have experience in the tournament to calm nerves.

I'm so happy that TSN/Sportsnet/CTV have once again decided to get the British announcers for all the games. Just awesome!

(I'll post my thoughts sometime this weekend hopefully)

Bend it like Beckham. Ooh, a Paraguayan deflected a Beckham kick off his head into his own goal on a Becks kick. England leading 1-0.

Appreciate the post canmark. Because here, instead of the match, we get to watch another hour of endless yakety yak can't talk back sportscenter and......fishing. Granted the excitement of watching fishing on tv is, well, it's hard to describe. Think of watching poker on tv maybe. Well, no, it's probably not quite that exciting. But it's up there. However, it is the world cup, and I'm trying to be a good citizen of the world by watching that little soccer event.

What am I talking about....I'm sure they'll show a hightlight on sportscenter. After all, the only thing you need to see about a match are the "highlights", right?

I thought every game was broadcast in the U-S?

Here in Canada all 64 games are broadcast live on TSN/Sportsnet with the Final on CTV.

England won, but the game was pretty dull, and England missed the few chances it had to score more than the own-goal by Gamarra. Germany's game against Costa Rica, and the Ecuador-Poland match were a lot more exciting. I kept waiting for more fireworks from Becks & Co.

I think they are. I was watching it on Univision instead of ABC, which has too many commercials.

Does the American broadcast have American commentators? The Canadian broadcast was a British feed (with periodic updates from the Canadian commentators at the desk), with those wonderful English commentators. Love their use of the English language. I was on the computer and not really watching the game when I heard mention of a "parapet" (as in, "...the ball glanced off the parapet") and I just though to myself "a Canadian sports commentator just wouldn't have used that word. Probably wouldn't even know what a parapet is."

Well at least England won. Which is something they have very rarely done in major international competitions recently in their first match. In fact it is their first win in the first round since the 98 World Cup. They did not win their first matches at either Euro Cup in 2000 or 2004 and in the 2002 World Cup they tied their opener against Sweden.

With the World Cup started now the 'name that flag' contest has started again in Toronto. Cycling down to my softball games last night there were dozens of cars zipping around the city with flags flying and car horns beeping. I recognized the German flags, so I figured they had won against Costa Rica. But I had forgotten who it was that was playing in the other game yesterday, so I was stumped as to what country all these dozens of cars with flags waving were celebrating for. A lot of them were hot latin looking guys, so i had narrowed it down to a Latin American country. Finally one group of cars got close enough so I could hear them chanting 'Ecuador! Ecuador!.

This morning on my way into work I noticed the England fans had crowded into some of the Sports Bars - and that was at 9:00AM! So in a couple of hours I'll expect to see either the beautiful blonde Swedes of Toronto bouncing around the city or will it be a mini Caribana-like celebration with hundreds out if Trinidad Tobago wins.

And then later today I suspect the Argentinians will be out in full force, because they should beat the Ivory Coast. The World Cup fun in multicultural Toronto has begun!

[ June 10, 2006, 08:55 AM: Message edited by: Travelpat ]

So did I. Alas, Sat. morning shows were on abc, highlights of highlights with witty commentary was on espn, and fishing was on espn2. Don't get univision. Sweden and Trinidad/Tobego is on now....pretty entertaining.

The broadcasts are sweet up here...

Half hour pre-game show hosted by TSN/Sportsnet experts

1st Half of the game broadcast with British Feed

Halftime show hosted by TSN/Sportsnet experts

2nd Half of the game broadcast with British Feed

Half hour Post Game Show by TSN/Sportsnet experts

And it's like that for EVERY game...just awesome!