General Chat / Fifa World Cup 2006 Discussion & Predictions

Awesome opening with those previous winners entering the stadium!
I also like what they did with those lampoons in a way..

Germany surprised me with their attacking play.. They put a lot of pressure when CR wanted to set up an attack.. It kinda reminds me how we (Holland) want to play, with early pressure and dominant play..
Their weakness is obvious though; Their defenders were a mess.. If they play like that against Ecuador and Poland they would get in trouble.. They get Ballack back though, which would make a huge difference I think.. It would be nice to see (the slightly injured) Lehmann getting replaced by Kahn too
Anyway, they won, which is most important.. And with 2 beautiful goals, although lucky and due to a bad Goalie.. It would be interesting to see how they'll play Ecuador and Poland..

Ecuador surprised me too.. I was expecting Poland to win with 1-0 (0-0), even more because we won against Ecuador in a friendly with our B-squad (1-0).. Makes me think Holland really has a wide and great selection..
I'll have to say Poland had a lot of bad luck; It could easily have been 2-2 if the two shots against the pole went in.. Poland looked really weak though, and besides the two shots against the pole they didn't have many possibilities to score.. I'm expecting Germany and Ecuador to go through now..

Tomorrow some very interesting matches.. England-Paraguay where I'm expecting England to win and Sweden that will slaughter Trinidad.. Also the first match in our group where I'm very curious to see if Argentina can beat Cote D'Ivoire (which I'm expecting)..

It was a nice openings day, which is very promising.

SF

ps; Thanks for the pin..

Edited by Six Frags, 09 June 2006 - 04:39 PM.

After seeing the first 2 games, I think Germany is in deep shit against Ecuador. Ecuador looked very strong, and unless Germany gets their defense together, and works out the kinks they had in their transition attack, I think Ecuador will beat them. The next couple matches are pretty uninteresting IMO, 2 blowouts most likely.

Edited by eman, 09 June 2006 - 08:59 PM.

woah, Poland did not look strong at all, eman. I'm not much of a soccer fanatic because I haven't been able to follow games in the past, but I know that Poland should've done much better against Ecuador. They had a lot of misplaced passes, and their defense was really poor: bad communication, lack of aggressiveness, and so on.

I did only see the first half before having the leave for work, but I can't imagine it changed that drastically.

Oh blah, I meant Ecuador. They are very underrated IMO, and I think that if they get the first goal against Germany, they could very likely come away with a surprising win.

Didn't Ecuador beat Argentina and Brazil in their qualifying matches?

Ecuador have a decent defence, especially in Espinoza- reminds me of the old Sol Campbell lol.

-X-

Didn't Ecuador beat Argentina and Brazil in their qualifying matches?

Don't forget that there playing on an high mountain in that games. The air pressure in them staduim is then very high, so Brazil and Argentina
had of it charge. But that is inferior nothing for the result! That is true.

Ecuador has an nice selection, especially that upcoming back (i think it was Reasco) and Espinoza. Valencia is also an good one. Poland dissapoint me a little but, especially Zurawski. Why not selected Franskowski?

Germany was in the back very bad. I think the gonna have problems when there playing against better teams. They are playing to much on one line, so one or two ticks and you lost them as attacker. There back cover was very bad. In the front with Podolski and Klose it stands good, aswell with the upcoming back's. But it says enough, that you already have charge of Costa Rica. What would happen if they reach the 2nd round and must play against better team's as Zweden or England?

Program of today:
Engeland - Paraguay
Trinidad en Tobago - Zweden
Argentinië - Ivoorkust

Why not selected Franskowski?

lmao i can answer that... He has signed for my home team, Wolves. He has played 18 matches overall and scored 0 goals, and in that period he has failed to have a good game. Basically, Glenn Hoddle dragged him down to our team level.

-X-

lmao i can answer that... He has signed for my home team, Wolves. He has played 18 matches overall and scored 0 goals, and in that period he has failed to have a good game. Basically, Glenn Hoddle dragged him down to our team level.

-X-

Forget he leaved Poland. Always found him an nice player there.

Ps:As i am an groundhopper, i love your Molineux ground!

Wow. Ecuador were surprisingly good! Yeah Poland had a bad day but still...

The German side was full of players i had never heard of. Where have all the legends gone? Ballack wasn't allowed to play because he's already being bullied by Chelsea but c'mon, the only names i knew were those of Metzelder and Lehmann. Guess their squad isn't as strong as it used to be.

I think England will win today, but not the whole tournament, that's Argentina's to lose in my eyes.

Just for the record...

GO TRINERDAD & TOBAGO!

I actually think we'll draw today, think the occasion and expectations will get the better of us. i hope im proved wrong though.

As for germany, apart from the first and fourth goal, they weren't anything special.
Their defense was rather dodgy and looked like they missed ballack.

those balls are a nightmare for goalkeepers, too lightweight if you ask me!

OMG ITS THE WORLD CUP!!!!! ARGHHHH SO EXCITED!!!!

The German side was full of players i had never heard of. Where have all the legends gone? Ballack wasn't allowed to play because he's already being bullied by Chelsea but c'mon, the only names i knew were those of Metzelder and Lehmann. Guess their squad isn't as strong as it used to be.

Look at it again and you will see that it is mostly the team we had 4 years ago. They just made some changes that were really good.
Lehmann is much better than Kahn now for instance.

I don't expect them to get as far as they did last time though, but as long as Holland isn't better than our team everything is ok

Indeed, it's the World Cup

If france win it i win a load of money lol go france

Watching the Sweedent vs Trinidad & tobago. match. been suprised by T&T theyre keeping up their end of the game and not getting slaughtered as many predicted they would.

DOnt get me wrong sweeden are obviously the better team. but even with 10men T&T are doing well

Edit: what a good match. i got more into that one than i did the england game . cracking performance from the underdogs. the sweedes must feel gutted.

Glory to the soccer warriors, what an spirit. And Yorke, what an hero.

but as long as Holland isn't better than our team everything is ok

Wow Magnus..... I thought this Holland-Germany thingie would have been gone for the "younger generation " nowadays...... but obviously not.....??

Personally - but I am not a football-conoisseur or fanatic - I don't really care who wins, as long as the "best-team-of the moment" wins and as long as they all give us some beautiful and being-fair-sports tournament to watch (including the refs....), though of course I do hope Holland has to offer us something and brings it rather far.....

Edited by Emergo, 10 June 2006 - 01:10 PM.

wow... ivory coast and argentina are both good, very good. Ive changed my mind, group C is now the toughest group to be in. Argentina are quality, Ivory Coast pose a threat, Holland are a decent side at the moment and Serbia were one of the best qualifiers in Europe... Plus they have a secret 6ft 8" Crouch-a-like player.

But as for group B... easy!

-X-

agreed, that was a great game.
i cheered for ivory coast. drogba played so well!

What was the score on the Ivory Coast game?