World Cup Draw - Discussion only

[Kingdom]

Q/F:
Germany - Holland
England - Serbia
Italy - Spain
Brazil -Ukraine

Ps, who honestly thinks Brazil won't come out of their group. I can apprecaite that upsets sometimes do happen, but there will never be disharmony in the Brazil camp a la France 02. Whenever (during the group stages) you think, "thats grand little Japan have Zico managing them he'll want to put one over the motherland, thats worth tenner" - stop - look at yer bank balance, close yer eyes and think " Kaka`, Adriano, Robinho, Ronaldo, Julio Baptista, there's one other fella...oh yeah Ronaldinho". Arguement. End of.

On a side note. England have a fcuking great chance. The only reason that bothers me is that we'll never hear the bleedin end of it.
I personally don't see too many upsets this time round. In fact, in keeping with the theme of utter German efficiency, I see the big guns in the clearer groups being devastatingly clinical.
In terms of the quarter finals there really could be some good games, and even though it may seem obvious, the knockout stages will be good. I think the groups (with the exception of 2/3) will be boring and straightforward.

[Sheridan]

Ps, who honestly thinks Brazil won't come out of their group. I can apprecaite that upsets sometimes do happen, but there will never be disharmony in the Brazil camp a la France 02. Whenever (during the group stages) you think, "thats grand little Japan have Zico managing them he'll want to put one over the motherland, thats worth tenner" - stop - look at yer bank balance, close yer eyes and think " Kaka`, Adriano, Robinho, Ronaldo, Julio Baptista, there's one other fella...oh yeah Ronaldinho". Arguement. End of.
No it ain't. Brazil will emerge from the group and probably win the tournament due to the current poverty of international football, but to suggest that the players cited above are invincible or pantheon material is ludicrous. Kaka and Ronaldinho are the two most effective attacking players in world football at the moment, but in an era when a player's career peak lasts 6-18 months they may well be burned out by June.

As for the others...Adriano is lazy and overrated, Robinho has been exposed for the skinny little runt he always was, Ronaldo is an overweight has-been and Julio Baptista probably won't get a game.

On a side note. England have a fcuking great chance. The only reason that bothers me is that we'll never hear the bleedin end of it.
I'm always amused when people make this assertion. You're not obliged to listen to the British media, y'know...

[Green Tribe]

just watching the draw and the build up, some highlights on tv, is making me sad again, we are not there! :mad: Could you imagine us being in France's group again instead of the Swiss?? :(

[sligoman]

Second Round:

Germany vs. Paraguay
Sweden vs. Poland
Holland vs. Mexico
Portugal vs. Argentina
Italy vs. Japan
Brazil vs. Czech Rep
France vs. Ukraine
Spain vs. South Korea

Quarter Finals:

Germany vs. Holland
Sweden vs. Argentina
Italy vs. France
Brazil vs. Spain

Semi-Finals:

Germany vs. Italy
Argentina vs. Brazil

3rd/4th Play-off:

Italy Vs. Argentina

Final:

Germany Vs. Brazil

[OwlsFan]

tbh lads im not overally sad that we missed out.. its not like the late 80s when we had a really good team. the team we have at the moment is old and poor with no real class about it. It could well be another WC1994. Ill watch the futty without to many hangups (even if england get to the final)

Unbelievable. I couldn't care less if we had been going with a team of 11 one legged players so long as we were there. Empty empty feeling watching the draw and one of huge envy for all the teams there.

As for it being fixed, stuff and nonsense. Conspiracy with hundreds of people required to be in on it. Sigh - some people are always seeing shadows where there are none.

[superfrank]

As for it being fixed, stuff and nonsense. Conspiracy with hundreds of people required to be in on it. Sigh - some people are always seeing shadows where there are none.
Agreed, it's utterly impossible to "fix" a game. Play football and you'll understand.

One thing I always look for is colony v. colonist battles like Senegal France in Japan.

This time there's Togo France and Angola Portugal. Should be good.

[OwlsFan]

Agreed, it's utterly impossible to "fix" a game. Play football and you'll understand.One thing I always look for is colony v. colonist battles like Senegal France in Japan.This time there's Togo France and Angola Portugal. Should be good.

You can fix a game ok - it was fixing the draw we were talking about.

Yes, colony vs colonist are good ones (Ireland vs England Italia 90 :eek: ).

[Dublin12]

As for the others...Adriano is lazy and overrated

Watched him last night in the Milan derby,scored 2,one the winner and mArtins goal was a result of his free kick.He's strong,skillful and works his nuts off and will score plenty of goals.Your assessment is way off the mark.

I'm always amused when people make this assertion. You're not obliged to listen to the British media, y'know...

Over here in Ireland there's no escape you know,you can't just switch off,and by the sounds of Garth Crooks,Motson and Lineker they almost have the thing won already:rolleyes:

[Dublin12]

And the middle paragraph in your qoute above is what I was trying to say aswell.

[Closed Account 2]

Ps, who honestly thinks Brazil won't come out of their group. I can apprecaite that upsets sometimes do happen, but there will never be disharmony in the Brazil camp a la France 02. Whenever (during the group stages) you think, "thats grand little Japan have Zico managing them he'll want to put one over the motherland, thats worth tenner" - stop - look at yer bank balance, close yer eyes and think " Kaka`, Adriano, Robinho, Ronaldo, Julio Baptista, there's one other fella...oh yeah Ronaldinho". Arguement. End of.


All attacking players. Brazil have dodgy/average keepers. Dida is good at saving penalties but is error prone especially at long range shots when his positioning can go horribly wrong (eg Champions League final, Smicer's goal or Milan's away match at Shalke this season). There other keeper Julio Ceasar isnt exactly setting the world alight at Inter, and both these keepers have much better defenders in front of them for club matches than they will at the world cup.

Moving on to Brazil's defence, its great going forward especially the full backs, but they only have one quality defender (Cris at Lyon) and even then they pick Lucio and Juan ahead of him. They probably have the worst defence of all the top seeded teams, and - despite all the attacking skills they might have - that will tell.

[Thunderblaster]

My quarter finals are:

Germany V Argentina
England V Portugal
France V Czech Republic
Brazil V Spain
;)

[dancinpants]

Moving on to Brazil's defence, its great going forward especially the full backs, but they only have one quality defender (Cris at Lyon) and even then they pick Lucio and Juan ahead of him. They probably have the worst defence of all the top seeded teams, and - despite all the attacking skills they might have - that will tell.

I have to say that Germany's defence, from what I seen of the Confed Cup, looks equally as dodgy as Brazils. But I'd keep an eye on them though - they look lethal going forward too.

[Kerry Blue]

Brazil have always had dodgy defences. Even the great team of 1970 was often caught out at the back and they've always struggled to have a decent goalkeeper. Felix ('70) and Carlos ('82 & '86) were some clowns to have at a World Cup. For all this they have won the World Cup 5 times largely due to their strength going forward and this current team is no different. They averaged almost 2 goals a game in qualifying while conceeding just less than 1 a game, but I'll still be amazed if they don't make the final.
As for England this seems to be their best chance in years of doing well at the World Cup and should make the Semi's where they may meet Brazil. It would only be the second time for them to do this since '66. Not a great record for one of the world's top nations.
Just on a side note on the draw. Was everyone delighted to hear that the Premiership/Football League will have more representatives at the WC than any other league in the world. I suppose we'll be told it's the best league in the world because of this eventhough it seems Chelsea can keep onto the trophy for another while anyway, which makes it one of the most boring at the moment.