World Cup predictions

Man, how good are World Cups, flipping love it and its only just started!!

Germany looked really good tonight, didnt know much about them before now but on the basis of tonight they will be up there as usual. Aussies were very disappointing though particularly at the back. Started well but that was about it. Feel sorry for Tim C, shouldnt have been sent off, just a yellow. His WC is probably over now.

The Germans and the Argies have looked the most impressive so far. Looked forward to seeing Holland against Denmark tomorrow.
Will also be interesting to see how the Italians fare against Paraguay.

As for Souness' little slip earlier, no big deal, but hes lucky it was on rte and not sky. Imo hes part of the holy trinity on rte with Dunph and Gilesy. Irwin has been decent enough so far as well.

Denmark (who topped one of the trickiest qualifying groups) to hold Holland today anyone?

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Originally Posted by thischarmingman

Denmark (who topped one of the trickiest qualifying groups) to hold Holland today anyone?

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I'd be very surprised tbh (even with Kuyt starting).

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

but we couldnt beat a bad French team?:eek:

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Are you Father Stone from Fr. Ted?

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Are you Father Stone from Fr. Ted?

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No, but Im not deluded

Holland didnt impress today IMHO. Was hard to watch on RTE, Damien Richardson wasnt easy to listen to.

Thought Rico was excellent the last time he was on commentary. Had a manager's broader insight into what to expect from the various players, and was curiously straight-to-the-point given how loquacious he is. He also (correctly) said he couldn't make a call on a corner decision because the net was in the way on the replay; many others would have said "It's hard to be sure; I think the linesman made the right call there" or fudged some other nonsense.

Slow burn approach from the Dutch perhaps? I expected them to come out all guns blazing but keeping their orange powder dry might serve them better over the course.

At least you guys don't have to listen to Lawro/Shearer/Hansen moaning about the games they are 'forced' to watch. Paid to go on a jolly for 5 weeks with your mates at taxpayers expense? Yep hard life. They don't even do any research which infuriates the life out of me. If I was a tv pundit I'd be watching video's of teams and taking notes. Trying to educate the viewer on what we're watching. Unfortunately if they aren't talking about PL footballers then it's outside their comfort zoze so all 3 come out with the same old predictable crap like 'team A needs to get stuck in'. Analysis over. My dog could do better.

1-0 Japan, bad game but i have japan in a world cup draw so im not complaining :D

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

At least you guys don't have to listen to Lawro/Shearer/Hansen moaning about the games they are 'forced' to watch. Paid to go on a jolly for 5 weeks with your mates at taxpayers expense? Yep hard life. They don't even do any research which infuriates the life out of me. If I was a tv pundit I'd be watching video's of teams and taking notes. Trying to educate the viewer on what we're watching. Unfortunately if they aren't talking about PL footballers then it's outside their comfort zoze so all 3 come out with the same old predictable crap like 'team A needs to get stuck in'. Analysis over. My dog could do better.

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Good point but then again most English viewers are probably of the same mindset i.e. the EPL is the best so they dont play in the EPL or have been linked with an EPL club then they must be useless.

This point was illustrated by Shearers dismissive reference to the Cameroon striker earlier, Wome (i think is the spelling). The guy was poor today but plays in La Liga so is no slouch. However, if he had played for Wigan, Wolves etc etc he wouldve commanded much more respect.

Does anybody else agree that the amount of times a player is caught in possession by an opposition player who comes from behind him ("man on" style situations) is greater than normal?

On Rico as an analyst, I found him overly negative when commentating on the Korea vs Greece game (I think it was).

So far, Germany and S. Korea are the only teams who've impressed me in the games I've seen, but their opposition, particularly Greece, have had a large part to play in that. A lot of the other games have seen some pretty lethargic efforts.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

At least you guys don't have to listen to Lawro/Shearer/Hansen moaning about the games they are 'forced' to watch. Paid to go on a jolly for 5 weeks with your mates at taxpayers expense? Yep hard life. They don't even do any research which infuriates the life out of me. If I was a tv pundit I'd be watching video's of teams and taking notes. Trying to educate the viewer on what we're watching. Unfortunately if they aren't talking about PL footballers then it's outside their comfort zoze so all 3 come out with the same old predictable crap like 'team A needs to get stuck in'. Analysis over. My dog could do better.

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Well said, agree totally.

International football is something they watch when England play or just every 2 years at tournaments. In my opinion Denmark deserved some respect before the game from the pundits due to the group they won in qualifying, yet they got none.

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Originally Posted by osarusan

Does anybody else agree that the amount of times a player is caught in possession by an opposition player who comes from behind him ("man on" style situations) is greater than normal?

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Could have something to do with the vuvuzelas. Apparently they amke it difficult to even hear other players on the pitch

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

At least you guys don't have to listen to Lawro/Shearer/Hansen moaning about the games they are 'forced' to watch. Paid to go on a jolly for 5 weeks with your mates at taxpayers expense? Yep hard life. They don't even do any research which infuriates the life out of me. If I was a tv pundit I'd be watching video's of teams and taking notes. Trying to educate the viewer on what we're watching. Unfortunately if they aren't talking about PL footballers then it's outside their comfort zoze so all 3 come out with the same old predictable crap like 'team A needs to get stuck in'. Analysis over. My dog could do better.

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i was watching them after the Italy game, it was very bad form then the way they openly joked about having to cover the New Zealand game today - Hanson and Dixon getting a great laugh out of it. Thought it was very poor/funny (not sure which), the way seedorf couldnt remember the Italian sub, except that he was 'number 10', wouldnt mind, he plays in the same fecking country.
I think dunphy and giles fall into that same category, re not knowing much outside of the PL. Dunphy it seems had wrote of Germany on Sunday based on not knowing any of the players!
Mick mccarthy is a bit of craic as co-commentator on bbc, he's like a toned down ian holloway some of the stuff he comes out with

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Originally Posted by osarusan

On Rico as an analyst, I found him overly negative when commentating on the Korea vs Greece game (I think it was).

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In fairness, it's hard to be positive about any of the competition so far, Germany aside.

Argentina were very good I thought, Nigerian keeper kept that game respectable, could easily have been 4-0
Korea were good against poor opposition, same for Germany. I think Ghana did well and could sneak as far as the last 8.
Italy were poor last night, very little creativity and their strikers are completely devoid of movement, until Camoranesi came on I couldn't see them getting anything from it.

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Originally Posted by endabob1

Argentina were very good I thought, Nigerian keeper kept that game respectable, could easily have been 4-0
Korea were good against poor opposition,

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Only saw the first half of Argentina; they were excellent for 20 minutes and then faded into comfort, I thought.

South Korea looked ok, but I thought you could really no more make a judgement based on that game than a judgement on Ireland based on a game against Andorra. Greece were like 11 lumps of meat on the pitch; truly shocking and clueless.

I actually think Australia are being slightly harshly done by. OK, they were fairly poor, but at least they gave it a go and were still launching a few attacks late on. That's more than can be said for a lot of the other teams.

I agree about Australia, they tried to take the game to the Germans even at 2-0 down. They also had a great chance to take the lead inside 2-3 mins, blocked by Neuer / Lahm. The sending off destroyed the contest.

Please let us see some goals today.

Brazil v North Korea? I think there's going to be a couple of goals there.

And at least we have some interest in New Zealand v Slovakia given the Slovaks are in our Euro qualifying group.