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| Posted on 2006-06-09 16:46:49 |
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As the FIFA site says: Endlich geht's los!
It's finally here, it starts in an hour's time, after a 4 year wait What's going to happen? Who will shine? Who will disappoint?
(Note for people in bubbles: the 18th association football world cup starts today in Germany. Please excuse the global mania for the coming month, it'll all end on 9th July in Berlin... Until the next world cup in 2010 of course...). |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-09 17:13:49 |
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Weekend predictions:
Germany start badly against Costa Rica, Bild scream and bad press, Ballack insists he was fit but Klinsmann doesn't play him, national angst.
England-Paraguay ends in a dull draw. Sweden thrash Trinidad & Tobago and become group favourites.
Angola resist Portugal as if it were their liberation from colonial power. Cristiano Ronaldo falls over.
The only Montenegrin in the Serbia & Montenegro team applies for asylum in Holland and ends up playing for the Dutch. Van Basten comes on as a sub after Van Nistelrooy fails to score despite flowing orange passes.
Argentina go for all out attack against Ivory Coast - Messi stars but Drogba scores instead, national angst, Maradona declares he's fit to play, Pele tells him not to be daft.
Ecuador complain about the low altitude and winning Poland confident of beating Germany too, everyone agrees they can.
Mexicans bring the virgin of Guadalupe to their match; causes diplomatic incident with Iranian president who vows to wipe out the Mexican team with depleted uranium; the match itself ends 0-0.
Next week: Americans try to figure out what happened to Czechoslovakia when they play the Czech Republic; never find out that there's another beer called Budweiser because they don't sponsor the world cup.
karlf goes to Kaiserslautern to shout abuse at the Australians for knocking out Uruguay; tells them to stick to rugby, cricket etc and paints face with red circles to cheer on Zico's Japan. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-09 17:46:09 |
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| Realphilip747 |
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Karl gets slapped around by canadians when he mistakenly calls them stupid americans :-)
If you bothered reading up about the american players, half of them play for european teams (german and English mainly) |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-12 09:57:47 |
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Sorry Philip, my mistake, I did of course mean the Americans watching on TV, not the footballers, who have the unhappy task of being mostly ignored by the majority of their countrymen despite having being a decent team.
Now then, without looking them up, how many US soccer players can you list off the top of your head? Name of the coach? |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-12 09:58:28 |
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By the way, did anyone notice just how many predictions I got wrong...?! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-12 14:04:40 |
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| Realphilip747 |
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Bruce Arena is the coach, that much I know
i was just reading for the cup
half the people at work are european or latin so the cup is a big deal.
and 4 yrs ago i worked with a group much the same so it was 24/7 world cup.
heck the group the americans are in is pretty tough.
It will be an accomplishment to get into the next round, we shall see after today. Though the czechs are ailing |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-12 15:55:54 |
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| Kosinus |
| that summer had its charm |
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Football fans, fill this in! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-12 17:01:42 |
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| Kosinus |
| that summer had its charm |
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Karlf must be angry right now. Japan was leading 1:0 and then got 3 goals in the last 10 minutes. Australian coach Guus Hiddink took risk, played with three forwards and it paid off!
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| not the footballers, who have the unhappy task of being mostly ignored by the majority of their countrymen despite having being a decent team. |
That's true. Few minutes ago a commentator of the tv station where I watch USA vs. Czech republic told he went to Gelsenkirchen by train. There were US fans who were arguing about where their defender Carlos Bocanegra plays. They divided into two groups: some said he plays in Spain and others said he plays in Germany. The truth is he plays in England for Fulham. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-12 19:51:24 |
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| -berlin- |
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yippie, i like football. watched portugal vs angola last nite, cant believe portugal was that bad...although i had my sympathy for the underdog ;-) |
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| Posted on 2006-06-12 20:32:55 |
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| LORDHUMONGOUS |
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Damn!!!! 3-0 Czech. Guess the US couldn't back up their talk. Too bad, after all the interviews of the players and coaches, I was kind of hopeful. Now I wait for the Italy match. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-12 22:54:38 |
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| Posthuman |
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Czech!!!! (I wanted them to win :) ) They were really good!!! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 00:45:49 |
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| Kosinus |
| that summer had its charm |
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Yesterday's matches were much better than matches the day before yesterday. Czechs simply killed Americans, Rosicky is an outstanding player. Too bad Koller injured again. :( Italy surprised me with offensive performance and Ghana wasn't bad either. Australia vs. Japan was exciting till the end.
I think we're watching pretty good football on this tournament! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 00:53:58 |
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| Posthuman |
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Hell yes!!! ;) |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 02:21:15 |
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| mambo23 |
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Good job, Italy!! :D
We played well, but I have to say that Ghana had 3 clear chances in a row in the last of the 1st half, and I wonder what would have happened if it was another team...
I hope this World Cup will be finally the launchin' pad for Rosicky. That boy has golden feet but he has never exploded so far...if he goes on like this, it'll be the good time! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 08:36:45 |
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I was at Kaiserslautern yesterday afternoon with 46000 other fans in the stadium- great atmosphere and I ended up being seated near the Australian corner so you can imagine how they celebrated the last 10 minutes - and after the match too!
I had wanted Japan to win (to avenge Australia knocking out Uruguay) but in the end it was a fair result. The Japanese goal was a bit weird and the Australians really tried hard and were rewarded with goals. I'll let the Brazilians and Croatians beat the Australians but it was good to be present at Australia's greatest football moment of all time. I'll take back comments about Australians not knowing anything about football. Just need to meet some US fans now. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 08:46:30 |
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The Cezchs should be the current European champions - well, technically, as vice-champions and with Greece not there, I guess they are. We'll see if they can hold it together one more time - good start at least. It going to be a tight group.
Good matches so far, just need it to cool down a little because it's hot hot hot out there. No major surprises (except for Sweden-T&T!) and the "big" teams are managing to hold off their challengers for now, not like 4 years ago. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 19:55:00 |
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| Kosinus |
| that summer had its charm |
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France sux. What a boring match. |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 20:00:10 |
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| laaran |
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France sux. What a boring match.
Nobody paid you to watch it... |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 20:09:23 |
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| Posthuman |
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I'm waiting on Brazil-Croatia !!! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-13 23:47:11 |
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| -berlin- |
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croatia was soo damn good! they really would have deserved to win this mathch! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-14 08:47:27 |
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Well, what did you expect? France-Switzerland was the match most likely to end in a draw, like it has for the past 63 years (or something like that). I just hope France can play one nice game before Zidane retires - they have the players to do it but they don't have the team any more.
It's a shame Croatia didn't score last night - they deserved something and we would have seen how Brazil reacted. Did you go to the match or the fan fest in Berlin, Berlin? |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-14 13:46:03 |
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| Posthuman |
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Yes,Croatia was good (on my surprice),I thought Brazil will sweep them off,but they were ok. Anyways,I was for Brazil :) |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-14 21:59:53 |
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| -berlin- |
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Did you go to the match or the fan fest in Berlin, Berlin? |
no i couldn't because i wasn't in berlin. but i went to a fan fest anyway, just not in berlin ;-)
no i'm back and i'll spend tomorrow afternoon watching england vs trinidad/tobago and sweden vs paraguay somewhere outside.
btw, the sweden paraguay match is in berlin, and i've already seen lots of swedes in town today! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-15 00:02:59 |
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| doffen. |
| Martin |
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Aww Poland out tonight! they have two celtic players Zurawski and the goalkeeper Boruc :-( has not been good world cup for me so far... will get better if Jason SCOTLAND scores against England.... ooh how funny that would be... and i hope Nakamura and his Japan team start playing better.. but he scored!!!!!!!!
ooh Nakamura signed on another year now till 2009 at Celtic... anyone interested? no.. ok then:-)
Ps. Anyone else think Mexico have a chance?! |
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| Author |
| Posted on 2006-06-15 00:16:44 |
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| laaran |
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How can you survive that ?
I looked a bit today.
That looks exactly like 3 days ago.
11 people against 11 people.
Some runs around the ball.
Most don't move, or very little and watch and wait.
What do you hope ?
Can something arrive during a football match ?
You know, they will not even fight (with hands), they are not allowed to.
What do you hope, really ? |
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