The Official World Cup Thread (no.1)

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That's ridiculous.

 

Yes originally Bud was the only beer connected to the WC, but the Germans requested a proper beer, so Bit (a good German beer) was made official...

 

Yep, that's true, they tried to enter the ground wearing a so called "leeuwen hose", which is a product of beerbrewer Bavaria. After they were told they could not enter while wearing that particular piece of clothing, the whole bunch dropped their pants, and entered the stadium in their underwear.

Those commercial interests are going way too far btw. Yesterday, when the Australian team arrived at the stadium where they play next, they were not allowed entrance to the training facilities, because their material was being transported in a Mercedes, and official WC sponsor Hyundai will not allow any other cars than Hyundais in the stadiums during the tournament.

 

What a load of crap. FIFA are such pains in the arse sometimes.

 

I blame it on Blatter, who is a really bad manager of FIFA.

 

Finally, mate, we have an agreement . Sepp Blatter is the bigges cock-munching penis fiddler in the world. I hate the bloke. He also seems intent on destroying lower league English football with silly rules he keeps campaigning to bring in. The guy is a fanny trump.

 

Don't blame FIFA for this, similar things happened here during the last olympic games, you could not go in the studium if you were wearing a shirt with the stamp of a sponsor's competitive company. You could not even enter if you were carrying a can of pepsi because coca cola was sponsoring the games.

 

I guess Italy will reach at least the Semi Finals. They face either Japan, Croatia, or Australia in the next round, and after that, it's either Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, France, South Korea, or Switzerland in the Quarter Finals. They should be able to win against every single one of them.

 

Yes, Italy have an easy run.

I'm really pleased for Ghana getting through! There were some brilliant scenes after the match with the players celebrating with the fans. It means so much to the country and that's what it's all about really.

 

But they don't stand much of a chance against Brazil, especially now that Essien can't play.

 

No but it's great for them to get out of the group. Good for them!

 

Gotta give props to Ghana, despite them eliminating the U.S. While not many people gave much of a chance to the U.S., I doubt many people gave much of a chance to Ghana either. I imagine 90% of the people thought that Italy and Czech Republic were coming out of this group. And the Czechs are going home. Still, it's a little embarassing for the U.S. Two goals over three games, and zero wins.

 

The US are always crap in Europe.

I'm really surprised at the Czechs. They were brilliant in their first match, but their last 2 matches were garbage. The loss of Koller can't have hurt them that badly surely...

 

Yeah, they usually lose to just about any European nation, but Ghana is in Africa. I've said it previously, but I suppose it bears repeating: Of the other countries in the group, I don't think it would be considered an upset if they beat the U.S. - in fact, must would think that the U.S. winning would have been the upset. However, of the other three teams, I think the U.S. had their best shot of a win against Ghana. And I'd imagine most other people would agree with me on that.

No one expected the U.S. to beat the Czech Republic, and a draw against Italy was a pleasant surprise. If we were going to win a game, it had to be against Ghana.

 

Yeah but Ghana love their football and have some brilliant little players. Their midfield is so much better than the US's with Essien, Appiah and Muntari, that's a really good trio. These guys play for top European teams. Whereas you have Landon Donovan and Cherundolo. There's no contest really. All the African teams were pretty under-rated going into this tournament. Ivory Coast did themselves no harm even though they didn't qualify. Even bloody Angola managed to make a few people sit up and take notice.

For me, the US were always the worst team in that group. That's no insult, that group was probably the 2nd hardest of the tournament so there's no shame in not qualifying.

 

I think U.S. played as they should/could, the loss of Reyna was too big - and took to long time to substitute him - in the match against Ghana. The Czech rep. sucked this time so it really was between Ghana/U.S. wich team should move on.

The US would more than likely have benn through in almost any other group methinks.

 

Yeah, teams like Ghana are always underrated because we keep forgetting how many of their players play in the top European teams. The Ghanan Soccer League is probably rubbish but that doesn't matter if you've got stars overseas. Shame that they will now play Brazil though. If the Italy / Czech game had been a draw, Ghana could have topped the Group and dodged Brazil.

 

Actually, I think the Ivory Coast well could have advanced as well if they were in a different group.

 

Actually, I don't think USA would have advanced in another group. Not sure they could have beaten the likes of Ecuador, Mexico, Switzerland, Ukraine, or Croatia, who are your other options for "weaker second" teams.

edit: Forget what I previously said about the Australia v Croatia game. I had clearly gone temporarily colour blind.

 

Actually the US came out ahead of Mexico in the preliminaries to the WC, tho they were split on games (US won the first 2-0, Mex won the second 2-1... of course its not the most competative group, as the other two nations to qualify were Costa Rica and T&T)...

Which is to say the US would have been slightly favored against Mexico (tho perhaps not in this WC, where they could only manage something like 4 shots on goal in three matches)...