FIFA World Cup - Germany 2006 (1 Viewer)

[Lew Crippen]

Da nada Holadem. Next up, some predictions for the first round.

There is almost too much on right now: NBA finals, French Open, World Cup, Wimbledon—I can’t even begin to get into baseball until some of this settles down.

 

[Andy_Bu]

Huge huge huge soccer fan here.

I know more about the US squad than most people know about their own children so if you have any questions about the US specifically (current squad, history, playing style, tactics etc), fire away.

As others have said the US group is very difficult. I also will agree that the rankings are a joke. Neither the US nor the Check Republic belong as high as they are.

Truth be told the US is probably anywhere between a 10 and a 15 if I were forced to make a ranking. Certainly nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering the quality they were fielding less than 15 years ago.

I think the US will struggle in the first round but even if they do scrape by, they will likely have Brazil waiting for the them in round 2 (no need to say more).

Here is a fun World Cup stat for you all. Read and really soak this in and watch the first games of all the groups with this in mind.

Andy

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This is the way the World Cup is supposed to work: 48 games of group play, after which 16 teams go home and the survivors go into the knockout round. Not quite. Because the knockout round really begins right at the start of the tournament, when each team plays its opener.

A look at the statistics for the past two World Cups (played since the number of teams was increased to 32) makes it dramatically clear that losing the opener is almost certain to be fatal.

These are the figures: in France 1998 and Japan/Korea 2002, a total of 23 teams lost their first games. Only one of those teams (Turkey in 2002) advanced to the second round. In the same two tournaments, 23 teams won their first game, with 20 of them advancing to the second round.

 

[Andy_Bu]

Other TV information for those watching in the states:
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Please note that all the games will also be shown on Univision/Telefutura in Spanish as well as the ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 coverage.

ESPN Classic will be showing the "Match of the day" every day at 5:00pm

Also, ESPN will have a World Cup Live show on most nights, late at night.



Andy

 

[Andy_Bu]

Here is the list

Dave O'Brien/Marcelo Balboa — will be in Germany and call all U.S. games plus semis and final.

JP Dellacamera/John Harkes - will be in Germany and call various games

Rob Stone/Robin Fraser — will be in Germany and call various games

• Two announcing teams —Glenn Davis/Shep Messing and Adrian Healey/Tommy Smyth — will call games off monitors at ESPN's Connecticut headquarters.

• ESPN studio analysts will include Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas and the only woman in Cup coverage —Julie Foudy.


Andy

 

[Andy_Bu]

The Czechs were semi finalists in the Euro 2004. But they struggled a bit in qualifying in Europe and needed the dramatic return of Pavel Nedved in the playoff to qualify for the cup.

They are good but many if not most of their best players are on the wrong side of 30. Their team is also experiencing some late injury worries.

Baros, their lethal striker is now struggling to gain fitness by the time they play the US.

If people are looking for an awesome one on one match up in the first US game, look no further than watching the 6'4" Onyewu for the US, cover the giant 6'8" Jan Koller for the Republic. That is going to be an extremely critical matchup for the US, especially if Baros is not playing.

Andy

 

[Andy_Bu]

Keller will be solid in the nets as all US keepers are.

But if they go anywhere in the tourny it will be on the back of the their best player Landon Donovan. He is the only US player that has the ability to turn a game with his touch and speed. If he is on, the US attack can be lethal, when he drifts out of games, the US looks lost.

If the EPL interests you, there are plenty of Americans who play there and even more next year. Bobby Convey, Claudio Reyna, Jay Demerrit, Brian McBride, Ogucchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Brad Friedel, Marcus Hahneman, Tim Howard and a few others will be spread out through various EPL teams next year

Shame about your feelings of MLS, while its certainly not up to EPL standards, its a solid league, and one that has seen most of the US World Cup squad play in at one time or another.

Andy

 

[Andy_Bu]

Bruce Arena, the US coach has not yet announced his starting line up for the first game. Like in their quarter final run in 2002, he will likely use a different lineup and formation for every game.

The keeper and back four can be easily predicted though at this time. I will guess on the rest of the formation. Players with * next to their name will defintely start, but perhaps not in the same position I am listing

Keller
Cherundolo Gooch Pope Lewis
DMB Reyna* Donovan* Convey
McBride* Johnson


Andy

 

[Alex-C]

I am moist with anticipation. Hahaha.

Seriously, I have an absolute love affair with the world cup, despite never playing soccer or knowing much about the game itself. Why a love affair then you ask ? Because I watched the England-Argentina game live from 1998 and it was the most exciting sporting event I have ever witnessed on the t.v. and I am an avid sports fan (all world series, superbowls, nba finals, even stanley cup for the last 20 years or so).

That game, by itself, in one fell swoop totally engaged me to the highest degree.

Having an interest in all things English for about 20 years, I root for anything with three lions, then Mexico (why ? stupid reason, but who cares, I love(d) El Matador.), then Brazil, only as an appreciating fan. Not a bandwaggoner, I just love to watch them play.

Anyway, having tossed my emotions all over the place, anyone up for a HTF ESPN World Cup fantasy league. You pick a 4-4-2 lineup from all players (no more than 2 from any one nation) and see how they score throughout. You can make a limited number of substitutions throughout the tourney and unlimited between now and the start of Friday's first match.

I created a league called HTF World Cup 2006. The pin number is 3609 (you'll need this to join).

C'mon...It'll be fun !

 

[Andy_Bu]

This sounds great. Do you have a link?

Andy

 

[Alex-C]

http://espnsoccernet.fantasyleague.com/


Once you register to play, you can "join a friends league" and all you need is that pin number 3609 to get into our league.

 

[Andy_Bu]

ok I created my team. Great fun! Damn if I won't change that team 16 times before I am done by Friday

Thanks for setting this up

Andy

 

[Holadem]

So so so, what are your favorite matches?

Mine is the France-Brazil, Quater-Finals, Mexico 1986. I was rooting for France, which pulled the mother of all upsets during the shootouts (Fernandez). One of many memorable moments: Michel Platini kissing the ball, then sending it above the goal post.

Random players I remember: Jean Tigana, Manuel Amoros, Jean-Pierre Papin for france, Zico, Caraca, Julio Cesar, Dr Socrates etc... So many memories .

And then of course Maradona wins it all. Short of my country winning , I don't think any world cup, or sporting event for that matter will ever match the euphoria of that summer for me.

--

 

[Alex-C]

I really only started watching the world cup with interest in 1998, but I DID get up and make my brother watch the England-Germany match from 2002 at 3 or 4 am PST.

 

[Andy_Bu]

Too many to mention in detail.

From a personal stand point, nothing will match the US Portugal game last WC. No one gave the US a chance, Portugal was a dark horse favorite to win the whole thing, the US was coming off a horrid WC 1998.

Then bam, Johnny O scores off McBride's header that was parried by the keeper.
Then bam, Landon scores a freak goal, knocked in by a Portuguese player
Then the ultimate bam of the "o so picture perfect goal" of Reyna springing Tony Sanneh down the wing who hit a perfect cross to catch McBride in full flight for the diving header to put the US up 3-0 in like 35 minutes and leaving all the so called experts looking like doucebags.

You can see the 2002 US highlights here as a warm up


Andy

 

[Ken Chui]

Even though Sharapova was ousted in the fourth round, I'm looking forward to the semi-finals match between Clijsters and Henin-Hardenne (this would have been a great Finals pairing). Vaidisova is my pick for one of the finalists.

Silverstone is the venue for this weekend's F1 race; this is one I'll be watching live, in spite of CBS' coverage (all other sporting events during that window will be contending for space on my DVR).

Thankfully, all of the NBA Finals games will tip off at 9:00pm. The NHL Finals are on alternate days, so no scheduling conflicts to contend with. Still, it's going to be a very busy two weeks for me.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I am happy to see the amount of participation in this thread.

 

[Ken Chui]

The one game I saw, between the Crew* and MetroStars, left me unimpressed for a number of reasons (*when McBride was still a part of Columbus' roster). I went with a couple of friends (who were more knowledgeable about the sport than I was) and they shared the same sentiments. I found the talent, coaching and playmaking skills on both teams lacking. There were too many kids and parents in attendance, which had a profound effect on the atmosphere; compounding this were cheerleaders on the sidelines, which I find extremely annoying in team sports. As a southern Ontario native, I will support the Toronto team when they start playing next year, and I may even attend a game up north, but that may be the extent of my involvement.

 

[Aaron Schmitt]

US fan here, as well as Brazil (call me a front runner if you will, but I love the way they play the game). I'm also rooting for Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, T&T, and Togo; gotta root for the small guys

I cannot believe that there are people here rooting for the US and Mexico. Maybe it's my rivalry view, but if you are a US soccer fan, you cannot root for our most bitter rival. I'm happy some of our players are finally stepping up and saying that they don't like/hate the Mexican team (see Landon Donovan before the US/Mexico match in September last year). Now if only the US could win down there once in a while, it would complete our domination of our rivals to the south.

As far as FIFA rankings go, I agree the US is too high, but keep in mind they do go back 2 years and 2 World Cups. That means the '98 cup is included in their current rank, where they finished last (sooo glad the US fired Sampson after that). Granted, they do need to start playing some more difficult teams in their friendlies, but there are 4 teams from CONCACAF in the WC this year, so it's not like the region is that hopeless. It's just not as good as UEFA or CONMEBOL (although CONMEBOL is only good because of Brazil, Argentina and Colombia).

I'm horribly disappointed in Comcast right now, as they have yet to pick up ESPN2HD in my area, and the first week of matches are basically all on ESPN2. It just makes me more annoyed/angry that I wasn't able to get tickets this year after all the lotteries/applications/etc. I'll be fighting the battle of avoiding news, sports websites and friends until I get home to watch matches on the DVR.

A

 

[Ricardo C]

Leaving aside the obvious (championship matches and/or classic games that took place before I was born or when I was too young to remember them), I'd go with:

Argentina-Italy in 1990, with Caniggia ending Zenga's scoreless streak. As much as I dislike Argentina, they ended Italy's hopes of becoming the first four-time champions, so I gotta thank them for that one

England-Cameroon, 1990 quarterfinals. I remember watching this at the local country club when I was 13, with a friend from England. EVERYONE but him was rooting for Cameroon (he said "it's ok, I understand if you're rooting for them"), it was the summer of Roger Milla. We really had hopes they might make it past the English, and boy did they come close

Brazil-Netherlands in the 1994 quarterfinals. Incredibly tense game, much like the Brazil-Italy classic of 1982. Branco's game-deciding monster goal remains one of my favorite ever.

France-Senegal, opening match of the 2002 cup. Newcomer Senegal takes a page from Cameroon's book of upsets and defeats the defending world champion. Awesome.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I don’t much care about that rivalry (except that I consider it positive for any team to have another team that they desperatly want to beat—and in any case as an American living in Mexico, I can root for both—unless they play each other. Why would I want Mexico to lose other games? It just weakens the North & Central American zone, resulting a potential loss of slots that could go to another zone.