the WC draw is final & the groups are decided
some are happy, others not so & some are really unhappy

well which one do u think is the group of death?

I think group F will be the most competetive. Brazil should walk it but then Japan, Aussies or Croatia could take the 2nd place.

Should be some entertaining games!

berni23 wrote:

the WC draw is final & the groups are decided some are happy, others not so & some are really unhappy well which one do u think is the group of death?

Argentina, Holland and Serbia are in the group of death. Expect Arg and Holland to make it out though.

I think group 'E' is the GOD
with the likes of
Italy
Cech republic
United states of America
Ghana

they are all higher in ranking
with the exception of the african
country who are 50th in the world ranking
but ready to tell the world what they are made of
in Germany

Nice to see a non-US fan recognize that they have a pool of about 30 interchangeable players who could all take the pitch and provide the same level of play. Our only problem is lack of superstars, but if you look at European teams who have 3 or 4 level-10 players and a mix of levels 9-7; compare that to the US team which is almost entirely level-9 (maybe a couple level-10s, if you consider McBride, Bocanegra, Beasley, Reyna, Donovan and/or O'Brien on the right day- not to mention any of our GKs, and the rest level-9s.) My convoluted point is that we're a very stable, consistent team with good strategists (think Arena as Rahagel) who could easily upset any unsuspecting team (not just Portugal.)

That said, I think neither the higher-ranked Czechs nor the lower-ranked Italians (consisting of an ENTIRELY Euro-based roster who are cranking right now) should have little problem focusing and staying on task. Our only hope is a healthy crop of unpredictable MLS players (you might laugh, but it's a tougher, faster, more-skillful league than you'd think- ask any Mexican who's come up to play and gotten their arses handed to them or the European teams who come here for a holiday and lose most, if not all, of their matches in surprising fashion) whose upstart, disrespectful attitudes can bring about surprises, coupled with the Italians' emotional instability and inability to score convincing goals that don't appear to be offside violations (I love the Azzurri and feel sympathy for them every time they're erroneously called 'off', but they just don't have much luck in this dept.)

Summary: Group of Death= E.

P.S. Anyone with a (pair of) ticket(s) to the either/both of the first 2 USA games to sell at a reasonable price (which is gradually going up in my head), please contact this unlucky, football-sick fan, (with a first-born who arrived 5 weeks early, thankfully healthy, two days before the USSF app date; hence, I had to Fedex my app rather than babysit a fax machine as I'd have done if he'd arrived a week later.) I'd also happily buy any Holland tix (or match 49, 52, 57 or 59 but who wouldn't?) :wink: Hope to meet as many of you as possible- I'm not this wordy in person! Cheers.

with a post like that you are very much american,think soccer am and there boston 'pilgrims' commentary and you know what i mean,level 10 players indeed :roll:

gingerwizard wrote:

with a post like that you are very much american,think soccer am and there boston 'pilgrims' commentary and you know what i mean,level 10 players indeed :roll:

Unfortunately, I don't receive all BBC programming here among the largest colony of British ex-pats in the US (something brings them here- smug condecension and all.) We only get UK media funneled through the filter of BBC America, so I can't receive your meaning in all of it's largess. I gather, however, you're making reference to an inherently ignorant commentary on the sport, borne of national origin. Well, my 'ignorance' originates from the font of a spate UK-bred managers I had since the age of 11. The small, midwestern town where I'm from happens to have a sister school in England from where it recruited a number of exchange students to populate it's roster in the late 70's and 80's. These Brits, the likes of David Weir (Everton, Scottish national team- in case your small world doesn't encompass that far) among them, ran our travelling clubs in their offseason, so virtually all my higher-level football knowledge comes from them (and a bit from the local Bosnian men's team I was recruited by a few years ago in Chicago.)

I'm among the first generation of players to be trained since age 4 1/2, along with Brian McBride, of whom, with his 10 goals and superb assists, Chris Coleman was just reported as saying, "I cannot speak highly enough about the player . . . He has probably been one of our most impressive and consistent this season." Fulham being a lower-half-of-the-table team, they probably don't rate with you (nor I, as my favorite club has been L'pool since the Rush/Barnes/Beardsley years), but they just beat the Blues, now, di'nt they? Of course, any team can beat any other team on a given day, which is why I made such a qualification when I referred to any of the Yanks as being level-10 players.

If you're rolling your eyes at the notion of simplifying team commentary to 10-point system, however, I could have gone into a more complex discussion of each player's different abilities (such as McBride's prowess in the air, not only makes him a dangerous threat to inswingers near the corners but an excellent floating decoy or a point man for quick aerial 1,2 transitions; or Beasley's blazing quickness down the line keeps the outlying midfielders and backs busy, but his low center of gravity and loose composure on the ball also makes him a difficult player for taller opponents who rely on upper body strength to disposess- that's why he was more effective against upper body grappling of the Portuguese than the hip checks by the S. Koreans in 2002), but ensight such as that would just make this post downright lengthy wouldn't it?

The thing that amazes me these days is the smugness of fans from a nation whose last appearance in a final was 40 years ago and who, in the last 30 years, only qualified for the tournament one more time than the US. Perhaps you can tune out during this one and just watch tapes of the 1966 tournament because that seems to be the era in which you're stuck. :roll:

But don't take my word for it, ask Sir Bobby Robson, who, after pre-season friendly losses to 2 MLS clubs in 2000, remarked, "the standard of American football is better than I thought. I'm quite impressed. You're doing OK." They're friendlies, yes, but what you probably don't realize is that our teams go into those games with B squads, as well. That same year I watched my beloved Chicago Fire embarrass Hamburg SV 5-1 and a fellow season ticketholder, originally from Dortmund, remarked to me "I knew those players- that was their first team."

Note that I never said we had a decent chance. We're in a near-impossible group because the outmoded opinions of Europeans who crafted the draw seems to think that Mexico, with it's rich footballing history, can get their arses beaten by the US for the last 7 years in every locale except Azteca and still maintain a higher seed in the tournament. And still I see headlines like the one on FIFA's website that says, "US finally gets it.", when our ticket requests are over demand, along with 13 other countries. Yeah, our country gets it- it gets it so well that fans like me who are known for flying 8000 miles to see a Champion's League match (psst, hey Europe, it's easy to be a fan when the game sits in your lap), who switch TV content providers 3 times chasing the Serie A rights and devote the floors of our lofts to build and paint section-sized stadium flags, can't even get tickets from our own fecking federation! Trust me, the US gets it. But come tournament time we'll STILL have to wade through boorish articles and reports from your media and as well as our own about how this isn't a soccer country, how the majority of our fans still don't watch the game. Well, guess what? It's 280 million fecking people- a minority is enough here. :idea: :wink:

that post proves my point yet again,ffs have you ever heard such twaddle in all your life,never would you hear sven,wenger,ferguson et al talk about football,not soccer :evil: ,in that way,only amercians use that kind of language,which just isnt the language of football my friend.Hence my soccer am reference,which isnt a bbc programme its a bskyb programme on digital sattelite/cable.

Hey Mrs. O'Leary's Cow that was funny. :lol:

Gingerwizard it is funny though isnt it!! :lol:

Fair play to ya Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, u seem to love the game more than plenty who will actually be at the games in Germany via corporate sponsors and buisiness 'clients'.... and u are perfectly entitled to your well analysed opinion. But it is funny when yanks talk about football/footie/soccer/fussball or whatever u wanna call the beautiful game.

On the USA team i hear excactly what u are saying and i agree to an extent. U guys are a very efficient 'team' where no one player really stands out more than the team itself. And that is good but u could do with a talisman to catch the public eye.

.... but more to the point it was funny the way u explained Beasley's attributes... and 'hip checks' !!! that was funny :lol:

See ya in Germany mate....

ps:Get rid of George W :wink:

Yawn, long boring dull as dishwater posts hope your team is more entertaining.
:(

engerlass wrote:

Yawn, long boring dull as dishwater posts hope your team is more entertaining. :(

HeHe- ya' must find it more entertaining than you let on to be baiting me like you do, mate. :wink:

I've obviously said more than I need (Criostoir, I appreciate you backin' me up), but I do find it amusing that you talk about the way I talk like a Yank (I'm assuming you're generalizing) when I never once used the term 'soccer' (and use the term football in daily conversation without explanation here in the States, expecting folks to pick up my meaning through context.) I used to think 'soccer' was a term we invented when we bastardized the term 'football' to refer to the game created for interschool competition between two Ivy leagues that had only a rugby team to pit against a football team, but I recently learned that the contraction of the term Association Football was developed across the pond and is even still in use over there (Soccer Saturday) as well as Australia (knew they were the Socceroos, but I never made the connection.) You'll even find that football wasn't even so named for it's touch on the ball at all- check your facts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_%28word%29. ! :shock:

Conversely, I've recently heard someone criticize the way Yanks, passionate about the beautiful game, adopt British lingo (you'll constantly hear me using it when commenting from the touchlines and especially on the pitch) as if we're trying to 'fit in', but, as I mentioned earlier, it's the terminology with which I was trained (couldn't get the phrase "well in!" out of my head if I tried.) It has its detriments, however, when our cause to re-insert the word 'football' into American vocabulary brings about uninformed zeal to transport more nomenclature stateside. In a mildly ridiculous PR move, our 10-year-old team in Dallas recently added the letters 'FC' to the end of their name and far worse, the new team in Salt Lake City was named 'Real' Salt Lake (they get jibed by a couple of ex-pats, who have a show over here, every time they have to utter their name: "which I can only assume means they were granted that title by the Queen, because everyone knows that's the only way a team can receive it.") Ugh.

But enough about words- it's not what the game's about, and everyone knows the ball is still round no matter what you call it (unless, of course, you're German, in which case it's oblong when it's coming down just inside the goal line at Wembley- and certainly not all the way across the line.") :wink:

Criostoir I'm completely with you on the Bushie comment (remember, I moved FROM a red state TO a blue state!) It's ironic that our ignorant, misinformed electorate still hasn't realized they've traded one King George for another . . . :D It IS changing, however; my brother and I managed to shove enough articles from the New York Times, The Economist, and The Nation under his nose to even get my longstanding fiscally-conservative, republican father from Indiana to eschew his tax cut and vote Democrat in the last election! The trouble was, we thought every angle was covered without realizing what a sleeping giant (literally asleep) the Religious Right was. :( Scary. There's always talk about moving to Vancouver or Europe where ALL my troubles would be solved. :D

Look forward to possibly meeting you fellas in the land of the sputtering Mercedes (Poor Jurgie! I do like him, despite my disdain for his squad- he found his way to LaLa land!) Let me know if you stumble across any extra tickets (I'm still waiting for my 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' moment.) The only thing that stood between me and an all-night fax binge to get my app to the USSF early was a kid born 2 days before it was available (still came to work on my first day of paternity leave to receive and fax it back, but ultimately had to choose between staying at work until 2am faxing or FedExing and be there for my son's first night at home from the hospital.:?- only point where I've let my fandom down.) Cheers.

dont let ned flanders on the camp site... :shock:

robcar ftm wrote:

dont let ned flanders on the camp site... :shock:

funny. guess that makes you willy the groundskeeper.

(yeah, he's scottish in't he- wut's yer point?)

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow wrote:

robcar ftm wrote: dont let ned flanders on the camp site... :shock: funny. guess that makes you willy the groundskeeper. (yeah, he's scottish in't he- wut's yer point?)

Would have replied to your post with my quote but it's too flamming long. 1 I'm not a guy and 2 having lived around americans based in england for most of my life I can honestly say that you are behaving like a typical yank... using too many words to say the simplist of things (so many that I can't be bothered to read the whole of each of your posts) lighten up and have a laugh mate :lol:
Oh yeah and congrats on becoming a dad :wink:

engerlass wrote:

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow wrote: robcar ftm wrote: dont let ned flanders on the camp site... :shock: funny. guess that makes you willy the groundskeeper. (yeah, he's scottish in't he- wut's yer point?) Would have replied to your post with my quote but it's too flamming long. 1 I'm not a guy and 2 having lived around americans based in england for most of my life I can honestly say that you are behaving like a typical yank... using too many words to say the simplist of things (so many that I can't be bothered to read the whole of each of your posts) lighten up and have a laugh mate :lol: Oh yeah and congrats on becoming a dad :wink:

Thank ye for that! :D Congrats on not being a guy! :lol:

I'm totally light- my last response was to robcar, and I kept it in the realm of humor (should have used emoticons, so he knew I was being playfully curt with him.) I'm guessing the Yanks you know are like me, thorough ad nauseum with someone of a different background to avoid being misinterpreted. Lot of good it does, huh? :wink: