Anyone eatching Italy vs. US?

[Thordic]

That Brazil game was awful. Not just the reffing, which was sub-par, but I just felt the whole game wasn't very entertaining.

Australia is a decent team, but goddamn they play boring soccer.

[Cyborg06]

I cant watch 12pm games in full. only first half. I haven't noticed anything out of line in first half.

[MarkM]

That Brazil game was awful. Not just the reffing, which was sub-par, but I just felt the whole game wasn't very entertaining.

Australia is a decent team, but goddamn they play boring soccer.

The first half was boring from both sides of it, but Brazil were pedestrian to say the least, they look better due to the way they all as a team instinctively know where their other players are, plus they pass the ball allowing their player to run onto the ball. Australia has the problem that their main players play in rather low leagues in the UK and at those lower levels you do lots of short passing.
That particular group is going to be interesting to see who is the runner up.
England have to beat Sweden (not happened since 1967) or draw and hope that Germany also win or else England will win the group and face Germany in the next round.
I don't for a second believe that England will win the cup despite being 2nd favourites after Brazil, but some of the matches are surprising for the results they are throwing up.
The US I now believe are there by merit where as before they weren't, but the whole qualifying stages I think are geared towards certain countrys, mine own included. The initial qualifying should be that all the eligable teams are put in a hat and you play whoever you get drawn against. I know that financially this will make for some rather expensive travelling but it will end up being a true world Cup rather than the geographical qualifying it is now. Would all the teams in the event as it is right now have made it this far had they had to play teams from outside of the region? I doubt it. But then I would guess that perhaps people would argue that it would become a European event rather than a World Event.

[zt10]

i dont care who wins as long as its not brazil, im tired of everyone saying they are teh best. ronaldhino is over rated, and ronaldo is fat.

[ShooterJM]

You want to know how to check if refferi did OK or not? Check if he will be appointed to ref another game on this Cup. If yes than he definately did a great job.

No. Even a great ref can have a bad game, but this particular ref isn't even great. Didn't he just come off of suspension for "irregular calls"? I didnt' notice the ref issue one warning during the whole match. ANYWHERE else pope would have gotten a warning and not carded.

[fcpchop]

i dont care who wins as long as its not brazil, im tired of everyone saying they are teh best. ronaldhino is over rated, and ronaldo is fat.

Haha that quote perfectly sums up Brazil. I'm so tired of all these people telling me how good brazil is, when the fact is they know nothing about soccer until the World Cup comes around and they watch a few games and suddenly think they are experts. They are so sure that Brazil is so good and no-one can beat them, it's probably do to the fact that the American commentators practicly get on their knees and go down on Brazil everytime they play. It's ridiculous how much they talk them up when really they have proved nothing so far. If anything they should be talking about Argentina or Spain, those teams have proved they should be watched. That being said I can't wait for Sunday. Portugal VS. Netherlands, GOOO PORTUGAL!!!

[SpitFire1299]

i dont care who wins as long as its not brazil, im tired of everyone saying they are teh best. ronaldhino is over rated, and ronaldo is fat.

He is really good though.

[MarkM]

GOOO PORTUGAL!!!

Well saturday for England v Portugal, stats say England but good luck anyway.
Italy v Australia might be interesting since most of the Italian players are probably about to get relegated due to alledged match fixing in their domestic league, so they may not have their minds on the game. I think the winners of that match 'should' face Ukraine
Brazil v Ghana...who knows? Spain v France, probably France as they have something to prove after the last one where they didn't score a single goal and left after the first round.