For football fans - WC groups are in, give your's team profile and expectation

[Marko]

Well the groups are in. MY team is, offcourse, Croatia.
Giv a profile of your team, players, and give me your expectation, and the final outcome.
Here I go.

Croatia is in group with Italy, Ecuador and Mexico. I think that it's well balanced gropu with ecuador as a newbee at the WC. It will be tough, but we can get past mexico and go to the 2nd round. Basicaly I would be pleased with qtfinal, and after that anything is possible. Our players are:
Goalkeepers: nothing spectacular, but fine
Defence: Tudor - the best defence player in Juventus, regulary scores, can play defencive midfielder
R.Kovac - best german defencive player, plays in Bayern Munich
Simic - Inter Milan, very good
Zivkovic - Bayer, regular first team member
Simunic - Herta Berlin, regulary in best team in bundesliga
and a lot more...
Midfieldrosinecki - portsmuth, the brain of our team, old and slow
N.Kovac - regualr in Bayern Munich, the world champions
Rapaic - great player, played in Italy, now in turkey
Banovic - Werder bremen, bundesliga
Stanic - chelsae, now first team player after a year of injuries
Rukavina -Venezia
Jarni - old player, plays in Spain
Biscan - Liverpool, in a poor form right now
Vranjes - Bayer, a big talent
a lot of young players from croatian league whose names means nothing to you
Attack: Boksic - middlesbrough, best paid player in premier league last year, a big player
Balaban - Aston villa, not playing right now, he should start or he will lose his place in a team
Suker - the best goal scorer on a last wc in france, he will sit on a bench this time
Olic - joung player from croatian league, rumored he's going to Juve next season
Sokota - Benfica in portugal
Petrovic - explosive player from switzerland
Vugrinec - Lecce in Italian league

It's a good team, but not as good as the team from france.
My favorites are Argentina, France and Italy

bye

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"Everyone loves me
everyone thinks I'm georgeous
they wait for their turn to meet me..." - Me, 2001.

 

[christiana]

Although I never expect China will go to the second round, I think group C is good enough for us. (Brazil + Turkey + China + Costa Rica)

I'm quite disappointed with the draw of the Irish though. Germany + Ireland + Saudi Arabia + Cameroon is not a good news for me as a fan of the Irish team.

I'm really looking forward to the games in group F. Argentina + England + Sweden + Nigeria = tough(and interesting) matches.

181 days to go. Woo Hoo!!!!

 

[brettig]

*waits for the tabloids to tell us all about englands horror draw

 

[Marko]

You are right. Group F - THE GROUP OF DEATH. It will be exciteing to watcd Argentina against England again. And Sweden and nigeria are both great teams.
This will realy be fun

 

[MissZooropa]

We will for sure get interesting games, meeting the "big" countries, already in the groupmatches. But unfortunatly I don't have much hopes for my team, Sweden it is, not in that group. But on the other hand we have another Swede to put our hopes to and I'm sure he can make it, the leader of England, Sven-G?ran Eriksson.

But noone belived in us during the worldchampionships 1994 in USA and see what happened, ended up third.

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"U2 on it?s own is a very interesting group and all. But U2 with it?s audience is a culture" - Bono

http://community.webshots.com/user/misszooropa
Pictures from Copenhagen (shirtless ones), London and Dublin, Slane.

 

[IvanClaytonJnr]

guess what team was EXTREMELY lucky with draw : Russia , her group is ehhh very easy
Tunis , Japan , & Belgium

 

[Henne]

Germany is in Group E with Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Cameroon. I'm quite sure that they'll make it into the next round.

Goalkeeper:
Kahn (Bayern M?nchen)
Lehmann (Borussia Dortmund)
Butt (Bayer Leverkusen)

- no problems here: Kahn is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best goalkeeper in the world

Defense:
Rehmer (Hertha BSC Berlin)
Nowotny (Leverkusen)
W?rns (Dortmund)
Linke (Bayern)
Baumann (Werder Bremen)

- quite good, but some problems in the past. It depends on Nowotny - he's not playing his best season this year.

Midfield:
Ramelow (Leverkusen)
Ballack (Leverkusen)
Deisler (Berlin)
Scholl (Bayern)
Kehl (SC Freiburg)
Ziege (Tottenham Hotspur)
Hamann (FC Liverpool)
Schneider (Leverkusen)

- very good. Lots of great players: Ballack, Scholl, Deisler....

Forward:
Jancker (Bayern)
Neuville (Leverkusen)
Bierhoff (AS Monaco)
Bode (Bremen)
Zickler (Bayern)
Asamoah (Schalke 04)

- Jancker and Neuville are very good, but they're not THE goalgetters.

Additional players:
Rost (Bremen) (Goalkeeper)
Heinrich (Dortmund) (Defender)
Frings (Bremen) (Midfield)
B?hme (Schalke) (Midfield)
Klose (Kaiserslautern) (Forwarder)

I think the best teams are Argentina, Italy, France and maybe Brazil. Germany is as strong as the other good teams (England, Portugal, Spain...). On a good day, they might be even able to win against Argentina, Italy, France or Brazil.

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

Oh, this is awful!!! My beloved England against Argentina (having lost to them in the last 2 world cups), Sweden (haven't beaten them in 33 years!!), Nigeria....
Oh my...Ericsson even said yesterday "As long as we don't play Argentina, Nigeria, Italy or France"....

You're right Brettig, the tabloids will have a field day with this! Even the Guardian wrote this morning "We're coming home, we're coming home" (alluding to the 3 Lions tune "it's coming home, it's coming home")...I guess they'll start looking to 2006 already now!

Oh well, go France I suppose!!!

 

[Salome]

Holland, Australia, Malta and The North Pole

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Salome
Shake it, shake it, shake it

 

[Marko]

Salome - you crack me up every time. You forgot lincenstein.

Foxxern - I don't think that you have an easy draw. Portugal is too strong for you, and Poland is the freshest european surprise with a naturalised Nigerian Olasadebe - they are realy dangerous

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"Everyone loves me
everyone thinks I'm georgeous
they wait for their turn to meet me..." - Me, 2001.

 

[Foxxern]

The USA draw looks pretty decent, with Portugal seeming like our only major challenge in a group also including S Korea and Poland. Hopefully we'll be able to play more like we played earlier this year, once Josh Wolff, Claudio Reyna, and Clint Mathis are all back up to speed. It should be a good opportunity to bounce back from a horrible World Cup 98. No time to analyze each roster player for now, though I say keep your eye open for Josh Wolff. He could turn out to be a mega star.

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Change is the only constant

 

[lazyboy]

At the moment the best Irish team would be....

Goalie: Shay Given(Newcastle) - He is in the best form of his career at the moment.

Right Back: Steve Carr(Tottenham) - Injured at the moment, but if fit he's the man, so fast, great defender, good at goin forward too, probably best right back in the Premiership

Centre Back1: Steve Staunton(Aston Villa) - Such an experienced player, and has looked very solid and reliable lately since he got back into the Villa team regularly.

Centre Back2: Kenny Cunningham(Wimbledon) - Lost his place to Breen lately cause he was out injured, but I think he is the better player, very reliable again.

Left Back: Ian Harte(Leeds) - Has improved alot in his defending, great dead ball specialist. Deadly from free's.

Right Midfield: Jason McAteer(Sunderland) - Has found a new lease of life thanks to McCarthy having faith in him, and also now that he is a regular, after being left out at Blackburn. A great worker, always gives 110%, very good player too. Scores some crucial goals.

Centre Mid1: Roy Keane(Man Utd) - 'Nuff said, he's DA MAN! 1 of the best Midfielders in the world, invaluable to Ireland.

Centre Mid2: Mattie Holland(Ipswich) - It's gonna be him or Kinsella, not sure who will, both great players, Holland just has the edge at the moment though.

Left Midfield: Damien Duff(Blackburn) - One of the most promising players in the Irish squad, deadly at going past defenders, a great winger, so skillful. 1 of very few who actually take people on nowadays.

Striker1: Robbie Keane(Leeds) - Superb player, and when on form he can knock 'em in with ease. Great skill, him and Duff are the flair of the team, the speed and skill.

Striker2: Niall Quinn(Sunderland) - If fit he will start, he is immaculate in the air, a great partner up front with Keane too, and not bad at all on the ground. A great player, all heart.


Our group? Well, definitely good. But the thing is we will be favoured to come out of it, the Irish are best as underdogs, as shown against Holland, muhahahaha! But this time we are gonna be ready.

Germany - Not at all the team they were, or the team some make them out to be. Sure it'll be tough, but we aren't afraid at all.

Saudi Arabia - Obviously some bit good, but should beat them.

Cameroon - Are they any good? Who knows, definitely not as good as they were, we can take them.

So there you have it, we gonna win the world cup for sure, even Croatia can't stop us!

Well, 2nd round would even be great.

And that English group is just simply beautiful

I'd be very surprised if they crawl through.

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

Originally posted by lazyboy:
And that English group is just simply beautiful

I'd be very surprised if they crawl through.

Yeah, yeah...blah, blah.........

 

[bullet the blue sky]

Where's U2girl? Slovenia actually have a chance of qualifying to the second round!

And it amuses me that despite the USA qualifying, and despite it being the biggest single sporting tournament in the world, no-one on here from the States could care less

You carry on with your, ahem, "World" Series

 

[Foxxern]

Originally posted by Marko:
Foxxern - I don't think that you have an easy draw. Portugal is too strong for you, and Poland is the freshest european surprise with a naturalised Nigerian Olasadebe - they are realy dangerous

Um, I don't recall ever saying we had an easy draw. "Decent" means we have an alright chance of advancing. I know Portugal are strong (ranked #4 by FIFA), but I still think we can beat Poland and South Korea. We really are a good team when healthy, as can be seen by our successes in recent years. I think we'll be alright for the tournament.



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Change is the only constant

 

[Foxxern]

Originally posted by bullet the blue sky:
no-one on here from the States could care less

Hello? Seriously? Did you not see my post?

Geez...



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Change is the only constant

 

[Jayhawk]

Here is why I can't stand soccer...btw...the term "football" should only apply to the NFL and the NCAA.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_459848.html?menu=sport.sportingquirkies

Sissy-boys play soccer, "MEN" play football.

 

[bullet the blue sky]

insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular insular

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

I want to second that without repeating it! lol!!!

(but you've got to admit that article was damned funny!!...and heck, in the NFL/CFL, they don't even kick the ball, so why oh why, would they call it football???)

 

[rougerum]

they kick the ball on punt offs and kick offs silly, as for soccer, easily the sport i choose when wanting to take a nap. America got some sense when not having soccer as the number one sport.

~rougerum

 

[speedracer]

Question for US soccer fans...Kasey Keller or Brad Friedel?

 

[MusicalJourneyman]

Jayhawk,
I am a fan of real football and "american football" but American football should be called something else. They hardly ever use their feet. If you are calling us sissies for playing this sport, then I know you have never played. Football players are the best conditioned athletes in the world. Only 2 substitutes and no timeouts.The average player sprints about 7 miles a game. Oh yeah, one more thing. Real men don't wear pads!

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

Ya great Rouge...You guys chose baseball instead!! Hardly exciting!! *yawn*

 

[rougerum]

journeyman,
be realistic, if they didn't wear pads all of them would be injured and some would be dead. Some have even died when they were using pads so realize that american football is a riskier sport to play thus pads are necessary.

~rougerum

 

[rougerum]

American Football is what is top in USA.

~rougerum

 

[MusicalJourneyman]

rougerum,
They don't wear pads in Aussie rules, rugby or gaelic football. Most of the deaths in American football are from heat stroke. Fat and out of shape men wearing too much equipment in the middle of summer. I'll take Nial Quinn over Nate Newton any night.

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

Hmmm, they don't wear all that equipment in rugby....

 

[speedracer]

Originally posted by ladywithspinninghead:


Hmmm, they don't wear all that equipment in rugby....

They definitely don't get hit as hard in rugby or Australian football as they do in American football. The hardest hits don't come from the humongous linemen, they come from the linebackers and safeties running full speed into a ballcarrier.

[This message has been edited by speedracer (edited 12-02-2001).]

 

[Foxxern]

Originally posted by speedracer:
Question for US soccer fans...Kasey Keller or Brad Friedel?

Brad Friedel. Keller is an old man now. Though I think Zach Thornton is better than either of them, but he doesn't get the credit because he plays in MLS.



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Change is the only constant

 

[Foxxern]

Originally posted by MusicalJourneyman:
Most of the deaths in American football are from heat stroke.

Actually, most in-game deaths and life-threatening injuries are in fact caused by hits. Luckily, the NFL has really stepped in and increased the fines for players who hit "with intent to injure". It was more common before padding was mandatory, but it still does happen.



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Change is the only constant