World Cup 2010 - South Africa Thread

[Roger Wilco]

Re: WORLD CUP FOOTBALL: England vs Slovenia - June 23rd

Well the Football match that England has to win in order to get through the group is almost upon us. This is the most important match England is going to have had thus far in the entire tournament. It's the make it or break it match.

So what are your thoughts on the upcoming match? Will England win, lose or draw?

What do you see the score being?

England's not going to win. Face it, you're out. They are too disfunctional and although Slovenia might not have the same sheer footballing class, they are a team and that counts for a lot.

 

[Starkers]

Re: WORLD CUP FOOTBALL: England vs Slovenia - June 23rd

Thank goodness for France

I think England will beat Slovenia. It looks like Capello has reasserted his authority and we're pulling back togeather while other teams are continuing to implode.

It might be a scrappy one nil affair but we'll win...

Portugal Brazil should be the game of the tournament...so dull 0-0 then!

 

[Angel4576]

Yes, I think England will win as well. Typical England. They'll win, get through to play Germany in the second round, lose on penalties and then the media will be crowing about how unlucky we were and that we'd nearly won the world cup.......

They don't deserve to get through IMO, and this is the first time as far back as I can remember where it really wouldn't bother me if they went out.

 

[tomalak301]

I hope the USA wins against Algeria. The way England has been playing, they don't deserve the second round.

 

[Starkers]

We played lousy against Algeria, but we didn't play that badly against the USA, and if it hadn't been for Green's blunder I honestly think we might have gone on to get another goal. It was a cautious, nervous display but so have been a lot of early games. No excuses for the Algeria game but if we play to our potential against Slovenia we're back on track in my book. One average performance, one shit performance...we're due a good one.

Yes I'm an optimist, being a Derby fan one has to be!

 

[Orac Zen]

New Zealand has no domestic professional league except for one club in the Australian league and few player overseas so that number sounds believable to me.

Yeah, there's an NZ side in our "A-League", which is hardly of exceptional standard (especially according to the clown who "manages" our national side just now), but it seems extraordinary that NZ would only have 25 professional players. They're a country that fights far above its weight in most sports, though; maybe that's all they think they need.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I hope the USA wins against Algeria. The way England has been playing, they don't deserve the second round.

What would really suck is if the US beats Algeria by one goal and England beats Slovenia by two goals...

Yeah, there's an NZ side in our "A-League", which is hardly of exceptional standard (especially according to the clown who "manages" our national side just now), but it seems extraordinary that NZ would only have 25 professional players. They're a country that fights far above its weight in most sports, though; maybe that's all they think they need.

Yeah, it is incredible for a country to qualify for the World Cup with such a limited pool of players. There are some countries that just seem to have a talent for sports, the Scandinavians are like that too and the ex-Yugoslavia countries.

 

[Angel4576]

We played lousy against Algeria, but we didn't play that badly against the USA, and if it hadn't been for Green's blunder I honestly think we might have gone on to get another goal. It was a cautious, nervous display but so have been a lot of early games. No excuses for the Algeria game but if we play to our potential against Slovenia we're back on track in my book. One average performance, one shit performance...we're due a good one.

Yes I'm an optimist, being a Derby fan one has to be!

In the US game we looked far more likely to get the next goal than they did. As soon as the US scored though it just seemed to knock us back completely. We had a flurry in the second half but beyond that the game could have gone either way.

I think you're right in that had Green not blundered we'd have gone on to win the game, but really it's a moot point.

I actually think we'll be alright in the last game as I expect the relevant conversations to have been had. Besides, we always play better when we're up against it. It's the games with not as much riding on them where we struggle.

 

[StarMan]

New Zealand has no domestic professional league except for one club in the Australian league and few player overseas so that number sounds believable to me.

Yeah, there's an NZ side in our "A-League", which is hardly of exceptional standard (especially according to the clown who "manages" our national side just now), but it seems extraordinary that NZ would only have 25 professional players. They're a country that fights far above its weight in most sports, though; maybe that's all they think they need.

It's all we need.

I think us drawing with Italy would be the Rugby equivalent of Japan drawing with the All Blacks

 

[Jax]

England to draw 1-1 and go out...

Cheers Fabio this is the first tourney I've gone into thinking England won't win it (my first tourney I saw was Euro 96 age 9) and this is the first time I've thought were going out in the group stage.

Stellar Job and well worth £6million per year.

 

[Shaytan]

*waiting the new episode of her favorite soap opera*
Tadaaaaaaaaaam

 

[Eyes]

England to draw 1-1 and go out...

Cheers Fabio this is the first tourney I've gone into thinking England won't win it (my first tourney I saw was Euro 96 age 9) and this is the first time I've thought were going out in the group stage.

Stellar Job and well worth £6million per year.

Same here. I've become a lot more cynical about England's chances over the years, after watching WC 02, Euro 04, and WC 06 completely convinced that England were going to win it. Then we met Scolari's team in the quarter-finals . And then we failed for Euro 08, and I lost hope.

I cheered up a bit when we were announced as one of the favourites, but after these two matches...

Capello started off well, but he really needs to get his act together tomorrow, and so do the players. England is the footballing nation with the harshest punishment for failure, simply because we're all football mad, and we're trying and failing to live up to our reputation as the 'home of football'.
'66 aside, when was the last time our senior team, or any of our football teams, won a major tournament?

Today's matches probably aren't going to ruin my mood, as Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina, my favourite teams from those groups, are all but qualified and the runner-up in Group B doesn't really matter for me.

The only result that would really upset me would be France scraping through somehow.

 

[Angel4576]

'66 aside, when was the last time our senior team, or any of our football teams, won a major tournament?

One of our 'under x-age' teams won something recently didn't they? Only reason I remember it is that it was mentioned at the time that that was our first tournament win for a looooooong time.

I didn't think we'd win this world cup, but I thought we'd make the SFs.

I hate WCs where we go out and we've never really played anyone decent, or one of our main rivals. 2006 for example, poor, lost to Portugal. No disrespect to Portugal but I couldn't give a fcuk about them.

86 - Argentina
90 - Germany
98 - Argentina
02 - Argentina & Brazil
06 - Portugal, meh!

I'm really hoping that we scrape through to play Germany.

 

[Roger Wilco]

If I were Laurent Blanc, I would kick every single one of these morons out of the team and build up a new one.

 

[Shaytan]

Not everyone, just the leaders.

Oups, a red for Gourcuff

 

[StolenThunder]

Seems that there's a lot of people wanting to be leaders in that team.

An unjustified red card does not however help things.

 

[Eyes]

Go, South Africa!

Better they come third in the group then this disgrace of a French team.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

What the hell was the red even for?

Then again, I don't care. It's quite funny.

 

[Danny99]

Now that I'm slightly getting over my anger that CBC Canada decided to show the France soap opera on their digital channel that I don't get, I've been enjoying the Mexico-Uruguay game.

On one hand, I wouldn't mind seeing South Africa get through, simply because they are the host nation.

On the opposite side, probably opposite on the side of my ears hating to listen to even more vuvuzelas, both sides in this game have been playing great and it would great to see them in the next round.

 

[Shaytan]

Seems that there's a lot of people wanting to be leaders in that team.

Maybe not that much. The problem now is maybe around 3 or 4 names.