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Converting this to general WC thread.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 5th June 2010 22:44

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I'm sorry I haven't participated in the beta, but I'll definitely take part in the real deal. Cristiano Ronaldo is sooooo dreamy.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quote (laszlow @ 21st May 2010 10:47)

I'm sorry I haven't participated in the beta, but I'll definitely take part in the real deal.  Cristiano Ronaldo is sooooo dreamy.

And possibly doomed to exit in the group stage.

Did I ever mention that Ronaldo and my family come from the same island in Portugal? Clearly I didn't get the skill.

Edit

Del and I were just idly talking about the tournament, and I was running some numbers for the predictor league. There are ten points available for each of the group play matches, and twenty for each match of the knockout round. The winner's average points per match predicted the last time we did this? 1.64. Clearly even if you don't know soccer you can make a run at this.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 21st May 2010 21:41

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Does the random football chat move here now?

I watched the England v Mexico game a few hours ago and I was mightily impressed by Glen Johnson, Ledley King and Peter Crouch, all of whom scored in the game. If you're looking for a first scorer in an England game a safe bet might be Crouch, who's scored in something like 2/3rds of all his international games! Rooney was probably told to relax on the pitch so he doesn't aggravate his injury further, but even then he's looking strong in terms of positioning and his under-rated quality of passing. That Mexican left-back was great as well, he just about scored and kept Theo Walcott contained (some of the time). I can't see Mexico getting past the group stage but they're not bad.

Another thing was that the Chelsea boys all took the night off having not trained properly following the FA cup, so there was no Terry, Lampard, Ashley Cole or Joe Cole. Even so, missing three first-team players didn't seem to slow them down. Before I was in two minds, but now I must admit that I don't see the US beating them, but you never know. Did anyone else watch it?

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

As a proud Mexican, I follow the national team very closely. I was able to watch both England and Holland matches during my (extended) lunch break. I wasn't too upset about how they played. Futbol in the Americas is very differently from European style. The players are especially more skilled and usually bigger and faster.

Although I like England, I thought their defense was shaky. Mexico got away 23 shots at Wembley. When's the last time a team did that to the Lions at home? But that also says something about our offense. Chicharito and Vela need to put those chances away. I won't take anything away from the keeper though, Green/Hart made some great saves.

That left-back is Carlos Salcido from PSV. He played very well that night and I'm hoping he can carry that on to South Africa. We also did not have our #1 keeper, but I'm sure Aguirre will play him in the next friendly this weekend. I believe the key to our success lies with Giovani Dos Santos though. If he plays well, our team can do wonders.

Although I'm extremely biased due to my pride and heritage, I see Mexico getting out of the group stage in second. Que Dios nos bendiga from that point forward =)

This post has been edited by baralai888 on 27th May 2010 06:23

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Yeah that's totally true, England weren't solid at the back, but remember Terry and Cole weren't playing, and Ledley King can only play one game every six days or so, so it's amazing he stayed on the pitch for the whole 90. Like you said with the keeper, I'm not taking anything away from Mexico, they made some brilliant plays, it's just that England are always slated in the press if they don't deliver a clean sheet every game and I thought that was a bit harsh. On a good day that goal wouldn't have gone in, or even if Hart was playing from the beginning. Nevertheless, Mexico deserved a goal from all their chances.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (Rangers51 @ 21st May 2010 11:14)

Quote (laszlow @ 21st May 2010 10:47)

I'm sorry I haven't participated in the beta, but I'll definitely take part in the real deal.  Cristiano Ronaldo is sooooo dreamy.

And possibly doomed to exit in the group stage.

Did I ever mention that Ronaldo and my family come from the same island in Portugal? Clearly I didn't get the skill.

Edit

Del and I were just idly talking about the tournament, and I was running some numbers for the predictor league. There are ten points available for each of the group play matches, and twenty for each match of the knockout round. The winner's average points per match predicted the last time we did this? 1.64. Clearly even if you don't know soccer you can make a run at this.

Nor, as luck would have it, did you get the prima donna cry-baby antics.

I'll just say this much now: if USA defeat England in the group stage, then the tournament will be complete for me. I'd also like to see Messi replicate his club success at the national level. He's just such a joy to watch that I can't help but root for him.

Here's a Messi vid I posted on my Facebook wall earlier.

And since I'm in Korea, I'll pull some for them too. Daehanminguk fighting!! (only Kappa will get that, I think...)

This post has been edited by The_Pink_Nu1 on 28th May 2010 15:49

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

I would love to see the USA beat England. But I also want to see England do well in the tourney (sorry, Del).

I don't much care for Argentina, but Messi just seems like such a likeable guy for being probably the greatest midfielder on Earth, I'm with you. I just can't help but cheer for him, like you say.

In other news, I think I just finished up the last bug in the application. I need to let the beta testers finish testing the scoring for after the tournament, and once we do that it will be time to start loading up rosters for the real deal next week. As soon as that's done, it's signup time!

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 28th May 2010 16:05

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Did you see Facebook have put together a predictor league as well? I must admit it looks good, but obviously not as good as here because you can't scroll down a page without getting prompted to invite people or 'Like' something. I didn't see the US playing the Czechs but 2-4 seems intimidating. What happened? Yeah, I can't wait for this whole thing to start now, I think the best of the group games will be England against the US. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that group is going to be so hard to predict.

I liked the video PN1. He has a bullet of a shot. He's built like an acrobat. If you ever see him go down in a tackle watch how quickly he springs to his feet and starts playing again.

As for England's final overall position, I want to avoid having to put up with people gloating, either friends or media, so I'm hoping England beats the US but doesn't get any further than the quarter-finals, and I want Slovenia to get to the quarter-finals too. That will keep everyone quiet.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (sweetdude @ 28th May 2010 12:22)

Did you see Facebook have put together a predictor league as well? I must admit it looks good, but obviously not as good as here because you can't scroll down a page without getting prompted to invite people or 'Like' something. I didn't see the US playing the Czechs but 2-4 seems intimidating. What happened? Yeah, I can't wait for this whole thing to start now, I think the best of the group games will be England against the US. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that group is going to be so hard to predict.

Well, we took that match as a final tryout for players on our bubble. We didn't start a single player who is likely to start in the WC, and IIRC we didn't even really bring anyone in as a sub who is likely to start in the WC. Onyewu might be the closest, but he's still working on coming back from injury. That said, the b-team looked good up front and in the attacking midfield, but was abysmal on set pieces. That alone pretty much created the scoreline, but for those guys to score twice on the Czech starting XI wasn't a bad feat.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (sweetdude @ 28th May 2010 12:22)

Did you see Facebook have put together a predictor league as well? I must admit it looks good, but obviously not as good as here because you can't scroll down a page without getting prompted to invite people or 'Like' something. I didn't see the US playing the Czechs but 2-4 seems intimidating. What happened? Yeah, I can't wait for this whole thing to start now, I think the best of the group games will be England against the US. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that group is going to be so hard to predict.

I liked the video PN1. He has a bullet of a shot. He's built like an acrobat. If you ever see him go down in a tackle watch how quickly he springs to his feet and starts playing again.

As for England's final overall position, I want to avoid having to put up with people gloating, either friends or media, so I'm hoping England beats the US but doesn't get any further than the quarter-finals, and I want Slovenia to get to the quarter-finals too. That will keep everyone quiet.

Basically, if the US beat England then you'll hear gloating from Americans on an unimaginable scale. And if the US lose to England then we can all shrug our shoulders and say that England are better than us anyway.

In WC time, coming from a country that's not known as a soccer powerhouse has its benefits.

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Quote (The_Pink_Nu1 @ 30th May 2010 05:00)

In WC time, coming from a country that's not known as a soccer powerhouse has its benefits.

Unless we (Scotland) don't qualify haha.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (sweetdude @ 30th May 2010 10:41)

Quote (The_Pink_Nu1 @ 30th May 2010 05:00)

In WC time, coming from a country that's not known as a soccer powerhouse has its benefits. 

Unless we (Scotland) don't qualify haha.

OK, scratch that: In WC time, coming from a country that's not known as a soccer powerhouse and is in an easy qualifying group has its benefits.

This post has been edited by The_Pink_Nu1 on 31st May 2010 10:37

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Hm, what to do... I really hope Italy will win but with their current team it seems impossible (2-1 to Mexico) ;_;

US failed to impress too much again today, if you ask me. I woke up a bit late so I missed the first twenty minutes, but from what I saw, the midfield and defense was still far too weak. Australia is not terrible, but if the US gives England the space in midfield that they gave the Roos today, it will be ugly. Additionally, the defense against set pieces was still lax - there can't be that much space allowed in the box against giant Peter Crouch. I blame Jay Demerit for a lot of that, as he looked weak all game. Hopefully Onyewu can play more minutes in the Cup.

Also, I'm willing to give Hahnemann the benefit of the doubt, but he didn't look like a second-string national goalie today. He was indecisive and wobbly on set pieces, and his good saves were reflex only.

Verdict, IMO, was that the team showed promise with Buddle and later Gomez up front, but the defense needs to give Tim Howard help, particularly on set pieces, to have a hope at leaving the group intact.

In other news, where are you guys planning on watching your team? I'm thinking about going downtown next Saturday, but I get the feeling I'd have to be there several hours early for the American Outlaws party. I might have to stay local, check out the upscale Irish place a few blocks away instead.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 5th June 2010 22:56

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Gigantuar @ 4th June 2010 12:03)

Hm, what to do... I really hope Italy will win but with their current team it seems impossible (2-1 to Mexico) ;_;

First 2-1 to Mexico and now 1-1 to Switzerland!? What are they dooing ;___;

Quote (Rangers51 @ 5th June 2010 23:54)

In other news, where are you guys planning on watching your team? I'm thinking about going downtown next Saturday, but I get the feeling I'd have to be there several hours early for the American Outlaws party. I might have to stay local, check out the upscale Irish place a few blocks away instead.

I'll be watching the England v US game at my friend's house with some homemade cider. As for the others, most of them in my living room on the sofa in front of the TV, and for the really fun games I'll go out into town with friends and watch it there. One thing is certain: I'm completely buzzing.

It's going to be so great to watch all these teams playing the actual cup finally. All the friendlies are getting tiring now, I want the real thing.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (sweetdude @ 6th June 2010 06:17)

It's going to be so great to watch all these teams playing the actual cup finally. All the friendlies are getting tiring now, I want the real thing.

It's especially tiring watching people get hurt. John Obi Mikel is out now (though that's not from a new injury) and Arjen Robben might be as well.

Along those lines, does anyone have a link to players who are being replaced due to injury? I'd like to keep the rosters up to date for the game. :\

Edit

Found Mikel and Ferdinand's on Wikipedia, but I dunno what confirmed misses I might not have yet.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 6th June 2010 15:22

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Gigantuar @ 6th June 2010 07:18)

Quote (Gigantuar @ 4th June 2010 12:03)

Hm, what to do... I really hope Italy will win but with their current team it seems impossible (2-1 to Mexico) ;_;

First 2-1 to Mexico and now 1-1 to Switzerland!? What are they dooing ;___;

Italy has a pretty historic (and sometimes nefarious) habit of performing absolutely poorly in the pre-tournament friendlies and, somewhat more notably, only really 'stepping up' at the end of the group stage. I've got faith in Marcello Lippi and while I don't understand some of his decisions, you've got to appreciate that he and his squad were under the same scrutiny during the last World Cup and, well, we all know how that one turned out!

I'm looking forward to this more and more.

Most of the games will be caught at home on my end, from the comfort of my couch.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

I'll be watching a majority of the games at home as well. Me and some friends might make plans to watch the Mexico games together though. This week is definitely full of anticipation. I've been slowly putting out my MEX gear for opening day. Excited!

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Also on the topic of injuries, I might hazard a cynical guess that a few of these 'unknowns' are ploy-worthy, especially Drogba. They haven't ruled him out, they're saying he's making encouraging progress. Against Portugal, Brazil and "I'll score in every game I play" North Korea the Ivorians might be keeping him back for a bit of last-minute mind squirming. Could just be a conjecture on my part, I'm just thinking that this season's EPL has seen Ferguson being cheeky with Rooney's injury and availability, Drogba going down for extended periods of time when the tempo of the game is going against Chelsea, and who can forget the old 'Ronaldo's wandered off, oh wait he's conveniently back for the start of the game' ploy for Brazil against France in 1998. The teams might be milking these big-name injuries for all they're worth. Not really anything useful for your player lists R51 I just thought I'd pass a comment.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Just out of curiosity, who are you guys picking to win it all? As much as I respect Espana and Brazil, i simply couldn't go against my roots. Cultural bias you say? Most definitely. Mexico all the way! =)

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Also in talks of injuries, it seems that the one sustained by Andrea Pirlo during the friendly with Mexico is much more serious than originally reported. Riccardo Montolivo was called up to fill in the spot and had a decent showing against Switzerland, but the spot hasn't been settled completely. It'll be interesting to see what Lippi finally decides.

Pirlo is allegedly going to recover in time for the knock-out stages.

This is a huge loss for Italy's midfield game, to be sure. If Paraguay comes out with a strong defensive showing in their first game against Azzurri, it might turn into a huge upset for us Italian supporters. If Lippi does put Montolivo in the spot, here's hoping he has a bit of that same creative flair he showed with Udinese.



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Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 8th June 2010 01:49)

Also in talks of injuries, it seems that the one sustained by Andrea Pirlo during the friendly with Mexico is much more serious than originally reported. Riccardo Montolivo was called up to fill in the spot and had a decent showing against Switzerland, but the spot hasn't been settled completely. It'll be interesting to see what Lippi finally decides.

I haven't seen any news of that, which is odd. However, if Montolivo has indeed filled the spot, I believe that means that Pirlo is done, not coming back. You can only replace someone if they're injured, and if you replace someone with someone healthy, there's no givesies-backsies as far as I know.

Edit

ESPN just reported that Nani is out. Not as big a blow to Portugal as losing Drogba would be to Cote in that group, but still.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 8th June 2010 12:30

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 8th June 2010 08:27)

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 8th June 2010 01:49)

Also in talks of injuries, it seems that the one sustained by Andrea Pirlo during the friendly with Mexico is much more serious than originally reported. Riccardo Montolivo was called up to fill in the spot and had a decent showing against Switzerland, but the spot hasn't been settled completely. It'll be interesting to see what Lippi finally decides.

I haven't seen any news of that, which is odd. However, if Montolivo has indeed filled the spot, I believe that means that Pirlo is done, not coming back. You can only replace someone if they're injured, and if you replace someone with someone healthy, there's no givesies-backsies as far as I know.

Edit

ESPN just reported that Nani is out. Not as big a blow to Portugal as losing Drogba would be to Cote in that group, but still.

Squads have up to 24 hours before their first match to replace members, however. Seems I misspoke, as Montolivo was already on the italian squad for the World Cup, just not a member of the starting XI. The reports are changing day by day, but the current word is that Pirlo will be fit to play the second group match.

It seems this is going to be a year plagued with injury. I'm starting to think that the team who wins this year's world cup won't be the squad with the most talented players or the most cunning coach, but rather the team with the best medical staff.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote (baralai888 @ 7th June 2010 14:06)

Just out of curiosity, who are you guys picking to win it all?  As much as I respect Espana and Brazil, i simply couldn't go against my roots.  Cultural bias you say? Most definitely.  Mexico all the way! =)

I've got Spain winning it all (I'm not too bad at predicting these things either ). Faith in prediction +1 after seeing them thrash Poland 6-0 last night. Boy, that second goal was set up beautifully.

I have to agree with Josh that the US defense looked pretty shaky against Australia, although I thought the midfield was decent enough.

I think we just need the first goal against England--after that, the English team will spend the remaining match time contemplating how much their country will rip them apart for losing to the US.

This post has been edited by The_Pink_Nu1 on 9th June 2010 08:40

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Quote (baralai888 @ 7th June 2010 14:06)

Just out of curiosity, who are you guys picking to win it all?  As much as I respect Espana and Brazil, i simply couldn't go against my roots.  Cultural bias you say? Most definitely.  Mexico all the way! =)

It must be either Brazil, England or Italy. England finally have a good coach to whip their players into order, and they probably had either the best or one of the best qualifying campaigns in the world. I see that Luca Toni and Lionel Messi has tipped England to potentially win it this year. I, however, think they'll either make the finals or at least third after losing in the semis. Brazil is a no-brainer choice for finals or semis, and I think they'll have another great tournament and another victory. Kaka and Robinho have had poor seasons but get them in the yellow and blue and they'll start scoring goals for fun.

Three teams that should never be ruled out are France, Germany and Argentina. I could see any of these three putting out Spain and/or Brazil.

I was actually going to put down Italy to win it, and I'm still debating whether to change back to Italy. Purely because I think Italy have that killer game-winning factor that some more talented teams lack. They have the consistency and hardness of Germany but also some of the Brazilian flair to pull off comebacks and unexpected goals when they need them,. That's what I think will be needed by whoever wins the cup. And they can cheat better than anyone else, always a bonus.

Spain must be the favourites, but with all their talent and ability they can still stumble to teams like Germany and Argentina in the same way that Barca lost to Inter. They just won't win, I don't see it happening, although I believe that they are the best team out there.

So, verdict, it's split between Brazil, Italy and England for me. I'll probably settle on (1) Brazil, (2) Italy and (3) England, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

Having said all that, the team I actually want to win it is France, because then my Irish friends will be absolutely livid and it'll make for some good entertainment. If England win those of us in the UK won't hear the end of it for years, literally years. It's been over four decades since England last won but that's not an issue for the pundits. I'm supporting Slovenia in all their games because I like the team and the national fans. I'm not supporting the US in any game because every game they win will be the equivalent of winning the trophy for one of my American friends, and that's unbearable. The Olympics was bad enough.

Quote (PN1)

I think we just need the first goal against England--after that, the English team will spend the remaining match time contemplating how much their country will rip them apart for losing to the US.

Well, that's a possibility, but if England do anything other than win the entire tournament then the press will slate them for weeks afterwards. Often I read the papers and think that the journalists have been watching a completely different game from me. England are used to immense pressure and expectations, so I don't think that will affect them too much. I'm starting to wonder whether the US fans will be more disappointed in defeat than England?

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Early nominee for goal and name of the tournament. Tshabalala. What a friggin' strike.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

He was easily man of the match too. It might have well been Brazil playing in the yellow for all I could tell. I'm glad SA scored first in the tournament.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Bah, that was supposed to be 2-1 for Mexico Epic fail.