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First match has been recorded. Not much quality in our picks aside from Mike - made me rethink my afternoon pick too!

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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?

Great opening game. Rafa saved us with that late goal. Mexico played well to open up but just seemed to fall apart as the game went on. Guille Franco definitely failed to impress with a few good chances as well. I'm hoping Aguirre will start Chicharito Hernandez against France!

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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

Man of the match was totally SA's keeper. Not only did he have a few phenomenal saves but he was also the best passer on their team.

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

Anyone watching the Uruguay/France game? Both teams are having a really hard time trying to make the first goal, well into the second half.

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Quote (Sephiroth @ 11th June 2010 13:48)

Anyone watching the Uruguay/France game? Both teams are having a really hard time trying to make the first goal, well into the second half.

It's because neither team is really trying.

Edit

And the last few minutes certainly didn't get better given that Uruguay had a man sent off, which I missed because of my bloody meeting.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 11th June 2010 20:20

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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 @ 11th June 2010 15:18)

And the last few minutes certainly didn't get better given that Uruguay had a man sent off, which I missed because of my bloody meeting.

Was crazy! He kicked the crap out of the French player. Slid right into him. I thought he broke his leg for a second.

I can't believe that the first two games of the World Cup are draws! It's so disappointing!

(Was hoping to Uruguay to take this one.)

France certainly had the upper-hand in that game. They kept control of the ball for the majority of the game and really made the Uruguay defenders work to keep them out of the box.

This post has been edited by Sephiroth on 11th June 2010 20:31

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

In the end, Uruguay having a man sent off didn't hurt them, as neither team was able to pull ahead. I'm definitely glad to see France not win a game, but I can't help but think that Uruguay came out looking to draw in the first place, as they barely made any real offensive attempts. Forlan could have put that game away himself, but they just didn't seem to want it. France, as expected, played poorly and their big names seemed more interested in playing themselves than as a team. Did anyone else enjoy Henry calling for a hand ball? Oh, the irony.

S. Africa v. Mexico was a much more interesting match.

I wonder what you all think about that canceled goal scored off the corner for Mexico as being called offside? I was sure having a man in the net didn't help, but apparently the issue was that there cannot be that many players behind the goal keeper.

All in all, a decent start to the World Cup. Tomorrow should prove to be much more interesting.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

So, either there's an error in the leaderboard, or a LOT of people completely failed to make picks today.

http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/contests/wc2010/leaderboard.php

I'd suggest checking that out, were I you. Had no such problems in the beta, so for once I don't think it's my fault...

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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 (Dragon_Fire @ 11th June 2010 15:30)

Did anyone else enjoy Henry calling for a hand ball? Oh, the irony.

I'll bet the people watching the game from Ireland thought it was funny. Haha!

Edit

R51, it says I didn't make any predictions. I wouldn't have gotten any points, but I did predict these games.

This post has been edited by Sephiroth on 11th June 2010 20:35

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

The US/UK game is Saturday right? I've never watched Soccer before, but I thought I might try it out. Who's the favorite to win?

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (BlitzSage @ 11th June 2010 15:35)

Who's the favorite to win?

Ummm, what do you mean, Blitz?

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Seph: The database has no predictions for you for the matches played today at all. There are matches set up for you for tomorrow, though. That being said, can't think of a reason why today's wouldn't have worked but the others did other than user error, sorry.

Blitz: Try to watch the game with some big fans. It'll be a laugh. England are probably favored to win by just about all bookmakers, but I have faith.

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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?

Hmm, I predicted them all at the same time. Don't know what I could have done to make tomorrow's work, but not today's...

I gotta say, it's been a disappointing world cup opening day..

This post has been edited by Sephiroth on 11th June 2010 20:59

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 11th June 2010 15:30)

Did anyone else enjoy Henry calling for a hand ball? Oh, the irony.

Who says karma ain't real?

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

Quote (The_Pink_Nu1 @ 11th June 2010 23:02)

Quote (Dragon_Fire @ 11th June 2010 15:30)

Did anyone else enjoy Henry calling for a hand ball? Oh, the irony.

Who says karma ain't real?

Karma would have been France not getting a single point in group play. Now all we can hope for is that they don't get another.

I slept in today so I turned on Greece/Korea at halftime. Did Greece look this bad in the first half too? I knew that Korea would give them a game and have a good shot at winning (I predicted draw) but Greece has really looked like they don't belong here at all.

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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?

So I have a suspicion that something is wrong in the scoring that we didn't catch in Beta. I do not have time to look at it right now, because I'm getting ready to head out for the GAME OF THE CENTURY OMG, but I will get a look at it tonight or tomorrow. Rest assured that if I find any discrepancies, I will re-run all the scoring to make sure everything is correct and fair ASAP.

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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?

Wow.. What is with all the draws? Even the hyped up America/England game ended in draw.

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

The US/England game was... A surprise, to be honest. England's weak side really showed the cracks today, and the US should be proud of that result. They deserved the win, for England had only themselves to blame. It's credit to the English spirit they kept going and kept the US down to 1-each, but it's telling that even that spirit wasn't enough to get the job done.

Those bursts of brilliance most English national teams can pull off are coming only in small drabs, and faltering when it counts. They rely too strongly on a select few players and I can't help think Ferdinand's absence is one of those key elements in weakening what I felt was already one of the weakest England sides I've ever seen.

Capello's choices are going to get some scrutiny now, especially Green in goal. A World Cup rookie in the goal for the toughest match of the group combined with some other strange choices, not least of which the late announcement of the team, will be sure to have pundits in England and abroad pondering what's the plan here. I don't see the England team I watched today going far. Group is a given pretty much, but if they don't shape up, group will be a struggle.

However, Robert Green is sure to be the scapegoat no matter what here. The guy frankly shouldn't have been out there today, but hindsight is 20/20. He's not had that great a track record so far, and if you ask me, I think this has potential to be a career-ender if the media elect to pin any future failures on him.



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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Obviously, my ultimate allegiance lies with the States, though unlike Del I wholeheartedly support England going far in the tournament as well. It's unfortunate for both sides, really - England were obviously burned by Green's mistake, and on that score it shouldn't have been a draw. However, I think that the US had just as many quality chances, if not more, inside of 30 yards, and that England should feel fortunate that they did not lose that game regardless of the mistake in net. Altidore's carom off of Green and the post was a mere inch away from causing mass suicide all over England, and that was merely the best chance, not the only.

At least twice, I could see calls for which I would have personally given a card, even without the benefit of the replay. Carra, God love him as a Liverpool man, probably should have been off. Something like that would have made a huge change.

I had been talking for a week in chat about how James or Hart should be the England #1, and we saw neither of them. Hindsight IS 20/20, yes, but I called problems, not specifically this problem, a week ago. Why couldn't Capello?

The US was not free from indictment. A continued unease in back gave Gerrard his goal. It was beautifully played but weakly given, and it can not happen again. Thank God for Gooch and Howard, or else a draw would have escaped the US as well.

All in all, probably the best result for everyone, but nobody should come away TOO happy.

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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?

Our defensive positioning is abysmal. As Josh said, thank God for Gooch and Howard.

Midfield played well; our strikers rarely REALLY troubled England.

I feel horrible for Green. The look on his face after that goal will haunt me for weeks.

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

I had my girlfriend over for the weekend, but luckily she doesn't mind me watching football for hours at a time. What a girl.

Argentina game was brilliant. I think from all the games so far Messi does seem to be the man of the tournament. He had a series of shots and set up some great plays. That Nigerian keeper did amazingly well to keep his shots out.

That England v US game was good to watch I must admit. There's nothing wrong with a draw to finish the game. WhoTF swapped Altidore for a footballer? Must've been Bob Bradley. He played pretty well in that game and he was crap for a whole year at Hull (who are now relegated out of the league).

Another thing about the US, I don't agree at all that the midfield was good, Howard was good and the defence was bad. I thought it was the other way round. The defence had a really hard task but they were great at keeping back and keeping Rooney out of trouble. Howard let in a goal he probably would've saved on a good day, the chances he did save were all shot straight at him aside from Lampard which still wasn't a majorly difficult shot, and the midfield lost the ball time and time again, either in tackles or by dribbling it out of play. I think the US defence are quite unfairly graded in this game, as far as I saw anyway.

Where was Joe Cole, Peter Crouch and Joe Hart? Usually, when England need a goal, the plan is to bring on Peter Crouch in the last 30 minutes and he scores. Instead Capello waited 15 minutes too late and Crouch didn't get his chance. The amount of good crosses into the box were just asking for a bit of Crouch. Joe Cole is a quality player, totally underrated by Capello. Hopefully he'll be on against Algeria and/or Slovenia so we can all see what he's made of. And, yes, I don't know any England fan who thinks David James or Rob Green should've been playing. Everyone apparently knows that Hart is the best keeper, and what does experience matter anyway if the experienced players are letting in stupid goals? I'd be interested to hear an argument for even a 100% fit James or Green for the next game.

Carragher shouldn't have been playing. This game shows Capello, hopefully, that experienced players don't always get the better of those on-form. However I don't think his push was a red card.

Steven Gerrard played a wondergame. After he'd scored he was putting in some mighty tackles and passes. WhoTF swapped the real Gerrard back in again? Where was he at Liverpool this season? It must've been part of the deal to sack Benitez that Gerrard is allowed back out the closet.

I agree R51, this result is probably the best for both the US and England. Both sides benefit from it more than a win, IMO. The US bubble doesn't get too big which would be a problem in later games, possibly, and England will make the changes they need to to win these kinds of games in the future.

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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 @ 13th June 2010 08:07)

Another thing about the US, I don't agree at all that the midfield was good, Howard was good and the defence was bad. I thought it was the other way round. The defence had a really hard task but they were great at keeping back and keeping Rooney out of trouble. Howard let in a goal he probably would've saved on a good day, the chances he did save were all shot straight at him aside from Lampard which still wasn't a majorly difficult shot, and the midfield lost the ball time and time again, either in tackles or by dribbling it out of play. I think the US defence are quite unfairly graded in this game, as far as I saw anyway.

Seriously? Howard did amazing. He sacrificed himself to do a job the defenders should have dealt with already, he saved a low and hard drive by Johnson (which was NOT right him) after he ran circles around our defense, he did wonderful to hold onto a hard shot by Heskey when a rebound may well have gone right into Rooney's path, and he had sure hands in general.

Howard possibly could have saved Gerrard's opener, but that was clearly the fault of the terrible defense. The defense also left the English wingers completely open ALL THE TIME, which was especially stupid since the speedy Lennon is one of them. We also let those wingers burn our asses a thousand times.

Just watch the highlights and see how the wingers are ALWAYS free.

As for the midfield, they did very well to win the vast majority of aerial battles (one win of which led to Dempsey's goal) and they didn't concede possession any more often than the English midfield did.

It's as though we didn't watch the same game.

This post has been edited by The_Pink_Nu1 on 13th June 2010 16:30

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

The point I was trying to make was that Howard was overrated in the game and the defenders were underrated. Howard has played in England for seasons against all these English players. None play abroad. He's used to it and you'd expect him to be able to make all these saves. Watch any other game and you'll see all the goalkeepers making the same saves, it's nothing special. What you shouldn't expect is for the defence, none of whom are expected to play at the same standard, to be marking Rooney successfully, even at the cost of the wings, and prevent Lampard and Gerrard from getting clear shots on goal. Compare Rooney to Messi and you'll see the latter getting the better of the Nigerians on a number of occasions. Rooney isn't as good as him of course, but when he's playing well he can dominate defenders and create a lot of chances. Just because the wings were free doesn't mean the US defence were poor. Forget the wings, without Crouch up front, the quality crosses by Johnson and Lennon were ultimately defended well by the American CBs, and the English weren't able to score. I'm trying not to sound patronising, but the US defence played well beyond their level.

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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 (mertinatron @ 13th June 2010 06:02)

We should've won yesterday! Grrr! USA we gifted you a point, what a howler.

Wait, wait.. You think that one attempt at a save was any better than the other? By your definition of 'gifted', England shouldn't have scored either, as Howard did what couldn't even be called an attempt at saving the first goal of the game. If you get donw to it, the game should have been a draw, 0-0

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Quote (Sephiroth @ 13th June 2010 23:56)

Quote (mertinatron @ 13th June 2010 06:02)

We should've won yesterday! Grrr! USA we gifted you a point, what a howler.

Wait, wait.. You think that one attempt at a save was any better than the other? By your definition of 'gifted', England shouldn't have scored either, as Howard did what couldn't even be called an attempt at saving the first goal of the game. If you get donw to it, the game should have been a draw, 0-0

The whole game was a howler from England's perspective. They beat Mexico 3-1 and Croatia 5-0. Those are teams similar to the US in terms of quality and rankings year on year. England were really expected to win 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.

Quote (Sephiroth @ 13th June 2010 17:56)

Quote (mertinatron @ 13th June 2010 06:02)

We should've won yesterday! Grrr! USA we gifted you a point, what a howler.

Wait, wait.. You think that one attempt at a save was any better than the other? By your definition of 'gifted', England shouldn't have scored either, as Howard did what couldn't even be called an attempt at saving the first goal of the game. If you get donw to it, the game should have been a draw, 0-0

Beyond what Sweets said, I don't think you're quite on track with that. Howard did everything a goalie is supposed to do on that shot, with the time he had. He came off his line, he did his best to cut down the angle, but Gerrard was quite simply undefended. He put on excellent spin with the outside of his foot and kept the ball down and towards the corner. The goal is very wide, and the goalie will always be at a disadvantage when the defense abandons their marks that close to the goal, particularly against one of the best attacking midfielders in the world (his club season notwithstanding).

The error that Rob Green made was just that, an error. Not in the same league, if you look at it very critically.

If anything, the gift England got was on Altidore's shot in the second half. It could have ended 2-1 right there.

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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?

Netherlands v Denmark today. Looks like Nicklas Bendtner might not get the golden boot and win the whole tournament with Denmark after all, regardless of what he said before the summer. I was thinking that maybe Robin van Persie would be an outside bet for golden boot if the Dutch made it to the quarter-finals. After today's game, probably not, he doesn't look like he's got his scoring touch back yet after the injury.

R51 you must be happy with Kuyt's performance. I though he was man of the match. Loads of good little plays and got the goal, even if was more the fault of the defence than his positioning. And I'm a huge Kuyt fan now after he got me the 4 points rather than 2 with that 85th minute goal.

All this US chat is really refreshing. I can't wait for the Slovenia game. Slovenia have 30,000 registered footballers in a country of 2 million, the US have 18 million registered footballers in a country of 300 million. I'll be supporting Slovenia, but don't get me wrong, I really like the US team, having watched them all year in the English Premier League. I have a lot of respect for Howard, Dempsey and Bob Bradley.

It's a shame that the three teams I want to see win are all in the same group. I just have to go with Slovenia because they're such an underdog package but have the potential to cause major upsets to both the US and England. Whether they do so or not is the big question.

Best WC joke I've heard so far: "My computer has this new 'Robert Green' virus, it can't seem to save anything."

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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 watched Denmark/Netherlands and Japan/Cameroon. Both were snoozers.

Honestly the opening matches thus far have been extremely disappointing. Only two teams, South Korea and Germany, have impressed. (Messi looked great for Argentina, but he's just one man). Special mention to South Africa for performing well above expectations.

It's especially disappointing because Euro 2008 was spectacular.

Quote

Best WC joke I've heard so far: "My computer has this new 'Robert Green' virus, it can't seem to save anything."

I hate the NY Post, but they quite probably out-trolled the Sun with their headline, "USA WINS 1-1!"

This post has been edited by The_Pink_Nu1 on 14th June 2010 16:47

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

Oh yeah I mean the US must now be odds-on favourite to win the tournament. Altidore for the golden boot. Donovan for player of the year. I don't know why nobody noticed it until now.



This post has been edited by sweetdude on 14th June 2010 17:08

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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 @ 14th June 2010 12:06)

Oh yeah I mean the US must now be odds-on favourite to win the tournament. Altidore for the golden boot. Donovan for player of the year. I don't know why nobody noticed it until now.

I don't get it, nobody actually thinks or has expressed that, at least not here.

I was impressed, by the way, with Kuyt today, but not surprised. The guy is probably the hardest worker on any team in the tournament, for my money, and that's how he got his goal. The Danish defense slacked off, and once it hit the post they had already downshifted. Kuyt just nipped right in, playing the way you're supposed to. My man of the match, to be honest, and that's not just bias.

Cameroon were a huge disappointment. They've got some significant quality in Eto'o, Assou-Ekotto, Geremi off the bench, etc. but they just never seemed to use their strengths against Japan. Granted, they got very unlucky to not salvage a draw or even a win at the end (a draw there would have given me four points, the jerks), but they shouldn't have needed that final flurry.

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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?