EN World World Cup blog

[jonesy]

And once again we failed to qualify. Did get pretty close this time though, so maybe next World Cup. One can always hope. :\

I'm going to root for England and Spain just like always. And I wish Japan all the luck in the world, 'cause oh boy are they going to need it in their group or what.

 

[jester47]

If you are in Seattle:

http://www.georgeanddragonpub.com/football.html

 

[Klaus]

And once again we failed to qualify. Did get pretty close this time though, so maybe next World Cup. One can always hope. :\

I'm going to root for England and Spain just like always. And I wish Japan all the luck in the world, 'cause oh boy are they going to need it in their group or what.

Japan is the second-best team in that group. I fully expect Brazil to qualify in 1st and Japan in 2nd. Croatia will have a rough time beating Japan to the punch, and Australia is just the sparring of the group.

I'm rooting for Brazil (duh), Japan and all the African countries, specially Angola.

 

[Jdvn1]

oh and Jdvn1 - Kahn is no longer the 1st choice keeper for Germany - its Jens Leehman (GOOO JENS). Kahn's been too busy playing ego games and drinking until all hours of the morning with his 20-yo girlfriend (or so my german flatmate tells me). Jens will do them proud I'm sure (he's incredible for Arsenal).

Wow. I heard something like that a year ago and read an article where Kahn was complaining about crazy gossip. Weird.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

nevermind

 

[johnsemlak]

Japan is the second-best team in that group. I fully expect Brazil to qualify in 1st and Japan in 2nd. Croatia will have a rough time beating Japan to the punch, and Australia is just the sparring of the group.

I'm rooting for Brazil (duh), Japan and all the African countries, specially Angola.

I think you're being a bit rough on Australia and Croatia, but we'll see. That group will have an interesting battle for second.

 

[Jdvn1]

Well, remember that Australia is, technically, on roughly the same level as the 5th-best South American team. They might be good, but they likely won't go too far.

 

[Klaus]

I think you're being a bit rough on Australia and Croatia, but we'll see. That group will have an interesting battle for second.

Japan almost defeated Germany not a month ago, in Germany (but yielded a 2-2 tie). Zico has turned Japan into a very dangerous opponent (it also tied with Brazil last year in the Confederations Cup, and that Brazil team has 9 of the 11 main players of the current team). Nakamura has been 'eating the ball' (i.e., playing very well) lately.

Croatia, OTOH, fared poorly on the matches prior to the Cup (and just lost to Spain 2-1). Australia defeating Uruguay to go to the Cup reflects badly on Uruguay more than it reflects well on Australia.

Unless a couple of zebras occur (zebra is the brazilian slang for unexpected match results), Brazil and Japan should qualify as 1st and 2nd in that group.

Here's a fun thing to do before the Cup starts: share the football slang from your countries, preferably translated in the most literal way! I'll start:

- Snake: a really good player;
- Earthworm: a young player that just might grow into a snake;
- Practice Lion: a player that is very energic and aggressive during practice matches, but is useless in a real match.

Your turn!

 

[Sidekick]

I'll be supporting Australia in that group.

Brazil don't NEED my support (although I will be cheering them on in the knockouts - you can't deny true class).

And to be honest, Aussie need all the support they can get - to me that's the pool of death.

oh, and this is the only opportunity I'm going to get to support Australia in sports without being called a 'tratior' or 'turn-pike' - lets just home the folks back in NZ don't find out...

 

[johnsemlak]

Japan almost defeated Germany not a month ago, in Germany (but yielded a 2-2 tie). Zico has turned Japan into a very dangerous opponent (it also tied with Brazil last year in the Confederations Cup, and that Brazil team has 9 of the 11 main players of the current team). Nakamura has been 'eating the ball' (i.e., playing very well) lately.

Croatia, OTOH, fared poorly on the matches prior to the Cup (and just lost to Spain 2-1). Australia defeating Uruguay to go to the Cup reflects badly on Uruguay more than it reflects well on Australia.

Unless a couple of zebras occur (zebra is the brazilian slang for unexpected match results), Brazil and Japan should qualify as 1st and 2nd in that group.

!

Well, those are some interesting results, but friendlies (and unfortunately the Confederations Cup is practically a friendly, as it's hardly a big tournament) are unfortunatley not reliable indicators. As for Zebra's, the bookies I've consulted seem to think any victory for Japan would be a significant if not major upset. Asian teams, except when the WC was hosted in Asia, have rarely won any games at all in the WC.

Still, anthing can happen...