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1) Um, that one team that comes from where I live.

2) Hopefully far enough that we start caring about it. It'd be nice to have Americans following a sport that we actually play against other countries.

3) Ivory Coast. Dunno why.

The match between South Africa and Mexico was quite nice. Too bad South Africa failed to score a second goal though.

What does anyone think of the new ball, it certinely does move quicker, though it's only game both goalkeepers had bit of a rough time trying to hold onto the ball.

Commander 598 wrote:Really, the only thing that matters is if we (America) can brag about a second win against England.

....Not really. I'm sure there are quite a few people who couldn't care less if the US beat England or not.

ray245 wrote:The match between South Africa and Mexico was quite nice. Too bad South Africa failed to score a second goal though.

Frankly, a devastating result for both sides. South Africa can't be content with a draw because to get out of the group stage they really need to take someone else out of it. Three draws doesn't advance in that group, IMO, and they'll be very lucky not to lose against their seeded opponent. That might have been their best chance to get a win, and a win and draw might do it for them (might have done it for them).

As for Mexico, now they simply have to win against Uruguay. Watching Uruguay draw against France has to be tough on them, because Uruguay could easily beat South Africa and then look to draw against Mexico to advance.

South Africa looked a bit lost for large periods of that game, Mexico fantastic for 2/3rds of the pitch and completely anemic in the final third, they just don't seem to have the final cutting edge.

Uruguay looked like they were not sure what game plan to deploy, which is understandable since no one knew what French team would show up. Turns out Domenech really has this special ability to take what should be on paper a fantastic team, and sap it of all self belief and rhythm ... or, it could be because French football just isn't able to cope without Zidane, who lets face it was a god among men on the pitch!

Oh, and if Spain do not win this then it would be a crying shame. The most beautiful football on the planet for the past 2 years, they deserve this trophy.

UnderAGreySky wrote:Spain? No, I get the feeling they are chokers.

Spain are reigning European Champions, they have won 45 out of their last 48 internationals (losing only 1 to the USA of all teams), they were the best qualifiers in Europe and had the best longest time spent without conceding a goal. If they lose this tournament it will be down to two factors; injuries or falling asleep.

C'mon France you got yourselves a slot in that fancy Nike advert with players trying to 'write the future' Well you’re not writing much about yourselves at the moment. (Unless their trying to write out au revior to the tournament)

Given the lack of goal scoring and performance both France and Uruguay need to sharpen up fast and France are still looking to be that same team that needed a hand by Henry to scrap through to this tournament.

On a final note: I really hate those damm horns.

Wow, that was an anemic performance on steroids from Spoiler As far as who I support, I've always like the South Korean team, but I wouldn't mind seeing Nigeria or Cameroon doing well in the tournament either. Then there is Italy, which I have a soft spot for, even though I haven't always liked all of their players.

South Korea really put on a good show.

I had them in the tipping comp.

Wow, Messi putting on a bit of a masterclass early on. Even if he hasn't scored, Nigeria don't look like being able to stop him.

1) Australia

2) I think they'll pull something out to make the round of 16 like in 2006. Then meet England and give away a penalty with 2 minutes to go to lose it. I can only hope that this time they give away a penalty properly.

3) Spain. But I've never picked a World cup, so probably not Spain then...

In other notes, the RSA v Mexico game was brilliant. RSA play a real "showing off" brand of football. Might not be good for winning, but great for watching. And while Mexico kept pressing, RSA seemed to have their number most of the time, and it was confusion, not lack of ability which gave them the equaliser.

Nigeria are good to watch too. They like to move the ball forward, not back. Which results in a crap load of turnovers, but great to see. Also their keeper is fucking awesome.

I can't wait to see what the Daily Show have to say about the England-USA match. Hopefully, England will win in the upcoming match later.

U.S. what the fuck? You got scored on already.

Yeah, it's only a tie, but this is very exciting.

Damn, a tie thanks to Robert Green's mistake.

Now that was a good game between the US and England. England should thank its lucky stars that Green managed to block that one shot into the pole and that it ricocheted back to the field instead of bouncing in.

I didn't really see much to the USA's system. Either hit England on the break, or build to a threatening position with small passing triangles around the ball. We don't really try to manipulate a defense with off-ball movement, or utilize the wide areas. It seemed like all England had to do to get in behind was field a wing back with a heal on the touch line.

Quite a few draws thus far...

After watching US vs England I thought that the English side disappointed. I'm not an England fan (although I do have them in pool to advance so I do want them to win), but I thought they played fairly well in the first 5 minutes and they added a goal too. Afterward, the English either sat back or the US stepped up. Where was Rooney? He looked invisible on the pitch.

Brazil. Need I say more?

Regarding the Mexico vs South Africa match.

It's fun to see people over-analising this pretty much everywhere, where it's kind of an unwritten rule that the opening game with the host is always a tie.

In a game that is kept so criminally obscure (not accepting video evidence, the referee having the final say despite obvious evidence that's even recorded on video, and a lot of money to throw any way a desired result says), it's amazing how so many people keep looking into the thing as if it were a real thing.

Edi wrote:Now that was a good game between the US and England. England should thank its lucky stars that Green managed to block that one shot into the pole and that it ricocheted back to the field instead of bouncing in.

Even so it wasn't a good block, if we had a good goalkeeper, the shot would have been parried away for a corner, or caught evem. Instead he fumbles and by some miracle does it not go in.

The USA has one advantage over us, it has a lot of homegrown players compared to us, in our own domestic league not any of the top 4 or top ten sides have a english goalkeeper, or do but rarely train them up to be of any worthy credintals. If we play like this again then am going to be conerned to who we will have by 2014 for the next world cup.

Given the money the players are on, training and how we played defensive football for a draw later on it was disapointing and england should have won, but USA did do very well and seem to have the hunger to maintain a win.

Akkleptos wrote:In a game that is kept so criminally obscure (not accepting video evidence, the referee having the final say despite obvious evidence that's even recorded on video, and a lot of money to throw any way a desired result says), it's amazing how so many people keep looking into the thing as if it were a real thing.

You're speaking in riddles, and that's about as polite as I can be this early in the morning.

Korgeta wrote:The USA has one advantage over us, it has a lot of homegrown players compared to us, in our own domestic league not any of the top 4 or top ten sides have a english goalkeeper, or do but rarely train them up to be of any worthy credintals.

Every English fan would give his left nut and sell his mother's soul to have Pepe Reina in their goal, and the guy is second/third choice for Spain!

Edi wrote:Wow, that was an anemic performance on steroids from the Greeks against South Korea. South Korea took a 2-0 win, which is not surprising that Greece only played ten minutes of the game and just stood around otherwise.

The 2-0 goal was born out of a massive brainfart on Greek defense and well, let's hope the Argentina-Nigeria game is more interesting. It's on in 15 minutes.

It's ironic considering one of the strong points of Rehhagel's excellent management of Greece was their stubborn defense. To be completely embarrassed with those goals was a shame. Mind you, the problem truly lies with the their attacking options, seriously if I was there I would have walked onto the pitch and bitch slapped Samaras something shocking, he just didn't look interested.

This really pisses me off; you're in the finals of the WORLD FUCKING CUP, at least TRY and bust a gut you moron.*




*Just for reference the last was directed to all apathetic displays in this competition, not just to Samaras.

thejester wrote:Wow, Messi putting on a bit of a masterclass early on. Even if he hasn't scored, Nigeria don't look like being able to stop him.

The biggest thing crippling Messi is expectation.

Frankly, this tournament has been astonishingly boring so far. And I'm not saying that as an ignorant American--I don't like watching soccer, but I watch a fair bit of it. So far as I can tell, the only controversy so far has been a Mexican goal called back because the player receiving the ball was offside by a yard and a half (an easy call) which was an issue only because some fans and announcers don't know the offsides rule, and bungled goalkeeping by England and Algeria that changed the result of both games.

So far we haven't had any really big name teams going at each other, or any really lopsided matches either. The Ghana-Serbia game that just ended with a 1-0 win for Ghana was pretty good football with lots of scoring opportunities, but no goals for one reason or another.

The Serb whose handball gave Ghana the winning penalty kick is probably going to get crucified in their press tomorrow...

I expect the pace will pick up once the second round games come around, but there may well be many interesting games in the preliminary round too, next week has quite a few of those.