The 'Official' 2006 World Cup Thread...

[scr33n-raider]

For me it is -

Realistic Contenders - Brazil/France/Italy

Potential Winners - Germany

Surprise Package - Ivory Coast

[kai]

Realistic Contenders - Brazil/France/England

Potential Winners - Netherland

Surprise Package - Ivory Coast

[RSK]

RK's GUIDE TO THE WORLD CUP!

This will be a great World Cup. It has all the ingredients to be one of the best. Perhaps, this is because more teams are challenging/capable of actually winning the whole thing! Here's the breakdown of the top teams...


BRAZIL
Well, the favourite to win it all (of course), are Brazil. They have world class players in EVERY position. They also have depth in their squad. Players on Brazil's B Team could make it on ANY other teams' A Team. Their players are 'that' good. Their country 'expects' Brazil to win the World Cup, and NOTHING less.

The BEST player in the WORLD - Ronaldinho. Simple as that.


ARGENTINA
For me, Argentina are probably second favourites. As long as Requelme (their star player) is playing well, they will be TOUGH to beat. If Requelme can control the MF area, like he usually does, it would be hard to stop their attack. Argentina will be looking for redemption, after the early exit four years ago.

Requelme. The Argentine playmaker. If he plays well, Argentina will play well.


ENGLAND
England. Well... every four years, we claim to have the ingredients to win it. And every four years (since 1966), we fail miserably. Well, I truly believe, it's NOW or NEVER. England can boast one of the meanest defences in the World. And our Midfeild players are QUALITY. If Rooney is fit, and Crouch and Owen are on form, then this could be the year England lift the World Cup. Also favourites to win it all.

Gerrard and Lampard. Combine to generate one of the best midfields in the World Cup.


ITALY
For me, Italy have one of the BEST squads 'on paper'. WOW. Just reading through the list makes me shiver inside! Their attacking prowess is unbelievable! If Totti is fit, then they will be difficult to breakdown. The only problem with the Italians, is that they always seem to buckle under pressure. And they usually don't play well as a team. But, based on the individual talents of their players, it's hard not to include Italy among the favourites to win it.

Totti. He makes all the differene in this squad.


GERMANY
The home nation - Germany, will also be one of the favourites. I do not think they have the greatest talent in the squad (too many young players), but the fact they are playing on home ground, helps a lot. Ballack will have to pull all the strings for this team.

Ballack. Germanys Captain. Their most experienced player.


After the above five teams, it becomes tricky. Because outside of those teams, there ARE others that are capable of winning it. In this batch, I would Include (in no particular order)

HOLLAND
Holland. Probably the most technical of all teams. Have a younger sqaud than previous years. Have great striking prowess, in the likes of Robin Van Persie and Ruud Van Nistelrooy. History always tells us, NEVER count out the dutch. They ALWAYS bring something special to the World Cup. I look foward to seeing their fans paint the stadiums in Orange!

This man has an eye for goal. Ruud... (whether you like him or hate him), he is one of the best finishers.


FRANCE
France. Once a powerhouse in World Football, they are now reduced to aging stars. Can Zidane shine again? Will Henry steer them to the Finals? Personally, I think their manager is a douche bag. France definately have quality players. I wouldn't count them out.

The SECOND best player in the WORLD. Thierry Henry. Enough Said.


SPAIN
Spain. A great set of players. Cesc Fabregas, and Reyes have done very well for their club team. Can Raul pick up his game? Can Aragones shape this team to Win the ultimate prize? Personally, I don't think so. But, you can never count them out.

Raul... This man is treated like the KING of Spain.


CZECH REPUBLIC
Czech Republic. Okay, I think I am taking it too far now. But if I include Spain and Germany in this group, then it's hard to leave out Czech Rep. Again, they have aging players, like Nedved. But with rising star Rosicky in the middle, who knows? This team will be USA's first opponents on July 12th.

Nedved. Probably one of the most gifted players.


PORTUGAL
Just for fun... I'll also include Portugal in this group. With exciting players, like Christiano Ronaldo and Deco, it's hard not to include them amongst the favourates.

Deco. I hate him.

[RSK]

SUPRISE TEAMS

Okay, so those are my favourites to win it. History tells us, that there are ALWAYS one or two favourites to be knocked out before the first round... four years ago, it was France and Argentina. Who will it be this year? Nobody can say for certain. Having said that, EVERY World Cup, there are always ONE or TWO 'suprise' teams. There will DEFINATELY be one or two suprise teams this year. Here are my predictions.

TEAM USA
Team USA. Four years ago, they shocked the World by finishing in the last 8 of the 32 teams. They had a historic win over Portugal. This year, they are coming with better players, and more experience. They have youth and depth in their team. Player for Player, I still do not think they compare to the above teams... having said that, if they play well together as a unit, then they may cause another suprise. It will be VERY difficult to even pass the first round. They are grouped with Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana. Of the four teams, only Two go through to the next round. The favourites are Italy and Czech to go through. It's possible, but will be difficult.

Donovan. Probably the most recognizable figure in US Soccer.


IVORY COAST
Ivory Coast. They are my 'emotional' team. My heart is with them more than any other team. This team is actually VERY VERY good. They have Kolo Toure and Eboue in defence... two VERY VERY solid players. And with Drogba upfront, this team looks dangerous. I am hoping for Ivory Coast to suprise the World.

Drogba. Now is his time to prove he is one of the best strikers.




Well, that's it. My guide for 'teams to look out for' in the World Cup. There are some teams I left out, Sweden, Mexico, Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, and Ukraine who have also proven themselves. But I wouldn't include them in ANY list. Perhaps I'm being a little too harsh on Sweden. On second thoughts, I'd include Sweeden in the Group above.

[RSK]

THE TEAMS NOT INCLUDED IN THE ABOVE LISTS

Poland
Paraguay
Japan
Ecuador
Ghana
Switzerland
South Korea
Tunisia
Australia
Togo
Angola
Costa Rica
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Trinidad & Tobago

EDIT:

4 days 00 hours 54 minutes to go...

[kai]

Oliver Kahn is not playing?

[RSK]

Oliver Kahn is not playing?

Nope, he's been dropped. Jens has impressed a lot, and will take the goal keeping gloves. It's been a war of words/egos between the two for months. In my opinion, Jens Lehman deserves to be number one. He has just come off a terrific season for Arsenal. He is still a little bit of a crazy keeper, but that's his style. He plays a very risky game, and despite his age, he is sharp and agile as any other keeper. I hope he has a good tournament.

Mad Jens on the left, and Kahn on the right. Kahn must be PISSED that Jens took his place. But in all honesty, I think Jens deserves it.

[RSK]

A brilliant article I found. It kind of answers, why this summers World Cup is MORE THAN A GAME!

[url]http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/special_packages/world_cup/14733962.htm[/url]

It is, quite simply, the biggest event in the world.

The World Cup, which will begin Friday in Germany, is more than an international soccer tournament - a "football" version of the Olympics. Say what you want about the spread of American popular culture, but soccer is still the closest thing to the world's universal language. If one measures size by how many people care about it and by how much, there is nothing that comes close.

Strike up a conversation with a cabdriver about superstars Ronaldo of Brazil or Zidane of France in almost any place but North America, and you'll receive an animated response.

That's true even in places where travelers rarely dare to venture. Iraq is wild about soccer, though given the history of Saddam Hussein's regime, it's no surprise that while he was still in power and the national team lost, players reportedly were forced to kick a concrete ball around in practice, had their heads shaved, or were even tortured. Even the North Koreans - the world's hermits - will venture out occasionally for games, as they did several years ago to play South Korea in Seoul in a contest billed as "the reunification match."

Yet soccer is more than just an international language. In most places outside of the United States, the sport is a window into the soul of nations. It has assumed such importance in Italy, for example, that it's impossible to comprehend fully that nation's politics and its recent election without understanding its soccer, if only because Silvio Berlusconi owns a leading team, AC Milan.

There's more to it than that, however. National teams are reflections of their cultural heritage, which is what makes the World Cup so fascinating. Michel Platini, the great French soccer star, had it right when he once said, "A football team represents a way of being, a culture." As author Pete Davies once noted, watch the Italians with their emphasis on artistry (sometimes to the exclusion of scoring goals), and one begins to understand some of the attributes that gave birth to the Renaissance. Follow the English as they forge ahead offensively, ignoring defense, and one sees what helped give rise to the industrial revolution and the wasted cities it left behind. Alex Bellos titled his book on Brazil Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life, and it was, if anything, an understatement.

The international nature of soccer also helps to keep alive the fierce, age-old rivalries that fuel a lot of the passion for the sport. One of our few experiences with anything like the nationalism that soccer evokes was 26 long years ago in the midst of the Cold War when the Americans beat the Russians at Olympic ice hockey.

It helps that much of the world has long and painful national memories, far more so than Americans do. We Americans may love our sports too, but the results - at least on a national level - signify far more in the rest of the world than they do for us. We tend to see contests as ephemeral, the results written in invisible ink. ("Wait till next year!")

The quintessential North American sports comment came when an announcer asked the Dallas Cowboys' Duane Thomas after a Super Bowl what it felt like to win "the ultimate."

"The ultimate?" he replied. "Then why are they playing it again next year?"

The rest of the world perceives history a little differently, and those perceptions come to the surface through soccer. Every match or controversy is just the latest permanent notation in a 10,000-page historical tome going back centuries, if not millennia. Thus, only in Europe and only with soccer could you have a coach from the Balkans seriously telling the media several years ago that his local team's match against Fulham of England would be "revenge" for the deaths of Yugoslavs in World War II, 60 years earlier.

In his terrific book Football Against the Enemy, Simon Kuper described how the president of Bolivia dropped all state business in 1994 and flew to watch his team live in the Cup. When asked whether he might be better attending to "domestic priorities," he replied, "In Bolivia, the World Cup is the top domestic priority." And so it will go for the month of June and into July for almost all the world.

So regardless of your interest in soccer, this tournament will be fascinating on two levels - the geopolitical and the sporting. There will be scores of guides and articles analyzing who will win the World Cup and why. Yet in reality, predicting the top teams and eventual winner isn't that problematic because World Cups conform to two basic rules. They are:

The same team always wins, and home field counts for a lot. There are soccer competitions where long shots thrive. The World Cup, however, isn't one of them. Whether it's the pressure, the importance of the competition, or the fact that the winner now has to run the gauntlet through seven games in more than a month, talent and form prevail in this tournament. Since 1958 only six teams have won the Cup and of those, three have won it only once - two while playing on their home turf. Thus, if history holds, the winner in Germany will come from one of only four teams from the 32 remaining to contest this tournament - Brazil, Germany, Italy or Argentina. And Germany has an edge playing at home.

Geopolitics helps determine winners.

Because national identity is so bound up in how a team performs on the field, it means that a nation that is generally feeling good about itself as it enters this competition - or feels it has something to prove - has a better chance to win. England won the Cup in 1966, in part because it was the host. But it also aided that nation's efforts that "swinging London" had become the envy of the Western world at about the same time.

Of course, Brazil has been a political mess for decades and it has rarely affected its soccer fortunes - though there's an argument that in a country with so little to boast about on the world stage, losing at soccer hurts even more, which provides something of an incentive. But if geopolitical concerns do play a major role in this year's Cup, Germany could again benefit. With a new chancellor, Angela Merkel, off to a promising start, the press has been full of stories over the last few months with headlines like "Germany Regaining Its Stride."

Of course, settling an old score doesn't hurt a nation and its team, either. Certainly, Senegal had no problem getting psyched for its upset at the 2002 World Cup against its old colonial subjugator, France. In this tournament, the situation will repeat itself when Togo plays France and Angola faces off against Portugal.

And so it goes in different ways all over the world. Does England often have Argentina's number because the English are a better team or because the English humiliated the Argentineans two decades ago in the Falklands War and have seemed to intimidate them ever since? Does the United States' recent quasi-dominance of Mexico have anything to do with the fact that millions of Mexicans want to leave their home country and emigrate north? Will Iran play over its head this year because it's the current world pariah, or will that cause the players to want to head home as soon possible? (Hard to tell.) It's hard to argue that politics doesn't play a major role in soccer.

In the end, we'll leave it to former French coach Roger Lemerre (and current Tunisia skipper) to describe what winning the Cup means politically in most of the world. "It is a strong and meaningful experience," he said. "It does not mean you are better but it gives you more confidence and self-belief. It literally transforms a country."

Proving the point, after the '98 Cup, Jacques Chirac began talking about "a France that wins." This year will be no different. Let the games begin.


EDIT:

3 days 22 hours 31 minutes to go...

[RSK]

How much should I look into this?

Global publisher Electronic Arts has announced that, using its video game 2006 FIFA World Cup as simulation, it predicts that the the winner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany will be the Czech Republic. EA was able to test all 32 teams in the competition, and thus announced that the game, using plugged-in skill values relevant to each team, reveals that the Czechs will come out on top in the real-world event, which kicks off on June 9.

The final in-game match featured a contest between the Czech Republic and Brazil, with the Czech Republic ultimately winning 2-1 to capture its first FIFA World Cup. Goals from Ronaldo and Tomas Rosicky kept the game tied 1-1 going into the second half. The difference between the teams was Czech forward Pavel Nedved, who unlocked a weaker Brazilian backline in the 77th minute for Milan Baros to score his sixth goal of the tournament, and secure the trophy for the Czechs.

The simulation also saw old rivalries reignited as well, with England being beaten by Germany in the Round of 16. The host country then went on to meet eventual champion Czech Republic in one semifinal, wherein the the Czech team defeated Germany with a 2-1 victory.

Team USA managed wins over Italy (3-2) and Ghana (2-0) and tied the Czech Republic in the difficult Group E before being beaten by Brazil in the Round of 16. USA opened the tournament with a 2-2 tie against eventual champion Czech Republic, when DeMarcus Beasley scored the game-tying goal in the 84th minute against the run of play.

Another brilliant article! (I need to get some work done now)

[url]http://www.sports-central.org/sports/2006/05/13/the_idiots_guide_to_the_world_cup.php[/url]

[kai]

lol EA SPOERTS predicted the winner . The first article was good

[RSK]

2 days 01 hour 45 minutes to go...

[RSK]

My Tribute to Brazilian fans

[kai]

Brazil female fans are so hotttt ahem ahem

[RSK]

i agree kai...

23 hours 35 minutes to go...!!!

[RSK]

A Tribute to the Worlds Greatest

PELE


MARADONA (either you love him or hate him)


EUSEBIO


MICHEL PLATINI


MACRO VAN BASTEN


JOHAN CRUYFF




Oh, what the hell, so many more, it would be impossible to continue... oh well... LESS THAN 24 HOURS TO GO!