WOW, this is unbeliavable.

After a lifetime being atheistic, it almost convinces me that there is a God.

Seriuosly, blasphemys apart, what's going on with the favourites? Except for Spain and Brazil, any of the most prestigiuos team has won their two first games... and even those didn't play all that well, but just took advantage of the fact that they outclassed their first adversaries.

Is that possible that with the new millenium there is a new order coming for this sport?

Regards :) .

I think there won't be a new order, there will rather be no order at all. :D
This World Cup clearly shows that all (ok, most) teams can win against every other team, but they may as well lose. The only exceptions may be Saudi Arabia and China, but besides that every teams has already shown that they can play football.
So the games are often decided by the attitude and shape of the teams on the day.
There have been several examples so far that showed how teams that were considered to be weaker can win and als dominate the game because of being more dedicated.

So I think it is most likely that favourites losing early will become more common in this century, but I don't think that's a bad thing. :)

The Brazil v. England match will decide the champions!

(Sorry Denmark)

England?
They have played two crappy matches to far and just won a single one against a terrible Argentinian team. They also scored just two goals, a penatly and a huge mistake by a goalkeeper. What makes you think they are more likely to win than for example Sweden? Or Denmark? :D

P.S.: Your englishness is not an appropriate answer. :p

Originally posted by Hitro
England?
What makes you think they are more likely to win than for example Sweden? Or Denmark? :D


I thgink you, accidently, left one team out of that list!:D :D :D

No. Ireland is more likely to win, don't you think? ;)

Originally posted by Baleog


I thgink you, accidently, left one team out of that list!:D :D :D

I think he meant Senegal ;) England can only meet Ireland in the final now.

This thread forces the question which no-one in there right mind would be self-convinced of their own answer. The Cup is open, and in the knock-out stages anyone can win it - that's the beauty of the World Cup for me anyhow.

I chose Brazil/England because if England can beat Brazil we'll only have ourselves to blame if we don't get the cup IMHO. England has had several new players to an already very young team and they've really come of age, particularly in the Argentina game; Sinclair and Mills for example.

Brazil are the only pre-tournament favourites (if you can call them that) for us to play now. Before the tournament started the odds were that we'd face France in the second round, Brazil (still) in the semi's and even Argentina again in the Quarter-finals if we were to go for the cup.

I think we have the flair to beat a relatively strong, but rigid Denmark which probably leads us to Brazil...

Did I answer the question fully? :D

I would go for Brazil to win although Italy, Spain and possibly England should also be included as they all have excellent teams that could win if they have a good run of form.

Originally posted by JoeM
I think we have the flair to beat a relatively strong, but rigid Denmark which probably leads us to Brazil... Rigid???? Please elaborate - at least we've been able to score real goals :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Isak
at least we've been able to score real goals :rolleyes:

Nice one Isak. :D

More favorites on the way out..

Italy probably has to beat Mexico in the last round. That can proove to be too difficult. Someone mentioned Portugal as one of the favorites but they need to win against home side Korea which is by no means easy.

This world cup looks interesting now. Which favorite is next?

I'd say Brazil or Spain would be top of the list now.... with Japan as a Dark Horse to make it to the finals. (Not kidding :eek: )

I know, You were expecting me to add Denmark, but such is not the nature of the Danes :D

Originally posted by Isak
Rigid???? Please elaborate - at least we've been able to score real goals :rolleyes:

Hey I'm not slating Denmark, their play is less frequented by flashes of brilliance, a la Owen, Beckham, Scholes, even Sinclair now, they don't have the players for this kind of style.

If Denmark win it'll be through hard work, if England win it'll probably be a mad run from Owen or somesuch (these are not predictions but illustrations of what I mean).

I'm supporting for Spain and England. (Nice job by Ireland, Denmark and Sweden)
But you know what they say: The Germans always win in the end, so I don't believe we should underestimate them.

The field is open, to be sure, but I don't think there will be many new faces in the semifinals. I would love to see Spain, Senegal, or even Sweden make it - I like the idea of having the finals be a competition of first-time winners! :goodjob:

However, Germany is Germany, no matter how they compare to past teams. They execute with precision and make few errors, and that gets you far in competition. England? I'm not so impressed yet. Brazil looks a bit like the '98 team. They reached the final, but it was hard to understand how nobody beat them before that match. It was clear how to do it, but making that knowledge a reality proved difficult on the pitch.

Italy annoys me to no end, that will be enough to carry them far. The football gods like to irk me that way. :( I see them, Brazil, and Germany advancing, even if they face teams that "should" beat them.

Denmark could be a new face in the finals crowd, but I'm not a big fan. No particular reason, they just don't get me enthused about watching. They play as well as anybody in this cup, tho.

Originally posted by JoeM
Hey I'm not slating Denmark, their play is less frequented by flashes of brilliance, a la Owen, Beckham, Scholes, even Sinclair now, they don't have the players for this kind of style.Well don't you think they should have squeezed some of that brilliance into their suitcases before leaving for the WC? No offense but I think your view is very colored by the fact that the English Premier League holds the attention of large parts of the football world every week during the season, and thus anyone playing for an English club gets more PR and stands a better chance of being dubbed brilliant. I'm not saying Beckham et al are bad, they're just terribly overrated, due to the fact that they are celebrities. This doesn't just go for the English though - same holds true for France and Italy, for example. I'm sure some of the French players who went home yesterday would in retrospect have preferred to practice with the ball rather than shoot commercials for Nike ;)
I may be old fashioned, but to me brilliance in football is: Scoring goals and winning matches - it is after all more a game of strategy than a game of artistry and showmanship.
We have plenty of brilliant danish players, but none of them have married Posh Spice, that's all....
If Denmark win it'll be through hard work, if England win it'll probably be a mad run from Owen or somesuch (these are not predictions but illustrations of what I mean). This is the sort of thing we've had to listen to every year since 1992 - if we win a match, it is sheer luck or hard work (meaning playing a defensive 8-1-1 formation), if we lose it is because we're not good enough to make the cut. Oddly enough English supporters seem to think the reverse holds true for their own team :rolleyes:

Ooh it's handbags again.

Come on stop slating England and tell me why you think Denmark are going to win the cup then...

And you may well have to put up with this 'sort of thing' as long as there is an Englishman alive left to say it! :lol:

Originally posted by JoeM
Ooh it's handbags again. Oh no, I use a white satin glove - It's a gentleman's sport after all ;) Come on stop slating England and tell me why you think Denmark are going to win the cup then...I never said Denmark will win - I reserve that for my bedside prayers :) - and I'm not trying to slate England, I watched the Argentina-England game in a british pub here in Denmark with a crowd of Englismen, and I was cheering along when they scored. I think all Danes will always have a good amount of respect for the English League - most of us were after all brought up on English football back when the Danish TV broadcasted matches from the Premier League every week, while our own league had no professional players (due to an excessive amount of socialists being in charge of the FA :) )

I'm just having a bit of a laugh at everyone's amazement at saying goodbye to France and Argentina - Did you ever consider, maybe it's not the team's that are at fault here, they probably did the best they could. The fault could lie with whoever hyped them to be favourites in the first place. Salaries aside, they were just a bunch of guys with 2 arms and 2 legs - like every other team in the WC. :scan: And you may well have to put up with this 'sort of thing' as long as there is an Englishman alive left to say it! :lol: I guess it's time to dust off the old longboats again, then....:p

quote:
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And you may well have to put up with this 'sort of thing' as long as there is an Englishman alive left to say it!
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[i]Originally posted by Isak
I guess it's time to dust off the old longboats again, then....:p


Nah, it's time to relive the 1950 Cup. :D

IIRC there were only 13 teams in the 1950 world cup in Brazil - It's not going to be that easy for you this time around, I suspect :D

Edit: But waitaminnit....Uruguay won in 1950 :confused: I'm not sure I know what you mean then.

Yeah, they did beat us... 2 X 1, in Maracanã, right here in Brazil... and we scored first.

It's remenbered as the worst defeat of Brazilian football in all history, in our own home, in a tournament we were playing so well that we were already considering it our 1th world cup victory (Brazil hadn't won any back then).

Funny thing is that it makes Brazil responsible for the only two times in history that, when the home team makes their way to the finals, it looses the cup.

In 1950, we lost it in here in Brazil.

in 1958, we have beaten Sweden their own home.

Too bad that in 1998 we weren't able to do the same at (or with) France...

Originally posted by Isak
IIRC there were only 13 teams in the 1950 world cup in Brazil - It's not going to be that easy for you this time around, I suspect :D

Edit: But waitaminnit....Uruguay won in 1950 :confused: I'm not sure I know what you mean then.


Sorry, I guess I was being too obscure. One of the
other results in that Cup was:

USA - 1

England - 0 :lol:

What's all this talk about England haveing a shot at wining it all? If England really has a shot at wining the Cup, then you can't rule the US who according to the FIFA rankings, is only one spot higher than the US. Everyone talks about the English offensive weapons, but what about McBride, Beasley, Mathis, and Donovan? Just b/c they don't play in Europe and most English fans haven't heard of them, doesn't mean you should take them seriously.

If you wanna watch a team w/ a real shot of winning, Mexico. Coming from CONCACAF they're under rated, but they're gonna shock a lot of people!

Serutan: Ah, ok - I was confused, but now I follow - unfortunately that won't happen this time around as England wont qualify for the next round ;) Originally posted by Myartar
Just b/c they don't play in Europe and most English fans haven't heard of them, doesn't mean you should take them seriously. My point exactly.

And about CONCACAF, I'll be rooting for Costa Rica tomorrow - they deserve a revenge :D

Revenge? Against Brazil?

What have we done to them?

Brazil beat Costa Rica 1-0 in the 1990 World Cup finals...

But it doesn't matter, since Brazil are currently leading 3-1. Brilliant game, btw. :)

Unless i'm REALLY VERY mistaken - i doubt that deeply - in 1990 Brazil was thrown out of the world cup by Argentina in the 1th round of the playoffs, 1-0.

We most certainly didn't win the 1990 world cup. It was germany that did it.

We won 1994, against Italy.

Are you sure you are refering to soccer?

It was the world cup finals during the preliminary stage, not the final :)

And congratulations on the victory today - some of those goals are definitely contenders for "best of tournament" :goodjob:

I would have posted on this before but I had a wisdom tooth out on Tuesday -
anyway, England have a good chance to win the World Cup because they have played Nigeria, Argentina and Sweden and have only conceded one goal. I could be wrong but I think this means they have the best defence in the tournament so far. Is that a good enough reason?
Also, England have never lost a competitive match (i.e. not a friendly) under Eriksson. Another good reason, but there has to be a first time for everything.
So, yeah, I think we have a chance, a decent chance in fact.

Originally posted by polymath
anyway, England have a good chance to win the World Cup Definitely. Also, England have never lost a competitive match (i.e. not a friendly) under Eriksson. Denmark haven't lost a competitive match under Morten Olsen/Michael Laudrup (that's since August 2000) so one of our teams will definitely have a good run broken on saturday :D

Originally posted by Myartar
If England really has a shot at wining the Cup, then you can't rule the US

Exactly! No you cannot rule out the US, as I've said before once you're in the knock-out rounds it's anybodies game.

My favourites have always been Brazil (even through the last two dark years), which is why *if* England get to play them *and* beat them I reckon England will win the Cup.

- Isak!

Argentina hadn't lost since Brazil two years ago until they met us!

And I thought you're UU was the Beserker(?), anyhow our Men O'war will easily 'dust-off' your long boats for you! ;)

Originally posted by JoeM
Exactly! No you cannot rule out the US, as I've said before once you're in the knock-out rounds it's anybodies game. Yep - 10-4 on that.Argentina hadn't lost since Brazil two years ago until they met us!Didn't know that - so you're already in the habit of breaking good runs...that's not too good (for Denmark anyway) :( Ah, nevermind, it's match day form that's decisive anyhow..And I thought you're UU was the Beserker(?), anyhow our Men O'war will easily 'dust-off' your long boats for you! ;) Oh, that's a surprise - I thought the english fleet consisted of the QE2 these days ;)

And now, Portugal is out as well.

3 out of 8 of the original favourites haven't made it through the first stage.

Now, we have Brazil, England, Germany, Italy and Spain left.

Who do you guys think will be the next to fall?

Considering the matches, i'd say England has the toughest challenge.

Originally posted by fredlc
Considering the matches, i'd say England has the toughest challenge. I'd say you were right :D

Correction - I hope you are right :(

Isak, let's just hope that you lost to the new world champions - no pride lost in that ;)

Well, we certainly didn't play like the new world champions, that's fer sure...:rolleyes:

And, all that is behind me now - I'll be cheering for the Three Lions on friday :king: . If only someone would tell Heskey, which end of the field he is supposed to run towards, when he's got the ball - or better yet - put Sheringham on the field. ;)

Mexico going home today and USA moving on - now who really thought that before the WC started :confused:

England, Germany, Spain and Brazil - with difficulties or not - are through. Is this the favorites payback time?

Let’s just wait and see if Italy will confirm that.

Judging by the way Brazil played against Belgium, England should beat Brazil handsomely.

Don't talk like that Polymath, you'll hex it!

Oooops, I mean, we'll get slaughtered.
Salt over left shoulder, run round the house widdershins, touch wood, turn-around-touch-the-ground, double-barleys, no come-backsies.......hope that fixes it!

Italy is down

It was ALMOST favourites payback hour...