World Cup 2006

[Sharpshooter]

The Football World Cup kicks off on Friday 9th June in Germany. How do you reckon your nation will do in the World Cup and who do you expect to win the World Cup?

For me, I reckon England can do well, but there's a lot of talk over the fitness of the star striker, Wayne Rooney. It's still a race for fitness for him after braking a bone in his foot. Either way, England have a good chance of winning the cup. However, other favourites Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy and hosts Germany are likely to try and stand in their way.

[Red Devil]

England have a good chance, especially now that Rooney will probably be playing at some point, though apparently Gerrard is only 50/50 for the Paraguay game. Beckham looks to be on form so we're dangerous from set pieces and Owen should get some confidence back as he scored against Jamaica. Brazil are still favourites to win but, according to the bookies, England are second favourites :)

Also, the first England game is on my Birthday. I can't describe how much that rocks. :P

[Sharpshooter]

Also, the first England game is on my Birthday. I can't describe how much that rocks. :P

As long as they keep up recent form and win! :cool:

Btw, has anyone bought the FIFA World Cup 2006 game?

[Red Devil]

As long as they keep up recent form and win! :cool:

Btw, has anyone bought the FIFA World Cup 2006 game?

I refuse to on general principles. FIFA sucks. Pro Evo rules. Its that simple. :P

[sasimi]

i dont watch football. watching sports is really boring.

[BigBlue]

Team USA has a tough draw, competing against Italy and the Czech Republic. No way we'll win, but we are improving. :)

FWIW, our sister site MessengerMods has a bunch of World Cup display pics (http://www.messengermods.com/categories.php?cat_id=73) that can be used in MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype or as forum avatars. They've got one for most of the bigger national teams.

[Red Devil]

What a start! 6 goals in the first game! Though Germany weren't really playing very well, needing 2 wonder goals to beat Costa Rica. Poland vs Ecuador next....

Yeah, that is quite a tough group, though you never know what might happen. I mean, Greece won the last European Championship which was unexpected to say the least. :P

[Sharpshooter]

Team USA has a tough draw, competing against Italy and the Czech Republic. No way we'll win, but we are improving. :)

USA does have a tough draw against 2 of Europe's best teams. However, FIFA World Rankings place the USA 5th, so, according to world ranking, the USA should reach the Quarter-Finals! They reached the Q-F stage of the 2002 World Cup and to repeat that feat this time round would be impressive.

I've always wondered what impact the World Cup actually had in America because we're told it isn't very important compared to the NBA Finals which are on at the moment. Apparently, not 1 of the major national channels wanted to show the 2002 World Cup. What about this year?

What a start! 6 goals in the first game! Though Germany weren't really playing very well, needing 2 wonder goals to beat Costa Rica. Poland vs Ecuador next....

A great start to the World Cup, helped by some shocking defending from both sides. If Germany get further (hopefully v England), better teams will rip them apart. The Centre-Backs are clueless and this was proved in the warm-up games, when Germany lost 3-0 to Italy and 2-0 to Japan!

Btw, Poland 0-2 Ecuador. Quite a shock i think. I expected Poland to win this.

Also, if you watch England V Paraguay today, watch out for the Peter Crouch Robot Dance!!!

[sasimi]

I've always wondered what impact the World Cup actually had in America because we're told it isn't very important compared to the NBA Finals which are on at the moment. Apparently, not 1 of the major national channels wanted to show the 2002 World Cup. What about this year?



youve got no idea how much more people watch the NBA finals.. where im at right now. this military base, everyone is talking about nba. and i havent heard anything on soccer(football whatever the hell u wanna call it.) theres over 4000 marines and 4000 navy personel.

[Sharpshooter]

youve got no idea how much more people watch the NBA finals.. where im at right now. this military base, everyone is talking about nba. and i havent heard anything on soccer(football whatever the hell u wanna call it.) theres over 4000 marines and 4000 navy personel.

I doubt the NBA Finals will get an audience of over 1 billion people across the world watching it, like the World Cup will. There was 41,000 in the stadium for England v Paraguay plus 35,000 watching across the city the game was played in and then everyone else watching across the world will amount to at least 50 million. There was at least 75,000 England fans in Frankfurt yesterday and another 2 games were live yesterday as well. The games are all being shown live on huge screens in all major cities in England and Germany (and other places), which are free to attend. The difference is that the NBA only involves 1 country directly, but the World Cup involves 32 countries for the finals and over 200 for the qualifying round.

I like watching the NBA, but the time difference makes the games difficult to watch. Game 1 was shown at 2am live in the UK and finished around 4:30 am. Since my recorder isn't working, that's a problem.

Results from yesterday's games:
Group B:
England 1-0 Paraguay (Gammara OG 3')
Sweden 0-0 Trinidad & Tobago (A. John s/o 46')
Group C:
Argentina 2-1 Ivory Coast (Crespo 24', Saviola 38') (Drogba 82')

[Sharpshooter]

Also, if you're unable to watch the World Cup on TV, the BBC Website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/default.stm) and the Offical World Cup website (http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/) are showing free video highlights of all the games already played. The Offical Website also tells you the top scorers, venues and fixtures coming up in the tournament. They could be worth watching tonight, as defending champions Brazil take on Croatia in their opening match tonight (8pm GMT).

Group C:
Serbia & Montenegro 0-1 Holland (Robben 18')

Group D:
Mexico 3-1 Iran (O. Bravo 28',76' Zinha 79') (Golmohammadi 36')
Angola 0-1 Portugal (Pauleta 4')

Group E:
USA 0-3 Czech Republic (Koller 5', Rosicky 36',76')
Italy 2-0 Ghana (Pirlo 40', Iaquinta 83')

Group F:
Austraila 3-1 Japan (Cahill 84', 89', Alosi 90+2') (Takahara 26')

[BigBlue]

I've been watching all the games that I can (they run in the morning, but I can use my Slingbox to get to it from work). They actually have pretty decent coverage here in the U.S., with most games on either ESPN or ESPN2, and the "big" games (for U.S. audiences) on ABC. On last Sunday, the "big" game here was Mexico vs. Iran.

I'm enjoying the World Cup. There are no other sports being discussed in my home right now. I could care less about the NBA finals -- not having any love for either team.

[Sharpshooter]

The World Cup has got off to a good start. Most games have been exciting to watch and some teams are looking dangerous. The USA was unlucky to play the Czech Republic in such good form. Rosicky impressed me there and i can see why Arsenal have just signed him. Spain look dangerous, after beating Ukraine 4-0. The 4th Spanish goal is probably the most impressive and exciting part of the tournament so far. Excellent work from Puyol and Fernando Torres deserved such a good goal.

I think the next set of games will prove who is really on form. All the teams can be quite nervous to win the first game and the performance suffers. However, Brazil looked very poor last night, especially Ronaldo, who is having fitness trouble again. If he could keep in shape, he'd be unstoppable.

[Red Devil]

I'm not happy. Rooney never should've been sent off and will we ever win a penalty shoot out? ever? I mean the law of averages is definetly on our side now.

Also, not only are England out, Brazil have gone out too. Theres noone left to watch anymore.

[sasimi]

man i watched some of these games and it seems that all they want is to be fouled to get the ball free. i mean they run into each other and look at the ref... they need to play street rules >.<

[Sharpshooter]

Also, not only are England out, Brazil have gone out too. Theres noone left to watch anymore.

No one left to watch? Didn't you see Zindane against Brazil? He's worth watching by himself at the moment. Its a shame he's going to retire after the World Cup, especially if he plays like that.

man i watched some of these games and it seems that all they want is to be fouled to get the ball free. i mean they run into each other and look at the ref... they need to play street rules >.<

I wont deny that football has been corrupted by diving and other problems, but the refs are doing their best to stop it happening. The players appeal for anything at the moment, like trying to get others players booked or for fouls that never happened. Its a shame that games are spoiled by this but until serious penalties are brought in for diving, it wont stop. I hope they do it sooner then later.

[Sharpshooter]

So, after 1 month and 64 matches, the World Cup is over. The main talking point has to be Zidane's final moment of his career being sent off for a headbutt in the final. Its a shame to see someone as good as he is end his career like that. However, congratulations Italy, winners on penalties (5-3) against France. They proved to be a great team in the semi-finals where they beat the hosts, Germany, in the 119th minute and then scored another. Not many teams would have done that and would have settled for penalties.

There was also some brilliant goals of all sorts, such as the 24-pass Argentina goal and the 30-yard volley from Joe Cole. Most of the games were worth watching, except a few at the start before some teams got going. The most bizarre game has to be Portugal v Holland, with 16 yellows and 3 red cards.

Its been a good tournament overall and hopefully we'll see a different winner in 4 years time. Bring on South Africa 2010!