Running, all-purpose World Cup thread

Bitching about him? Why? He scored the goal today ... I'm confused.

 

Whoops, my bad ... it's Pauleta.

 

Exactly right about the Dutch. Too flaky. Internal squabbles there are as old as time. That's why they're unlikely to win a World Cup...any World Cup.

Want to learn more? Read this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0747553106/sr=8-1/qid=1150068609/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9723477-4845434?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Dank jou.

 

I love Portugal. I love watching C. Ronaldo play, but he was such a baby today. Dude needs to be a man when it comes time for the WC. Save the pouting for a Man U-Portsmouth match!

 

This was from the Melbourne Herald-Sun: http://tinyurl.com/z6k8a

NETHERLANDS winger Arjen Robben has been warned by teammate Robin van Persie that he cannot win the World Cup on his own.

He scored the only goal after 18 minutes, controlling a beautifully weighted through ball from van Persie and slotting home past goalkeeper Dragoslav Jevric.

But van Persie, who was left largely in the role of spectator after seeing almost none of the ball on the right wing, had a word of caution for Robben.

"Together we hope to play six matches (in the World Cup) and that he can't do all by himself," he told the Dutch ANP news agency.

"He must take into account his teammates. Sometimes he makes decisions for himself and not the team."

 

Unfortunately, most young players aren't really the "tough" type. They're more of the finese type. The only young and tough player I can think of is Wayne Rooney. This guy's heart is amazing.

Check this out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5894151862510251611

 

The only young and tough player in all of soccer is Wayne Rooney?

That's a fucking joke.

 

That I can think of. I'm not a very smart person.

 

So my local ABC affiliate isn't showing the World Cup.
This morning, Iran-Mexico, got kicked over to one of the bizzaro WB/UPN/cable access channels and the ABC station showed infomercials.
It was the national ABC feed, but it wasn't on the ABC affiliate.
I was wondering if any other markets are doing something similar.

 

Random ramblings from someone who used the lull between World Cup and MLS matches yesterday to take in the epic Pittsburgh-Cincinnati USL 2 match-up.

England: In the immortal words of Catherine the Great, "That's all?" Kinda disappointing from the latest Greatest England Team of All Time™. What's that, Sven? Dracula didn't give them enough water breaks? Gotcha. Odd that none of the teams before or since have made such complaints, though....

Paraguay: Meh. Roque Santa Cruz best find his groove fast.

T&T: Token White Dude is Chris Birchall, a midfielder from Port Vale. His mother was born in Trinidad, so he qualifies. Good to see Team Trini doing Jack Warner and CONCAlaugh proud. I could see them beating Paraguay at this point.

Sweden: For all the talk about their defense being sub-par, Sweden's finishing was gawdawful. Can't understand why Kallstrom, one of their best creative mids, sat well into the second half.

Argies: Looked awfully good, even without Tevez or Messi. Made me feel a lot better about picking them to win it all.

Ivory Coast: Decent first performance - they'll be even better once the tactical discipline kicks in. Scary fast all around the field, but it does no good if your brain can't keep up.

S&M: Natch. The Milosevic-Kezman show was completely underwhelming up top ... again. Just don't see how they're going to generate enough goals to stay in the tournament.

Holland: New manager ... fresh team ... same old Oranje. Yahweh forbid one of your best players try to take over a game. Hopefully van Basten is smart enough to just let Robben run.

Meh-hee-ko: Looking good in the group stage, as per usual. It'll be interesting to see what they do if Big Baldy is out for any length of time. Lot easier to pull for them watching Univision.

Eee-rahn: Still not out of it, but the D needs to be a lot better.

Angola: Moral victory? Sure, why not? I thought it'd be a rout, especially after Jamba got juiced so easily in the first 10 minutes. Maybe the start would've been better if they could have stayed on their feet.

Portugal: For once, they don't screw the pooch in Game 1. Too bad they didn't do anything to ease their reputation of being a bunch of little girls (I'm looking at you, Ricardo).

 

Time for me to crash, but figured I'd throw it out there, we are now less than 6 hours away... how good of a chance do Bruce's Boys have today? Gooch v Koller should be excellent.

 

Upset extraordinaire if they beat the Czechs. And I want them to win.

Like a 13 beating a 4 (not impossible, definitely some precedent, but it ain't a 12 vs. 5 "safe sleeper bet.") Unless Nedved's knee is jello and Cech lets a soft one slip by, Bruce's Boys ain't got a shot in this one.

Donovan must play The Game of His Life, and be a leader under serious pressure on an international scale for the first time. The kid is skilled, but that's something we're still waiting for him to do. He can dominate in qualifying, he can dominate in MLS, but Deutschland ain't quite the site of his greatest triumphs. Plus, he's gonna get all the attention from the Czechs. With Reyna not at full strength, that's a mighty tall order for lil' Landon.

Czechs 2, U.S. 1.