Running, all-purpose World Cup thread

The Ashley Cole "monkey" incident -- yep, that's the one I was thinking of. He's hardly the only player who's dealt with that, and Spain is hardly the only country to deal with that, either.

 

I'll let their past performances speak for themselves.

 

They've won six consecutive group matches. I'd love to be that fraudulent.

Don't disgrace the Fraud.

 

You know, I was beginning to like Spain. I was beginning to take them as my team. But an incident like this, no matter if it was the fans and not the players, makes me go the other way.

 

For the hype they receive every single tournament, tell me when they get somewhere meaningful.

Euro 2004 - fail to get out of group stage
WC 2002 - quarters
Euro 2000 - quarters
WC 1998 - fail to get out of group stage

 

You called them Frauds... in a game they won. Party foul.

 

Question: The big game in this round, especially early in match-day three, is the ARG-NED game. It should be a great, exceptionally well-played game. But what does either team get out of going balls to the wall in this game. The 1st-2nd place matchup is with Portugal-Mexico, neither of which at this point should scare either ARG or NED. Does this game end up being a flop?

And which game is everyone looking forward to in the third games?

ARG-NED and GER-ECU are certainly up there, as is ITA-CZE

 

Italy-Czechs oughta be a helluva game. NOBODY wants to face Brazil. Nobody.

 

It appears Van Basten has answered my question. He's going to sit five starters for the ARG match to make sure they go into the knockout rounds without yellow cards. So maybe ARG-NED won't be as great as it could have been.

http://www.sportsline.com/worldcup/story/9515092

 

I'm sure A-Rod has hit a HR after the 7th inning to win a game at some point in his career. Look at the bigger picture. A tiger doesn't change it's stripes.

 

I would love to see a Italy or US vs. Brazil match. I still say Brazil could beat them both. They haven't even started to play great yet. Ronaldo hasn't been there, besides the Australia goal, Adriano hasn't been a factor, and we haven't seen Ronaldinho,the greatest player of our era, play up to his potential.

 

Or even worse, how about quartefinals in 1982, when they hosted!
Spain might be Mexico in disguise.