official 2010 world cup thread

[Neo_Version 7]

Someone get Zidane a French kit.

 

[celery]

Group C just got interesting.

 

[*Tee*]

Any Australia fans in here ? If so, what do you guys expect of today's game ?

Although Ballack's injury was a staggering blow, although two of our strikers - namely Klose and Gomez - aren't in peak form, although a lot of our experienced leaders - Lehmann and Frings for instance - have been sorted out and although we had to cope with a lot of complications prior to the World Cup and caused a lot of negative headlines which rocked the boat ( Dissensions between Yogi Löw and DFB-president Theo Zwanziger, Dissensions between Yogi Löw and Michael Ballack, Kevin Kuranyis rejection and possibly comeback and the associated pressure of the media and so much more ), I have high hopes of our team. The vibe here in Germany as well as within our team is just outstanding. There's a very special "clannishness". All the problems we had made us even stronger and stick together even closer ( hopefully ). We have a lot of young, technically brilliant players this year, such as Marin, Özil and Kroos, who will hopefully make up for their lack of experience ( although all of them, plus Khedira and Müller, are reigning U21 European Champions and firmly established in their clubs ) with a lot of joy of playing and a positive degree of recklessness. Players like Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Podolski, who still were wet behind the ears in 2006, are leaders now and need to go ahead...

We would never underestimante the Australians, though. They have a very strong fighting spirit, a will of iron, a pretty good defence ( including their goalie Mark Schwarzer ) and are not exactly harmless in the offence; especially due to Cahill and Kewell...

Definitely a tough nut to crack. I'm sure we will make it, though. We MUST ! 3 points - nothing else matters...

 

[ANIKETOS]

Originally Posted by *Tee*

Any Australia fans in here ? If so, what do you guys expect of today's game ?

Although Ballack's injury was a staggering blow, although two of our strikers - namely Klose and Gomez - aren't in peak form, although a lot of our experienced leaders - Lehmann and Frings for instance - have been sorted out and although we had to cope with a lot of complications prior to the World Cup and caused a lot of negative headlines which rocked the boat ( Dissensions between Yogi Löw and DFB-president Theo Zwanziger, Dissensions between Yogi Löw and Michael Ballack, Kevin Kuranyis rejection and possibly comeback and the associated pressure of the media and so much more ), I have high hopes of our team. The vibe here in Germany as well as within our team is just outstanding. There's a very special "clannishness". All the problems we had made us even stronger and stick together even closer ( hopefully ). We have a lot of young, technically brilliant players this year, such as Marin, Özil and Kroos, who will hopefully make up for their lack of experience ( although all of them, plus Khedira and Müller, are reigning U21 European Champions and firmly established in their clubs ) with a lot of joy of playing and a positive degree of recklessness. Players like Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Podolski, who still were wet behind the ears in 2006, are leaders now and need to go ahead...

We would never underestimante the Australians, though. They have a very strong fighting spirit, a will of iron, a pretty good defence ( including their goalie Mark Schwarzer ) and are not exactly harmless in the offence; especially due to Cahill and Kewell...

Definitely a tough nut to crack. I'm sure we will make it, though. We MUST ! 3 points - nothing else matters...

1-0 to Germany

 

[*Tee*]

^ Where are you from ?

 

[rdawson808]

Slovenia takes it. That red card was just silly. He should have let the ball go; then again, I suspect he wasn't trying to gain an advantage but thought the ball was way out and just grabbed it out of frustration. Stupid. The game had some nice moments--especially some well taken set pieces. But I watched most of the second half on FF1 and then FF2 looking for the scoreline to change. (Almost missed the beginning of the Serbia-Ghana match.)

But this is the result I was hoping for. Either way England would beat their next opponent. But I think it helps the US to next play the team that won this match. Slovenia will be on a high and we'll be feeling like we're desperate for a result. Which we are. Then we get Algeria after they've lost 2 in a row and they'll be so demoralized, we'll be able to take them. In the end we have 7 points and we're through (probably in second place on GD).

 

[Lusitano]

Germany won't struggle in the group stage, they' re still strong enough to beat Australia, Ghana and Serbia.

but honestly i don't see them doing a new "Sommermaerchen", mostly because the defense is just average, partly the left side and the center will have serious problems playing teams like England and Argentina.

But then it's Germany you never know.

 

[zalb916]

Originally Posted by Neo_Version 7

Perhaps I should have rephrased my earlier post. England outplayed the US in every aspect of the game except for goalkeeping.

Did you completely miss Steve Cherundulo? He had a very solid game. He abused James Milner so badly that he got pulled in the 31st minute. He was completely useless, as Cherundulo was blowing past him.

Gerard and Lampard were more successful in the center compared to Bradley and Clark, but not by much. Bradley and Clark weren't particularly solid with their distribution, but it's not as if Gerard and Lampard were setting the world on fire in that game. Bradley and Clark were perfectly competent defensively and had some solid stretches of controlling the middle. Gerard and Lampard simply don't work together particularly well in the middle. They are too similar of players. England would be better served with Gerard out wide. Gerard and Lampard are much more skilled than Bradley and Clark. They should have been owning the middle, and they weren't.

I also think the U.S.'s central defense was probably just as good, if not better, than England's. Like our central midfielders, Demerit and Onyewu weren't stellar, but keeping Rooney virtually useless is no small feat and should be worthy of praise. Rooney didn't touch the ball in the box until 70 minutes into the game. I'd say our central defenders looked better than Ledley King and Jamie Carragher, who came within inches of giving up the winning goal to Altidore. The U.S. central defense held-up solidly, not spectacularly, but you couldn't really say that much more about the English's central defenders either.

England is a better team. They have more skilled individuals. They played a slightly better game, but not by much. However, the whole of the U.S. is better than the sum of its parts. They don't control games, but they counterattack well (see Altidore's almost goal) and take advantage of other team's weaknesses (Milner, Carragher, and Green). The U.S. never looks particularly pretty or individually skilled, but they are perfectly competent and have the ability to hold their own with most teams.

 

[*Tee*]

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

Just wrong...see the comments before re: player f the month in Everton and DM trying to pry him from LA. He was used differently though, as an outside winger. If the US had a decent playmaking central midfielder (decent in world footballing terms, not US terms) he'd be out wide and we'd be a hell of a lot harder to play against. But you're right, he's by no means world class, but he did make it in Europe, and England as well, arguably the toughest league to "make it" in.
He MADE it in Europe because he played 10 PL games, 2 EL games and 1 FA-Cup game for Everton, did a good job and scored 2 goals ? If you want to MAKE it in Euope, you need to play at least one full season and give proof of consistency ! How many players played a few awesome games and sank into insignificance afterwards ? ... Jürgen Klinsmann loaned him out from Galaxy to Bayern Munich in 2009, had to pack his bags again a half year later due to ill success though and made way for Jupp Heynckes, who acted as a "fireman" for the last three league matches, who again made way for Louis van Gaal after he completed his mission. Van Gaal keeped a wary eye on Donovan for many weeks, gave him a fair chance, decided that he has no use for him though. From that point on, Donovan has been downgraded to Bayern Munich's amateurs team, which was coached by Hermann Gerland back then, who's van Gaal's assistant nowadays, so he can pick up match practice and maybe even put himself forward for the first team again. No chance ! Even Hermann Gerland didn't want him for the amateurs team, since his performance curve is way too inconstant...

 

[legorogel]

Donovan wasn't good enough for Munich (which does not mean he wouldnt make it in the german league of course), but there are other clubs in germany which he might have been succesful.

There isn't any doubt that Germany will win vs. Australia. If you swap around some letters its like Germany vs. Austria...

 

[*Tee*]

Originally Posted by Lusitano

Germany won't struggle in the group stage, they' re still strong enough to beat Australia, Ghana and Serbia.

but honestly i don't see them doing a new "Sommermaerchen", mostly because the defense is just average, partly the left side and the center will have serious problems playing teams like England and Argentina.

But then it's Germany you never know.

Yeah. The defence isn't quite our "core". Especially Badstuber could be an instability factor. But then again, he played surprisingly hard-nosed in the last Champions League season and drove a lot of great players to desperation...

 

[*Tee*]

Originally Posted by legorogel

Donovan wasn't good enough for Munich (which does not mean he wouldnt make it in the german league of course), but there are other clubs in germany which he might have been succesful. There isn't any doubt that Germany will win vs. Australia. If you swap around some letters its like Germany vs. Austria...
Definitely. The club my heart beats for, for example, which is Borussia Mönchengladbach ( Michael Bradley is our "6" ), would surely approve Donovan's signing, even though we don't really need that type of player at the moment. I'm surprised, anyway, that some of the mid-tier Bundesliga clubs didn't put out feelers to him after he failed in Munich... I'm not that certain of victory. World Cups have it's own rules. Everything is possible...

 

[MetroStyles]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Slovenia takes it. That red card was just silly. He should have let the ball go; then again, I suspect he wasn't trying to gain an advantage but thought the ball was way out and just grabbed it out of frustration. Stupid. The game had some nice moments--especially some well taken set pieces. But I watched most of the second half on FF1 and then FF2 looking for the scoreline to change. (Almost missed the beginning of the Serbia-Ghana match.)

But this is the result I was hoping for. Either way England would beat their next opponent. But I think it helps the US to next play the team that won this match. Slovenia will be on a high and we'll be feeling like we're desperate for a result. Which we are. Then we get Algeria after they've lost 2 in a row and they'll be so demoralized, we'll be able to take them. In the end we have 7 points and we're through (probably in second place on GD).

Yes, kind of how we got Poland in 2002 after they lost 2 straight and were supposedly demoralized, but gave us a 3-1 whooping. After that it took a miracle from SK to get into the next round. This is going to be unpredictable, let's face it. And the worst part is, the game against Slovenia is nearly a must-win at this point. Welcome to the elimination round, boys - it's started early this year.

 

[legorogel]

Badstuber played for Munich, there is no doubt in his skills. I'm more worried about Mertesacker and Friedrich in the defense. Not to mention Gomez, Klose and Podolski...

 

[ANIKETOS]

Originally Posted by *Tee*

^ Where are you from ?

Bahrain but love the German team since the days of Matthaues.