tonight, my other world cup starts

holland!

i'm hoping for happier times.

I'm going for Cameroon now. They never let me down

business end of end of the first round of matches, italy, brazil, portual, spain, netherlands!

some good games tonight.

so, tonight we get into the good, meaty side of the draw wherein all the real entertainers lie. the Dutch are due to do their usual business of blowing their first opponents away and thus convincing their still-easily-excitable admirers that world domination is surely theirs this time. those poor old first opponents being Denmark. Carmeroon and Japan could be wild-cards should they click, but could easily be as cagey and drek as Slovenia, Algeria, Ghana and Serbia were last night.

with Brazil and Spain to kick off their tournaments in the coming days, I suspect the quality of attacking football to pick up a bit. already some commentators are dismissing this as another Italia '90, which is touch unfair given these are the first games (which everyone is petrified of losing), and the real flair sides are all banked on one side of the draw. excepting Germany of course, who have now fully morphed into Hungary 1953.

I'm rooting for new zealand, sth korea and any african side. Plus I'm looking forward to Maradona's inevitable controversy (whatever form that takes).

Also If Australia don't score at all then I will collect $500 from the TAB.

still disappointed to be so thoroughly out thought. it's like the Arnold years all over again.

If you ignore what we have to work with, we're not by any means thoroughly out.

Even had the game finished 1-0, we'd still likely have to beat both Ghana and Serbia to progress.

Ghana can be unpredictable and its clear that serbia can be shithouse. So who knows? Funnier things have happened in football.

it's like the Arnold years all over again.

Arnold 'year' I believe. And it really is not that bad.

well, good thing i didn't get around to taking the piss from my greek circle of friends about how shit they were.

my hopes were never high, but that was truly awful. can we all chip in to buy the back four a selection of zimmer frames?

and now, to complete the set, i'll now watch the oranje somehow choke on their own quality. thats the way it usually goes.

well, good thing i didn't get around to taking the piss from my greek circle of friends about how shit they were.

I nearly made the same mistake.

tonight, my other world cup starts

hehe, mine started at the same time this morning. it was pretty weird, to be honest.

i thought we were better then greece, though its probably hard to split the difference.

I invested a lot of emotion into Serbia winning. I didn't think it was a bad match, really, but i just got angry to see them go down in the 85th minute. i can still see them getting through with 4 points, as long as they beat australia and draw with germany. and ghana doesn't win another match. if nothing else, serbia have the best kit of the tournament.

i didn't bother with the australia game. i knew it'd be boring. the whole point of them being boring is so they don't get flogged. useless.

ps. i am one of those annoying people that only care about ''football'' (soccer) when it suits me.

If you ignore what we have to work with, we're not by any means thoroughly out.

we have to work with the 'experienced' team from four years ago. who'd have thought that the fact that half of them are either too old or not playing any regular football would hurt us last night.

no surprise we looked significantly better and hungrier with our 'inexperienced' players on in the second half, even down to ten men. they've had to work their arses off to even get near the squad rather than most of the 2006 team who've got a free walk up pass.

It wasn't boring. It was like watching your house burn and wondering if any of it could be saved.

i thought we were better then greece, though its probably hard to split the difference.

At least there wasn't any evident infighting in the Aus game. I couldn't even tell who was angry with who in the greece game - they were at each other constantly. Plus a few of the greek players looked physically unfit with big bellies on show.

HELLAS!

remember that Greece were also very much humbled by South Korea - a good, organised team who are mostly functional. but no more than that.

Australia got hammered by a very talented German side who have been vastly underrated heading into the tournament, and who were on-song on the night. embarrassing, yes, but there's two games left, and as I said in the other thread, neither Ghana or Serbia impressed overly. Ghana certainly had flashes, and can be fluent and threatening when it comes together. but such cohesion isn't assured.

Serbia were gravely dissapointing. they defended stoutly, sure, but for a side with so many technically gifted players to be so disjointed and bereft of ideas in midfield was surprising. I wouldn't write off either of those games yet. we'll be underdogs for sure, but I think we'll get chances against both teams.

Until the send-off they were like watching a team of Culinas pass it sideways over and over again.

Haha spot on! Like Zelic said they proved after the send off their perfectly capable of passing really well.

''No! I like women! I'm dating Verónica. She is 31. She is blonde. She is very pretty! Don't start some nasty rumours (laughs). I may have my weaknesses towards some of my players but that's normal. I guess that just shows how good we are as a group of human beings. We think consensus is way better than tough discipline or punishment whenever somebody does something wrong''.

This is just amazing.

greece v nigeria was one of my favourite matches so far

The only way to read this thread....

The fuckhead Cockerill hits back at Kewell

[I happen to believe it's what you do on the pitch for Australia that counts. Not what your PR machine spins out. Not how good you look in a pair of undies. And I happen to believe, since the last World Cup, you've done bugger all. I couldn't praise you enough after the game in Brisbane against Iraq. You can get the clippings if you like. But the rest of the time, as far as I'm concerned, you've been a myth.

Now you've got the chance to show you're not. That there's still something in the tank. Go out against Ghana, when our World Cup is on the line, when your own international career is on the line, and do something. Actually DO something](http://www.smh.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/why-im-standing-by-every-single-word-ive-written-20100617-yjw6.html?autostart=1)

gotta agree with that tho -I don't buy the Harry will save all myth either

This is interesting. Assuming the result stays the same a draw between Uruguay and Mexico will get them both through. But the second placed team will play Argentina (you would think). At the moment Uruguay would have the better goal difference but another goal and Mexico would end up on top in that scenario with more goals scored.

sucked in France

the Irish eyes are smiling on you

It's karma. We didn't deserve to qualify and we are going home now. There's absolutely no direction within the French team, no real leader and if people here think Pim is a bad coach then they should take a look at Raymond Domenech. The man is a total fool who should have been sacked after France's disastrous Euro 2008 campaign. But, heck, no, let's keep him in the job to see how bad it can get. Well it WAS bad.

Now I am tired for nothing. Work is not gonna be fun today

holyrattlesnakes said 10 hours ago:
I can't recommend Inverting the Pyramid enough (if you buy it for $14 there you'll have it in ten >days too). he's comfortably the best football writer in English and one of the few with any kind >of tactical insight and deep knowledge of the game's history.

Thanks for this, hrs - wasn't aware of this book but have just ordered it. agree with you re Wilson - superb writer.

a bunch of sprightly boys against pathetic men, eh Patrice?

Oh the justice of it all.

Grella will miss the Ghana game!

Grella will miss the Ghana game!

Shame, Pim was gonna start him up front.

Grella will miss the Ghana game!

Phew, I was about to bet on ''Red cards >0'' and now I won't need to.

so, can algeria upset england?

think the usa will win.

and germany should pretty much repeat what we saw on monday.

I'm thinking about getting some booze into me on sat night and heading to burrang marr. I reckon it could be a joyous occasion.

uh oh, I think the thread is wanged. limit reached.

dowp.

GO ALGERIA!

PHOTOSHOP MONTAGE!

Thats a pretty good montage.