Germany is looking very weak. It seems like thew were taken into the barn all year in the friendlys they played....

Anelka must be driving mad now...

anyway, things could be interesting with Ribéry...

I don't know why people think France is such a threat?

I think the fact the African teams look poor on paper is why they will perform so well.

well, france has still some world-class players. admittedly some of them are past it, but i definitely rank them among the 4-5 teams having a chance of winning it: brazil, italy, france, germany, argentina...
hopefully henry will finally live up to his status on a big tournament. for some reason he's usually never that impressive for france as he can be for arsenal.

i would never rule out germany's chances either, no matter how bad they may look. they can grow into a tournament like no other team can and never have to rely on 1-2 individual key-players performing well.

holland's squad has been announced yesterday and i'm somewhat disappointed klaas jan huntelaar hasn't made the definitive selection. the boy is in great form and was this season's topscorer of the dutch league with 33 goals in 34 games, despite moving clubs halfway the season. but alas, van basten doesn't want to take 4 central strikers and prefers beanpole vennegoor of hesselink (in a way he's the dutch version of england's crouch :D) as pinch-hitter. such a pity. there's not a real right-winger in the squad either.

on the positive side, i think holland's chances at the european under-21 championship have now dramatically increased with huntelaar going there instead of the world cup.

this will happend in group F :
CROATIA - BRASIL 2-2
CROATIA- JAPAN 2-1
CROATIA - AUSTRALIA 3-0
------------------------------
BRASIL-JAPAN 2-0
BRASIL - AUSTRALIA 4-0
----------------------------------
AUSTRALIA-JAPAN 1-1

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060508/1/6pzk.html

what is the most ridiculous, horrible of these bus slogans?

i think that "Liberté, Egalité, Jules Rimet" could take the prize...

then i don't know what to think of "2006, it's Swiss o'clock"... oh and Costa Rica's slightly militaristic "Our army is the team, our weapon is the ball. Let's go to Germany and give it our all" is quite noticeable too...

'2006, it's Swiss o'clock'.

That's bad.

'Vehicle monitored by 180 million Brazilian hearts'.

That's even worse.

Trying to spot a good one.

edit: 'Oranje on the road to gold' isn't too bad at all.

AHAH Those are all pretty lame.

Some much worse than others. I like this one: Trinidad and Tobago - "Here come the Soca Warriors – the fighting spirit of the Caribbean"

Very to the point. JUST 23 DAYS GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also!

Who do you guys like in tomorrows final????

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaasil

I read this morning Rooney will only miss the Paraguay and T&T games. Though I realize he's a bit of an ass, this must be good news for England.

Thats funny. The problem lies with Sven, then? (...)

By the way, what is that from?

I just made it up.

The problem lies with Sven, and his selction of strikers. I actually think Walcott is a good move, but there's a chance that he's going to be under phenomenal pressure - both Owen and Rooney may be unable to play and Crouch can't be relied upon to score many (although he's OK). That may leave a 17 year-old who's never played a single top-flight game with sole striking responsibilities, which is risky.

The unknown young genius ploy can work, but surely it needs back-up?

Very good, sounds like something The Onion would write up.

I've never heard of this Walcott, but Crouch (as you've said) is decent. The good thing is, I don't think England will need many goals to get out of the group. And hope Owen and Rooney are fit for a potential second round match.

EDIT: Potential second round game could be scary.....

Thanks mate.

Yeah, England's group is about as easy as you could want. In England, there's a football saying 'there are no easy games in football'. But it's a lie - there are easy games, and we have two of them with Trinidad and Tobago and Paraguay.

But what happens when we're in the second round? It would be great if Walcott were to shine, and indeed he might, but it's just so dodgy. Only four strikers, and two of them are injured...

I'm looking forward to group D, with Mexico, Iran, Angola and Portugal. There's a nice range of ability, style and geography in that group.

I'm also looking forward to group H - I want Ukraine and Tunisia to go through at Spain's expense too. Ukraine were fantastic in qualifying - the first team to qualify from any European group, and I think they may do OK. They may fail miserably, though.

Let's get the show on the road!!!

Argentina will kick everyone asses ! :D

That's what I've been saying for the past few years, although Netherlands have a very good team too. It'll be good to see the two play each other in the first round.

Argentina have by far the best man-for-man squad, and when they play well they are stunning.

maybe Maradona ? :D

Caniggia was my favourite.

Which leads me to this rather wonderful footballing moment on youtube

Group D should be a lot of fun. Portugal should run away with it, but the battle for 2nd is what will really be interesting. I'd love to see Mexico finish without a single goal!

I fear that the Ukraine will follow the same route Poland did in 02, ripping through qualifying rounds and then choking on the world stage. I love the way Tunisia plays, and hope they move on as well.


I'll second that!

That was pretty!

NFL Network is broadcasting World Bowl XIV live right now.

It's my favorite NFL Europe team, the Amsterdam Admirals, versus the Frankfurt Galaxy.

It started at noon eastern & right now there's ten minutes left in the 4th quarter & the Galaxy are winning 12-7.

Frankfurt has possession & are milking the clock down to victory.

C'mon Amsterdam. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes. They have a Safety named Atari Bigby.

---

Frankfurt just got a field goal. There's 4 minutes left & the lead now is eight points, 15-7. Things aren't looking too good.

---

Allen to Fulton, first play, first down & a marvelous catch & a first down.

Handoff to Charger Larry Croom who broke through the secondary & was going all the way for a TD, but he stumbled because he got ahead of his feet. Damn! Another first down though.

Allen to Lucas. Great catch & yet another first down. They are now inside the twenty-five.

Oh shit, Allen just got buried by a blitz. One of their linemen, King, got injured on the play trying to prevent the sack. They lost eleven yards.

After at least five minutes, he's still down on the field & only just now being carried off in a stretcher. Ouch!

Damn, the whole rosters of both teams & an ambulance are down on the field. They say King is conscious though & that he's been able to move his arm & legs, so at least that's a good sign.

Well, the Admirals did have some momentum going. The ambulance is still on the field & this had been at least a twenty minute delay now whioch is the longest interruption of game due to an injury that I've ever witnessed.

2nd & 21. Allen takes off with the ball himself & gets the 10 yards back, but just a yard short of a first.

3rd & 11. Allen goes for the end zone & no reception & no flags. This is about over now.

4th & 11...same thing. that one was really close, but the game is, for all intents & purposes, over now.

The Galaxy get the ball back with less than two minutes & instead of running out the clock they go all out adding insult to injury (literally) with a few big plays & get yet another touchdown to officially make this one a 22-7 rout.

I wasn't too sure many people watched that. How many teams do they have now? I remember when FOX used to carry those games, and there were only six teams maybe?

there's still only 6 teams

Amsterdam Admirals · Cologne Centurions · Rhine Fire · Frankfurt Galaxy · Hamburg Sea Devils · Berlin Thunder

Mexico is playing France in soccer right now.

I hope that's a good game - the excellent Zinedine Zidane is captaining France, in his 100th international appearance.

Lots of friendlies this weekend, with some interesting results.

Mexico was beaten for the first time in ten match, thank you for ending that one France.

USA - Latvia tonight.

there won't be anyone like him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tCoM...earch=MARADONA

Yeah a cheat like him.

By the way how tall is he? He was on a tv program last night stood next to loads of people and he was minute.

ronaldinho rules! really happy that the best club won the champions league. brazil should win

Tonight's friendly results:

Czech Republic 1:0 Costa Rica
Poland 1:2 Colombia
Chile 1:1 Côte d’Ivoire
Tunisia 3:0 Belarus
Germany 2:2 Japan
Argentina 2:0 Angola
England 3:1 Hungary

Germany were 2-0 down at half time.

Join the Sonic Youth World Cup Fantasy Football Game by reading here!

Yeah, the fantasy game needs more players. Did you join yet Hipster?

I see Crouch nabbed a goal against Hungary.

Yes. My team is Eternal, my username is hip54129.

A very nice goal too. The Hungarian goal was a great strike.

I just logged in. Your team is killer!

I didn't see any of the goals, just a small report on Sky Sports. They never show enough highlights.

Nothing wrong with your team - I almost included Ibrahimovoch, too - great player.

Why has BAllack got a big gold 'M' by him?

Because he is the captain.