Oh, can you nominate a captain? Right, hang on...

Yeah, I wondered why Gerrard had it next to his name on Jonny's team.

Sorted - thanks.

Park Ji Sung gets the captaincy, although Gerrard may make a strong case later in the tournament. If South Korea and England both fall, then there's other candidates.

We've a fourth team!

I may change mine, Ballack may not be the best choice.

Ah, who is it?!

'querty' is the team, I haven't seen a username yet.

Oh, it's dissappeared. Drat.

What on earth is going on out there?

Since the 1930s, only 16 teams have held the World Cup Trophy. In 10 days, the 2006 World Cup will begin. Pick your team, pick your jersey, then find your time.

Andy Roddick, reportedly playing with a foot injury, was eliminated in the early rounds of the French Open today.

Tonight's friendlies:

Iran 5:2 Bosnia-Herzegovina
Paraguay 1:0 Georgia
Saudi Arabia 0:1 Turkey
Slovenia 3:1 Trinidad and Tobago
Switzerland 1:1 Italy
France 2:0 Denmark

Way to go, Iran!

The Switzerland - Italy result is a surprise.

'Its Swiss O'Clock!'

Two very interesting friendlies today, I think:

Norway vs Korea Republic
Netherlands vs Mexico

They could be interesting games, but from what I've read Van Basten's mainly going to field second choice players tonight. Most of his first team will stay on the bench.


Also tonight are the semi-finals of the european under21 youth championships

Ukraine - Serbia and Montenegro
France - Netherlands

France playing well and definitely the favourites to claim the title. Netherlands have been a bit disappointing so far, but nevertheless still in it after beating title holders Italy. A bit of a surprise to see Serbia and Montenegro in the semi-finals and Ukrainian football is on the rise... watch out Europe.

Croatia Will Kick Australian & Japanies Asses 100%!
Land Argentina Has Got Lesson From Croatia 2 Months Ago
It Was Cro-arg 3:2

ok i got a stupid fucking question to ask everyone.

WHEN THE FUCK DOES THIS START?

i gotta order me a satellite dish. i detest sports, but i make an exception for the world cup-- it's fucking world war !!!!

i hope a latin american team wins AGAIN

oh yeah...

first game is 9th of this month. I CANT FUCKING WAIT

germany vs costa rica i think

holy fuck. i think i'm going to have to invade someone else's house, put a sleeping bag on the couch, and hope my screams don't wake them.

it would be fun (though unlikely) if costa rica gave germany a thrashing on the first game in their own turf... ha ha ha... first games are usually boring though. oh but im tuning...

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/...OPE_Paulo.html
if any costarican scores against "Jerry" I hope it's the chope (one of my nicknames was chope after this guy...dunno what relevance it had but it stuck, hence my old board name riffchope... there's something you didnt need to know)

I've been looking for this for ages... The diana ross penalty miss!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...06/4997530.stm
I hadn't seen the martin o'neill vs robbie williams thing before, good old martin!

I wouldn't be too sure that it's unlikely; apart from the Germany team's lack of form, opening games have a tendency to cause a shock eg Argentina falling to the then-unknown Cameroon, France going down against, um, another African nation (was it Senegal? Papa Bouba Diop scored the goal, I think).

Costa Rica themselves famously beat Scotland, back in the days when Scotland ualified regularly for such things.

eh, scotland has never been a big team.

cameroon, nigeria, on the other hand, have been solid teams for a while now.

i havent seen costa rica play actually. i just always root for the underdog-- exxcept when brazil plays :)

Scotland were never big, but they did have aproud history of always qualifying (and a less proud history of falling in the first round). The Costa Rica game was way back when.

Camerooon only emrged at that world cup, where they opened by beating Argentina 1-0. They were utterly unknown before then (Italia 90, I think). Senegal likewise, when they beat France in 1998 (who went on to win the cup, of course).

Lots of brackets for such a small post (too many, maybe?).

may i remind you,
Northern Ireland 1-0 Spain

and not in the finals but in the qualifiers





The stars in the bright sky looked down where HEALY!HEALY!HEALY!HEALY!HEALY!

We're still shit at football though

I remember that Ni vs Spain game very well - all of my family are from Northern Ireland. It was a happy day, that!

Espana 82 had the best World Cup mascot in Naranjito the footballing orange.

Well, I pulled Trinidad and Tobago out of the bag in a World Cup sweepstake....bugger. I should root for them in the vague hope I might win £20 but it will be a miracle if they score a goal, let alone qualify from their group or win the World Cup.

They may score - they have to play Paraguay!

I was -1 years old when northern ireland actually did something decent in football

I was 11. The memories...

Tonights friendly results:

Norway 0:0 Korea Republic
Netherlands 2:1 Mexico

Senegal beat France in 2002... and France went on to be eliminated in the first round after not being able to score a single goal...

but yes, regarding opening games, i also immediately thought of that game and the Argentina-Cameroon...

i think France had some trouble beating Costa Rica in a friendly a few months ago, they eventually won 3-2 i think, after having been behind two times... then again, Ukraine beat Costa Rica 4-0 recntly, so...

Right, ok. Senegal beat the then holders, France. Ahem, sorry.

You're quite right. But you get the point.

Ahem.

There are concerns that the weather in Germany may effect the World Cup; it's much cooler than normal (as it is here), and this could have some bearing on things.

From the FIFA site:

So much for the summer of football! On the day the calendar tells us the season officially starts, Berlin looks set to suffer the coldest 1 June since records began – and that is not to mention the rain.

Things are little better in other parts of the host nation. In the north (Hamburg, Hanover), you cannot see the sun for the clouds, and temperatures are refusing to rise above 16°C. If you think it will be better down in the south, think again, because it is even colder! No thermometer has been above 13°C for some time.

There is even the outlandish prospect of a 'white' FIFA World Cup™. Two days before the start of summer, the winter weather returned to Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg. The cold climes have even affected the preparations of the Togo national team, who recently arrived at their base camp in Wangen, Allgau.

Togo were restricted to training on an artificial pitch to avoid ruining the natural surface after showers of hail and snow!

Remember the cooler indoor stadium that was used in 2002? Germany put 7 or 8 past Saudi Arabia, and England beat Argentina.

ah yes, that Naranjito was nice...








I quite liked this one too, actually:

Nicely found. I was tracking an argument elsewhere and forgot to search. I've still got my little Naranjito mug from 1982. Nice character.

well, it's cold here in Berlin... i cannot believe we are now in June.
i started to complain about the climate in Berlin, because people told me that it was really nice in summer and that it could get really warm, but i've heard it's also cold in a lot of places in Europe right now...

Paulo Wanchope is 'chope' the Costa Rican star. I do believe Costa Rica can go through to the second round. They're a very tough team, I get to see them quite often being that the United States is in the same region. We've got a little rivalry going on with the Ticos. One of the few teams to ever beat Mexico at the mighty Azteca. They've got a tough draw though with the hosts and then a match that will feel like a home game for Poland.

apparently that goleo lion has been marked down to half price all over germany cus no1 wants any of the merch with him on it. I read somewhere it's cus he's a lion and lions are associated with England.

More worrying than the weather in germany. The taste in men some of the woman have is shocking. I watched football focus (a saturday morning football magazine show on bbc) at the start of the season and cus the WC was being played in germany they went over to interview people to see if they knew anything about the english players. There were about 7 or 8 seperate women asked and all tehy knew about was Rooney. The interviewer asked what they know about them, their answers were all variations of "I think he's beautiful"

Hey guys, I'll probably be chiming in once the games start, but I didn't join any of the fantasy leagues because I honestly don't know any of the plasyers/teams and y'all will kill me. I don't even know any other US players off hand other than Donovan!!! I have been playing since I was 5 and I always enjoy watching it on tv.....even the MLS on occasion.

Worse, lions are associated with Bavaria. Plus, that Goleo is wearing no shorts.

Maybe you know that the company that created Goleo went bankrupt already...

goooooo france!