Given the very international membership of IndieGamer, I'll start the same off-topic thread I start every 4 years Let's keep the discussion civilized and limited to this thread (playful taunts are allowed, as they are an essential part of the sport ). Uruguay has good players (most notably Forlán and Suarez) but in every recent world cup it's the same story - the good players underperform under pressure (they already did during the qualifying rounds). Even with a somewhat weak France and South Africa in the group, I don't think we'll advance to the next stage. My (second) favorite is Spain - not because I like them in particular, but because I'm moving to Spain in a few weeks and I want to see what a world cup championship celebration looks like
Spain have a great team, and got over their underachiever status in the euro's. Most of their players would get into the first team of *any* squad. I'd love to say England, but they always seem so nervous just passing the ball around. And, always too much hype for our boys. Dont want to tempt fate, but USA arent walkovers either… Outsiders… Holland? And who knows, Argentina will either fly or sink under Maradonna. Cant wait. Edit: yeah, Forlan has really improved since his days with Man U Done really well in the europa league.
I'll be watching, though Poland is not playing this time. Because of this we had to make our own game about this event (follow announcements) ;-) Don't know who I will support, but since Spain crushed us 6:0 then probably it will be Spain Roman
Spain definitely among the favorites . However, I don't know if I'd prefer our team to be disqualified quickly so that people here would get back to more important matters ASAP …
gambett: moving to Spain!? You mean as holiday (honeymoon?) or really living there? I can bet on one thing for sure, this year we (Italy) won't win the world cup I don't like Spain much, I'd rather if England or even some African team wins it (but that's impossible).
England will fail, and I'll tell you why. All the players who make Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal et al successful, have gone home to play for their own country, leaving our national squad with just the native space-filler players. Rooney is fat and overrated, and with Peter Crouch flailing about like a wounded crane fly, I'm sure we're going to do *really* well. We only beat Japan in a recent friendly cos they stuck a couple in their own goal for us. We don't have a hope in hell against anyone that's actually any good (i.e. can walk).
I put my money (figuratively) on Spain and England. Like Jack, I'd rather see England win, but Spain would deserve a win after all this time. Best regards, Emmanuel
This year England has a real coach (Capello, italian hehe) so they might win for real! Jokes apart I believe in a world cup is 90% luck/physical condition, and 10% skill (otherwise italy would have never won in 2006!)
TAE~~~~HAN MINGUK! No, I don't think they'll really win, but they're under-rated, as always, and I'll always have a soft spot for them, because they're the reason I got into soccer - I was teaching English in S.Korea in 2002 when they got all the way to the semi-finals, and the entire country went nuts. It was so intense; you can't experience something like that and not become a fan, even if the win over Spain was sketchy. They might even make it to the quarters or semis again. They're the stars of Asia, and got a good draw; I think they can beat Greece and Nigeria, and once they're in the eliminations, most of the really scary teams are in groups E-H, so the toughest teams they potentially have to face are e.g. England and USA.
I agree with gfk, I think england invests too heavily in foreign players, instead of training and making native star players so they will lose.
South Korea is fun and entertaining, in a good way, to watch. They did well at home in 2002 and I hope they (or the Japanese and US teams) do well this time around. They're all much more eager to play and fun to watch, than, say, my country's team. Best regards, Emmanuel
Uruguay is at the other side of that equation - players are sold extremely young, so we have very good players playing everywhere but here, and who rarely play a match together. Good players, not so good team.
Going to add a bit of flame into this thread: South Korea "exploit" in 2002 was really dubious to say the least Instant penalty after few minutes against Italy (and Buffon saved it) and in general a ridiculous referee (Totti expelled for NO reason). With Spain, same line, referee totally in favor of the home team (South Korea was hosting the world cup). Indeed, in 2006 they were eliminated in group stage and I am sure it will happen again even if there are average teams in their group. They're fun to watch though, when the matches are played in a fair way
No favorites this year, I was convinced Argentina had no chances, but after seeing the other teams it seems they have some good chances as well. Anyway, I'm always nervous about Brazil :s
Referees always seem to favor the host, especially if it's weak - did you see the friendlies recently played by South Africa? I'm afraid that's what happen when they play against Uruguay