# World Cup Predictions...



## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

Anybody else excited??? I can't wait. I know that some people consider futbol to be a "sissy" sport or whatever, in al reality, it's probably one of your most intense team sports out there, and the world cup carries more excitement (IMHO) than the NFL Playoffs (well...unless the Dolphins are in the playoffs). Though I'm pretty confident that Brazil will take it all...again...I'd love to see Italy own this thing...but anyway...I thought it'd be fun to share some predictions...

Round 1-
Group A:Germany & Costa Rica
Group Baraguay & England
Group C:Argentina & Holland
Group D:Mexico & Angola
Group E:Italy & USA
Group F:Brazil & Croatia
Group G:France & Korea
Group H:Spain & Saudi Arabia

Round 2-
Gremany
Argentina
Costa Rica
Mexico
Italy
France
Brazil
Korea

Round 3-
Germany
Brazil
Mexico
Korea

Round 4-
Brazil
Korea

And like I said, as much as I'd like to see Italy win this, in all reality, there is no way that Brazil is going to lose this thing...but it should be great to watch (as always)...Anybody else care to render some predictions?


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## Srynerson (Aug 26, 2005)

My World Cup prediction: 80%+ of Americans will remain apathetic.


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## Mahler (Aug 5, 2005)

I've just relocated to Europe for a year, and everybody here (spent some time in England, Germany, now in Poland) is absolutely obsessed about the tournament.

Gabba, your predictions are pretty anti-European, I must admit. Here are mine:

A: Germany and Poland
B: England and Sweden
C: Argentina and Holland (tough shot, though)
D: Portugal and Mexico
E: Italy and Czech Republic (I hope this tournament will settle this once and for all: USA do not play decent football, and their ridiculously high FIFA rank is just plain unjustified -- you'd never qualify if you had to play European qualifiers).
F: Brazil and Japan
G: Switzerland and Korea (no France! I like the team, but the news from their camp isn't promising)
H: Spain and Tunisia

After the group stage, I can't really say. I'm rooting for Spain, Holland, and Argentina, as always. Poland will *never* make it past the first knockout stage, as they'll have to beat Sweden or England, which is impossible. England look *very* strong this time around, and the tournament is in Europe, which will favor them. Not so sure about Brazil - nobody questions their quality, obviously, but their preparations haven't been very serious so far, what with partying and turning it into media circus. Besides, wouldn't it be boring if they won *again*? I honestly can't predict how well Italy and Spain will do. They could challenge even Brazil, but in such a tournament smallest details will decide. Same for Argentina.


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## gmac (Aug 13, 2005)

Srynerson said:


> My World Cup prediction: 80%+ of Americans will remain apathetic.


And 99.999% of the rest of the world will neither know nor care what Americans think of our beautiful game - we'll be too busy enjoying the greatest show on earth.

While you have baseball..........


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## countdemoney (Apr 5, 2005)

Mahler said:


> E: Italy and Czech Republic (I hope this tournament will settle this once and for all: USA do not play decent football, and their ridiculously high FIFA rank is just plain unjustified -- you'd never qualify if you had to play European qualifiers).


We shall see. The US team doesn't have the same chip on its shoulder as it did in Korea, but they've got some fight. They've also got some wheels and speed kills. Onyewu's lack of discipline could wind up costing us a match, but I think Old Europe will be surprised by our pace on attack.

We still lack first rank strikers, but our midfield is as good as any other excepting Brazil.


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## Srynerson (Aug 26, 2005)

gmac said:


> And 99.999% of the rest of the world will neither know nor care what Americans think of our beautiful game - we'll be too busy enjoying the greatest show on earth.
> 
> While you have baseball..........


Hey, I'm not defending any other sport. Gabba just asked for our predictions. :icon_smile_wink:


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## ptolbert (May 12, 2005)

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

In all reality, I believe Brazil will take the cup home, but I remain hopeful!


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## odoreater (Feb 27, 2005)

Group Stage
Group A: Germany & Poland
Group B: England & Paraguay
Group C: Argentina & Serbia/Montenegro
Group D: Mexico & Portugal
Group E: Italy & USA
Group F: Brazil & Croatia
Group G: France & Korea
Group H: Tunisia & Ukraine

Round of 16
(49) Germany
(50) Argentina
(51) England
(52) Serbia/Montenegro
(53) Croatia
(54) France
(55) Brazil
(56) Korea

Quarterfinals
(57) Germany
(58) Croatia
(59) England
(60) Brazil

Semifinals
(61) Germany
(62) England

Third place
Brazil

Champions
England

Those are my predictions.

EDIT: By the way, I hope I'm wrong and the US beats Brazil in the second round.


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## manicturncoat (Oct 4, 2004)

Korea in the finals? That is a fantasy. Don't overestimate Brazil, if their two strikers; Ronaldo and Adriano don't get their act together it won't be as easy as everyone thinks. Anyhow Brazil will win or suffer a major upset.


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## odoreater (Feb 27, 2005)

manicturncoat said:


> Korea in the finals? That is a fantasy. Don't overestimate Brazil, if their two strikers; Ronaldo and Adriano don't get their act together it won't be as easy as everyone thinks. Anyhow Brazil will win or suffer a major upset.


Hopefully that major upset will come at the hands (or feet?) of the US team.


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## manicturncoat (Oct 4, 2004)

odoreater said:


> Hopefully that major upset will come at the hands (or feet?) of the US team.


The miracle on grass.


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## gmac (Aug 13, 2005)

England won't win. Bad coach, history of choking in major tournaments, their best player is hurt, Owen is just returning. Quarter finals will be a good result for them.

Brazil are very very strong, Italy are good, France have the best out and out forward in the world and a lot of experience, there are a number of good teams but it is pretty open.

Won't be the USA who wins it, I'll guarantee you that.


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## odoreater (Feb 27, 2005)

gmac said:


> Won't be the USA who wins it, I'll guarantee you that.


Wouldn't it be something if the USA did win though? It would create quite a quagmire. If the USA wins the world cup the rest of the world should just invent a new sport and not let Americans play.


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## Mr. Knightly (Sep 1, 2005)

Mahler said:


> E: Italy and Czech Republic (I hope this tournament will settle this once and for all: USA do not play decent football, and their ridiculously high FIFA rank is just plain unjustified -- you'd never qualify if you had to play European qualifiers).


Nobody, including Landon Donovan and Bruce Arena say that the Fifa ranking is an accurate measure. They both are on the record as saying that we'd be fortunate to get out of our group. However, any team that gets out of that group will have to consider themselves fortunate. It's about as rough as they come.

As far as the US not playing decent soccer, I think that's an utterly ridiculous statement. So last summer our B team lost to England's C team. It's the only US game that anyone from Europe has watched since 2002 and they've pretty much written us off. I think that you've been influenced by the European press. I have quite a few former teamates living in Europe right now and the stuff that is printed about the US is really high comedy.

You're right to point to our easy qualifying but another result of playing in the CONCACAF is that Arena rarely assembles an A team. Other than the World Cup, it's all just warm ups and figuring out who to play. It makes it very difficult to say how good the US will be in the tournament. If you don't think that we played decent soccer in 2002 than I don't think you know anything about the game. The matches vs. Portugal, Mexico, and Germany were all played at the highest level of world class soccer.

Finally, why does everyone give so much respect to Mexico? They are the one quality team that the US plays regularly and we've pretty much owned them over the past 6 years.


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## gmac (Aug 13, 2005)

odoreater said:


> Wouldn't it be something if the USA did win though? It would create quite a quagmire. If the USA wins the world cup the rest of the world should just invent a new sport and not let Americans play.


Kind of like when the Blue Jays won the World Series? Twice.

Seriously though, I think the growth of soccer in the USA is great and I really hope the pro league can flourish.

But it can never compete with football and baseball on a national level in the US, probably not basketball either. But that is in the same way that soccer doesn't compete with cricket in south asia or hockey in Canada or rugby in New Zealand. But soccer is growing in all of those countries and this world cup will break all viewing records across the globe.

But they won't be watching the Yanks win, that I can guarantee you. If they do then we'll give you soccer and we'll find something else.

That's how confident I am.......


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## gmac (Aug 13, 2005)

Mr. Knightly said:


> If you don't think that we played decent soccer in 2002 than I don't think you know anything about the game. The matches vs. Portugal, Mexico, and Germany were all played at the highest level of world class soccer.


I'm not certain about that - very few of the games at 2002 were of a high standard I thought. The USA certainly took advantage of a Portugal team that looked lost for an hour but they do rely more on perspiration than inspiration (at least when I have seen them).

Reyna is a terific player though, would be in most squads at the world cup.


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## odoreater (Feb 27, 2005)

Well, in any case, no matter who wins and how the USA does, I just love soccer and love watching the great ones play, no matter what country they come from, so I can't friggin wait (even though the world cup comes in the middle of studying for the bar exam - which kind of sucks)


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## Toad (Jun 10, 2005)

I thought that both of the Americans who cared about the World Cup were already in Europe.


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## gmac (Aug 13, 2005)

Toad said:


> I thought that both of the Americans who cared about the World Cup were already in Europe.


Why do (some) Americans have to make such a thing about not liking soccer?

I've never seen a Frenchman make a post about how dull baseball is or a Brit feel the need to slag off basketball.

Seems odd to me....


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## odoreater (Feb 27, 2005)

gmac said:


> Why do (some) Americans have to make such a thing about not liking soccer?
> 
> I've never seen a Frenchman make a post about how dull baseball is or a Brit feel the need to slag off basketball.
> 
> Seems odd to me....


Makes people feel better about football, which to me, is an inherently gay sport. I mean come on, a bunch of guys in tights and fishnet shirts huddled together, with one guy putting his hands in between the other guys legs. And then, when someone is taken down everyone jumps on top of him for no reason just to be in a big pile-up of men. Football fans overcompensate for their underlying gayness by trying to make fun of soccer. Just my opinion.


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

well...I like football and futbol...but I too aggree that it's so freakin annoying when people have to talk about how soccer is a "sissy sport", if anything, it's one of your toughest sports, hey, at least NFL guys get to wear pads...


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## odoreater (Feb 27, 2005)

The Gabba Goul said:


> well...I like football and futbol...but I too aggree that it's so freakin annoying when people have to talk about how soccer is a "sissy sport", if anything, it's one of your toughest sports, hey, at least NFL guys get to wear pads...


Yeah I watch football too. Usually don't miss any Giants games during football season, but casual football fans are annoying. Why does it have to be a competition between sports? I like watching soccer, football, basketball, hockey, tennis, water polo, heck during the Olympics I even watched quite a bit of curling. I also love watching boxing, wrestling, sumo wrestling, and MMA. I just like sports and competition - whatever they may be (but when someone takes a shot at soccer - which is my main sport - I feel that I have to take a shot back).


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## gmac (Aug 13, 2005)

odoreater said:


> Yeah I watch football too. Usually don't miss any Giants games during football season, but casual football fans are annoying. Why does it have to be a competition between sports? I like watching soccer, football, basketball, hockey, tennis, water polo, heck during the Olympics I even watched quite a bit of curling. I also love watching boxing, wrestling, sumo wrestling, and MMA. I just like sports and competition - whatever they may be (but when someone takes a shot at soccer - which is my main sport - I feel that I have to take a shot back).


Most N American sports are a mystery to folks back home. We'll stay up late to watch the Superbowl but that is about it. Basketball, baseball and hockey just don't register.

However, since moving here I have become something of a hockey fan (I do live in Canada....) although the nuances escape me never having played it. I can't even skate.

But the one I have fallen in love with is football. After attending three Seahawks games last season, including the NFC championship game, I have purchased season tickets for next year. The atmosphere at Qwest stadium is unreal and matches anything I've seen in soccer and that includes Rangers-Celtic games and World Cup matches that I have attended.

I won't go into the injustices of the Superbowl here - suffice to say I think we have a great chance of going back at the end of the upcoming season.


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## Mahler (Aug 5, 2005)

Mr. Knightly said:


> As far as the US not playing decent soccer, I think that's an utterly ridiculous statement. So last summer our B team lost to England's C team. It's the only US game that anyone from Europe has watched since 2002 and they've pretty much written us off. I think that you've been influenced by the European press. I have quite a few former teamates living in Europe right now and the stuff that is printed about the US is really high comedy.
> 
> Finally, why does everyone give so much respect to Mexico? They are the one quality team that the US plays regularly and we've pretty much owned them over the past 6 years.


I'm happy to take that assessment back, or at least to verify it objectively within days after the US play their group games. I based it on previous World Cup showings and some friendlies, eg. against a more than mediocre Polish team (in which they did not impress at all). Friendlies are frendlies, though, so you're right about waiting for the tournament.

By the way, I do not think US' is the toughest group at all, especially as the key Czech players have their best years behind them, and Italy is a big question mark, especially recently. The group with Argentina and Netherlands seems more difficult - Ivory Coast look better than Ghana, and Serbia and Montenegro could be a real dark horse.

As for Mexico - well, they didn't play badly in the Confederations Cup last year. Plus, they do have two world-class players (Marquez, Borgetti). I saw them in a friendly against the Netherlands last week, though, and the team looked vulnerable. The Dutch picked them apart on the wings.


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## going grey (May 22, 2006)

*1966 remembered*

It's just occurred to me what I was doing as our brave lads were beating Germany in the final all those years ago. I was 12. I went into town to buy clothes,my new school uniform in fact-and with great pride. Truly the child is father of the man... I haven't changed that much.


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## odoreater (Feb 27, 2005)

Germany beat Costa Rica, but to be honest, I was not at all impressed by their level of play except for that goal in the end by Frings, which was a really beauty. I think that goal was a matter of a really powerful shot and good old fashioned physics. It seemed like he kicked it with a lot of power and then the motion of the ball (since it was rolling to his right and he hit a one-timer) made it curve at the end more than it would normally curve.


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