World Cup 2006 - Germany (World Cup ONLY)

[CTG]

Well deserved, nice goal free match of the French team. Welcome back in 2002!  :twisted:

[CTG]

I just recognized how strong is the Brasil team compared to other so called possible winners...  :shock:

1 Dida
2 Caf?
3 L?cio
4 Juan
6 Roberto Carlos
11 Z? Roberto
5 Emerson
8 Kak?
10 Ronaldinho
7 Adriano
9 Ronaldo

They HAVE TO win this World Cup!

[lised]

I just know the Ivory Coast is going to win this year!    :smt061

[al il professore]

today's update

Well deserved, nice goal free match of the French team. Welcome back in 2002!  :twisted:

I dont think so. Switzerland is the biggest underdogged team in this tournament. they are coming back from nowhere at all (france virtually eliminated it in qualifications and hardly and they qualified vs turkey 4-2 at home with a vengeance and a dogfight in the locker rooms) They will probably reach the 1/4 finals...

Koller from Chzech Rep maybe will be injuried until the end of the championship.

very good news for us all teams

Switzerland is same level as Mexico I think.

well, mexico team is one of the best team in the world, its fourth in the nations rankings we beat them 1-0 as a preparation, we do 0-0 against switzerland in the world cup. they are the same level.

TOGO? where is that?  Life expectancy at birth (in years): 53.43 Number of internet users: 50,000 (2002)

south korea? we'll practice midget tossing with them.

I think croatia can beat brasil tonight. brasil feels not so strong.

[CTG]

This World Crap is really poor in goals...  :?

[BonzaiJoe]

Switzerland in the quarter finals? I must laugh...

If they manage to beat Togo or South Corea, which I highly doubt, though it is certainly possible, they face Spain in the 1/8 finals, or alternatively Ukraine. They have no chance.

I must say you are very optimistic Alain, but that can be refreshing, because most people take sorrows in advance.

I predict that France will lose in the 1/8 finals, which is a better result than in 2002.

[Mislav]

DOAH!!! Congratulations to Brasil first of all!

But we are happy that we didn't let Brasil play their game, we also could have scored several times... unfortunately our captain was injured and the goal 2 minutes later was a result of our new order on the field... Where was Ronaldo, did he play? Hm...

However, it was a great surprise to hear our fans oversounding the Brasilians in the Olympiastadium  :twisted:

We're through the group

[Krys TOFF]

Where was Ronaldo, did he play? Hm...

As I said before : Ronaldo is crappy.
Nice match between Brasil and Croatia anyway. Croatia played very well, but Brasilian forwards are just too good and each of them can score whenever, like Kaka did. That's why Croatia lost, but a draw would have been more fair. Hopefully, France don't have Croatia in his group, because we would have lost 2-0 versus them.

I predict that France will lose in the 1/8 finals, which is a better result than in 2002.

I predicted it too. Even if we qualified (1st or 2nd), France team is too slow (they proved it again yesterday) to overtake Spain or Ukraine.

I also predicted the draw with Switzerland. They know French football too much. Combined with strange rebounds (ball had no speed, maybe the lack of humidity) and high temperature, this made a useless and boring match.

Some infos to learn from this match with Switzerland :
- Cisse's speed will be missed during this WC... Bloody training matches : 2002 => Pires and Zidane were injured just before WC ; 2006 : Cisse. Pfff... Anyway, France is not so unlucky : Serbian team is now only 21 instead of 23 because 2 players are injured and can't be replaced because Serbia already played a WC match.
- 4-3-2-1 with Henry followed by Wiltord and Ribery is not the scoring machine I imagined :?
- Ribery is not ready yet to start a match. This confirmed my original thinking about him : he should enter in the last half, when his speed and freshness can make a difference. At the beginning of a match, his small speed advantage is not enough. He doesn't have Cisse's speed.

Why I remain confident for France qualification for 1/8 final : last 2 matches of France will take place in the evening, not in the afternoon. So high temperatures will not be a problem, especially against Togo who do not care at all about high temperatures.

[al il professore]

This World Crap is really poor in goals...  :?

that's very good for teams like france and brasil, which defenses are unbelievably strong and which goals only come from... the forwards! teams like germany can score with any player. thats good, but teams like germany will lose against team like france, brasil, italy or... ECUADOR!!! which is really strong in defending. 56%   Possession   44% against poland and... 0-2 victory!!!

BonzaiJoe wrote:   
I predict that France will lose in the 1/8 finals, which is a better result than in 2002.   

I predicted it too.

I see france and brasil are the stronger defenses in this tournament, and france will make it home to the finals

Even if we qualified (1st or 2nd), France team is too slow (they proved it again yesterday) to overtake Spain or Ukraine.

also, france can intercept balls from the attack (ribery, zidane) intercept balls from the middle (vieira, makelele) and recover balls from behind (sagnol)  

and when its recovered, it goes in front of switzerland goalkeeper incredibly fast. France had to focus on scoring, and switz had to focus on a  1-9 (or an even more cautious "all switz on the TV screen" variante) version dense defense. switz almost scored once (a free kick with too much french on the wall) and france almost score during all the match!!! five offsides for france zero for switz, four corners for france one for switz

france seemed to play slow? (well you cannot run very fast with two people hanging on each of your legs) because of the opposition: a team that know us by heart, awkwardly trying to slow us down sticking to the plan, with no gear on the game, a team that tried to permanently disable zidane with a plan (the plan was two-three players knitting a net around zidane and one player sacking zidane when he gets the ball) makelele with a plan, sagnol with a plan and apparently they had no plan against RIBERY which unleashed really really nasty messy scoring situation in front of  ZUBERBUEHLER (thanks to his defence and not to his talents, one of the few goals who will not get a single goal in the world cup) in general no team can play faster against 0-10 defenses like greece '04, italy 1901-2006 or norway '96-'98, or scotland '02 or... switzerland '06

on counter attacking, it was one vs 3 or two vs 6 situations... no way.

something for france to play better on all attacking formation? hint! bench abidal

Ribery is not ready yet to start a match.

Ribery is world cup ready. his play is just very much team oriented. he could not make nobody score against switz. in other matches he will make somebody score. eventually he will score himself, and possibly several times in the same match. ribery is always benched, he has not a starter role yet... he didnt play the second half, because saha changed him. thats very good turnover decision. two UNKNOWN players with the same role, help to score or score, but with different playing styles. very annoying for switz.

last 2 matches of France will take place in the evening, not in the afternoon. So high temperatures will not be a problem, especially against Togo who do not care at all about high temperatures.

great analysis la th?orie des climats de rousseau

If they manage to beat Togo or South Corea, which I highly doubt, though it is certainly possible, they face Spain in the 1/8 finals, or alternatively Ukraine. They have no chance.

hence the underdogging. well togo and corea are scared switz will destroy them. france was scared, and spain will be scared (a crap team with a crap play that can end second in its group) and destroyed denmark was invited in the last minute in euro 92 and won with a team the same plan than switz all out defence. switz are dream killers, they will use any nasty means to win matches (even hands against head like maradona in the last minutes of a game!)

wow happy switz was not against france in 1/8 finals

IM PROUD OF FRANCE!

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

Let's see what Brazil and France can do tonight. I'm still insisting on my tips: Brazil will have a tight win, but France will have to face a disappointing tie.

The prophet said...

Switzerland will be in the quarter finals, yes! I'm not 100% sure of Ukraine would qualify for the last 16.

Brazil will have problems if they play with Italy in the last 16 with this offensive force against the catenaccio.

[al il professore]

YAHOO FIFA FANTASY LEAGUE: you chose your players and if they have good stats you get points. I invite all the stunts predictors to the group: "the stunts predictors" (or number 43073) password= "chicken"

in the end the best predictor wins have a lot of fun at:

http://en.fifaworldcup.fantasysports.yahoo.com/ff/register/joinprivategroup

[vamologocomisso]

DOAH!!! Congratulations to Brasil first of all!

But we are happy that we didn't let Brasil play their game, we also could have scored several times... unfortunately our captain was injured and the goal 2 minutes later was a result of our new order on the field... Where was Ronaldo, did he play? Hm...

However, it was a great surprise to hear our fans oversounding the Brasilians in the Olympiastadium  :twisted:

We're through the group

Well, it was kind of a weak game. Maybe Croatia have team to go far. Prso is talented. Your captain is a warrior, and babic was good someday and have the experience to share. Klasnic could score in that strong and direct shoot, and the other foward its in the same level as him. Dont forget to score (like france ) because without some goals nobody can win!

About the croatians fans oversounding, it was expected because all the brasilians in germany are rich people that dont have the football fan?s kind of act, they are just tourists.

First round was a little weak, but now the nervosism of the players will settle down and they will play theirs best!

[vamologocomisso]

Where was Ronaldo, did he play? Hm...

As I said before : Ronaldo is crappy.

I predict that France will lose in the 1/8 finals, which is a better result than in 2002.

I predicted it too. Even if we qualified (1st or 2nd), France team is too slow (they proved it again yesterday) to overtake Spain or Ukraine.

About Ronaldo: dont underestimates him :?  he will show himself eventually :cry:

About France: Whats happening ? Its like a curse :shock:  No goal since that bloody game against brasil in 98 :cry:  Henry is suppossed to be an awesome player, but like ronaldinho, he only plays well in clubs :!:

[al il professore]

well asking france to score against schweiss is like to ask ukraine to score goals without shevchenko you will see goals against togo and corea from  henry

i can see the grass is slowing down the ball on all pitches. this is bad for technicians.

[Krys TOFF]

i can see the grass is slowing down the ball on all pitches. this is bad for technicians.

Yes, ball has no speed. It seemed weird.

in general no team can play faster against 0-10 defenses like greece '04, italy 1901-2006 or norway '96-'98, or scotland '02 or... switzerland '06

Looool ! Exactly my thinking for Italy or Greece.
Not 100% true for the others IMO.