Nice thread Bugsy, but you should spice up the title a bit. Like "the greatest show on earth". You know to piss of the Yanks.

About the draw, yes I agree with you Bugsy. It is uneven! I just hope Serbia does not go out like a bitch. Yes, you can loose, but try not to be embarrassing. Like last time against Argentina, or the trashing they got against Holland. I just hope we will see attractive football from them and not the defensive shit we saw last time. In the old days Serbia/Yugoslavia were know for technical and attractive football. I want to see that again. 

Germany is not that strong, but that does not matter. Germany always finds a way to get at least to the semis. Fuckers. 

Ghana played the best football in the last WC, but they had trouble scoring. They played technical, attractive football. Funny how they played more like the old Yugoslavia, then Serbia Montenegro ever did. And they have another Serbian coach. So with things considered, they are the second team  I support. Of course I will support our little brothers, Slovenia against England.

at the Sun

England vs USA.

The stakes? Control over the US. If England win then the US becomes a colony once more. If the USA wins, England becomes a US state.

Iga_Bobovic said:

gamingeek said:

England vs USA.

The stakes? Control over the US. If England win then the US becomes a colony once more. If the USA wins, England becomes a US state.

And if it is a draw, they will nuke each other.

That's what I'm hoping for.

aspro said:

So, I'm a very casual futbol fan, but this is the world cup and so I'm taking an interest in it and want to get into it a fair bit more.  When I heard the Worldgameroos were going to have to beat the Germans in the first round I pretty much counted out Australia.  How do they stack up?

Germany is definitely the favourite to pass the group. They are not perhaps the strongest on paper, but this is motherfucking Germany, they always find a way to get far. The weaker they are the further they get. 

Serbia is really dangerous, but very unpredictable. They can play very well, but they might as well fuck up and loss 6-0. They have a very good team on paper, but their mental game is always unpredictable.

Ghana is the best African team. They play beautiful football, but they have trouble scoring. They need many opportunities to score. Of course like all African teams they are physically strong and have great stamina.

So the prognosis is 

1 Germany

2/3 Ghana / Serbia

4 Australia

So basically Australia is fucked. 

aspro said:

Iga_Bobovic said:

aspro said:

So, I'm a very casual futbol fan, but this is the world cup and so I'm taking an interest in it and want to get into it a fair bit more.  When I heard the Worldgameroos were going to have to beat the Germans in the first round I pretty much counted out Australia.  How do they stack up?

Germany is definitely the favourite to pass the group. They are not perhaps the strongest on paper, but this is motherfucking Germany, they always find a way to get far. The weaker they are the further they get.

Serbia is really dangerous, but very unpredictable. They can play very well, but they might as well fuck up and loss 6-0. They have a very good team on paper, but their mental game is always unpredictable.

Ghana is the best African team. They play beautiful football, but they have trouble scoring. They need many opportunities to score. Of course like all African teams they are physically strong and have great stamina.

So the prognosis is

1 Germany

2/3 Ghana / Serbia

4 Australia

So basically Australia is fucked.

  So how would you summarize the Australian team, as you did above for the other's in D?

Ask Foolz, I did not see them play post Hiddink. 

aspro said:

^Which group is the biggest question mark? In terms of parity in skill/ execution.

You are looking at it. Although Germany s favourite, it is mostly because of their performance and mental skills. Germany/Serbia/Ghana is around the same level skill wise. Australia is below that, but I am not sure how much. There is another group Brazil/Portugal/North Korea and Côte d'Ivoire is also a strong group, but Brazil is head and shoulders above the rest skill and mental wise. Portugal and Côte d'Ivoire are close together and North Korea is below that.

Please remember that the closest groups do not necessary mean that the group will be close. The last Group of Death was decided decisively.

Foolz said:

Well we need to play a few games about better teams than in the Asian qualification to say where we're at but during the qualification it was basically a case of playing to the teams we were against which meant usually defending and going on the counter attack considering that Asian teams are technically good but don't actually know how to shoot. That and taking advantage of everyone in Asia being under 5 foot. If we play like that in the WC we're screwed.

Our other problem is without Viduka we don't really have any quality strikers. And there's only Neil at centre back who's true quality as well. Moore's too slow now that he's so slow and well, who else is there, Kisnorbo? :X

Which sounds like a lot of doom and gloom, but honestly I think we've got a pretty good chance of getting out of the group, so long as Pim doesn't do what we did in Asia.

i actually agree with this very much but i wouldn't count against Australia going through.  even though they don't overflow natural talent as a team and they haven't been tested yet, i think they are very disciplined and they have a high work rate.  i consider them very similar to the US in that respect.  teams like this do well in such competitions.  it really is the group of death though to be sure any one  of the 4 teams is capable of going through to the next stage with a little luck and none of the 4 teams can go through without a little luck.

foolz about strikers, what about tim cahill?  he was very dangerous at one time