2006 World Cup

Hey, the world cup kicks of in 8 days.. What are your thoughts on the contenders? Who do you this is going to win? I'm thinking it will come down to a final with France/Brazil or Argentina/Brazil.

Brazil is going to be favored to win, but I think we're going to see some good games from Thierry Henry, Christiano Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho.

What other players and/or games are noteworthy?

France no chance, I´m putting money on that...

Brazil will win, unless they accidentaly stumble in the quarters/semis. The team is just incredible. They beat FC Luzern 8 - 0 recently, not impressive in it self, Luzern just came from 2 division in Switzerland. Whats impressing is that 6 different players made the goals (and none of them was Ronaldinho). Hell, even the goalie is good at it.

Argentina and Holland might have the strongest teams after Brazil. Spain should be a favourite having some of the greatest players and the strongest home league, but they always fuck it up in the tournaments. Germany has traditionally been a "tournament-team" and always up for the great occasions, and they have the advantage of playing at home. But no, they´re not even close this time I think. Italy is always a contender but by God I hope they wont make it. I´m just too fed up with their moaning and bitching at the ref, the filming and theatrics, bad sportmanship and not forgetting; all the hair-spray... Oh, and Ericsson will not get his "back at ya FA", england will be lucky to hit the second round. The Czechs, South-Corea, Swedes and Portuguese will go far but not all the way. I´d like to see an african team win but that will not happen this year. The traditionally strongest teams didn´t qualify.

I have a feeling that the Ukraine will be tough.

<<That's the country where many of the funs empire models come from.>>
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I don't need no friggin' sig.

One thing I think will be certain, Australia won't make the second round!

i hope i see some good games by england.

they have so many great players, so they should have a chance

[URL=http://www.World-of-Smilies.com][/URL]

but at first place i wanna see a great world cup with exciting games

so lets have fun [URL=http://www.World-of-Smilies.com][/URL]

btw anyone here who likes goleo [URL=http://www.World-of-Smilies.com][/URL]

Anyone of you flies to Germany?

ahhhnutz wrote:
I agree... but at least we're over the embarrassment stage...

We need Swimming, Cricket, or Rugby League events!!

My street, what, my whole town in covered with orange flags, at the grocery's there's only carrots and all I drink is orange juice... When I take a pee, it's orange.
I think I live in the Netherlands.

Spain are serial chokers, I wouldn't put any money on them. France are in with an outside chance, they've done it once before against all probability and they do have some very good players. Most likely though it will be Brazil. When you have Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Adriano, Robinho, Kaka, Roberto Carlos etc. in your side then you're going to be hard to beat.

My predicted stars of the tournaments other than Brazilians would be Messi, Van Persie, Henry, Kone, and Owen.

spidey wrote:

[URL=http://www.World-of-Smilies.com][/URL]--->[URL=http://www.World-of-Smilies.com][/URL]...........so is better! But i know , werf , that Mobile-Homie [URL=http://www.World-of-Smilies.com][/URL]loves me !

[URL=http://www.World-of-Smilies.com][/URL]

Love those smileys!!!

Especially the "Hüp Holland Hüp!" (mit Großschreibung! on Hüp )
But it's nice to know, in spite of all the Füssballistic differences in the past there are 82.5 million people living east of here that are hoping for a Dutch victory.

You've got to fancy Brazil but statistics don't lie and no team outside of Europe has won in Europe since 1958. In saying that Germany, although having territorial advantage are not the Germany of old, France have an aging team, the Dutch who have an abundance of talent always press the self-destruct button, Spain have always under-achieved and Italy are a poor team. My team England have lost our finest player, Wayne Rooney. With Owen still not fully fit I think we may struggle up front.
My 4 for the semi-finals are
Brazil, Argentina, England and Holland with maybe France replacing one of the 4.

backfootbob wrote:

...this means :Switzerland for Champion??


Quote: lol , werf

Proximer264 wrote: Dick Advocaat never should have changed Robben two years ago. We, the Dutch, told him so and then send him off to Korea. Problem solved.


But yes, BFB, you got a valid point: there's some kind of Murpheys Law at work here: everytime things that can't go wrong, something goes wrong.

What I can't understand about the Dutch is they have probably produced more talent over the last 30 years than the rest of Europe put together but never won anything. True world class players are a rarity. Many countries only produce 1 per decade if that. We in England have had Bobby Moore and Paul (Gazza) Gascoigne in the last 40 years with maybe Wayne Rooney eventually joining that list. The Brazilians have Pele with maybe half a dozen other known names, Ronaldhino being their finest at present. You can do this with most teams except the Dutch. Cruyff, Neeskens, Van Basten, Bergkamp,Gullit all roll off the tongue with plenty of others to add. Far more stars than any other country.
Rumours during Euro 96 was the Dutch camp was affected by racism, with Edgar Davids leaving the camp during the tournament. This inhouse hostility is maybe their downfall. I can't believe its fiery temperaments as no people are as hospitable as the Dutch.
One to ponder over.