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The Official World Cup 2010 Thread


Adam Easy Wishes

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If I was in the UK for the majority of the World Cup I wouldn't need that list because my missus loves football more than I do.

My mum's been warned that the telly is for football and football only next weekend though. Can't wait.

I'm not in any kind of sweeper, but I'm backing England and Spain. If they play each other...England I suppose.

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I know tits all about German football, but listening to a footie podcast today it sounds like they are in a bit of a bad way. According to Gabriel Marcotti, they are missing:

Michael Ballack & Simon Rolfes - their first choice central midfield pairing - injured.

Heiko Westermann & Christian Trasch - their second choice central midfield pairing - injured.

Torsten Frings, midfield - left out.

Rene Adler - starting goalkeeper - injured.

Robert Enke - back-up keeper - dead.

Kevin Kuranyi - striker - fell out with coach.

Plus Lukas Podolski has only scored two goals this season and Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose have been mostly coming off the bench. Could affect them. Could mean fuck all.

You're right, you know fuck all about German football. ;)

Ballack and Schweinsteiger were first choice central midfield, Rolfes is at most squad fodder, Westermann is a defender and Trasch is pretty untested. Khedira is more than adequate as a replacement for Ballack. Also Marin, Ozil and Muller can play through the middle no problems (Muller has scored a fair amount of goals,19, this season and is very handy on both wings and up front as well).

First choice goalkeeper was always a toss-up between Adler and Neuer (who's been watched by Bayern, Man United, Juventus and Inter Milan). Adler was injured so it made Loew's job easier. Butt and Weise are more than adequate understudies. All three are first choice at their clubs and have only suffered on the international scene because of Lehmann and Kahn's extended careers.

Mario Gomez has had an indifferent season at Bayern but he has started a lot more games than come on as a sub. Klose has suffered at club level because Gomez, Olic and Muller have all been playing better but he's handy to have around. Podolski is seen more as a left-winger at club level right at the moment but he's handy in front of goal if he's playing through the middle.

I'm sure there is an element of "gambling" on some players but sometimes the lack of an opponents experience playing against particular players can work as an advantage.

I'm not worried :)

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Podolski's left foot could smash a brick wall down. If he doesn't score a goal from distance which rips the netting and punctures the ball, then Germany can get fucked.

I was reading that Germany won a low-key warm up game 23-0 last week. That is awesome. I wish it was on telly.

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Bratwurst.... schnitzel..... polka.... gesundheit.... frauline etc.

I'm not worried :)

:laughing: yeah fair enough. As I said I was pretty much just copying Gabriele Marcotti word for word. He claims to know about football so I tend to believe him. That'll teach me. I always thought he sounded shifty, claiming to be Italian in his American accent.

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:laughing: yeah fair enough. As I said I was pretty much just copying Gabriele Marcotti word for word. He claims to know about football so I tend to believe him. That'll teach me. I always thought he sounded shifty, claiming to be Italian in his American accent.

That boy's a dick. He's clearly knows dick all about German football either :)

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Are people seriously slagging Gab Marcotti? he's one of the very few pundits who knows his shizzle.

He's also married to an Aberdonian and said on Sky a couple of months ago that Willie Miller was the best penalty box defender he'd ever seen.

Takes some conviction to state that in the face of Sky's Ingerlund hyperbole.

Besides all that, though, he is intelligent, articulate and doesn't pander to the English masses unnecessarily.

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Are people seriously slagging Gab Marcotti? he's one of the very few pundits who knows his shizzle.

He's also married to an Aberdonian and said on Sky a couple of months ago that Willie Miller was the best penalty box defender he'd ever seen.

Takes some conviction to state that in the face of Sky's Ingerlund hyperbole.

Besides all that, though, he is intelligent, articulate and doesn't pander to the English masses unnecessarily.

I agree with everything you write christy but with a yank accent how can he be taken seriously??? we all know they call it soccerball....

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How would everyone rank the different World Cups that you have seen?

I would go...

1. 2006

There are a few reasons why I like this one the best. Most importantly my work situation allowed to me to take enough holidays and move some shifts so that I wasn't working during a single match of the tournament.

For the most part the quality of football was extremely high and very exciting. I can't remember being bored on many occasions. At the start of the tournament goals were flying in all over the place and great quality ones too. They might have dried up a bit as the tournament progressed but I still enjoyed the games.

It appeared that Germany did a fantastic job as hosts, which led to a great atmosphere in the host cities and within the stadiums during the matches.

The Germany - Italy semi-final is perhaps my favourite international match ever. It was great stuff to watch. Attacking, entertaining, high quality football the whole way. Ending up with the level of drama only the world cup can provide.

It helps of course that the outcome of that match and the tournament itself was one I was very happy with. Ever since the days of Football Italia on channel 4 I've liked Italy to do well and it was nice to see them win while favourite players of mine like Del Piero and Cannavaro were still playing well.

And I can't not mention that Cambiasso goal. Simply brilliant.

2. 1998

The only world cup I have watched with Scotland in it so I will always remember it fondly, even if it didn't go to well for us. I associate this world cup with a lot of great forwards who were playing near the peak of their game. Vieri, Batistuta, Bergkamp, Sukor, Ronaldo were all great, but the winners France were playing with players like Dugarry and Guivarch!?( OK they had henry and trezequet but they were young kids then.

It was nice to see a team that had never won the tournament before win and good to see France win infront of their home crowd (this might have been the last time France were a likeable team).

Other memories of this world cup are the obvious, David Beckham's red card, Bergkamp's goal, the Ronaldo "fit" etc.

Also when I look back now I see this as a missed opportunity for a pretty great dutch team. I think they would have beaten France if they won the penalty shoot out in the semis.

3. 1994

My first world cup. '94 was pretty much the year I started to really like football and so when this started there were a lot of great players who were still unknown to me and some players I will always associate with this world cup. Such as Hagi, Stoichkov, Romario, Bebeto. Good tournament with quite a few very strong teams.

Shame about the Final, that was a huge disappoinment. And I was so upset when Baggio missed ;(

The second half of the Brazil - Holland match was probably my highlight.

Remember the Mexican keeper's (Campos?) ridiculous DIY kit? How did anyone think that was good?

And Oleg Salenko? 1 game, 5 goals, did that really happen? ?(

4. 2002

Awful

Just Awful

OK so I enjoyed it at the time, it's a world cup of course I'll think it is great.

But really this was by far the worst that I have seen.

Ok so there were some shocks and suprises but they were all due to bigger teams being shit and well below their best and of course the famous disgraceful refereeing.

Really boring brazil side that one it too, not nearly as good as the team that lost in '98. It does seem that Brazil win when they are boring these days, which could be a sign because Dunga has made them pretty dull.

I have very few positive memories of this, I was happy for the south Korean fans and that almost made me overlook the dodgy refs for a bit but not quite.

It didn't help that the time difference meant that I had to miss a lot of games and the heat meant the players looked shattered after 5 minutes.

This world cup was so bad Ireland might have won it if Keane hadn't fucked off.

2002...never again please.

Anyway to end on a more positive note, I have high hopes for this upcoming world cup. I can't wait!

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The only good thing about 2002 was Ronaldinho, who was peaking into stardom, and just took the piss out of football. Then the playboy lifestyle hit him hard, and he winded up a little bit like Fat Ronaldo.

My favourite World Cup was Mexico 86. I'd only been alive 2 months, but I have this on VHS:

510709TY39L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

It's pretty incredible. Everything about the 86 World Cup was pretty special.

USA 94 was the first one I ever watched. A very dull final, made better by a good penalty shootout. Highlights of the tournament were Hristo Stoichkov being ridiculous at football, and Romario being dogshit mental. Great, proper summer atmosphere.

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First World Cup memory (Spain 82) was Harald Schumacher, the German keeper, doing a stonking jumping knee smash on Patrick Batiston of France. Knocked him spang out and escaped with a yellow. Punk rock.

he was a great keeper just had a moment of madness!

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How would everyone rank the different World Cups that you have seen?

I would go...

1. 2006

There are a few reasons why I like this one the best. Most importantly my work situation allowed to me to take enough holidays and move some shifts so that I wasn't working during a single match of the tournament.

For the most part the quality of football was extremely high and very exciting. I can't remember being bored on many occasions. At the start of the tournament goals were flying in all over the place and great quality ones too. They might have dried up a bit as the tournament progressed but I still enjoyed the games.

It appeared that Germany did a fantastic job as hosts, which led to a great atmosphere in the host cities and within the stadiums during the matches.

The Germany - Italy semi-final is perhaps my favourite international match ever. It was great stuff to watch. Attacking, entertaining, high quality football the whole way. Ending up with the level of drama only the world cup can provide.

It helps of course that the outcome of that match and the tournament itself was one I was very happy with. Ever since the days of Football Italia on channel 4 I've liked Italy to do well and it was nice to see them win while favourite players of mine like Del Piero and Cannavaro were still playing well.

And I can't not mention that Cambiasso goal. Simply brilliant.

2. 1998

The only world cup I have watched with Scotland in it so I will always remember it fondly, even if it didn't go to well for us. I associate this world cup with a lot of great forwards who were playing near the peak of their game. Vieri, Batistuta, Bergkamp, Sukor, Ronaldo were all great, but the winners France were playing with players like Dugarry and Guivarch!?( OK they had henry and trezequet but they were young kids then.

It was nice to see a team that had never won the tournament before win and good to see France win infront of their home crowd (this might have been the last time France were a likeable team).

Other memories of this world cup are the obvious, David Beckham's red card, Bergkamp's goal, the Ronaldo "fit" etc.

Also when I look back now I see this as a missed opportunity for a pretty great dutch team. I think they would have beaten France if they won the penalty shoot out in the semis.

3. 1994

My first world cup. '94 was pretty much the year I started to really like football and so when this started there were a lot of great players who were still unknown to me and some players I will always associate with this world cup. Such as Hagi, Stoichkov, Romario, Bebeto. Good tournament with quite a few very strong teams.

Shame about the Final, that was a huge disappoinment. And I was so upset when Baggio missed ;(

The second half of the Brazil - Holland match was probably my highlight.

Remember the Mexican keeper's (Campos?) ridiculous DIY kit? How did anyone think that was good?

And Oleg Salenko? 1 game, 5 goals, did that really happen? ?(

4. 2002

Awful

Just Awful

OK so I enjoyed it at the time, it's a world cup of course I'll think it is great.

But really this was by far the worst that I have seen.

Ok so there were some shocks and suprises but they were all due to bigger teams being shit and well below their best and of course the famous disgraceful refereeing.

Really boring brazil side that one it too, not nearly as good as the team that lost in '98. It does seem that Brazil win when they are boring these days, which could be a sign because Dunga has made them pretty dull.

I have very few positive memories of this, I was happy for the south Korean fans and that almost made me overlook the dodgy refs for a bit but not quite.

It didn't help that the time difference meant that I had to miss a lot of games and the heat meant the players looked shattered after 5 minutes.

This world cup was so bad Ireland might have won it if Keane hadn't fucked off.

2002...never again please.

Anyway to end on a more positive note, I have high hopes for this upcoming world cup. I can't wait!

Great post.

USA 94 was the first World Cup I was old enough to really remember. I had an annual profiling every player, a wall chart and a Brazil shirt. Ultimate football. The blurry images from the states just made it all the more special. (what happened to the US having shitter quality TV images?). I remember the whole three stripe motif being the height of awesome at the time (fig a). Italy vs Jack Charlton's sweat glands was at the time the best game i'd ever seen. Hagi, Baggio, Romario, Bebeto, Stoichkov, Valderama, Saiid Al Owairan et al... Thanks for the memories.

Sweden-94-Home-RedCol.jpgfig a

I was lucky enough to actually go to a match at France 98. Jamaica vs Croatia in Lens. For a young lad it was the best thing ever. I'll never forget the old rasta guy in the stands asking me for a souvenir photo with him because I was the whitest person he'd ever seen. The games were played at proper times of the day, the standard of football was high and the punditry was top notch (lynam!). I even liked the spin off computer games and the cockerel mascot. Following Scotland at a world cup was special too. I really hope that's not the last time I get to do it.

I agree with you on 2002. Shambles of a world cup. Seemed more like an exercise in marketing than a celebration of football. I can't hardly remember a single thing about that tournament except Germany spanking Saudi Arabia 9-0 or something. I have to look it up to refresh my memory. Actually, Senegal vs France was pretty special. Although it did give the world El Hadj Diouf.

... Fuckin hell. Just looked at the bbc video for the England vs Brazil match and saw Danny Mills and Trevor Sinclair in the team. Wtf?!

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Are people seriously slagging Gab Marcotti? he's one of the very few pundits who knows his shizzle.

He's also married to an Aberdonian and said on Sky a couple of months ago that Willie Miller was the best penalty box defender he'd ever seen.

Takes some conviction to state that in the face of Sky's Ingerlund hyperbole.

Besides all that, though, he is intelligent, articulate and doesn't pander to the English masses unnecessarily.

In your opinion. I don't give a shit what he says.

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