Hey, I'm still recovering from the Stanley cup.  Man, the Flyers must have gotten lessons in cardiac corners from the Phils.  But hey, they slipped into the playoffs by the skin of their butts, put down the top seeded team in four straight after being down 3 games to zip  and took it all the way through 6 games, not bad for a team that had been put out of mind by most.

 

 

On topic, what teams are picked to have a chance? 

A few scores  :

 

Netherlands-Danmark 2-0

 

Italy- Paraguy 1-1. Reigning world champion Italy does not convince. 

 

 

Big surprises :

 

Japan-Cameroon 1-0 

 

New Zealand-Slowakia. 1-1.   

 

Nobody would have given New Zealand a chance. Well done.

 

 

 

Not in the game against Serbia ;)

 

A very romantic viev of football......

 

 

Romantic? No, It's a realistic view.  Every athlete, no matter money, has the dream, The World Series, the Super Bowl etc.  It takes more than money to motivate someone to achieve that level of excellence and then maintain it for 8-12 years.  A friend played OT in the NFL for 11 years, helping him to stand up and move to the tub so his wife could pack him in ice on monday mornings and     watching what he went through to loosen up enough to make practice, told me it wasn't money, it was much deeper. Whether or not he would admit it, it was "the Dream" the competitors internal drive to be the very best.

He had been there one time, The Super Bowl.  Even after 11 years, he still wanted it again.

 

The WC has been the dream of every footballer in every little podunk country, as well as the major powers, since it began.

 

 

 

All the best football players play in the european clubs and there they earn their millions of euros. I do not say that WC are not important, but they do get much more for winning champions league or getting good position in it, than for winnin WC or getting good position there. Whats more, some of them earn even bigger money for just being a superstars and playing in advertisements.

 

The players from poorer teams do get opportunity to show themselves to everyone, but those who already are superstars and earn millions a year care more for their clubs than for their national teams. Winning or loosing in their national team wont change their position for better or worse but getting injured might cost them millions. And there were many top players in the history of football who didnt care much for their national teams or even didnt play in them. Also some countries that had a lot of very good players had problems with them, because they all felt like super stars, playing for the different clubs were not able to cooperate for national team.  I remember when years ago Holland had probably the best players from the best football clubs but they were not able to play together.

 

GB vs GER I think GER will win but GB will play it higher level than they have so far-They need to let Rooney just be Rooney

 

US vs GHA-- USA USA--However GHA are some big dudes, it will be pretty physical.

US plays better but Ghana  just scored 1-2 . 

 

Good  match to watch!

 

 

Americans didnt play better, they had many opportunities but didnt use them so didnt deserve for victory.

 

Netherlands- Slowakia 2-1.  

 

Brasil-Chile 4-2 . Brasil will be the next opponent of the Dutch

 

 

I just hope Espana wins, just to show Germany and Holland that skill, show and entertainment still is #1.

 

 

TGS I understand your dissapointment but facts are facts and gentlemen do not argue with facts lol! Football its not only about having good players, its also about thinking, tactics and game strategy. And once again we can see that most intelligent are EUROPEANS!!!!!!

 

Originally posted by Mosquito TGS I understand your dissapointment but facts are facts and gentlemen do not argue with facts lol!

I'm not arguing with the facts, I'm arguing with your logic and your ridiculous argument, which started off by you saying that "soccer players dont care about winning the World Cup".

Originally posted by Mosquito Football its not only about having good players, its also about thinking, tactics and game strategy. And once again we can see that most intelligent are EUROPEANS!!!!!!

I agree with the first statement.Regarding the second statement, Brazil has dominated world football for decades...and they arent a European team

There is a simply reason why European teams tend to be more successful in World Cup tournaments: They are richer and more populous countries, with a better soccer infrastructure. Once other continents reach the development levels of Europe, their soccer will also improve tremendously. South Korea and Japan have already made tremendous strides. The United States has a really fast growing soccer culture, and I predict that in a decade the United States will be a formidable force in soccer.

Even tiny Netherlands has 5 times the population of Uruguay.

Yet this has not stopped South America from producing the world best players and two of the world best teams.

You also do not consider the fact that major European soccer powers did horrible this year, including Italy, England and France.

France got beat my Mexico and South Africa, and tied Uruguay.

England barely made it to the next round, and it couldnt even beat the US and Algeria

Italy tied Paraguay and New Zealand, and lost to SLovakia, and got eliminated in the group stage.


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I use CAPS for emphasis, not yelling. Just don't want to have to click the bold button every time.

 

 

Yeah, looks like those best teams are somwhere between #5 and #8 ;)

 

 

Lets talk about your logic.

 

Originally posted by TheGreatSimba   There is a simply reason why European teams tend to be more successful in World Cup tournaments: They are richer and more populous countries, with a better soccer infrastructure. Even tiny Netherlands has 5 times the population of Uruguay.

 

 

CIA World Factbook:

 

Argentina - population: 41,343,201

 

Brasil: 201,103,330

 

Nertherlands: 16,783,092

 

Brazil seems to have almost 12 times the population of Holand :) Yet Brazil plays poor and brutal game getting red card and loosing 2 to 1. Hard to talk about greatsoccer infrastructure in Netherlands, they just got one good team but not from the top of European clubs (AJAX AMSTERDAM) and one or two average (FEYENORD and PSV Eindhoven). But it doesnt change the fact that dutch players for decades dominated european football.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OF course robots know nothing themselves and should be just well programmed to win, otherwise they can lose to the weakest teams, like Serbia.

 

Congrats Sander!!! What a fun game to watch. Not to get on the Bad wagon but I thought the Dutch would do very well early on. I like the way they pass, and they have a good sense of team. Here is hoping for a Dutch -Deustch Final- Germany should beat Spain despite what that Octopuss says.