Who are you Supporting in the FIFA World Cup 2006?



MountainPro said:
me too but Lim, you say USA are the underdogs, not according to FIFA...

USA is FIFA ranked no 5 in the world. Italy is ranked 13.

http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-May-2006,00.html

Cech republic at No.2

Poor display by the Czechs i hope they beat Italy.

USA fifth in the rankings!
Hard to fathom that - but I won't argue it.

Czech's had a disasterous opening games : not taking away from Ghana.
I think Czechs could be the Italians.
 
limerickman said:
USA fifth in the rankings!
Hard to fathom that - but I won't argue it.
the commentator said that last night and i instantly suspected BS...checked the Fifa website and it turns out its true! crazy.
 
MountainPro said:
the commentator said that last night and i instantly suspected BS...checked the Fifa website and it turns out its true! crazy.

Yeah, I saw your link Pro : it is crazy.
No disrespect the USA play good football - but to be ranked 5th????
 
The world rankings done by FIFA are done by the results of all international games. The USA plays loads of teams that aren't as good as it, but avoids playing all the countries that are good at football, Brazil, Germany etc. Hence the USA can rack up lots of wins giving them a high ranking. But they ain't going to be in the top 8 in the world cup.
 
Eldrack said:
The world rankings done by FIFA are done by the results of all international games. The USA plays loads of teams that aren't as good as it, but avoids playing all the countries that are good at football, Brazil, Germany etc. Hence the USA can rack up lots of wins giving them a high ranking. But they ain't going to be in the top 8 in the world cup.
you know why we're underdogs? because i'll be less than 1% of americans could name a single player on the team and the nice german fans feel sorry for our team because of that. :p
 
...ok, so our national side has padded its rankings against some less than stellar competition, but we're not that bad...
 
limerickman said:
Yeah, I saw your link Pro : it is crazy.
No disrespect the USA play good football - but to be ranked 5th????


Spain is also ranked 5th.
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/team/overview.html?team=ESP

I suspect a typo in the USA ranking... maybe 15th?

That Italian elbow was scandalous and obviously flagrant. Now his apology is pure ********:

"I spread my arms and caught him," the 22-year-old De Rossi told reporters after being sent off in the 28th minute for an incident which left McBride needing three stitches under his left eye.

"I'm sorry. I certainly didn't want to hurt him and didn't want to give him an elbow, and I'm sorry for my team mates."

The first games in each group seemed to play out normally; lots of upsets and unexpected ties in the second set of games.
 
slovakguy said:
...ok, so our national side has padded its rankings against some less than stellar competition, but we're not that bad...
the FIFA ranking system is misleading. the Czech Republic is a good side alright, i still think they are capable of doing great thing in this WC but i wouldnt say they were the 2nd best team in the world. They are in the top 10 maybe in my book though. I would rank Italy about 6 and the USA about 12.

FIFA doesnt take into account the quality of the opposition when it makes its ranking. A win is a win as far as they are concerned.

How about France last night...shocking eh? Zidane has played his last game for them. Henry was less than inspiring. France could be heading out of the world cup. Two draws. If Switzerland beat Togo today France is walking home. Thats two world cups on a row they've left after the first round.
 
USA, I guess. I , like many over here; as I'm sure you guys are aware, don't watch it. We're different, in this regard.
 
World Cup for me is like the Olympics.

I don't watch much soccer 3.9 out of 4 years but I really enjoy the World Cup.

I don't watch any track, swimming, or ping pong except for the Olympics either.

Disclaimer - I don't watch any American football at all, no basketball, no hockey, and hardly any baseball.
 
DiabloScott said:
World Cup for me is like the Olympics.

I don't watch much soccer 3.9 out of 4 years but I really enjoy the World Cup.

I don't watch any track, swimming, or ping pong except for the Olympics either.

Disclaimer - I don't watch any American football at all, no basketball, no hockey, and hardly any baseball.


Im not a huge socer fan, I've got to say. I support Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership - but that's about it. Hibernian in Scotland and Bayern Munich in Germany.

I do watch the world cup though.

Agree with you about the Italian "apology". That sort of behaviour has no place on the pitch.


We don't get coverage of US sports here such as American Football or Baseball.
Baseball I find fascinating - I think it is a great game and have followed the fortunes of the game : I was always impressed with pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens etc.
The batsmen (or batters) never really caught my imagination - Ruth, DiMaggio, Rose.

There was a craze for American Football during the mid/late 1980's when Budweiser tried to market the game here.
I can recall The Fridge, John Elway, Dan Mareno, Emmet Smith etc.
 
MountainPro said:
the FIFA ranking system is misleading. the Czech Republic is a good side alright, i still think they are capable of doing great thing in this WC but i wouldnt say they were the 2nd best team in the world. They are in the top 10 maybe in my book though. I would rank Italy about 6 and the USA about 12.

FIFA doesnt take into account the quality of the opposition when it makes its ranking. A win is a win as far as they are concerned.

How about France last night...shocking eh? Zidane has played his last game for them. Henry was less than inspiring. France could be heading out of the world cup. Two draws. If Switzerland beat Togo today France is walking home. Thats two world cups on a row they've left after the first round.

The Swiss got their result - au revoir France.
France are in dire straits at present. They were very poor against Sth Korea
(no disrespect intended to SK).
On paper France should have won that game easily.

It's hard to fathom that they were world champions 8 years ago.
 
limerickman said:
Yeah, I saw your link Pro : it is crazy.
No disrespect the USA play good football - but to be ranked 5th????
I agree, how are you ranked a fin and then be 80:1 long shots to make the finals. Who's doing the math here?

I swear, I started counting the Ghana player on the field while they were playing CZE. Everywhere the ball was there were four Ghana's passing the ball, I seriously thought they had 20 guys on the field. Jeez !

The nice thing about group E now is, everyone has to win. Thursday should be great football. If the Ghana's play like they played against the Czech's, then it's all over but the crying for the US.

Hey who's the best US player ?





Cristian Zaccardo :D

Game on !
 
lwedge said:
Cristian Zaccardo :D

HA!

The Columbian autogoal in 1994 (playing USA) was a really stupid pass back to his own goalie while under pressure. The Italian autogoal was just a fluke, he got a piece of the ball off of a shot on goal and it just went the wrong direction off of his foot; a USA guy was there who could have scored anyway so it's really different from the Columbian autogoal. Odd though that USA would benefit from both of the only two autogoals I've ever seen in WC matches.


Today I heard that if "Budweiser's Player of the Match" is a Saudi, then he'll be just "Player of the Match" so he won't get flogged back home for appearing in a beer advert. I bet Bud will be happy they paid for that endorsement!
 
...add that to the other kick in bud's teeth, paying to be sole beer sponsor and forced to allow the germans the choice in beers because of the rhineheitsgebot!
 
DiabloScott said:
World Cup for me is like the Olympics.

I don't watch much soccer 3.9 out of 4 years but I really enjoy the World Cup.

I don't watch any track, swimming, or ping pong except for the Olympics either.

Disclaimer - I don't watch any American football at all, no basketball, no hockey, and hardly any baseball.
I do follow the results only I do not find the games too exciting. I heard from a youth that USA/Italy tied/ 1-1 :confused:
 
limerickman said:
USA fifth in the rankings!
Hard to fathom that - but I won't argue it.

Czech's had a disasterous opening games : not taking away from Ghana.
I think Czechs could be the Italians.

Thats because the FIFA rankings are and have always been a complete joke!

I mean Mexico are 4th and they arent very good.

It is no coincidence that Mexico and the US are in 4th and 5th positions, respectively. The reason is that while European teams have to play fairly competent teams regularly, the US and Mexico are in a FIFA region, Concacaf, that is full on footballing minnows.

Costa Rica and Trinidad are as good as it gets! The other Central American countries and carribean islands they play against arent even in the top 100.

Yet FIFA takes no account of this in its points system. So Mexico and the US get the same points for beating El Salvador, which is likely about 200th in the rankings, as Germany gets for playing Spain/England/Italy etc etc.

The Mexicans themselves laugh at the Fifa ranking system, we shouldnt take it any more seriously! :D
 
Get on your bike
Anatoliy Tymoschuk of Ukraine attempts a bicycle kick.
Did'nt know there was such a "kick" :confused: Interesting ;)
This, apparently, was in the Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia game. The other is from a different game.
 
davidmc said:
Did'nt know there was such a "kick" :confused: Interesting ;)
This, apparently, was in the Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia game. The other is from a different game.
never heard it being called a bicycle kick before, been a footie fan since i was a boy.
 

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