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Maradona is not a tactician, but he can and does inspire his players. And they have enough class on that team to beat most teams even without great tactical thought. Dunga, on the other hand, is a quiet little man, but he is quite ruthless in shaping his team to his liking...Not so sure how much coaching actually goes on in soccer but am not convinced that Maradona has enough experience to get his team through to the finals. With that said, I still like Brazil's chances considering their track record.
Black Star!!! All the way!
Include them in this poll!
Who/what the hell is that?
Since my country lost, I'm cheering for the only African country leftover. Ghana silly! I think Ivory Coast is still in the running, have to do a quick check...
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As much as I am rooting for Germany (I owe it to them, since I was cruel enough to support Italy last time around, when both the World Cup and myself were in Germany 😀), I doubt it would be them. Europeans have never won outside Europe... so it probably will be Argentina or Brazil. I like Maradona, he was the first soccer player I ever learned about, picking up a newspaper while on a long train ride... and I like Brazil too - I once ended up staying at the same hotel as the entire Brazilian soccer team and got to chat with a few of them, most were quite nice. 🙂
Have you seen them play? Which of European teams actually can outplay the South American bunch this time around? England with moribund attack and usual horror at the goal? Germany with porous defense and lack of the usual killer machine mentality? Portuguese ballet company? Slovaks who will be outclassed out of the tournament, gritty or not? Spain, who barely got their act together barely in time? I guess the Dutchie boys have some momentum, but I don't quite see them winning. The way the play-off spots worked out, Spain has the most realistic chances of making it into semi-finals, but I wouldn't rate their chances very high against Argentina, unless inadequacy of Argentinian defense will finally outweigh the brilliance of Argentinian attack.Oh come on, there's always a first!! I think going by some of the records can be a bit ridiculous. Too much self-fulfilled prophecy going on....
Have you seen them play? Which of European teams actually can outplay the South American bunch this time around? England with moribund attack and usual horror at the goal? Germany with porous defense and lack of the usual killer machine mentality? Portuguese ballet company? Slovaks who will be outclassed out of the tournament, gritty or not? Spain, who barely got their act together barely in time? I guess the Dutchie boys have some momentum, but I don't quite see them winning. The way the play-off spots worked out, Spain has the most realistic chances of making it into semi-finals, but I wouldn't rate their chances very high against Argentina, unless inadequacy of Argentinian defense will finally outweigh the brilliance of Argentinian attack.
I'm not arguing the fact that most have been playing pretty awfully - but from your last post, you made it sound like the European teams didn't have a chance simply because it's not on European land. Throwing out those statistics and records and such and making assumptions from them just kindof annoy me. You're right though, most of the European teams have been playing pretty awful (and the results show with France and Italy both being sent home, as well as other countries). Still can't change my hope for a German win though! 😉
It was a fun thread. It was '07. I was close.
Ghana outplayed the US and deserved the win but that one player who suddenly got "cramps" was just pathetic.
Playing devil's advocate, any team in that situation would have done the same. Think about it...American football, a quarterback kneels to run the clock down to preserve a lead or a win. Same thing with basketball, run the 24 second clock to take time off. Maybe even baseball, intentional walk, to get to a player the pitcher can strike out. 😀
I got a feeling this post may be moved to off topic...
......
In European football, all you have to do is get a lead, flop around for 10 minutes, and you win. It's stupid. Why don't they just STOP THE CLOCK? Dude goes down injured...stop the clock. Ball goes out of bounds...stop the clock...etc, etc.
#2 - Allow rough play. (Tackling opposing player when they don't have the ball, aiming to ta
Two things I would change about soccer.
#1 - Stop the clock when the ball goes out of bounds or injuries.
#2 - Allow rough play. (Tackling opposing player when they don't have the ball, aiming to take the other player out of the game, tripping people, shoving people, etc)
My favorite player ever is Marco Materazzi, the way he plays is how the game should be played.
[YOUTUBE]VMqSysgrhzU[/YOUTUBE]
I think football/soccer is fine the way it is. Nothing needs changing.👍
The Ghana players should have been yellow carded for exaggerating/faking injuries and trying to waste time.
That's called rugby or American football. 😀 The only thing that would allow would let players who haven't got brain or skills to actually play the game destroy the game because they are big enough/fat enough. There are reasons I don't watch American football, where other than in a few professional games, everyone on the pitch combined displays intelligence approximately equal to or below that of my shoes. 😀 And the fact that is stops every five seconds, possibly because that's the limit of an average Joe's attention span. 😀
#2 - Allow rough play. (Tackling opposing player when they don't have the ball, aiming to take the other player out of the game, tripping people, shoving people, etc)
You need to add Ghana to the poll!
😳
, looks like the OP has been banned 😕OK I agree that Argentina shouldn't have gotten that 1st goal because Tevez was clearly offside. But hey, life ain't fair. Mexico should have kept their heads in the game because that 2nd goal was laughable.
Easier to say "keep your head in the game" than actually do it, especially when you're in that situation. Poor Mexico. Their anger at that first goal is just completely messing up their ability to play in the remainder.
See now they are totally screwing themselves. 3 goals in 50 mins? They gotta stay focused if they hope to make a comeback in this game (highly unlikely).
Yeah ... that last goal was pretty nice though. Argentina is owning.
That's called rugby or American football. 😀 The only thing that would allow would let players who haven't got brain or skills to actually play the game destroy the game because they are big enough/fat enough. There are reasons I don't watch American football, where other than in a few professional games, everyone on the pitch combined displays intelligence approximately equal to or below that of my shoes. 😀 And the fact that is stops every five seconds, possibly because that's the limit of an average Joe's attention span. 😀
There are reasons I don't watch American football, where other than in a few professional games, everyone on the pitch combined displays intelligence approximately equal to or below that of my shoes.
Agreed! It's fun to play it, but it's not fun to watch at all. Seems like a lot of standing around most of the game lol.There's no need for insulting the intelligence of either footballs. They both require different skills and thought processes...
Now baseball on the other hand ...
Just kidding. Kindof. But I could never understand someone who complained about how boring soccer is, and when asked what they DO like, they pipe, "Baseball!" I can ... vaguely understand how someone would find soccer boring. But I cannot for the life of me understand how someone who would find soccer boring actually find baseball interesting.
Well, as long as you can admit the truth, as hard as it is 😛Personally, I agree with you............. but I really don't like the Argentina coach. So I really DON'T want them to win............
High five. I cannot for the love of god figure out how anyone can find baseball interesting. Regardless of their attitude toward soccer.] But I cannot for the life of me understand how someone who would find soccer boring actually find baseball interesting.