FIFA 2010 World Cup

Th3Branded0ne

I'll be back.
Once again for another World Cup. The drawing of groups was today and so this is how the groups are sorted out.


Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana,
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

[quote author=FIFA.com]While South Africans smiled upon learning that the host nation's Opening Match on 11 June would be played against Mexico at Soccer City, it was the outcome of Group D which caused the biggest stir. Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana will battle it out for the two qualifying places for the Round of 16, meaning that two nations with a proud footballing heritage will have to depart the tournament early.

[/quote]
 
Mexico 1 - South Africa 1.

Disappointing performance by Mexico. They had the ball throughout the first half and they just couldn't do anything with it. Good first half by Dos Santos, great pass by Guardado for the goal and what a cool headed finish by Marquez.

South Africa had a plan and they stuck with it. It almost payed off (luckily it didn't :carcus:) They scored a very good goal and they let one incredible chance go to waste near the end.

Let's see how France and Uruguay do later on today.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
I'll be watching just about every match, although half of the time it will be on mute. I simply can't stand those stupid vuvuzelas. If I wanted my eardrums to be assaulted by constant, annoying buzzing I'd go poke a beehive. When the stadium sounds exactly the same from kickoff, to throw-ins, to substitutions, to even goals, let alone after the final whistle, how exactly are you cheering for your team? Even when ESPN cut to their studio commentators, you could still hear the insufferable buzzing... My only solace was when Mexico scored, and there was very brief silence which almost sounded artificial in comparison to the rest of the match.

Anyway, good luck USA and go get 'em Denmark!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Have fun guys. Never cared much for football myself, but in Europe you can't really escape it during the bigger events. Guaranteed to be the topic of most conversations for a while over here.
 
I like soccer, but never have the patience to watch a full match. I'll probably see parts of the most important games and the finals.

Aazealh said:
Never cared much for football myself, but in Europe you can't really escape it during the bigger events.

When my country's team is playing, school's usually off and some work (such as any kind of work in the mayor's office for example) is put on hold until the game ends. I remember when I was a kid and tests or other important things had to be rescheduled because 90% of the kids were sure to skip school to watch a World Cup match. Good times!
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
The games so far have been pretty average, no real surprises either. Hopefully USA v England today livens things up a bit.
 
X

Xem

Guest
Scorpio said:
I'll be watching just about every match, although half of the time it will be on mute. I simply can't stand those stupid vuvuzelas. If I wanted my eardrums to be assaulted by constant, annoying buzzing I'd go poke a beehive. When the stadium sounds exactly the same from kickoff, to throw-ins, to substitutions, to even goals, let alone after the final whistle, how exactly are you cheering for your team? Even when ESPN cut to their studio commentators, you could still hear the insufferable buzzing... My only solace was when Mexico scored, and there was very brief silence which almost sounded artificial in comparison to the rest of the match.

Anyway, good luck USA and go get 'em Denmark!

Haha, I feel ya. Today was the first time I really watched a game and all I could think to say during it was "What the fuck is that noise?". That and I had to laugh/cry at how the English goalie let USA score. Poor guy, that was pretty humiliating.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
i loved how the announcers said it was just a training session for germany. i thought it was so delightfully insulting.
 
Do you saw Brasilia vs. North-Korea? Or better Peoples Republic. The one guy cried as the hymn was played! The game wasn't that interesting, but i hoped that korea would get an even.

Anyway, the games so far are played on a really "low" level, or rather really boring for the viewers.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
kaimera said:
Do you saw Brasilia vs. North-Korea? Or better Peoples Republic. The one guy cried as the hymn was played! The game wasn't that interesting, but i hoped that korea would get an even.

I saw parts of it. Was happy that the North Koreans weren't as thoroughly humiliated as I thought they'd be. Poor guys have a hard enough time as it is, same with all of their fellow countrymen. :sad:
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
I still haven't been very impressed with this tournament so far. I have some theories about how club football now being televised worldwide, meaning the best football is available almost all the time, has cheapened the world cup and that it is no longer a stage for introducing unknown foreign talent... but I guess the primary reason I'm seeing is that no one seems to want to win these games. Everyone is far too conservative. Only the teams hailing from Asia (not counting Germany and a Spain that couldn't quite find the net) seemed willing to put something into the attack, and what do you know, Japan and South Korea won their games and North Korea put up a great effort against a better team that finally started to find their form in the second half. Hopefully now that everyone has a game under their belt, they'll be more concerned with trying to get those all-important three points from their matches. And hopefully Denmark doesn't score an own goal and completely fall apart again.

Final rant- will the announcers please stop blaming the ball every single time a player shoots over the bar? Not to mention every time a player seems to get a shot on target it was "in spite of the ball." I've been watching this very carefully, and balls with topspin tend to arch down, and balls with backspin tend to soar up! Amazing! It must be the ball's fault when players strike the ball completely incorrectly, especially when having a go from range. The only time this ball acts funny is when it struck with no spin. Apparently, because it is closer to being perfectly round than previous balls the deformation when traveling through the air is more random, so without spin you don't know exactly how it's going to travel. All balls do this, though. Anyway, that's my final rant.
 
Yeah Scorpio, here in germany it is t he same. The Ball is soooo bad! And the only thing media could talk besides the ball is the vuvuzela. The media is annoying and i bet all i have that my government will push a damn shit load of new laws that are fucked up while everyone is drunken and watching world cup.
But Scorpio i disagree with you, Japan was awful. :mozgus: This is the land of Captain Tsubasa and the super kickers? South-Korea played really really good, but Japan should rot in the group stage. This match was unbearable. The rest of your rant is signed! ;)
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
kaimera said:
But Scorpio i disagree with you, Japan was awful. :mozgus:

That's the thing though, they were tireless and wanted to win. Even though Cameroon was heavily favored, even if they aren't a phenomenal team, Japan were industrious and outgoing enough to earn a goal and a win. That is a heck of a lot more than I can say for most of the teams I've seen out there.
 
The first two matches of the round of 16 are set:

Uruguay - South Korea
Argentina - Mexico

Argentina plays Mexico again in the round of 16 (they played in the 2006 World Cup) though it doesn't look like the game will be as even as it was four years ago.

The host failed to advance though they did say good bye with a win. Nigeria was also eliminated.

France is out and they were really bad overall, there really was no team and their internal problems didn't allow them to play. It was an embarrassing display and I hope they'll finally get rid of Domenech and the prima donnas that just don't bring anything positive to the team.

I'm looking forward to finding out the fate of the American and English teams tomorrow.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
England is also going through a lot of internal strife, spearheaded by John Terry proving once again that he is a terrible person. A lot of tension with group C tomorrow, should be fun to watch. I'm also very interested to see if Ghana can manage to progress... they're sitting pretty at the top of the table but they play Germany and the Serbs have only Australia to beat. The only African nation with the possibility of progressing. It would be important to them.

The day after that Denmark had better polish off Japan, but with the way they are playing I'm probably going to die of a heart attack before the match ends.
 
m said:
France is out and they were really bad overall, there really was no team and their internal problems didn't allow them to play.

It was really embarrassing when the French coach refused to shake South Africa's coach's hand. Apparently it was because the latter told the press Thierry Henry's goal shouldn't have counted on the eliminatories, the one he used his hand and all. He shouldn't have said anything, these things never matter once the game is over anyway. But not shaking the guy's hand on a global sports event and explaining to his goddamn face the reason, I thought that was pretty ridiculous. What is he, twelve?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
m said:
The first two matches of the round of 16 are set:

Uruguay - South Korea
Argentina - Mexico

I think Korea stands a good chance against Uruguay... It'd be awesome if they could reach the quarterfinals.

Scorpio said:
England is also going through a lot of internal strife, spearheaded by John Terry proving once again that he is a terrible person. A lot of tension with group C tomorrow, should be fun to watch. I'm also very interested to see if Ghana can manage to progress... they're sitting pretty at the top of the table but they play Germany and the Serbs have only Australia to beat. The only African nation with the possibility of progressing. It would be important to them.

The day after that Denmark had better polish off Japan, but with the way they are playing I'm probably going to die of a heart attack before the match ends.

European teams at large haven't performed very well this year. Even Spain's in danger if they fail against Chile...

Eluvei said:
It was really embarrassing when the French coach refused to shake South Africa's coach's hand. Apparently it was because the latter told the press Thierry Henry's goal shouldn't have counted on the eliminatories, the one he used his hand and all. He shouldn't have said anything, these things never matter once the game is over anyway. But not shaking the guy's hand on a global sports event and explaining to his goddamn face the reason, I thought that was pretty ridiculous. What is he, twelve?

Just so it's clear, Domenech's a retard and this behavior really is to be expected of him. The question you should be asking yourself is what isn't embarrassing about him. :ganishka: The guy's shameless too; had they not fired him he probably still wouldn't have resigned from his position regardless of the trainwreck. Utterly worthless, and so are the people who've kept him in place for so long. Not that the players themselves exhibited any good sense, mind you. I'm already sick of the whole deal and unfortunately it's going to last for weeks if not months here.
 

Th3Branded0ne

I'll be back.
USA's game today was surely dramatic, scoring at the end of it. They sure struggle against Algeria who also had their chances. Germany's game wasn't that good. So far there has been some bad calls by refs in almost any game, I hope they get better as the games get closer to the finals.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
Very pleased with the USA game. It was dramatic and tense, with a touch of skillful plays here and there- the perfect antidote for America's apathy with the sport. Very glad we won though, as if we lost I'm sure all the ground gained would have collapsed under our feet and America would be just as bitter and uncaring about soccer as ever. Now with their goals achieved, they continue on with the rest of the tournament heads held high, regardless of the outcomes.

Th3Branded0ne said:
So far there has been some bad calls by refs in almost any game, I hope they get better as the games get closer to the finals.

It's really tragic as the reffing in the first few days was absolutely top notch.
 
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