Life In 19x19

I honestly don't care who wins. I just want GOOD games.

I think England or Holland will win the cup – they're strong this year! I really hope that Côte d'Ivoire will survive the group stage, because they do have some top players, but due to bad luck ended up in the strongest group again! And of course Germany absolutely has to reach at least the semifinals ... or I'll lose my 10€ bet against a friend of mine Also, I obviously want them to win, but I don't have much confidence in them

kirkmc wrote:I'm in France, where the national team looks like they won't make it past the first round

A remarkable prediction. It is a tough group, Mexico and Uruguay are decent teams (both in top 20), and the home ground advantage may help South Africa enough to overcome the fact that they're not really strong enough to be there, but France are still the dominant favourites to win the group. I will be astonished if they don't make it.

quantumf wrote:

kirkmc wrote:I'm in France, where the national team looks like they won't make it past the first round

A remarkable prediction. It is a tough group, Mexico and Uruguay are decent teams (both in top 20), and the home ground advantage may help South Africa enough to overcome the fact that they're not really strong enough to be there, but France are still the dominant favourites to win the group. I will be astonished if they don't make it.

They lost to China the other day...

Switzerland has won the U17 Worldcup last year, so they might be ready to win the Worldcup in 2014... I like very much the spanish team, they won against Poland two days ago with 6-0! I hope we will see many goals!

Jonas wrote:Here in germany soccer is THE sport - so ofc I'm going to watch
I think the USA - Soccer team isn't as bad as most of you think, I think we'll see some surprises.
My personal predition isnt completely ready yet, I'll think about it tomorrow.
But I think the german team is able to make it into the halffinal, even if many top players are dropping out because of injury

P.S.: Sol I really like your prediction *g

Yes, USA soccer is much improved over the past several years. However we are in group with England, who seems to be very good right now. Which means the most likely result is second in group C. And the most likely result of second in group C is a first round match against Germany, and a probable exit. But I guess you never know.

Jonas wrote:Here in germany soccer is THE sport - so ofc I'm going to watch
I think the USA - Soccer team isn't as bad as most of you think, I think we'll see some surprises.
My personal predition isnt completely ready yet, I'll think about it tomorrow.
But I think the german team is able to make it into the halffinal, even if many top players are dropping out because of injury

P.S.: Sol I really like your prediction *g

USA soccer might not be that bad, but I think they are really going to suffer over injuries. I don't think they are in their best form this year, even though they are getting better in terms of world level play.

I'll still be cheering them on. GO USA!

I do hope for some good games, though. We'll see how many I actually get to watch.

There is a rather interesting and lengthy article in the NY times magazine describing how the Dutch go about producing excellent soccer players, and what they do differently than the Americans. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magaz ... jax&st=cse I think it comes down to the idea that the Dutch take soccer talent seriously starting at an early age. Perhaps there's a lesson there to be learned for us go players. Or maybe we've already made up our mind.

Watched the SA - Mexico game thanks to ESPN3's online service. The first half was pretty dull (and it felt Mexico deserved better than 0-0 in this half) but the second half was very enjoyable (and it felt Mexico slipped up more often in this half and gave SA too many chances). Overall I also thought the game was very clean and it seemed both sides were amicable towards each other. I was also impressed by the SA's goalkeeper .

Mexico will rue the four clear chances they spurned in the first half. SA got back into the game in the 2nd half, and scored a cracking opening goal. However, after this, they lost their discipline, started getting cute, and gave away too much possession. The coach will have been doing his nut, considering how patient they were in first 2/3rds.

In the end tho, it was an appalling defensive blunder by the #4 that gave away the equalizer (the rest of the defence had moved up, playing offside, while #4 seemed to be on a different script), from a nothing position. A draw is probably a fair result, but South Africa really needed this win. Beating France or Uruguay is a really tall order (not that Mexico was easy).

Other comments: SA seemed really nervous, the crowd didn't really help them much in this game. The opening ceremony was really feeble, has their been a worse one in recent times?

Ah the delight of summer vacation...now watching France vs. Uruguay about to start; prediction: 2 - 0 in favor of Uruguay .

I will be cheering on the US team, but my friends want to watch the US games at a Minneapolis pub aptly named "Brit's."

If the US gets eliminated before the final then I would cheer for Germany, but after reading the article, a Dutch win would be exciting as well.

Araban wrote:Ah the delight of summer vacation...

Lucky guy!

Okay, france vs. uru is over for almost 2 hours and I'm still disappointed by their play
After Henry got in the game I thought france could do...

I really thought that the only reason for which one could stand a game of French team was that you were french (the same for Italy)