Alright : A poll on the FIFA...who's gonna win !!!

It's turning into another invasion over here! 8)

I hope for Sweden to win against Paraguay today. This will be a must-win match because I think we will lose against England. It's hard to imagine T&T having a chance against England today.

Knowing my luck Kenwyne Jones will run the show :( (He plays for my local team, and unfortunately doesn't really do much there - he only ever seems to play decently on the international stage. Same as Anders Svensson really, although he's a step up - solid for us and better for his country :))

Am I the only one who has been impressed by Germany? Apart from two minor incidents in their defence in the first match their performance is way above what they are supposed to reach. TThe favourites haven't changed much, I'd now put my money on Italy, Brazil, Spain, Holland. Been a good cup for Holland so far. We won our first match, and all other Dutch trainers had great results. (Hiddink with Australia, Advocaat with Korea, Beenhakker with Trinidad&Tobago)

I can see Sweden win from England as England will be qualified after crushing T&T, so they'll want to preserve some energy for the next round. Which means that a draw could be enough for Sweden today, which will allow them to sit back and play the counter-foiotball they prefer to play.

Am I the only one who has been impressed by Germany?

I didnt see the first match but I wasnt as much impressed with Germany as I was disappointed by Poland yesterday. Its not hard to figure that when the ball is played on Polands half of the field almost 100% of the time (15 mins til the end of the game) that Germany will score. I was suprise how long it took them to score considering all the play was on Polands half.

Polands only chance to advance was in winning really. It makes no sense to play so much defense when you need the win. Nothing to lose by playing more aggressive. Even when they got the ball they would simply pass it to Germany's GK.

Geoo

Arjen, read back too my last post - I wasn't at all impressed with the Germans against Costa Rica, but they looked a LOT better last night...

Wasn't at all impressed with our lads today, squeaky bum time for a while but a couple of late goals and we're through to the next round....

I don't know about England taking it easy against Sweden though - the runner-up from that group will play the winner of Germany's group - and I think the way England play will be dictated by the result of the Germany v Ecuador match the previous night......

And of course it's nice to see the Liverpool players getting amongst the goals - Xabi Alonso for Spain, Crouch and Gerrard for England - had a real deja-vu flash back when Gerrard beat Shaka Hislop from outside the box in the last minute - cup final all over again!

And now the football's finished (well, England's match, anyway!) what am I doing? Watching England play Sri Lanks in a 20-20 cricket international........

can't see much guitar being played tonight.....

:D :D :D

Vic

Nice to see the new avatar C&S.co.uk. :lol:

Don't want to detract from T&Ts performance tonight, which was very creditable, but I wasn't overly impressed b Englands performance. We may be through to the next round but it's only going to get harder from here on in.

Doh!!! Sweden just scored. :cry:

Got to win Tuesday now.

Yeees! Finally Sweden managed to get a goal. I think they stepped up this time and they deserved it. Bring on England :P !

I only got to hear it (had to stay late at work), but from the sounds of it and the highlights they can count themselves lucky they've got Eriksson and not me - I'd have had the cat o' nines waiting for them at half time instead of oranges :lol:

So - Sweden won 1-0 - now it looks like England and Sweden have to tough it out to decide who avoids Germany in the 2nd round!

England v Sweden takes place the night after Germany v Ecuador - few permutations there! If Germany win, they win the group and face the runners up from our group - any other result, ecuador win the group.....

So do England want to face Germany or Ecuador in round 2?

And does a Swedish manager want to beat Sweden?

Ahhhh, decisions, decisions, decisions.....

I know if I was an Englishman (which I am) and I was the manager of Sweden, I'd do everything in my power to facilitate England's path.....I'd be an Englishman first, and Swedish manager second....let's just hope Sven Goran Erickssssssson doesn't think the same way!

it's hard to take seriously a maanager whose second name is pronounced "urine" - far too easy to take the p*ss!

:D :D :D

Vic

Aye, it's gonna be fun :mrgreen:

One thing though Vic: It's 4 matches per night for the last two games in each group, so those two matches are on the same day - next Tuesday. Germany play at 3pm and England at 8pm.

So England will have a few hours to decide on tactics for the Sweden match....they've had four years to prepare and still ain't got it right....

Ah well - I'm away for the weekend, be back in time for the match...catch up with you all on Monday!

:D :D :D

Vic

i gotta go with brazil on this, my brother in law is following the WC Religiously his picking argentina. according to him brazil doesn't look that good. i think they're just slow starters at this point.

i'm not really a football/soccer guy so excuse my ignorence but whats giong on with ronaldo ??
at one point he was the best player in the world not so?

Minus

Ronaldo looked a shadow of a man on the pitch in the first game. Something strange going on there. He didn't seem to have any appetite for the game at all.

Have to say your brother in law may well be right. Argentina are looking well up for it. Great game yesterday, although I missed the second half - had to go for my guitar lesson.

I picked Argentina and at the moment im the only one :lol: i think they will win it esecially after their performance so far and for any of you wondering i am English but i cant see us winning it and so far Argentina have played the best, i think brazil could have done better in their first game though, and portugal have also done well but i just can't see them winning it 8)