The 2010 South Africa World Cup thread

Originally posted by Hollywood49er:

Originally posted by 1251alex:
Its funny that you should mention who Chile and Mexico beat yet you have Germany and Spain there when Germany lost to Serbia by missing a penalty, not the red card and Spain lost their first match to Switzerland and beat a fairly weak Honduras. nice try. and like I said, its a response to the power rankings based on what the teams have shown, not who is most likely to win the world cup.

A full strength German team would beat Serbia. Ref handed out 9 cards that game.

Chile beat Honduras 1-0 and it was a close game (you were watching a different game than everyone else, and struggled to beat a weak Swiss team down 1-manstruggled? again, don't know what the hell you're watching. Spain will probably crush them the last game. there you go again giving big names respect they haven't earned

Mexico, tied a very weak SA teamtournament opener, most inspired match the host team could play, and beat a suspect France team, who has yet to score a goal.maybe so, but they played a really good game themselves

Spain Dominated Honduras.

Originally posted by Hollywood49er:

Originally posted by 1251alex:
Its funny that you should mention who Chile and Mexico beat yet you have Germany and Spain there when Germany lost to Serbia by missing a penalty, not the red card and Spain lost their first match to Switzerland and beat a fairly weak Honduras. nice try. and like I said, its a response to the power rankings based on what the teams have shown, not who is most likely to win the world cup.

A full strength German team would beat Serbia. Ref handed out 9 cards that game.

Chile beat Honduras 1-0 and it was a close game, and struggled to beat a weak Swiss team down 1-man. Spain will probably crush them the last game.

Mexico, tied a very weak SA team, and beat a suspect France team, who has yet to score a goal.

Spain Dominated Honduras.

Hey HWood, you're up in the All Time NFL Draft

Originally posted by vrabbit:

Originally posted by Hollywood49er:

Originally posted by 1251alex:

Originally posted by Hollywood49er:
Rabbit,
No way Mexico and Chile should be in top 5. Look at who they beat.
Mexico has 1 win vs a France team spiraling out of control.
Chile beat Honduras and a 10 Man Switzerland Squad.

England, Italy and Serbia are ranked too low, these teams win their last game and they are in the final 16. But you have them ranked lower than 16?

My top 5 would be

1. Brazil
2. Argentina
3. Netherlands
4. Spain (Too much talent not to make a deep run)
5. Germany (Lost to Serbia after red card)

im assuming that he is basing this off of what he has seen. Chile and Mexico have demonstrated some great soccer.This is a response to the power ranking, not who is most likely to advance and win the world cup.

Ok, I understand now. But Japan over Italy & England?

have Italy and England done? enlighten me please, you keep talking about European teams like you're just giving them the respect just because of who they are. You may not even think France is the worst team in this tournament the way your comments come out.

Japan = beat Cameroon with a really nice goal and played smart enough to win, gave Netherlands a run for their money in a 0-1 loss.

Italy = has started down 0-1 in both games and should have lost to New Zealand, to the Kiwis for crying out loud

England = has all the talent in the world but can't put it together, really look like they have little chemestry. Argelia outplayed them in their last game as far as I'm concerned, have given up the dumbest goal in the tournament by far!

If u knew anything about the italians u wud know that the historically slow starters. If you watched the last world cup italy would always win in ot after wearing their oppenent down with their d. Having said that they are without their two best players, buffon and pirlo. As for ur comment about the new zeland game well u clearly did not watch the game if u think they deserved to lose. First of all new zeland scored a goal while being offsides second of all italy dominated the whole game just couldn't put the ball in the net. New zeland only had two shots for g sakes! Now I'm not saying italy is a top five team but if you think that japan is better then them your just straight up delirous. Your basing your comment on japan beating cameroon is just laughable. Having said all this neither england nor italy have proven anything but I garuntee one if not both of them make it further than japan will.

Originally posted by vrabbit:
a few days ago alex link a bleacher report article ranking every team after their first game, I'm taking a shot at ranking them after two:

1. Brasil
2. Argentina
3. Chile
4. Netherlands
5. Mexico
6. Portugal
7. Uruguay
8. Paraguay
9. Germany
10. Spain
11. Ghana
12. Denmark
13. USA
14. Slovenia
15. Switzerland
16. Japan
17. Serbia
18. Italy
19. South Korea
20. New Zealand
21. England
22. Argelia
23. Greece
24. Slovakia
25. Ivory Coast
26. Australia
27. South Africa
28. Cameroon
29. North Korea
30. Nigeria
31. Honduras
32. France


thoughts?

1. Brasil
2. Argentina
3. Netherlands
4. Germany
5. Uruguay
6. Mexico
7. Chile
8. Portugal
9. Paraguay
10. Spain
11. Denmark
12. USA
13. Ghana
14. Switzerland
15. Slovenia
16. Serbia
17. Japan
18. Italy
19. South Korea
20. New Zealand
21. Algeria
22. England
23. North Korea
24. Greece
25. Slovakia
26. Ivory Coast
27. Australia
28. Nigeria
29. Cameroon
30. South Africa
31. Honduras
32. France


Here's my list, but granted I haven't seen every single match and missed the first half of a couple of the early ones.

I rank Germany higher and Chile lower than you do. Nothing against Chile, I like their style of play and hope they go far in the tournament, but I just wonder if all their attacking will be able to put up enough goals against teams with more firepower than Honduras and Switzerland. And Germany were flawless in their first game and somewhat ugly in the second but the ref really shifted that game away from them, so its hard to say with them.

I also really like Paraguay and want to rank them higher than Portugal but I can't convince myself that they're actually better. I'm also not sure about Denmark at 11 but I don't really know who to put above them.

some people(hollywood and that other defending italy) just dont get that its a power ranking based on what the teams have shown. f**king s**t, drill some screws into your brain if you cant understand that. Mexico tied against SA yes, but they dominated that whole f**king game, and against France they won with dominance. Yes France hasnt won and is a trainwreck, but on paper, that team is in the top 5. damn dudes. nobody is saying Italy sucks, in fact I think they will make it to at least quarter finals, but right now they havent won a match, so they dont deserve to crack the top 10. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Netherlands, Chile, and Mexico get my at this point. I like both Hessianduds and Vrabbits power rankings. good job guys on realizing this is a power ranking based on what teams have shown, not who is most likely to kill in the next round and win it.

Originally posted by 1251alex:
some people(hollywood and that other defending italy) just dont get that its a power ranking based on what the teams have shown. f**king s**t, drill some screws into your brain if you cant understand that. Mexico tied against SA yes, but they dominated that whole f**king game, and against France they won with dominance. Yes France hasnt won and is a trainwreck, but on paper, that team is in the top 5. damn dudes. nobody is saying Italy sucks, in fact I think they will make it to at least quarter finals, but right now they havent won a match, so they dont deserve to crack the top 10. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Netherlands, Chile, and Mexico get my at this point. I like both Hessianduds and Vrabbits power rankings. good job guys on realizing this is a power ranking based on what teams have shown, not who is most likely to kill in the next round and win it.

I really could give a valrod's turd that Italy starts off slow historically, yada yada yada I'm talking about what teams have shown me the 1st two games, that's all. ID brought up a good point in if France is the 32nd team then Mexico shouldn't be top 5, I had my doubts myself when I put them there, but I'm talking about watching these games and seeing the quality of play from these teams. Yes you can argue Honduras is the weakest team, and yes Chile only beat them 1-0, but 'La Roja' f**king dominated that whole game and Honduras' goalie (who may have the best save in the tournament so far) had an awesome game (kinda like Nigeria's Enyeama vs Argentina, or was anybody arguing about Argentina not impressing because they only beat Nigeria 1-0, uh, NO)

"so are you saying Italy hasn't looked good?" they have looked good more often than they have not, but they had no business virtually losing to NZ (again, dude dove in the box for a penalty) the NZ goal yes he was offsides but that play is a lot easier to miss (coming off a free kick, bunch of bodies in the box)

very valid points vrabbit. and heres to those who can comprehend what people are saying.

Excerpts

FIFA unfazed by criticism of refs

"We are very, very satisfied with the performance of the referees," Jose-Marcia Garcia-Aranda, head of refereeing for the sport's governing body, said Monday.

"In my opinion, the decision-making here has been pretty consistent and pretty accurate," said Howard Webb, one of the most respected refs in the game and a favorite to work the World Cup title game after officiating the Champions League final.

"The duty of the referees is not to explain their decision ... [but to] try to do their best on the field of play," Garcia-Aranda said. "[Otherwise] they are not focused on the game, they are focused on the media."

Video replay isn't an option so long as Sepp Blatter is FIFA president, and he's all but certain to be re-elected to a fourth four-year term next year. And the idea of adding an extra set of eyes behind each goal has been kicked into the long grass and not likely to resurface anytime soon.

--------------

Wow.

-9fA

As long as these old f**ks are at the head of FIFA things wont change. I f**king hate Sepp Blatter after the Henry ball that happened.

Can't wait for Argentina vs. Greece. I wonder who will Maradona rest. I fully expect Tevez to be rested, and won't be surprised to see Higuain on the bench also. Of course Heinze will be rested to avoid getting another yellow.

Originally posted by Hollywood49er:

Originally posted by 1251alex:
Its funny that you should mention who Chile and Mexico beat yet you have Germany and Spain there when Germany lost to Serbia by missing a penalty, not the red card and Spain lost their first match to Switzerland and beat a fairly weak Honduras. nice try. and like I said, its a response to the power rankings based on what the teams have shown, not who is most likely to win the world cup.

A full strength German team would beat Serbia. Ref handed out 9 cards that game.

Chile beat Honduras 1-0 and it was a close game, and struggled to beat a weak Swiss team down 1-man. Spain will probably crush them the last game.

Mexico, tied a very weak SA team, and beat a suspect France team, who has yet to score a goal.

Spain Dominated Honduras.

are you kidding me? did you even watch the game? the possession alone was 64-36 in that game, it was clear Chile was the dominating team the entire time. On the pitch, Chile dominated, they just dont have the experienced strikers like Villa to finish.

And we broke the record of the team who went the most minutes without allowing a goal in world cup history. I know they were at 10 men, but I'll still take it.

So many good teams are falling/tying mediocre teams, if you've won 2 games in this World Cup with the way it's going, you are a strong squad regardless of who you have played. Argentina and Netherlands IMO being the most impressive.

Holy s**t. I've been reading about some speculation on the French team collapse and its very interesting and they are saying its because of Frank Ribery and a couple of other guys kinda bullying the young midfielder gourcuff.

If its true, that is an epic fail for a coach and the team players. In all my years playing soccer i've been in teams were if someone got out of line or became a self fish player we would let him know and at times even had meetings discussing the problem.

is there any way to watch this on my ipod touch? i dont wanna subscribe to verizon vcast only for today and have to watch it on my blackberry...

Go south Korea!!!!!

Lets go South Africa