Haha, since I dont know anything about Hockey, here is the real game option to the hockey thread.

The World Cup is being played this month. What are your favorite teams?

I´d like to see a final with Spain vs. Argentina. Spain to win its first worldcup ever.

Since I know this is mostly Americans in these boards (actually, I myself am American living abroad), here is some info for you: The USA is giving a big surprise, it beat Portugal 3-2, and tomorrow they play against Corea. Wining they qualify for next round, and they might qualify anyway! wow

FIFA World Cup webpage

yay capitalism!

Well no team from Europe has ever won the World Cup outside of Europe - still there has to be a first time for everything.

Whilst it would be nice to see our boys (England) in the final, I somehow doubt it - we were dreadful against Sweden, but played better against Argentina. A potential bananaskin on Wednesday against Nigeria.

It is weird see people queing to get into a pub at 10am on a Sunday morning - in fact Sunday before last the roads were quite busy at 9.30am - usually they are quiet.

Been a few shocks already - with France (reigning champions) possibly about to go out in the groups stages.

The BBC have a very good World Cup site if anyone is interested at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/default.stm

If you want to waste a few hours playing a game try http://www.bbc.co.uk//scotland/sportscotland/nottheworldcup/flash/play.shtml

Or If you want to hear some great footballing expressions in Japanese try http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/nottheworldcup/lingo/section2.shtml

Regards,

Ian

Has any team in the American continent ever won in Europe? Not that I know, but anyway, even if they once did, they never do. Same the other way around.

Its the first time the world cup is outside Europe or America, so that history of each continent winning its cup is no longer applied (I doubt Japan or Corea will get to the finals, haha!). Its the year for braking history, go Spain! Go!

Nobody out in the streets & no cars when Spain plays. During the games of Spain, Spain is paralyzed, if you didnt know Spain is playing, you would think there is a threat of a nuclear bomb and everyone is hidding at home. There again, you´ll see lots of action when you get near a bar with TV.

Writes MTO:

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Haha, since I dont know anything about Hockey, here is the real game option to the hockey thread.

The World Cup is being played this month. What are your favorite teams?

I´d like to see a final with Spain vs. Argentina. Spain to win its first worldcup ever.

Since I know this is mostly Americans in these boards (actually, I myself am American living abroad), here is some info for you: The USA is giving a big surprise, it beat Portugal 3-2, and tomorrow they play against Corea. Wining they qualify for next round, and they might qualify anyway! wow

FIFA World Cup webpage

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Well, Argentina won't be there for sure

Shame

Haha, no!
What a world cup! Full of surprises. France is out, Argentina is out, Portugal is out, and other big teams. On the other side, Corea is classified for next round, Japan is, USA is... want more surprises?

Tomorrow Spain plays, I want no surprise there. Hope Spain wins, not just this game, but the world cup.

Time to change my picture

Bring on Brazil!

Ian.

Woaaah! Spain suffered today, but it won!
Aaaaaaah, my blood pressure must be really high now... and Im young!

I love this game! Go! Go! Goooooooooooool!!!!!

But did Spain deserve it?

I thought Ireland should have won it in the golden goal period.

Still all the best for the next round.

Ian.

Haha! Yes it deserved it!

Ireland played with advantage of number of players in the golden goal period, and as such it had its chances in the first half. Then the second half Spain dominated even though it was in inferiority of number of players, having its chances as well.

At the end, the logical thing happened, Spain won. This is Spains world cup, watch and see.

Excellent result against Mexico today.

The whole of England will be behind you in your game against Germany - we beat them 5 - 1 recently, so you are certainly in with a chance.

Ian.

It's going to be an interesting game, that's for sure!! If I were still living in Germany, all of my friends there would give me a very hard week! But, boy, would it be nice to call 'em all up after a Friday win just to say, "Hi! How're you doing?"

Yes - but will you be sober enough to call them if you win

Ian

Incredibly good question!! Only time will tell!

I have been watching what I can when I get home late... does the U.S. actually have a chance against Germany? I have been reading varying guesses

In theory, no, the US doesnt have a chance against Germany.
Germany is technically superior to the US by far, with much more experience.

But hey! Its a game, and you always have a chance... just like a while ago Corea kicked Italy out of the world cup. The two teams could easily be equivalent to a USA-Germany. Now it will be the job of Spain to put Corea out of the world cup... I hope, haha!

On Germany´s side: everything is in their favor.
On the side of USA: Too much confidence on Germany´s behalf. Obvioussly Germany is expected to win, too much trust of the Germans, in their victory can be a big danger... just tell Italy, France, Argentina and Portugal...

Japan lost it was the only match I've watched for this years world cup, for some reason I wanted to see the home team make it to the finals . I'll have to record the usa vs Germany though

well.. The USA is now out. They had couple of chances but nothing went in.

better luck next time, I suppose...

Oh well, they did much better than anyone expected them to. That's always a good thing!

Yes, they did much better than expected. Just in last world cup they were last (the worst), so everybody is really impressed with the USA this year. And they played great against Germany, just that Germans have more experience and knew what to do... OK, and a penalty that the referee didnt see, good the USA is not Italy and I dont think they will campaign against the referee. They can leave with their heads up.

Sorry for England, didnt want Brazillians to get this far. A Spain vs. England final would have been better than a Spain vs. Brazil, but thats life.

Tomorrow... Spain vs. Corea. Im only sorry about silencing the thousands of corean voices in the stadium. Ahm... Spain will play without Raul (injured, and probably the best player in the world), but it still should win. It will!

good luck

Well, Im really pissed out today.

Once again referee decisions helped Korea pass into next round. Though I criticized Italy for campaigning against the referee, its true they were kicked out as well by FIFAs hand picked referees. Why arent the best referees of the world in this Korean world cup? Its not in the economic interests of FIFA.

Though the Korean team is far inferior than most of the participating teams, I wont be surprised at all in seeing them at the final. Sucks!