World Cup Discussion Thread

RichTea

falan wrote: »

Buddle is one to watch during this WC. Something like 9 goals in 5 games for galaxy...



Pretty gutted about Drogba. Was really looking forward to seeing him in this tournament. I wonder how Ivory coast will cope without their star player?

falan wrote: »

Yeah the U.S.A manager has a headache ahead of him. Who does he pick? Does he pick the regular first choice Altidore or the guy Buddle who seems to be on fire banging in another 2 goals against OZ..

Roll on Friday so the first game can kick off:)

His decision might be made already. Altidore may be out with an injury!

inforfun

FreeOSCAR wrote: »

Anybody else think that countries have been doing too many 'friendlies' over the past few weeks? No wonder all these injuries are occurring.

Robben is known to be injury prone regarding his hamstring and has just gone through a touch season with Munich....Surely he should have been wrapped in cotton wool until the WC starts.

Maradona got it spot on resting Messi in their friendly last week.

Robben was wrapped in cotton balls.
These were his first 45 minutes.
Since the Cl finale he has had a week rest. He was treated with extreme care after he had some minor problem with his hip. Skipped trainings.

The guy is just made of glass, not much you can do about that.

steelcityblues

From the AP:
"Fans stampede gates outside stadium"

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ik1hjYn9txBv0wqC2l0KTfmnT1lAD9G5QS9G3

jayteecork

Just realised North Korea and South korea cannot meet until the semi finals.

Since it's pretty impossible both of them will make it that far I wonder did they rig the draw? Rumour goes the european qualifying draw has been rigged for years to stop Greece and Turkey getting into the same group. Any truth to this?

steelcityblues

North and South Korea played each other in the Asian qualifiers, so I doubt they would rig them in the World Cup proper.

Greece and Turkey played each other not so long ago in EURO 2008 qualifiers too!

titan18

jayteecork wrote: »

Just realised North Korea and South korea cannot meet until the semi finals.

Since it's pretty impossible both of them will make it that far I wonder did they rig the draw? Rumour goes the european qualifying draw has been rigged for years to stop Greece and Turkey getting into the same group. Any truth to this?

I doubt it, in the last WC, Germany and Poland were together, same with Portugal and Angola, and Australia and Croatia.

jayteecork

titan18 wrote: »

and Australia and Croatia.

???

titan18

jayteecork wrote: »

???

Lots of people from Croatian and Serbian descent in Australia, plenty of players for Australia are of Croatian or Serbian descent.

Taken from Wiki

Australia has had a history of violence amongst different clubs, some motivated by ethnic rivalries. As most clubs in the National Soccer League, were founded on particular ethnic minorities, such as Greek and Croatian, it was not uncommon for violence to take place between fans of rival clubs. In 2001 following crowd violence at a home match against Perth Glory, Melbourne Knights were found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute. They were fined AUS$30,000 with a AUS$50,000 bond to pay should there be any further crowd violence, and were ordered to upgrade the safety of their stadium. Melbourne have large support from the local Croatian community, and the crowd violence was attributed to ethnic tensions and Balkan politics.[157]
In 2005 Sydney United were suspended for four matches and Bonnyrigg White Eagles matches were deferred pending an internal enquiry following violence at matches between the two clubs who both compete in the New South Wales Premier League. Sydney United are backed by the local Croatian community and Bonnyrigg are backed by their local Serbian community. Tension between the two communities resulted in flares, missiles and other objects being thrown at supporters.[158] To a degree, violent incodents still occur in the top flight of Australian football, mainly between sets of fans from Sydney and Melbourne, as the core of the active support of both teams is an amalgamation of various fans of the old ethinc clubs in the now defunct National Soccer League.

Headshot

some news

Drogba is back with the Ivory Coast squad, he still a doubt for the first game but Sven hopes Drogba will play a role in the group stages

Robbens injury is not as bad as first feared according to the Dutch FA, we'll know in the next 24 hours if Robben makes it or not

jayteecork

Robben would be a huge blow for the Dutch and for the neutrals. Great player.

Chardee MacDennis

anyone know if the england friendly is on tv today?

Headshot

BastardPrince wrote: »

anyone know if the england friendly is on tv today?

its on ssn

Headshot

Glen johnson ****s up again

SDTimeout

Neville for england!!

Degag

I'm pretty sure that in previous World Cups or Qualifying Stages, certain teams were kept apart in the draw. Remember reading it.

Kiwi_knock

I do not think Russia and Georgia can be in the same group in qualifying

Headshot

The referee who FIFA have picked to take charge of England's opening World Cup match against USA is a controversial Brazilian who has been dubbed "a crook and a scoundrel".

Carlos Simon was suspended by the Brazilian FA for the last six weeks of last season for "a repetition of mistakes".

It was the Palmeiras president who called him a crook before adding that he would "slap" Simon if he ever met him on the street.

Meanwhile, another Brazilian club - Flamengo - even sent FIFA a DVD of his gaffes to try and get him dropped from the tournament after he sent off one of their players for diving when replays showed a penalty should have been awarded.

They accompanied the DVD with a letter - written in English - which said: "The video shows the unambiguously inconsistent, unfair and inequitable technical performance of Mr Simon."

Despite the controversies, FIFA are clear admirers of the 44-year-old, with South Africa being the third successive occasion he has been selected to take part in the World Cup.

Simon has also refereed an England match before: he took charge of the country's opener against Sweden at the 2002 tournament in Japan.

However, Simon's record at the showpiece event is not without controversy; at the last World Cup in Germany he was criticised in some quarters for smiling as he sent off Sweden's Teddy Lucic during their game against the host nation.

Eurosport

got to love FIFA

Lukker-

I was dissappointed to see Tom Henning Overbo retire, he was a cert to go.

Peyton Manning

Gareth Barry says he's out of England's opener against USA this Saturday.

mike65

Headshot wrote: »

Glen johnson ****s up again

Didn't see it, but Guardian MbM reckoned that was a non peno.

noodler

I saw it, soft as you like.

Peyton Manning

Aye, there was the slightest of contact but your man took ages to go down, probably only when he saw the chance had gone.

Headshot

mike65 wrote: »

Didn't see it, but Guardian MbM reckoned that was a non peno.

oh wasnt a peno at all, where im saying Glen ****ed up was where he let the ball bounce instead of just clearing it

Mr Alan

glen johnson ****s up again? struggling to remember him putting a foot wrong ever for England.

Peyton Manning

Mr Alan wrote: »

glen johnson ****s up again? struggling to remember him putting a foot wrong ever for England.

Didn't he have a shocking game against Slovenia last year? He was at fault for their goal, the winger made a bit of an eejit out of him. The Slovenia manager even came out and said they had watched footage of Johnson and recognised there was loads of space behind him due to his bombing forward.

From The Guardian a few days later (talking about Capello)...

And on Saturday he learnt one or two useful things – notably about the defensive flaws of the flighty Glen Johnson

Headshot

Mr Alan wrote: »

glen johnson ****s up again? struggling to remember him putting a foot wrong ever for England.

ya hes been doing it regularly for england imo, great going forward but a liability in the defensive department

besides todays one he also didnt track his man for japans goal

Degag

Headshot wrote: »

got to love FIFA

To be fair, there isn't a referee on this planet who hasn't caused some bit of controversy.

Pepe LeFrits

Forgive me if it has already been posted, but I was wondering if anyone had details of the various elevations of the stadiums being used? I was able to get the elevations of most of the cities involved but some of them vary quite a lot internally. The altitude could be a key factor...

Le King

1. Durban Stadium - Durban - 69,957 - 0
   
2. Ellis Park Stadium -Johannesburg - 61,639- 5,751 feet
   
3. Free State Stadium - Mangaung/Bloemfontein - 45,058 - 4,593 feet
   
4. Green Point Stadium - Cape Town - 66,005 -0
   
5. Loftus Versfeld Stadium - Tshwane/Pretoria - 49,365 - 3,983 feet
   
6. Mbombela Stadium - Nelspruit - 43,589 - 2,165 feet
   
7. Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium - Port Elizabeth - 46,082 - 0
   
8. Peter Mokaba Stadium - Polokwane - 45,264 - 4,298 feet
   
9. Royal Bafokeng Stadiuim - Rustenburg - 44,530 - 4,921 feet
   
10. Soccer City - Johannesburg - 88,460 - 5,751 feet

Degag

Nani out of the World Cup with a shoulder injury. Doubt for the start of the season also.

Boskowski

All different this time. At least it won't get boring with us - which has become some sort of stereotype with regards to German international sides. That's something to look forward to.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/08/germany-world-cup-2010-tactics/

Germany more aesthetically-pleasing than usual
June 8, 2010

Germany's possible line-up

“They haven’t got any great players, but you can never write them off” is the usual line about Germany. In 2010, that old cliche might not be appropriate.

Not because you can write them off, but because Germany actually have a rather talented first XI. Worldwide superstars won’t be found in this side, especially with the loss of captain Michael Ballack, but in Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira they have some technically superb youngsters that have made a real impact in the Bundesliga – and are exactly the sort of players that often emerge from nowhere to take the tournament by storm.

The loss of Ballack is a big blow. 42 goals in 98 games is an incredible record for a midfield player, and he has rescued Germany so many times throughout the past decade. Today, he plays a deeper, more reserved role in the centre of midfield. He would have partnered Bastian Schweinsteiger, another who has moved back into a deep central midfield position recently. Instead, Ballack’s place will probably go to Sami Khedira, a talented, tactically astute player who has been virtually assured of his place in the first XI by Joachim Low. Schweinsteiger has been used to playing alongside a more dominant, experienced player in his new role (Ballack for Germany and Mark van Bommel for Bayern) and will have to step up and start to really dictate games.

Those two will play ahead of a defence that still has question marks about personnel. The one definite is that it will be based around the towering, 6′6 Per Mertesacker. His likely partner is Arne Friedrich, a less dominant figure, but decent enough, and good on the ball. Philip Lahm, the captain, could start on the right or the left – if it’s the former, Jerome Boateng will start at right-back, if it is the latter then Holger Badstuber is the favourite for left-back.

It seems slightly strange that Lahm, the closest thing Germany have to an established world class player, is unsure of his position, especially when his attacking tendencies when compared to his full-back colleagues will play an important role in how the rest of the team operates. It was Lahm and Bastuber for the final friendly against Bosnia, which worked quite well, so that seems the most likely combination for the opening game against Australia.

This screenshot shows the basic shape of Germany - a standard 4-2-3-1. The central defenders (pink) and full-backs (blue) take up standard positions, whilst the two central midfielders (yellow) play on the same axis. Further forward, Ozil (in red) looks to play between the opposition lines of midfield and attack, and plays slightly ahead of the two wingers (in green).

The band of three attackers will feature Mesut Ozil as the playmaker. Ozil is rumoured to be Arsenal’s first choice if Cesc Fabregas leaves the club this summer, and Fabregas is probably a good comparison for those uninitiated - he is a creative player but also a busy one who goes looking for the ball when it isn’t coming his way.

Rafael Honegstein wrote a gushing report on him earlier this season, saying, “Özil’s status (is) the best player in the league at the moment, a one-man source of creativity and surprise. Operating behind the strikers, he’s both a playmaker and an auxiliary winger; his intelligent runs provide the width that should be missing in Thomas Schaaf’s diamond formation. And his passing couldn’t be finer if he was folding kings against aces, every single time. The European Under-21 winner who destroyed England in the final has been working hard in the gym, too: a couple of extra kilos of abdominal muscle have given him more balance.”

When Germany do not have the ball, the wingers (green) have a responsibility to form two banks of four with the central midfielders (yellow). Ozil (red) plays higher up the pitch.

On the right wing will be Toni Kroos a (20-year-old who threatened to help take the title to Leverkuen this season, despite being owned by Bayern), Thomas Muller, Bayern’s hard-working, versatile forward or Piotr Trochowski, the Hambug winger. Muller may have the edge as he is superior defensively.

None of those three prefer the right, but are forced into that position because Low likes Lukas Podolski to fill the left-wing position. Whilst Podolski’s club career seems to have stalled, he has a quite incredible international scoring record of 38 goals from 72 games – at the age of just 24. It’s no wonder Low has such faith in him.

A similar thing could be observed of Miroslav Klose, who will play as the lone striker. His record of 48 goals in 95 games more than makes up for his underwhelming bench-warming 2009/10 campaign, and he is of course a World Cup specialist – the only man to score 5+ goals at consecutive World Cups.

Podolski and Klose need to start well, however, because they have Brazilian-born Cacau and yet another youngster, Marko Marin, ready to step in.

Ozil looks to drive at the opposition defence with direct runs. Klose (purple) looks to draw defenders away, whilst the two wingers stay wide and look to collect balls played between centre-back and full-back.

The 4-2-3-1 is a fairly structured one – it is more a Benitez-esque 4-2-3-1 than say, the fluid 4-2-3-1 favoured by Germany’s great rivals, the Netherlands. The wide midfielders are expected to get back and form two banks of four – Podolski is not particularly good at this, whilst Muller would be more disciplined on the right.

Ozil is given less defensive responsibility than the wingers, although he is capable of picking up an opposition holding midfielder. Schweinsteiger and Khedira will probably dovetail in midfield – both are capable of getting forward and creating.

Conclusion

Germany are depending on some talented youngsters who have little international experience and are completely unused to playing with each other. The most established partnership in the side is Klose-Podolski, and yet those two are hardly playing with confidence at the moment. Schweinsteiger is playing in what is still a relatively new role, Kroos, Khedira and Ozil all have under ten caps, and the defence is far from settled.

So whereas we’re used to German sides being experienced, boring, and effective, we are now faced with one that is young, exciting and unpredictable. Atypical Germans.

FatherTed

RichTea wrote: »

His decision might be made already. Altidore may be out with an injury!

Altidore is back training and will probably play on Saturday. I think Bradley will play Altidore and Buddle up top with Dempsey-Bradley-Edu-Donovan in midfield.

The career of Buddle is a strange one. He had always shown flashes of breaking out, one good game but followed by three bad ones. I played for my local team, the NY Red Bulls a few years ago, started out great but suddenly had a loss of form and has been going around different teams in MLS ever since but has settled now in LA. He's also a local lad from Port Chester not far from me so I'm hoping he'll do well. Named after Pele (Edson).

Le King

Hey Boskowski, what do you make of Ozil?

From what I seen of him he looks very promising.

I don't usually go and jump ahead to over-rate players but, continuing with his development over the years, I think he looks a fine talent and could be a great player. Although haven't see much of him this year at Bremen. How has he done?

How is he viewed in Germany?

He seems very under-rated tbh.

Boskowski

Osu wrote: »

Hey Boskowski, what do you make of Ozil?

From what I seen of him he looks very promising.

I don't usually go and jump ahead to over-rate players but, continuing with his development over the years, I think he looks a fine talent and could be a great player. Although haven't see much of him this year at Bremen. How has he done?

How is he viewed in Germany?

He seems very under-rated tbh.

Hey Osu,

He is easily our biggest talent with a lot of pace, great ability and creativity and 'pull' towards goal and he is showing confidence in his abilities. I expect him to become a regular for Germany with a great future at international and club level. Sometimes he reminds me a little of the young Ballack but with more skills.

He looked for a little while during the 2008/2009 season as if he was going to take Europe by storm - join the ranks of the young European super talents - but that didn't manifest itself just yet. He appeared to have a quieter season in 09/10 than the year before although his club statistics say the opposite.

I'd say it's just that every time someone stands out - for instance like Özil did at the U21 EC in 09 - the footie media immediately tries to create a monster hype and starts looking for the new Pele or something. Then if someone isn't the new Pele, "merely" has 31 league appearances with 9 goals at the age of 20 it almost seems like a "quiet year".

But like I said he had 31 league appearances with 9 goals for Bremen - he played in the European cup and scored twice and he is Bremens best player at the moment. He is still very young man at 21.

He could be one of those players raising eyebrows during this tournament. He could be one of the emerging new superstars actually. Let's wait and see. I'm sure quite a few managers from the European top sides have his name in their notebook.

As with regards to underrated... All German players are. It's almost a cultural thing. German players aren't rated in the English speaking world and vice versa. It's almost like a parallel universe.

Le King

Boskowski wrote: »

Hey Osu,

He is easily our biggest talent with a lot of pace, great ability and creativity and 'pull' towards goal and he is showing confidence in his abilities. I expect him to become a regular for Germany with a great future at international and club level. Sometimes he reminds me a little of the young Ballack but with more skills.

He looked for a little while during the 2008/2009 season as if he was going to take Europe by storm - join the ranks of the young European super talents - but that didn't manifest itself just yet. He appeared to have a quieter season in 09/10 than the year before although his club statistics say the opposite.

I'd say it's just that every time someone stands out - for instance like Özil did at the U21 EC in 09 - the footie media immediately tries to create a monster hype and starts looking for the new Pele or something. Then if someone isn't the new Pele, "merely" has 31 league appearances with 9 goals at the age of 20 it almost seems like a "quiet year".

But like I said he had 31 league appearances with 9 goals for Bremen - he played in the European cup and scored twice and he is Bremens best player at the moment. He is still very young man at 21.

He could be one of those players raising eyebrows during this tournament. He could be one of the emerging new superstars actually. Let's wait and see. I'm sure quite a few managers from the European top sides have his name in their notebook.

As with regards to underrated... All German players are. It's almost a cultural thing. German players aren't rated in the English speaking world and vice versa. It's almost like a parallel universe.

Thanks, I just think he looks a good talent. Hopefully I'll see more of him with Bremen next year.

I hope he has a good tournament.

And I agree that under-rating German players is cultural.

Germany, hopefully, will do well. I'd like to see them do it for Robert Enke.

Dont be at yourself

The Guardian has a good write-up on Khedira too. There seems to a be a lot of promise in the German team - wonder if they can get it together at just the right time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/jun/08/fans-network-germany-world-cup/

mike65

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Forgive me if it has already been posted, but I was wondering if anyone had details of the various elevations of the stadiums being used? I was able to get the elevations of most of the cities involved but some of them vary quite a lot internally. The altitude could be a key factor...

Osu wrote: »

1. Durban Stadium - Durban - 69,957 - 0
   
2. Ellis Park Stadium -Johannesburg - 61,639- 5,751 feet
   
3. Free State Stadium - Mangaung/Bloemfontein - 45,058 - 4,593 feet
   
4. Green Point Stadium - Cape Town - 66,005 -0
   
5. Loftus Versfeld Stadium - Tshwane/Pretoria - 49,365 - 3,983 feet
   
6. Mbombela Stadium - Nelspruit - 43,589 - 2,165 feet
   
7. Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium - Port Elizabeth - 46,082 - 0
   
8. Peter Mokaba Stadium - Polokwane - 45,264 - 4,298 feet
   
9. Royal Bafokeng Stadiuim - Rustenburg - 44,530 - 4,921 feet
   
10. Soccer City - Johannesburg - 88,460 - 5,751 feet

Apparently in Durban it was well in the 20s yesterday but up in places like Bloemfontein and Pretoria for the night games it could well be only 10C with thin air and very low humidity. It would be a pity if the atmospherics were as important as the talent.

gosplan

Somebody pointed out to me today that it's always the big team with the most in-form attacking full backs that wins the thing. The idea being that to break down a good defence, you need threats coming from different areas of the pitch.

Anyway, it seems to hold up. Last time, Zambrotta and Grosso were crucial for Italy. Before it was Cafu and Carlos for Brazil and so on. Before that Lizarazu and Thuram for France. (Ok so Thuram wasn't the most attacking)

So this year it should be Brazil right? Maicon and Alves?

Well done to Diego for the four centre backs thing - clearly the man doesn't have a clue:D

pickarooney

England are in with a shout then.

gosplan

pickarooney wrote: »

England are in with a shout then.

gosplan wrote: »

it's always the big team with the most in-form attacking full backs that wins the thing

No

Kiwi_knock

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5i61i4W1jhNS1InhnE5Re_SERpGuA

Saw this on Sky Sports News yesterday. Any other pundit you would think what an idiot but anything Kamara does is hilarious. I wonder if the name change will have a positive impact and if it does, he deserves a knighthood

Degag

gosplan wrote: »

So this year it should be Brazil right? Maicon and Alves?

Well done to Diego for the four centre backs thing - clearly the man doesn't have a clue:D

Maicon and Bastos i think. Alves 2nd choice right back apparently.

Ian_K

Degag wrote: »

Maicon and Bastos i think. Alves 2nd choice right back apparently.

And rightly so!

Pro. F

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5i61i4W1jhNS1InhnE5Re_SERpGuA

Worst. Scientists. Ever.

ForeverYoung90

Really looking forward to Fridays opener now it just cant come soon enough!I put some money on Brazil so they will be my adopted team for the month!:)
Im just curious about what coverage yer all watching rte/bbc/itv?Personally I only have rte so Im stuck with Johnny Giles(which isnt a bad thing really;))although some of the commentators can get on my nerves eg.Darragh Maloney:mad:

everdead.ie

It cuts deep not being there but I really hope for a lot of high quality attacking football that said I expect the defensive teams to do very well unfortunately

Boskowski

Who do you expect to be defensive? Prime candidate Italy I guess?

Peyton Manning

Boskowski wrote: »

Who do you expect to be defensive? Prime candidate Italy I guess?

Italy experimented with a 4-1-2-3 (that's what I label it anyway, also know as a 4-3-3, or a 4-1-2-1-2) against Mexico and it was abysmal. I expect them to go back to what they know best (which they did in the 2nd half of that game actually). Not wise to experiment now so close to the WC.

Frisbee

Boskowski wrote: »

Who do you expect to be defensive? Prime candidate Italy I guess?

The North Korea coach came out and basically said the other day that they won't be looking to cross the halfway line.

pickarooney

Any chance of a last-minute World Cup subforum? It could be a bit chaotic tryig to find anything over the next month.