Well, the Dutch had the best record in qualifying, and haven’t started arguing amongst themselves yet like they normally do. Trust me, they are a good side.
The Italians are solid at the back and if a few things break right for them they may surprise.
I will answer on behalf of Phil and say that Australia will beat Japan, who (the fluke draw with Germany excepted) cannot score goals against half decent teams, and do not like physical teams - and as the Dutch will testify, Australia are very physical. They might also beat Croatia, if the manager persists in playing his Son - who is truly hopeless - in Central midfield. I notice the Serbian coach has jettisoned his son from the squad but suspect that the Croat coach is too pig headed to do the same.
Well, the Dutch had the best record in qualifying, and haven’t started arguing amongst themselves yet like they normally do. Trust me, they are a good side.
The Italians are solid at the back and if a few things break right for them they may surprise.
I will answer on behalf of Phil and say that Australia will beat Japan, who (the fluke draw with Germany excepted) cannot score goals against half decent teams, and do not like physical teams - and as the Dutch will testify, Australia are very physical. They might also beat Croatia, if the manager persists in playing his Son - who is truly hopeless - in Central midfield. I notice the Serbian coach has jettisoned his son from the squad but suspect that the Croat coach is too pig headed to do the same.
The Dutch taem is injured like crazy. VdV, Sneijder, and Cocu are all suspected to be hurt. Robben is acting like he doesn’t give a rats ass
So the Croatian kid sucks? The paper here was raving about him, but I was suspicious as he still plays in the Croatian league. Imagine pulling that nonsense at a World Cup. I saw Italy a fair bit in qualifying and was very unimpressed.
The Croatian Daddy’s boy is awful. I have seen him play in the flesh twice this year (albeit in friendlies) and it looks like a member of the public has wandered onto the pitch. He plays in his home league because he ain’t good enough to cut it abroad.
Well, we all know Brazil’s going to win, so for my actual prediction I’ll go with something random and silly (but not totally implausible) - Spain! Why not? I’d go with the Czechs if they weren’t in USA’s group.
The gamecast guy, who I am really appreciating right now, says that wanchope is underutilized because of poor rica midfield play. Seems a stud though. Damn I wish I was home watching this game.
Is there another discussion of this in gamechatter or something? Probably. If there is, I guess I’ll just go there, though it seems silly to have a gamechatter for the cup when we can’t even get one for regular baseball games half of the time.
rb, we’re doing it in here. I was going to create separate posts for each game, but sadly, I don’t think there’s enough interest.
Maybe for the knockout stages.
stupid commentators. the late 60s-early 70s polish team was considered one of the best ever, with 2 all time great players.
it was a disappointment they didn’t win
