Who will win the world cup?

[james1985]

Obviously I'm biased, but I have to say England, just look at our world-class players: A Cole, Terry, Neville, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, Owen and Rooney.

Any team with 8 world-class players is going to do well.

Obviously Brazil, Argentina and Italy will also be up there. The Dutch and the Germans also dark horses.


What do you US guys think of football? Anyone take an interest in the US team or the World Cup?

Anyone watch the English Premiership?

[2 of 3]

Unfortunately, Canada didn't qualify, so since I have family in the UK, I have to tip my cap them. Plus they have good beer.

[Paperback Writer]

I keep an eye on it, James, and really plan to utilize this World Cup as an opportunity to learn more. So, your observations and this thread will greatly help! I'm up on all the main sports here, but there has always been a "put-down" element here towards soccer. Just when progress is made, it seems the "push-back" increases.
In fact some dweebs "stchick" is around a theme of putting it down.

[EddieV]

As usual Brazil is the favourite, but maybe Spain and perhaps England??

Looking forward to watch some of the new exiting nations.

[james1985]

Me very excited now...shame i have exams in a few weeks

[EddieV]

In a way I would like England to win, just for a change.

[james1985]

Less than a week to go!

England V Jamaica today.


Rooney looks like he's on the mend!

[kylestyle]

NEW ZEALAND WILL WIN!!!!!!

Muahahah...

...nah seriously, I am supporting England. I hope Rooney will eventually be fine.

On another note, New Zealand's "All Whites" will be playing Brazil on Monday, as part of Brazil's warmup campaign. What a cool moment for our guys. Soccer is so badly-supported in NZ, especially by the media as all they care about is rugby, rugby, rugby. A lot of kids play soccer but there's zero representation and nurturing at higher levels. It's all rugby.. ah well I will be watching the World Cup with huge interest nevertheless - I'm a soccer fan at heart.

[kylestyle]

Well New Zealand lost to Brazil 4-0, but it wasn't all bad. The score was 0-0 until just before halftime when Ronaldo scored. NZ also had scoring chances at the beginning and end of the game. It was only 2-0 until the last 5 minutes of the game when a couple of late goals ruined the scoreline and didn't reflect the true nature of the game, where Brazil actually fielded their best team and NZ were able to both defend and attack successfully AND earn the respect of the Brazilians.

This will get the Brazilians thinking... how will they handle Australia? As we have a similar playing style to the Australians and we also beat them a couple of years ago, it provides a testing buildup for Brazil as the World Cup begins this week.

But it was a good week for New Zealand soccer, as we also had our first win on European soil, beating Georgia 3-1, drawing 1-1 with Estonia, but losing 0-2 to Hungary.

[maccastheman]

"Soccer is like the metric system of sports" - Stephen Colbert

His "Word" segement last night had me falling out of my chair laughing. He said that studies show that soccer is becoming more and more popular in the U.S. - and the simple explaination is this: immigration.

"So what we need to do is go to Best Buy, find people there that are watching the World Cup on plasma t.v. sets, arrest them, then deport them."

Funny stuff.