didn't get up in time to see the slovenia vs. algeria match. even though slovenia got the win, it seems like everything i've read makes it seem the match was a bit of a bore. anyone have any other thoughts on it?

blablablablablablabla

i wish every post had this amount of insight.

both teams came out flat, Super Nova proved despite his recent brace in a friendly, he isn't 100%.

few entertaining parts to the game included aa brain fart by Ghezzal good play by the algerean/rangers center back. Samuel-like chalanges from Suler, a brain fart by suler, and a green-esque goal let in by the algerian keeper

i aint even gonna lie i was in a t shirt walkin home in the rain like wtf dude ? and algeria lost too lol

Rain was bad up there too? I had to play football in it, not fun.

Although, I got to miss "Germany" winning, so I don't mind.

But Kurt, by your own preferred interpretation (you play for the country in which you were born), Aogo, Tasci, Khedira, Ozil, Boateng, and Gomez ARE German and should play for Germany.

Yeah. Where did I say they weren't German?

It's just very sad that of the 5 incidents in the game, 2 of the 4 goals were scored by a nation not even competing. 1 goal was scored by a nation that hasn't even played yet. The sending off was also to a player of a nation that didn't qualify.

And I disagree again with your interpretation of what constitutes nationality in terms of eligibility to represent a country in football competitions. But, well, that argument's been revisited at length recently so I'd prefer to drop it.

Fair enough.

It's certainly an area I would like England to exploit. I don't see why we don't just have a scouting network where we identify the best players in the World at the ages of 11-14, then basically make them and there family an offer to move to England and give them a fairly large amount of money on the agreement that they play for England if they make it to International level. By the ages of 16-19 they will be eligible to play for this country due to the amount of time they've been residents. I honestly have no idea why we haven't done it yet.

that was torturing to watch

What do you guys think of the vuvuzelas? Seems every casual fan in the US despises them so far, and fans are kind of split. I've found that they are tolerable on the Spanish broadcasts, which I prefer to watch anyways, but the ESPN broadcast has been awful with drowning the sound out. I don't even want to imagine what it sounds like on the pitch.

Y'know, servbot, I saw the early game today at a pub and didn't even really notice them until my friends asked 'wtf is that NOISE'. I tune 'em out. And so far have mostly been watching the games in Portuguese on ESPN Deportes where they're quite audible.

At the pub I didn't notice them either, because there's a lot of background noise in the building. But at home, they are loud and clear on the ESPN English version. I don't mind them terribly, but it seems like many people who were going to give the World Cup a chance are now tuning out because of them. And it has to be dreadful for the players trying to communicate over them.

I hate it so much....but I'm learning to tune it out!

In short, they're ruining the competition for me. I just don't enjoy watching the games. The noise is bad enough, but it's the fact they completely drown out any atmosphere that's the worst thing.

There aren't many things that've been good about this compeition yet. Probably only the officiating, surprisingly.

Italy's problem is Lippi, I think Prandelli will be the guy who finally changes this mantelity that older is better. Plus the Juve bias will finally be gone from the national team, it's shocking that in any lineup Lippi picks there are atleast 4 Juve players in it, especially when they were so cr@p this season, aside from Chellini and Buffon there shouldn't be any other Juve player in the starting line-up. Marchisio was good this season, but he's not been that convincing for Italy.

We'll see what Lippi picks tonight, what I'm scared of mostly is a Gila, Iaquinta, Quagliarella/Pepe attacking line, leaving out Di Natale and Pazzini in the process.

A discrage. I mean, they are really annoying.

Hopefully someone throws one on the pitch so they can be banned

any predictions for dutch and azzurri games?

i think 2-0 to holland
and 3-2 to italia

Sportmediaset says they'll be playing with Iaquinta, Pepe and Gilardino up front. If that's true, oh my god!!!

Sky tg24 just had the same starting attack on their story about the game.

I am a scared fish.

Wij houden van Oranje!!


Hup, Holland, Hup!!!

as long as they get banned... what if a country will complain officially about them? Then they would be banned they said, didn't they?


Dutch will win, though Denmark only team in their poule who could cause trouble IMO
Italy, ouch, I don't expect them to beat Paraguay tbh

Should we dip you in orange paint today, Jack?

Are the announcers saying Kjaer's name right? ( Zhar )

Not really, no. But they're not slaughtering it. In Danish it'd be 'kyair' (more or less).

What zeddie here said.

Oh My GOD!!!

Lippi has lost his mind!! Gila, Iaquinta, Pepe ie. Decent, Mediocre, and even more Mediocre????

Leaving out Serie A's top scorer to boot while playing a 4-3-3 which Di Natale is a shoe in for. I love the Azzurri too much but I would wish a first round exit if that weren't the case, just so Lippi's smug, Juve bias attitude can be shown the door even faster

They could play for days with those 3 upfront and still wouldn't score. Let's hope or a De Rossi long shot to save our @sses

Paraguay is a solid team, Italy better show up to play!

Italy should play upfront with Di Natale, Pazzini and... I have to say Iaquinta cause all the other choices suck.

Pazzini would be a good choice

First I was right that Van der Vaart, Sneijder, Kuijt and Van Persie will start, and then Fishdoll and I were right about liking Elia... cookies for Fish and me:

(see Huntelaar topic)

Good match, Eljero Elia.

The Netherlands 2-0 Denmark, full-time... own goal Agger (assist S.Poulsen), and re-bound Kuijt (assist Elia)
PS. Nigel de Jong lucky he didn't got send off in first half, discrageful !

COOKIE!

Only saw the first half and yeah, De Jong was naughty.

Oooh, you missed Elia.

First half was boring, the game was doll until Elia came in.
(Unfortunality he didn't score, but Kuijt had to do it via re-bound)

I'll see the second half when they replay the game tonight.

(ESPN Classic will replay the day's games starting at 6pm eastern).

Who do folks fancy for the Cameroon-Japan game?

Japan of course (but Cameroon will win I'd expect)

Cameroon or a draw most likely

I couldn't catch Holland-Denmark

Essie was too busy monopolizing your computer sending photos, wasn't he zeddie?

i woke up at 6:30 this morning to watch the Netherlands/Denmark game. i should've just slept the extra 2 hours.

of course though, as soon as I leave for work, the Netherlands scored their 2nd goal *sigh*

Sounds like Japan-Cameroon has been pretty dismal so far.

Iaquinta should go into the sucking category...

If Lippi wants to insist with the ridiculous 3 attacker system when he doesn't have the players for it then the third striker should be Gila with him and Pazzini taking up more traditional roles in the center and Di Natale drifting behind them, from left to right.

Until Pirlo returns that is, then it should be 4 mids and 2 strikers. With Pirlo playing in the hole behing the front 2 and Marchisio, De Rossi and Palombo/Montolivo behind

Japan - Cameroon is aweful, gave up on watching that in the first half

am i the only person getting sick of all the stupid slow motion replays every 10 minutes? it's getting extremely annoying. especially when they show a slow motion replay of the coach or of fans. we really don't need to see a fan jumping up and down in slow motion.

Talk to Fifa. They're doing all the camera work.

FFS, I can't wait for the knockouts, the group stage games have been horrible so far.

Im gonna pick Paraguay to give Italy a close call today....maybe even an upset. Hopefully Italy can prove me wrong!!

As an aside, good to see my Fantasy team performing so well...

I am not a hopeful fish today. But...we'll see.

I'm sharing the same feelings. Four year ago I was convinced Italy would win the World Cup, now I think that every decent side will beat them, MAYBE including Paraguay.