Association football (soccer)

The World Cup qualifiers are finally over almost three years after they started. All the teams are finally set and now we play the waiting game until Dec 4, 2009 when we find out who's facing who at the finals. After that it's done, we play the same game again until June 11, 2010.

List of qualified teams:

AFC:
Australia
Korea Republic
Japan
Korea DPR

CAF:
South Africa
Cameroon
Nigeria
Algeria
Ghana
Cote D'Ivoire

CONCACAF:
USA
Mexico
Honduras

CONMEBOL:
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Argentina
Uruguay

OFC:
New Zealand

UEFA:
Denmark
Switzerland
Slovakia
Germany
Spain
England
Serbia
Italy
Netherlands
Greece
Slovenia
Portugal
France

I agree. I feel bad for every Irish fan in the world. Complete robbery.





:/

Good to see this still going. On the subject of that France - Ireland game, can anyone see the reason for continuing to deny football a video referee? There may well be costs and some difficulty in deciding when and where it can be used, but I refuse to believe that it can't be added without sacrificing the pace of the game. There are plenty of quick games which use it - why not let the referee choose to use it when the ball goes out of play, and pause the clock for the duration?

2010 World Cup Groups:

A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
C: England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia
D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

Thoughs:

A: South Africa is royally fucked. I guess we won't be seeing the host advance to the 2nd round for the first time.
B: Easy draw for Argentina.
C: Good draw for the USA and England. Two beatable teams + match-up between them looks awesome.
D: Tough looking group. Australia is fucked.
E: The most balanced group. Everyone has a chance of beating each other.
F: What a joke!
G: GROUP OF DEATH! RIP North Korea.
H: Sweet group. I expect a lot of attacking football from this one.

My Thoughts:

A: France are definately the winners here and as for second place it could be either Uruguay or South Africa... Or Mexico! *Lol... Im just messing with ya* (France and Uruguay)
B: Easy draw for Argentina. I agree with this statement but second place is EXTREMELY tight. (Argentina and Nigeria)
C: England definately the winners of this group but... *Chanting* USA! USA! USA! Algeria and Slovenia LMFAO. :D (England and USA)
D: Easy for Germany! Serbia are supposed to be Hard~As~Fucking~Nails (Im shivering in my boots) I think Australia go through. (Germany and Australia)
E: Group of DEATH!! Everybody in this group has a chance of qualifying. Japan *Stifled laughter* has a chance. (Holland and Denmark)
F: Italy might win it! (All) and New Zealand players get a nice short holiday. (Italy and Paraguay)
G: Brazil are the "best in the world" *'Nuff said* Portugal and Ivory Coast are flakey so Ill be cheering on the tough North Korean team! :) Portugal will probably get second though. (Brazil and Portugal)
H: Spain and who cares the rest in this group suck! (Spain and Chile)

A: Mexico is a hard to predict. Sometimes they do very good (2002) and sometimes they manage to stink up the joint against easy opposition (2006). I see them taking second place (first if France decides to suck)

B: If the good Nigeria shows up, I could see them taking first place. Argentina is underachieving a lot under Maradona. Greece is probably gonna put 9 men in front of the net and wait for a counterattack like they always do. I feel that their games are gonna be boring as hell.

D: That grouo is gonna be a battle... literally. Australia, Serbia, and Ghana are very physical sides. As good as the Germans are, they really can't take this group lightly. All of this sides could upset them.

E: Japan is probably gonna give them a close match but I really don't see them winning any games. Cameroon and Denmark will compete for the second spot.

F: I really hate how Italy always get easy groups.

H: I somewhat expect this group to be a lot closer than everyone predicts. I see Spain taking it but they're not gonna blow the opposition away.

Also, can anyone imagine a Brazil/Spain match in the second round? That would be awesome!

Don't be so sure about the group G outcome is all I'll say. Portugal have been largely poor, and Brazil aren't nearly as strong an outfit as people assume; I'd say they have four or five real world class players (Kaka, Elano, Alves, Maicon, Cesar), but a bunch of forwards who don't score anywhere near enough. Then you look at the Ivory Coast with a decent squad all-told - the Toure brothers, Zokora, Drogba (who has been in fantastic form), Kalou, Eboue, Romaric...North Korea aren't terrible either, they'll have amazing motivation to win, and other teams run the risk of underestimating them and conceding a classic underdog defeat.

As for group C...interesting. Very interesting. You have two ok sides in Algeria and Slovenia, the USA who are on-off (can be the Confederations Cup all-conquering force, or on par with the prior two), and England who are either excellent or lethargic, and have problems in goal. I can see either England and the USA being very good, or neither being very good and it being a real dogfight.

Mark Hughes (Man City manager, richest team in the world) has been sacked - seriously, does anyone agree with the decision? 18 months where he had to buy practically a new team and make them gel, they've only lost one game this season, beat Chelsea, are 6th in the league + in the Carling Cup semis, and the way they've treated him has been awful. Rich owners seem to mean Roman Abramovich-style management; get a new manager every time you lose a few...

Man City are trying to become the best team in the world!

The owners of the club shouldve dumped Sparky as soon as they got control of the side, Thats what idve done.

Mark Hughes just isnt good enough TBH.

I wonder who the new manager'll be? Ottmar Hitzfeld, Giovanni Trappatoni... Gareth Southgate! :lol:

The manager was announced already, not two hours after City beat Sunderland...I ought to have mentioned that. ^_^ It's Roberto Mancini, who managed Inter and Fiorentina. I don't agree that Hughes wasn't up to it, though; he was given no time or confidence, was pretty much told who to buy and then had problems with said players...and yet was still making huge inroads. However good the players are, you cannot expect a team to just work within a year, and a single transfer period ffs.

Roberto Mancini isnt much of an improvement over Sparky! I was expecting something REALLY groundbreaking. >_>

Roy Hodgsons got Fulham moving within a year :) Their looking FUCKING AWESOME now!

And whats happening with Benitez? He looked like he was going to burst into tears in the post match interview. (Somethings seriously wrong at Liverpool)

Spurs! :lol:

Anyone care to speculate or comment on January transfers - for instance, who would you like or do you need at your club?

Already there's a past-his-prime Patrick Viera moving to Man City on a ridiculous wage, Landon Donovan loaned to Everton, speculation about Portsmouth and West Ham players in regards to funds, Chelsea once again pursuing Dzeko, Arsenal needing a striker, Liverpool needing a miracle, and all the money that Man Utd ought to have for spending (and really desperately need to spend).

As a Man Utd fan, we obviously need a defender or two, and a proper replacement for van der Sar. The former I'm unsure about, and any transfer will be the result of scouting rather than a big name signing imo, but I was really impressed with the Zenit St Petersburg keeper Malafeev, who we're rumoured to be interested in. Fergie, in his senility, says he doesn't see the need for spending in this window, but we'll see.

I thought that Man Utd were interested in Akinfeev not Malafeev? Maybe im wrong here!

Akinfeev should definately move from CSKA. (One of the best young goalkeepers in the world)

If you missed the Arsenal - Man Utd game today, you missed some brilliant football; I wasn't aware that Nani had a skilled twin. :P You have to say though, in light of this result and Van Persie, that Arsenal desperately need another striker; Kenwyn Jones would be good, or Pavyluchenko could work well with Arshavin... Deadline day tomorrow - speculations? Plus plenty of other big money clubs who have positions to bolster - Birmingham, Man Utd, Man City?

Previous post:

Lets move this topic! We should talk about our favourite teams. In my case i have two: Atletico de Madrid and Real Oviedo (the team of my hometown, Oviedo)

Atletico is on a irregular mod, playing mediocre matches on the league and awesome matches on the spanish cup.

The team lost 0-3 the first match and needed to score at last four goals more than the other team to go to the next round, this was two rounds ago.



Tomorrow, the team can go to the final!

And Real Oviedo, on spanish first division until 2001 (thirteen consecutives seasons) and now on Second Division B for some economic problems and other things, actually on the playoff to go up to second division.

Quater-final matches:

Lyon vs. Bordeaux
Bayern Munich vs. Manchester United
Arsenal vs. Barcelona
Inter vs. CSKA Moscow

Poor France.

Mexico 1-1 S. Africa

WTF?