Zidane's Headbutt Discussion and also some stuff on that FIFA World Cup 2006 thing

[Resha]

Is that really Rooney's foot?? I somehow...thought...his foot might have hair on it.

Edit: Aaah, Ivory Coast beat Slovenia 3 - 0. I know realistically speaking they don't stand much of a chance but I'm hoping they can do a Senegal and cause a few upsets, at the very least. They have some excellent players (that I know of) like Toure and Eboue and Drogba. They are in the same group as Argentina and the Netherlands, though -- and if van Persie keeps playing the way he did against the Aussies...maybe it is a foregone conclusion. I hope not, though. ^_^

And South Korea lost to Ghana 3 - 1, which they really shouldn't be doing. I'd have thought Ghana were the underdogs going into the match; I expected better of SK. o_O

[tomamar04]

I hope Holland can make it through their group, along with Serbia. As long as the Argies don't make the Quaters, I'll be happy.

[Psychotic]

So, what do we all make of France? First of all, there has been a lot of disharmony in the French camp, namely Coupet v Barthez, and the Giuly debacle. This will not help, as we've seen in the past.

As mentioned, Fabien Barthez is bizarrely their first choice keeper. Error prone and not as consistent as Coupet, but still competent enough to do a job for them in Germany. At the back, they have the creaking Lillian Thuram, and as for Jean Alain Boumsong and Mikael Silvestre, well, the less said about them the better. A lot of their midfielders are now aging, and past their prime, like Zidane, Vieira and Makalele, although they can still pull off good performances when needs be. They also have a lot of fairly new names, like Dhorasoo, Malouda and Ribery. Up front, they are probably one of the best teams in the tournament: Henry, Trezeguet, Saha, Cisse and Wiltord.

I can't see them getting beyond the Quarter Finals, really.

[Cz]

If they didn't have such an easy group, I wouldn't give them a hope of getting anywhere. As it is, they might just have time to settle and find their rhythm. The handicap of having Boumsong in central defence shouldn't be quite so crippling against the opposition in Group G, and the age of their midfield won't harm them too much there, either (and age isn't too much of a problem for a holding midfield player like Makelele anyway)

However, once they make it out of their group they've got a pretty tough run in the knockout stages (most likely playing Italy or the Czechs in the quarter finals). So yeah, I can't see them going particularly far either.

[tomamar04]

I can see them going out in the last 16. They'll manage to win their group, even though South Korea and Switzerland won't be easy, and then they'll lose to Spain or Ukraine in the next round. Just my opinion.

[Blitz Ace]

why would you not put Australia as an option!!!! they are clearly gonna win... well, i dont really believe that, but itd be awesome if they did. id prob go with brazil to win, simply because they are crazily good...

[Croyles]

No one wants brazil to win anymore.
Apart from a few people and some glory supporters.

[DK]

Rather Brazil than France or Germany. :D

[Croyles]

nah, even if i wasnt german, i would rather france or germany win it. brazil has now won it 5 times, thats more than both of the others.

[Resha]

The Swiss have seemingly improved over the past few years, and the South Koreans...well, 3 - 1 to Ghana. Though I shouldn't write them off coz of that. They have Gallas with Thuram in central defence, likely, and Gallas is great. There's still some speculation they might have Franck Ribery in the team -- I don't know who he'll replace -- Zidane? -- but as far as his last two performances have been, he seems brilliant too. But he probably won't be used. No one knows what the hell to expect of France after the last time round

[Croyles]

I felt sorry for France last world cup. They tried so hard, yet failed so miserably. Felt sorry for USA too! For the USA to get to the quater final is a great thing.

[Resha]

I felt sorry for France last world cup. They tried so hard, yet failed so miserably. Felt sorry for USA too! For the USA to get to the quater final is a great thing.

I don't know that they tried so very hard :/ to be honest, I don't know why things went so horribly wrong for them -- it shouldn't have. But I don't know the finer details. Senegal were quite the hotshots though. Beating Sweden on golden goals bah humbug. Sweden owned England by a few points in the group stages last year, and they're in the same group this year. Doubt they'll emulate it, though. Hopefully Ljungberg will make it back to them in time to play a few matches at least; I think he missed the last WC too, and it'll be sad if he misses this one too.

[Croyles]

Im just watching something on telly about hooliganism, so ive been thinking:

Do you reckon the British will cause trouble over in Germany? I'm living in England at the moment, and I know from my own experience that England is still obsessed about the war, and a lot of the working and middle class people who welcome their trash culture (at least around here in Bristol) and when seeing a German, despite the high possibility that if you just talk to him/her, him/her will actually be a nice person, would just haul insults thinking that that person is still a bloody nazi (please remember that im not referring to everyone in England!). World War II has often come up regarding anything in football with the British and the Germans (especially The Sun, the biggest piece of crap trash-culture newspaper), do you think it will happen this time? English hooliganism has for a long time been dubbed 'The English Disease' but english football fans have done nothing for a long time and are appearing to be really well behaved and just enjoying the game, so I have a lot of faith, cause i dont have anything against the british as long as they dont have anything against me. What do you think?

Another question is: Do you reckon the Germans will cause trouble? The very small amout of skinheads that still plague my country might do. But other than that, I dont know. I hope not!

Anyway, if anything. I think the USA have more reason to get angry. If they could by having a larger amount of football fans, I reckon they wouldnt be too wrong in hooliganising the German media, which have been way too liberal about America lately.

[Psychotic]

I felt sorry for France last world cup. They tried so hard, yet failed so miserably.

I disagree, their downfall was that they were so arrogant and over-confident that they were convinced they would thrash anyone. For example, before the tournament, Trezeguet and Henry had a bet about which one would be the golden boot winner. Neither scored a goal. Heck, France didn't score a goal, and I was pleased when they crashed out.

As for the England v Germany thing, extremely xenophobic "crap trash-culture newspapers" (to borrow a phrase from Croyles) are always going to drag up World War II, but really, I don't think there is any genuine hatred between England and Germany fans, just a bit of friendly rivalry after coming across each other so many times in important games (eg 1966, 1990, 1996, and I simply have to mention the 5-1 ) There will always be idiots on both sides who will harbour hate, but for the most part, it should be cordial.

[Croyles]

Its true that the French team was arrogant, but I still felt sorry.

As for hooligans, I dont really see it as hatred. Its a way for the British hooligans to once again try and prove that Britain is the uber-country of all countries and are still strong, and apparently single-handedly won WW2. Many hooligans believe they are a sort of second military force (i borrowed that comment from someone else), and need to prove themselves.
But I do agree thats its not very likely much will happen from either side, but its still a possibility. Ive had english, german and other hooligans around my area many times, since im nicely situated between 3 popular stadiums (for which i could not get any tickets, btw!).

The German hooligans would be stupid to do anything in the likely chance to just absolutely disgrace our country once again. If that happens, ill personaly go out with a big ass bat and personally give my own goddamn countries hooligans a beating!

EDIT: The 5-1 Incident comment was uncalled for, Psychotic!