Football (real)

[betiko]

World cup Preliminaries: Why is Uruguay in the Asia bracket?
Who picks Germany, Brazil or Argentina to win?

They aren't its a play-off game which can be across areas like N.Zealand v Mexico..
Hard to bet against those 3,along with Italy the most consistently successful in World Cup history,although no European team has won in the Americas.

You d put italy seriously?? No way. (Although i wouldn t ve put a cent on the table on them in 2006, what a bitter game for all frenchmen...)

Ok, how about netherlands and in a lesser extent belgium as underdogs (not enough experienced)? Netherlands are vice champions, and have been seriously kicking asses in qualifications.

Of course brasil playing home should be the big favorite. Even if they have a mediocre team in brazilian standards right now, look at the confederation cup last summer (which is always kind of a world cup rehersal). They will have the whole country supporting them, they are the best nation in football. Good enough for a 6th title i d say.

Here is my list in order:

Brazil
Germany
Spain
Netherlands
Argentina
Uruguay
Colombia

Others have no chance.

[chang50]

World cup Preliminaries: Why is Uruguay in the Asia bracket?
Who picks Germany, Brazil or Argentina to win?

They aren't its a play-off game which can be across areas like N.Zealand v Mexico..
Hard to bet against those 3,along with Italy the most consistently successful in World Cup history,although no European team has won in the Americas.

You d put italy seriously?? No way. (Although i wouldn t ve put a cent on the table on them in 2006, what a bitter game for all frenchmen...)

Ok, how about netherlands and in a lesser extent belgium as underdogs (not enough experienced)? Netherlands are vice champions, and have been seriously kicking asses in qualifications.

Of course brasil playing home should be the big favorite. Even if they have a mediocre team in brazilian standards right now, look at the confederation cup last summer (which is always kind of a world cup rehersal). They will have the whole country supporting them, they are the best nation in football. Good enough for a 6th title i d say.

Here is my list in order:

Brazil
Germany
Spain
Netherlands
Argentina
Uruguay
Colombia

Others have no chance.

Just taking a historical view of who has done well previously.Italy probably won't win it and Brazil should win it,unless we have a repeat of 1950 when 200,000 fans in the Maracana were stunned into silence by their neighbours Uruguay winning 2-1,easily the biggest shock ever in a final.With the volatile social conditions present in Brazil just now a similiar loss might erupt into public order disturbances on a larger scale then back then.The pressure on the Brazil team might become unbearable..

[betiko]

yes I agree, but still; in the confederation cup 2013 the pressure from the public proved to give them wings. No one was giving a dime for the brazilian victory in the finals vs spain, and they won 3-1 dominating completely (it's true that the spaniards were completely out of gas for the finals though). The confederation cup isn't the world cup thought!

2010-> south africa never had a team, so of course it didn't work for them; they ended up with the same points that mexico but didn't go through the group phase for goal average. above expectations
2006-> germany was the best team, and quite shockingly lost in the overtime of semifinals vs italy (they won the 3rd place game) slightly below expectations
2002-> south korea, after a serie of referee cheatings vs spain and italy went all the way to semi finals (that was so corrupted!). Japan passed the group phase but lost on the first knock out game vs turkey above expectations
1998 -> france, absent of the 94 edition won the title above expectations
1994 -> USA managed to pass the group phase (only 24 teams at the time, and the 2 best thirds per group could make it) But faced Brazil the future champion in the knockout phase, only losing 1-0 though.above expectations
1990-> Italy was facing argentina's maradona in semi finals.. in Napoli!!! they lost on penaltysslightly below expectations

won't go further because i was too young before that, lol. Anyway, the host as you can see always does quite well. Germany 06 and Italy 90 were just slightly below expectations, and didn't reach the finals in games they should've won, but there is always the luck factor in football.
In your example of 1950, Brazil still made it to the finals. There is no example here of host fucking up their world cup completely.

[betiko]

This thread is dead!
Hard attack where the f*ck are you?
Nietschze, you got bailed out, mexico wins 5-1 vs kiwis and you are basically saved and going to the world cup. Where the f*ck are you?
5-0 uruguay vs jordan, not a big surprise, they pretty much made it too.

Friday are the big games fore the europe zone!! We need to beat those ukranians!!

[nagerous]

Belgium to win

[nietzsche]

This thread is dead!
Hard attack where the f*ck are you?
Nietschze, you got bailed out, mexico wins 5-1 vs kiwis and you are basically saved and going to the world cup. Where the f*ck are you?
5-0 uruguay vs jordan, not a big surprise, they pretty much made it too.

Friday are the big games fore the europe zone!! We need to beat those ukranians!!

The only reason I'm happy with Mexico's victory is because it's basically my team, Club America. As I explained to betiko, due to the emergency they took the coach and his staff and the players from Club America and reinforced them with a few players they had to fill in for the foreigners to play against New Zealand, which btw it's an amateurish team. They have only two or threeof good players, including the goalie, who among others stopped a scorpion fling from Raul Jimenez, ala Ibrahimovic. This kid has some balls, he's 20 or 21 I think and scored that "chilena" goal that saved Mexico against Panama when we were fucked. Without that goal, we wouldn't even be playing against New Zealand.






Tomorrow is a big match, a heartbreaker. Ibrahimovic vs Cristiano Ronaldo. Too bad one of them won't play the World Cup. They are my two favorite players, they are fucking awesome. I wish Sweden wins, because it's Ibra's last chance to play a World Cup.

[betiko]

Belgium to win

How much are you betting that they won t go any further than quarter finals? Colombia just beat them 2-0 in a friendly, seems legit. (Although belgium had a few players injured)

@ mixican fan boy: i hope sweden wins too cause i hate christiano ronaldo and because zlatan is just awesome. He is the big star of the french championship not only because he is so good, but also because of his personality. A one man show on and off the field, unlike other superstars like cavani and falcao, also playing in ligue 1.

[benga]

Belgium to win

How much are you betting that they won t go any further than quarter finals? Colombia just beat them 2-0 in a friendly, seems legit. (Although belgium had a few players injured)

@ mixican fan boy: i hope sweden wins too cause i hate christiano ronaldo and because zlatan is just awesome. He is the big star of the french championship not only because he is so good, but also because of his personality. A one man show on and off the field, unlike other superstars like cavani and falcao, also playing in ligue 1.

Belgium will not advance from group stage, don't kid yourself.

Also probably Portugal will advance.

Here is my list in order:

Brazil
Germany
Spain
Netherlands
Argentina
Uruguay-not sure, but better chances then this 3 crossed
Colombia

[Symmetry]

Clearly England are in with a chance this time round, when you look at the quality players we...

...sorry, couldn't keep a straight face typing that.

We'll probably have the best ridiculous world cup anthem though.

[betiko]

Belgium to win

How much are you betting that they won t go any further than quarter finals? Colombia just beat them 2-0 in a friendly, seems legit. (Although belgium had a few players injured)

@ mixican fan boy: i hope sweden wins too cause i hate christiano ronaldo and because zlatan is just awesome. He is the big star of the french championship not only because he is so good, but also because of his personality. A one man show on and off the field, unlike other superstars like cavani and falcao, also playing in ligue 1.

Belgium will not advance from group stage, don't kid yourself.

Also probably Portugal will advance.

Here is my list in order:

Brazil
Germany
Spain
Netherlands
Argentina
Uruguay-not sure, but better chances then this 3 crossed
Colombia

belgium will reach quarter finals, place your bets! and uruguay above argentina, are you kidding me? look at the players, look at the last results. you are not making any sense, you are just crossing some names and you are not even exposing your point of view.
also you cannot just simply whipe out netherlands like that. Unless you don't remember, they could perfectly be the current world champions, the 2010 wc final vs spain wasn't out of their reach at all. They always kick ass vs big teams, and they always have one of the best attacks of the competition. They are clearly among the few teams that can win it.
Colombia has a great team and was out of the last few world cups; they will be extra motivated. but yeah, i don't imagine them going further than semi finals at the very best. Semi finals for uruguay at the very best too.

any of the first 5 teams of my list will be the 2 finalists, no doubt.

[Symmetry]

To be fair, Brazil managed to botch a game against Switzerland a few months back.

[betiko]

To be fair, Brazil managed to botch a game against Switzerland a few months back.

and? a friendly game in switzerland, big deal. not like the swiss team sucks; it's ranked #7 worldwide right now (quite overrated in my opinion though).
And as I said before, this brazilian generation is light years away from the 2002 for example. They kind of had half of the most talented players on the planet back then. They are still playing as the host, which is a huge advantage.

[HardAttack]

This thread is dead!
Hard attack where the f*ck are you?
Nietschze, you got bailed out, mexico wins 5-1 vs kiwis and you are basically saved and going to the world cup. Where the f*ck are you?
5-0 uruguay vs jordan, not a big surprise, they pretty much made it too.

Friday are the big games fore the europe zone!! We need to beat those ukranians!!

hey betiko...

i will like to see the last/final game between galatasaray and juventus in istanbul before any and everything
you know how i mean, dont you ?

[nietzsche]

Ukraine 2-0 France.

betiko are you alright?

[betiko]

Ukraine 2-0 France.

betiko are you alright?

humm, what do you think??
bye bye world cup! fucking douchebags! no way we can get passed a 2-0.

so just to update the last few results:

Asia (4)
Australia
Iran
Japan
South Korea

Europe (9)
Belgium
Bosnia
England
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
Russia
Spain
Switzerland

North+Central America (3)
Costa Rica
Honduras
USA

South America (5)
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador

Africa (3)
Ivory Coast
Nigeria
Cameroon

That's 24. Here are the remaining team with a chance to qualify through playoffs:

Jordan vs Uruguay (0-5 first game)
New Zealand vs Mexico (1-5 first game)
Burkina Faso vs Algeria (3-2 first game)
Ghana vs Egypt (6-1 first game)
Portugal vs Sweden (1-0 first game)
France vs Ukraine (0-2 first game)
Greece vs Romania (3-1 first game)
Croatia vs Iceland (0-0 first game)

[benga]

I take your bet, belgium doesn't go pass group stage!

And no matter how strong you think holland is, they will not win WC.

They just don't have what it takes.

Same goes for Argentina, they are on Brazil soil and they will never win WC there, if it was played in Argentina then it would be different.

[betiko]

I take your bet, belgium doesn't go pass group stage!

And no matter how strong you think holland is, they will not win WC.

They just don't have what it takes.

Same goes for Argentina, they are on Brazil soil and they will never win WC there, if it was played in Argentina then it would be different.

yes I would be surprised if holland wins, but it is still along the top 5-6 contenders in my opinion.
So on what basis can you say that Argentina cannot win a world cup in brazil? ok you made me check; all copa america hosted by brazil were won by... brazil
nevertheless, that is not a valid point. Argentina will be playing on their continent, and they won both of their world cup titles when held in latino america. I give more credit to argentina than spain for this world cup. (oh well, it all depends on a few players as well; let's say messi, aguero and tevez are injured it changes everything)

[benga]

Click image to enlarge.

spain has great team, even if they miss 5-6 players they will play at same level

argentina is just not at that level, and brazil has more thins simmilar to spain then argentina

[betiko]

huh, given that france is almost certainly not going to the world cup, i don't know who i will sport between brazil and argentina...
I think that Messi needs to shut some Pelé mouth, so I would love to see Argentina win. On the other hand, I went to visit Brazil last year and I really liked the people there.
Of course I want both of france's archenemies in football to lose ASAP (Italy and Spain).

but mate seriously... if you look at the fifa ranking, Argentina was ranked 2nd until last month (just lost a position to Germany) while Brazil is... 11th!

Higuain, Lavezzi, Aguero, Di Maria, Messi, Gago, Zabaleta, Coloccini, Banega, Maxi Rodriguez, Palacio...... to name a few; best attack players in front of netherlands and uruguay. They are contending big time for the title, like it or not. Tey might not play the best game, but their players can solve a game in any situation.

By the way Benga; big match for Croatia tonight too; and you're not even comenting on that? I don't think there is a chance Iceland could get you guys in spite of the 0-0, but you never know!

[benga]

huh, given that france is almost certainly not going to the world cup, i don't know who i will sport between brazil and argentina...
I think that Messi needs to shut some Pelé mouth, so I would love to see Argentina win. On the other hand, I went to visit Brazil last year and I really liked the people there.
Of course I want both of france's archenemies in football to lose ASAP (Italy and Spain).

but mate seriously... if you look at the fifa ranking, Argentina was ranked 2nd until last month (just lost a position to Germany) while Brazil is... 11th!

Higuain, Lavezzi, Aguero, Di Maria, Messi, Gago, Zabaleta, Coloccini, Banega, Maxi Rodriguez, Palacio...... to name a few; best attack players in front of netherlands and uruguay. They are contending big time for the title, like it or not. Tey might not play the best game, but their players can solve a game in any situation.

By the way Benga; big match for Croatia tonight too; and you're not even comenting on that? I don't think there is a chance Iceland could get you guys in spite of the 0-0, but you never know!

I am not questioning Argentinas players, but still they have prove as a team.

Everything is WC will be going subordinated to Brazil.

Well Croatia struggle as always, but the atmopshere is just rotten, like every else in this mud pool, not sure about outcome and most don't expect any improvements.

There is just no more hype.

[betiko]

Ohh my.. 2-0 for france at half time. Benzema scored a legal goal and it was declared offside, a few minutes later he scored again being offside and the ref did accept it lol...
We might go to brazil now.. We just need to "win" the second half!

I see it s a done deal for croatia!
Ghana and algeria qualified this afternoon too. Still hoping zlatan kicks cristiano ronaldo out!!

[betiko]

Uh, portugal just scored, done deal, sweden would need to score 3 now, not gonna happen.

Also greece is the #27/32 officially qualified. 5 more spots, ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

[betiko]

And zlatan just scored 2 goals back to back!! Not over, just 1 more to go!

[betiko]

And zlatan just scored 2 goals back to back!! Not over, just 1 more to go!

But ronaldo scores his second!!

[betiko]

And zlatan just scored 2 goals back to back!! Not over, just 1 more to go!

But ronaldo scores his second!!

Ronaldo his third!