World Cup

[ute4ever]

If USA and England both win on Wednesday as expected, USA should finish 1st in the group by virtue of more total goals, and thereby avoid Germany in the second round, instead getting Serbia or Ghana.

It's a shame that Cameroon became the first team eliminated; Eto'o is possibly the best forward on the planet. It would have been great to see him face some of the better defenses, like Spain.

Tomorrow's Brazil v. Ivory Coast game is one of the strongest first round matchups.

[ute4ever]

Portugal 7 North Korea 0 shows what can happen when a team quits. The next round of group games should include more blowouts, as eliminated teams have little to play for other than pride.

Now that the second games are complete, these are the most intriguing final matchups:

-Mexico vs Uruguay. Both are going to advance, but the winner avoids Argentina in the next round.

-England vs Slovenia. An English loss and the world's #3 ranked team finishes with 0 wins and 2 points. Slovenia is hot, and playing for first place.

-Denmark vs Japan. This appears to be the only matchup where straight up the winner will advance and the loser will go home, with no other factors in play.

-Portugal vs Brasil. Two teams playing excellent right now and the winner gets first place.

[Archaea]

France, not only gone, but finished at the bottom of its group.

Poor South Africa, first host nation to fail to exit group.

Mexico looked like crap.

Uruguay is strange but needs to be more aggressive, too defensively minded, but it has some quality.

[ute4ever]

USA wins their group!! Round of 16 game on Saturday at 11:30, against Serbia, Australia or Ghana. England finishes second and probably has to face Germany on Sunday.

[MikeWaters]

[robsam]

Well, my opinions are somehow different. Its Basketball or Football both have their own place in the heart of the fans and sports lovers. Yes, its true that FIFA attracts more people than any other sports event but its because most of the countries play football and Basketball is just a local level game for them. BB will get its place only when this course will be changed.

[ute4ever]

[MikeWaters]

Glad Spain won. Spain was the team with more talent, more skill, more quality. Netherlands had watched Spain carve Germany apart, and came in to thug it up.

It didn't work.

Iniega and Xavi were incredible.

[ute4ever]

Ugly game. These are normally two very disciplined, finesse teams but didn't show it today. Spain had what, only two yellow cards all tournament before today? I haven't seen this much flopping and whining since the 2006 final. Unfortunately, "soccer" didn't make many new fans today. The game couldn't go more than 30 seconds without someone diving and flailing his arms begging for a freebie.

Both semifinals and the third place games were intense and outstanding. They reminded me of the NCAA hoops Final Four from a couple of years ago (when it was the four #1 seeds), in the sense that every game was like an all-star highlight reel, intense and outstanding. The officiating crew that worked the Spain-Germany semi was the same Hungarian crew that worked the USA-Ghana game, and the best in FIFA IMO; they gave out only one yellow card all tournament, didn't buy the diving and whining, and told everyone to just play the game. That's how it should be. When one of those primadonnas falls over and pleads for a free kick, the game should move on while his team remains one man down until he gets up.

BTW, European players all receive NBA-like salaries. Those were 22 pampered, millionaire celebrities on the field today. I can only imagine how hard their hearts were thumping out of their chests to play in a championship that occurs only every four years. That's like the 2006 Miami Heat being the reigning champions for this long. Sadly, on the field it resulted in two teams playing not to lose, rather than playing to win. Boring, conservative game that put many first-timers to sleep.

[MikeWaters]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...cal/index.html