Official 2006 World Cup Thread...Italy wins 1-1 (5-3 PSO)

[J@3]

Croatia and Australia will win Group F over Japan and Brazil at the FIFA World Cup 2006

lol, Aussies have never had a good soccer team

You're a retard. Then again maybe I'm wrong, I'm sure a loyal Chelsea fan (of one season) would know everything there is to know about the sport. Bandwagoning moron

[sdude]

Go Argentina

[Anthony15]

Croatia and Australia will win Group F over Japan and Brazil at the FIFA World Cup 2006

lol, Aussies have never had a good soccer team

You're a retard. Then again maybe I'm wrong, I'm sure a loyal Chelsea fan (of one season) would know everything there is to know about the sport. Bandwagoning moron

Have they ever came even close of winning WC?

They only made the WC twice, and the first time they couldn't even score a frikin goal!!!

U must be proud that they won oceanian nations cup like 5 times czu the only opponent u have is New Zeland!

[J@3]

Do you know anything at all about the sport? You do realise international soccer happens outside of the World Cup plenty of countries haven't come close to winning a world cup, how does that make them bad? I don't know why I'm arguing with a mis informed bandwagoner who wouldn't know the first thing about football, but here goes:

Since 2003, Australia's international record is 14-7

In those games, Australia has beaten England... drawn with the Netherlands, who are currently ranked #2 in the World, been beaten 4-3 by Germany, drawn with Norway, beaten Uruguay, South Africa and Jamaica 5-0... they also beat Tahiti 9-0. Not to mention that in most of these games they were missing their star players due to their club commitments.

They qualified for the World Cup by beating a team who had beaten Argentina and drawn twice with Brazil, in the lead up matches have beaten the current European Champions and drawn with the 2nd best team in the World. Australia also holds the record for the largest ever international winning margin, has players who represent teams like AC Milan, Middlesborough, Liverpool, Blackburn, PSV etc and dominated so badly in the Oceania qualifying group that they are being moved to the Asian zone.

Not to mention, in 2001 Australia beat Brazil 1-0, beat France 1-0 and Mexico 2-0... but of course you wouldn't know that, you probably weren't even born.

Enough about Australia, who have Russia got in their group? Oh that's right, they didn't even qualify

[Jugs]

To be honest, I want Croatia to qualify but Australia has the confidence and around 10million soccer bandwagoners behind them...

[J@3]

I'd rather Croatia qualify over Japan if Australia don't come 2nd, I loved watching them in 1998.

[Srbija]

Netherlands #2 ?

Isn't Czech Republic #2, and Netherlands #3 ?

[J@3]

The rankings at FIFA.com are a month old, on the telecast last night they showed a graphic that said #1 Brazil, #2 Netherlands and #47 Australia or something like that. A month ago they were only 4 points behind the Czech Republic, so they must've overtaken them.

Edit: Lately the Czech Republic have been playing some pretty garbage teams, like Trinidad and Tobago... that might have something to do with it.

[dada]

Did any of yall watch the Brazil-New Zealand match? It was almost a joke. 4-0 doesnt do justice to how much Brazil dominated that game. NZ barely had any sniff of the goal (maybe once or twice if lucky) much less the ball. I hope this is just a sample of whats to come WC time since it seemed they were just playing around. Reminds me of that 8-0 match they wwon a few days ago, a pleasure to behold.

[Anthony15]

Enough about Australia, who have Russia got in their group? Oh that's right, they didn't even qualify

At least Ukraine qualified and they will win in their group unlike Australians that will finish 3rd or even 4th.

And yes I don't pay attention to soccer much since i moved to US.

[Stevesanity]

Enough about Australia, who have Russia got in their group? Oh that's right, they didn't even qualify

At least Ukraine qualified and they will win in their group unlike Australians that will finish 3rd or even 4th.

And yes I don't pay attention to soccer much since i moved to US.

Im not sure about Ukraine winning their group dude, I think their 2nd place at best.

Australia has improved as a soccer team, I think with Guus Hiddink on board its only a positive cause he's really good at getting the smaller teams so to speak perform to their maximum. Sure Korea had the support of the crowd but the way the players played were like they never played before, I think Australia can suprise a few people in this World Cup and will become a stronger force on the soccer map very soon cause from what I know the Australians love their sport and have some of the best fans. I think they need to focus on their youth now, if they can gather up interest and get better facilities and coaches for the younger players (school to college) it will be highly beneficial.

[Anthony15]

Enough about Australia, who have Russia got in their group? Oh that's right, they didn't even qualify

At least Ukraine qualified and they will win in their group unlike Australians that will finish 3rd or even 4th.

And yes I don't pay attention to soccer much since i moved to US.

Im not sure about Ukraine winning their group dude, I think their 2nd place at best.

Thats what basically meant, they will get out of thir group and go on to quarterfials

[Stevesanity]

Enough about Australia, who have Russia got in their group? Oh that's right, they didn't even qualify

At least Ukraine qualified and they will win in their group unlike Australians that will finish 3rd or even 4th.

And yes I don't pay attention to soccer much since i moved to US.

Im not sure about Ukraine winning their group dude, I think their 2nd place at best.

Thats what basically meant, they will get out of thir group and go on to quarterfials

Okay dude I thought that you meant when you said they would win their group they would topple Spain of the top spot. Plus I'm not sure about them getting to the Quarters there are playoffs before the quarter-finals but I think it's referred to as Round of 16 or something like that.

[Dro]

GO TEAM

[Drex]

Did any of yall watch the Brazil-New Zealand match?

I saw parts of it. A defender tackled Adriano and couldn't get the damn ball because he just put his foot on the ball

[J@3]

Enough about Australia, who have Russia got in their group? Oh that's right, they didn't even qualify

At least Ukraine qualified and they will win in their group unlike Australians that will finish 3rd or even 4th.

And yes I don't pay attention to soccer much since i moved to US.

Im not sure about Ukraine winning their group dude, I think their 2nd place at best.

Thats what basically meant, they will get out of thir group and go on to quarterfials

So in translation, you have absolutely no retort for what I originally said. Please leave the posting to people who know what they're talking about.

Anyways Stevesanity's exactly right, if Australia's junior system doesn't step up then this will be our last appearance for a fair while. Hopefully it'll spark some interest if we're successful somewhat in this tournament.

I was expecting Brazil to beat NZ by more to be honest. Australia's first opponent Japan beat Malta 1-0, which isn't exactly convincing.

[The X]

why's everyone bringing up a Brazil game against a crappy team like New Zealand?!? put Jae & I out there & we'll score 4 or 5 j/k....but in all seriousness, I would expect Australia to beat the Kiwis in soccer by 3 or 4 at the moment, so winning 4-0 over New Zealand (a team that has lost & drawn to teams like Solomon Islands & Tahiti in recent years) is no big deal....don't read anything into Brazil's cupcake win....

as for all the talk about Ukraine, I expect them to win their group....underrated IMHO....also look out for teams like Switzerland & Serbia & Montenegro....these are some of my darkhorses, there's always one Euro team like these that have a Cinderella run to the top 4 or 8

[Srbija]

GO SERBIA !

I think we have a chance of possibly coming 1st or 2nd. We can beat Argentina if we play right, Our challenge will be Netherlands who we havn't won against in the past 4 meetings. I wouldn't be surprised if Ivory Coast pulls off a few upsets.

[J@3]

Serbia have a pretty good team, the defense is awesome. I reckon they could finish as high as 3rd.

[Srbija]

I'm hoping they just make it to the next stage. We only conceeded 1 goal in qualifers (1-1 against Spain) thanks to the likes of Vidic (Man Utd), Dragutinovic (Sevilla) etc.

One of our main, or probably the main, striker is injured. I don't know if it was only a minor injury, but hopefully he (Mateja Kezman, dude in my sig) will play against Netherlands.

[Matt]

anyone see the goal Poland conceded against Colombia last week? Basically the colombian goalkeeper kicked the ball from his goal square, it bounced once and over the Polish keeper.....it's on youtube.....funny & embarassing at the same time.

I guess a 1-0 win over Croatia makes up for that loss.

Anyways, here is who i see advancing......in no particular order

A
Poland
Germany

B
England
Sweden* my darkhorse team to win it all

C
Argentina
Netherlands

D
Portugal
Mexico

E
Italy
Czech Republic

F
Brazil
Croatia

G
France
Sth Korea

H
Spain
Ukraine

[Philantropical]

GO TEAM

AMEN PERSIAN BROTHA!

[Drex]

Just found out about Cisse's injury. This guys has probably the worst luck ever Hopefully he recovers quickly, the last time he suffered that injury he was out for months.

[Srbija]

IT IS ON TONIGHT!!

[ultimateplaya]

YEAH!! IM SO SYKED!!!