damn, the usa diamond midfield is working well! they may not have oodles of individual talent but they impress me as a well-organized, disciplined team. klinsmann is really having an impact-- much more interesting than 4 years ago.

i'm a bit worried about the centerbacks. besler in particular looks a bit confused...

Wow, what a dirty side Honduras are, and that was just a friendly. Horrible team.

Either way, England were typically ok. Barkley to start instead of Rooney.

fuck my foresight, besler caused a penalty.

You thought wrong dude..





Did you bet your retirement plan on California Chrome too ;)


Yes, yes they are. Seen these dudes play like it was UFC Fight Night out there in a few Gold Cups..Its a Central American Napoleon complex thing.

By the way..

Well their manager's definitely got a Tony Montana/Pitbull complex

Aren't you glad you didn't do that, 2-1 USA.

I'm not saying it out loud but I'm getting a good feeling about this team
Quite like Hodgson too. He comes across really well in interviews and hasn't put a foot wrong for me so far

Could you please translate… everything? (Except for "Moldova" and "Tunisia" which I do comprehend. Oh, and "weekend".)

Seriously-- I have no idea what all that means. "+1.5" and "five for five" and "three teamer". Uh?

Thanks in advance.

Hodgson's great. I trust him whoever he starts against Italy, even if it doesn't work out, or if I might've done it differently.

We have a potentially pretty good team for maybe the next WC but I do think we're a long way off the pace for this one. Saying that, I really couldn't say how we're gonna do in the groups. Costa Rica aside, neither Uruguay or Italy look particularly special but then nor do we. We could realistically finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd. But I don't think we'll completely embarrass ourselves wherever we finish.

jeezus fuckin krist, france 8 jamaica 0? ha ha ha ha.

damn.

(and i wish i had seen it).

In French allez means go, in Jamaican thats gwan!

OK, I've set up a league here

http://en.mcdonalds.fantasy.fifa.com

You have to register then choose your squad. Then if you want to join the league click the search league button and type SYG and you can go from there.

The deadline for getting your squad in is in 3 days and choosing a 23 man squad for 100m is bloody tricky so if you do wanna join you need to get started pretty quick.

holy fuck that is fast.

just one quick question (i haven't logged in yet but this will save me time and i hope for others too)

is the chosen squad for the first round of games? or is it for the whole group stage? because the days are booked solid from the 12 to the 26 unlike the euros when there were days off.

thanks for setting this up!

It took me nearly 2 hours to pick my team, and I'm not satisfied.
The real thing will be better.
I've joined the league!

France-Jamaica: 8-0

Right, that was good watching, as every goal was a great one.

Yet, it appeared evident from the start that the Jamaicans were not at their peak. They lost 1-0 to Switzerland and drew 2-2 when facing Egypt in the past few days. They were exhausted. Their goalkeeper was not the one who had played previously, and was quite terrible at times.

The good point, from a French perspective, that should stand is that Benzema & Giroud played together, never ran the same run. This good understanding was a big satisfaction. At 4-0, I thought they'd be on par, but, not quite.

Goals:
Benzema: 2
Griezmann: 2 (including a backheel one to make it 8)
Giroud: 1
Matuidi:2
Cabaye: 1

Assists:
Benzema: 3
Giroud: 1
Sissoko: 1
Evra: 1
That makes 6, as Benzema pretty much needed noone to score his goals.

Who the fuck decided Pitbull should do the official WC song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W3sWiZ-iO8

I hate it already. By trhe end of the tournament I'll be suicidal.

Yeah, just for the first round of group games.

Can I be the first to start with the unrealistic expections? I've a feeling England will beat Italy and Uruguay and end up topping their group. There, I've said it.

Just joined the football league. Christ that was hard work.

Beat both of them? Nah? A draw at Italy me thinks.

i deciphered the rules but i have yet to understand how to have a suitable strategy.

last time i played this i did it all wrong by banking everything on gomez.

The way iv'e done it is by having goal scorers for groups that really aren't all that (Dzeko for Bosnia, Bony for Ivory Coast) but are gonna get through. Keepers that can be generally reliable (I forked out on Cesar for Brazil, bad idea on second thoughts). Midfielders same as forwards (I forked out for Vidal at Chile) but got Sissoko from France who will get through and the like.

It's a nightmare. I ended up choosing two players from Iran cos I had no money left.