I wonder what everyone thinks about the seriousness of Ronaldo's injury?

He's a great scoring striker but he seems to have problems with chronic injuries.

I'm counting down those days here too!

he wasn't able to walk from the pitch by himself, so it's not looking good. but it's really too early to say at this point. he did well the last few games, but i think that normally van basten wants to play van der vaart in his position. i might put van der vaart in my fantasy line-up, but he hasn't played since his surgery in april. if not, i might put van persie in it.

it's just tempting to pick 5-6 brazilian players in the team, but that's no fun.

I honestly think Brasil have enough quality to see things through if they play well - Ronaldo isn't their best player anymore, on his day a true great but just not quite what he once was. Brasil are pretty close, if they play to their potential, to equalling the great teams of their past.

One factor that might damage the chances of Brasil, Argentina etc is the weather - unusually cool for the time of year, and not to the liking of those from hotter climes.

The BBC are going all-out to cover the tournament properly; those in the UK who are unfortunate enough to be working during games should be aware that they can watch the BBC-televised games online. BBC's coverage page. Theses big events always seem to take an age to arrive, but all of a sudden it's right round the corner.

(Don't forget that the fantasy game allows transfers.)

Ronaldinho is also injured apparently.

Yahoo NFL fantasy football flags any injured players so that one can read the injury report. Maybe that's a feature that willl be added.

Thanks for that bbc link.

Pleasure. The webcasts only apply to UK residents, unfortunately. Unless there's a clever way around that, of course...

We haven't talked about the media: all of a sudden, sections of the English press are doing the usual thing of deciding, last-minute, to sell more newpapers (sorry, I mean 'get behind our boys') by deciding that this is our best chance since 1666, Geoff Hurst etc etc.

Apart from the lesser newspapers, I think that the media over here has been if anything more restrained than usual. MAybe that will start to change this week!

What about in other countries?

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/v/
this page for video looks like it's gonna be snazzy.

the link is on the bar at the group page.

Enjoy two minutes of the best action from each game soon after the final whistle. These highlights which include all the goals are exclusive to FIFAworldcup.com

See all the goals scored at Germany 2006 and select your favourite. You can then register your vote and choose the Goal of the Tournament.


(it probably already has been noticed by all though)

The second half of Brasil vs New Zealand is just kicking off (it's live on ITV4). Interestingly, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho are both playing, and looking OK (although it has to be said that Ronaldo isn't exactly svelte at the moment). 1-0 so far (guess who to).

I only get TV5 (France).

BBCAmerica is the only UK channel I get.

I know ESPN is planning on airing all 64 matches this year on ABC, ESPN HD & ESPN2.

For now I can catch news & highlights on ESPNN, the espn news network.

ack ballocks, i never check itv4, i missed it. I imagine brazil won 10-0 or something

http://www.worldcup365.com/story/0,1...263235,00.html
doesn't sound as crushing a victory as i thought it'd be.

worldcup365.com is a pretty good site for news etc if you can stand it's heavy concentration on england

I wouldn't normally look at ITV stations either, you undestand: I was idly flicking channels, found it about 30 minutes in.

4-0 was the score. Brasil were also denied three very very good second-half chances by three bad offside decisions. Not a good game for that linesman.

Despite the score though, it was a good game for the New Zealand goalkeeper - he made some very fine saves. Without him and that linesman, your 10-0 forecast may have been preetty accurate!

Brasil played a lot of wondeful football - they were passing the ball around quickly and accurately. Other teams will have to watch out for Kaka - he's got skill, speed and great fitness. I've rarely noticed a team's athleticism as I did with Brasil tonight. They look very capable indeed.

I saw highlights from the Brazil game. Adriano and Kaka should have quite the tournament, me thinks.

I also caught a beauty of a free kick from Spain, I can't remember his name, but it was niiiiiice. Spain 2 - 0 Egypt. Thanks to Telemundo, there have been many warm up games televised here in the States.

I think Kaka's goal was scored after about 85 minutes. His speed that late in the game (he'd been on since the start) was the mark of a true athlete. You're right to mention Adriano too - he played well tonight.

Tonight's friendly results in full:

Netherlands 1:1 Australia
Japan 1:0 Malta
Korea Republic 1:3 Ghana
Côte d’Ivoire 3:0 Slovenia
Brazil 4:0 New Zealand

Good results for Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Australia.

Why oh why did Japan play Malta?

Ghana winning like that, against a good side, makes me all the more nervous.

We're doomed.

kaka's on my team ^_^

I'm trying to remember why I left both Adriano and Kaka off my team.

We should try out the transfer feature.

I think we get two transfers each, plus there's a third available somehow.

The USA have been good in recent years - there's still a strong chance. How have their friendlies been going?

edit: I've just had a look. OK, but not great. Maybe you're waiting to peak at the right time?

Their last few friendlies have been somewhat sloppy. They create many chances but are really lacking in the finishing department. Defense has been the highlight, but they are prone to giving up easy shots as well. Of course, it could be a ploy.

Recent Matches:
Germany 4 - 1 USA :: This one is a little skewed, we played a good game.

USA 1 - 1 Jamaica :: UGLY UGLY game.

USA 0 - 1 Morocco :: Morocco nets a winner in closing minutes.

USA 2 - 0 Venezuela :: Satisfying result; terrible, young team.

USA 1 - 0 Latvia :: About 90% of this game was played in Latvia's end.

Either way, anything can happen. Still very excited and anxious.

you have infinite transfers until friday

5 days to go!!!!!!!

kaka is on my team as well...on the bench though currently.

...that's another weird quirk to this fantasy football. in yahoo nfl fantasy football groups (& every other as well) only one team can have any one player.

I figured when I took Buffon as my keeper, that he was mine and only mine. Turns out thats not how it works. Basically someone could make a team identicle to mine or anyones, and we would end up in a tie.

Oh well.

I was curious, since we've all made our teams, and we already pretty much know which national team everyone is pulling for. Who are you favorite club teams?

Kansas City Wizards

'EST 1892'

KC Wizards est 1995.

Aahah I'd say they've got some years/history on em.

england vs jamaica the other day. Jamaica had a player who plays for KCW and the commentators go
"and there's _____ on the ball, plays his football with kansas city wizard"
"don't you mean he's having a spell at the wizards"

aha. aha. aha ha. ha ha ha. How ever will we cope with a full month of hilarious puns like that

Sure, Jermaine Hue.


Thats funny. But no one else watches football (soccer) here anyway. So I'm the butt of every joke either way.

aye thats the guy, he was jamaica's best player by far

He is class. I think he played in Europe before.

EDIT: Nevermind, his last club was Harbour View of Jamaica.

Thanks for the link.

Do you have any tactical plans, guys? I mean, have you already selected 2 players you'll transfer, on what basis, have you left yourself the possibility of picking up a new player from a nation already represented in your team? Are you shaking thinking about it?

I definetely selected Essien, hoping he'd be the best Ghana player, being everywhere to be seen - but I doubted (til the African team result mentioned not so long ago) Ghana would play more than three matches - so that I'd remove him by the end of the tournament, with either Trabelsi (Tunisia) or Magnin (Switzerland - he was a nightmare for France last time two teams met).

Malouda's a great pick for your team, Atari.

World Cups & injured players... Every nation seems to point out the fact that one of their most talented players ain't up to his reputation, due to the weariness of repeated games (Vieira, Zidane) or injuries (Totti, Rooney, Ballack)...

i found a new way to persuade my wife to watch the games together..
we bet on them..

currently, if italy wins against usa, she wins a trip to the spa..




why couldn't women be more interested in football?

cnn today had an expose on fifa

corporations such as (big names include McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch) who have paid huge sums just to be a sponsor contributed some 650 million this year to fifa to gain corporate sponsorship. these companies, among many others of course, have contributed for many years to gain the privilege of the exposure to the global market. the problem is that this year fifa handed out so many tickets to these corporations that fans are fniding it difficult to get tickets for matches & are having to resort to scalpers. the story maintained that these scalpers got their tickets from the corporate sponsors. As a result of the mess, even prices for legitimate tickets are going through the roof.

are anheuser busch behind budweiser? I saw a thing on tv on friday which said the germans were outraged at american beer being the only beer to be sold at matches. Apparently there was such a big deal made out of it that german beer is to be sold in unmarked cups from unmarked taps

According to this http://www.worldcup365.com/story/0,1...264777,00.html Ronaldo's injury is only blisters. Big wuss

holy fuck!!!!! budweiser in germany???? and the ONLY beer at games?? who the fuck will want to drink that PISS???

that shit would warrant a revolution. no shit. what fucked up shit. im twitchy with rage. ha ha. but seriously...

oh man, i just went & picked up the sports illustrated from the post office...there's this cool black fold-out booklet...one the back is all of the first round schedule info about match-ups, game times & which network its on & when you open it, there are all 64 team crest logos which you can open like little doors & they have a picture on the back & a blurb inside. it can be removed from the magazine too. I thought that was kind of neat.

The article on the USA team talks them up a good bit, but time will tell how they fare against CZE and ITA.

Pictures?

Italy'll kick their arses. the czech..they have a good team but i'm not sure. A draw i'm guessing.

Is it possible that when johnnywinternoshow created the group that he opted not to make a draft part of the roster selection & instead chose by default or accident to have open selection?

Did you remember seeing anything like that as part of the set-up options, johnnywinternoshow?

nope, as well as the SY league you're also in a league with other people who are fans of whatever country you all selected and I think those leagues are open ended so you could have 1000+ teams in the england league which'd probably leave no players left to pick from. I think the way it's set up that 2 people can have the same player is quite common in uk fantasy football, I don't think I've ever played in a league that a player can only play for one team, although I do like that sound of that

Yeah I thought that was weird when I had to choose to be "fans of <insert country>"

Oh well, I just thought I would ask, but just to clarify what I meant to anyone reading:
I mean just within our small group to have a draft where you rank each player in sequence, then a random generator determines who gets who based on how you've ranked the players that you would like to have. This is just the way I'm accustomed to picking fantasy teams. Of course, not everyone out of the millions that play fantasy through that interface are gonna have only one draft. There''s not enough players for that.

Usually there's a default order of players already pre-set for the draft with them already ranked in the order of most likely preference. From there, each team owner reshuffles the priority of each player according to their strategy of getting who they want.

there is one thing i have to say i have to say i have to

whenever i hear u.s announcers narrate games it gives me the willies. see the thing is they rely too much on statistics & bullshit-- as if it was baseball or something.

statistics don't mean shit in FUTBOL. all that counts is the goals.

so i usually tune to univision where the guys have a better feel for the games. though lately i think abc or whatever brought some british announcer who made a whole lot more sense than the disoriented fools from yore.

/end of rant

Add to all of that this question: is this really a 'German' world cup? Coca-Cola hold the lisence for non-alcohlic drinks, Budweiser hold the alsohol lisence, McDonalds will be advertised everywhere etc etc. So going to a game will hardly provide one with a 'taste of Germany'. Seems a shame.

The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta had all of the soccer matches in Athens where I was living at the time. It was cool to see relative underdogs Nigeria beat Argentina. After the match, there were parades of Nigerians with flags marching through downtown. Faves Brazil (Brasil) won the bronze. My girlfriend at the time was Brazilian & was the major reason I even went.

Oh & the USA Women beating China for the gold was something.