Do ya? Do ya want tonight's friendly result?

Ukraine 3:0 Libya

Ukraine are good. Could go quite far.

History of the World Cup: A History of the Actual World Cup Trophy

There were several remarkable events that happened in London in 1966 that focused on the Jules Rimet Trophy (aka The World Cup):
The first of which was that England won; Then, the 15 inch, solid gold trophy was stolen, held for ransom, and subsequently discovered in some shrubbery by a dog named Pickles. The English FA had commisioned a base metal replica, which, after the Queen awarded the trophy to Bobby Moore , was substituted for the priceless trophy in the England dressing room where a policeman/security guard swapped it with legendary Manchester United & England fullback Nobby Stiles. Now, that was the one which toured the country over the next few years & not the the real one. The replica was sold for £254,000 by Sothebys in 1997 to none other than FIFA, whereas the original was stolen again in Brazil, and has never been seen since. The replica is on long term loan to the National Football Museum in Preston, Lancashire, though they don't always tell you: it's a fake.

And what a beautiful trophy it is.

right to left
the current & the original trophy

Jeff Koons, bronze, 1985

I wonder how heavy those are?

During the trophy presentation, I'm always thinking "someone is going to drop that!". Embrassing.

looks like rooney is headin to germnay
anyone got djibril "haircut 100" cisse on their fantasy team? He's just broken his leg, so I'd transfer him if I were you

its all ok wayne is ok.

doesnt say when he's gonna be able to play though

Not until the second round or quarter finals at least. No way he'll be match fit for the qualifiers. They shouldn't rush him....last World Cup they made that mistake with Beckham and he was gash. And the lanky one is doing well so it would be harsh to drop him.

If Walcott starts to shine and scores a few to get us to the latter stages, will it be fair to drop him?

Tonight's results:

Australia 3:1 Liechtenstein
France 3:1 China PR
Spain 2:1 Croatia

Good result for Spain. It's a bold move to play a decent team last game before the tournament - most of the bigger nations take on a weaker side to get a nice win.

France got two very late goals (and Zindane slipped taking a penalty). I watched the game on TV - France were very good at times, but nowhere near often enough. Ribery and Trezuget both came on as subs, and both looked good.

Cisse looks to be out of the World Cup with a broken leg about ten minutes in.

oh, reminds me i haven't joined yet... i guess entries close tomorrow?
i wasn't planning on putting cisse in my team, but that's a big blow for france. btw, if you haven't transfered sneijder yet, he's convinced he's going to be fit for the first game. i can't garantuee you he's starting though.

looks like ballack is going to miss germany's first game, so if anyone has him in the team you might want to put him on the bench.

sneidjer has been relegated to my subs bench until he's fit again, totti's in his place


Joining the Game
To play Fantasy Game, managers must already be Yahoo users or alternatively, you can register on the FIFAWorldcup.com web-site by clicking here and following the Fantasy Game link.
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/e/ff/index.html Users can join FIFA World Cup Fantasy Game at any point from the opening day on 18 May until the day of the Final on 9 July. But be warned - joining late will give you less chance to accumulate as many points as those that joined at the start of the tournament as points will be awarded only from the date of enrollment. During registration, you can also request reminders for transfer deadlines that will be sent to you via e-mail by simply submitting your e-mail address.

Argh. I keep hearing about the World Cup and I want to be able to follow it, but I know nothing about soccer/football/futebol/футбол/サッカー/足球/축구. So what's a good place to go to get all the information I need. Like rules (of the game and the league), standings, etc. I really wish I followed it; I feel so culturally impared.

Would it even be worth it to join this thing? I've played fantasy sports before, but I'd have to know players and rankings and stuff, and I don't know anything. Should I just pick random people and learn through it, or would that bring the game down?

totti? he might not be playing in italy's first game either. better keep an eye on that.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ly/5024234.stm

"However, Lippi has hinted that Juventus star Alessandro Del Piero will start the World Cup opener against Ghana on 12 June instead of Totti.
"Totti is difficult to replace but we have won without him before and in all of our most recent matches," added Lippi."


thanks for the info... i better have a team ready before friday though. i need all the points i can get. :D

ack bollocks, back to the subs bench totti

you can easily just pick random players and learn through it..

world cup official site
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/

fantasy game site
http://en.fifaworldcup.fantasysports.yahoo.com/


the bbc has a decent site on the world cup too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...06/default.stm
(just try to ignore the many articles stating "football legend/coach/pundit x says england's going to bring home the trophy")

but they have team guides and headline news for every team comprehensively on one page
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ms/default.stm

and even info on general football rules
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...nt/default.stm

I'm tired of hearing about Rooney, and I don't even live in a country that follows the sport very much. They've had tidbits about it on the Sports page in the local newspaper. What is really going on?

he broke a toe bone 5-6 weeks ago, it takes 6 weeks to heal adequately to be classed as fit, longer to heal fully. He had a medical scan on it today, if the docs said it was alright he's going to the world cup, if not, Jermain Defoe will go in his place. Turns out it's ok so potatohead rooney's on his way

Oh no, I know what happened. But I was poking fun at the local press covering this stuff. Considering they ignore it 95% of the time anyway. I was asking 'what is really going on?', as in why.

just looking at the teams in the league there, candymoan you gotta pick a starting 11

Ok, after about an hour of wandering aimlessly I believe I have a sufficiently sub-mediocre, if not mediocre, team - that is, assuming high "Apps." are good things...because I'm not completely sure.

Do I need to post my e-mail still or is there an ID#/Password?

Johnny still needs to send you an invite.

I would but I don't think I have to access.

Wait, maybe if you just use the ID/Password that was posted way back on the first page you'll be in.

You made a team withouth any prior knowledge? I bet you win! Thats the way it works.

Oh. Psh, I specifically looked through the first few pages of this thread for that ID and password. It was right there in the first post. I'm a moron. It worked, so I'm in.

I started looking at stats and picking people, and then as I got further into it I found higher and higher stats. And I was too overwhelmed to start over so I just kept a bunch of lower people.

Unless I'm completely missunderstanding the stats. Then I'm more screwed.

But I got to a point where I realized I need to keep the number of teams I'm picking from down, so I can have an easier time keeping track of what teams I need to pay attention to.

Just trying to feel the sport out for now, not looking to do well. Get my bearings a bit, maybe force me to watch some games.

if you do nothing else, please change your keeper! You've got van der saar on your bench, maybe use him. The saudis aren't reknowned for their defensive prowess

The Saudi keeper was actually noted as a player to watch in the tournament. Plus he has a fairly easy grouping. Not saying Saudi Arabia will move on, but its not totally far fetched.

Though, I hope its not the same guy who let 8 past him in 02.

i just figured it was the same one, remember that goal he let in from damien duff? right through his hands.

Gerrard is '50/50' for Saturdays game. Possible mass transfer situation in fantasy games the world over.

The reason I picked the Saudi GK is because the World Cup page said that for the preliminaries, they only let 2 by - so I looked up their best GK and originally had him. But then on BBC I read that his replacement is the one to watch on his team, and looked up his name for any news, so I switched for that guy.

That's basically what I ended up doing for most of my players - a few of them I was too lazy to research, though, and just went by stats.

a world cup blog
http://www.worldcupblog.org/

where do you type the group no and the password?

From your profile thing, go to Groups in the menu above your team name. Then near the top, above the Public Group list there's a tiny link that says Join Group.

hmm i went to groups and standings and theres no link for joining a group

Oh, no at the Fantasy Game site. Go to Fun & Games, then Fantasy Game and create a team. Then from your team's page, click Groups, then Join Group. Sorry, thought you were at the Fantasy Game page.

I do remember that. He is actually quite well known as it turns out, Mohammed Al Deayea But I also remember Miroslav Klose making him look like he'd never been on a pitch before. In fact Saudi Arabia looked like they didn't even want to be there in 02.

i just joined in. my team

GK BUFFON Gianluigi - ITA
GK CECH Petr - CZE
GK SCHWARZER Mark - AUS
D NESTA Alessandro - ITA
D VIDIC Nemanja - SCG
D TRABELSI Hatem - TUN
D MARQUEZ Rafael - MEX
D PUYOL Carlos - ESP
D MIGUEL - POR
D LAHM Philipp - GER
D GALLAS William - FRA
M TOURE Yaya - CIV
M SMOLAREK Ebi - POL
M KAKA - BRA
M RIQUELME Juan - ARG
M GERRARD Steven - ENG
M RONALDINHO - BRA
F TONI Luca - ITA
F ADRIANO - BRA
F LARSSON Henrik - SWE
F VAN PERSIE Robin - NED
F VALDEZ Nelson - PAR
F SHEVCHENKO Andriy - UKR

Another team in our midst now...cool.

I've read the rules & I think the teams get frozen for each round except you can bench or make players active before matches start. When the next round begins, you can then pick players or drop them again.

Am I understanding this correctly?

If not, it seems the best strategy would be just to pick at least three players from the teams actually playing every time there was a match to get the most possible points.

With Nedved & Milan injured on the Czech team according to what I was reading, I reshuffled today.

I read the rules too, but they're pretty vague with that stuff. That's what I was thinking, but that can't be right...Then it would basically just be the same as having everyone on the field at the same time. Your only responsibility after picking your 23 would be to make sure you change them out in time. I guess it makes sense, though; otherwise there would be no point in having subs, if you couldn't use them.

Do we pick a completely new team next round, or do we run the risk of getting stuck with eliminated players?

I'm pretty sure it says that players re-select a squad after the first round, with the remaining players only. Which makes sense - it's also why I threw caution to the wind a bit a picked some 'risky' choices.

I'm out of work early today, so that I can get ready. First game in under an hour...

Sonicl has just joined up!

You'll notice the slight Chelsea bias on the squad, and even more so on the starting line-up:)