me too, b. with Ruud as my captain

6/16/2006 3:32:04 PM

THE ONLINE FEED IS BACK!!

6/16/2006 4:06:01 PM

Red card

6/16/2006 4:42:25 PM

Angola! Angola! Angola!

6/16/2006 4:49:28 PM

Over/under on Lavolpe threatening to resign to a pissed off Mexican press: 15 minutes.

6/16/2006 4:52:22 PM

How many times did they hit the post?

[Edited on June 16, 2006 at 4:57 PM. Reason : []

6/16/2006 4:56:32 PM

that was a good game.

great result for angola

i hope the can pull off a win against iran

6/16/2006 4:57:17 PM

it would be really awesome if that happens

6/16/2006 5:15:51 PM

The one thing that pisses me off about the World Cup is that teams like the Ivory Coast don't get a fair chance when there are some groups with 2 or even 3 below-par teams, but they get into a really good group.

I think FIFA should consider seeding all 4 teams in a group to eliminate stacked groups and easier groups instead of just 8 #1 seeds.

6/16/2006 5:44:20 PM

It would create byzantine draws. No more than 2 European teams and no more than 1 team from every confederation in a group.

Besides, as a journalist pointed out, we don't want people to turn off the soccer and only watch after the group stage is done. People want to watch England-Sweden, Argentina-Holland, Italy-Czech Republic. Would you rather watch England-Switzerland, Argentina-Togo, and Italy-Saudi Arabia than those?

The World Cup group stage produces far more interesting games than the Champions League, which does what you propose. And FIFA's seed ranking is even worse than the BCS, and would surely be subject to politics on which team ends up with what seed. The seed ranking FIFA came up with for this World Cup said England was the second-best team in the world. How any sane person thinks that is beyond me.

I will let you know though, that any seed ranking would be based on previous World Cups (which Ivory Coast has none) and the FIFA ranking (which Ivory Coast is low) because that's what FIFA stated they seeded on, so they'd be a 4 seed anyway.

If I had to guess for this year though, it'd be:

1 seeds (which we know): Germany, Brazil, England, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, Spain, France
2 seeds: USA, Sweden, South Korea, Paraguay, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia & Montenegro
3 seeds: Australia, Iran, Switzerland, Ecuador, Japan, Poland, Tunisia, Croatia
4 seeds (mainly newbies based on how FIFA seeds): Trinidad & Tobago, Togo, Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Ukraine

so based on my 5-minute look:

Group A: 1, 2, 3, 4
Group B: 1, 2, 2, 4
Group C: 1, 2, 2, 4
Group D: 1, 2, 3, 4
Group E: 1, 2, 2, 4
Group F: 1, 3, 3, 3
Group G: 1, 2, 3, 4
Group H: 1, 3, 4, 4

6/16/2006 6:03:04 PM

I guess it's a good point that it creates good games... but, for me, that's a non-factor because I'll watch no matter what. I've watched every game (or at least some of it) so far... and I just think a truer World "champion" would come out of seedings, same way for Champions League.

Basically I just wanted to complain because the Ivory Coast is out

^ explain those numbers, I didn't get it

[Edited on June 16, 2006 at 6:13 PM. Reason : ]

6/16/2006 6:11:46 PM

^ based on my seeds how each group stacks up (Group A has a team I called a 1 seed, a 2 seed, a 3 seed, and a 4 seed)

6/16/2006 6:45:55 PM

Game time:

versus

versus

1-0-0 3 points 3:0
1-0-0 3 points 2:0
0-1-0 0 points 0:2
0-1-0 0 points 0:3

A win is not required but would greatly help. A tie keeps us eligible for the second round but would require a large third game win. Cheer for Ghana too.

[Edited on June 16, 2006 at 7:36 PM. Reason : .]

6/16/2006 7:33:21 PM

I'd be very surprised if a tie got us to the round of 16, I think the 3-0 loss pretty much ended our chance of moving on with 4 points

6/16/2006 8:42:03 PM

^^If we tie, we're done. I know, mathematically we wouldn't be, but we would have to blow Ghana out of the stadium, and hope for Italy to lose by a good bit as well. I seriously doubt either will happen. I do think we can beat Ghana, but probably 1-0 or 2-0. As for US VS. Italy, I want to believe we can win, but I have to see it. If they lose, at least make it a game. I don't want to sit down and watch a game like Monday's again......unless Italy plays like the US did.

6/17/2006 1:36:55 AM

Quote :

"Cheer for Ghana too."

what? no

6/17/2006 2:06:53 AM

we want Ghana to lose because if they win against Czech, we beat them, it comes down to tie breaker which we would lose b/c of goal diff. more than likely... we want Czech to win the rest of their games, and for us to tie/beat Italy and beat Ghana.. thats our only chance.. if i did the math right

correct me if I'm wrong

[Edited on June 17, 2006 at 2:10 AM. Reason : a]

6/17/2006 2:10:24 AM

you're right

no idea what that dude was talking about....cheering for ghana

6/17/2006 2:14:27 AM

For precisely that reason, I'm starting Cech over Buffon tomorrow. NO SAVES FOR GIGI!

6/17/2006 2:24:52 AM

actually, Italy will beat Czech and will draw with the USA. Therefore, we want Ghana to beat Czech and obviously we just have to win then against Ghana.

There is one fact here, Italy will make it to the second round. We want Czech to lose against Ghana.

6/17/2006 3:12:23 AM

If we win and Ghana win, every team in the group has 3 points. We beat Ghana, we're through to the second round regardless of the Italy-Czech Republic result.

If we win and Ghana-Czech Republic tie.

Czech Republic 4pts
Italy 3pts
USA 3pts
Ghana 1pt

We can win against Ghana next week we're through to the second round regardless of the Italy-Czech Republic result.

If we win by one or two goals and Ghana loses.

Czech Republic 6pts
Italy 3pts
USA 3pts
Ghana 0pts

The Czechs are through to the second round pretty much due to their great goal difference and our poor goal difference. So they can rest players against Italy preparing for the second round. So there could be a scenario where 3 teams in the group have 6 points and we would be frozen out on goal difference.

[Edited on June 17, 2006 at 8:22 AM. Reason : .]

6/17/2006 8:21:37 AM

Portugal should be booo'd out of the stadium.. GD.. All that ball control and nothing.. Fancy footwork gets you nothing if you can't put it to use.

6/17/2006 9:52:50 AM

6/17/2006 10:08:42 AM

god i want to stab that stupid fuck

i can't even cheer for england when he's on the field

6/17/2006 10:25:06 AM

6/17/2006 11:03:58 AM

GOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

6/17/2006 12:03:40 PM

damn ghana looks good

6/17/2006 12:39:54 PM

Quote :

"damn ghana looks good"

6/17/2006 12:45:01 PM

wow, if ghana pulls this win off, I'm going to have a hard time rooting against them when the US gets them next week

they are fun to watch

6/17/2006 1:11:37 PM

hey, yeah, don't root for the US. that's the patriotic thing to do

6/17/2006 1:20:35 PM

I'm rooting for the Czechs because I love white people and hate America!

EDIT: WAIT A GODDAMN SECOND

HE MISSED?

[Edited on June 17, 2006 at 1:23 PM. Reason : .]

6/17/2006 1:22:41 PM

well seeing as how I dont like 75% of our players, thats one of the only things that makes me root for them...patriotism


and this ghana match is getting crazy...a PK and a red card

and then he misses the PK!

6/17/2006 1:23:38 PM

the ref is loosing control of this match.

6/17/2006 1:24:12 PM

WTF Ghana!

6/17/2006 1:24:15 PM

How the fuck do you miss on a goal that big?

Now I know why I don't watch this sport.

6/17/2006 1:24:27 PM

that couldve sealed it for ghana, now czech rep. has got momentum

6/17/2006 1:25:19 PM

God Ghana is fucking awesome right now.

[Edited on June 17, 2006 at 1:29 PM. Reason : nvm]

6/17/2006 1:28:59 PM

^^ They have nothing resembling momentum at all.

Cech is racking up the points for me today, though.

P.S. 32 points for Cristiano Ronaldo, w00t!

Muntari, 2-0 Ghana.

[Edited on June 17, 2006 at 1:39 PM. Reason : s]

6/17/2006 1:35:56 PM

well they dont now, I posted that right after ghana missed the PK and czech rep. got a quick corner kick

looked like they would use the missed PK as inspiration, but I was WRONG

and ghana looks great today, as does Peter Cech

6/17/2006 1:37:41 PM

bye bye US

6/17/2006 1:39:20 PM

Well, theoretically, we could arrive on Match Day 3 with all the teams in the group on 3 points...then we'd be masters of our own destiny.

6/17/2006 1:40:25 PM

now a draw with italy is all we need to make sure we get, a win would be very very good, but draw italy, beat ghana and hope italy beats czechs

6/17/2006 1:47:33 PM

boo to that lineup for the US

no eddie johnson, I'm disappointed in Bruce

6/17/2006 1:50:05 PM

great save

6/17/2006 1:50:28 PM

Why the hell was that Ghana player repping the Israeli national flag?

6/17/2006 1:51:47 PM

TWO great saves.

Maybe he's from Israel or plays in Israel (dunno all the Ghana players), or is a Muslim supporting Israel. Lots of things could be true.

Well done, Black Stars!

6/17/2006 1:53:02 PM

wow

6/17/2006 1:53:44 PM

ghana is awsome

6/17/2006 1:54:04 PM

And now JP Dellacamera is singing during the break.

"Oh, Jesus."


HAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

6/17/2006 1:56:25 PM

from watching the ghana vs. italy game i expected ghana to win
the announcers however acted like this is the biggest shock ever

6/17/2006 1:58:15 PM