And now for something completely differentFollow

They have the worthless talent of mucking it up in many terrible ways the second they do well though.
They instantly get cocky, the entire country starts yelling that we will definitely win the tournament and they eat dust against the next team they face.
And each time they've done well so far it was after a bad start.

Edited, Jun 4th 2010 6:50pm by Aethien

And we cheat our way to international tournaments!

It's soccer...nuff said

Hey, as long as they're not calling it football.

Red,

Is France going show up or flame out? We've got a little pool going and I really want to pick Uruguay and Mexico to advance. It seems everytime that I pick A-list squad to implode they win it all (Italy last WC!)

Also, anyone who is picking Honduras should be wary. They have little talent defensively and while they play an exciting game they aren't going to have the ball that much at the WC.

I'm going to predict a draw between England and the US with the US scoring early and holding on for a draw under an onslaught of Rooney obsenities. Although I'm worried about Altidore not starting due to his ankle. If he doesn't start we're going to struggle to do anything offensively that isn't off set pieces.

Yeah we're going to catch a few at the bars but for the ones where I'm "working" luckily EPSN is putting them on ESPN360 so I can stream them. This will be the first year where I can retire the DVR (at least since South Korea/Japan) so that no one ruins the games for me via calls/texts/emails.

First horrendous call of the World Cup. Mexico wins 2-1 and gets only a point. It never seems to amaze me how El Tri is able to play down to their competition. I'm pretty disappointed in this first game as I thought the youngsters would grow up and play extremely well this tournament, especially after their resurgence late in the CONCACAF qualifying.

Can't wait more games.

The game was 1-1, I'm calling it a 2*-1 draw. Mexico had a goal called back on a set piece for being off side. Perhaps I'm mistaken about the call, it's entirely possible. On a cross the goalie was out of position and misjudged a cross which landed on Vela's foot and he put it in the back of the net. There was still a man on the goal line and I thought as the ball was played there was another defender putting him onside (at least the goalie was).

I didn't see the replay yet so I can't be sure anyone else see it?

EDIT - Apparently he wasn't even with the goalie. I thougth the ball was more square and he was even with the goalie when he recieved the ball. So it appears via the replay that I saw that he was indeed off side as only the deadman on the line was behind him, thus offsides.

Edited, Jun 11th 2010 12:01pm by baelnic

That was clearly offside. You need 2 defender between the player and the goal to be onside. Usually the keeper count as one but in this instance the mexican player was behind the keeper so there was only one defender between him and the goal. Offside was the right call.

Schrödinger's Thread?

My impressions so far:

1. France and the UK had better get their fingers out.
2. Those vuvuzelas make it sound as though mosquitos got stuck in the microphones around the stadium. Not cool.
3. Germany looks solid, organised and dominating. And yeah, their football team isn't bad either.
4. Ronaldo is gay.

I don't know a lot about soccer, but even I know this.

North Korea's in the World Cup? Amazing. I wonder if they make vague threats to their opponents if things don't go their way.