Who's going to be going? I just put in a bid for tickets - a three pack for Egypt. They were one of the few teams with a chance to make it that still had any tickets available.

I also put in a volunteer application, I'm hoping to get taken up on that. I figure between fluency in three languages and a basic conversational level in three others they'll be able to find something for me to do.

So who else is planning on attending? It'd be nice to get a beer in Germany with some of you fucks

I should think about this...

Yes, you definitely should. Even if you don't get to see a match, just to be in Berlin around the time of the final will be something you'll never forget. Even if I don't get into a match, I will just be incredibly happy to be witnessing Europe in all of its football loving glory.

Chase, are you back in LI for the summer?

Please God,

I don't ask you for much but if we could just beat Belarus in Minsk on Wednesday we'd be right back in with a shot.

Yours sincerely,

Darrin

Would love to go, but it definitely won't be happening. I was, however, fortunate enough to work the 2002 WC in Japan, and even attended two games. You'll be run ragged if you do get the opportunity, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime type of ordeal. Go for it.

Is Greece in it, considering they won last year's European Cup.

Nevermind.

http://www.eifl.org.uk/wc2006/wceurope2.htm

They are way behind Ukraine in their qualifying group so probably the best they can do is finish second and go into the qualifying play-offs.

Don't you earn an automatic bid for winning the EURO?

No. Not even the holders (Brazil) get an automatic place. The only automatic place goes to the hosts - Germany.

Really? I thought France had an automatic bid in '02. I couldn't find any qualifying match statistics for them.

The holders used to gain an automatic place but the rule was changed. France were the last team to benefit from that rule.

speaking of france, will someone explain to me why they're behind switzerland, israel, and ireland in their group right now? i mean there's only a few points separating the four but france should be breaking away from those three, right?

c.

I claim to know little about Soccer. According to the annoucers on Fox Soccer Channel saturday during the Scotland match they said a number of times what a disappointment the French team was. Don't know if that is true.

All I can say right now, is the England National team looks bad ass. They destoyed Columbia, even in the heat. Michael Owen's hat-trick was awesome.

Heya Darrin,

Did you see that Scotland match against Moldova?

Is that stadium for Soccer only ?

The pitch looked so nice compared to what the USA games played on this past week.

Well France had the best player of his generation in Zinedine Zidane but he's retired from international football now. Alot of there other top players are either past their best or have also retired so they're basically having to build a new team and they are struggling abit.

It's a problem for most teams at the moment. Basically there's a lot of hype around soccer these days but in my opinion there are not really any great club sides, international teams or even players around at the moment. With all due respect to the likes of Greece, Liverpool or Porto they wouldn't have come close to winning the top honours in the game 7 or 8 years ago. Quality soccer has been in decline ever since the 2002 World Cup.

Hampden Stadium is Scotland's national stadium. It is mainly a soccer stadium although I believe the Scottish Claymores in NFL Europe also play there sometimes. They usually re-turf the pitch for the Scottish Cup Final so that would explain it's good condition, the final was just a couple of weeks ago.

I want to go. Gotta hit the lotto first. I am a bad American, I think I might rather root for Holland or the UK than the US team.

For shame I know. But as I say "patriotism is bullshit."

I might be going, I have some ex-students all over Germany and they are willing to put me up. I don't see me actually going to a game, but whooping it up in a Biergarten will suit me fine as well.

Yes, I'm in New York for a couple of months. I'll be back in Nashville from August-December, then it's off to Europe for a year.

Yes, patriotism is bullshit, but rooting for your nation's soccer team is not bullshit, it's a fucking duty. American soccer needs all the support it can get, especially from people over here that care about the game at all. Dammit man, we almost made it to the fucking semifinals last time...think of what could be, think of what an insult it would be to the rest of the world for us to get further this time....

I'm not really a fan of American supremacy and the way we carry ourselves as a nation, but I would love to see our footballers kick some serious ass next summer.

Excluding Brazil the US have as good a chance as any. Like I said there are no great teams around at the moment so if you can actually qualify you stand a decent chance. The major European nations especially suck at the moment. England are the best of the five but they are being hyped beyond their abilities and their team is based on a shallow pool of about 5 important players. The rest of them are pretty ordinary.

France, Spain, Germany and Italy are all shadows of their formerselves and I doubt you could even call them contenders right now. If Brazil slip up I think it's entirely possible and even likely we could see a smaller football nation win the trophy a la Greece at the European Championships.

If the U.S. does well, it will be due to outstanding goaltending and a few timely goals against some decent opponents. Last time, we should have beaten Germany and their oustanding Goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, but the refs missed a handball on Germany's goal and discounted an American goal that barely crossed the line.
I'd rather see us beat Mexico in Mexico first, but I'm not sure if we have another match set up.
Too bad England won't be sending too many of their superstars to face us Yanks here in the states, especially now an American controls England's most renowned Football club.