Nah, i think it's our time to beat them. We have progressed and they have gone the other way since the last time we met. Sure, they are still dangerous, but i think the south americans are the real worry.

sweden over england in the last game because sweden will need the points to advance...look for big games from ibrahimovic and larssen. i picked sweden to win that group for a reason.

damn, i can't believe i missed the ecuador game. sounds like they made poland looks stupid--the germany game was a fun one to watch , though.

9am--england/paraguay. . .i don't think they be push-overs. their striker, santa cruz, at least talks a good game.

Poland looked poor because the coach had them playing a silly 4-2-3-1 formation. All Polands key players were either completely isolated or crowded out by the Ecuador defence.

He could have easily changed it to a 4-4-2 to at least match up with the Ecuador formation.

I meant that I picked Germany and Brazil in the final before today's matches. Actually I thought Germany looked weaker than I expected...

Poland was frustrated.... and boring.

Who did the song 10 German Bombers?

yeah, poland was just missing all their shots by way far off. they looked really shaken. frankly, i'm surprised ecuador didn't score more. their first goal was absolutely sick...the south americans have been revolutionizing soccer for years and they'll just keep doing it.

that game was stellar. way better than the 1st game.

poland should've had that goal at the dyin minutes tho. would've made it a crazy last 5 mins. that said, i am so happy ecuador won.

german defence is gonna cop it real big when it comes to the real deal

i'm rewatching these games....and the things i'm most impressed by are the creativity, spontaneity, and planned impulsiveness of the goals by ecuador and costa rica.

germany also has acted fairly spontaneously...they seem to have ditched their old fashioned defensive style for some more creative flair, i.e. eveery goal they scored earlier today.

can't wait to miss the matches tomorrow because i'm working.

The German problems in defence were mainly down to Arne Friedrich. He has no position sense whatsoever and played Costa Rica in onside for both of their goals. He was also the only Germany player who gave the ball away consistantly with slack passing. Klinsmann has to get that guy out the team ASAP.

When Ballack comes back the sensible thing to do would be to put Frings into right back and have Borowski and Ballack in centre midfield.

Interesting how different teams get nervous about different other teams. In the US, we generally do quite nicely against Paraguay, and would be much more nervous abot playing Sweden by a long shot.

Outside of Brazil and Argentina, none of the South Americans really bother us. But, we always have a rough time against decent European teams.

Really though, I think England will have no problem with Paraguay.

I think the nerves stem from our history of slow starts or first game jitters. Realistically we should go into to the Sweden game with 6 points in the bag and nothing to worry about, apart from getting the right result to avoid a game with Germany.

But personally i'd rather meet Germany in the 2nd round, give us a big test, if were not good enough to win that, then we are out early. Anything to stop this mass patriotic bullshit that i am finding very annoying. Why do you need 4 flags on your damn car, for gods sake.

Yeah! Stoopid Pollock!








Uh, hey kon, what does all that stuff mean?

I can't believe that own goal by Paraguay. So far this game is lackluster, although it is more spirited than the Ecuador/Poland game. I didn't see one yellow card yesterday and so far they've had two today.
It would have been nice if Paraguay would have scored on that decent shot in extra time.
I expect England to win, I just want a more aggressive game.

yeah...England will close out this snoozer, but I'm not really impressed with either team. Rooney better make a big difference for England when he gets back to health, 'cause I don't see the guys out there now doing much in this cup.

Another yellow card.
I'm not sure whether or not I hate Crouch. His tall lanky ass is annoying me right now. He comes off as a big pansy.
I'm also not impressed with the crappy american guy doing play by play. I really like Smythe and the Univision announcer even if I can barely understand them.

Not all of their shots...I mean they hit the crossbar twice in the last 10 minutes of the match and had another good opportunity that was hit right at the keeper.

Jesus what a fucking bore. Utter garbage.

He's a real hit and miss type of guy. I think there was too much onus(is that the right word) on hitting long balls to Crouch. When he used to play for QPR i used to rave about him to my friends, telling them that he would play for England, that would get a big laugh. But you can't play with just him up front.

The BBC commentating was starting to grate on me, so your not alone.

We wanted 3 points and we got it. But what a snooze.

This Sweden/Trinidad&Tobago game is great despite the scoreless tie so far. T&T are a man down after having an MLS player get two yellow cards.
England should be happy that Sweden is struggling to score. It would be awesome for the World Cup to have T&T earn at least a draw in their first cup game ever.

Trinidad&Tobago hold Sweden scoreless in regulation. The Swedes have three minutes of stopage time to put one in. The last few minutes of this game have been amazing. Trinidad&Tobago's Defense is phenomenal.

Yaay!!!!!!, A freaking tie for the tiny nation of Trinidad&Tobago. England has it easy now.

The Ivory Coast finally scored a goal, and I missed it. I began to ignore the game at about the 75th minute.

im just watching the england-paraguay game on tape delay now. bloody concacaf referees. theyre the worst in the world.

This time difference is sooo annoying, especially since I'm meant to be studying and taking exams for the next few weeks.

Fell asleep in the Germany-Costa Rica game after the first goal and missed all the fun. Germany this time around are at least more interesting to watch, even if they won't go as far with that defence. Nice effort from Costa Rica to get those 2 goals.

Saw the end of the England game after getting home. They really do look average. Not a chance of winning and never were, even with Rooney fit, despite what the hyperbolic English press say.



Yeah, that must be annoying as hell. The English press seems to go on a "we're going to win" obsession before every WC and Euro, when the only chance they ever have is if all the other big guns fail badly. It's kind of amusing from over here (and not unlike what the last Ashes series was like for us)