Thread: South Africa 2010

All the qualifiers finished yesterday, and in less than two weeks the groups will be drawn! I'm excited already (it's gonna be in our time zone again!), but in all honesty I'm not expecting the best tournament ever. There's no Russia, no Turkey, and some crap teams have qualified. Slovenia, North Korea, Slovakia, Honduras - even New Zealand are in the tournament.



And I'm expecting little from much of the great and good. Argentina put in an awful showing in the qualifiers - regardless of how good a player he was, Marradonna is a totally incompetent manager. France barely scraped through into the tournament by the skin of their teeth - despite being drawn in the easiest qualifying group. They lost to Austria, drew twice with Romania, and last night only beat Ireland at home in extra time, on a goal that should never have been allowed. Domenech is another terrible manager who should never have been at the helm of a major footballing nation, and by fluking his way into the World Cup they're still not going to sack him.



Oh well - it's not all bad. England have a great set of players and finally a quality manager who can make it play as a functioning team, and Spain are fantastic at the moment. Even if they don't win - Germany are at least interesting to watch nowadays. I haven't seen Brazil play since the last World Cup, but they didn't walk the qualifiers and I've definitely got my money on a European team.



Bold prediction - Italy will play badly and uninterestingly, and yet somehow scrape their way to an undeserved win, beating England on penalties in the final.

Poor Ireland! REMATCH!

I want Holland or Germany to win. Or England maybe. Is Scotland in it?

[quote name='Zaragrunudgeyon' date='21 November 2009 - 02:32 AM' timestamp='1258767132' post='64410']

Poor Ireland! REMATCH! [/quote]



Don't be daft! If we held a rematch every time there was a poor refereeing decision we'd need to reply every game of professional football, and then replay the rematch. Yes, the goal was offside and he handballed it, but not 10 minutes prior Given had taken Anelka out in the area and no penalty was given. I don't see any hand-wringing and moaning about how hard-done by France were for this. Should the Ireland-Georgia group stage match have been replayed because of this penalty?



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9fx4ipF4Q[/media]

I want Holland or Germany to win. Or England maybe. Is Scotland in it?

Scotland didn't make it. The full list of qualifiers is here.

[quote name='caffeine' date='27 November 2009 - 05:36 AM' timestamp='1259325419' post='67913']

Don't be daft! If we held a rematch every time there was a poor refereeing decision we'd need to reply every game of professional football, and then replay the rematch. Yes, the goal was offside and he handballed it, but not 10 minutes prior Given had taken Anelka out in the area and no penalty was given. I don't see any hand-wringing and moaning about how hard-done by France were for this. Should the Ireland-Georgia group stage match have been replayed because of this penalty?



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9fx4ipF4Q[/media]







Scotland didn't make it. The full list of qualifiers is here.

[/quote]



Other sports have the replay and it works just fine. Soccer should too!

Other sports have replay because they make even the slightest attempts to award wins to the team that deserves them, rather than moving heaven and earth to make sure the people that paid for the win get it.





France, Italy, Brazil or Argentina will win. If the last one of them in is down 7-nil you can rest assured penalty time will last 4 days and nights if that's what it takes to make sure one of the right teams wins.



The only dirtier sport I can think of would be figure skating.

Soccer ??!!??!! Oh for Christ sake. This IS one instance where the rest of the world besides America is completely out of their mind. A sport where the entire game can be played without one score.

[quote name='Dr.Knuckles' date='29 November 2009 - 07:16 AM' timestamp='1259475412' post='69108']

Other sports have replay because they make even the slightest attempts to award wins to the team that deserves them, rather than moving heaven and earth to make sure the people that paid for the win get it.





France, Italy, Brazil or Argentina will win. If the last one of them in is down 7-nil you can rest assured penalty time will last 4 days and nights if that's what it takes to make sure one of the right teams wins.



The only dirtier sport I can think of would be figure skating.

[/quote]



That's how Greece won Euro 2004 then? And how did you come up with those four? Argentina haven't won it since 1986, and they're definitely not going to with Marradonna as manager. Ever considered that the better teams win the tournament more often because they're better teams?



Now, if you want to see rigged football games - look at this one form the brazillian second division. That's what real cheating looks like!



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB-tXhIcTTY[/media]



[quote name='Six']Soccer ??!!??!! Oh for Christ sake. This IS one instance where the rest of the world besides America is completely out of their mind. A sport where the entire game can be played without one score.[/quote]



And therein lies part of the beauty. Goals are special because they don't happen every two minutes. And when high-scoring games do come along, it's a gripping experience, as opposed to, say, basketball, where it all just seems routine.

[quote name='caffeine' date='30 November 2009 - 10:26 AM' timestamp='1259602011' post='69970']

That's how Greece won Euro 2004 then? And how did you come up with those four? Argentina haven't won it since 1986, and they're definitely not going to with Marradonna as manager. Ever considered that the better teams win the tournament more often because they're better teams?



Now, if you want to see rigged football games - look at this one form the brazillian second division. That's what real cheating looks like!



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB-tXhIcTTY[/media]







And therein lies part of the beauty. Goals are special because they don't happen every two minutes. And when high-scoring games do come along, it's a gripping experience, as opposed to, say, basketball, where it all just seems routine.

[/quote]



Great players make horrible coaches. Gretsky was awful and Marradona will be too.

[quote name='Zaragrunudgeyon' date='02 December 2009 - 06:33 AM' timestamp='1259731990' post='71077']

Great players make horrible coaches. Gretsky was awful and Marradona will be too.

[/quote]



Forget will be, he's already demonstrated himself an incompetent coach. Great quote from the Guardian:

Maradona may be the best advert serious football coaching will ever have. He is a one-man promo blitz for studiousness in matters of structural alignment and team selection. Managers who couldn't summon 5% of his brilliance understand the game better than he ever will, because he comprehends only his own small part of it, where the splendour is to be found.

Not all great players become terrible managers though. Bobby Robson and Franz Beckenbauer were both great players who went on to become great managers; and the greatest manager of all time (Brian Clough) was a quality striker before he got injured - 251 goals in 274 games.