Jump to content

WORLD CUP 2006 / GERMANY


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 1.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

It's interesting to hear the slightly equivocal comments about Adu. Over here a few months back, everybody was raving about him, and the chances of him starting a bidding war between Real Madrid and Chelsea.

I haven't seen him play, but agree that if he's so young, it's going to be difficult to tell how good he is. Certainly, the 'new Pele' spiel we were getting over here must have been bluster.

Pele'? Wow, I hadn't heard that one. He was marketed over here like a pop star. It was all kind of "cute"... fans were coming out to see this new phenom, and he wasn't even getting into the games. I saw him on TV about a dozen times in interviews and little "get to know Freddy" spots before I ever saw him in an actual game.

He's definitely got some talent, but my skepticism about his near-term prospects have more to do with strength, maturity, and of course experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would bring Freddy along to the WC just in case there's a chance to get him some of that experience. Put him in if the games locked up or if US loses a couple with no way to advance to the knockout round, I'd put him in.

I think there's a big problem with he and his coach at DC United. I think he would be starting for most teams in the league. Eddie Gavin is a star for his team in MLS and when they play together on the under 19 national team, Freddy is the man not Eddie. I hope things work out for him soon and his talent isn't wasted away on the bench of an MLS team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scott, I kind of like your reasoning for bringing Adu to the WC finals. The main problem being that they may need to save roster spots for more experienced players. At any rate, I think Freddy will have plenty of time to blossom, both in MLS and for the national team.

I'd still like to hear more details from some of our members around the world regarding the current status of their teams' qualification process (and any other armchair analysis they'd care to offer :) Don't let Scott and I go overboard here! ;)).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd still like to hear more details from some of our members around the world regarding the current status of their teams' qualification process (and any other armchair analysis they'd care to offer  Don't let Scott and I go overboard here! ).

The English team's doing alright, despite the fact that if you read the papers the day after the Denmark game, you'd have thought we'd just dropped the World Cup. A qualification game coming up against Wales. A year or so ago, this would have been a tricky fixture, but Wales' form is tailing-off fairly precipitously, so I'd have thought it'd be a relatively straightforward win to England. I suspect the Northern Ireland qualifier will be more than relatively straightforward - they are, sadly, NOT a good team!

If England don't breeze through (e.g. if either Wales or NI is a draw), chances are it'll come down to our final game with Poland. England have real previous with Poland, going back to Tomaszewski (sp?) et al. in (IIRC - I wasn't born) 1973. If this fixture is significant in deciding anything, it could well be interesting. As a neutral punter, you'd still have to back England, but Poland are never easy.

As for team news, much as it pains me to say it, Wayne Rooney is still all the talk round here. He does, it has to be said, play exceptionally well for England, even if he isn't the second coming, as the tabloid press would have you believe.

The goalkeeping berth should be Paul Robinson's, but his number 2 is a more interesting question, especially after David James' shocker against the Danes.

Also, talk that Ferdinand may lose his starting berth in central defence. IMHO, this is entirely correct. Ferdinand is good, but highly overrated. John Terry is a far superior player, and, I'll venture, the best centreback in world football.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Easy win for France tonight against the Faroe islands 3-0. The crunch is on Wednesday against Ireland in Dublin. Tough game but the comebacks of Zidane, Makelele and Thuram seem to have given the team a big boost. The horizon looks a bit brighter but it is still a long way to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're in!  No better way than to beat our arch rivals from south of the border. 

Unfortunately, the game did not air because this is the first week of college football.  It will replay later at 1 or 2am :angry:

It's a disgrace that the U.S.-Mexico match was not televised on an accessible, english language network. I added FSC as a premium channel to our cable package, and would have thought they'd carry it, but no. It was on ESPN "Classic", which is not a basic level cable channel. Anyway, I watched it live on Telemundo (after watching games like this on Univision, Telemundo, Galavision, etc, for the last 25+ years, I'm used to it, although I still can't understand every word).

The U.S. looked sluggish (as did Mexico) in the first half, but they settled into a nice rhythm in the second half. Keller's save off of Morales' free kick in the waning moments of the first half was very important going into the locker room. Ralston's goal was one of those where the scorer gets the credit and the attention, but it was really earned by Oguchi Onyewu. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Oneywu is becoming a serious threat on set pieces. Eddie Lewis' service was nearly over Onyewu's head, but he's so big and strong, the Mexican defenders couldn't keep him from getting to the ball and flicking an off-balance header off the inside of the far post. For his sake, I wish it would have gone in, but at least Ralston was well positioned for the nod-in. Beasley's goal was really well taken, and a pretty play, the way they drew two defenders toward the corner and then had Beasley sprint into the box for Reyna's service. Beasley had a nice game overall, but I disagreed with Telemundo's choice of him as man of the match. Onyewu's (okay, Ralston's ;)) goal was far more important, and Onyewu was steller at the back throughout the match, almost completely denying Borguetti from getting his head (or his feet) on the ball. Mexico managed just two shots on goal, so my hat is off to the entire defense.

Maybe it's time for FIFA to move the U.S. ahead of Mexico in the world rankings...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unbelievable ! :o Have they added something to the water over there in Germany recently? There was a time (and I'm thinking back to Beckenbauer, Muller & co.) when the German national team was all but invincible. Getting goals against them was like getting blood out of a stone.

Having said that, I bet they're still better than the bunch of overpaid posers that Sven-boy is running over here.. ;)

Back to the Mosaics..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...