W?reldbeker, World Cup, Weltmeistershaft; its coming, yet we debate colons?

For Sssracht's sake people, the world cup is in two days time, and all the forums seem to care about is whether the semi colon can be used as a super comma as well as to connect related independent clauses?

I mean really?

Who will bow out pathetically in the groups stages? Who will make the last 4? Who will ultimately triumph and be crowned champions of the world? Who will troll this thread with complaints about football being a stupid pointless game where teams play for hours only to draw 0-0?

I can haz some football excitement?

I suspect the winners to be Spain, Brazil, Argentia, or maybe Germany, who knows? I will be hoping for fine performances from Serbia and England, but am not expecting either team to get as far as last 4.

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I might watch a game or two: football is such a nice game to sit and watch with friends and beverages.

I really have no favourite winner and I usually side with the underdogs. But if I'd have to name a winner I'd guess Argentina; cos Maradona owns and deserves: it somehow.

Too bad Finland is not playing this tournament: we'll make it into the next!

You bet I am quite aware of what's going down in the near future!

With the expected result of Germany winning its group and England finishing second, that means we can throw them out on penalties as early as the quarter final. Should be easy as cake.

I'd say England has a good chance of reaching the semis. Brazil, Spain and Netherlands (IMO the top three teams at the moment) are all on the other side of the bracket, so England won't have to play them before the semi finals.

I'll be watching most matches, but don't really have any favourite team.

I'm for whichever team can stay sober the longest, which is
unfortunately none of them.

The only interest i have in the world cup is that i've got as much chances to win my end of year exams as france has of losing the world cup.

What do our resident Irish people think of France's prospects?

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Originally Posted by vogonpoet

Who will troll this thread with complaints about football being a stupid pointless game where teams play for hours only to draw 0-0?

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I agree, football is a stupid pointless game where teams play for hours only to draw 0-0.

But there's an upside. During the previous world cup I went to the movies with my girlfriend while our country was playing a match. We had the whole theater for ourselves. :cool:

No Ecuador this year so I am forced to cheer for Slovakia on behalf of my friend.

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Originally Posted by Silfir

What do our resident Irish people think of France's prospects?

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I don't care who wins the World Cup, as long as France loses horribly... This is actually the first time in Ireland city that we're willing to support England against another team - if England ever play France we will actually support the bloody Brits.

I personally think Spain will win, but I don't support any specific team. Would be nice to see the Socceroos do well, I guess.

Surely Grey is a non-resident Irish person?

Its funny, I actually miss Manchester sometimes - lived near it for ages, and in it for 6 months.
Watching the England game on Saturday here in Novi Sad just isn't the same as some random pub in Manchester... is the Big Screen on Exchange Square still there? That would be an awesome place to watch the game tomorrow, if the weather is nice??? I guess its not 34 degrees in the UK though :)

Resident as in residing in the ADOM forum. Isn't that what it means?

Ok, I can't watch that with sound on. The backround noice is just too goddamn awful. Nicely ruined the opening match.

Apparently its some kind of plastic horn (vuvuzela?) the south africans like play in games.

Horrible, I hope they ban it! Ban it!

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Originally Posted by vogonpoet

Its funny, I actually miss Manchester sometimes - lived near it for ages, and in it for 6 months.
Watching the England game on Saturday here in Novi Sad just isn't the same as some random pub in Manchester... is the Big Screen on Exchange Square still there? That would be an awesome place to watch the game tomorrow, if the weather is nice??? I guess its not 34 degrees in the UK though :)

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There's a few big screens around town these days. I'm expecting everywhere to be crammed like mad tomorrow... Weather is predicted to be sunny and around 20 degress - quite excellent by Manchester standards :)

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Originally Posted by Silfir

Resident as in residing in the ADOM forum. Isn't that what it means?

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yeah, just pulling your chain dude :D

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Originally Posted by moomoo

Apparently its some kind of plastic horn (vuvuzela?) the south africans like play in games.
Horrible, I hope they ban it! Ban it!

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Ha ha, ban it? Not a chance in hell. Besides, you are mistaken - its cool.

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Originally Posted by Grey

Weather is predicted to be sunny and around 20 degress - quite excellent by Manchester standards :)

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Well that sounds perfect. I can't really enjoy much more than 25 anyway (I am so living in the wrong country these days).

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Ha ha, ban it? Not a chance in hell. Besides, you are mistaken - its cool.

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Incorrect. It is lame. It would be cool if they blew it for a reason, like when someone gets a goal. But all the time? Annoying.

...
The world cup is boring in the U.S.A. In Europe it rocks. Unfortunately, I will not be in Europe this summer. So I'm not gonna care about it.

argentina will probably do well but it has nothing to do with maradona. one of the best to ever play, no doubt, but he has no idea how to coach. they have a great team right now though. will they win? i hope so but i'd like to see paraguay do well, maybe if cabanhas hadn't gotten shot theyd have a better chance.

SOCCER RULES!:D

If I were that English goalkeeper, I'd find myself a nice secluded rock to hide under until the next match :)

Go USA!

I'm not watching it but I'm gonna root for my home team.

GO U.S.A!!!!

(btw it's soccer, football is a totally different sport that other countries just have not seen the potential in)

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Originally Posted by The Metro Gnome

(btw it's soccer, football is a totally different sport that other countries just have not seen the potential in)

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Why you gringos call local version of handball football is beyound me.

(Can you really root for your team if you're not even watching?)

Now, let's say the rest of the world decided "baseball, that's a stupid name, we're going to call it boccer instead" - if the USA came sweeping down saying "We're the goddamn bigwigs of this sport and if we're calling it baseball by the gods the rest of the world is going to call it baseball" - I'd totally get that. It would be stupid to go past the US on this since they have played the world's very finest baseball for over a century.

Only, you see, the US are not the bigwigs of football. US (men's) football has been second class at best for ages. So no, you don't get to go out into the world and tell other people to call football soccer. If you were to win the Championship, that would be another story entirely. As long as that hasn't happened, there's not really any reason for the rest of the world to listen to you, right? (Except nuclear weapons, of course.)

I mean - American Football is a nice enough sport, but most of it isn't even played with the foot, for crissakes. You could call it "Throwball" or "Carryball" and be much closer to the actual game. Whereas association football is actually (almost) completely about using your feet, be it on the ball or against other players.

i think there was some discussion a while back about removing
the kicking part of football alltogether. kinda made sense to me.
do you really want dozens of players to battle for about an hour,
only to have the game decided by 1 guy and the wind?

anyhoo, foot-ball bores me. yet I'll still be mildly entertained
for as long as it takes me to post snarks on these forums should
the US manage to win whatever tourney you Euro's find so
fascinating. honestly, I don't know why we haven't taken the US
approach to this situation long ago. Just buy the world's best
talent.

@Silfir: Yeah, Green might well be looking for nice rocks right now, but the rest of the england team are just as much to blame for the result as he is - it was a terrible performance.

Heres hoping the Serbia game is better...

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Originally Posted by The Metro Gnome

I'm not watching it but I'm gonna root for my home team.

GO U.S.A!!!!

(btw it's soccer, football is a totally different sport that other countries just have not seen the potential in)

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Yeah, yanks can call any sport what they want despite the whole world otherwise calling it football.

E: oh yeah, we lamers here call your football american football :)

I dunno, I like an element of wild luck in a game. It allows for crazy comeback stories! And once you take out the last element of actual football out of the sport you're done claiming the name "football" for it for good if you ask me.

Interestingly enough, the US do have a history of getting the greatest talent of football to play in their league - once they're over 30 and looking for a good gig to retire. Franz Beckenbauer, David Beckham...

> you're done claiming the name "football"

I was done claiming any of the big 3 American sports by
any name a couple of years ago. Baseball, foolsball, and
basketball are all rather rigged in my opinion. They want
MOAR FANZ at any cost, so they allow their stars to get by
with any nonsense they please. They figure people won't
notice, and they are sadly correct.

Well Serbia once more proved they are a force to be reckoned with in the "shooting themselves in the foot" stakes, whereas Germany did well in the more traditional "shooting the ball with the foot" stakes... The bad news for Serbia is they now have to hope that Ghana can't beat the Ozzies, and the Ozzies were frankly crap last night, defending like schoolboys rather than professionals... tesko situacija for sure.

Im brazilian and I have faith in this years team. But after seeing Germany playing i have to admit that those guys are playing an incredibly well adjusted game and they are going to be the toughest yet to beat.

Yeah the Germans do look good, but it's early days, and they are a very young team without Ballack to keep them cool - they will have to concentrate and work well together to keep on top of their game. Sadly for the other teams, concentrating and working well together are hallmarks of German football, but still - its definitely too early to start worrying about meeting Germany in the later stages - it was after all the socceroos they were playing.

just so I know who I'm cheering for, what team is closest to USA,
yet still has a snowball's chance?

Closest as in geographically?
Err, the favourites in no particular order are Spain, Germany, Brazil and Argentina. So I guess you should be cheering for those Kentucky locals Brazil, although Brazil must be about 3000 miles away from Kentucky I should think...

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Originally Posted by gut

just so I know who I'm cheering for, what team is closest to USA,
yet still has a snowball's chance?

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There's Mexico! Its close to USA (if you mean't that, hehe) and has no chance in hell :)

Will we need to define some sort of probability scale?

If USA's chances of winning are similar to a whelk's chance in a supernova, then yeah, perhaps Mexico's chances of winning are snowballs in hell-esque...

By which I mean, Mexico are marginally more likely to win than USA are, but not very likely...

What's with that defeatist talk - at least cheer for your boys as long as they're still in! After that we can tell you which teams you're supposed to hate, and work from there.

For starters, there's France, which entered the championship by tricking the referee with an illegal goal. They started promisingly by scoring a dreadful goalless tie against mediocre Uruguay - if everything goes well we'll see them taken out in the group stage.

Of course I meant Geographically.

gO bRAziLLiarDS!

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Originally Posted by vogonpoet

Yeah the Germans do look good, but it's early days, and they are a very young team without Ballack to keep them cool - they will have to concentrate and work well together to keep on top of their game. Sadly for the other teams, concentrating and working well together are hallmarks of German football, but still - its definitely too early to start worrying about meeting Germany in the later stages - it was after all the socceroos they were playing.

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I remember watching the Europe cup in Germany, and Ballack was playing on Germany's team. And he sucked. I believe he was the worst player on the team, but everyone seemed to like him. But seriously, Ballack sucks.

Yeah, bullocks suck.

In unrelated news, this gal will be singing the US's team
intro for the rest of our gamez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhD9k...eature=related

All opposing teams may as well forfeit.

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Originally Posted by Adom

I remember watching the Europe cup in Germany, and Ballack was playing on Germany's team. And he sucked. I believe he was the worst player on the team, but everyone seemed to like him. But seriously, Ballack sucks.

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Ignoring the fact that Ballack is an awesome playmaker and regular goal scorer for his county (42 goals from 98 appearances - that is a record many world class strikers would be proud of, let alone midfielders):
A player like Ballack contributes a lot more to a teams performance than just kicking the ball. For teams to consistently play better than the sum of their parts, they need a commanding, well respected captain who everyone trusts.

It is too early to say whether the loss of Ballack will make a difference to Germany in this tournament - Germany have many regular goal scorers in Klose, Podolski, Schwiensteiger, who all scored a plurality of goals in Euro2008 (as did Ballack of course), but as the tournament progresses, experience and leadership become more significant, and the german squad is one of the younger sides in this tournament, certainly the youngest of the pre-tournament top 5 favourites. We shall see.

/Good luck Lahm
//Lived in Germany once, guess they are my third team in the competition :)

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Originally Posted by Adom

I remember watching the Europe cup in Germany, and Ballack was playing on Germany's team. And he sucked. I believe he was the worst player on the team, but everyone seemed to like him. But seriously, Ballack sucks.

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Ballack is awesome and you're dumb.

I definitely agree that we'll sorely miss his great experience, though it should be kept in mind that both Podolski and Schweinsteiger have well over 70 caps (149 together) despite being aged only 25 and have played several big tournaments, so it's not like our term is filled with nothing but greenhorns. Still, it's a very young team - once the KO stage rolls around, I wonder how ?zil, M?ller, Khedira will deal with the pressure.