I forgot to add that as much as I dislike the German soccer team, I have that much more disdain for the English team. The English have become synonymous with ugly soccer over the decades. They have a terrific league, but I can't bare to watch their national team play soccer. They're the Utah Jazz of European soccer. I'm glad they're not in the tournament.
England has been stuck in mediocrity for as long as I can remember. I don't foresee that changing in my lifetime...
No doubt, we all know that. Spain and Mexico are in the same situation although we did win the WC on our soil the one time FIFA decided it might be a good idea to hold a WC in the 'traditional' home of football. If anyone wants to know how crazy the corruption in the world of football is just look at the fact that Mexico has hosted two world cups and will have a solid chance to host 2018, but i digress.
I will be supporting the Netherlands as usual... I don't really even know why, but i just can't forget watching them play in the days of bergkamp, kluivert and davids.
I don't know which team I should root for now since one of my all time favorite players, Zinedine Zidane, left the French team. I guess I will go with my dark horse, the Russians.
Nike has put out some insanely great ads for this year's tournament. Take it to the next level: http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikefootball/en__EMEA/ FERNANDO TORRES, EL NUMERO NUEVE DE LIVERPOOL: http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikefootball-en__EMEA/2008/06/02/creating-converts-is-next-level
How was Mexico getting the WC in 1986 "corrupted"? Europe defintely wasn't going to get it again after hosting in 1982. Colombia was just a terrible choice from the get go. Somebody had to host it. And you have to admit Mexico hosted a great WC in 1970, even though the heat was a problem. Now if you wanted to use an example of how shady FIFA can be look no further than Germany getting to host in 2006. South Africa was hosed on that one.
The Fabregas-Torres partnership is gonna be almost impossible to defend. Oh and they have the top 2 goalie in the world imo in Casillas. (It's a toss up between him and Cech) So Spain is the favorite for me.
Teams I want to see win: France Turkey Spain Did like Portugal, though got too many Portuguese friends to support them....gotta hate .
Um I'm sorry but why not the USA? The US had better stadia than Mexico back then and still have the best stadia in the world. Only reason Mexico got the WC again was cos of the lovely relationship between Guillermo Canedo and Joao Havelange. Everyone knows Colombia was a horrid choice from the get go like you stated. I really have no problem with Mexico hosting it in '70 but '86 is what I have a problem with. South Africa was never really hosed on anything. South Africa and the African continent were basically guaranteed a world cup in this decade. Morocco were never really a serious contender and England knew they were reneging on promises not to compete with Germany for the 06 wc that were made during bidding for the 96 euros.
Allez les bleus! I gotta support the frenchies, even without Yazid. I'd love to see Henry and Thuram lead the team to another championship and for Ribery, Nasri and Benzema to make this tourney their coming out party.(even though Ribery made the 06 wc his coming out party).
I like the populatiry of the dutch. For the liverpool fans, Babel might join the dutch olympic team. Since he might be ready before that time. That would be nice. About Van BAsten. I have not be a fan of him as a coach, however i do think he is imporving. he has learned a lot. I'm not sure how good he will be at Ajax. But i do think that his personality and history can make a big impact with Ajax. i'm really curious to see if Huntelaar will stay.
England will be a better team now that they finally have a non English coach hopefully they can stop playing the english game internationally it doesn't work. Not saying they'll win anything but i'm sure they will be a lot better off. Hope France or Spain wins this Euro if Spain play like they're supposed to with all that talent they'll be very fun to watch.
did anybody else's espn2 totally crap out during poland-germany? was the only channel on my tv that didn't work. frustrating.
