What a disappointment for Camerún. Sorry about that Cameroon peeps. It depends. We have to wait until the Three Judges give us their scorecards. After that, the umpire makes a decision and we go to a Power Play. :grin: Congratulations, arno_ed and Netherlands!!
Ugh. I thought Cameroon had some potential this year, especially after Drogba's injury, to become a hallmark African team. However, it looks like their best chances may be with Ghana (unexpected after Essien) and, still, Ivory Coast.
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Unfortunately it's not really looking like Africa's year. I'm just hoping one African country makes it to the round of sixteen at least. My best hopes were on Ghana but they really screwed things up for themselves by not beating the Aussies. The weird thing is that Nigeria actually still has the best chance of qualifying at the moment -- assuming Argentina beats Greece, all they have to do is beat South Korea and they're in. It's just that I don't have a lot of faith in their ability to organize themselves in the midfield enough to beat a team like SK.
This is the best group of African teams to qualify, minus Egypt of course. However, Nigeria and Cameroon are past their prime, these are not the same quality teams of the 90's. Ghana a good organized team that lacks any offense what so ever, and is missing it's best player. I bet they sure can use a player the quality of their former great Abede Pele right about now. South Africa and Algeria are just rounding up the numbers, I still don't know how Algeria is here and Egypt is not. Ivory Coast is the best in Africa right about now, besides the Egyptians, but are again in a tough group. It's just tough luck that we have a collection of the best in Africa, but they all have their own issues at the same time.
Buddy, what about Ivory Coast? Don't know if you watched the Portugal game, but they looked quite good against them. Never seen an African team so organized, it was a good display of winning football, they just didn't finish. I see cracks in the Brazil team this year, they've got some major issues in Kaka, he's struggling and I believe that's a big problem for them. Ghana had two 19 year old defender as their central backs today, thats rough, their main guys John Mensah & Addo were missing, Jonathan Mensah & Addy Lee are the kids who played instead because the other guys were injured. Anyway I still think they have a chance to get through, Germany game will be tough, but I think a tie will be enough as I see a draw in the Australia Vs. Serbia game. Nigeria is really missing Mikel, he is exactly what they needed, too bad he's injured. The team however is quite weak on quality strikers.
Algeria beat both Ivory Coast and Egypt in a span of 3 months... You see that defense yesterday against England, we had that but were able to actually score against both. I'll let our play Wednesday tell you how we got here, we always start tournaments low and end high, just look at the africans cup where we lost to Malawi 3-0 then ended up in the semis
Predictions tomorrow Slovakia 1-2 Paraguay Italy 3-0 New Zealand Brazil 0-1 Ivory Coast Don't know much about the first game so it's a wild guess. I hate Italy but I don't think New Zealand got anything on them so it's an easy win. Ivory Coast with a "shock" result against an un-samba Brazil team that could be dreary at times (only if Drogba starts). Second post ever, I support South Korea so hope they can be those Nigerians next week but it ain't going to be easy.
I've been very upset watching the games especially since it was so blatant whose side the refs were on in the opening match AND the USA vs Slovenia. I'm not a supporter of either of the teams stated above, but it's just disgusting on a Joey Crawford level what these refs are doing. Maybe FIFA should investigate all referees and give the death penalty to the ones found guilty. No Donaghy treatments, straight chop chop with the head. Anyways now that the rant's over... I've always wondered why they have the players walk onto the field holding hands with little kids. What is the purpose of that? To make a few kids' dream come true? the players never seem to even talk to the kids or anything, just stare blankly forward. the kids don't look all too giddy about it either.
The kids LOVE it. I used to work for a sponsor of Bayern Munich, and as part of that, once or twice per season, we could send in the kids with the players (and with shirts with our logo on, which doesn't happen at the world cup. obviously). We did raffles and stuff to generate at least a bit of PR out of it. The kids were always totally excited.
I've watched quite a few games, they've shown players in the tunnel talking and messing around with the kids before they come out on the pitch. Its only when they get on the field they get their game faces on.
Henry with the mascot Mascot vs Gerrard Some funny moments in recent memory between players and the kids
lol, ur leaving out the Frican Cup where Egypt trashed Algeria. Algeria is here fair and square and IMO were terriffic against England. I don't know for sure that Egypt would've done better, but I'm very impressed with Algeria thus far. They just need to actually try to score. What's up with playing with NO STRIKERS against England?
Because our strikers SUCK!! The coach knows it, the team knows it, the country knows it.. Think about if Karim Benzema decided to play for us instead of getting ditched by domenech and watching the World Cup on TV..He would've been a hero up in here I just hope The midfield could create some plays that could spark the offense Wednesday but i cant see that happening.
