moonraker

soccer really is starting to grow in the United States.. it was experiencing a mild boom when i started playing in the early 90s... but the next big boom is coming for sure, especially if the US has a good showing in this cup. but gettin as big in england and europe? loooong way away from that for sure. football (pigskin) in america is like futbol in europe pretty much. i donno if soccer can ever grow to be as popular as it is in europe, but we are certainly headed in the right direction.

i also heard from a few sources that nike will be pumping lots of dollars into soccer related stuff and advertising for it in the United States, and that they will be putting even more if the US has a good showing at the cup!

the next 2 world cups after this one show very good promise for the US. i have numerous friends who have played on the u21 and u17 US national teams. all our really young talent is finally aging enough to compete on the international level

GINge!

oh yeah, no doubt that individually, the US has and will continue to produce some great footie stars, but until a decent league forms in America, they will all play abroad.

We have the same prob with hockey eating up our athletes. I used to play soccer with Rob Zamuner, one of the best U17 soccer players I'd had seen, and he ended up skating for the NHL & Team Canada.

mamboking

Brazil!!! Ronaldinho!!!

JediMindTricks

i hope so too. but i think it'll be a long time before it gets that popular.

but the rankings don't mean anything. anyone that follows soccer knows that the fifa rankings are trash. there is no way that the usa is one of the top ten teams in the world.

mamboking

Presenting the Brazilian Womens soccer team!!!!

dom EDIT: I can't read the threead safely at work with that pic up so it has to come down, sorry.

Fibonacci

US team looking well positioned to make a respectable run this Summer...


http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060306/1/6869.html

Fibonacci

Anyone getting excited yet?

astro

Germany FTW!!

savage

i cant wait... i am just upset the latest games during the week are at 3pm ET...

i am going to bouncing from work a bit early during the rest of june on those good game days...

BstonBruin

I cant wait. I'm gonna take a month off from my summer job (helps that I work for my dad). He'll have a tv in his office too.

Switzerland has a pretty good chance of moving past the first round.

FastAcura

They are showing Hungary vs England on FSC right now.

I can't wait! I'm taking a day off next Friday for the opening game, and probably the whole week for the quarters, semis and final.

Germany looked pretty good against Colombia yesterday (3-0) Did anyone see the goal scored by the Colombian keeper against Poland? That Polish goalie looked a little retarded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsVeixhtlkc

iamhomin

*clap-clap clap-clap clap*
DHMK!

BstonBruin

The word around is that this is one of the worst German teams as of yet in a world cup.

FastAcura

Actually the 2002 squad was by far the worst, and they still made it to the final. At least now they have proven players like Ballack, Klose, Lehman and Frings. Their only weak point is the defense.

Also, they have the home field advantage in every game.

nahooneyya

cant wait!!







<----------------------------------FTW

kurt_bradley

This should be an interesting one. England has looked mighty strong over the last couple friendly matches. I can't wait to see them return the cup home for the first time in 40 years.

geminisdc

^^^ Sorry man but it is not going to happen Brazil is going to bring it home again

stangg172004

MEXICO!!!!!!!!

TheThirdMan

USA

j/k I like france or brazil to win...

subinf

cant believe its been 12 years since world cup was in usa.

i've always liked italy. enjoy watching brazil play

FastAcura

Yeah, England has been looking really impressive lately.

S A CHO

gary_william

screw England and their Hooligan fans.

USA, if they can get past Brazil in the second round, will take it all. USA has drawn the "group of death", from what I recall.

Good luck, guys!

mamboking

Brazil!!!!!

moonraker

deutschland deutschland uber alles

we dont have the strongest of teams... but i agree with the comment earlier that the 2002 squad was weaker and we still made it to the finals miraculously

home field advantage will be a huge boost as well. watch out for schweinsteiger he'll be productive for sure


CANT WAIT TO GET THIS SHOW STARTED

Fibonacci

I may be slightly less productive than usual this month...

thatguy

U S A

savage

USA because they are still disrespected and a underdog... if the sox can win a world series the US has a chance in the cup... i wouldnt be surprised if they win or are in a cup final in one of the next couple world cups...

if they dont get past brazil, then its either brazil or argentina...

BstonBruin

I highly disagree I just dont think they have the talent of the super teams. Even though they're ranked top 10 in the world, I can easily think of 10 better teams than the USA. Maybe 8 years from now.

FastAcura

Hey, have you been following the last Germany games? Schweinsteiger was by far the best player. I feel bad for Borowski because he deserves to be there instead of Schneider.

Check out www.shift.tv

FastAcura

while I would love for the U.S. to go far, I don't think there's enough talent to keep up with the best teams. FIFA rankings are a joke.

BstonBruin

I know as far as friendly matches go, the results dont usually indicate too much. But a team like Germany should never play to a 2-2 result with Japan.

FastAcura

I could name quite a few teams who have had bad games. You have to remember that most teams were in the fitness training phase right before these games. It's like predicting who will win the NBA title by watching the pre-season games. And if I remember correctly, Japan are Asian champions.

Holland - Australia 1-1

Portugal - Luxenburg 3-0 (Germany beat them 7-0)

Poland - Croatia 1-0

Poland - Colombia 1-2

U.S. - Morocco 0-1

And many more that I can't remember.

BstonBruin

Your right. I cant wait to watch all the games, and I definitely wish that I were in Switzerland for this World Cup summer. It doesnt get any better than being in a country where everything and everybody slows down for one month to watch the world's greatest sporting event.

BstonBruin

That reminds me if anybody wants a nice excel prediction sheet just pm me your email.

dom

S A CHO

See you on St. Clair

moonraker

yea i follow all of germany's games. my cousin is andreas köpke, he was the old german national team goalie for world cup 2002 and some euro cups and such. he is now the national teams goalie coach.

im also a big bayern münchen fan, who schweinsteiger plays club for, and hes just productive very often, so i think he and ballack together again (since they played on bayern together) will continue to be a deadly duo in the midfield.

now, i want to say the usa will do well and dont get me wrong this is one of their best teams by far, but here are a few points to consider: a) theyre in the group of death, they will NEED a win vs czech or italy for sure to go through. b) it is most likely theyll be 2nd in the group if they get out of the group, which means they face the 1st place team in brazils group... aka brazil. so theyre best shot to do anything in the cup would be to win their group, which i just dont see happening, but we can

either way it will be awesome. oh and another thing i wanted to point out was nederlands and argentina being in the same group... odds are theyll be 1,2 in their group therefore putting them on opposite sides of the bracket for quarters, semis etc. so i think those two teams have a good shot simply bc brazil will only lose to someone who plays their style of football, (aka argentina).

oh and i donno if anyone wants to join in on espn's create your "dream team" fantasy league thing for the worldcup.. check it out here its all free and such: http://espnsoccernet.fantasyleague.com/

you just pick players at each position in a 4-4-2 setup and can only use 2 players from each team max, and you get points based on appearances, goals, asst, etc. if you guys sign up, i set up a friends league thing you can join in on by entering the friends league PIN: 1938

tommyguy2

i can't believe nigeria didn't make it!!!!!!!!! good luck to all the african teams!!!+go team USA!

BstonBruin

I think the Ivory Coast could do very well, however they're in a very tough group.