The FIFA World Cup: Which country will win and who will be the star?

[incywincy]

So it all kicks off today in Munich. The best footballers (not soccer players) on the planet will be competing in a festival of the beautiful game.

So who do you think will win the trophy? Who will win the Golden Boot? And who will be the new kid on the block that everyone will be talking about.

WebmasterWorld is a global forum so there must be lots of different opinions out there.

[walkman]

I think Ronaldo got hit with the late 20's - 30's bug: his metabolism has slowed down. However, he is a freakig soccer player and he is supposed to burn it out. Wayne Rooney seems much fatter to me, yet manages to play a great game.

Ronaldo seems to have no motivation at all, maybe because it's a just a depression period he is going through and will get over it soon. I wonder if he runs during practice at all. You could see that by the end of the game he didn't even want the ball.

Either way though, he still can score, and if he keeps it up he will be fine; one goal a game and he more than carries his own weight (no pun intented). That's the beauty of being a good finisher: you can sit there all day, take all that abuse from fans, but if you score on the last minute, you're a hero :)

[rj87uk]

I'll tell you what annoyed me the annoying commentary you get with the football like someone said before, they just mock everything thats not English - just take it too far half the time and always end up talking about England or shrek.

I'm not a great follower of football but I do like to see great goals and a fun game to watch, half the time I get put off with the commentary.

That said, I would follow Scotland to the end :) hehe

-- added --

Martin O'Neill,

I love that guy (Im a rangers fan).
I didn't like him when he was in charge of celtic (great manager).

[incywincy]

Alan Hansen is very English, I think he plays to the English audience. In fact both BBC and ITV are biased toward England.

England are playing very poorly at the moment and perhaps the fact that we ar unbeaten is a good omen. However IF we beat Ecuador then I think we'll be eliminated in the quarter finals, probably by penalties. It's traditional.

As has been said by our scottish friend, the media build England up to a level above their capability. When it comes to the crunch we simply aren't good enough to get into the semi-finals.

In my opinion Argentina will meet Holland in the final and Argentina will win the tournament. Unless Rooney catches fire of course :)

[RonPK]

Let's not forget that Ronaldo suffered a knee injury in 1999, recovered in 2000, played 7 minutes before injuring the same knee, and subsequently was out of the game for 20 months. Such an injury may also have attributed to his loss of speed.

Modern football is very much about speed. Just watch World Cup matches from the 1970's or even 1980's, it looks like snail football.

[SilverLining]

I think Martin O'Neill is good and unbiased

He is a bit dramatic at times and it looks like Gary Lineker and Alan Hanson don't really value his opinion at times...

Did anyone see the post match discussion following the Italy-Ghana game? Martin O'Neill looked seriously unhappy and was arguing with Desailly. The episode and the programme ended with Lineker smiling and telling O'Neill that they didn't have time for his comments...

All fun and games!

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

But I think Martin O'Neill is good and unbiased.

Me too! (And I am also a bluenose) ;)

[rj87uk]

And the crowd goes "whats a bluenose?" haha :)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Raymond I had to laugh ...

I'm not a great follower of football

and

(Im a rangers fan)

Was that deliberate?

Paul Le Guen is go!

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

That's 159 posts in this thread. With more than two weeks of the World Cup cup to go we could get a record number of posts for a Foo thread.

Anyone know the current record?

[ectect]

Talking of coverage of the World Cup, I've very much enjoyed the discussion, debate and minute by minute reports on The Guardian, well worth a read, amusing and balanced opinion.

For example the Scottish journo there, I introduce myself as Scottish, "ahh" says the German interviewee - "Berti Vogts", and we both laugh.........only I get the feeling he isn't laughing with me.

Two cracking matches tomorrow, Mexico vs Argentina and Germany vs Sweden - can't wait!

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Grooooaaan! Bertie Vogts performance was nothing to laugh about :(

[incywincy]

for what it's worth my predicitions are:

today:
Switzerland to draw with South Korea
France to beat Togo

over the weekend:
Sweden to beat Germany
Argentina to beat Mexico
England to beat Ecuador
Holland to beat Portugal

[Nybo]

So what do the British members say: Who is sent home first, Graham Poll or England?

[RonPK]

According to the official match report [fifaworldcup.yahoo.com], Simunic never got three yellow cards. It must have been our imagination. So Poll should be safe ;)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

So what do the British members say: Who is sent home first, Graham Poll or England?

Is this some sort of a poll?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist it!)

[larryhatch]

" larryhatch - next round of games & countries still remaining: "

Thank you Syzygy! Much simpler now. -Larry

[Draconian]

Honestly, most stolked for the 26th... Italia vs Australia. Australia is playing very well in my opinion.

[Syzygy]

Larry - it's my pleasure.

Syzygy

[Old_Honky]

So what do the British members say: Who is sent home first, Graham Poll or England?

Poll Axed!

[sonny]

It's raining like heck right now here in RI
Too much water for the big Air Show, so the only thing to do is to kick it on my lazy-boy and watch the Germans put a hurting on the Swedes!

[walkman]

Sweden getting slammed by Germany. WTH is going on with them? Could've easily been 5-0 with all those close calls.

Klose is AMAZING. Even better than Klinsmann IMO.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Beginning to look more like Deutschland all the time ;)

Continued [webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: engine at 2:53 pm (utc) on June 27, 2006]