The World Cup draw thread!

Axeslammer wrote:

Antarion wrote:Today was the sample draw and they put in Ireland instead of France as a joke
Poor Ireland, now they get make fun of from the official sides

Irrelvent really.

Is that your attempted spelling of irrelevant?

Do you have a point of interest here? or is this another 'Bobo moment' of pointing out pointless dumb shit you find amusing but adults don't...

So why is England's recent record against big teams "irrelvent"? Chances are you'll have to beat one if you want to get far in the tournament.

It's a completely different team, and the record isnt exactly recent.

How many big teams have we played? Portugal sure we lost but it went to penalties both times and one was in their own country so it's not like they cant compete or something.

L r dd wrote:It's a completely different team, and the record isnt exactly recent.

How many big teams have we played? Portugal sure we lost but it went to penalties both times and one was in their own country so it's not like they cant compete or something.

Completely different?

Portugal outplayed you both times.

And you will probably need to win a penalty shooutout aswell.

Nah i don't buy that either. We were 1-0 up for the majority of the first game. Sven is defensive so that's how the game turned out. Plus we lost Rooney. Soon as they went infront we attacked and got another goal. The match was even and we were closer to winning than they were in actual play.

The 0-0 they were on top...but when it was 10 v 11 we put up a good show and they didn't really come close to scoring.

L r dd wrote:Nah i don't buy that either. We were 1-0 up for the majority of the first game. Sven is defensive so that's how the game turned out. Plus we lost Rooney. Soon as they went infront we attacked and got another goal. The match was even and we were closer to winning than they were in actual play.

The 0-0 they were on top...but when it was 10 v 11 we put up a good show and they didn't really come close to scoring.

Sven isn't defensive, it's just your midfield was unable to keep possesion (was the same story against France).

Agree with you on the 0-0 though.

Interesting groups would be:

Group of Axis:
Germany
Japan
Chili
Slovakia

Group of annoying immigrants
Italy
Mexico
Nigeria/Algeria
Serbia

Group of Diving
Argentina/Germany
Honduras
Uruguay
Portugal

Group of Wenger's amazing goalscoring strikers
England
Mexico
Ivory Coast
Denmark

I can't fucking wait for this now.

I've had to cancel going for a drink after work tomorrow to watch the draw. how sad....

what time is the draw?

5:15 I think (ish)

Germany, France, Algeria, New Zealand

I demands it. Let's make it 'appen...

Why in the name of arse can you not watch it in the pub Tweedle?

I think I posted this before somewhere. The teams I want Italy to avoid the most:

Pot 2: 1. Mexico, 2. Australia, 3. USA
Pot 3: 1. Ivory Coast, 2. Chile
Pot 4: 1. Serbia, 2. Portugal, 3. France

Worst possible draw for Italy: Mexico, Ivory Coast, & Serbia!!!

Why are people so frightened of Ivory Coast. Ok, Drogba is playing great. Yaya Toure is excellent. But who else do they have that is so awesome? Kalou? He's ok. Zokora? Ok. Eboue? Erm...am I forgetting someone obvious? Arouna Kone????

Well i guess they are the best team from their pot, so everyone would want to avoid them if possible.

I don't know mate, if it were me I'd be more concerned with Cameroon and Uruguay from that pot.

Jaime wrote:I don't know mate, if it were me I'd be more concerned with Cameroon and Uruguay from that pot.

Uruguay? the team that finished 5th and struggled past the mighty costa rica.

all african teams >>> south american teams in that pot.

Apart from Algeria.

Rosicky. wrote:

Jaime wrote:I don't know mate, if it were me I'd be more concerned with Cameroon and Uruguay from that pot.

Uruguay? the team that finished 5th and struggled past the mighty costa rica.

all african teams >>> south american teams in that pot.

They have Chevanton don't they?

I'm not too bothered with the qualification process. The SA format is more difficult than Africa in my opinion. For me Uruguay have better players. Cameroon is the only African team that I can see doing any thing in the WC tbh.

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:Apart from Algeria.

True, forgot about them.

Cameroon's coach is Paul Leguen, apparently he did a very good job with them because when he took over they were last of their group. He gave them discipline so they managed to go through while playing well.

They have quite a talented team in addition of Eto'o:
Benoît Assou-Ekotto (Tottenham)
Alexandre_Song (Arsenal)
Achille Emana (Betis)
jean II Makoun (Lyon)
Timothée Atouba (Hamburg)
Stéphane M'Bia (Marseille)
Achille Webo (real Majorca)

.... are the best and most famous players. Some very good midfielders.

Funny that Rigobert Song and Djemba Djemba are still there.

Where as Ivory Coast they do have lots of talented players.

In addition of all the famous players playing int he EPL: Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Eboue Kalou and Drogba, they have:

Bakari Koné (Marseille) can be good sometimes
Gervinho (Lille) very good player
Aruna Dindane (did well for Lens, struggling in the EPL
Romaric (Betis)
Zokora (Fc Sevilla)
Meite (WBA) used to be a good defenser at Marseille
Sanogo (ex Werder Bremen)


Algeria, which is certainly the weakest team in Africa have a few good players:

Madjid Bougherra (Glasgow)
Nadir Belhadj (Portsmouth)
Karim Ziani (Wolfsburg)
Yazid Mansouri, the captain

The funny thing is that all the players that play abroad are all born in France, so basically this team is French D team with
Meghni (ex Lazio, and ex guy who was supposed to be the new Zidane and did fuk all), Lemmouchia, Yazid Mansouri, Yahia, Ziani, Yebda, Bouazza, Matmour.

Lots of shit or average players

Atouba is at ajax now, and is full of fail. IMO Cameroon are weaker then the awesome Ebony coast and Ghana is also stronger.

Like others, I'd much rather face a south american team than an African team.

The temperatures will be low there so South American teams' passy movy style won't be as effective.

African teams are a sleeping giant though and some of them have some world class players amongst their ranks.

Algeria would be ok, but the rest I'd be slightly worried about.

I don't understand all the fear over a "group of death", like in this World Cup blog on possible draws. When we played Trinidad and Paraguay in the 2006 the matches were excruciating because the players were expected to win, overly nervous and under pressure to be creative against teams that stifled, rather than compete in a proper match. If we want to do well, we need to beat tough opponents eventually, I'd rather we warmed up to it with some intensity.

The fact is that we DID win and we DID progress. Imagine what a disaster it would be if we went out in the groups.

I do take your point though that you feel that you've earnt it more if you face serious opposition in the group stage.

Tweesus wrote:The fact is that we DID win and we DID progress. Imagine what a disaster it would be if we went out in the groups.

I do take your point though that you feel that you've earnt it more if you face serious opposition in the group stage.

We had an arguable group of death in 2002 (Argentina, Sweden, Nigeria - if I recall correctly) and progressed more convincingly than 2006..Although I guess we ended up losing at the same stage.

Plus in 2006 thanks to Sven's strange squad choices we only had one fit striker for the group stage which didn't help

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Wish the draw was a bit earlier. Will probably be travelling home at that time and miss it

I have the same problem debaser, why didn't they do it at 12?

And yeh 2002 was much better for England - though i think you were more convincing because you had a system that worked (and the players were used to) plus all the players playing in the right position (eventually).

Target man + quick striker
technically skilled playmaker complimented by a DM. A proper RW and LW.
Decent back 5 (apart from Ferdinand).

Watch it on your Iphones! Thats what I'm gonna do!