lol @ Gerrard being a choker, i'll give you that Lampard is the Bonner of english football.
Netherlands is indeed a sleeper. They are very good, they have great players and a champion caliber team, but the thing with Netherlands is, they lack motivation. They advance to the semi-final for example, and then in their heads they already think they have won, they think its too easy in their unconsciousness and lose, plus, Netherlands are not so good in handling pressure especially when it comes down to penalty shootout.
Also, if the Dutch team of 1998 in France did not manage to win the WC, then I dont think they will now. It's a shame, because they have loads of talent.
One of the best coaches in the world who can give a team motivation and win because of a motivated team is Guus Hiddink. He was also the coach of the 1998 team. He is the perfect coach for a team like Netherlands.
lol @ Gerrard being a choker, i'll give you that Lampard is the Bonner of english football.
Nice article
Don't agree with many comparisons, but for me the most uncomparable was Parker and Messi. I would actually compare Messi with Ginobili. Lovely to watch, terrific creativity and that Left Hand-Left Leg similarity going for them. Besides they typify the Argentinian "Che" spirit.
You forgot the Netherlands...they always have a great showing.
Germany, Italy, Argentina, Brazil.......Never count them out
US, Mexico, Spain, Portugal............Do great (or try to in Group state) always dissapoint in knockout round
I do hope that the US makes a good show.......That 1st game vs England is key!
wow Hater your comparisons are disgusting bro.
Spain is definitely the Lakers. Clear favorites with hard to deal matchups. And I don't think they did such a choke job winning the last European championship (wich is basically harder to win but less prestigious).
Nice job, Hater.
My predictions.
1) England. Eternal losers, the laughter of the World Cup usually, this time they have a great coach. Rooney will be the key. Orlando.
2) Brazil. Great defense (FCI) excellent midfield, but scoring will be on Kaka and Fabiano, not having great years. Final. Lakers.
3) Spain. Best midfield in soccer, not quite as good upfront. Semis. Suns.
4) Germany. Boring, slow, but physically strong, well organized and disciplined. Quarter to semis. Spurs.
5) Holland. Solid with some talented, but fragile, players (Robben, Sneijder). Could be the surprise. Quarter. Atlanta.
6) Argentina. With a mediocre coach they would win hands down. No other team has half of the talent. Instead, the drug-addicted selects Bolatti and Dattolo, instead of Zanetti and Cambiasso. That's like picking Mason and Tolliver instead of R.Allen and C.Paul. Quarter. Mavs.
7) Ivory Coast. Good team, physically very strong. No experience at this level. Utah. Quarter but I can see an African team in the semis with lots of help from the Refs.
8) Portugal. It's a one man show in a sport of 11. Cleveland. Quarter.
Unclassified: Italy (used all the possible luck in the past WC + left home the top three talents); France (tons of talent, but idiotic coach, plus they shouldn't even be there in the first place).
4 championships? olimpics and Copa America don't count for . Everyone knows often teams send their B teams to Olympics and Copa America has teams like Venezuela and Bolivia![]()
you're seriously bragging about a soccer olympic gold??? the same one that Brazil and other teams sent their B teams????
Truth is, Messi hasn't proven in the only BIG international compe ion Argentina competes in... World Cup
typical Argentine homers![]()
I'm just here to disprove that Brasil is like the Lakers.
1. Brasil is the best team in history, the Lakers are not even the best team in NBA history, the Celtics are.
2. Brasil doesn't cheat to win, they don't need to.
3. Brasil is not hated like the lakers are. Yeah, some people are tired of seeing them win, but nobody is truly pissed when they do win.
4. Brasilian players are cool by nature, they even go by 1 name, are you kiddin me? if that's not the coolest thing in sports I don't know what is: Ronaldo, Romario, Bebeto, Kaka... Lakers players are not cool, some of them marry fat asses like Khloe Kardasian
5. Brasil has carnaval and hot friendly easy women. LA has pollution and stuck up silicone filled es.
6. Brasilian players celebrate a win by dancing samba on the field, Laker players celebrate by raping their hotel maids and getting arrested
your comparisons are far from the true bro...
I'm spanish and I can tell you that NO WAY fernando torres is the star of the team, that would be xavi or iniesta. with cesc and villa for outsiders. torres is behind all of them.
how do you compare leo messi (best player of the world and if he continues to play like that he will be the best of the history) to someone like tony parker? maybe because it's fast and can drible, but kobe is too (well, maybe was)
messi is definitely like kobe, can decide a game whenever he wants
although, I agree with you that cristiano ronaldo is like lebron, loved for ones (a few ones) and hated so much for the rest of the world.
he is wooed in every stadium he goes, his arrogance is her biggest fault. maybe he is the best athlete in soccer, like lebron in basketball, but his manners lose him...
and how in the world you put italy #1? italy will be lucky if he can get to quarterfinal, it's not the powerful squad that once was.
agree with you that germany and argentina play in a similar way that spurs and celtics. defensive minded teams that have firepower to knock out anyone.
agree with you too in the comparison of this years brazil and phoenix suns. they are not the only offensive minded team that were but have focused more in defense. I don't see brazil winning it all.
and returning to spain, I think that if they are able to pass the 2nd round match against (presumably brazil, portugal or ivory coast) they can make it to the finals.
we are the current euro champions and we have players with a lot of experience in the champions league (like xavi, puyol, iniesta, pique...) that can lead us to the final.
I would like the chances of ivory coast if they hadn't fall in such a difficult group with brazil and portugal.
My favourites for winning it all are spain and argentina
I didn't read all the subsequent posts, but the OP's is re ed. You obviously know little to nothing about the game. lol.
Lionel Messi is closer to Michael Jordan in soccer than he is Tony Parker
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wow talk about overrating.
come back when Messi has won at least 1 world cup
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what is this bull about Spain not being chokers anymore due to winning the Euro Cup???? This is like saying the Mavs are not chokers because they won the Western Conference Championship
let's not forget the previous reigning Euro champs was Greece. ing Greece.
If they don't make it to the WC Finals this time around they will still be chokers
Everybody sends their B teams to the olympics, including Argentina, because you can only take 3 players over 23 years old. And that Brazil B-Team included Ronaldinho, Diego and Marcelo.
But my response specifically was to the argument that Messi is overrated because he didn't do anything in the olympics... well, you can't do much more than win gold there.
I completely agree with this. It's also safe to say he didn't play many minutes in the previous World Cup, being he was only 18 years old.
This world cup should be his center stage, and well, we'll see how he does.
Spain is second only to England as losers.
If you factor in salaries of the players and coaches, size of the soccer base, budget of the different teams in the national championship, and expectations.
Euro has been won by countries like Greece, Denmark and Holland, with a much smaller players base.
Even in Euro08, with an incredibly better team, Spain could only eliminate Italy with the penalties.
In the World Cups, Spain has been an epic failure, with Belgium, Croatia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and even frigging Korea, having done better -reached the semis- over the last 60 years.
Spain can't really be named with the teams that get to the semis more often than not (Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina) and it is historically not even in the class of France and Holland.
With soccer this may be true. In 2006, before the WC both Italy and France sucked... and made it to the finals.
R u a female or just plain gay?
No ...you are agreeing with me here. My post said why Argentina IS NOT like the Spurs.
As a Spaniard I approve of the threads that say that Spain will win it all.
In other news- Kaka will be the this year.![]()
He also was never given the chance...due to the coaching. Crespo and Saviola I believe started over Messi and Tevez, Argentina's two biggest striking talents at the time. Every game they subbed Messi and Tevez in deep in the 2nd half of play, they would immediately give the team energy and provide results. They came in and scored a significant amount of goals for the little time they played. So it's sort of unfair to say he hasn't proven ...the few minutes he ever played in world cup play were pretty productive, and he was 18 years old, turned 19 during the tournament I believe.
WTF? Olympic gold medal is the only big tournament that Brazil hasn't won in football, they're desperate to win one. Why are you talking out your ass?
actually, if you'd read my posts about messi in the other sports forum you'd know I believe he is overrated and pure potential at this point.
BUT, ronaldo is a million times more overrated. In2Deep's post (which he hasnt come back to defend) said that messi had never taken over a world cup OR olympic game and that Ronaldo had, presumably in the 06 world cup. I showed him that he was wrong about messi (because he included olympics) and wrong about Ronaldo (because he sucked balls in the 06 WC). Or do you think he was dominant, even if in just one game, in that tournament? I'd love to know which was his dominant game. Or any argument for ronaldo over messi for that matter.
Brazil desperate to win olympic gold in soccer??? Do you have a link?
It means nothing to them. they are 5 time WC champs.
it seems you are the one talking out your ass
if you knew anything you would know World Cup is about 1000000x more valuable than a mere Olympic gold
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