balls deep. And the reason?

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/a...28_505234a.jpg

http://www.sneijderofficial.com/medi..._375x260px.jpg

http://img1.loadtr.com/b-412084-Arjen_Robben_Sahada.jpg

I'm curious to see whether Schweinstiger, et al go after Kevin-Prince Boateng in the Germany vs Ghana group match.

I hope they don't, but people tend to take it personally when one of their country's better players is injured.

Im another soccer enthusiast here though I have to admit, I tend to only watch the big tourneys. The Poles failed to qualify so I am rooting for the US, Netherlands, and Portugal. Though I appreciate the game of the top nations like Brazil, Spain, Italy, and Argentina I tend to stay away from choosing them to win it all. Germany and France are extremely sound, fundamental teams, but I think Spain recently proved that the game of finesse poses some serious competition to those findamental squads.

Im excited as all hell for this cup to begin, and in 2 years Euro 2012 in Poland.. WOOO!

Considering how physical the Bundesliga is, I would not be surprised to see Boateng get knocked out lol. It was a ridiculously poor challenge on Ballack that cost Germany their captain.

kielbasa16: Let's not forget that Spain has a history of choking...:rofl2:

God I cannot wait for the World Cup to start. As an Arsenal fan, this summer is going to long and painful. Barca keeps trying to take Cesc back, Cesc 'saying' he wants to go back to Barca, we have a shoddy goalkeeper and the replacement is too expensive...jeez. :facepalm:

Need some national team football to take my mind off!

Very true. I mentioned Spain because I can remember thinking during that final that Germany just didnt look like they stood a chance. Generally speaking, Im beginning to believe that the style of play of Brazil, Argentina, Spain etc. is too much for the more disciplined Germany, England, France etc.

For those more disciplined teams to stand a chance they have to take control of the tempo and physical aspect of the game early on.

I remember whenever my team played against a much more technically skilled sside our coach would insist that a few good hard tackles early on establish the tone for the rest of the match. I'm not talking about anything dirty, but if you let the guy turn and dance with the ball, youre in for a long long game.

Crap.. I have digressed... missing my soccer days haha

what I think is stupid on Fabs part is the fact that he's going from being a team captain, to riding the pine, he will not start over Iniesta or Xavi at Barca, what a waste man. Here's hoping Asamoah and Yaya are at the Emirates next season.

Yaya is expendable since Busquets has come into the rotation. Seydou Keita can back up Busquets.

If the Dutch had a better defensive line I feel their chances would be a lot better. There is no doubt that RVP, Sneijder and Robben are gonna get things done up front. The Oranje will easily reach the quarters where they will probably face Brazil...thats where the problem is.

I really dont like the Brazilians and I hope Holland beat them. But it will be a very tough game for the Dutch to overcome.

Brazil left alot of world class players off the roster this year, case in point, Ronaldinho, I dont think they'll have a good showing this year to be honest. Holland, Germany, Spain and England/Italy in the semi's, this is my final word, Holland/Germany, Holland/Spain in the final, outcome decided by a 75th minute free kick by RvP with a blistering left footed laser shot to the upper left corner, you heard it here first folks. The land of legal hallucinogenics for world champs!

And my pick for flop of the tournament: France, yes France, I said it.

Shock showing of the tournament: Ghana, yes, the afrikaans, will impress throughout.

I'm not optimistic for France's chances, but "that's why they play the matches."

/cow spewing cliches

Like I said before the Dutch defenders are a little weak...

van Bronckhorst, Heitinga, Ooijer and van der Wiel

I don't think they match up really well against Brazilian attackers

Robinho, Luis Fabiano, Felipe Melo, Nilmar, and of coarse Kaka are going to prove to be a little too powerful for the Dutch. They're just going to be too skilled, too fast, too Brazilian for the Oranje to deal with.

And if they do progress to the finals, they will lose to the eventual champs

http://gallery.techarena.in/data/519/EURO2008_Spain.jpg
The Spaniards

Robinho? worst finisher of all time, ask the club that bought him and proceeded to bench him.

Fabiano, having the worst season of his life.

Melo? does he even start anymore in Italy?

Kaka is the only one of that bunch that will cause anybody any trouble.

Holland wont face Brazil. why? because Portugal will win the group. And i'm shocked that you pick Spain to win, lest we forget the thumping they took at the hands of the good ol' US of A? Spain are bigger underachievers on the world stage than England.

Unfortunately, yes. He was a huge turd sandwich this year at Juve.

as I have read since the middle of the season, I hear his valuation has dropped below 10 million, terrible, just terrible.

He had a slight rejuvenation towards the end of the year, but considering that Juve didn't make Europe, Melo didn't do enough.

It appears now that Arsenal are back in the mix for his services... this could be the buy of the decade or the flop of the century...

:facepalm:

f*ck him, i'd rather keep cesc... :crying:

haha, yeah, apparently we're after everybody now

Arteta
Yaya
Melo
Diakhate
Asamoah
Lloris
Hangeland
Bojan
Joe Cole
Buffon
Ibra

Jesus, AW, make up your mind you crazy crepe eating frenchman!

and I just want to reiterate to TC, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE GIO!!!

if you're an arsenal fan, then you know as well as i do that this is going to be the longest summer ever

we're not going to get arteta, everton won't let him go unless we overpay

yaya doesn't even want to come to the emirates, why would we trade cesc for a disgruntled toure lol. i liked kolo, but from what it sounds like yaya wouldn't put any effort into playing for the gunners

melo doesn't want to leave juve either...even though juve sucks :p

diakhate...if anything, i want to sign him to piss off the sp*rs hahaha

asamoah haven't read about, not sure. would be nice.

lloris oh god PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAASE SIGN HUGO

hangeland...is fulham going to give him up now that they went almost all the way in the europa? i doubt it.

didn't read about bojan

joe cole :facepalm:

gianluigi buffon :D :D :D

ibra oh god no :facepalm: we don't need another wussy overpaid striker. we already have RvP, and chamakh to support. arshavin (assuming he doesn't bolt), walcott, bendtner..., no our front line is decent.

losing cesc means everything but our frontline needs to be reinforced. :facepalm:



ANYWAY - what about the world cup were we talking about? lol

Transfer talk affects the World Cup. Carry on.

& Phelan, I agreee with every one of your assessments.

Say what you want about the Brazilians, but they come to play when comes to worlds grandest stage. They have FIVE trophies to show for that.

Saying Portugal is going to win the group is one hell of a long shot. I see them not getting past the group. The Ivory Coast will handle Portugal, just wait and see.

I've said this before, Spain is a different team then in thier old choking days. The Spanish team is arguably the most complete in the world. A solid defense, probably the best midfield in the world, and the deadly strikers that Spain have is why I pick them.

Up until the Euro in 2008 they had nothing in their trophy case. They didn't underachieve then and they won't now. The loss to the Yanks was exactly what happens when you play bad against a team that's rolling. Its unfortunate that the US had to stop rolling in the 2nd half against Brazil. But that's what Brazil does...WIN!

Holland has just as many world cup trophies as Spain has. The only difference is that the Spaniards will have one at the end of the tournament.

I just want to stop by and say Brazil > all! :stirthepot:

I have been a fan of Brazil team since I was 10 years old (or learned about Soccer). My dad was a big fan too. Though I don't follow too much on the other Euro Soccer cups but I will be watching every Brazil game during World Cup 2010. :tup: Ronaldinho used to be my favorite player. I'm not sure how well he is doing now. Btw, did USA make it this time?

GO BRAZIL!
http://sportschump.net/wp-content/up...d-cup-fans.jpg

Yes sir, the US made it and are in the same group as England. I feel very optimistic about the tournament for the stars and stripes!!

Please dont tell me you put Walcott and Bendtner on Ibrahimovic's level. You MUST be kidding.

Dont forget Spain is notorious for choking. Dont let the Euro08 fool you, Lehman came off his line when he shouldnt have and gave up an easy goal for Torres. Look at the Confederations Cup, they got OWNED by USA.
Ronaldinho is playing amazing right now, arguably one of the best midfielders with how he has played this season. Just scored 2 goals in the last game vs Juventus. Dunga was dumb and left him out of the squad. I am going to miss the REAL Ronaldo also :(

Also, yes the USA made it and they open up their first game of the group vs England.

I dont. If they finish 2nd in the group they will be guaranteed to go on to play Germany.

No, I didn't, but I'm trying to point out that we're overloaded at the forward position. Yes, Bendtner is an arse, and Walcott is just pure speed, but you know what, he's starting to show flashes of skill more frequently. But the way the roster is right now, Arshavin and RvP have the left and striker roles filled out, with Chamakh to relieve RvP, and Walcott is out to the right. Wenger would really need to mess with the formation to utilize Ibrahimovic enough to warrant getting him. No way Ibra will start over van Persie, and either one of those coming off the bench just doesn't work to me. Just not going to happen.

Not that our subs are particularly good anyway...Vela and Eduardo just need to go.

This is all a pipe dream anyway, Ibra doesn't want to leave Barca, and we don't want him at the Emirates. If Barca wants Cesc they better give us a **** ton of money so we can go out and buy other talent.


...and you know what, you're right, I hate Bendtner. hahaha

Vela needs to be loaned out in spain again, kid needs more games and hes not going to get them over RvP and the little russian shit. The reason Ibra was brought into the fold is that Barca is trying to offer players/cash for Fab, Barca has made offers of Ibra/Bojan plus 30 million, which to be honest, wouldnt be that bad of a deal, we could add two great talents and have money to splash on a Fab replacement (oh for the love of god how much i'd love to have Gourcuff). I agree, we are overloaded in the fwd department for sure, but Bojan can play on the wing, Ibra would be a backup for the glass legs of RvP (lord knows I love him but hes more fragile than an Iphone). If there is no player deal, AW claims he will take no less than 40 million and Barca will pay it. But what I hate about this is how Barca will take a player, at the peak of his developmental stage and plop him on the pine, its unfortunate for fab and terrible for the Arsenal.

Well gentlemen, Fab may be staying, apparently Barca just bid 25 million for Eden Hazard, I hope this is the case...

Hmmm I wouldn't say they got owned by the USA. They just capitalized on two Spanish mistakes. And then the Americans played great defense to hold them for the victory. The US was playing on a very high note (they also held a 2-0 lead over the infamous Brazilians in the final), and they caught the Spaniards on a bad night.

As for the Euro, Spain dominated Germany in terms of ball possession and chances created. Germany only had one really good shot at goal in which Ballack missed wide. If you watch the game again it's easy to see that the Germans were outclassed.

Don't let the big name get to you, Germany's midfield is weak right now. Ballack is out and without him the only big threat in the midfield for Germany is Bastian Schweinsteiger.

So if the US can play like they did last year at the confeds cup by playing great D and counterattacking like mofo's it is possible that they can beat the Germans.

They did dominate the first half...but I remember from the 2nd half it started looking like it was going Germanys way.

lol Kroos and Özil are insanely talented.

Podolski could even be thrown into midfield

I'm rooting for Korea! also for Germany...but I hope Korea does well this time compared to 2006 worldcup!

Maybe, I'm just saying it's gonna be a little tough without their captain. And that they are beatable.

Oh of course they are lol. Any team is beatable in the tournament. But you never know maybe the absence of Ballack will give another young player to shine and come out of nowhere like Ribery in 2006.

Im trying to look at it in a positive way as much as it sucks to be missing Ballack. :tup:

Haha i got you :tiphat:

As a German fan and an American, don't you think Jermaine Jones would have been sick to see in the red white and blue!?

Yeah he is able to play I dont know why USA didnt call him

been wondering that one myself, now germany can snatch him up in the future should they so choose. He hasnt played a first team match for either side, so his future is yet to be decided.

He was on Germany and left them